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 CI 39 (1/91) UCSDLib.
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 WM. LYON MACKENZIE. 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE CANADIAN REBELLION 
 OF 1837, AND THE SUBSEQUENT FRONTIER 
 DISTURBANCES, CHIEFLY FROM UN- 
 PUBLISHED DOCUMENTS. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES LINDSEY. 
 
 VOL. T. 
 
 TORONTO, C.W.: 
 
 P. R. RANDALL, No. 12 TORONTO STREET. 
 
 1862.
 
 Entered according to Act of the Provincial Logislature, in the year 1862, \>y 
 
 CHARLES LINDSEY, 
 
 In the Office of the Eegistrar of the Province of Canada. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by 
 
 J. W. BRADLEY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylyanla.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 A VERT general impression prevails throughout Canada that 
 the late William Lyon Mackenzie had, for some years, been en- 
 gaged in writing his autobiography ; and that, at the time of his 
 death, the work was nearly completed. An examination of his 
 papers showed that such was not the case. He had indeed pro- 
 jected such a work, and arranged much of the material neces- 
 sary for its construction. The foundation had been dug ; but the 
 first stone of the superstructure had not been laid. About his 
 intention, or rather his desire, there can be no doubt. He had 
 made known to all his friends that he had laid out this work for 
 himself ; and even his own family were under the impression that 
 he had made considerable progress in its execution. But on ex- 
 amining his papers, I soon discovered that, except detached and 
 scattered memoranda, he had written nothing. Of autobio- 
 graphy, not previously written when some momentary exigency 
 seemed to demand it, or fancy spurred him to put down some 
 striking passage in his life, there was nothing. Beyond this, 
 every thing had to be done by his biographer, if his life was to 
 be written ; and such was the public curiosity to learn the con- 
 nected story of his eventful life, that I was pressed, on all hands, 
 to undertake the work. At great inconvenience, and under a 
 pressure of other exacting literary engagements, I consented.
 
 4 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 A vast raass of materials was put into my hands. Although 
 it had been subjected to a certain system of arrangement, I did 
 not always readily discover the key to the connection. The 
 general plan of reference was very simple. Take fifty common- 
 place books numbered, by pages, up to seven thousand, with an 
 index of subjects, and you are furnished the same facility of re- 
 ference as to a ledger. It is required to find all the available 
 information on any particular subject. Under the proper head 
 in the index, we are directed, let us suppose, to page 6,059. We 
 find a book numbered " 6,001 to 6,062." It will therefore contain 
 the intermediate number required. On opening at the page in- 
 dicated, we find a number of manuscripts, letters, leaves from 
 pamphlets, and cuttings from periodicals, intermingled with writ- 
 ten notes on slips of paper, cut to the exact size necessary to 
 contain the observations noted. All these papers are left loose 
 for facility of removal. 
 
 So far all is plain sailing. Deficiencies, I soon found, had to 
 be supplied ; and I was sometimes puzzled to see the connection 
 of documents lying entombed between the same pages. One 
 subject runs into another; and to exhaust the available informa- 
 tion on any one point, an endless number of references and com- 
 parisons had to be made. Some twenty years of newspaper files 
 had to be carefully read. To give an idea of the mass of ma- 
 terials with which I had to deal, it will suffice to say that the 
 Navy Island correspondence alone, occupying a single page of 
 one of fifty-five common-place books — and there is a second 
 series with a second index — would make a large printed volume. 
 
 These facts are characteristic of the methodical habits of the 
 man whose life is, however imperfectly, delineated in this work. 
 
 Full of the fiery energy of the Celtic race ; impetuous and 
 daring ; standing in the front rank of party combatants, in times 
 and in a country where hard knocks were given and taken, it was 
 the fate of Mr. Mackenzie to have many relentless enemies. If 
 I had undertaken to refute all the calumnies of which he was 
 the subject, and to correct all the false statements made to his
 
 INTRODUCTION. O 
 
 injury, this biography -would have taken a controversial form, 
 which must have rendered it less acceptable to a large class of 
 readers. The plan I have followed has been to tell the story of 
 his life as I find it, without much reference to what friends or 
 enemies, biased one way or the other, may have said under the 
 excitement of events that have now passed into the great ocean 
 of history. There Avere some few cases in which it was necessary 
 to clear up disputed questions, over which men still continue to 
 differ. 
 
 The striking want of moral courage in many who were engaged 
 with Mackenzie in the unfortunate and ill-advised insurrection, in 
 Upper Canada, in 1837, lei them to attempt to throw the odium 
 of an enterprise that had failed in its direct object entirely upon 
 him. Men, of whose complicity in that affair the clearest evi- 
 dence exists, cravenly deny all knowledge of it. Mackenzie 
 never shrank from his share of the responsibility. He lived to 
 see and admit the error of the movement, and to express deep re- 
 gret for the part he had taken. But an enterprise which cannot 
 be justified, and the engaging in which involved him in ruin, was 
 in the end advantageous to the country. Much of the liberty 
 Canada has enjoyed, since 1840, and more of the wonderful pro- 
 gress she has made, are due to tlie changes which the insurrection 
 was the chief agent in producing. Unless those changes had 
 been made — unless a responsible government especially had been 
 established — Canada would ere now either have been lost to the 
 British Crown ; or, ruled by the sword, it would have been stunted 
 in its growth, its population poor, discontented, and ready to 
 seek the protection of another power. The amelioration which 
 the political institutions of Canada have undergone would prob- 
 ably have come in time, if there had been no insurrection ; but 
 it would not have come so soon ; and there is no reason to sup- 
 pose that the Province would yet have reached its present stage 
 of advancement. 
 
 Being several thousands of miles distant when the insurrection 
 and the frontier troubles took place, and having never been in
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Canada till several years after, I lay under the disadvantage of 
 not having any personal recollection of what occurred in those 
 stirring times. But considering the stores of materials and the 
 sources of information at my command, perhaps this is no great 
 loss ; certainly it will be more than compensated by the imparti- 
 ality with which an unconcerned spectator can pass in review the 
 events of that troubled period. 
 
 In the private documents in my possession, containing the se- 
 cret history of the frontier movements, I found much that had 
 never seen the light ; including projects of invasion and insurrec- 
 tion, of which the public has never had more than the vaguest 
 notions. The use I have made of these documents will, I pre- 
 sume, not be regarded as unwarranted. 
 
 I first saw Mr. Mackenzie, in 1849, when he came from New 
 York to Canada, on a visit. Our differences of opinion on the 
 politics of Canada during the last ten years have been notorious. 
 Still I knew his real views perhaps better than any one else. In 
 private he never concealed his hand to me, during the whole of 
 that time. By the hour, when no third person was present, he 
 would speak with great earnestness and animation on the claims 
 of justice, the odiousness of oppression, and the foulness of cor- 
 ruption. The offer of office under the Government was more 
 than once obliquely — once, I think, directly — made to him after 
 his return to Canada, and it always threw him into a fit of pas- 
 sion. He received it as an attempt to destroy his independence 
 or to shackle his freedom of action. A thousand times I have 
 heard him protest that he would rather die of starvation than de- 
 scend to any meanness, or be guilty (f any act that would deprive 
 him of that title to an unpurchasable Patriot, which he deemed 
 the best heritage he could bequeath to his children.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FAOB 
 
 Oeneral Bemarks — Mackenzie's Parents — Birth — School Days — Characteristic In- 
 oidents — Religious Instruction — Books he read 11 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Mackenzie first Employed in a Draper's Shop, then in the Counting House of Gray 
 of Dundee — Dr. Chalmers — Starts business at Alyth, and fails — Clerk to Zen- 
 nett and Avon Canal Co., in England — London — Resolution to go to Canada- 
 France 28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Sadls for Canada in the Psyche — Personal Appearance — Lachine Canal Surrey- 
 Book and Drug Business in York and Dundas — Dissolves partnership with Less- 
 lie — ^Removes to Queenstown — Politics — School Trustee 34 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Reasons for going into Politics — Canada in 1820 — Moderation of his Political Prin- 
 ciples — Press in Upper Canada in 1826 — Union of the North American Provinces 
 —General Election— -Scene in Court 39 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Removes to York — Reports and Publishes Debates — Newspapers and Postage- 
 Government in a minority in New House — Journey to Kingston — Abandons Po- 
 litics for Literature — Ideal of a Patriot 63 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Colonial Advocate destroyed by an Official Mob — Rioters cast in Damages- 
 Amount collected by Officials — Criminal Proceedings against Rioters by Francis 
 Collins — Conviction — Presentment against Mackenzie for Libel by Official 
 
 Party 1i 
 
 7.
 
 8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Judge Willis removed by Executive— The cause— Collms convicted of Libel— Fine 
 paid by Subscriptioa— Judge Sherwood's Direction denounced— Prosecution 
 ■ against Mackenzie abandoned— Execution of Charles French 108 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Pecuniary embarrassments— Fever— Sickness and Death in the Family— Robert 
 Randall— Alien Question— Letters to Earl Dalhousie— DiflBculty and Final Set- 
 tlement of the Question— Faith in the Colonial Office 121 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Printer to House of Assembly— Not a Sure Partisan— Irresponsible Government- 
 Union of Legislative and Judicial Functions— Colonial Representation in Im- 
 perial Parliament ^^' 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Candidate for Legislative Assembly— Elected— Allen McNab sent to Jail, Boulton 
 Reprimanded— Chaplain of House- Government Independent of Assembly — 
 Sir J. Colborne— Specimen of Mackenzie's Oratorical Powers 143 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Visit to United States— Cameronian Preaching and Scottish Psalmody — States and 
 Canada Compared— Charge of Disloyalty met— Action- for Libel — Session of 
 1830 — Change of Administration demanded — Contemptuous Reply — Reforms 
 proposed 160 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 Small Libel Suit — Mackenzie pleads his own Cause and Succeeds — Responsible 
 Government — Opposition to his Re-election — Successful Appeal to the People- 
 Success of the Official Party 173 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 McLean Speaker in New House — State Church— Cause of the Party Revolution — 
 Stnte of the Representation — Permanent Civil List — An Attempt to Expel Mac- 
 kenzie — Journey to Quebec — Shipwreck , 187 
 
 CHAPTER XrV, 
 
 Expulsion of Mackenzie — Defence Voted an Aggravation of his Offence — Feeling 
 excited — Military Preparations — Public Meeting — Re-election — Gold Medal and 
 Chain Presented 209 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Triumphal Entry — Commotion in the House — Second Expulsion — Defence cut short 
 —Impassioned Appeal to Electors— Re-election 224 
 
 f
 
 CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FAOI 
 
 Popular Excitement and Sympathy — Attempt to Assassinate Mackenzie — Convic- 
 tion of Kerr — Journey to England — Procures the Dismissal of the Crown Of- 
 ficers — Tories threaten to Revolt — Revisits Scotland — Returns to Canada 244 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Third Expulsion — Re-elected — House refuses to receive him — Another election — 
 Forcibly ejected — New writ refused — Proceedings expunged from the Journals... 283 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Y'ork changed to Toronto — Mackenzie First Mayor — Cholera of 1834 — Braves Dis- 
 ease and Death — Canadian Alliance Society — Loss of his Eldest Son — Macken- 
 zie as a Journalist 312 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Meeting of the New House — Hume's Letters — Grievance Committee — Read by the 
 King — Mackenzie appointed Director of the Welland Canal — Disclosures — 
 Hinck's Career — Visit to Papineau — Letter to Hume 324 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Sir Francis Bond Head arrives — His Speech — Censured — Troubles — Separation 
 from England — Stoppage of Supplies and Reservation of Money Bills — Dissolu- 
 tion of the House — Violent means to carry Elections — Mackenzie loses his 
 Election — Dangerous Illness 355 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 The Conatitution—TAook Trial of Sir F. B. Head— Samuel Lount— Fatal Resolu- 
 tions — Session of 1836, 7 — Its turbulent Close — Mackenzie goes to New York — 
 Purchases at Trade Sales of Books 391
 
 LIFE 
 
 WIILIAM LYON MACKENZIE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GeneraJ Remarks — Mackenzie's Parents — His Birth — School Days — Youth — 
 Characteristic Incidents — Religious Instruction imposed hy his Mother — 
 The Books he read. 
 
 Few men who have led a life of great mental acti 
 vity long survive the abandonment of their accustomed 
 habit of labor. Nor was it different with Mr. Mackenzie 
 When he resigned his seat in the Legislative Assembly, 
 in 1858, few of his colleagues were equal to the endur- 
 ance he underwent. It was no uncommon thing for 
 him to burn the midnight oil till streaks of gray were 
 visible in the eastern horizon. He would do this three 
 or four nights in the week. He could jump as high, 
 and run as fast, as the j^oungest and the most athletic 
 member of the House. Every one thought there were 
 still left many years of wear in his slender but wiry 
 frame; but the seeds of mortality had been already sown 
 in his system. As a steam engine of disproportionate 
 size shakes to pieces the to^prail vessel in which it is 
 
 11
 
 12 LIFE OF MAClvENZIE, AND 
 
 placed, his ponderous brain, overworked with long 
 years of mental toil, wore out the bodily frame. Nor 
 did the brain itself escape the penalty of over-exertion. 
 Loss of memory was the first symptom of the brain- 
 softening thus superinduced. Violent pains in the 
 head, accompanied by the refusal of the stomach to 
 perform its accustomed functions, followed. For the 
 last two years of his life, he failed more rapidly than 
 his most intimate friends were able to realize. In his 
 declining health, pecuniary embarrassments threw a 
 gloom over the latter days of his existence. Whether 
 he was himself aware of the extent to which his health 
 had failed, that the iron frame was so 'far shaken and 
 debilitated as it was, it is impossible to say. His te- 
 nacity of life would probably prevent him fron> ad- 
 mitting to himself the true state of the case ; and 
 though he often spoke of the decline of his strength, 
 he generally did so by way of inquiry and with a view 
 of eliciting the opinion of others on the subject. It 
 was a point on which he was morbidly sensitive ; and 
 the last time he was out, before being confined to his 
 death-bed, he inquired anxiously of one of his daugh- 
 ters whether people remarked that he was failing. 
 When he did so, he drew himself up in a more erect 
 posture and walked with a show of unwonted firmness, 
 as if desirous to disprove an impression that he 
 dreaded. Relying on the extraordinary strength of 
 his constitution, he promised himself, in his moments 
 of flickering hope, many years of life. But at length 
 he became weary of battling the world, and was 
 anxious to lie down to rest. 
 
 The public probably fltcied that the Homestead
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLION. 13 
 
 subscription had given him some degree of ease in his 
 worldly circumstances ; but the truth was that beyond 
 the house in which he lived and died, the product was 
 very little, and when that little was exhausted, he 
 found himself without an income. It is doubtful 
 whether the paper he published, The Weelcly Message, 
 ever yielded any profit ; and he was finally compelled 
 to abandon its publication. After this, he lived on 
 borrowed money, obtained at usurious rates, upon the 
 endorsement of political friends. When atlast, hehad to 
 battle with despair, he ceased to desire to prolong the 
 painful endurance of life. One day he remarked to 
 some members of his family, that though he would 
 not destroy the life that God had given him — that he 
 had np right to do so — he cared not how soon it might 
 please the Author of existence to take back the life 
 that he had given. He died heart-broken with disap- 
 pointment, as much as of brain-softening ; died because 
 he no longer knew where to find the means of exist- 
 ence, and because his proud spirit forbade him to beg. 
 From his most intimate friends, who might have helped 
 him, he concealed the embarrassments of his j)ecuniary 
 position. 
 
 Such were the causes of the death of this extraor- 
 dinary man, whose powers of agitation, at one period 
 of his life, gave him an almost absolute command over 
 the masses in his adopted country. When he had 
 ceased to be able to speak or write, he seemed much 
 concerned for his family ; and placed the hand of the 
 mother of his children in mine, as if to commend her 
 to my protection. It seemed his last hope and his 
 last wish. 9
 
 14 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 In writing his biography, it will be my duty, as far 
 as convenient, to allow him to tell his own tale ; and 
 where opinions must be expressed, it will be my aim 
 to make them judicial and just, though I may not con- 
 ceive that he was always right, either in act or opin- 
 ion. In this spirit and with these feelings, I begin 
 this tale of shipwrecked hopes and overwhelming dis- 
 appointments. 
 
 Under the head " Mackenzie,"* I find among Mr. 
 Mackenzie's papers several slips of memoranda, going 
 over a long story of pedigrees. On reading them my 
 curiosity was excited to see whether he was going to 
 give point to the recital by tracing his own descent 
 from some of the ennobled members of his family 
 name ; but the conclusion somewhat brusquely ex- 
 cluded any claim of this kind. According to what 
 was long the orthodox method of writing history, he 
 derived the Mackenzies from Noah ; but with this dif- 
 ference, that, instead of pretending to complete the 
 chain, he made a safe assumption of the fact. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's parents were married at Dundee 
 on the 8th of May, 1794, by the Rev. Mr. Macewen.f 
 
 * " This ancient family," writes Mr. Mackenzie, "traces its descent from the 
 House of Gerald, Ireland, (whence sprung some of the noble families of Lein- 
 ster, Desmond, etc.,) a member of which and his followers settled in Scotland 
 about 1261, and was created Baron of Kintail. His name was Carlinns Fitz- 
 gerald, First Baron of Kintail. He married a daughter of Walter, High Stew- 
 ard of Scotland ; was succeeded by his son Kenneth ; who agair was succeeded 
 by a son of the same name. Third Baron of Kintail, called in Gaelic, Ken- 
 neth Mackenneth, which in English was pronounced Mackenzie Mackainzie; 
 and hence (says Burke's peerage) arose all the families of Mackenzie, in Scot- 
 land." 
 
 f The following entry is copied from an old family Bible : 
 Daniel Mackenzie and Elizabeth Mackenzie, both natives of Kirkmiehael, 
 Perthshire, Scotland, were marri^||at Dundee, by the Rev. Mr. Macewen, on 
 the 8th of May, 1794.
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 15 
 
 Of this marriage William Lyon Mackenzie, the object 
 of this biography, was the sole issue. He was born 
 at Springfield, Dundee, Scotland, on the 12th of March, 
 1795 ;* and his father died when the child was only 
 twenty-seven days old.f His death was brought on 
 by a cold contracted at a dancing party ; and during 
 his illness, which lasted only a few days, he suffered 
 severely from a violent pain in the head. The know- 
 ledge of this circumstance caused the son, throughout 
 his life, to dread the severe pains in the head with 
 which he was occasionally afflicted, at long intervals, 
 and generally after great and long continued mental 
 exertion. "What he had dreaded all his life came 
 upon him before his death. For several weeks he 
 complained of increasing and almost constant pains 
 in the head. At all times, when they occurred, they 
 had been extremely violent ; and in his last illness, 
 but chiefly before he took to his bed, or had ceased 
 to struggle against the disease, they were the cause 
 of intense suffering. The discrepancy between the 
 ages of his parents was great ; his father being only 
 twenty-eight years old when he died; while his mo- 
 ther had seen forty-five summers when her only child 
 was born. 
 His mother, by the death of her husband, who left 
 
 * William Lyon Mackenzie, born at Springfield, Dundee, Forfarshire, Scot- 
 land, March 12th, 1795, Baptized on the 29th by the Kev. Mr. Macewen, 
 Seceder Minister. — Entry in Family Bible. 
 
 I Daniel Mackenzie died at Dundee on the 9th of April, 1795, leaving 
 only one child, William Lyon, then tventy-seven days old. — Entry in Family 
 BibU.
 
 16 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 behind him no property of any account, became to a 
 great extent dependent upon her relatives, of whom 
 she had several in the Highlands ; and she sometimes 
 lived with one and sometimes with another. Some 
 of them were poor, others well to do ; and if it be 
 presumed that she gave the largest share of her pa- 
 tronage to the latter, the former were probably not 
 missed in their turn. At the same time she always 
 managed, by some ingenuity of industry, to keep a 
 humble home over the heads of herself and her boy. 
 Her constitutional temperamenl always kept her busy, 
 let her be where she might ; her high nervous organi- 
 zation rendering inaction difficult to her, except to- 
 wards the close of her life. In this respect, there 
 was a remarkable resemblance between herself and 
 her son ; and from her, it may safely be affirmed, he 
 derived the leading mental characteristics that distin- 
 guished him through life. 
 
 She was so small in stature as to be considerably 
 below the average size of her sex. In complexion 
 she was a brunette ; her hair was dark-brown, till 
 whitened by age, and at ninety it was as abundant as 
 ever, and always long. Her dark eyes were sharp 
 and piercing, though generally quiet ; but when she 
 was in anger, which did not often occur, they flashed 
 out such gleams of fire as might well appall an anta- 
 gonist. Her features, corresponding w^th her size, 
 were small ; and the prominence of her cheek-bones 
 gave unjmistakable indications of her Celtic origin. The 
 small mouth and the thin, compressed lips, in har- 
 mony with the whole features, told of that unconquer- 
 able will which she traftsmitted to her son. The fore-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 17 
 
 head was broad and high, and the face seldom relaxed 
 into perfect placidity ; there were always on the sur- 
 face indications of the working of the volcanic feelings 
 within. The subduing influences of religion kept her 
 strong nature under control, and gave her features 
 whatever degree of repose they ordinarily wore. 
 
 Her strong religious bias made her an incessant 
 reader of the Scriptures and such religious books as 
 were current among the Seceders. With this kind 
 of literature she early imbued the mind of her son ; 
 and, it would not be difficult to show, the impressions 
 thus formed were never wholly effaced. Though of 
 Highland origin, she spoke Gaelic but rarely, it would 
 seem, for she never imparted more than a very slight 
 knowledge of it to her son. She cherished some plau- 
 sible superstitions, firmly believing that a Mackenzie 
 never died without warning of the coming event being 
 given by some invisible messenger in a strange, un- 
 earthly sound, and had a strong suspicion that fairies 
 were something more than myths. The strongest 
 reciprocal afl'ection existed between her and her son, 
 at whose house she spent the last seventeen years of 
 her life, having followed him to Canada, in company 
 with Mr. J. Lesslie, in 1822, and died at Kochester, 
 N, Y., in 1839, while her son was a state prisoner, 
 in Monroe county jail, under sentence for a breach 
 of the neutrality laws of the United States. She had 
 attained the mature age of ninety years, a fact which 
 goes to show that it was through her that Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie inherited a physical frame capable of extraor- 
 dinary endurance, as well as his natural mental en- 
 dowments.
 
 18 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Daniel Mackenzie, father of the subject of this bio 
 graphy, is described as a man of dark complexion ; and 
 his grandfather Colin jNIackenzie, used to bear the cog- 
 nomon of " Colin Dhu," or black Colin. Daniel learned 
 weaving in all its branches ; but entering into an unpro- 
 fitable commercial speculation, he was reduced to keep- 
 ing a few looms for the manufacture of " green cloth." 
 
 But Mr. Mackenzie may here be allowed to tell his 
 own tale of his ancestry. In June, 1824, just when 
 he had entered on his editorial career, he was called 
 upon to meet the charge of disloyalty ; and his de- 
 fence, which is in his happiest mood, shows how much 
 better were his early compositions when youth was 
 fresh and hope beat high, than those of his later days, 
 when the pangs of disappointment had fastened upon 
 his soul, and the groat aims of his life had miscarried. 
 
 "My ancestors too stuck fast to the legitimate race of 
 kings, and though professing a different religion, joined 
 Charles Stuart, whom (barring his faith) almost all 
 Scotland considered as its rightful sovereign. Colin 
 Mackenzie, my paternal grandsire, was a farmer under 
 the Earl of Airly in Glenshee, in the highlands of 
 Perthshire ; he, at the command of his chieftain, wil- 
 lingly joined the Stuart standard, in the famous 1745, 
 as a volunteer. My mother's father, also named Colin 
 Mackenzie, and from the same glen, had the honor to 
 bear a commission from the Prince, and served as an 
 officer in the Highland army. Both my ancestors 
 fought for the royal descendant of their native kings ; 
 and after the fatal battle of CuUoden, my grandfather 
 accompanied his unfortunate prince to the low coun- 
 tries, and was abroad with him or the continent, fol-
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLIOX. 19 
 
 lowing bis adverse fortunes for years. He returned 
 at length ; married, in his native glen, my grandmo- 
 ther, Elizabeth Spalding, a daughter of Mr. Spalding, 
 of AshintuUy castle, and my aged mother was the 
 voun^est but two of ten children, the fruit of that 
 marriage. The marriage of my parents w^as not pro- 
 ductive of lasting happiness ; my father, Daniel Mac- 
 kenzie, returned to Scotland fi'om Carlisle, where he 
 had been to learn the craft of Rob Roy's cousin. Dea- 
 con Jarvie of the Saltmarket, Glasgow, or in other 
 words, the weaving business, took sickness, became 
 blind, and in the second year of his marriage with my 
 mother died, being in his twenty-eighth or twenty- 
 ninth year. I was only three weeks old at his death ; 
 my mother took upon herself those vows which our 
 Church prescribes as needful at baptism, and was left 
 to struggle with misfortune, a poor widow, in want 
 and in distress. It is among the earliest of my re- 
 collections, that I lay in bed one morning during the 
 grievous famine in Britain, in 1800-1, while my poor 
 mother took from our large Kist (which is an article 
 of furniture of a sort only to be found among the 
 Scotch and Irish) the handsome plaid of the tartan 
 of our clan, which in early life her own hands had 
 spun, and went and sold it for a trifle, to obtain for 
 us a little coarse barley meal, whereof to make our 
 scanty breakfast ; and of another time during the same 
 famine, that she left me at home crying from want and 
 hunger, and for (I think) 8s. sold a handsome and 
 hitherto carefully preserved priest-gray coat of my fa- 
 ther's to get us a little food. How the mechanics and 
 laborers c:)ntrived to exist during these times, is
 
 20 LIFE OF MJiCKENZIE, AND 
 
 Avliat I cannot tell; my recollections of this period ar^ 
 faint and indistinct. Well may I love the poor, 
 greatly may I esteem the humble and the lowl}'-, for 
 poverty and adversity were my nurses, and in youth 
 were want and misery my familiar friends ; even now 
 it yields a sweet satisfaction to my soul, that I can 
 claim kindred with the obscure cottar, and the hum- 
 ble laborer, of my native, ever honored, ever loved 
 Scotland. 
 
 '"Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil 
 
 Bo blest with health, and peace, and sweet content!" 
 
 " My mother feared Grod, and he did not forget nor 
 forsake her : never in my early years can I recollect 
 that divine worship was neglected in our little family, 
 when health permitted; never did she in family 
 prayer forget to implore that He, who doeth all things 
 well, would establish in righteousness the throne of 
 our monarch, setting wise and able counsellors around 
 it. A few of my relations were well to do, but many 
 of them were poor farmers and mechanics, (it is true 
 my mother could claim kindred with some of the first 
 families in Scotland ; but who that is great and 
 wealthy, can sit down to count kindred with the 
 poor?) yet amongst these poor husbandmen, as well 
 ns amono; their ministers, were relii^ion and lovaltv 
 held in as due regard, as they had been by their ances- 
 tors in the olden time. Was it from the precept — 
 was it from the example of such a mother and such 
 relations, that I was to imbibe that disloyalt}'', demo- 
 cracy, falsehood, and deception, with which my writ-
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 21 
 
 mo-s are by the government editor* cliarged? Surely 
 no't If I l^ad followed the example shown me by my 
 surviving parent, I had done well ; but as I grew up 
 I became careless, and neglected public and private 
 devotion. Plainly can I trace from this period the 
 commencement of these errors of the head, and ot 
 the heart, which have since embittered my cup, and 
 strewed my path with thorns, where at my age I 
 might naturally have expected to pluck roses. 
 
 "Earnestly did my mother desire me to honor my 
 heavenly King, to remember my Creator in the days 
 of my youth, and I at this distant day have much 
 greater cause to regret the little attention I then paid 
 to her well meant admonitions in that respect, than to 
 take blame to myself for either thinking or speaking 
 disrespectfully of our anointed sovereign. The cele- 
 brated traveller, my namesake. Sir Alexander Mac- 
 kenzie, died on the same month on which I was born, 
 and just a quarter of a century thereafter. I came 
 into existence the 12th of March, 1795; he left the 
 world the same date, 1820 ; he was no kinsman ot 
 mine, but he was a Mackenzie, and if I can spread 
 the fame of The Advocate'[ to regions as far west as to 
 where he travelled, I shall be very well satisfied, 
 whether Sir Thomas gets his copy or not." 
 
 His first school-teacher was Mr. Ivinnear, of Dun- 
 dee, who was master of a parish school. One of his 
 school-mates,t from whom I have sought information, 
 
 * Mr. Charles Fothergill, editor of the Upper Canada (?a.e«., then published 
 in Toronto, and King's Printer. The Gazette, like the Momieur of Parxs, ha^l 
 an official and a non-officnul side. 
 
 I The name of the first newspaper he published. 
 
 X Mrs. lieid, of Kochcster, N. Y.
 
 22 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 describes him as a "bright boy, with yellow hair, 
 wearing a blue short coat with yellow buttons." The 
 school-house, large and well lighted, had previously 
 been a Catholic chapel. The stone basin, placed in 
 a niche in the wall, which had formerly been a repo- 
 sitory of " holy water," was now converted into a seat 
 of punishment, called the " holy cup." Though very 
 small when he first entered, Willie, as he was called, 
 was generally at the head of his class. His progress 
 in arithmetic, particularly, was very rapid. He 
 was often asked to assist other boys in the solution 
 of problems which baffled their skill ; and while he 
 rendered this service, he would pin papers or draw 
 grotesque faces, with chalk, on their coat backs. " He 
 was ever ready," says my informant, " to help the 
 girls, particularly if they were good looking." Even 
 then his power of declamation was considerable, and 
 on one occasion the school was made a scene of up- 
 roar and confusion, on his account ; the scholars shout- 
 ing at the top of their voices and hissing at the mas- 
 ter. The thing happened in this wise. 
 
 One day he went into the master's closet, donned 
 the fool's cap, and with the long leather taws tied a 
 canvass sack round his shoulders, and then, with birch 
 in hand, he took his seat on the " holy cup," to the 
 great amusement both of the boys and girls. While 
 thus seated, making grotesque faces and speechifying, 
 in walked the dominie, a man six feet eight and propor- 
 tionably stout, just when the mirth was at its height. 
 Though boiling over with rage, Mr. Kinnear could 
 hardly escape the contagion of the general laughter. 
 When angry, his face was anv thing but prepossess-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 23 
 
 ing. Little Willie saw the danger and attempted to 
 escape ; but lie came back at the demand of the an- 
 gry voice of the excited dominie. The crime of going 
 into the sacred apartment of the master must be vis- 
 ited with condign punishment. Willie's hand being 
 held out was touched with a small brush, dipped in 
 whitening, made from " calmstone," and then struck 
 with the taws twelve times, till his face was all spotted 
 over. Then he was conducted back to the holy cup. 
 This exhibition excited the indignation of the larger 
 boys, who hissed and shouted, till a scene of perfect 
 confusion was created, in the midst of which some, 
 who were particularly conspicuous in their demon- 
 strations, were seized by the indignant dominie, and 
 imprisoned in a small room ; by which means peace 
 was restored. Willie was ordered to go to the mas- 
 ter's house next day ; whence, after being detained a 
 few minutes, he returned with his face as radiant as 
 ever. When the dominie's back was turned, he made 
 such grimaces as he alone could make. Young Macken- 
 zie's overpowering sense of the ridiculous, which on 
 this occasion he tried to excite in others, adhered to 
 him through life. After leaving Mr. Kinnear's school, 
 he went to that of Mr. Adie ; but how long he spent 
 there cannot be ascertained. 
 
 At the age of ten years, some difficulty occurring 
 between him and his mother, he resolved to leave 
 home, and set up on his own account. For this pur- 
 pose he induced some other boys, of about his own 
 age, to accompany him to the Grampian Hills, among 
 which he had often been taken, and where, in a small 
 castle which was visible from Dundee, and of which
 
 24 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 tliey intended to take possession, they made the ro- 
 mantic resolve of leading the life of hermits. They 
 never reached the length of the castle, however, 
 and after strolling about a few days, during part of 
 which they were terribly frightened at the supposed 
 proximity of fairies, they were glad to trudge their 
 way back to the town, half famished. This incident 
 is characteristic, and might have been regarded as 
 prophetic; for the juvenile brain that planned such 
 enterprises would not be likely to be restrained, in 
 after life, where daring is required. In it we see the 
 same impatience of restraint that impelled Captain 
 John Smith, best known by his association with Poca- 
 hontas, to sell his books and satchel, when a mere 
 urchin, wdth a determination to steal away to sea. 
 
 It is probable that the difficulty between young 
 Lyon and his mother, which led to this escapade, arose 
 out of the long reading tasks which it was her cus- 
 tom to impose upon him. He was in this way tho- 
 roughly drilled in the "Westminster Catechism and 
 Confession of Faith ; he got the Psalms and large por- 
 tions of the Bible by rote, and was early initiated 
 into " Baxter's Call to the Unconverted," and several 
 similar works. When one of these tasks had been 
 given him, his mother used to confine him closely till 
 it had been mastered. That he sometimes felt these 
 reading tasks to be irksome is known from his own 
 statements ; and his idea, in mature life, was that the 
 thing had been overdone. This early exercise of the 
 memory, it may be reasonably assumed, tended to 
 give to that faculty the strength which in after life 
 was a source of astonishment to many. Perhaps,
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 25 
 
 however, those who did not know Mr. Mackenzie's 
 personal habits often attributed to his unaided me- 
 mory much that was the result of reference to those 
 stores of information which he never ceased to collect, 
 and which were so arranged as to admit of easy access 
 at any moment. It would be a mistake to suppose 
 that the large amount of religious reading he was 
 compelled, at an early age, to go through gave him a 
 distaste for that kind of literature. On the contrary, 
 what had been imposed as a task seems to have be- 
 come, in time, a pleasure, if we may judge by the 
 list of theological works which he voluntarily read 
 between the ages of eleven and twenty-four years. 
 He has left in his own hand- writing a list of " some 
 of the books read, between the years 1806 and 1819, 
 by W. L. Mackenzie,"* in which are fifty-four works 
 under the head of " Divinity," one hundred and sixty- 
 eight on History and Biography, fifty-two of Travels 
 and Voyages, thirty-eight on Geography and Topo- 
 graphy, eighty-five on Poetical and Dramatic Litera- 
 ture, forty-one on Education, fifty -one on Arts, Science, 
 and Agriculture, one hundred and sixteen Miscel- 
 laneous, and three hundred and fifty-two Novels; 
 making, in all, nine hundred and fifty-eight volumes, 
 in thirteen years. One year he read over two hun- 
 dred volumes. Here the list ends, and A, may be taken 
 for granted Mr. Mackenzie's reading of books became 
 less after 1824, when he got immersed in politics, and 
 
 * See Appendix A. The number of books read was thus distributed over 
 the different years :— In 1806-7, 89 vols.; 1808-9, 201 vols.; 1810, 79 vols. ; 
 1811, 52 vols. ; 1812-13, 61 vols.; 1814-15, 198 vols.; 1816, 48 vols.; 1817, 
 €3 vols. ; 18'8, 49 vols. ; 1819, 88 vols. ; 1820, 27 vols. 
 4
 
 26 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 had a newspaper to conduct. It is not often that the 
 world is enabled to see, at a glance, the stores of in- 
 formation by which the mind of a remarkable man 
 has been enriched and modified ; and it is peculiarly 
 fortunate that a catalogue has been preserved, in this 
 case. With his tenacious memory, Mr. Mackenzie 
 must have been enabled to draw, from time to time, 
 upon these stores, during the rest of his life. The 
 works are confined almost exclusivelv to the Eno-Hsh 
 language ; and the truth is, that he had only an im 
 perfect knowledge of any other. Otherwise there is 
 little reason to object to the want of variety, and there 
 does not appear to be any reason why they should 
 have given any undue bias to the mind. Of a ten- 
 dency to scepticism, of which he was accused in the 
 latter part of his life — with what justice will here- 
 after be seen — there is, in the works which must have 
 tended to give a cast to his mind, an almost entire 
 absence. 
 
 In whatever occupations young Mackenzie was en- 
 gaged, from the period of his leaving school to his 
 coming to Canada, the facts already stated show that 
 he was constantly storing his mind with varied infor- 
 mation. His mother used to tell how, when a little 
 boy, he would read till after midnight — different books 
 it may be presumed from those in which his daily 
 tasks were set — till she thought " the laddie would 
 read himsel' out o' his judgment." 
 
 In early youth, politics already possessed a charm 
 
 for him ; the Dundee, Perth, and Cupar Advertiser, 
 
 the first newspaper he ever read, serving to gratify 
 
 'this inclination. But he was soon admitted to a
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION". 27 
 
 wider range of political literature ; for lie was intro- 
 duced to the Dundee news-room, at so early a period 
 of life that he was for years after its youngest 
 member. 
 
 The adventurous life of a sailor had, at one time, 
 strong fascinations for him. His own account of this 
 boyish fancy runs: " When a little fellow at school, I 
 had at one time a strong inclination for the sea, and 
 used after school-hours, or between them, to accom- 
 pany some of my playmates to the pier, and wagei 
 marbles which of us could soonest double the cap, 
 pass the double cross-trees, and turn this vessel's 
 vane. I well remember that I won more marbles 
 than I lost in this way ; and when I went on board 
 the venerable ship, tight 'knd in good condition as she 
 still remains, and had fairly recognized my old ac- 
 quaintance, I felt a mingled sensation of pain and 
 pleasure, at the recollection of the past."* His ven- 
 turesome habits, when a boy, once nearly lost him his 
 life. With a courage above his skill, he plunged into 
 the waters of the Tay, making an effort to swim, and 
 sank twice before he was rescued. 
 
 * This was in 1833, when he revisited his native town.
 
 28 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Young Mackenzrc is employed in a Draper's shop — Then in the Countitg 
 House of Mr. Gr&y, of Dundee — Meets Dr. Chalmers before he had emerged 
 from obscurity — Starts business at Alyth, near Dundee, when under age, 
 and fails — Goes to England — Certificate of the Minister and Session Clerk 
 of Alyth — Becomes Clerk to the Kennett and Avon Canal Company in Eng- 
 land — Seeks employment in London — The resolution to go to Canada — 
 First visits France. 
 
 For a short time after leaving school, and when he 
 must have been a mere boy, he was put into Mr. 
 Henry Tulloch's draper's shop, High Street, Dundee; 
 but disliking the situation, he did not long remain 
 there ; probably only a few months. 
 
 He afterwards became an indentured clerk in the 
 counting house of Gray, a wood merchant, in a large 
 way of business, in Dundee. Mr. Mackenzie's papers 
 relating to the early part of his life were, with 
 others, placed with some friend in the country, at the 
 time of the rebellion ; but tht custodians, of what 
 might be dangerous documents, got alarmed on the 
 execution of Lount and Matthews for high treason, 
 and they committed the papers to the flames. It be- 
 comes more difficult, for this reason, to fix dates with 
 precision at this period of his life. Of Mr. G-ray, 
 Mr. Mackenzie was in the habit of speaking in the 
 highest terms. In a letter, dated Dundas, March 16,
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 29 
 
 1850, he said : " Mr. Grray, an excellent man, was one 
 of my earliest and best friends. I was then a clerk 
 in his counting room, under indenture for a term of 
 years, and well remember going over occasionally to 
 his brother-in-law's, at Kilmany, in Fife, where I first 
 saw Dr. Chalmers, then about thirty years old, and 
 living in comj^arative obscurity. He appears to have 
 been deeply impressed, while at Kilraan}^, with the 
 benefits conferred upon society by the. religious in- 
 struction of youth at Sunday Schools. Chalmers was 
 no ordinary man, but truly great and good." It was 
 probably while in the counting house of Mr. Gray 
 that Mr. Mackenzie acquired that knowledge of the 
 mysteries of accounts, which afterwards made'his ser- 
 vices of considerable value as Chairman of the Com- 
 mittee of Public Accounts, in the Legislative Assem- 
 bly of Canada, and which has enabled him to render 
 important service in the Welland Canal investigation, 
 and on other occasions, when financial mysteries had 
 to be solved. 
 
 At an early age, apparently when he was about 
 nineteen, he went into business for himself at Alyth, 
 some twenty miles from Dundee, setting up a general 
 store^ such as is kept in country places, in connection 
 with a circulating library. He remained here for 
 three years, when the result of inexperience assumed 
 the shape of a business failure. His creditors were 
 all honorably paid after he had acquired the necessary 
 means in Canada, at the distance of some years. 
 
 It was about the middle of May, 1817, when he left 
 Alyth ; and he soon afterwards went to England. The 
 time when he went to Alyth and when he left is fixed
 
 30 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 by a certificate, signed by tiie minister and the clerk of 
 session at that place, written shortly before his depar- 
 ture for Canada : 
 
 "Altth, March 30, 1820. 
 
 "That the bearer, Lyon Mackenzie, resided in this 
 Parish about three years preceding Whitsunday, 
 eighteen hundred and seventeen, when he removed 
 from this Parish, without anything known to us, at 
 his removal hence, to prevent him from being admitted 
 into any Christian Society, or partaking of Church 
 privileges, is attested by 
 
 " Wm. Ramsay, Minister. 
 
 "Edw. Patersox, Session Clerk." 
 
 Young Mackenzie afterwards, leaving his native 
 
 Scotland, crossed to the South of the Tweed ; where at 
 
 one time we find him filling the situation of Clerk to 
 
 the Kennett and Avon Canal Company,* at another 
 
 * The following summons proves him to have been in the employment of 
 this Company in October, 1818; which was eighteen months before he sailed 
 
 for Canada. 
 
 }To all Constables, Tythingmen, and others. His Majesty's Officer* 
 of the Peace in arid for the said County, whom these may concern, 
 any or either of them. 
 These are in His Majesty's !Name, to will and require you, on Sight hereof, 
 to summon David Slowly, Captain of the boat No. 6, Euclid Shaw, of Bath, 
 owner, personally to be and appear before me, and such other of his Majesty's 
 Justices of the Peace for the said County of Wilts as shall be present at the 
 Town Hall in Devizes, in the said County, on Tuesday, the Tenth day of N07 
 vember next, at eleven of the clock in the forenoon, to answer to what is and 
 shall be on His Majesty's Behalf objected against him by William Lyon Mac- 
 kenzie, Clerk to the Kennett and Avon Canal Company, for having, on the third of 
 October instant, offended against the eleventh article of the said Company's 
 Bye-Laws, by carrying shafts and poles constructed contrary to the same. 
 And you are to attend at the time and place above appointed for the appear- 
 ance of the said parties, and to make return of this precept and of the execution 
 hereof. 
 
 ^ Herein fail not at your perils. Given under my Hand and Seal, the tenth 
 day of October, in the fifty-eighth year of the re'gn of our Sovereign Lord
 
 « 
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 31 
 
 time in London ; and he used to relate that he was for 
 a short, time in the employ of Ear Lonsdale, as a 
 
 clerk. 
 
 In the autumn before he left for Canada, our future 
 emigrant was in London, where he appears to have 
 been either without employment or not to have been 
 so satisfactorily engaged as to preclude the desire of a 
 change. A correspondence took place between him 
 and a Mr. Wm. Dunsford, who held an office in a Canal 
 Company's office, at Swindon, Wiltshire. There was 
 a question of the Company establishing a Gauging 
 Dock; and if this was done, Mr. Mackenzie was to be 
 recommended for an office in connection with it. The 
 Committee of Directors, with whom the decision would 
 rest, was not to meet till December, 1819 ; and what- 
 ever was the result at which they arrrived, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie was destined to cross the Atlantic and become 
 a resident of Canada next Spring. Mr. Dunsford, in 
 October, writes in a friendly, if not very encouraging 
 tone,* and adds a postscript, asking to borrow the for- 
 
 George the Third, by the Grace of God of the IJnited Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland King, and in the year of our Lord, 1818. 
 
 HENKY BAYNSTON. 
 
 * Canal Office, Stvindon, October 18, 1819, 
 
 Sir:_I received your letter of the loth yesterday, and am sorry you have 
 not succeeded in making an arrangement with the K. & A. Co., to allow us 
 the use of their Tables. 1 do not expect that Mr. Thomas will communicate 
 with me oh the subject. The very liheral ideas of that gentleman as to the 
 neighboring Canals, as you represented them to me, forbid the hope of such 
 an accommodation. 
 
 I therefore look forward to the time when the Companies for whom I am 
 concerned will be able to set on foot an establishment of their own for the pur- 
 pose, and it shall not be my ftiult if this is delayed a moment after the neces- 
 sary moans can be procured; but you are aware that such a thing cannot be 
 effected in a moment, and that before the expenditure of at least £700 or £800
 
 32 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 inula of certain gauging tables belonging to IMr. Mac- 
 kenzie. 
 
 That lie was ^jrobably without employment, and was 
 certainly in search of an occupation, in October, 1819, 
 appears from Mr. Dunsford's letter; and as he con- 
 ceived he had not met with fair usage, it is probable 
 that it was not long after this time when he resolved 
 to sail for Canada the next Spring. He appears then 
 to have 0T\\y just left Swindon and the Kennett and 
 Avon Canal Company; for Mr. Dunsford, at that date, 
 mentions the failure of Mr. Mackenzie's attempt to 
 effect a certain arrangement with his employers to 
 allow their Gauging Tables to be used by another 
 Company. This occurrence must have been of recent 
 date ; and it is probable that ]\Ir. Dunsford replied as 
 soon as he learned from Mr. Mackenzie the result of 
 the application, which may be presumed to have been 
 made before the latter left the service of the Canal 
 Company. 
 
 can be Resolved upon, the Committee will require time for deliberation. Their 
 next meeting is not till the middle of December, and until that time, all that 
 I can say is, that in the event of their determining on a Gauging establish- 
 ment, I should not hesitate to recommend you to their notice, being perfectly 
 satisfied of 3^our competency for the business, and not doubting the testimonials 
 you could bring to your character. I will further add that the salary you ex- 
 pect would not bo objected to, together with a comfortable house for your resi- 
 dence. Under these circumstances, it appears to me that you had better not 
 omit any favorable appointment that may offer for your settlement; but should 
 you not be better provided, in the event of our building a Gauging Dock, 
 upon your favoring me with your future address when convenient, I will not 
 fail to remember you ; and wishing you the success you appear to deserve, and 
 better usage than you say you have had, 
 
 I remain your obedient servant, 
 
 William Dunsford. 
 If you feel no objection to sending me the formula of your Gauging Tables, 
 I should be obliged, as it would assist me in explaining the system to our Com- 
 mittees better than my memory will serve.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 33 
 
 The idea of going to Canada is said to have been 
 first suggested to Mr. Mackenzie by Mr. Edward 
 Lesslie,of Dundee. He was elated at the prospect 
 which the New World held out to him, and gave ex- 
 l^ression to his hilarity in a demonstrative manner. 
 
 Before starting for Canada, he visited France. The 
 date of this visit cannot now be fixed with certainty ; 
 but it was probably in November or December, 1819. 
 
 He confesses to having, a little before this time, 
 plunged into the vortex of dissipation and contracted 
 a fondness for play. But all at once, he abandoned 
 the dangerous path on which he had entered, and after 
 the age of twenty-one never played a game at cards. 
 A more temperate man than he was, for the rest of 
 his life, it would have been impossible to find.
 
 34 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Sails for Canada in the Psyche — Personal Appearance — Is connected with the 
 Lachine Canal Survey — Enters into the Book and Drug Business in York — 
 Afterwards in Dundas — The Partnership with Lesslie Dissolved — Starts a 
 separate husiness in Dundas — Keraoves to Queenstown— Abandons Mercantile 
 Business for Politics— The First Office that he is Elected to is that of School 
 Trustee. 
 
 In April, 1820, there was among the passengers of 
 the Psyche, bound for Canada, and commanded by 
 Captain Thomas Erskine, a young man just turned 
 twenty-five years of age, born of poor Scottish pa- 
 rents ; whose mother, widowed in his infancy, had 
 sometimes been at a loss to find the plainest food for 
 his nourishment; a young man who had been a clerk 
 in a counting house, at Dundee ; who had tried mer- 
 cantile business on his own account, in a small Scot- 
 tish market town, and failed ; who had held a clerk- 
 ship under a company and a nobleman in England ; 
 who, without having enjoyed any other advantage of 
 education than the parochial and secondary schools of 
 Dundee ofi'ered, had a mind well stored with varied 
 information which he had devoured with the appetite 
 of a literary glutton ; who was so little known that 
 his departure from his dear native soil excited no 
 public interest or attention. Yet was it fated that this 
 young man should change the destiny of the country
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION". 35 
 
 to whicli the good ship Ps^^'che was bearing him. He 
 was of slight buikl and scarcely of medium height, 
 being only five feet six inches in stature. His massive 
 head, high and broad in the frontal region and well 
 rounded, looked too large for the slight wiry frame it 
 surmounted. He was already bald from the effects of 
 a fever. His keen, restless, piercing blue eye, which 
 threatened to read your most interior thoughts, and 
 the ceaseless and expressive activity of his fingers, 
 which unconsciously opened and closed, betrayed a 
 temperament that could not brook inaction. The chin 
 was long and rather broad ; and the firm-set mouth 
 indicated a will which, however it might be bafiled 
 and thwarted, could not be subdued. The lips, firmly 
 pressed together, constantly undulated in a mass, 
 moving all that part of the face which lies below the 
 nostrils ; with this motion the twinkling of the eyes 
 seemed to keep time, and gave an appearance of 
 unrest to the whole countenance. The deep dimples 
 in the cheeks, exaggerating the protuberance of the 
 cheek bones, were connected by a strongly marked 
 sunken line which shot up to about half the height of 
 the nose, and left a slight ridge which ran at right 
 angles with the upper part of the cheek bone. The 
 centre of the nose at the base protruded a rounded 
 point below the orifice of the nostrils. The deep-se* 
 eyes were overarched by massive brows, which threw 
 the forehead a little out of its perpendicularity, and 
 which alone gave it the least receding angle. This 
 assemblage of features will at once be seen to have 
 been striking and characteristic. They were almost 
 constantly animated by a flow of spirit which put the
 
 36 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 rest of tlie passengers in good humor ; for the hope 
 of youth deceptively painted with its roseate views that 
 future which, to the young Dundee emigrant, was to 
 he beset with so many difficulties, bestrewed with thorns, 
 and watered with tears of blood. 
 
 After his arrival in Canada, Mr. Mackenzie was for a 
 short time employed in connection with the survey of 
 the Lachine Canal ; but it could only have been a few 
 weeks, for in the course of the summer he entered into 
 business in York, as the present city of Toronto was then 
 called. "My first occupation," he has left it on record, 
 " in York was mercantile. I had the profits of one part 
 of the establishment in this town, which was resigned 
 w^hen I went into partnership in trade,"* in Dundas. 
 In York, Mr. John Lesslie and he were in the book and 
 drug business ; the profits of the books going to Mr. 
 Lesslie, and that of the drugs to Mr. Mackenzie. It 
 was found, I believe, that physic for the body was in 
 greater demand than garniture for the mind ; and the 
 question arose of finding another place at which to 
 establish a second business, in which Mr. Mackenzie 
 and Mr. John Lesslie were to be partners. The busi- 
 ness m York was afterwards conducted for the exclu- 
 sive benefit of the remaining partner. Kingston was 
 thought of, but Mr. Mackenzie did not like the place, 
 and Dundas was selected. Here he conducted the bu- 
 siness of the partnership for fifteen or sixteen months ; 
 during which time, I have heard him say, a clear 
 cash profit of £100 a month was made. In a printed 
 poster, I find the firm styled " Mackenzie and Lesslie, 
 Druggists, and Dealers in Hardware, Cutlery, Jewelry; 
 
 ♦ Colonial Advocate, January 21, 1828.
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLION. 37 
 
 Toys, Carpenter's Tools, Xails, Groceries, Confections, 
 Dye-Stuffs, Paints, &c., at the Circulating Library, 
 Dundas." • The partnership was dissolved, by mutual 
 consent, in the early part of 1823. A division of the 
 partnership effects was made ; and, in papers which 
 have been preserved, Mr. Mackenzie appears as a pur- 
 chaser from the firm of Mackenzie & Lesslie to the 
 amount of £686 19s Sid. The goods included in this 
 purchase were as miscellaneous as can well be im- 
 agined ; and they were destined to form the nucleus 
 of a separate business to be carried on by Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie. The invoice is headed, " Dundas, U. C, 24th 
 February, 1823. William Lyon Mackenzie bought 
 of Mackenzie & Lesslie ;" and its completion bears 
 date, " Dundas, March 20th, 1823." Below this date, 
 at the bottom of the figures, is a memorandum of 
 agreement of purchase and sale : 
 
 *' We agree that the above is a correct, true, and 
 proper invoice, in the items and in the amount; the 
 same being six hundred and eighty-six pounds nine- 
 teen shillings and three pence J curr'y. 
 
 "Wm. L. Mackenzie, Johx Lesslie." 
 
 With this stock a separate business was commenced , 
 but it was not long continued, for in the autumn of 
 the same year Mr. Mackenzie removed to Queens- 
 town, and there opened a general store. Before leav- 
 ing Dundas, he sold to Mr. Lesslie one of the build- 
 ings he had erected at that place, but retained a store- 
 house. At Queehstown, he resided only a year; and 
 before the expiration of that time, he had abandoned 
 commerce for politics ; and as a journalist, made the 
 first step in the eventful career which opens with this
 
 38 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 period of his life. The stock of miscellaneous goods 
 was disposed of to a store-keeper in the country ; and 
 thus the business was closed without resorting? to the 
 tedious practice of selling off in detail. 
 
 "While living in Dundas, Mr. Mackenzie was mar- 
 ried. This event took place on the 1st of July, 1822, 
 at Montreal. Miss Isabel Baxter, his bride, may be 
 said to have been a native of the same town as him- 
 self ; for she was born at Dundee and he at Springfield, 
 a suburb of the same place. Though they both were 
 at the same school together, when young, they had 
 ceased to be able to recognize one another when they 
 met at Quebec. The marriage took place within three 
 weeks from the first interview : a circumstance that 
 accords with the general impulsive nature of his char- 
 acter. Of this union the issue was thirteen children : 
 three boys and ten girls ; six of whom arc now living : 
 four daughters and two sons. Five died in infancy : 
 one at thirteen years, and one at thirty-two. 
 
 Up to this time, Mr. Mackenzie had not held any 
 other office in Canada than that of School Trustee ; and 
 he confessed that even that mark of public confidence 
 inspired him with pride. He and Mr. Thorburn were 
 elected to that office, at the same time, at Queenstown. 
 kSpeaking of this occurrence, he says : " The first news- 
 paper I ever issued was a protest against binding 
 down our projected university to the dogmas of any 
 sect : whether of Oxford, Edinburgh, Rome, or Mos- 
 cow." Never was prophecy more literally fulfilled 
 than that of his regarding the efl*ects of giving a secta- 
 rian character U) a university which had not yet 
 come into existence.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's Eeasons for going into Politics — Condition of Canada in 1820 
 — Moderation of the Political Principles with which he set out — Most of the 
 Reforms he advocated Carried — On some subjects Public Opinion went 
 far beyond his Starting Point — State of the Press in Upper Canada, in 
 1826 — A Union of all the North American Provinces — General Election, 
 of which the Result was Unfavorable to the Executive — A Scene in Court — 
 Mackenzie on Judge Boulton. 
 
 When Mr. Mackenzie abandoned trade for politics, 
 he was doing well, and had done well ever since he 
 commenced business. A perseverance in the career 
 on which he had entered four years before would 
 have led to wealth. In the first number of The Colo- 
 nial Advocate, published at Queenstown, on the 18th 
 May, 1824, he describes himself as being "as independ- 
 ent as editors can well be;" and this evidently had 
 reference to his pecuniary position, for he adds, " AYe 
 are not in want, neither are we rich." The step which 
 he had now taken was one of the most important in his 
 whole career, since it involved every thing that fol- 
 lowed. Why did he take it? Fortunately the an- 
 swer can be given in his own words. In a letter writ- 
 ten to a friend while he was in the United States, he 
 says : — 
 
 '* When you and your father knew me first, in 
 1820, I was a voung man connected with trade iu
 
 40 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AND 
 
 York and Dundas. The prudent, judicious, and very- 
 profitable manner in which I conducted, alone, the 
 partnership concerns of a large trading establishment, 
 at the head of Lake Ontario, surely aiforded satisfac- 
 tory evidence that I had no occasion to leave my pri- 
 vate pursuits for the stormy sea of politics, with a 
 Adew to the improvement of my pecuniary prospects. 
 When I did so, and assumed, as the westernmost 
 journalist in the British dominions on the continent 
 of America, the office of a public censor, I had no 
 personal enemies, but was on friendly terms with 
 many of the men whom since then I have steadily 
 opposed. I never interfered in the public concerns 
 of the colony, in the most remote degree, until the 
 day in which I issued twelve hundred copies of a 
 newspaper, without having asked or received a single 
 subscriber. In that number I stated my sentiments, 
 and the objects I had in view fully and frankly. I 
 had long seen the country in the hands of a few 
 shrewd, crafty, covetous men, under whose manage- 
 ment one of the most lovely and desirable sections of 
 America remained a comparative desert. The most 
 obvious public improvements were stayed ; dissension 
 was created among classes ; citizens were banished and 
 imprisoned in defiance of all law ; the people had been 
 long forbidden, under severe pains and penalties, from 
 meeting anywhere to petition for justice ; large estates 
 were wrested from their owners in utter contempt of 
 even the forms of the courts ; the Church of England, 
 the adherents of which were few, monopolized as 
 much of the lands of the colony as all the religious 
 houses and dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 41 
 
 Had had the control of in Scotland at the era of the 
 Reformation ; other sects were treated with contempt 
 and scarcely tolerated ; a sordid band of land-jobbers 
 grasped the soil as their patrimony, and with a few 
 leading officials, who divided the public revenue 
 among themselves, formed ' the family compact,' and 
 wore the avowed enemies of common schools, of civil 
 and religious liberty, of all legislative or other checks 
 to their own will. Other men had opposed, and been 
 converted by them. At nine-and-twenty I might 
 have united with them, but chose rather to join the 
 oppressed, nor have I ever regretted that choice, or 
 wavered from the object of my early pursuit. So far 
 as I or any other professed reformer was concerned in 
 inviting citizens of this Union to interfere in Cana- 
 dian affairs, there w^as culpable error. So far as any 
 of us, at any time, may have supposed that the cause 
 of freedom would be advanced by adding the Canadas 
 to this Confederation, we were under the merest de- 
 lusion." 
 
 This picture of TJi^per Canada, in 1820, may be 
 highly colored ; but in the general outlines, repulsive 
 as they are, there is too much truth. The limner 
 lived to see a change of system in Canada ; and after 
 he had had a more than theoretical experience of De- 
 mocracy in the United States — having resided there 
 for several years — he warns Canadians not to be mis- 
 led by the delusion that the cause of liberty would be 
 advanced by uniting these Provinces to the American 
 Republic. When we come to see at what price he 
 purchased the experience, which entitled him to ex- 
 press such an opinion, the value of this admonition
 
 42 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 cannot fail to be enLanced in the estimation of all un- 
 prejudiced judges. 
 
 In some respects, the condition of the Province, in 
 1820, was worse than Mr. Mackenzie described it. 
 He dealt only with its political condition ; but the ab- 
 sence of demand for employment made wretched those 
 who depended solely upon their labor for subsistence. 
 When Lord A. Hamilton suggested, in the House of 
 Commons, April 28th, 1820, that an emigration to the 
 North American colonies would be the most effectual 
 means of relieving distress at home, the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer replied, that the emigrants who had re- 
 cently gone there, " so far from finding increased means 
 of subsistence, had experienced a want of employment 
 fully equal to that which existed in the most distressed 
 manufacturing districts of this country. The North 
 American Provinces of Great Britain had been so 
 overloaded with emigrants, that the government of 
 Canada had made the strongest remonstrances to the 
 government of this country on the subject." 
 
 Public meetings, the actors in which had been de- 
 puted to represent any portion of the elections, were 
 illegal ; and every thing in the shape of a convention 
 was held to be seditious. Any new comer, who had 
 not been six months in the Province, was liable to be 
 banished, not for any thing he had done, but upon a 
 mere suspicion that he was " about to endeavor to 
 alienate the minds of his Majesty's subjects of this 
 Province from his person or government." Under the 
 sedition act of 1804, which armed the government with 
 this authority, Mr. Robert Gourlay, a Scotchman of 
 respectable antecedents and shattered nerves, was sen-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLIOX. 43 
 
 tenced to banishment, and afterwai'ds imprisoned for re- 
 fusing to obey the order. The shock was too much for 
 his acute organization ; and the imprisonment before 
 trial — the fourth he had to undergo — deprived him of 
 his reason. On the verdict being pronounced — guilty 
 of refusing to leave the country — he asked one of the 
 jun'men whether it was for sedition that he had been 
 tried. The object of the convention, which was held at 
 York in 1818, was to arrange for sending commissioners 
 to England, to bring before the Imperial authorities the 
 condition of the Province, with a view to its ameliora- 
 tion. Col. Beardsleyof Hamilton, the chairman, was 
 tried by court martial, and deprived of his commission. 
 Among the delegates, there were many who had shown 
 their attachment to their sovereign during the war of 
 1812. The lands to which they were entitled, as 
 bounty, were withheld from them, on account of their 
 presence at that assemblage. A very difficult and 
 irritating question arose, of the state of the naturaliza- 
 tion laws, as they affected persons of British birth, 
 who had remained in the United States till after 1783, 
 and then came to settle in the Province. Of the Post- 
 office revenue, no account was given ; and in return for 
 high rates of postage the service was very indifferent- 
 ly performed. 
 
 With what opinions did the future leader of an in- 
 surrection, which it cost so many millions of dollars 
 to quell, set out? Was he a fierce Democrat, who had 
 resolved with malice prepense to do all in his power 
 to overthrow those monarchical institutions which had 
 suffered gross abuse at the hands of those to whom 
 their working had been confided? 'No prospectus
 
 44 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 having gone forth as an avant courrier of The Colonial 
 Advocate^ the first number of the journal, which 
 was in 8vo. form, was devoted chiefly to an ex- 
 position of the principles of the editor. The range 
 of topics embraced was wide, and the tone of discus- 
 sion, free from the bitterness that marked his later 
 writings, was frank. A Calvinist in religion, pro- 
 claiming his belief in the Westminster Confession of 
 Faith, and a Liberal in politics, jet was Mr. Macken- 
 zie, at that time, no advocate of the voluntary prin- 
 ciple. On the contrary, he lauded the British govern- 
 ment for making a landed endowment of the Pr,o- 
 testant Clergy, in the Provinces, and was shocked at 
 the report that, in 1812, voluntaryism had robbed 
 three millions of people of all means of religious or- 
 dinances. " In no part of the Constitution of the 
 Canadas," he said, " is the wisdom of the British Legis- 
 lature more apparent than in its setting apart a por- 
 tion of the country, while yet it remained a wilderness, 
 for the support of religion." Mr. Mackenzie credited 
 Lord Melville, when Mr. Dundas, with having been 
 the first adviser of this measure ; but this is a mistake, 
 for the Archbishop of Canterbury had previously in- 
 terested himself in the matter, and Col. Simcoe had 
 pronounced in favor of a church establishment, in 
 Canada, as a means of upholding a distinction of 
 ranks, and lessening the weight of democratic influ- 
 ence. Mr. Mackenzie compared the setting apart of 
 one seventh of the public lands for religious purposes 
 to a like dedication in the time of the Christians. But 
 he objected that the revenues were monopolized by one 
 church, to which only a fraction of the population
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 45 
 
 belono-ed. The envy of the non-recipient denomina- 
 tions made the favored church of England unpopuhir. 
 Though this distribution of the revenues was mani- 
 festly in accordance with the law creating the Re- 
 serves, the alteration of that law, if it should not 
 meet the wishes of the people, had been contemplated 
 and provided for by its framers. By this argument, 
 Mr. Mackenzie was easily conducted to the conclu- 
 sion, "that Catholic and Protestant, Episcopalian and 
 Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, Quaker and 
 Tunker, deserve to share alike in the income of 
 these knds ;" and he expressed a hope that a law 
 would be enacted, "by which the ministers of every 
 body of professing Christians, being British subjects, 
 shall receive equal benefits from these Clergy Re- 
 serves." But this was not to be ; for agitation, or the 
 question, was to be directed to the abrogation, not the 
 equal division, of these reservations. 
 
 On this question, the conservative character of Mr. 
 Mackenzie's opinions was found to be out of harmony 
 with the general sentiment, as it gradually unfolded 
 itself, and his own opinions changed. He could not 
 have retained these views, and maintained his popu- 
 larity. Besides, as the subject was more discussed, he 
 saw reason to change them. On another question- 
 that of establishing a Provincial University— he con- 
 tended for a principle, the adoption of which would 
 have caused a great deal of subsequent difiiculty. 
 Cordially seconding the proposal of Dr. Strachan, to 
 establish such an institution, he predicted that it 
 would attract but few students, and not answer the 
 purpose for which it w^as required, " if tied down by
 
 46 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 tests and oatlis to support particular dogmas." This 
 warning was unheeded, and for the reasons he had 
 given, the university had to be turned upside down 
 a quarter of a century afterwards, having in the 
 meantime produced a minimum quantity of good fruit. 
 
 The Executive Grovernment, the Legislative Coun- 
 cil, the Bench, the Bar, the Church, all came in for a 
 a share of attention. Governor Maitland was disad- 
 vantageously compared to De Witt Clinton, of the 
 State of New York. The members of the Executive, 
 apparently for no sound reason, were described as 
 " foreigners." The Legislative Council, a majority of 
 whose members held offices under the crown, and 
 were even pluralists in a small way, were represented 
 as being " always selected from the tools of servile 
 power." The dependent position of the Judges, being 
 removable at the pleasure of the Executive, was la- 
 mented. As for the Church, which claimed to be the es- 
 tablished religion of the country, its ministers were de- 
 clared to be not of that class who endure persecution for 
 conscience' sake. The Bar was admitted to have four 
 righteous members, and might, therefore, be consid- 
 ered to be in a hopeful condition. But the standard 
 to which its members were expected to attain was no 
 common one. Lawyers were expected at all times to 
 be ready, without fee or other reward than the ap- 
 proval of a good conscience, to plead the cause of the 
 unfortunate poor. 
 
 In so many words, the young journalist volunteered 
 a disclaimer, by way of anticipation, of being a Radi- 
 cal Reformer, lie had joined no Spaiield mobs. He 
 had never benefited by the harangues of Hunt, Cob-
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 47 
 
 bett, or Watson. He was not even chargeable with 
 being a follower of Gourlay, who had already ren- 
 dered himself odious to the ruling faction. With 
 none of these sins was Mr. Mackenzie chargeable. 
 And though he was a warm reformer, he " never 
 wished to see British America an appendage of the 
 American Union." American liberty was good, but 
 British liberty was better. From the Americans we 
 might learn something of the art of agriculture ; but 
 of government nothing. Yet our own system of cross- 
 purposes required reformation. The proposed Union 
 Bill of 1818 had been rightly rejected, and the only 
 desirable union was one of all the British American 
 colonies. The first existing law against which Mr~ 
 Mackenzie directed his pen, after that which gave the 
 Church of England the entire proceeds of the Clergy 
 Reserves, was that upholding the right of primogen- 
 iture. 
 
 Such are the views promulgated by the young jour- 
 nalist at the outset of his career. Yet, moderate and 
 even conservative as they were, on many points, an 
 organ of the official party suggested that he should be 
 banished the Province, and the whole edition — which 
 it would not have been easy to collect after it had once 
 been distributed through the country — seized. We 
 look upon them now as being for the most part mode- 
 rate and rational; and where the majority of the 
 present generation of Canadians will cliffer from him 
 is that, on the Clergy Reserves question, he did not 
 hold the voluntary view. At that time, he would 
 have denounced secularization as a monstrous piece 
 of sacrilege. The A^iews which he expressed in refer-
 
 48 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ence to a Provincial University, before it had been 
 "brought into existence, afterwards came in the shape 
 of a reform, the fruit of a long and bitter controversy. 
 Members of the Legislature no longer hold subordi- 
 nate offices, much less are they pluralists. The judges 
 hold their offices for life, and are not removable at the 
 pleasure of the Executive. The Executive Council can 
 only be composed of such men as can obtain the favor 
 of a legislative majority. The Church of England, 
 having no exclusive privileges, and making no pre- 
 tensions to dominancy, no longer excite jealousy, envy, 
 or hatred. All the Provinces of British America 
 have not yet been united under one government, it is 
 true ; but the question of uniting them never before 
 occupied the same degree of attention. The right 
 of primogeniture has been abolished, and intestate, 
 estates are equally distributed among the children. 
 The mode of administering the government has been 
 so revolutionized as to be equivalent to a complete 
 change of system. The game of cross-purposes, of 
 which Mr. Mackenzie complained, is no longer played 
 between the two branches of the Legislature, or be- 
 tween the popular branch and the Executive. In 
 making the Legislative Council elective — saving the 
 rights of life-members already appointed — ^we have 
 gone a step beyond what Mr. Mackenzie dreamed of 
 in 1824, and which he would probably, at that time, 
 have opposed a^ a radical departure from the British 
 system of government. 
 
 Something new under the sun had appeared in the 
 newspaper world of Upper Canada. To official ga- 
 zettes containing a little news, and semi-officif I sheets,
 
 THE CANADIAIS^ EEBELLION". 49 
 
 which had an intense admiration of the ruling oli- 
 garchy, little York had previously been accustomed. 
 To newspaper criticism the Executive had not been 
 inured ; and it was determined that the audacity of 
 the new journal should be rebuked. In spite of all 
 his protestations, Mr. Mackenzie was called upon to 
 defend himself against an imputation of disloyalty; 
 and, judging from his reply, he appears to have felt 
 this as one of the most galling and at the same time 
 one of the most untrue accusations that could have 
 been made against him. A Mackenzie disloyal ! In 
 the annals of the whole clan no record of so unnatural 
 a monster could be found. On the 10th of June, Mr. 
 Mackenzie replied at great length. A part of this 
 reply has already been given, in the way of family 
 history; and the more material parts of the remainder 
 must not be omitted : 
 
 " Had Mr. Fothergill not been pleased to accuse me 
 in plain terms of democracy, disloyalty, and foul play, 
 I should not have devoted so much of this number to 
 party argument. It is necessary for me, however, 
 when my good name is so unexj)ectedly and rudely 
 assailed, in the first place, to deny, in plain and posi- 
 tive terms, such a charge ; it will then accord with my 
 duty, as well as with my inclination, to inquire how 
 far ho or any man is entitled, from any observations 
 of mine to advance such statements as appear in the 
 official papers of the 27th ult. and 3d instant. 
 
 " I consider it the bounden duty of every man who 
 conducts a public newspaper, to endeavor to regulate 
 his own conduct in private life, so as that the obser- 
 vations he may publicly make on the words and ac-
 
 oO LIFE OP MACKEXZIE, AND 
 
 tions of others, may not lose their weight and influ- 
 ence on being contrasted with his own behavior, 
 whether as the head of a family or as an individual 
 member of society. Were I a native of the village 
 in which I now write, or of the district in which it is 
 situated, the whole of my past life could be fairly re- 
 ferred to, as a refutation, or as a corroboration of what 
 he has urged against me ; but as that is not the 
 case, this being only the fifth year of my residence in 
 Canada, I must refer to that residence, and to such 
 other circumstances as I may consider best calculated 
 to do away the injurious impression that will be raised 
 in the minds of those that do not know me, and who 
 may therefore be unjustly biassed by his erroneous 
 statements. I will, in the first instance, refer to every 
 page of the four numbers of The Advocate, now be- 
 fore the public ; I may ask every impartial reader, 
 nay, I may even ask Mr. Robinson* himself, (that 
 is, if he has any judgment in such matters,) whether 
 they do not, in every line, speak the language of a free 
 and independent British subject? I may ask whether 
 I have not endeavored, by every just means, to dis- 
 courage the unprofitable, unsocial system of the local 
 governments, so detrimental to British and Colonial 
 interests, and which has been productive of so much 
 misery to these Colonies? Whether I have not en- 
 deavored to inculcate in all my readers, that godlike 
 maxim of the illustrious British patriot, Charles James 
 Fox, that ' that government alone is strong that has 
 the hearts of the people.' It is true, my loyalty has not 
 descended so low as to degenerate into a base, fawning, 
 
 -5* Then Attorney General, now Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench.
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 51 
 
 cringing servility. I may honor my sovereign surely, 
 and remember the ruler of my people with the respect 
 that is due unto his name and rank, without allowing 
 my deportment to be equally respectful and humble to 
 His Majesty's butcher or his baker, his barber or his 
 tailor ! If I were reduced to poverty and distress, and 
 were unable to work for my bread, I would cheerfully 
 submit without repining at the Divine Providence, and 
 ask an alms from my fellow-creatures, as a temporary 
 sustenance to this tabernacle of clay, until in due time 
 I were called home ; but I feel that not to gain the 
 wealth of the Indies, could I now cringe to the fun- 
 guses that I have beheld in this country, and who are 
 more numerous and more pestilential in the town of 
 York, than the marshes and quagmires with which it 
 is environed. 
 
 " It may be proper that I should for this once add 
 a few other reasons, why disloyalty can never enter 
 my breast ; even the name I bear has in all ages proved 
 talismanic, an insurmountable barrier. There are 
 many persons in this very colony who have known me 
 from infanc}'", so that what I may say can there or 
 here easily be proved or disproved if it should ever 
 become of consequence enough to deserve investiga- 
 tion. If Mr. Fothergill can find that any one who 
 bears the name which from both parents I inherit, if 
 he can find only one Mackenzie, and they are a very 
 extensive clan, whether a relation of mine or other- 
 wise, whether of patrician, or (as he terms me) of 
 plebeian birth, who has ever deserted or proved dis- 
 loyal to his Sovereign in the hour of danger, even I 
 will allow that he had the shadow of a reason for his
 
 62 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AKD 
 
 false and slanderous imputations ; but if in this re- 
 search he fails, I ho2:>e, that for the sake of truth and 
 justice, for the honor of the Canadian press, for the sake 
 of the respectability of that official journal of which he 
 has the management, if not for mine who never 
 wronged him, that he will instantly retract a charge, 
 which, to say the least of it, is as foolish and ground- 
 less, as the observations he has connected with it are 
 vain and futile. Only think of the consequences which 
 might result from owing allegiance to a foreign gov- 
 ernment; think that in a few short weeks, or it may be 
 years, one might be called on, upon the sanctity of an 
 oath, to wage war against all that from childhood up- 
 wards he had held most dear : to go forth in battle 
 array against the heritage of his ancestors, his kin- 
 dred, his friends, and his acquaintances ; to become in- 
 strumental in the subjugation by fire and sword to 
 foreigners, of the fields, the cities, the mausoleums of 
 his forefathers — aye perhaps in the heat of battle it 
 might be his lot to plunge the deadly blade into the 
 breast of a father, or a brother, or an only child. 
 Surely this picture is not overcharged. In our days 
 it stands on record as having" been verified." 
 
 There is no reason, not even in the subsequent his- 
 tory of Mr. Mackenzie, to doubt the sincerity with 
 which those protestations were made. Years after he 
 went so far, in a letter to Lord Dalhousie, Governor-in- 
 Chief, as to suggest the possible return to their al- 
 legiance to England of the United States, if it were 
 once understood that the full rights of British sub- 
 jects were to be conferred upon the colonies. And he 
 constantly raised a warning voice to show the danger
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 53 
 
 of a persistent refusal to give to colonists tlie full en- 
 joyment of those rights. His nature had evidently 
 to undergo a great change before he could become a 
 leader of insurrection. Mr. Fothergiir^ does not ap- 
 pear to have shown any disposition to prolong the 
 personal contest he had provoked ; and he afterwards 
 became an advocate in the Legislature of the man he 
 had at first made a personal antagonist. In Decem- 
 ber, 1826, we find him moving — any member then 
 had the initiation of the money votes — in the Legis- 
 lative Assembly, that a small sum be paid to Mr. 
 Mackenzie for the reports of the debates he had pub- 
 lished. As affording a picture of the state of the 
 press of Upper Canada, at that time, and as throwing 
 light on this period of the life of the subject of this 
 biography, an extract from the speech is worth reading: 
 "Mr. Fothergill intended to move for a sum to be 
 paid to the editor of The Advocate. That paper had 
 during the session endeavored to give an accurate 
 account of their proceedings. Many of their resolu- 
 tions, bills, reports of committees, and petitions of a 
 public nature, had been first j^rinted in The Advocate^ 
 for the advantage of their constituents, as also the 
 speeches pro and con on several important questions ; 
 ]Mr Mackenzie had made great exertions — established 
 the only newspaper on an imperial sheet, and that too 
 without any increase in the price of his journal, ever 
 printed or published within the colony. He had last 
 fall, in addition to his former establishment, purchased, 
 
 * Mr. FofhergiU was an English gentlemai.. born in Yorkshire, and well 
 educated. He brought considerable means wi h him to Canada ; but they 
 were all dissipated many years before his death.
 
 54 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AXD 
 
 at gi'eat expense, a n^w patent cast iron press — the 
 first ever seen here, also new founts of types. He had 
 been led to believe that this additional supply of ma- 
 terials would be free by virtue of the bill of last ses- 
 sion passed both houses, but was disappointed; and 
 instead of relief, found that new and heavy duties were 
 laid on another material article in his trade — paper. 
 His extended circulation subjects him to a more than 
 ordinary share of that tax felt by all printers in some 
 degree, namely, the payment of newspaper postages 
 quarterly in advance, rigidly enforced from those who 
 send the papers away, and irrecoverable w^hether they 
 arrive at their destination or not. And if they do ar- 
 rive there, he (Mr. F.) could tell, for he had had 
 experience as a 2:)rinter, that in proportion as a paper 
 became popular, and therefore more extensively 
 ordered for the country, in like proportion did the 
 proprietor become embarrassed. The readers were 
 scattered over a A'ast country, thinly populated, and 
 the returns were very long in coming back — often 
 never; this should induce the house to pay a bettor 
 price for the papers they saw fit to receive from prin- 
 ters; and no one in the colony sufi*ered more from 
 extensive credits than Mr. jNIackenzie, whose impres- 
 sion of six or seven hundred went chiefly to the coun- 
 try by various conveyances. He (Mr. F.) was credibly 
 informed that, in order to induce inquiry in England as 
 well as here, The Advocate had been sent free to persons 
 in Canada since its commencement, as many as nine or 
 ten thousand copies, and that since the session opened, 
 eighty or ninety copies had been weekly forwarded free, 
 to British members of parliament, by the mail. This
 
 THE CAXADIAN EEBELLION. 55 
 
 would help to draw attention in the proper quarter to 
 our country. It was plain that newspapers which 
 assumed anything like independence in their prin- 
 ciiDles or feelings were, in Upper Canada, totally ex- 
 cluded from benefiting by any advertising over which 
 the government had control. He thought the news- 
 papers furnished, and bills, resolutions, &c., reported 
 by the editor of The Advocate, were fully as useful to 
 the country, and as deserving of payment from the 
 funds of the people, as were the proclamations for 
 which the Kingston Chronicle received £45 last year 
 from the casual revenues of the crown." 
 
 The motion for granting Mr. Mackenzie £37 16s. 
 was carried ; but the Lieutenant Governor struck the 
 item out of the contingencies, and it was not paid. 
 Mr. Fothergill, having had experience of newspaper 
 l^ublishing, was no indifferent judge of the difficulties 
 he described. The payment in advance, by the j^ub- 
 lishers, of postage on all the papers they sent out in a 
 year for every weekly paper, must have been next to 
 a prohibition of newspapers altogether; and we may 
 be sure that they were regarded with no friendh^ eye 
 by the government. While postage was exacted on 
 Canadian newspapers in advance of their transmission, 
 United States papers were allowed to come into the 
 Province without being prepaid ; an anomaly charac- 
 terized by Mr. Mackenzie as a premium upon demo- 
 cratic principles, and a not ineffectual method of revo- 
 lutionizing opinion in the Canadas. 
 
 A union of all the British-American colonies had 
 few earlier ad^'ocates than Mr. Mackenzie. In a
 
 56 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 letter to Mr. Canning, dated June 10, 1824, he touches 
 on this question. 
 
 QrEEXSTOTVJr, U. C, June 10, 1824. 
 
 * * * A union of all the colonies, with a government 
 suitably poised and modelled, so as to have under its 
 eye the resources of our whole territory, and having 
 the means in its power to administer impartial justice 
 in all its bounds, to no one part at the expense of 
 another, w^ould require few boons from Britain, and 
 would advance her interests much more in a few years, 
 than the bare right of possession of a barren, unculti- 
 vated wilderness of lake and forest, with some three 
 or four inhabitants to the square mile, can do in centu- 
 ries. A colonial marine can only be created by a 
 foreign trade, aided by free and beneficial institutions ; 
 these indeed w^ould create it, as if by the wand of an 
 enchanter. If that marine is not brought into being ; 
 if that trade, foreign and domestic, continues much 
 longer shackled by supreme neglect, and by seven 
 inferior sets of legislative bodies, reigning like so many 
 petty kings during the Saxon heptarchy, England 
 may yet have cause to rue the day, w^hen she neglected 
 to raise that only barrier, or counterpoise to republican 
 powder, which could in the end have best guarded and 
 maintained her interests. '"=" * * * "^ 
 British members of parliament and political writers, 
 who talk of giving the Colonies complete independence 
 now, either know not that our population and re- 
 sources would prove very insufficient to preserve our 
 freedom, were it menaced, or else they desire to see 
 the sway of England's most formidable rival extended
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 57 
 
 over the whole of the vast regions of the IS'orth Ameri- 
 can continent. I have the honor to remain, Sir, 
 Your obedient, humble servant, 
 
 W. L. Mackenzie. 
 
 To THE Eight Hox. George Cakkinq. 
 
 JS'or was this a mere casual expression of opinion. 
 On the 14th December, 1826, we find in his journal 
 the following testimony to his continued advocacy of 
 this measure, under the head of " A Confederation of 
 the British ]^orth American Colonies:" 
 
 " Right glad should we be, indeed, if the confiden- 
 tial information received by The Albion should prove 
 correct. We have written much and often, advocat- 
 ing an efifective united government for the colonies, in 
 the bonds of amity and relationship with England, 
 we have sent hundreds of copies of our journal to 
 Europe to distinguished persons, •with that project 
 specially marked and noted, but were always afraid 
 that the idea would be treated as ' an idle chimera,' 
 even by the wisest and ablest of British statesmen. 
 It would, however, be the best and safest policy ; for 
 England can continue to hold Cabotia* only by the 
 ties of friendship, amity, and mutual advantages — ties 
 which, with the divine blessing, would be greatly 
 strengthened, were the talent, the resources, the en- 
 terprise of all the colonies fully brought into action 
 in a liberal, enlightened, and united general govern- 
 ment." 
 
 * A word derived from the discoverer Catot, and one which has been regarded 
 as the best designation for the whole of British North America. While Novti 
 Scotia, or New Brunswick, would not like to sink her individuality as part of 
 Canada, she would not object to be part of Cabotia Canadians, however, 
 would object to change the name of their country. 
 8
 
 58 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 The mode in which Mr. Mackenzie proposed to 
 bring about this change was this : 
 
 " Let an Act be passed in the British Parliament 
 calling a convention of all the colonies, and let a 
 British nobleman or gentleman of com^^etent know- 
 ledge preside, as representing His Majesty, at that 
 convention ; let representatives from each section of 
 British America, chosen by the people and in propor- 
 tion to the population, compose that convention ; let 
 the outlines of a constitution be drawn up by this 
 confederation of the talents and. wisdom of His Ma- 
 jesty's American subjects, and sent home for the con- 
 sideration of the Imperial Parliament; let the con- 
 vention be dissolved, and Great Britain will then know 
 what her colonies want, what they require, and it will 
 be for the British Legislature to alter or amend such 
 constitution, so that justice may be done to all par- 
 ties, and the interests of neither sacrificed."* 
 
 Some years before the colonial department had had 
 this union under consideration, and, in 1822, Mr. Ro- 
 binson, afterwards Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's 
 Bench, at the request of the Imperial authorities, gave 
 his opinions at length on a plan of union that had 
 been proposed.f He thought he saw many advan- 
 tages in such a union ; but the Imperial government 
 appear to have entertained a fear that it would lead to 
 the colonies combining against the mother country. 
 Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Robinson did not share 
 those fears. The question attracted some atten- 
 tion in Nova Scotia about the same time, and Mr. 
 
 * Colonial Advocate, June 24, 1824. 
 
 f Canada and the Canada Bill, by John Beverly Kobinson, Esq., 1840.
 
 THE CANADIAX EEBELLION. 69 
 
 Halliburton wrote a pamplilet in wliicli it was advo- 
 cated. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Mackenzie had entered on the career 
 of a journalist a general election came on. It was 
 held in July. The poll was kept 02)en a week in 
 those times. The result, a majority opposed to the 
 Executive, might have been contributed to by Mr. 
 Mackenzie's eiforts, though there is no reason to be- 
 lieve that it was much aft'ected by his writings, since 
 he had issued only a few numbers of his paper. 
 There had been a great change in the ]personnel of the 
 House. Only sixteen members of the previous As- 
 sembly had been re-elected ; there were twenty-six 
 new members ; from Essex the return was short by 
 one member ; the whole number being forty-five.*^ 
 In the new House the government was destined to 
 
 * In the following list of members, those whose names are in italics, held 
 seats in the previous House : — 
 
 Kettjrn ok Members for the Ninth Protikcial Parliament of 
 Upper Canada. — Grenville — Jonas Jones and Hamilton "Walker. Glen- 
 gary — Alexander McDonnell and Duncan Cameron. Stormont — Archibald 
 McLean and Philip Va7ikoughnet. Norfolk — Francis L. Walsh and Duncan 
 McCall. Prince Edward — James Wilson and Paul Peterson. Hastings — Peu- 
 ben White and Thomas Coleman. Kent — James Gordon. Northumberland — 
 Zaccheus Burnham and James Lyons. [Mr. Lyons was unseated by a commit- 
 tee and Mr. Ewengo declared the sitting member.] Frontenac — Hugh C. 
 Thomson and James Atkinson. Middlesex — John Kolph and John Matthews. 
 Prescott and Kussel — Donald McDonald. Lanark — William Morris. Ox- 
 ford — Thomas Jlornor and Charles IngersoU. Lincoln — Bartholomew C. 
 Beardsley, John Clark, John J. Lefferty, and Robert Randall. Leeds — Charles 
 Jones and David Jones. Essex — Alexander "Wilkins. Wentworth — John 
 Willson and George Ilamilton. Carlton — George Thew Borke. Halton — 
 Eichard Beasleyand "William ScoUick. Lennox and Addington — Marshall S. 
 Bidwell and Peter Perry. Durham — George Strange Boulton. York and 
 Simcoe — William Thompson and Ely Playter. Dundas — John Chrysler. 
 Town of York — John Beverly Robinson. Town of Niagara — Edward McBride, 
 Town of Kingston — John Gumming.
 
 60 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 be confronted by large majorities, even on their own 
 measures — the Alien Bill, for instance — but the prin- 
 ciple of executive responsibility was not acknowledged, 
 and no question of ministerial resignation ever fol- 
 lowed a defeat. 
 
 Prior to the meeting of the new Legislature, there 
 arose a government prosecution, on which much 
 popular feeling was excited ; and when the case had 
 come for a jury, Mr. Mackenzie showed more feeling 
 at the demeanor of the judge than, from his writings, 
 he appears to have previously displayed. Mr. White- 
 head, the customs collector, at Port Hope, had com- 
 menced a prosecution against Mr. Wm. Mackintosh, the 
 owner of the Minerva Ann, for an infraction of the 
 revenue laws, in neglecting to report her arrival. The 
 fact was admitted, but the public feeling ran strongly 
 in favor of the defendant, the offence being looked 
 upon as merely nominal. The jury, probably sharing 
 the common feeling, found a verdict for the defend- 
 ant; and they were about to give their reasons for 
 doing so, when the court interposed an objection to 
 the irregularity of such a course. Mr. Justice Boul- 
 ton told the jury that their verdict was " contrary 
 alike to the law and the evidence." The Solicitor- 
 Greneral, (son of the judge,) who was conducting the 
 case for the crown, proposed that the record should 
 be read to the jury, whom he wished to reconsider 
 their verdict. Mr. Washburn, on behalf of the de- 
 fendant, attempted to reply, when a scene, the reverse 
 of creditable, occurred. The judge having perempto- 
 rily ordered Mr. Washburn to sit down, 
 
 "Mr. Washburn said, I wish to know from your
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 61 
 
 Lordship, whether I am to be allowed to reply to Mr. 
 Solicitor General's arguments or not? 
 
 "Mr. Justice Boulton— Sit down! Sir, I say— sit 
 down! It is indecent for you to interrupt the Court. 
 "Mr. Washburn again attempted to speak. 
 "Mr*. Justice Boulton— Sit down! Sir,— Sit down! 
 or I'll— I'll— Mr. Sheriff, take this fellow out of Court! 
 "Mr. Washburn— My Lord! I must and will be 
 heard. Your Lordship informed me that I should 
 have liberty to reply. I am standing here in defence 
 of a client who has committed his case to my hands. 
 I have a duty to perform to him, which is paramount 
 to every other consideration. I will not desert him 
 now; nor can I be driven to abandon him by any man. 
 I therefore request once more to know, before I sit 
 down, whether I shall be allowed to reply ? 
 
 " Mr. Justice Boulton— Sit down ! Sir. JNIr. Sheriff 
 —Mr. Sheriff, take this man out of Court!"* 
 
 The sheriff, probably making allowance for the 
 warmth of the judge, did not attempt to obey the 
 order. After the judge had again addressed the jury 
 at great length, they retired a second time, and 
 brought in a special verdict in writing, amounting, m 
 effect^ to precisely the san^e as the first. Again the 
 judge remonstrated; but the foreman of the jury cut 
 the^'matter short by informing his lordship, that he 
 should prefer to starve to death rather than alter his 
 
 verdict. 
 
 On this proceeding, Mr. Mackenzie commented with 
 greater indignation than he had shown on any pre- 
 vious occasion: 
 
 * The Report is taken from the Yov^ Ohserver, a government paper.
 
 62 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 "Were I at this moment immured in a dungeon, 
 and denied the privileges of the lowest hind that 
 breathes the vital air, and crawls along, I Avould not 
 exchange places with our high born ruler, surrounded 
 by such men as he now^ delights to honor; no! I would 
 spurn — I would loathe the very idea of such a prostra- 
 tion. I am the son of an humble, obscure mechanic, 
 bred in the lap of poverty ; but not to inherit the 
 noble blood which flows in his veins — not to possess the 
 ancestral grandeur that surrounds his name — not to 
 wear the star that adorns his breast, nor the honorable 
 orders that mark his valor — no! not for worlds would 
 I exchange situations with him, surrounded by men 
 whose whole career is like ' vanity tossed to and fro 
 of them that seek death.' 
 
 "If a judge can bully a jury into submission to his 
 dictation, though expressly contrary to their own 
 solemn verdict; if a Solicitor for the Crown can trample 
 under foot the dearest rights of Britons ; if a govern- 
 ment, emanating from England, can cherish such a 
 corrupt, such a detestable star-chamber crew — then 
 the days of the infamous Scroggs and Jeffries are re- 
 turned upon us ; and we may lament for ourselves, for 
 our wdves and for our children, that the British Con- 
 stitution is, in Canada, a phantom to delude to de- 
 struction, instead of being the day-star of our dearest 
 liberties." 
 
 This was followed by an appeal to the new Legisla- 
 ture, to address the Governor General to dismiss from 
 his presence and counsels the politicians by whom he 
 was then advised, including "the whole of the Boulton 
 race, root and branch "
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 6.3 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Removal to Torlc, the S ;at of the TJp^ er Canada Government — Eeporting and 
 Publishing Legislative Debates — Newspapers and Postage — The Foundatior, 
 of Brock's Monument raised to fish up an obnoxious Newspaper — Parlia- 
 ment House at York Burnt — A Hospital turned into a Legislative Building 
 —Meeting of the New House — The Government in a Minority — An Irre- 
 sponsible Government — Temporary Kesolve (not carried out) to return to 
 Dundas — Kissing and Government Printing go by Favor — Journey to 
 Kingston — A Singular Character — Feeling towards the "Yankees" — The 
 Perils of Plain Speaking — Dismissal of a King's Printer — Mr. Mackenzie 
 resolves to abandon Politics and publish a Literary Journal — His Ideal of 
 a Patriot. 
 
 As the Legislative session approached, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie saw reasons for removing his establishment to 
 York, then the seat of the government for Upper 
 Canada. A paper published at Queenstown must ne- 
 cessarily reproduce stale accounts of the Legislative 
 proceedings. It was doubtful whether any newspaper, 
 which had then been published in Upper Canada, had 
 repaid the proprietor the cost of its production. Any 
 publisher who sent a thousand sheets through the 
 post-office must pay $800 a year postage, quarterly 
 in advance. Though some of the other settlements 
 were well supplied with post-offices, there were none 
 at all on the South-western frontier, from Chippewa, 
 by Fort Erie, to the mouth of the Grand River. The 
 three thousand settlers in Dumfries and Waterloo had
 
 G4 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 to travel from sixteen to forty miles before they 
 reached a post-office. Postmasters received nothing 
 for distributing newspapers, and were accordingly 
 careless about their delivery. Other modes of distri- 
 bution were occasionally resorted to by publishers to 
 avoid the heavy postal tax. Mr. Mackenzie, at one 
 time, thought of publishing the Legislative debates in 
 a quarto sheet, without comment; but he must have 
 left his own impulsive temperament out of tlie account 
 if he fancied he could become a silent recorder of other 
 men's opinions. 
 
 Since 1821, Francis Collins had furnished the prin- 
 cipal reports of the Legislative debates ; but it is in 
 evidence that, up to 1827, the operation of publishing 
 them had never been remunerative. Mr. Mackenzie's 
 political enemies and rivals in the press, maliciously 
 circulated the story, that he had removed to York 
 under a promise from a majority of the members of 
 the new House, that he should be guaranteed the 
 printing of the bills and the laws; to which he replied 
 that he would feel much more obliged if they w^ould 
 speedily improve an important department of internal 
 economy of the Province — the post-office — than if they 
 gave him all the jobs in their gift for a century. to 
 come. The new House paid a reporter £100 for re- 
 porting during the session; the reports to be delivered 
 to the papers for publication, unless the Committee on 
 Printing should exercise the arbitrary discretion of 
 refusing to allow any particular report to be printed. 
 While these reports were permitted to be published 
 in The Observer^ they refused to allow them to appear 
 in The Advocate. After this, Mr. Rolph and Mr.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLIOX. 65 
 
 Beardsley asked to liave their names struck from off 
 the Printing Committee. Beardsley is reported to 
 have voted for the exclusion of The Advocate. Mr. C. 
 Jones, Mr. A. McLean, and Mr. Beardsle}^ must divide 
 the honor of the act among them. It was they who 
 assumed the power of suppressing the reports alto- 
 gether at pleasure. The question came up in the 
 House, and although there was no decision uj^on it, 
 the exclusion w^as not long maintained. The spite 
 against that journal was carried to great lengths. 
 After the ceremony of re-interring the remains of 
 General Brock, at Queenstown Heights, on the thir- 
 teenth of September, 1824, some person, in the ab- 
 sence of Mr. Mackenzie, put into a hole in the rock, 
 at the foundation of the monument, a bottle which he 
 had filled with coins and newspapers, and among which 
 was a single number oi The Advocate. When the fact 
 became known to the authorities, the foundation was 
 ordered to be torn up and the obnoxious paper taken 
 out, that the ghost of the immortal warrior might not 
 be disturbed by its presence, and the structure not be 
 rendered insecure. 
 
 Combining a book store with publishing, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie once entertained the idea of relying principally 
 on the printing of books, and issuing a political sheet 
 occasionally. The Advocate had not indeed appeared 
 with strict regularity; only twenty numbers having 
 been published in six calendar months. Some num- 
 bers had, after several weeks, been reprinted, and 
 others continued to be asked for after they could be 
 supplied. The last number of The Advocate, published 
 in Queenstown, bears date, K'ovember 18, 1824; and 
 
 9
 
 66 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the first number printed in York appeared on the 
 twenty-fifth of the same month. In January, 1825. 
 its circulation was stated at eight hundred and thirty. 
 
 At Christmas, 1824, the northern wing of the Legis- 
 lative buildings, situated on the site of the present 
 Toronto jail, was accidentally burnt down; and as the 
 new House was to meet on the 11th of January, 1825, 
 there was not much time to find new quarters for the 
 Legislature. 'No time was lost in putting the new, 
 now the old and abandoned, hospital, into order for 
 that purpose. 
 
 The first trial of party strength, if such the election 
 of Speaker could be considered, seemed to indicate a 
 pretty well balanced House, the vote being twenty- 
 one against nineteen ;* but upon other questions the 
 government minority shrunk to much smaller dimen- 
 sions. Mr. Willson of Wentworth had become the 
 successor of Mr. Sherwood in the Speaker's chair. The 
 Liberals were in ecstasies. " The result of this elec- 
 tion," said Mr. Mackenzie, " will gladden the heart and 
 sweeten the cup of many a Canadian peasant in the 
 midst of his toil." The advantage of such a victory 
 must, however, be very small, under a condition of 
 things which permitted the advisers of the sovereign's 
 representative to keep their places in spite of a per- 
 manently hostile legislative majority. Not only were 
 
 * Vote of the House of Assembly, at the election of Mi John Willson, as 
 Speaker : 
 
 Yeoi. — Messrs. Kolph, Ingersoll, Matthews, McCall, Horner, Beasley, 
 Beardsley, McBride, Clark, Eandall, Lefferty, Scollick, Hamilton, Playter, 
 Thompson, Thomson, Lyons, Peterson, Perry, Bidwell, and Walsh. — 21. 
 
 jVays. — Messrs. Att'y General, Atkinson, White, Coleman, Burnham, Bonl- 
 ton, Gordon, Wilkinson, 3 Jones's, McE^nell, Macdonald, VanKoughr.ett 
 McLean, Morris, Chrysler, Cameron, anc Walker. — 19.
 
 THE CA^JADIAN REBELLION. 67 
 
 ministers not responsible to the House ; they did not 
 admit that they had any collective responsibility at 
 all. The Attorney General (Robinson) said, in his 
 place in the House, "he was at a loss to know what 
 the learned member from Middlesex (Mr. Rolph) 
 meant by a prime minister and a cabinet ; there was no 
 cabinet : he sat in that house to deliver his opinions 
 on his own responsibility : he was under no out-door 
 influence whatever." All eyes were turned towards 
 the Lieutenant Governor ; and as there was no respon- 
 sible ministry to stand between him and public cen- 
 sure, the authority of the crown which he represented 
 could not fail to be weakened by the criticism of ex- 
 ecutive acts. The new House was described by Mr. 
 Mackenzie as being chiefly composed of men who ap- 
 peared to act from principle, and were indefatigable 
 in the discharge of their duties. In committee of the 
 whole, the Speaker entered into the debates with as 
 much freedom as any other member. 
 
 Before he had been in York five months, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie formed a fleeting resolution to leave it, and re- 
 turn to Dundas. He had, while there, become much 
 attached to the people. If his paper found a less 
 number of readers there than at York, the prospect 
 was rather consolatory than otherwise, since he would 
 have fared better if the number of his patrons had 
 been diminished by five hundred.* Mr. Mackenzie's 
 friends had urged him not to carry this resolution 
 into effect; but it was taken, and was not, as he per- 
 
 * A collector whom he had sent into the country "with $1,400 of newspaper 
 accounts, collected in eleven weeks only £42 13« 10c?, from which £15 was 
 deducted for personal expenses. To obtain this much the collector ivalked 
 1200 miles.
 
 68 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AXD 
 
 suaded himself, to be shaken. His friends — we are 
 not told who they were — rejoined: "If you remain, 
 you may next year get the Legislative j^rinting." He 
 had offered to print of the laws one thousand copies 
 for less than £100 — the King's printer having received 
 over £900 for the same work in the previous year 
 — and failed to obtain the contract. " Business shall 
 be dull with me," he said, " if at any future day 
 J condescend to take those measures to obtain the 
 Movk of a legislative body, which I find to be the sure 
 means of success in York." For whatever reason, he 
 changed his resolution to return to Dundas, and re- 
 mained at the seat of government. 
 
 In March, Mr. Mackenzie went to Kingston, where 
 some of his wife's relatives lived; " a journey of nearly 
 four hundred miles, on some of the worst roads that 
 human foot ever trod, and in an inclement season of 
 the year." The villages of Port Hope and Cobourg, 
 which, five years before, had contained some half a 
 dozen houses each, were now rapidly increasing post- 
 towns. At Kingston, he found that foreigners were 
 not allowed to visit the Royal N"avy Yard, the Eng- 
 lish Dock Yard customs being observed. He obtained 
 a visiting pass from Captain Barrie, the acting Com- 
 missioner. He could not help expressing a hope that 
 the boastful Yankees might be taught civility. 
 
 " I went on board the great ship St. Lawrence, and 
 although none of your warlike sort of people, except 
 in a quiet way and upon paper, I do hope that if she 
 is ever again put in commission, she will give these 
 noisy brethren of ours on the other side the lake such 
 a broadside as they may remember; so that at the peace
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 69 
 
 which will be thereafter, I may hear less of their glo- 
 rious and uninterrupted line of victories by sea and 
 land — Greneral Hull's campaign to the contrary not- 
 withstanding." 
 
 ^ear Port Hope, he met an innkeeper, whose de- 
 scription is singular enough to deserve preservation : 
 
 " An innkeeper of eccentric manners resides at the 
 * Bull Tavern,' near Port Hope. I never miss calling 
 on him when I go that way ; indeed our acquaintance 
 is of five years' standing, for I remember when he 
 first pitched his tent where now stands the hospitable 
 caravansary of ' John Bull.' 
 
 " The name of mine host is Mr. Thomas Turner 
 Orton, and he is far above the ordinary cast of inn- 
 keepers, inasmuch as he is a linguist, a polemic, and 
 a political economist of no mean celebrity. When 
 the stage stopped at the ' John Bull,' Mr. Orton was 
 busily engaged reading the Hebrew Bible, with the 
 aid of a Lexicon, and he, much to my edification, con- 
 descended to instruct me in the difi*erence between a 
 Lexicon with and without points. I believe the 
 learned Parkhurst himself could not have given a 
 clearer definition. While we rested, I learnt from 
 him, that Mrs. Thomas Turner Orton, his lady, had 
 been bred along with the royal family of France. A a 
 also that the Lieut. Grovernor had made him an ofi*er of 
 the U. C. Gazette^ that he is an adept at the French 
 language, that he had long been intimate with his late 
 Majesty of Sweden, (Gustavus,) and on the most fa- 
 miliar terms with the King of Denmark. Mr, Orton 
 was formerly, as we are informed by the London Di- 
 rectory for 1814, a ' Ship-owner and Greneral Commis-
 
 70 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 I 
 
 sion Agent, Orton's Terrace, Commercial Road,' Lon 
 don ; and it was, when a prisoner of war, that this 
 intimacy with the predecessor of Bernjidotte had its 
 commencement." 
 
 At the end of a year after its commencement, forty- 
 three numbers of the newspaper had a^^peared. The 
 subscribers, who were accounted with at the rate of 
 fifty-two numbers for a year, were warned that they 
 must not expect any greater regularity in future. The 
 attention which even a weekly neivsi)aper required, 
 2)ut an end to the devouring of large numbers of 
 books, to which, Mr. Mackenzie we 3 previously ad- 
 dicted. " Much of my past life," he said, " has been 
 spent in reading ; to this the last tweh'c months form 
 an exception, as in that time I have scarcely had an 
 opportunity to open a volume." One year's experi- 
 ence had taught him that "the editor in Canad*}., who, in 
 the state the Province was then in, will attempt freely 
 to hazard an opinion on the merits and dements of 
 public men, woe be to him! By the implied cciL"ient 
 of king, lords, and commons he is doomed to spoidy 
 shipwreck, unless a merciful providence should ojJeu 
 his eyes in time, and his good genius prompt him 'to 
 hurl press and types to the bottom of Lake Ontario.' ' 
 
 The time was rapidly approaching, when, in hii 
 own case, the evil genius of his enemies was to per- 
 form this service for him, and literally throw his types 
 into a bay of Lake Ontario. 
 
 From the 16th June to the 18th December, 1825, 
 there was a cessation of the publication of The Advo- 
 cate. In about eleven months, fifty-one numbers had 
 been issued ; but the intermissions, of which no notice
 
 THE CANADIAX EEBELLION. 71 
 
 was given, did not conduce to the success of the jour- 
 nal. The readers desired to receive it regularly every 
 week, and the preparation requisite for a compliance 
 with their desire necessitated a breathing spell. After 
 that was over, Little York was promised a newspaper 
 equal in dimensions to the more noted of the New 
 York sheets. Unexpected delays, however, prevented 
 its appearance till more than a month after the legis- 
 lative session had commenced. The experiment must 
 have been a hazardous one in a country where the 
 population was scattered over a very wide extent of 
 territory, and numbered only 157,541; not much more 
 than the united populations of Montreal and Toronto 
 at present. 
 
 The one paper circulating among this population, 
 which yielded a certain profit, was the Upper Canada 
 Gazette. It became necessary for Mr. Mackenzie to 
 notice a story that he had been offered the editorship 
 of the official paper in reversion. He showed the ab- 
 surdity of the supposition that such an offer could be 
 made to him who had opposed nearly all the measures 
 of the government. At the same time, he thought he 
 could make it very interesting, in a few weeks, if it 
 were under his control ; and while he should certainlv 
 accept the offer, if made, he should regard him that 
 made it with the greatest possible contempt. Mr. 
 Fothergill, the editor of the official paper, had a per- 
 verse habit of speaking his mind very bluntly in his 
 capacity as legislator ; and when there was a rumor 
 of his intended removal, Mr. Mackenzie said he 
 had too good an opinion of the Lieutenant Governor 
 to think that he would attempt to injure Mr. Fother-
 
 72 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AND 
 
 gill for having spoken in the Legislature as became 
 the scion of an ancient and honorable family and a 
 free-born Englishman. Mr. Fothergill had joined the 
 extreme Liberals, on the Alien question, contending 
 that all Americans then in the country ought to have 
 the full rights of British subjects conferred upon them 
 by statute ; and he had moved strong resolutions on 
 the back of an inquiry into the mysteries of the Post- 
 office revenue, taking the ground that it was contrary 
 to the Constitutional Act to withhold from tlie Legis- 
 lature an account of this revenue, or to deprive it of 
 the right of appropriating it. He had also moved an 
 address on the Land-granting Department — always a 
 tender subject; and in those days persons who ob- 
 tained free grants of land thought it a monstrous 
 hardship to be obliged to pay the official fees, making 
 more contortions of feature over the transaction than 
 a settler makes now in paying his two dollars per 
 acre. By taking this course, he had assisted to pro- 
 duce those numerous defeats which had fallen, one 
 after another, with such irritating effect upon the 
 government. A man w^ho did this could not long 
 continue a special fjxvorite of the government in those 
 times ; but that Mr. Mackenzie was ever thought of 
 in connection with the editorship of the non-official part 
 of the official Grazette is out of the question. The ink of 
 Mr. Fothergill's reported speech on the Post-office ques- 
 tion was scarcely dry when he was dismissed from the sit- 
 uation of Kino-'s Printer. He had not abused his trust 
 by turning the paper with the conduct of which he was 
 charo-ed a^-ainst the o-overnment, but he had ventured 
 to confi'ont a gross abuse in the Legislative Assembly.
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLION. 73 
 
 That was his crime, and of that crime he paid the 
 penalty. The office of King's Printer, in Lower as 
 well as in Upper Canada, Avas held at the pleasure of 
 the Grovernor, and the incumbent might be dismissed 
 without any cause being assigned. None was assigned 
 in this case. Mr. Fothergill had no warning, and the 
 event appears to have come somewhat unexpectedly 
 upon him, though he could not have been ignorant of 
 rumors that were in everybody's mouth. It was no 
 doubt inconvenient to have a King's Printer, who, even 
 in his legislative capacity, opposed himself to the 
 government ; but the fault lay in the sj^stem which 
 permitted the incumbent of such an office to hold a 
 seat in the Legislature. The union of judicial and 
 legislative powers in the hands of one person was a 
 still greater evil ; and though it might have been pro- 
 ductive of far worse results, it was permitted to exist 
 long after the period of which we are now writing."^ 
 
 Free speech met small encouragement at the hands 
 of the Executive. Francis Collins, who had been the 
 official reporter of the Legislature for five years, in an 
 evil hour, in 1825, commenced the publication of a 
 
 * There still were reasons wliy the government and their dismissed servant 
 should deal somewhat tenderly with one another. Mr. Fothergill explained 
 the matter of his dismissal in an address to his constituents ; and though he 
 hinted that there were men in the public service who had built palaces without 
 any visible means of accomplishing such a feat, he could not assert, he re- 
 marked, that undue influence had been exercised in the administration of jus- 
 tice, or that "improper persons had been exalted into guardians of the pre- 
 rogative, Legislative councillors, arbitrers between the King and the people." 
 The sarcasm was well calculated to produce eflect in vulnerable places ; and 
 it was of no consequence if the general public did not understand it. A bond 
 for £3G0, to cover the amount of his overdrafts on the treasury, was not taken 
 into account in his settlement with the government. Il he was a patriot, hia 
 persecutors were not without a >park of generosity. 
 10
 
 ii LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AND 
 
 newspaper, the Canadian Freeman, and in tLat year the 
 Lieutenant Governor cut off his remuneration. He 
 exhausted his means in the vain effort to report the 
 debates at his own cost, and found himself embar- 
 rassed with debt : Mr. Mackenzie seldom or never 
 printed Collins' reports, in the sessions of 1825-6 ; 
 sometimes he dropped into the House and took a few 
 notes on his own account, but generally this service 
 was performed by some one else. 
 
 About six weeks before his printing office was de- 
 stroyed by a mob, Mr. Mackenzie drew a contrast be- 
 tween the life of an editor, in those days, and that of 
 a farmer ; in which a vast balance of advantages ap- 
 peared in favor of the latter. The perpetuity of task- 
 work involved in the conduct of even a weekly paper 
 was felt to be such a drag that he became appalled at 
 it ; and for the moment he resolved to have done with 
 politics and political newspapers. He would by this 
 means releiise himself from a galling dependence on 
 sottish printers, reduce his expenses with the size, 
 of his paper, and manage to have at least the Sundays 
 to himself. Having dra^NTi a dreary picture of edi- 
 torial existence, in 1826, on six-sevenths of the week, 
 he added: 
 
 '•Such is his life for six days in the week all the 
 year round ; and how think you is the seventh dis- 
 posed of? If I would speak for myself I might truly 
 say, that I am often so wearied and fatigued with the 
 toils of the working days as to be perfectly unable to 
 enjoy the rest provided by a kind Providence on the 
 Christian Scibbath. That instead of being fit to attend 
 church, read the Scriptures, or in any way engage in
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 75 
 
 the duties of divine appointment, I am glad to lay me 
 down on my bed or on a sofa, as a temporary relief 
 from the effects of incessant toil." 
 
 Henceforth his paper should be a Journal of Agri- 
 culture, Manufactures, and Commerce; politics should 
 have no place in it : 
 
 ''I will carry it on as a literary and scientific work, 
 will enrich its pages with the discoveries of eminent 
 men, and the improvements of distinguished artists ; 
 but from thenceforth nothing of a political or contro- 
 versial character shall be allowed to appear in the 
 Journal of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce. 
 By diminishing its size the expense and trouble at- 
 tending it will be greatly lessened, and truly I shall 
 be as well satisfied to employ my people generally at 
 book work, which is a more easy employment, and can 
 be increased or let alone at pleasure. I shall then be 
 freed from a toilsome and irksome dej^endence, and if 
 I lose thereby all political influence over the minds of 
 the people, I shall gain in exchange, what is to me of 
 far greater importance, a more extensive command 
 of my own time. I must endeavor to set apart a day 
 and a paper wherein to review my joast labors ; it is 
 good to take a look at the past, as well as to endeavor 
 to rend asunder the veil which enshrouds futurity. 
 
 " ' Till youth's delirious dream is o'er, 
 Sanguine with hope we look before, 
 
 The future good to find. 
 In age, when error charms no more, 
 
 For bliss we look behind.' " 
 
 How long this resolution was kept — whetljer one or 
 two days — cannot be determined ; but the next num-
 
 76 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ber of his journal, which took the folio sliape, was 
 chiefly filled with a long review of the politics of the 
 Upper Province. He gave an account of the effect 
 of his two years' journalistic campaign ; claiming to 
 have largely assisted in producing a part}'' revolution. 
 Men were astonished at the temerity of his plain 
 speaking ; for, since Gourlay's banishment, the pru- 
 dent had learned to put a bridle on their tongues. 
 Timid lookers-on predicted, in their astonishment and 
 with bated breath, that the fate of Gourlay would 
 soon fall on Mackenzie and silence his criticisms. 
 Nearly the whole press of the country was on his 
 back ; but in spite of the rushing torrent of abuse he 
 kept the even tenor of his way, avoiding personalities 
 as much as possible. In the number of the 4th of 
 May, 1826, he drew an excellent picture of a patriot;* 
 and there is no doubt that he had tried to realize the 
 description in his own person. 
 
 After the issue of two numbers, the quarto form was 
 abandoned, and the broad sheet resumed. But the 
 
 * A patriot is none of your raving railing, ranting, accusing radicals- 
 nor is lie one of your idle, stall-fed, greasy, good for nothing sinecurists 
 or pluralists; he is in deed and in truth a friend to his country. Ha 
 studies the laws and institutions of his nation, that he may improve others ; 
 endeavors rather to cultivate the acquaintance of, and shew a correct examjilo 
 to the better informed classes ; he associates only with tho?^ whose private con- 
 duct is in unison with their public professions. T^ L'«t e, mob hunter, nor a 
 lecturer of the multitude; desires rather the secr*i approbation of the enlight- 
 ened few than the ephemeral popularity of the many. If he is a member of 
 Parliament ho looks carefully into the merits of the question and votes con- 
 sistently with his conscience, whether with or against the ministry. He is 
 neither a place hunter, nor a sinecure hunter. He promises his constituents 
 very little, but tries to perform a great deal. Finally ho is among the last of 
 men who would countenance political 'gamblers and black legs ;' but a wise, 
 manly, and vigilant administration is his delight."
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLION. 77 
 
 resolution to abandon political disquisitions — probably 
 the impulse of temporary dejection or despair — was, 
 like the proposed removal to Dundas, given up, ap- 
 parently almost as soon as formed. At all times, 
 during his life, Mr. Mackenzie was subject to great 
 elation at a brightening prospect, and to correspond- 
 ing depression in other circumstances. Two weeks 
 after the contemplated change in his journal, he an- 
 nounced that it would be placed under the editorial 
 direction of some one else ; and there was an attempt 
 to carry out the idea that this had been done, but it 
 appears to have been only an excusable devise for 
 keeping the personality of the editor out of view.
 
 78 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 Destr .ction oiThe Colonial Advocate Printing Office by an Official Mob — Who 
 tt ew the First Stone — Mr. (afterwards Chief Justice) Macaulay publishes 
 Air. Mackenzie's Private Correspondence with him — The Type Rioters cast 
 in Civil Damages — Illness of some of the Jurors while locked up — Mr. 
 Fitzgibbon collects the Amount of the Damages among the Officials and 
 their Friends — "Whether the Damages were Exemplary or Excessive — Spar- 
 ring between a Judge and the Attorney-General — Francis Collins Indicted 
 for Four Libels — He Retaliates and causes the Type Riotors to be Proceeded 
 against Criminally — Their Conviction — Henry John Boulton and James E. 
 Small tried for Murder, arising out of a Fatal Duel— The Official Party 
 procure a Presentment against Mr. Mackenzie for Libel. 
 
 One fine summer evening, to wit, the 8th June, 
 1826, a genteel mob, composed of persons closely con- 
 nected with the ruling faction, walked into the office 
 of The Colonial Advocate, at York, and in accordance 
 with a preconcerted plan set about the destruction of 
 types and press. Three pages of the paper in typo 
 on the composing-stones, with a " form" of the Jour- 
 nals of the House, were broken up, and the face of 
 the letter battered. Some of the type was then thrown 
 into the bay, to which the printing-office was contigu- 
 ous ; some of it was scattered on the floor of the office ; 
 more of it in the yard and in the adjacent garden of 
 Mr. Greorge Munro. The composing-stone was thrown 
 on the floor. A new cast-iron patent lever-press was 
 broken. " N'othing was left standing," said an eye-
 
 THE CANADIAT^ REBELLION. 79 
 
 witness, " not a thing." This scene took place in 
 broad daylight, and it was said that one or two magis- 
 trates, who could not help witnessing it, never made 
 the least attempt to put a stop to the outrage. The 
 valiant type destroyers, who chose for the execution 
 of their enterprise a day when Mr. Mackenzie was 
 absent from the city, were most of them closely coji- 
 nected with the official part}'', which was then in a 
 hopeless minority in the Legislature, and had recently 
 been exasperated by a succession of defeats. 
 
 Mr. Baby, Inspector-General, was represented on 
 the occasion by two sons, Charles and Raymond, stu 
 dents-at-law. Mr. Henry Sherwood, son of Mr. Jus 
 tice Sherwood, gave his personal assistance. Mr 
 Sherwood, while yet a law student, held the office of 
 Clerk of Assize. Mr. Lyons, confidential secretary of 
 Lieutenant-Governor Maitland, was there to perform 
 his part. To save appearances, Sir Perigrine found 
 it necessary to dismiss Lyons from his confidential 
 situation ; but he soon afterwards rewarded him with 
 the more lu(;rative office of Register of the Niagara 
 District. Mr. Samuel Peters Jarvis, son-in-law of a 
 late Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, 
 performed his part, and found his reward in the ap- 
 pointment to an Indian Commissionership, where ho 
 became a defaulter to a large amount. Charles Rich- 
 ardson, a student-at-law in the office of the Attorney 
 General and Commissioner for taking affidavits, showed 
 his zeal for the cause of his official friends, and re- 
 ceived in requital the office of Clerk of the Peace for 
 the Magara District. James King, another Clerk of 
 Assize and student-at-law in Solicitor General Boul-
 
 80 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ton's office, did 'not hesitate to give his active assist- 
 ance. Mr. Charles Howard, son of Colonel Howard, 
 Auditor General of Land Patents, and Clerk of the 
 Peace, and Peter Macdougall, a merchant or shop- 
 keeper in York and an intimate friend of Inspector 
 General Baby, complete the list of eight against whom 
 the evidence was sufficiently strong for conviction. 
 The whole number of persons concerned in the de- 
 struction of The Advocate office was fifteen. 
 
 The accompanying plan will assist in the compre- 
 hension of the affair. The original names of the 
 streets have been retained on the plan ; but it should 
 be explained that what is there set down as Post-office 
 is now Caroline Street ; and that the block between 
 Caroline and George Streets is divided by Prederick 
 Street, which runs north and south. Mr. Mackenzie's 
 house and printing office, which were joined together, 
 stood on the corner of what are now Caroline and 
 Palace Streets. The house had been the residence of 
 one of the early governors of the Province ; and was 
 accidentally destroyed by fire four or five years ago. 
 The audacity of the rioters and the open connivance 
 of leading officials, who witnessed the scene with sat- 
 isfaction, form an instructive comment on the state of 
 society in the Family Compact of the little town of 
 York, in the year of grace, 1826.
 
 THE CAXADIAN REBELLION". 
 
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 82 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 It is difficult to believe that a band of young men, 
 subordinate officials and sons and relatives of the of- 
 ficial party, planned the destruction of the jDrinting 
 office of an obnoxious journal in secret, and executed 
 it without the knowledge of any of their suj^eriors. 
 Lyons miscalculated, it is true, if he thought he had 
 adopted the road to immediate promotion ; for what- 
 ever secret pleasure the members of the government 
 might derive from the outrage, a British governor 
 could not protect in a confidential, one who had been 
 directly concerned in it. Bui what he could do, and 
 did do, with indecent haste, was afterwards to reward 
 with lucrative official positions not only Lyons, but 
 also others who had taken part in the outrage. After 
 it became certain that a conviction would be obtained, 
 and a criminal prosecution might be instituted, a very 
 business-like offer was made to pay the actual damages, 
 much in the same way as one who had accidentally 
 broken a sheet of plate glass while passing by a shop 
 on a public street, might do : 
 
 "My Dear Sir: — The gentlemen prosecuted for a 
 trespass upon The Advocate Press, so far from enter- 
 taining a desire to do an irreparable injury to the 
 2)roperty of the concern, went openly to the office 
 without any attempt at concealment, and aware at the 
 time of the responsibility they would incur. An offer 
 of indemnity to the actual extent of the injury would 
 have been tendered immediately, had less clamor 
 been raised and less exertion been used to prejudice 
 the public mind. 
 
 ''The real cause of the step is well known to all; it
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 83 
 
 is not to be ascribed to any malice — political feeling — 
 or private animosity ; the personal calumnies of the 
 latter Advocates point out sufficiently the true and 
 only motives that prompted it ; and I have now to 
 offer to pay at once the full value of the damage oc- 
 casioned to the press and types, to be determined by 
 indifferent and competent judges selected for that 
 purpose. Will you inform me how far your client is 
 disposed to meet this proposal ? 
 "This advance is in conformity with the original in- 
 tention, and must not be attributed to any desire to 
 withdraw the matter from the consideration of a Jury 
 of the country, should your client prefer that course ; 
 but in that event, it is to be hoped no further attempts 
 will be used by him or his friends to prejudice the 
 cause now pending, nor any future complaints be 
 made of a reluctance or hesitation to comj^ensate, vol- 
 untarily, a damage merely pecuniary, although pro- 
 voked by repeated assaults upon private character and 
 feeling not susceptible of any adequate redress. 
 
 "I am, very truly yours, 
 
 "J. B. Macaulay."^ 
 
 "J. E. Small, Esq. 
 
 If the party who committed the violence had from 
 the first intended to pay the damage they had done, 
 in the deliberate business-like way indicated by Mr. 
 Macaulay, it is surprising that some of them — not 
 perhaps any of those finally cast in damages — should 
 have absconded, to evade the consequences of their 
 crime ; but it is possible that they feared a criminal 
 prosecution, and left their solicitor and friend, who 
 had himself offered more provocation to criticism than
 
 84 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 any of them, to make a bargain that would save them 
 from the jail. It seems possible that a criminal 
 prosecution was at one time thought of; for I find 
 that the Bidwells advised Mr. Mackenzie not to pro- 
 ceed in that way. The press-destroying mob were 
 probably surprised at the indignation their achieve- 
 ment excited in the public mind ; and in the begin- 
 ning they endeavored to stem the torrent by issuing 
 two placards in justification. But Mr. Mackenzie 
 had been guilty of no aggression to turn the tide of 
 public feeling against him, and the experiment failed, 
 It was not till after this that the above offer was made. 
 The first proposal not being listened to, a second was 
 made through the same medium : 
 
 "QthJuIi/, 1826. 
 
 " My Dear Sir : — My friends do not seem inclined 
 to make any higher proposals than follows, and which 
 are dictated in a conviction that they fully meet the 
 justice of ^Ir. Mackenzie's claim — the real extent of 
 which they are by no means ignorant of, or unable to 
 prove : 
 
 "They will (receiving the press and appurtenances) 
 be willing to pay £200 for them. This sum is con- 
 sidered not only the value of the whole material of 
 the establishment, but amply sufficient to cover any 
 contingencies also ; with respect to further compensa- 
 tion there would be no objection to add £100 more; 
 in all £300 to end the matter. 
 
 "Or they will agree to £200 as above stated, and 
 leave any excess to the decision of indifferent persons 
 — or they will leave the whole to indifferent and com- 
 petent referees as at first suggested.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 85 
 
 "If your client can meet this in any way so as to 
 terminate the controversy, I shall be very glad ; if not, 
 I fear the law must take its course. 
 
 "I am, very truly yours, 
 
 "J. B. Macatjlay." 
 
 "J. E. Small, Esq. 
 
 This second j^roposal met the same fate as the first ; 
 and indeed, if there had been no object in making an 
 example of the perpetrators of an outrage that re- 
 flected disgrace on all concerned, the amount offered 
 as compensation was ridiculously inadequate. But 
 Mr. Mackenzie refused any amicable settlement with 
 Mr. Macaulay's clients and friends; and there was 
 nothing left but to send the case to Irial, and let a 
 jury, upon the hearing of the evidence, award equit- 
 able, and, if they thought fit, exemplary damages. 
 
 Mr. Macaulay, in the first letter, in which he pro- 
 posed a settlement of the matter, assumes that the 
 outrage was caused by " the personal calumnies of the 
 latter Advocates /^ and it becomes necessary to see 
 where the aggression commenced, and what degree of 
 provocation the independent journalist had given to 
 the official party, by whose satellites the work of 
 destruction had been done. Toothing is plainer, on 
 an examination of the facts, than that, until violently 
 provoked, Mr. Mackenzie had been exceedingly spar- 
 ing of personalities, and from the first he had been 
 anxious to avoid them altogether. In one of the 
 earliest numbers of his journal, he said : " When I 
 am reduced to personalities, I will bring The Advocate 
 to a close." To the personal abuse of the govern- 
 ment papers he made no personal reply; confining him-
 
 86 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 self to complaining, in tlie spirit of injury, of the 
 wrong he suffered. Of these Mr. Carej^'s Observer ap- 
 pears to have been, up to this time, the greatest of- 
 fender, Between the personal and political character 
 of the actors with whom he had to deal, Mr. Macken- 
 zie observed a proper distinction. Of Grovernor Mait- 
 land he said, " that he was religious, humane, and 
 peaceable ; and if his administration had hitherto pro- 
 duced little good to the country, it may not be his 
 fault, but the fault of those about him who abused his 
 confidence." Mr. J. B. Macaulay (afterwards Chief 
 Justice of the Court of Common Pleas) he described — 
 and he did it from a sense of duty — as a gentleman 
 evincing " so much honor, probity, just feeling, and 
 disinterested good will," as generated in the i:)ublicist's 
 mind, " a greater degree of resj^ect and esteem for the 
 profession in general than we had before entertained." 
 He expressed a desire to see his friend replace Mr. 
 Justice Boulton on the Bench. Upon this latter 
 functionary he had been, at first, playfully sarcastic, 
 comparing him to Sir Matthew Hale, and latterly 
 severe, as we have seen in the case of the Minerva Ann 
 trial ; but it will not be denied that the judge had 
 fairly laid himself open to criticism. While opposing 
 the Attorney G-eneral of the day, (afterwards Chief 
 Justice Sir J. B. Robinson,) he did ample justice to 
 his talents and his personal character : 
 
 " Mr. Robinson has risen in my estimation, in re- 
 gard to abilities, from what I have seen of him dur- 
 ing this session ; indeed, there are not a few of his 
 remarks which I have listened to with pleasure ; and 
 some of the propositions he has made in Parlian'ent,
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 87 
 
 the road bill especially, (with a few modifications,) 
 have my entire approbation. As a private gentleman, 
 as a lawyer, and as a law officer, he stands as high in 
 the estimation of the country as any professional man 
 in it. As a counsellor of state to the Emperor of 
 Russia, or Napoleon Bonaparte, he might have figured 
 to advantage ; but his principles will, if not softened 
 down, for ever unfit him for a transatlantic popular as- 
 sembly. He advocates those doctrines with singular 
 force, the repugnance to which un-colonized the thir- 
 teen United States ; and every taunt w^hich he utters 
 against our republican neighbors, tells in account 
 against the interests of Great Britain, so far as they 
 are united with this colony. It is evident that Mr. 
 Robinson has not been long enough in the school of 
 adversity to learn wisdom and discretion. He is a 
 ver}^ yoking man, and I do hope and trust, that when 
 the heat and violence of party spirit abate within 
 him, he will yet prove a bright and lasting ornament 
 to the land which gave him birth, and that the powers 
 of his mind will be exerted to promote the happiness 
 and welfare of all classes of his fellow subjects." 
 
 And again : " I would wish Mr. Robinson out of 
 Parliament or out of place ; and his former political 
 career none condemned more boldly than I did. I 
 have seen him this session without disguise ; I have 
 watched his movements, his looks, his language, and 
 his actions ; and, I will confess it, I reproached my- 
 self for having used him at one time too harshly." 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie had been severe upon Mr. Jonas 
 Jones, but that gentleman had first set the example 
 of using harsh terms. He had said in reply to a
 
 88 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 very able speech in the House of Assembly, on the 
 Alien question, that the member, (Dr. Rolph,) who 
 made it, had a "vile democratic heart, and ought to 
 be sent out of the Province." If an apj)eal to the 
 Sedition Act could silence an opponent, why take the 
 trouble to refute his arguments? He had, moreover, 
 used threats of personal violence against Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie, and was, of course, open to severe retaliation. 
 In the Legislative Assembly he had called Mr. Hamil- 
 ton, the member for Wentworth, a " fellow," when a 
 scene followed on which it was necessary to drop the 
 curtain to hide it from the vulgar gaze of the public. 
 Considering these circumstances in mitigation, it must 
 be confessed that the criticisms upon Mr. Jones scarcely 
 exceeded the bounds of merited and justifiable severity. 
 To Mr. Henry John Boulton, Mr. Mackenzie had de- 
 clared an absence of personal dislike in criticizing 
 his public acts. Considering Dr. Rolph too severe in 
 liis strictures on the government, he had opposed him 
 on that account, and a personal estrangement had 
 been the consequence. 
 
 Such is the manner in which Mr. Mackenzie had 
 treated his political opponents during the two years 
 he had controlled a political journal; and it may 
 easily be conceived how slender was the pretext, on 
 the ground of provocation, for the destruction of his 
 l)rinting-office. I do not say that he had never ap- 
 plied to his opponents language of severity, but I do 
 say that he was not the aggressor; that under the 
 greatest provocations he had avoided personalities ; 
 and that, at the worst, he had not proceeded to any 
 tiling like the extremity to which his assailants had
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 89 
 
 gone ; and this not for the want of materials* to work 
 upon. 
 
 In the meanwhile, how were his political adversa- 
 ries bearing themselves towards Mr. Mackenzie? The 
 Hon. J. B. Macaulay had gone to the unwarrantable 
 length of violating the seal of secres3^ and publish- 
 ing private letters addressed to him by Mr. Macken- 
 zie; though there was not in the conduct of the latter 
 the shadow of excuse for this outrage. Mr. Macaulay 
 was now a member of the Executive Council, and Mr. 
 Mackenzie, who had previously praised him, had 
 hinted that he "was not an independent as formerly ; but 
 this was in a private letter. The cause of the quarrel 
 was utterly contemptible, and Mr. Macaulay showed 
 to great disadvantage in it. A disagreement had 
 taken place between the Rev. Dr. Strachan, then Rec- 
 tor of York, and one John Fenton, who had officiated 
 as clerk under the rector. Mr. Mackenzie, being in 
 ]^J^iagara, learned that Mr. Radcliffe had received a let- 
 ter from Mr. Fenton, in which the latter stated his 
 intention to publish a pamphlet on the state of the 
 congregation in York. Meanwhile Mr. Fenton was 
 reinstated in his position. Accordingly, a paragraph 
 was inserted in Tlie Advocate^ which certainly left the 
 impression that a fear of the threatened pamphlet had 
 led to the reinstatement of Fenton,f with an increased 
 
 * In The Advocate of May 4, 1826, he said:— "What a place Little York 
 is for scandal! Nothing can equal it! Had we set apart but one number, 
 and used our usual diligence to embody the tales current of the vulgar great, 
 witk whose residence this place is honored, we could have set the good people, 
 our neighbors and friends, at pulling caps ; aye, even in time of church ser- 
 vice. But we left the quartering of the arms of our York nobility to more 
 friendly hands, pursuing the even tenor of our way." 
 
 ■j- The paragraph was in these words: — "Clerk of the Church — A New 
 
 Era .'—Mr. Fenton, as it is said, having announced a forthcoming pamphlet 
 12
 
 90 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, ANr 
 
 salary. It is possible that the insinuation was nut 
 just; and yet this could not be said, if there were 
 no mistake about the alleged facts on which it was 
 founded. It was not denied that Mr. Teuton had 
 been reinstated, but it was alleged that his salary 
 was increased ; and Mr. Mackenzie certainly had what 
 seemed to be good authority for stciting that the pub- 
 lication of a pamphlet had been announced. This 
 was the only statement in dispute, and if it was not 
 proved, it certainly was not disproved. Mr. Radcliffe 
 misht have been asked to write a note, stating that 
 he had not received such a letter from Mr. Fenton, 
 and that would have settled the matter. Mr. Ma- 
 caulay was one of the church-wardens, and after 
 the lapse of three weeks he wrote to deny the state- 
 ment that a pamphlet had been threatened, and that 
 Mr. Fenton's reinstatement carried with it any in- 
 crease of salary. Mr. Macaulay's letter was sent to 
 The Advocate for publication, and after it was in type 
 he wrote to recall it, not because the matter had as- 
 sumed a new shape, but because Mr. Fenton had writ- 
 ten a denial of that part of the paragraph which 
 related to the pamphlet. Mr. Mackenzie refused tc 
 cancel the letter to which Mr. Macaulay had ap- 
 pended, not his own signature, but the nomme de plume 
 of "A Church-warden," on account of the offensive 
 attitude the writer had assumed towards the editor ;* 
 
 upon the state of the York congregation, the doctor made him new advances, 
 and he has actually heen reinstated as clerk of our Episcopal Churcl:^ -with an 
 additional salary. 'Tis a good thing to be in the secret !" 
 
 * The paragraph is in these words : — " Had the church-warden confined his 
 remarks to his fellow functionary 'the clerk,' we would most readily have 
 distributed the types of his letter yesterday, as he requested. But the tone he 
 has seen fit to assume towards ourselves is not to be borne. There was a time
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 91 
 
 and the few lines in which Mr. Mackenzie explained 
 his refusal to comply with the request of a person, who 
 he thought had forfeited all claim to his indulgence, 
 contains the whole extent of the provocation he gave 
 to Mr. Macaulay. Clever men often do very foolish 
 things in a passion ; and Mr. Macaulay must have been 
 in an uncontrollable rage before he brought himself tc 
 publish the private letters addressed to him by Mr. 
 Mackenzie, on the subject of the Fenton affair, and tc 
 make jeering remarks in reference to Mr. Mackenzie's 
 mother, an aged woman of seventy-five years. But 
 he did not stop here ; he sent the manuscript into 
 which he had condensed his rage to Mr. Mackenzie, 
 with an offer to pay him for its publication in The 
 Advocate; a paper which he declared his intention to 
 do all in his power to crush. One of his advertise- 
 ments, a little less libellous than the rest, would have 
 been published ; but the money being demanded in ad- 
 vance, Mr. Macaulay refused to redeem his promise, 
 and pretended to have a right to insist on its publica- 
 tion without the payment he had at first offered. He 
 taunted Mr. Mackenzie with his poverty, and with what 
 he called " changing his trade," and advised him to 
 " try to deserve the charity" of the public a little bet- 
 ter than previously, if he expected to support bis mo- 
 ther and his family by the publication of a newspaper ; 
 
 when we looked upon that church-warden as one that would become the most 
 open, manly, and independent of his class, hut it has gone hy. We prized his 
 talents, his abilities, and his judgment by far too high; and the tenor of his 
 railing accusation against us will show the Province that he has not improved 
 the style of his compositions since he left off studying Byron. The church- 
 warden, who is not one of our subscribers, will find to-morrow that even to 
 him we shall not meanly truckle, nor shall we to any man, although the black 
 est poverty should be, on earth, our reward."
 
 92 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 as if it were asking charity to publish a public journal, 
 at the usual price, and a crime for a man to support 
 a mother,'^ who was too aged and too helpless to sup- 
 port herself. Without even mentioning him by name, 
 Mackenzie had described Mr. Macaulay as a man 
 whom he had ceased to look upon as possessing manly 
 independence ; and in return this member of the go- 
 vernment claimed as a right to have published in The 
 'Advocate letters containing gross personal abuse of its 
 editor and ridicule of his aged mother. To these let- 
 ters he had not the manliness to append his name ; 
 if he had, he was aware that their virulence would not 
 have prevented their publication, for in that case the 
 waiter would have placed himself, as well as his anta- 
 gonist, upon trial before the public; and every one 
 who read them, in connection with the comments 
 they must have provoked, would have been able to 
 judge of the spirit in which they were conceived and 
 the justice of their contents. The right to compel the 
 editor to publish anonymous communications, which 
 Mr. Macaulay had claimed, was wholly without foun- 
 dation ; and as for courtesy to such a correspondent it 
 was out of the question. But it is useless to reason 
 upon the acts of a man who had permitted passion so 
 completely to get the mastery over his judgment. 
 
 * This piece of insolence was founded on the following passage in a private 
 letter addressed by Mr. Mackenzie to Mr. Macaulay : — " As to the motives and 
 character of my journal, let its unexampled circulation among the better classes 
 'in the colony speak for me. As to the result — I feel that I mean to do right — 
 I am well satisfied that I am doing good, and though I have to struggle with 
 a slender capital and a government who make the public advertising subservi- 
 ent to other purj oses than that of giving general information of the thing ad- 
 vertised, I am as well pleased and as contented to struggle along through life 
 tts free as the air )n the Scottish mountains ; yea, and more so than the most
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 93 
 
 It is far from my desire to rekindle animosities that 
 have long since died out, and the recollection of which is 
 only preserved from oblivion by a few scattered docu- 
 ments and the shadowy memory of the observing men 
 of those times who still survive ; but in this biography 
 it is necessary that the history of an act of gross vio- 
 lence be faithfully given. I have gone into the pro- 
 vocation offered by Mr. Macaulay at length, because 
 it was in reply to a pamphlet, in which he em- 
 bodied all this venom, that Mr. Mackenzie told some 
 stories about certain members of the Family Compact 
 that he never would have put into print if he had not 
 been provoked beyond endurance. If in striking back, 
 a few blows fell upon Mr. Macaulay's official asso- 
 ciates, who had not joined openly in the provocation, 
 Mr. Mackenzie exceeded the bounds of strict retali- 
 atory justice; it must be remembered that the connec- 
 tion between all the sections of the Family Compact 
 was very close, and that when the last word of defi- 
 ance has been hurled at a man he is not to be bound 
 by a very rigid etiquette, if he finds it necessary to 
 " carry the war into Africa." But the reply, calmly 
 
 voluptuous courtier can be, even in his most joyous hours. If I am enabled 
 to maintain my old mother, my wife and family, and keep out of the hands of . 
 the law for debt, I care not for wealth, and should as willingly leave this 
 earthly scene not worth a groat as if I were worth thousands. I one day- 
 thought I should have wished to have seen you member of the Legislature for 
 York, and that you would have become a useful and truly independent repre- 
 sentative of the people. It was not to be, however. I greatly mistook your 
 views, which, situated as you now are, are not likely to become more liberal." 
 Mr. Macaulay, in commenting on this, sneered at what he called the "print- 
 ing business," and asked why Mr. Mackenzie left his "former honest calling." 
 as if a profession in which a man speaks his own free thoughts is not just as re- 
 spectable as that of the man who hires out his wits and his eloquence in defence 
 of every species of criminal who can pay his fee.
 
 94 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 viewed at this distant da^^, so far as it affected Ma- 
 caulay, appears mild and playful beside the savagery 
 of the iinj^rovoked attack ; I say unprovoked, because 
 it does not exceed the bounds of fair or ordinary criti- 
 cism to tell a political opponent that you have ceased 
 to see in him a person possessed of manly indepen- 
 dence. At the same time it must be confessed that 
 some of Macaulay's friends came in for knocks which 
 there is no public evidence of their having merited at 
 Mr. Mackenzie's hands ; and it would have been better 
 if he had confined the punishment, he was well en- 
 titled to inflict, to the man who alone had raised a 
 hand (except through the medium of the convenient 
 instruments of their will) to strike him down. 
 
 Macaulay's libel did not produce the effect intended. 
 The object, it is plain enough, was to provoke Mr. 
 Mackenzie into the use of language for which he 
 might be prosecuted, and either banished, like Gour- 
 lay, or shut up in a prison. But Mackenzie was too 
 wary to be caught in this clumsy trap; and his reply, 
 instead of retorting rage for rage, was playfully sar- 
 castic and keenly incisive. The dialogue form was 
 adopted ; the speakers being a congress of fifteen con- 
 tributors to The Advocate^ who purported to have as- 
 sembled in the Blue Parlor of Mr. McDonnell, of 
 Grlengary, at York. Patrick Swift, nephew of the im- 
 mortal Dean, who had inherited a share of his uncle's 
 sarcasm, was a prominent actor, and infused his play- 
 ful spirit into the other contributors. Over a huge 
 bowl of punch, toasts are drunk, tales told, songs sung, 
 and politics discussed. Judging from the spirit of these 
 proceedings, Mr. Patri :k Swift and his coadjutors were
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 95 
 
 intent on copying the style, of his uncle and their pro- 
 totype : 
 
 "From the planet of my birth, 
 I encounter vice with mirth ; 
 Wicked ministers of state 
 I can easier scorn than hate; 
 And I find it answers right: 
 Scorn torments them more than spite." 
 
 " Lawyer Macaulay" was " the knight of the iiieful 
 countenance ;" and it w^as hinted by one of the wits 
 that even he had family reasons for not scoffing at 
 persons for "changing their trade." When one of 
 the company was asked for a song, he excused himself 
 by saying, " Macaulay's screech-owl notes are the 
 music of the spheres compared to my singing;" and 
 so he claimed the privilege of telling a story instead. 
 Among the stories told was one of a person who got 
 a grant of land for his mother, many years after her 
 death, and twelve hundred acres for an unborn child ; 
 and a document, apparently genuine, was produced, 
 showing that an honorable personage desired to locate 
 two hundred acres on Burlington Bay, and the sur- 
 veyor was instructed that the distinguished name 
 must not appear on the plan. One of the speakers 
 added, by way of explanation, that the t^\o nundrea 
 acre limit produced a block of some thousands, whicli 
 the honorable recipient sold to great advantage. By 
 virtue of his of&cial 2:>osition, this personage made large 
 grants of land to himself, and ap2:)ointed himself 
 puisne judge, receiving an additional salary of £500 
 for the performance of scarcely any duties. This had 
 no reference to Macaulay, though about half the ten- 
 columns' dialogue was devoted to him, much of which
 
 96 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 consists of a sharp refutation of statements published 
 in the Macaulay pamphlet, most of which were either 
 too absurd or too malignant to deserve an answer at 
 all. Mr. Macaulay could not have made a worse se- 
 lection of the time he chose for attempting to strike 
 Mr. Mackenzie down. The latter seriously contem- 
 ])lated retiring from political discussions, and pru- 
 dence might have suggested that he should be allowed 
 to depart in peace. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's enemies were furious. He had 
 stung them to the quick ; but he had dealt with matters 
 to which it would not be desirable to give additional 
 notoriety by making them subjects of prosecution. 
 Truth might, legally speaking, be a libel, but there 
 are unpleasant truths, which, though it be illegal 
 to tell, cannot well be made a ground of action. 
 Juries might be obstinate and refuse to convict a 
 writer, who, after unbearable provocation, had been 
 stung into telling unpleasant facts, a little dressed up, 
 or exaggerated though they may have been, to give 
 effect to their narration. It was clear that Mackenzie 
 could not be banished for sedition. He could not even 
 be tried under the Sedition Act, having been some 
 years in the Province ; and he had neither spoken nor 
 published any thing of a seditious nature. What 
 then remained ? The sole resource of violence ; and 
 violence was used : the office of The Advocate was de- 
 stroyed by a mob, consisting of persons who bore sus- 
 piciously close relations to the government. 
 
 The trial came off at York, in the then new but now 
 disused Court-house, in 1826. The defendants had 
 elected to have a special jury; and on the ninth of
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 97 
 
 October, it had been struck at tlie office of the Deputy 
 Sheriff, in presence of Messrs. Small and Macaulay, 
 attorneys for the plaintiff and defendant respectively. 
 On the day of trial, only eleven of the special jurors 
 appearing, the deficiency was made up from the petty 
 jury list. Of the twelve jurors* who were to try the 
 case, nine resided in the country, and only three in 
 York. Chief Justice Campbell was the presiding 
 judge; and by his side sat, as associate judges, the 
 Hon. William Allan and Mr. Alexander McDonnell. 
 Both sides were well provided with able counsel. For 
 the plaintiff appeared the younger Bidwell and 
 Messrs. Stewart and Small; for the defendants, 
 Macaulay and Ilagerman. Every inch of standing 
 room in the Court-house was occupied by spectators, 
 eager to witness a trial which had prospectively ex- 
 cited universal public interest. Many witnesses tes- 
 tified to the destruction of the printing office, and 
 proved that the eight defendants were engaged in it. 
 It was shown that the Hon. Mr. Allan, who j)layed the 
 23art of associate judge on the trial, had been in con- 
 versation with Col. Howard, whose son was among the 
 desperadoes, at a point where they must have wit- 
 nessed the whole scene. Though they were both 
 magistrates, neither of them attempted to remonstrate 
 with the defendants, nor to induce them to desist. 
 The defendants called no witnesses; and Mr. Hager- 
 man, in addressing the jury on their behalf, assailed 
 
 ♦Their names were: — Robert Eutherford, of York, foreman ; Ezra Annis, 
 
 of Whitby ; James Hogg, Milford Mills ; David Buyer, Markham ; Valentine 
 
 Fisher, Vaughan ; Robert Johnson, Scarboro; Joseph Tomlinson, Markham ; 
 
 Peter Secor, Markham; Edward "Wright, York; Joel Beman, George street; 
 
 George Shaw, York. 
 13
 
 98 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 The Advocate; but he did not venture to read the 
 objectionable matter to the jury. AVithout a tittle of 
 evidence to support his assertion, and in the teeth of 
 well known facts, he stated that Mr. Mackenzie had 
 left York at the time his printing materials were de- 
 stroyed, to evade the payment of his debts. The trial 
 lasted two days, which were days of great anxiety for 
 the plaintiff; "because," as he himself stated, "great 
 exj)ense had been incurred, and I knew that if by any 
 means a verdict should be delayed, or no verdict re- 
 turned, the consequences would to me be ruinous in 
 the extreme." 
 
 For a long time, it seemed very unlikely that the 
 jury would agree. At an inclement season of the 
 year, they were put between the sweating walls of a 
 newly plastered room, the air of which was raw and 
 unpleasant, where they remained for thirty-two hours. 
 Some of them were far advanced in years, and three 
 were ill. Mr. Jacob Boyer, a German by birth, was 
 so bad as to require medical assistance; and Dr. 
 McCague being sent for, bled the enduring juror. 
 Boyer said he was prepared to make a pillow of his 
 great coat, and endure another day of that close cold 
 room, if necessary. The evidence was clear to his 
 mind, and he would not be starved into giving a ver- 
 dict against his convictions. During all this time, va- 
 rious amounts of damages had been discussed. Sums 
 varying from £2,000 to £150 had found favor with 
 different jurors; but the real difficulty was with one 
 man — a George Shaw — who tried to starve his fellow 
 jurors into compliance with a verdict, giving £150 
 damages; but finding this itnpracticable, he at last gave
 
 THE CAxYADIAX REBELLICX. 99 
 
 way. Mr. Rutherford, the foreman, named £62o and 
 costs, and the amount was agreed to by all the jurors. 
 Referring to the result of the trial, soon after, Mr. 
 Mackenzie said: "That verdict re-established on a 
 permanent footing The Advocate Press, because it 
 enabled me to perform my engagements without dis- 
 posing of my real property ; and although it has several 
 times been my wish to retire from the active duties of 
 the press into the quiet paths of private life, I have had 
 a presentiment that I should yet be able to evince my 
 gratitude to the country which, in my utmost need, 
 rescued me from utter ruin and destruction." 
 
 Shortly after, the trial, the amount of the verdict 
 was paid by Mr. Macaulay to Mr. Mackenzie's attor- 
 ney. The money was raised by subscription; the po- 
 litical friends of the press-destroyers feeling in duty 
 bound to bear harmless the eight volunteers who had 
 performed the rough task of attempting to silence, by 
 an act of violence, an obnoxious news23aper. Col. 
 ritzgibbon, laboring under an irrepressible sense of 
 duty towards the kid-gloved "roughs," took round 
 the hat. Unhappily, no list of the contributors is 
 obtainable; though it is believed the officials of the 
 day were not backward in assisting to indemnify the 
 defendants in the type riot trial, for the adverse verdict 
 of an impartial jury. 'No mark of approbation could 
 well be more sincere than this; and it is a question 
 whether the voluntary accomplices after the fact were 
 wholly ignorant that the outrage had been planned 
 before they knew that it was put into execution. Col. 
 Fitzgibbon was already a Colonel of Militia, Deputy 
 Adjutant General, and Justice of the Peace. But such
 
 100 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 services as his were not deemed to be requited by such 
 paltry appointments, and he was therefore appointed 
 Chief Clerk to the Legislative Assembly. 
 
 There remained the question of a criminal prosecu- 
 tion. Mr. Mackenzie, being called before the grand 
 jury, declined to make any complaint; and the ques- 
 tion was raised by some of the journals, whether it was 
 not the duty of the Attorney General to take proceed- 
 ings criminally against the press rioters. The counsel 
 for the defendants gave as the reason why the Attor- 
 ney G-eneral had not proceeded by criminal informa- 
 tion, that it would have brought on him the censure 
 of having desired to prevent the plaintiff obtaining 
 damages in a civil action; as if the one proceeding in 
 any way precluded the other. When afterwards, 
 in April, 1828, the Attorney General prosecuted 
 Francis Collins of the Freeman criminally for libels 
 upon himself, he appeared to be considerably embar- 
 rassed at the novelty of the proceeding he had initiated ; 
 and a remark he made led to a singular piece of 
 fencing between himself and Judge Willis, between 
 whom there was very little good feeling. On the 
 Attorney General remarking that, during the ten years 
 he had had the office of Crown Lawyer, he had uni- 
 formly abstained from instituting criminal proceedings 
 unless upon complaint made; the judge remarked 
 that this was proof that his practice had been uniformly 
 wrong. The Attorney General, nettled at the reproof, 
 said he believed he knew his duty as well as any judge 
 on the Bench; an assertion which drew from the judge 
 the caustic rejoinder: "That may be; but you have 
 neglected it." The Attorney General then assured his
 
 THE CANiDIAX EEBELLIOX. 101 
 
 lordship that he should continue to follow the practice 
 lie had hitherto pursued; when the latter informed 
 liim that, in that case, it would be his duty to report 
 such conduct to the British Grovernment, and that 
 while he sat in the Chief Justice's seat, it was his 
 place to state to the Crown officers their duty, and 
 theirs to perform it. 
 
 It became afterwards a common complaint with Mr. 
 Mackenzie's political friends and business rivals, that 
 the damages obtained were in excess of the actual loss. 
 It is possible that this may have been the case ; for he 
 himself became convinced, after the office was reestab- 
 lished, that he had at first overestimated the loss. 
 But it was not upon his representations that the 
 amount of the verdict was determined ; and as Mr. 
 Bidwell had insisted strongly on the necessityof exemp- 
 lary damages being given, it is possible that the jury did 
 not altogether overlook this hint. But such pretences, 
 as afterwards found persons to utter them, that "the 
 loss was not fifty dollars," were too evidently charged 
 with malice to be entitled to the least consideration. 
 
 But though Mr. Mackenzie refused to ask the 
 grand jury to initiate criminal proceeding's against 
 the rioters, the matter was not allowed to rest, i'ran- 
 cis Collins, having been proceeded against criminally 
 by the Attorney General, for four libels,* in April 
 
 *Mr. Mackenzie, objecting, in his journal, to the composition of the grand 
 jury as unfair, showed himself possessed of that sort of power which moves the 
 masses into action. A short txtract will serve as a sample : 
 
 "Wherever the seat of justice is open to corruption, there ought the sentinc4 
 of liberty, 'a free press,' to alarm the country; it should 'cry aloud and spare 
 not.' And if the day should ever come upon us in this favored land, wh'^n 
 men in power, forge ,ful of the public good, and mindful only of their private 
 gain, shall desire t4 intimidate the public journals and to harass their pro-
 
 102 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 1828, retaliated upon the party of his accusers. On 
 information laid by him, seven of the defendants who 
 had been cast in civil damages for the destruction of 
 The Advocate office, were tried for riot. Raymond 
 ]3aby was not among them. This j)roceeding being 
 of a retaliatory nature, and taken against the wishes 
 of Mr. Mackenzie, was not looked on with much 
 favor ; and though the defendants were found guilty, 
 they were let off with nominal damages. 
 
 But Collins did not stop here. He procured infor- 
 mations against Henry John Boulton and Jas. E. 
 Small, for murder, arising out of their connection with 
 a duel, in which Mr. John Ridout, son of the Surveyor 
 General, had been shot by Mr. Samuel Peters Jarvis. 
 Mr. Jarvis was not included in the indictment, hav- 
 ing been previously tried and acquitted. When on 
 the 12th of April, the grand jury brought the " true 
 bill" into court. Col. Adamson, the foreman, was great- 
 ly embarrassed. Mr. Justice Willis, though he could 
 have had no personal sympathy for one of the ac- 
 cused,* shed tears. Mr. Boulton, who filled the high 
 
 prietors on frivolous or imaginary charges of libel and sedition — let the peo- 
 ple look to it. Their last, their best, their sure, and only safeguard from dark 
 oppression and misrule is about to be butchered in the public streets. Their 
 lives, their fortunes, their religion, and the quiet of their domestic hearths, are 
 menaced. The walls of the citadel begin to crumble, the strong tower of 
 freedom totters at its base. Again we say, danger is at hand, let the peo- 
 ple LOOK TO IT." 
 
 * Judge "Willis afterwards expressed a contemptible .^pinion of the Solicitor 
 General's legal qualifications; referring to a statute, "in order," as he said, 
 "that it may be seen what reliance is to be placed on the opinion of Mr. 
 Solicitor General Boulton." Dr. Baldwin stated before a Committee of the 
 House of Assembly, June 28th, 1828, "I cannot help thinking that he (Judge 
 "Willis) was rather more lenient in his charge upon the indictments of Mr. 
 Boulton, Mr. Jarvis, and the type rioters, thar the occasion required."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 103 
 
 position of Solicitor Greneral, lost his usual spriglitli- 
 ness of manner, and sat silent and thoughtful beside 
 Attorney General Robinson. A pin might have been 
 heard fall in the crowded court-room. When the 
 thirteen jurors had made their presentment, the col- 
 league of the accused Solicitor General rose by his 
 side, and said he should frame the indictment against 
 Messrs. Boulton and Small, as accessories of Jarvis in 
 the fatal duel. The Court made no remark. Judge 
 Sherwood had been sent for ; but when he came, 
 he retired into the grand jury room instead of taking 
 Iiis seat on the bench beside the Chief Justice. 
 
 Mr. George Kidout, the advocate of Collins, came 
 into court, and moved that the name of Col. Fitzgib- 
 bon be struck off the list of grand jurors, on the 
 ground that, having protected the type rioters, he was 
 not a proper person to be on the grand jury. Had 
 he not been there, Mr. Ridout contended, the true 
 bills against Collins would not have been presented. 
 He read a letter written by Col. Fitzgibbon, on the 
 type riot, to show that his objection was well founded. 
 The Attorney General objected, and the court reserved 
 its decision. 
 
 The trial for murder lasted two days, and was pro- 
 tracted the first night two and a half hours beyond 
 midnight. " The candles, untrimmed," wrote Mac- 
 kenzie, " yielded a faint and glimmering light upon 
 the judgment seat; the presiding minister of justice 
 in his long black robe, was supported by the associ- 
 ate judges and surrounded by the officers of the court." 
 There was a dense mass of human beings in the court, 
 all still and attentive listeners " to a tale of misery, of
 
 104 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 horrors and of woe, such as mortal man has seldom 
 heard." The defendants were acquitted ; and the 
 judge expressed a desire that the proceedings might 
 not be published at length, but only the result stated ; 
 a wish that seems to have met a general compliance 
 on the part of the press. 
 
 Though the trial of Collins was not proceeded with, 
 the government paper announced that it had nut been 
 abandoned ; and it came on at the next assizes. 
 
 'Nov had the end of judicial retaliations yet been 
 reached. Mr. Mackenzie was not to escape. And 
 yet he deserved some consideration at the hands of 
 the official party. AVhen called as a witness in the 
 type riot prosecution, which he had refused to origi- 
 nate, he said he had no desire to prosecute the rioters 
 against whom civil damages had been obtained ; and 
 he expressed a hope that they would receive only 
 nominal punishment. His suggestion had been acted 
 upon. But all this did not avail, at a time when 
 Collins was proceeded against for four libels in Upper 
 Canada, and Mr. JN'eilson for an equal number in 
 Lower Canada. It was not Mr. Mackenzie's fault 
 that the old duel case had been raked up ; but one of 
 the crown officers had been put upon his trial at the 
 instance of another editor ; and why should Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie escape when crown officers were in question ? 
 Accordingly, on the 17th of April, the grand jury 
 made a presentment against the editor of The Colonial 
 Advocate, for an alleged libel* published in that paper 
 on the 3d of that month. 
 
 * The following is the paragraph charged as libellous : 
 
 " Valuable Report on the Conduct of the Crown Lawyers. — Always
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 105 
 
 Being in Court when the presentment was made, 
 Mr. Mackenzie went to the Attorney General, and 
 told him that he should be ready to proceed with his 
 defence next day. The zeal of the grand jury appears 
 not to have been readily seconded; for when Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie applied personally to the Court to recommend 
 the crown lawyers to bring the charges to trial, the 
 Attorney Greneral refused to proceed with an indict- 
 ment. On the night after the presentment was made, 
 the defendant collected a long list of very miscella- 
 neous authorities,* by the aid of which he felt con- 
 anxious to inform our readers of the most important proceedings of the Col- 
 onial Legislature, we hasten to direct their attention to the report of a select 
 committee of the House of Assembly on the petition of Mr. Forsyth, of Niagara 
 Falls, loudly complaining of the conduct of the crown ofBcers, and of a de- 
 fective and partial administration of justice. The report speaks a language 
 not to be misunderstood, and we trust that a perusal of it will serve to stir up 
 the dormant energies of the wholesome part of the population, and induce 
 them to exert themselves manfully to clear the House of Assembly next elec- 
 tion, of the Attorney General, Speaker Willson, Jonas, David and Charles 
 Jones, Messrs. Burnham, Coleman, ScoUick, Gordon, McDonell, Beasley, 
 Clark, McLean, Vankoughnet, and the whole of that ominous nest of unclean 
 birds which have so long lain close under the wings of a spendthrift Executive, 
 and (politically to speak) actually preyed upon the very vitals of the country 
 they ought to have loved, cherished, and protected. No wonder it is that 
 Parliament should find its energies all but paralyzed, when such an accumula- 
 tion of corrupt materials is left unswept vtith the besom of the people's 
 WRATH from out of these halls they have so long and so shamefully * defiled 
 with their abominations.' " 
 
 * " Blackstone's Commentaries; A file of the Advocate, from 1 to 150; A few 
 choice selections from the U. E. Loyalist; Journals of Assembly, 1820, 1825, 
 1826, and 1827; Burnett's History of his own Times; A speech of John Home 
 Tooke; The Bible; The Book of Common Prayer; Edinburgh Eeview, 1811, 
 article on 'The Liberty of the Press;' Gourlay's Statistics, 3 vols.; Simpson's 
 Plea for Keligion; Swift's Works, a volume containing 'The Drapier,' &c.; 
 The Roman Missal; The Alien Question Unmasked; Earl Stanhope's Rio-hta 
 of Juries ; A volume of Erskine's Speeches ; Dr. Towers on Libel ; Hone's 
 three Trials; The Black Book, or Corruption Unmasked; Selections cut out 
 of files of the Times, Globe and Traveller, and Courier, London daily papers,
 
 106 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 fident he should be able to make out his case. His 
 own account of his preparation for a forensic display, 
 in self-defence, may here be given: 
 
 "I carried into Court, tied up in a large bundle 
 [of books] Avith striped tape, and having placed them 
 before me on the barristers' table, began to arrange 
 them after a very imposing legal fashion, having by 
 ine my memoranda of references, by which, as to an 
 index, I could refer to the newspaj)er, book, or paper 
 wanted, and bring forward the proofs or arguments on 
 any subject connected with the matters set forth in 
 the alleged libel, in a moment of time. By a little 
 exertion over night, but far more by anticipation at 
 former periods, I had before me a collection of mate- 
 rials fit and relevant for my purpose; and had I been 
 allowed to go into the merits of the case, it would have 
 defied all the Attorney Generals in British America to 
 have furnished an opposing argument equally solid, 
 strong, and convincing. I had carefully consulted 
 both the law and the practice. I had, in fact, done all 
 that man could do to give the judges and crown law- 
 yers such a dose as would have cured their itching for 
 state prosecutions on alleged political libels for a long 
 time to come." 
 
 by myself, and reserved for a case of libel, as fair specimens of the style of >*• 
 litical discussion in use by the respectable London periodical press; Babv.Oft 
 the Great; Junius Peter Watson's Trial; Dr. Strachan's Pamphlet ai4 
 Chart; Trial of J. A. Williams for a libel on the Durham Clergy; and sel*.*- 
 tions cut out of Parliamentary speeches, published in the U. E. Loyalist. These 
 with Mr. Stanton's 'Yankee Doodle Committee Eeport on Captain Mathews ;' 
 ' The Kejected Addresses ;' Cobbett on the Freedom of the Press ; The Free- 
 man, containing Peter McPhail's effort at the Tork Independence meeting, 
 and several other documents.'
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 107 
 
 Instead of telng put upon his trial for the alleged 
 political libel, Mr. Mackenzie had to give secui'ity to 
 the amount of £200, that he would answer the charge 
 at the next assizes; a delay of which he thouglt hi d 
 self well entitled to complain.
 
 lOS LIFE OP MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CEAPTER yil. 
 
 Ar. Event that lessens the Popular Faith in the Impartial Adminis»;r&tioii rT 
 Justice — Removal of Judge "Willis by the Local Executive — The Causs o( 
 the Difficulty — He is falsely accused of Displaying Temper in Court— 
 A wordy Duello between Judges Sherwood and "Willis — Leading Member* 
 of the Bar side with Judge "Willis in the Legal Dispute — Decision of th? 
 Privy Council Unfavorable to Judge "Willis — Collins convicted of Libel on 
 the Attorney General, fined £50, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment — 
 "VVorse Ofienders of another Political Stripe overlooked — The Fine paid by 
 Subscription — A Committee of the House desire to interrogate Judge Sher- 
 wood about his Direction in the Collins' Case — He refuses to have his Judi- 
 cial Conduct inquired into, but gives the Information to the Executive — 
 The Assembly denounce his Direction ; but the Privy Council pronounce it 
 all right — The Libel Prosecution against Mr. Mackenzie abandoned — Mur- 
 der of one Knowlan, a Powerful Bully, by Charles French — The latter, a 
 "W'tness in the Type Riot, is Executed. 
 
 Befoee the trials for libel could come on, an event 
 occurred, in tlie removal of Judge Willis, which was 
 not calculated to inspire the defendants with confi- 
 dence in the impartial administration of justice. If 
 the local Executive suspended a judge, because his in- 
 terpretation of the law did not accord with their views, 
 the power of the Executive in political prosecutions 
 could not but be regarded as a source of danger to 
 public liberty. Mr. Willis had only received his ap- 
 pointment on the eleventh of October, 1827 ; and on 
 the sixth of the following June, he was suspended 
 until the pleasure of His Majesty's Imperial Govern-
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 109 
 
 ment sliould be known. AVe have seen that, far from 
 bending to the influence of power, he had undertaken 
 to teach the Attorney General his duty. In the 
 Hilary term of Michaelmas, then past, Mr. Justice 
 Willis had taken his seat on the bench beside Chief 
 Justice Campbell and Mr. Justice Sherwood; and dif- 
 ferences of opinion on points of great legal importance 
 had arisen amono; them. Before the following? Easter 
 term, the Chief Justice had obtained leave of absence; 
 and the differences of opinion between the two reEbain- 
 ing judges, Willis and Sherwood, were carried to such 
 a length as to excite public attention. Under these 
 circumstances. Judge Willis directed his special atten- 
 tion to the Constitution of the Court; and he found 
 that the statute creating this tribunal provided "that 
 His Majesty's Chief Justice, together with two puisne 
 judges, shall preside in the said Court." Considering 
 the Court illegally constituted without three judges, he 
 refused to sit with Mr. Justice Sherwood for his only 
 colleague, when, according to his reading of the law, 
 there ought to be another. Sometime before Trinity 
 term, it came to the knowledge of the Provincial 
 Government that Mr. Justice Willis had come to this 
 conclusion. When the opportunity presented itself, 
 he delivered his opinion at length on the subject. 
 Having dealt with the question of what was required, 
 under the Provincial statute, to constitute a legal Court 
 of King's Bench, he touched upon the cause of the 
 legal inefficiency of that tribunal. The Chief Justice 
 had obtained leave of absence; but he had obtained it 
 from the Lieutenant-Governor alone, while Mr. Willis
 
 110 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 contended that the consent of the Grovernor in Council 
 was necessary. 
 
 The opponents of Mr. Justice Willis accused him 
 of showing temper in the delivery of his opinion ; but 
 the accusation, when sifted, was found to be ground- 
 less. A Committee of the House of Assembly, of 
 which Dr. Baldwin was Chairman, reported that they 
 had " particularly inquired into this matter," and came 
 to the conclusion, " that to the public eye and ear, the 
 manner and language of Mr. Justice Willis, on the 
 occasion of so expressing his opinion on the Bench, 
 relative to the defective state of the Court, in no re- 
 spect departed from the gravity and dignity becoming 
 him as a judge; and peculiar malevolence alone could 
 represent it otherwise." The evidence fully bore out 
 this statement. " When Mr. Justice Willis delivered 
 his opinion," Mr. Carey* told the Committee, "his 
 conduct was dignified and honorable." 
 
 When Mr. Justice Willis had concluded his opinion, 
 an unseemly spectacle took i)lace. Mr. Justice Sher- 
 wood ordered the clerk to adjourn the Court. Mr. 
 Willis replied that it was impossible to adjourn what 
 did not exist. There was no legal Court. Mr. Sher- 
 wood rejoined : " You have given your opinion ; I have 
 a right to mine, and I shall order the Court to be ad- 
 journed." " He spoke," says Mr. Carey, " apparently 
 under great irritation." Mr. Willis bowed and with- 
 drew, the clerk obeying the order of the remaining 
 judge. 
 
 The difficulty that had occurred between Mr. Jus- 
 
 * Mr. Carey was editor of the Yorh Observer, and had long been a firm sup- 
 porter of the government ; hut at this time he was wavering in his allegiance.
 
 THE CANIDIAX EEBELLIOX. Ill 
 
 tice AVillis and Attorney General Robinson, on a 
 previous occasion, was also made a subject of inquiry 
 before the Parliamentary Committee ; and Mr. Carey, 
 in liis evidence, stated that so far as manner was con- 
 cerned, the only thing to complain of in the judge, 
 was his too great lenity in presence of the treatment 
 he received. 
 
 Dr. Baldwin, Mr. Robert Baldwin, and Mr. John 
 Rolph, practising barristers, entered a protest against 
 the legality of the Court, when it had been constituted 
 with two judges ; giving at length their reasons for 
 agreeing with Judge Willis, that ii\ order to a legal 
 constitution of the Court, there must be three judges. 
 A petition, which the Duke of Wellington thought 
 deserved no particular notice, bearing the signatures 
 of thousands of Upper Canadians, in favor of the in- 
 dependence of the judiciary, and sustaining the posi- 
 tion of Judge Willis, was sent to the King and the 
 two Houses of Parliament. The law point was finally 
 decided by the Priv}'- Council adversely to the views 
 of Mr. Justice Willis, whose removal was thereupon 
 ratified by the Imperial Government. 
 
 It was now certain that the juries who might try 
 the libel cases, would not. bo directed by Mr. Justice 
 Willis, but by some one whose afiinity to the prosecu- 
 tors was undoubted. Soon after this time, Mr. James 
 Stephens, then counsel to the Colonial Office, told a 
 Committee of the House of Commons, that " through- 
 out the colonies a body of gentlemen are acting as 
 judges, who, however accomplished in other resjiects, 
 are totally destitute of legal education." If, in addi- 
 tion to this they were also mere dependents of the
 
 112 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Executive, the case must be much worse. Soon 
 after the commencement of the York assizes, which 
 opened on the 12th October, 1828, the libel prose- 
 cutions against Collins came on. Of that upon the 
 Attorney General, he was found guilty, and sen- 
 tenced by Mr. Hagerman — who had temporarily 
 gone upon the Bench, leaving the Kingston collector- 
 ship of customs to take care of itself — to be im- 
 prisoned for twelve months in the York jail, and pay 
 a fine of £50. The libel consisted of imputing " na- 
 tive malignancy" to the Attorney General, and stig- 
 matizing, as "an open and palpable falsehood," a 
 statement made by that functionary in open court.* 
 
 It is not necessary to raise the question whether 
 such libels as this ought to have been met by a criminal 
 prosecution. But if it was the duty of the Attorney 
 General to prosecute Collins, it was also his duty to 
 
 * Collins was a man of uncouth exterior, but was possessed of considerable 
 ability. When Dr. Home, in whose office he was a printer, gave up the pub- 
 lication of the Upper Canada Gazette, Collins applied for the post of King's 
 Printer, and was told in reply, that the office " would be given to none but a 
 gentleman." Being disappointed in the attempt to dispose of his services to 
 the government, he some time afterwards commenced the publication of an 
 opposition paper, a very slight acquaintance with which will convince any one 
 that in spite of his natural ability he sometimes mistook coarseness for strength of 
 language. He was an excellent reporter, and for several years acted officially 
 in that capacity, as the servant of the House. It was not his habit to write his 
 articles. He put them into type as he composed them. He had the strange 
 vanity of boasting his descent from royal personages, and was naturally 
 laughed at for his pains. When he was incarcerated for libel, Mr. Mackenzie 
 did all he could to secure his release, a service which he repaid with the black- 
 est ingratitude and the coarsest abuse. From sheer business jealousy the Free- 
 man had at all times been excessively abusive of Mr. Mackenzie, a coin in 
 which the latter never stooped to repay him. But, with all his faults — and 
 who is faultless ? — Collins must be admitted to have done good in his day. 
 He died of cholera, in 1834, when Mr. Mackenzie held the position of first 
 Mayor of Toronto.
 
 THE ca:n^adian eebellion. 113 
 
 prosecute others, connected with the government press, 
 who had used fully as great a latitude of expression. 
 One of these writers* had signalized several members 
 of the Legislative Assembly as "besotted fools," actu- 
 ated by no other feeling than malice, to gratify which 
 they pay no regard to truth or decency. Addressing 
 a single member, the same writer informed, him, 
 " There are no bounds to your malice;" and the whole 
 House was described as an " intolerable nuisance." 
 " The poison of your malignant disposition," also 
 made use of, was an expression fully as offensive as 
 "native malignancy." If it was the duty of the At- 
 torney General to prosecute for the use of such lan- 
 guage, he was bound to perform that duty impartially, 
 and was not entitled, in fairness, to single out oppo- 
 nents for victims, while the offences of political friends 
 were overlooked. 
 
 A public subscription was raised to pay the amount 
 of the fine; public meetings were held and commit- 
 tees formed to take the case of Collins into considera- 
 tion. To a petition for his release, the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, Sir John Colborne, who had but recently 
 arrived in the Province, replied, through Assistant-Se- 
 cretary McMahon, that he respected the liberty of the 
 press very much, but that he had an equal respect for 
 trial by jury ; and that the danger of interfering with 
 their decisions must be very great, unless when they 
 are clearly illegal. This was on the 8th November, 
 and ten days later Mr. CoUins's petition for a remis- 
 sion of the sentence elicited a direct negative, through 
 Mr. Secretary Mudge, who was instructed to add, that 
 
 * Kingston Chronicle. 
 15
 
 114 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 at the expiration of his term of imprisonment, " any 
 application you may decide to make will be taken 
 into consideration upon the facts alleged in your state- 
 ment," which, at this distant day, reads very much 
 like a mockery of the prisoner's misery. At a later 
 period the House of Assembly interposed in behalf 
 of Collins, but they failed to change the determina- 
 tion of the Executive to keep him in close confine- 
 ment for the whole of the prescribed term of his sen 
 tence. Sir John thought himself entitled to snub the 
 House for their interference, by expressing extreme 
 regret at the course they had taken. He forgot that 
 the Sovereign whom he represented is the fountain of 
 mercy, and thought only of his obligation to carry a 
 rigorous and cruel sentence into effect. 
 
 The Assembly's committee called upon Mr. Justice 
 Sherwood to give evidence in the case on w^hich he 
 had presided, but he refused, rightly most persons 
 will now think, to have his judicial conduct inquired 
 into by a committee of the House, and did not an- 
 swer the questions put to him. A judge is necessarily 
 liable to impeachment for improper conduct, but not 
 to account either to the Sovereign or to Parliament 
 for any particular judgment he may have given. B it 
 if the House of Assembly was wrong in demanding to 
 know from Judge Sherwood the grounds on which 
 his judgment was based, and he was right in refusing 
 to answer, he was wrong in giving to the Executive 
 government, as he afterwards did, the information he 
 had refused to the House.* Mr. Hagerman, who 
 
 * The Legislative Assembly pTonounced Mr. Justice Sherwcod's charge " an 
 unwarrantable deviation from the matter of record, and a forced construction
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 115 
 
 was acting as judge at this time, was also called be- 
 fore the committee, but he refused to answer the 
 questions put to him, on the ground that they im- 
 peached the conduct of a brother judge. The Legis- 
 lative Assembly having denounced the conduct of the 
 judges, and the matter having been made a subject 
 of complaint in a petition to the Imperial authorities, 
 the case came before the law-officers of the crown, in 
 England, for their opinion thereon. They reported 
 that they saw nothing objectionable in the direction 
 of the judge or the verdict of the jury. 
 
 The threatened prosecution of Mr. Mackenzie for 
 an alleged political libel had been kept suspended 
 over his head for nearly a whole year, when a day 
 was fixed by the Attorney General to strike a special 
 jury, which had been demanded by Mr. ]\tackenzie, 
 w^hen he found that the list of petty jurors had not been 
 returned to the crown office as usual. Mr. Sullivan 
 having unsuccessfully applied for the list, on behalf 
 of Mr. Mackenzie, went to Sheriff Jarvis to inquire 
 the cause; when he was informed that Mr. Justice 
 Sherwood had directed him not to return the list as 
 usual. For some reason, however, the Executive re- 
 
 of language, contrary to the ends of fair and dispassionate justice." They also 
 resolved that *' Mr. Justice Hagerman one of the persons alleged on the record 
 to be libelled, refused to receive the verdict first tendered by the jury, viz: 
 ' Guilty of libel against the Attorney General only,' with which direction the 
 jury complied, whereby the defendant was made to appear on record guilty 
 of charges of which the jury had acquitted him, and whereby false grounds 
 were'aflforded upon the record for an oppressive or unwarrantable sentence." 
 "Mr. Hagerman," it was farther declared, "did concern himself with Mr. 
 Justice Sherwood in measuring the punishment of defendant; thereby, with- 
 out necessity for it, violating the rule that a man shall not be judge in his own 
 case"
 
 116 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 solved to abandon the prosecution, and two days be- 
 fore the date fixed for the striking of the special jury, 
 the Attorney General addressed a note to Mr. Sullivan 
 stating the conclusion that had been arrived at. 
 
 The alleged libel, of which the prosecution was thus 
 abandoned, was purely political. It was neither more 
 nor less than a recommendation to certain constitu- 
 encies to change their representatives at the then next 
 ensuing general election; and expressed in language 
 that must be admitted to have been very strong, but 
 also very general, Avliy this saould be done. " The 
 besom of the people's wrath" may be an alarming 
 figure of speech ; but after all it is only a figure. Con- 
 nected with a general election, it ceases to wear a ter- 
 rific aspect, and becomes a mere question of defeating 
 certain supporters in the Legislative Assembly of the 
 ruling minority. The report of a committee of the 
 House, on which the paragraph was founded, con- 
 tained more serious accusations than the alleged libel 
 itself. The committee, of which Mr. Beardsley was 
 chairman, reported, among other things, " that some 
 of the most daring outrages against the peace of the 
 community have passed unprosecuted, and that the 
 persons guilty have, from their connections in high 
 life, been promoted to the most important offices of 
 honor, trust, and emolument, in the local government." 
 Surely this more than justified a recommendation, 
 however strong the language in which it was conveyed, 
 that the supporters of such a state of things should 
 be rejected by the people, at the next general election. 
 It was certainly a wise resolution to abandon the pro-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 117 
 
 secution, whatever may have been the cause * that 
 led the government to its adoption. 
 
 About two years after the type riot, a tragical event, 
 which bore some relation to it, took place. Charles 
 French, who was in Mr. Mackenzie's employ, as prin- 
 ter in 1826, and was one of the principal wit- 
 nesses on the trial, became a marked man. He tried 
 to keep the rioters out of the office, and was a prin- 
 cipal agent in their conviction. At this time, there 
 lived in York an Irish laborer, of the name of Know- 
 Ian, a st^,lwart and pestiferous bully, standing con- 
 siderably over six feet high, and possessing great 
 muscular power. Accustomed to carry a pair of short 
 iron tongs concealed about his clothes, to attack per- 
 sons in the street, and insult them at the door of the 
 theatre, he was the terror of the place. As savage as 
 a gorilla and twice as vicious, Knowlan was the man 
 who undertook to execute vengeance upon Charles 
 French. During the winter of 1827-8, French had 
 fallen into habits of dissipation, and got accustomed 
 
 * Mr. Mackenzie, -writing of the result at the time, says: — "We can only 
 conjecture the cause for this new and judicious procedure. 1st. "We should 
 think that Sir John Colborne would be ill inclined to administer to the 
 legacy of prosecutions bequeathed to him by his predecessor. 2d. That 
 bhere were very poor hopes of success, in the present state of public c pi- 
 nion, as must have been evident from the facts that the alleged libeller had, 
 after giving the libel the greatest possible circulation, after presentment, been 
 returned to the Assembly for the county where he resided, and where the offen- 
 sive libellous matter had been previously published. 3d. That the country is 
 disgusted with the cruel and vindictive punishment awarded to the editor of 
 the Freeman. 4th. That the libel is true and Tioi false, as stated in the indict- 
 ment. 5th. That the committee of the Commons of England had deprecated 
 this sort of prosecutions. 6th. That the people's representatives, in Parliament 
 assembled, had addressed the throne on the injustice and the partiality hitherto 
 pursued in libel cases, and pointed out to His Majesty its bad eflects."
 
 118 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 to divide the late hours of the night between the dram- 
 shop — of which there were sixty in a towm of less than 
 two thousand inhabitants — and the theatre. He occa- 
 sionally took a subordinate part among the actors. 
 Hemaining out very late one evening, and returning 
 flushed with liquor, French met Mr. Mackenzie's re- 
 monstrance with abuse, and was dismissed, in conse- 
 quence, from his employment, on the 6th of May, 
 1828 About a fortnight after, he was seized upon 
 one night by the bully KnoAvlan, wdio, in answer to 
 an inquiry from Mr. Charles Baker, said he was going 
 to carry him to the river and drown him. In re- 
 leasing his victim, whom he had hoisted upon his 
 shoulder, Knowlan threatened, with an oath, that he 
 " would settle him yet." On the 4th of June, Know^- 
 lan was at the militia training, where he assaulted a 
 constable, and was to have been brought up next day 
 for the oifence. But death intervened. Knowlan 
 was at the theatre that night, with his tongs, as usual. 
 When the play was about half over, in an insult- 
 ing manner he went up to French, and taking out his 
 tongs, he was heard to swear that he would measure 
 them over the head of French and those of two or three 
 other persons, if he only had them outside the theatre. 
 French, Avdio was of a naturally mild disposition when 
 sane and sober, was subject to violent fits of insanity ; 
 and liqu )r, when too freely taken, produced the most 
 terrible effect upon him. He had been drinking, and 
 became excited by the menace of Knowlan, aggravated 
 as it was, by a hideous contortion of his brows, and 
 recalling, as it must, the threat which Knowlan had 
 made against his life, a fortnight before. Besides,
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 119 
 
 French was suffering from a pain in the breast, occa- 
 sioned by a blow from the ruffian, some time before. 
 It was while listening to " Tom and Jerry, or Life in 
 London," that French became alarmed at Knowlan's 
 threats. He mentioned the circumstance to one Wil- 
 liam Gedd, saying he felt his life in danger, and was 
 without any means of defence. A person named Gos- 
 ling, a boon companion of French, hearing of this, 
 went to one Wm. D. Forest, and asked to borrow from 
 nim a pistol that was in his possession. French, being 
 called out of the theatre, was informed by Forest, that, 
 though he had but one pistol, and that a borrowed 
 one, he would let him have it. It was loaded with 
 ball. French returned to the theatre, but left before 
 the farce was over, and took more drink. About mid- 
 night, when he and three companions were returning 
 from drinking at Howard's, they met Knowlan walk- 
 ing a little behind some of his associates. French 
 having spoken to him, Knowlan asked with an oath, 
 why he was standing there? He approached towards 
 French, and raised his hand, as French sui^posed, to 
 fulfil his threat, when the latter fired the pistol, and 
 shot Knowlan through the liver. Knowlan died 
 eighteen hours after he received the wound; and 
 French was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 
 be hanged. The trial took place on the 17th of Oc- 
 tober, and the execution was to follow in three days. 
 In a few hours, a petition for the mitigation of pun- 
 ishment, was signed by eleven hundred persons ; it 
 was taken to the Lieutenant- Grovernor, at Stamford ; 
 but the only result was a respite till the 23dj six days
 
 120 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 after the trial, when the sentence of death was carried 
 into effect. 
 
 In a statement made by French, in his last mo- 
 ments, he reproached himself with the reflection, that, 
 ^' had I attended to the oft-repeated advice of my 
 friends, especially my dear mother and Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie, and avoided bad company and drinking, I 
 should not now be here; but I would not attend, and 
 now I have to suffer."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 121 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Effect of the Destruction of the Advocate Printing Office contrary to the Ex- 
 pectations of its Perpetrators — Pecuniary Embarrassments — Fever brought 
 on by Anxiety and Vexation — Herculean Peats by the Midnight Lamp — 
 Tableau of an overworked Newspaper Editor — Haunted by Ague — Sick- 
 ness and Death in the Family — Eobert Eandall ; his Influence on Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie — Acting in Concert with Mackenzie and others, Eandall goes to 
 England with Petitions on the Alien Question — The Pocket Test of Patriot- 
 ism — Letters to Earl Dalhousie — Statement of the Alien Question — British 
 Subjects made Aliens by the mere Act of Passing through a Foreign Coun- 
 try — Difficulty of the Question; Its final Settlement — Mr. Mackenzie's 
 Eaith in Appeals to the Colonial Office. 
 
 YiOLENCE is a blindfolded demon, more likely to 
 defeat its own objects than to attain them. The means 
 taken to crush a public journal, obnoxious to the 
 ruling faction, proved the cause of its resuscitation and 
 firm establishment. At the very time when the press 
 was broken and the type thrown into the bay, the last 
 number of The Advocate had been issued. The fact 
 was not known to Mr. Mackenzie's enemies, or they 
 might not have smote the lion that was supposed by 
 its own keeper to be dead, and thus recalled its sus- 
 pended energies to life and action. The publication, bur- 
 thened as it was with a postal tax payable in advance, 
 and addressing itself to a small scattered community, 
 had never repaid the expenditure necessary to sustain 
 it. What means its proprietor had made in trade 
 
 16
 
 122 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 were soon dissipated on the literary speculation. 
 Between materiel^ and debts, and losses, the publisher 
 had been brought to a dead stand, and was unable to 
 make further way. In winding up the mercantile 
 business, many debts had been left uncollected and 
 were still unpaid. What between purchasing land 
 and building, buying printing materials and carrying 
 on an unprofitable publication, he had gone beyond the 
 compass of his available capital. He was threatened 
 with prosecution for debt. In May, 1826, he w^as 
 offered a loan of money that would have relieved him; 
 but it was only for three months, and he could not as- 
 sure himself of his ability to repay it in that time. His 
 property, real and personal, was worth twice the 
 amount of his debts ; but he was embarrassed for 
 ready money; threatened with cajJias by one creditor, 
 and thoroughly disheartened. From these embarrass- 
 ments he resolved to free himself. With the consent 
 of Mr. Tannahill, his principal creditor, Mr. Macken- 
 zie went to Lewiston, in order to prevent the accumu- 
 lation of law costs, till his affairs could be settled. To 
 have continued the paper another year, even if money 
 could have been raised, would have been absolute 
 ruin. Erom Lewiston he wrote, on the 27th of May, 
 to Mr. Cawthra, at York, proposing to place the 
 whole of his property into the hands of three trustees 
 to be sold; and after the claims of his creditors had 
 been satisfied, the balance to be handed over to him. 
 "The place at Dundas," he wrote, "you could quickly 
 dispose of; and that place is the one I am least willing 
 to give away; but let it go for what it may fetch." 
 His enemies afterwards pretended that he had gone
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLIOX. 123 
 
 to Lewiston for the purpose of defrauding his creditors; 
 but this calumny is sufficiently disproved by his letter 
 to Mr. Cawthra, and by the fact that, while there, he 
 voluntarily granted a cognovit covering the amount 
 of the whole of the claims against him by his creditors. 
 This was done three days before the destruction of the 
 printing office; and consequently before any new reason 
 had arisen for his immediate return to York. After 
 it was all over, the creditor, by whom he had been 
 threatened Avith caj)ias, confessed, in writing, " I have 
 not done by you as I would have wished." 
 
 Besides, his health was broken; and he had some 
 time before been thrown into a fever by the vexation 
 he had suffisred. His eldest daughter had died, and 
 another member of his family was ill. Under these 
 circumstances, it is not surprising that he should have 
 sighed for that repose which journalism had inter- 
 rupted in the first instance, and of which it still con- 
 tinued to prevent the return. "But while he loved re- 
 pose, he had not been able to resist the excitement of 
 the semi-public life of the journalist, who already 
 dreamed of the overthrow of an administration and the 
 reform of the oligarchical system then in operation. 
 He who repiningly compared his own toils to the 
 quiet life of the farmer would sit up whole nights, 
 laboring assiduously to accomplish political ends. 
 Though he could be a child among his children, and 
 was never so happy as when he joined in their play, 
 he would frequently sit up for two consecutive nights, 
 at the patient but exhausting labor of the pen. And 
 if the pen be more powerful than the sword, it is also, 
 in the hands of the overworked journalist, more dan-
 
 124 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 gerous to himself than is the active use of the sword 
 to the soldier. A fevered pulse, an aching head, and 
 all the long train of horrors resulting from a disordered 
 stomach, are his portion. With him life is little else 
 than endurance. The strongest nerves become un- 
 strung, and the most powerful frame gives way. Mr. 
 Mackenzie was blessed with a constitution, such as 
 not one man in ten thousand possesses. It has been 
 said of Lord Brougham, that he has been known to 
 work for six days and six nights without ever going 
 to bed. At a later period of his life, this extraor- 
 dinary feat Mr. Mackenzie actually performed. On 
 the occasion of these long vigils, when drowsiness 
 came on, he would have water poured upon his 
 head, and, thus roused up, take a fresh start. When 
 overtaxed nature could no longer be resisted he would 
 sleep a few minutes in his chair, then, waking, would 
 walk round his room a few times and recommence his 
 never-ending task. It is, or used to be, thought a 
 great feat for a man to walk a thousand miles in a 
 thousand hours. The overworked journalist has his 
 mile to walk every hour of his life, and when he 
 comes to the end he is in his grave ! He goes there, 
 too, much before his appointed time ; or, if all things 
 be appointed, it is his lot, by a violent wear '^f the 
 constitution, to carve out for himself an early sepul- 
 chre. The sixty-seven years that he lived carried 
 Mr. Mackenzie almost to the allotted limit of human 
 existence, but if his marvelously strong constitution had 
 had fair-play, there must have been fully twenty years 
 more wear in it. But after all, the wonder is that he 
 lived so long, when bis mode of life and what he was
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 125 
 
 called upon to endure are considered. Soon after his 
 arrival in Canada, he took ague in Kingston ; it went 
 with him to Dundas, and appeared with greater in- 
 tensity after his arrival in Toronto, then called York. 
 To the last, he was subject to that modification of it 
 which is known as " dumb ague." He was subject, 
 at infrequent intervals, to terrible pains in the head — 
 one of the well-known symptoms of over-mental ex- 
 ertion. Of the time previous to the destruction of his 
 printing office, he has left it on record: "My health 
 had for three or four months been in the most preca- 
 rious state, and much sickness in my family had de- 
 pressed my spirits beyond any thing I had ever felt 
 or endured before." In Queenstown he lost his eldest 
 daughter, born at Dundas, at the age of eleven months; 
 and in York, near the close of 1824, his second child, 
 born at Queenstown ; also a daughter, died of small- 
 pox. One of the competing newspapers showed its 
 sympathy by hinting that the infected neighborhood 
 of the rival's house and office had better be avoided. 
 And the suggestion was not unheeded ; for such was 
 the terror of small-pox in those days, that while it was 
 in the house the only stranger or neighbor who crossed 
 the threshold was the elder Mr. David Patteson, an 
 ironmonger at York, whose deeply scarred face was 
 his best security against the danger of infection. The 
 condition of his own health, as well as domestic 
 and pecuniary reasons, made Mr. Mackenzie desir- 
 ous that his connection with the press should cease. 
 
 At the time of the destruction of his type and press, 
 Mr. Mackenzie had a contract for printing the jour- 
 nals of the Legislative Assembly, at the rate of about
 
 126 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AK^D 
 
 six dollars a page ; but whatever profits were made 
 out of other printing were swallowed up by the news- 
 paper, or scattered over the country in the shape of 
 doubtful debts. Besides, he was constantly printing 
 for gratuitous distribution political squibs, in various 
 shapes and forms ; an operation which did not tend 
 to improve the state of his exchequer. 
 
 It often happens that the influence of one individual 
 upon another, at a critical period of his life, shapes 
 and moulds his destiny. Was Mr. Mackenzie sub- 
 ject to any such influence? Perhaps this question 
 cannot be satisfactorily answered. While living at 
 Queenstown, he became acquainted with Mr. Robert 
 Randal, a Virginian by birth, (and a near relative of 
 John Randolph, of Roanoke,) who had come to this 
 Province as a permanent settler, and was then living 
 at Chippewa. Randal was a politician, and it is 
 probable that his influence on Mr. Mackenzie first led 
 him into politics. The proof is not clear ; but Mrs. 
 Mackenzie is of that oj^inion. Randal was a man 
 who, with a keen eye to the future, selected land at 
 diff*erent places where future toAvns w^ere certain to 
 spring up. He was entangled in law suits, involving 
 property to a very large amount ; and in one way or 
 another was cruelly victimized. His lawyers played 
 him false, and the ofiicers of the law conspired to de- 
 fraud him. He became involved in pecuniary em- 
 barrassments, and was charged with perjury for 
 swearing to a qualification which, based on a long list 
 of properties the ownership of some of which litiga- 
 tion had rendered doubtful, was declared to be bad. 
 Mr. Mackenzie took his part; they continued to be
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 127 
 
 firm friends, and when Randall died lie bequeathed a 
 share of his property to the man who had in some 
 sort been his protector. The connection produced its 
 effect upon Mr. Mackenzie for life. Long before 
 ■Randall's death, Mackenzie had embraced his quar- 
 rels, and made them his own. They were afterwards 
 to become his inheritance ; and they were well calcu- 
 lated to assist in embittering the existence of one of 
 his keen susceptibility. 
 
 In the spring of 1827, Mackenzie raised the question 
 of sending to England an agent to plead with the British 
 Government the cause of the American-born aliens, in 
 Canada. A petition, said to have been signed by fifteen 
 thousand persons, was ready to be carried to England. 
 A central committee, charged with the protection of 
 the rights of the aliens, met at Mr. Mackenzie's house, 
 and he acted as its confidential secretary. Mr. Foth- 
 ergill, who had taken the popular side on the Alien 
 question, and been dismissed from the office of King's 
 printer, desired the mission. The central committee 
 offered it to Dr. Rolph, who declined acceptance. The 
 question was then between Fothergill and Randall ; 
 Mackenzie, favoring the appointment of the latter, 
 carried his point. Randall was in the position of the 
 persons whose cause he had to plead. On behalf of 
 tne committee, the delegate's instructions were drawn 
 up by Mr. Mackenzie ; and the committee having ad- 
 vanced a sum for his expenses,* part of which had 
 
 * Mackenzie makes " Tom Moore, jr.," say : — "Among the numerous petitions 
 against the Alien Bill, we observed one from the head of the lake, signed at 
 Flamhro' west, by upwards of 100 individuals, owning property equal to at least 
 $200,000 value. Among this opulent portion of the people we are credibly 
 informed that a sum equal to $20 was raised in aid of a mission to England.
 
 128 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 been raised by subscription, Randall set off for Lon- 
 don, in the month of March. 
 
 In order to smooth the way for the delegate in 
 England, Mr. Mackenzie addressed letters to the Earl 
 of Dalhousie, Governor-in-chief, surcharged with ex- 
 pressions of loyalty, and recommending colonial rep- 
 resentation in the Imperial Parliament. It is worthy 
 of note that the first of these letters contains several 
 extracts from American authorities predicting a dis- 
 solution of the Federal Union. After giving these 
 extracts, the writer asks : " And is this the govern- 
 ment, and are these the p)eople whose alliance and 
 intimacy we ought to court instead of those of Eng- 
 land? 'No, my lord; their constitutional theory is 
 defective, and their practice necessarily inconsistent. 
 Their government wants consolidation ; let us take 
 warning by their example." Mr. Mackenzie after- 
 wards expressed the opinion that these letters, taken 
 as a guarantee for the loyalty of the opposition, ma- 
 terially assisted Randall's exertions in England. A 
 few weeks later, he was writing about the " glorious 
 opportunity of England to recover her most ancient 
 and valuable colonies by simply giving the remaining 
 Provinces a voice in her national councils." 
 
 There were in the Province a large number of per- 
 
 Tnut is to say, they gave a shilling apiece, or a ten-thousandth part to save tha 
 rest! 
 
 '•To keep the cause of liberty 
 In Italy afloat. 
 Illustrious Bennet's generous hand 
 Subscribed a one pound note I 
 
 To keep the cause of liberty 
 
 In Canada from failing, 
 The patriots about Dundas 
 
 Gave each a Dublin shilling I"
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 129 
 
 sons, who, though born in British Colonies, had, by 
 the progress of events, and the effect of laws result- 
 ing from those events, lost the legal quality and pri- 
 vileges of British subjects. All who were born in the 
 old American Colonies, and had continued to live there 
 till after the peace of 1783, became, on the 3d of Sep- 
 tember of that year, by the Treaty of Independence, 
 citizens of the United States. They, therefore, by 
 that fact, ceased to be British subjects. Both Amer- 
 ican and English law courts agreed as to the effect of 
 the treaty uj)on the nationality of those who resided 
 in the United States, at the peace of 1783. Of those 
 who came to Canada, after that date, many had ad- 
 hered to the British standard through the revolutionary 
 war ; but among these immigrants there were doubt- 
 less many others who had not. 
 
 The laws relating to aliens were stretched so as to 
 cover a class of persons they could never have been in- 
 tended to affect. A person born in England, or Ireland, 
 or Scotland, who came to Canada through the United 
 States, was held to have lost the character of a British 
 subject on the way, and to be incapable of exercising 
 the elective franchise till he had been seven years in the 
 country ; as if the mere touch of United States soil 
 had the magic power to divest an Englishman of his 
 nation alit}", the reintegration of w^hich was only to be 
 obtained by a seven years' probation. Robert Gour- 
 lay, a Scotchman by birth, was charged under the 
 Sedition Act with not having been six months in the 
 country, nor taken the oath of allegiance. 
 
 Persons w^ho had made immense sacrifices by ad- 
 hering to the British standard during the revolution- 
 
 17
 
 130 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ary war, lost, in some cases, large amounts of property, 
 in consequence of their inability to inherit as British 
 subjects. The case of Elizabeth Ludlow, niece of a 
 Chief Justice of New Brunswick, had just been de- 
 cided adversely in the English courts, on the ground 
 that her father had resided in the United States, after 
 the Treaty of Independence was ratified ; and though 
 the whole family had made great sacrifices for the 
 British cause, she was declared incapable of inheriting 
 the property in dispute. A large number of Amer- 
 icans, whose ancestors had taken sides — some one, some 
 the other — in that contest, were then residents in the 
 Province. Most of them were possessors of land ; and 
 their rights were never challenged or brought in ques- 
 tion till after the close of the war of 1812, when, 
 under the presidency of Sir Grordon Drummond, a 
 proclamation was issued with the view of putting a 
 stop to the immigration of American citizens into Ca- 
 nada. The effect of a possible political propagandism, 
 exercised through the medium of these immigrants, 
 appears to have been feared. It is doubtful, however, 
 whether this proclamation had legal ground to rest 
 upon. Lieutenant Governor Gore, who succeeded Sir 
 Gordon, thought it had not, and that Americans were 
 entitled still, not only to come and settle in Canada, 
 but also to receive such modified naturalization as the 
 English laws had sanctioned. By a British statute 
 passed in 1790, a seven years' residence, the taking of 
 the oath of allegiance and the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, according to the usages of the Protestant 
 Church, and observing other formalities, all aliens who 
 came to the colonies could acquire the rights of
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 131 
 
 British subjects, with certain reservations. But they 
 coukl not become members of the Privy Council or 
 of Parliament;* they were incapacitated from hold- 
 ing any position of trust, civil or military, in the 
 United Kingdom or Ireland ; and they could not ac- 
 cept of any grant of land from the crown. The pro- 
 visions of this statute were hardly ever complied with 
 by abcn emigrants from the United States. JN'o dis- 
 tinction was made or could be made between the ab- 
 sconding debtor who had fled from the United States 
 to defraud his creditors, and the loyalist, who, ad- 
 hering to the fortunes of the British crown during the 
 revolutionary war, had not left that country till after 
 the peace of 1783, when, in spite of himself, the 
 treaty made him an American citizen. Men whose 
 industry had cleared the country of forests, who had 
 carried civilization into the wilds of the west, and as- 
 sisted to repel invasion, found themselves aliens, with- 
 out any legal security for their property. 
 
 Whatever might be the effect of a narrow or rigid 
 construction of the Alien Law upon these persons, 
 they had not hitherto received the treatment of aliens. 
 They had received grants of land from the crown and 
 devised real property ; some of them had held offices 
 of trust in the militia, and spilt their blood in defence 
 of the country, in which they were now to be denied 
 the rights of citizens, except upon conditions which 
 they regarded as degrading. It was not to be ex- 
 pected that a man Avho had fought beside the gallant 
 Brock would feel complimented :f asked to take 
 
 * In May, 1826, an Imperial Act was passed to t( der naturalized foreign- 
 ers capable of sitting in the Legislature of Upper Canada.
 
 132 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the oath of allegiance. The recent decision of the 
 Court of King's Bench, in England, in the Ludlow 
 case, created uneasiness, alarm, and indignation. After 
 much correspondence with the Lieutenant Governors 
 on the subject, the Imperial Government sent instruc- 
 tions to Sir Perigrine Maitland to cause a bill to be in- 
 troduced into the Legislature, by which all the rights 
 of British subjects could be conferred upon the aliens in 
 the Province. The bill passed the Legislative Council, 
 whose members owed their nomination to the crown, 
 in the session of 1826 ; and when it was sent down to 
 the Assembly, it met an equal amount of opposition 
 and support, on two several divisions. The House 
 was equally divided for a whole week ; and the bill, 
 after being five times negatived by the casting vote of 
 the Speaker, was at length irregularly passed. Though 
 the division of numbers was so long equal, the ma- 
 jority of the members who spoke opposed those pro- 
 visions which required all persons, placed in the 
 category of aliens by the recent judicial decision, to 
 remedy their former neglect by complying with certain 
 prescribed formalities ; a residence of seven years and 
 the taking of the oath of allegiance being necessary 
 to confer on them those rights which many of them had 
 from the first, exercised Avithout question. Whatever 
 may have been the merits or demerits of this mea- 
 sure, it is proper to quote the declaration of Mr. Wil- 
 mot Horton, then under-Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies, that the " Lieutenant Governor and Legisla- 
 tive Council of Upper Canada cannot be considered re- 
 sponsible for those parts of the present bill which have 
 excited the most earnest opposition. Lord Bathurst'a
 
 THE CANADIAX REBELLIOX. 133 
 
 instructions to the Lieutenant-Governor, founded, ns 
 they were, upon his Lordship's impression that the 
 measure proposed would be satisfactory, were peremp- 
 tory, and left the local Governor no discretion on the 
 subject." At the sane time, it is pretty certain that 
 I;ord Bathurst's impression must have been derived 
 from the official information he received from Canada. 
 The Imperial Government showed by their subsequent 
 action that they were anxious to do what would give 
 full satisfaction to the people, whose rights were in 
 question. 
 
 Mr. JBidwell, whose father when elected for Lennox 
 and Addington, in 1822, had been declared ineligible 
 to take his seat in the Legislative Assembly, on ac- 
 count of his being an alien, proposed as an alterna- 
 tive measure to declare all Americans then in the 
 Province entitled to all the rights of British subjects. 
 The real hardship was in confounding two distinct 
 classes: persons who were born British subjects, or 
 whose fathers had been born British subjects, and who, 
 so far from having done any thing to forfeit that cha- 
 racter, had throughout been true to their allegiance, 
 with others who had come to the Province not from 
 political choice, but because they found emigration 
 convenient, or thought it would be profitable. Among 
 the latter there were some who were anxious to enjoy 
 all the rights of British subjects without taking the 
 oath of allegiance, and who considered it a glorious 
 diversion to cross the frontier line to enjoy the de- 
 monstrations that take place on the anniversary of 
 American independence. If it was desirable that 
 these persons should submit to a formal act of natur-
 
 134 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 alization, it was impossible to distinguish between 
 them and others, who, having been born British sub- 
 jects, had never desired to relinquish their allegiance 
 And here arose the real difficulty of the case. 
 
 The bill passed by the Legislature was of that na- 
 ture which rendered necessary its reservation for the 
 signification of the Roj^al pleasure. To prevent the 
 Koyal assent being given to it, Randal had been se- 
 lected to bear the petition of some thousands of the 
 persons whom it affected. His success was com2:)lete. 
 The committee from whom he received his instruc- 
 tions consisted of Messrs. Jesse Ketchum, Alexander 
 Burnside, Joseph Shepherd, and Thomas Stoyell. 
 Messrs. Hume and Warburton rendered him every 
 assistance in their power, and Lord Goderich showed 
 the most anxious desire to meet the washes of the 
 petitioners. Another bill, framed in conformity with 
 the Royal instructions, which Mr. Randal's exertions 
 had procured, was introduced, into the Upper Canada 
 Assembly, by Mr. Bidwell, a prominent member of 
 the opposition. It invested with the quality of Bri- 
 tish subjects all residents of the Province who had 
 received grants of land from the crown, or held public 
 office, as well as their children and remote descend- 
 ants ; all settled residents who had taken up their 
 abode before the year 1820, their descendants to have 
 the right to inherit in case the parents were dead ; all 
 persons resident in the Province on the 1st March, 
 1828, on taking the oath of allegiance after seven 
 years' residence in some part of His Majesty's domi- 
 nions. If these persons had resided seven years in 
 the Province, they would at the age of nineteen be
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 135 
 
 entitled to take the oath of allegiance at any time 
 within three years. It was also provided that no per- 
 son of the age of sixteen, on the 26th of May, 1826, 
 should be debarred from inheriting property on ac- 
 count of its descent from an alien, and any person 
 claiming to hold property on account of those nearer 
 akin, being aliens, must have had actual possession 
 and made improvements on the property before that 
 date : a contract for the sale of property so held to be 
 v^alid, if there had been no adverse possession. 
 
 The bill passed the Assembly with onl^^such feeble op- 
 position as the official party and their friends ventured 
 to offer in the way of amendments. Their chagrin ap- 
 pears to have been shared by the Lieutenant Governor, 
 who, in his reply to the Assembly's address informing 
 him that they had passed the bill, petulantly threat- 
 ened to tell the Colonial Secretary that it was pre- 
 cisely such a measure as the House had rejected in 
 the second session of that Parliament. The House, 
 without any such direct reference to the Lieutenant 
 Governor as would have been unparliamentary, flatly 
 denied this statement in the first of a series of reso- 
 lutions, in which reasons for rejecting the Alien Bill 
 in the second session were given. These resolutions, 
 eight in number, were severally carried against the go- 
 vernment by about two to one; audit became the duty 
 of the Lieutenant Governor to transmit them to Eng- 
 land. It was, no doubt, true that the bill passed was 
 some modification of the simple declaratory measure 
 with which the opposition had proposed to cover the 
 whole case in the preceding session. The compromise, 
 for such it must be called, was probably the best that
 
 136 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 could have been devised. It shared the fate of all 
 compromises, in meeting the opposition of a few ex- 
 treme persons. The Legislative Councils altered the 
 preamble, and amended the bill so as to prevent it 
 repealing any statute then in force. The Legislative 
 Assembly, after a little grumbling on the part of two 
 or three members, accepted the amendments unani- 
 mously. 
 
 The appeal so successfully made to the Imperial 
 Government, was suggested by Mr. Mackenzie ; and 
 it was he who got up the Committee, which decided to 
 send an agent. He drew up Randal's instructions, 
 and caused him to be selected in preference to another. 
 
 It often happens that some particular event pro- 
 duces upon the minds of even clever men impressions 
 which, though not altogether well grounded, they 
 never get rid of as long as they live. The success of 
 Eandal's mission to England had this effect upon Mr. 
 Mackenzie ; for, ever after, except a few years about 
 the period of the rebellion, he believed in the specific 
 of an appeal to the Imperial Government. His own 
 subsequent visit to the Colonial office, and the success 
 he met, confirmed an opinion which he cherished to 
 the day of his death. Appeal from the oligarchy to 
 the justice of the Imperial Government seemed atone 
 time the only hope of the colonists, until the local 
 Excutive could be made responsible to the popular 
 branch of the Legislature; but after the change 
 wrought by the introduction of responsible govern- 
 ment, Mr. Mackenzie failed to make sufficient allow- 
 ance for the new state of things.
 
 THE CANADIAT^ EEBELLIOJf. 137 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie conceives the idea of Publishing a Daily Paper in Montreal 
 — "Printer to the Hon. House )f Assembly" — Not a Sure Partisan — His 
 Estimate of the Intelligence of the Assembly in 1827 — Irresponsible Govern- 
 ment — Union of Legislative and Judicial Functions — Colonial Eepresenta- 
 tion in the Imperial Parliament. 
 
 In May, 1827, Mr. Mackenzie visited Montreal, 
 with a view of ascertaining, from the information he 
 could collect on the spot, whether it would be advisable 
 to commence the publication of a daily paper there. 
 An examination of the ground convinced him that the 
 speculation would not answer commercially; and he 
 returned to York, resolving not to enter on the doubt- 
 ful experiment.* From the 2oth of January, 1827, to 
 the 10th of January, 1828, the imprint of The Colonial 
 
 * A few months afterwards — November, 1827 — he gave an account of the 
 Periodical Press of Montreal. The Herald printing office was then the most con- 
 siderable in the British Colonies. There were, besides, the Montreal Gazette 
 and Herald, the Courant, the Canadian Spectator, La Minerve, with very limited 
 circulations — many farmers both in Tipper and Lower Canada then receivin g , 
 their intelligence of current events from oral information — the Christian Seii- 
 tinel, a church of England journal, circulating six hundred copies a week. 
 The Quarterly Review had recently died for want of support ; and a new Colo- 
 nial Magazine had obtained twenty-one subscribers. The Quebec Gazette was 
 the only paper in Lower Canada distinguished for the attention it paid to com- 
 mercial affairs. Mr. Mackenzie described it as occupying, in Canada, tlie po- 
 sition that the Timea occupied in England, as the organ of the most respectable 
 class of the population. A wonderful revolution in j ^urnalism has taken placo 
 
 Bince then. 
 18
 
 138 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Advocate described the paper as being "Printed and 
 Published by W. L. Mackenzie, Printer to the Hon., 
 the House of Assembly of Upper Canada." The con- 
 tract was for the whole of the printing required by the 
 House; and so low was the price that it does not ap- 
 pear to have been profitable. He preferred a claim 
 for £25 extra, on account of the unusual expedition 
 required by the House;* and although the extra sum 
 he had paid to printers was larger than this, the claim 
 was refused. 
 
 At no time does Mr. Mackenzie appear to have 
 been a very strong partisan. Not that his views and 
 position were not decided. He was strongly opposed 
 
 * In a letter to Mr. H. C. Thompson, of the Printing Committee, dated 
 January 15, 1828, Mr. Mackenzie said: 
 
 " Last session, Mr. Carey received for work done to the Legislative Conncil 
 nearly at the rate of 3s. Zd., and for work done for the Assembly 3«.; Mr. Stan- 
 ton received 3«. for some, and is. from the government for the rest, and 
 oflered to do more for 2s. I had some at 3a., some at \s. 8d., and some at la. 
 per one thousand ems. Such a system is surely absurd and unjust. It is not 
 my intention to ask for one farthing more than my one shilling contract; if 
 the House arc anxious to get their work done at an **fair price, and to give 
 nobody but your brother-in-law (Mr. Stanton, the King's Printer) even jour- 
 neyman's wages, I will not selfishly complain — but I wish very much their 
 'saving fit" would become more general in its operation. There is a law 
 maxim which runs thus: *Lez neminem cogit ad impossibilia' — the law compels 
 no man to perform impossibilities ; — and upon this principle I claimed the 
 other £25 only, not of additional price, but for double allowance madlb and 
 promised my people to get forward expeditiously with the accumulated print- 
 ing of the House, at hours when they should have been in bed. This claim 
 was supported by three affidavits, setting forth the fact that such extra work 
 had been done, and that without working almost continually, all the hands in 
 the ofiice (ten or eleven) could not have done the printing in time — for we 
 were often obliged to leave off one job and t3gin a second, or even a third, in 
 order to meet the new orders of the clerk. ' The letter concluded with an 
 offer to do the sessional work of the House for 1828, at twenty cents per one 
 thousand ems composition. He also suggested a division of the work at fair 
 prices ; and this suggestion was acted upon, three printers being included.
 
 THE CA:N^ADIAN EEBELLION-. 139 
 
 to the ruling minority; but he was very far from 
 having unbounded confidence in the majority of the 
 Assembly. Of the leaders of the opposition, Messrs'. 
 Rolph and Bidwell, he sometimes spoke in sharp terms 
 of condemnation ; showing that he was under no sort 
 of party control or leadership. When reminded by 
 one of his own political friends in the House that cer- 
 tain petitions laid before the Legislature were not 
 privileged communications; that an action for libel 
 would lie, if they contained what the law regarded as 
 libellous matter, and were reprinted in a newspaper; 
 his reply was, that he intended to publish both the 
 petition! in question in the next number of his paper, 
 a promise which was faithfully kept. 
 
 Before the commencement of 1828, Mr. Mackenzie 
 was a declared candidate for a seat in the next House 
 of Assembly; and it is not impossible that he alread;y 
 aimed at attaining to the leadership himself. Speak- 
 ing of this House as a body, in a letter to Earl Dal- 
 housie, he said: "Many of these Legislators are quali- 
 fied to sign their names; but as to framing and carry- 
 ing tlirough a bill on any subject whatever, the half 
 of them wisely never attempted such a herculean 
 task." And in the same letter, he expressed undis- 
 guised contempt for the whole sham of Colonial Legis- 
 latures then in vogue. "I have long been satisfied," 
 he said, "that if the North American Colonies were 
 rid of these inferior and subordinate Legislatures, 
 which are and must ever be insufficient for the pur- 
 poses for which they were intended; and allowed, 
 instead, a due weight in both branches of the British 
 Parliament, it would prove the foundation of their
 
 140 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 permanent and true happiness." The difficulty wa5 
 that these representative assemblies were mocked 
 with a semblance of that legislative power, with the 
 substantial possession of which they were never en- 
 dowed. Even the Reformers had only an imperfect 
 conception 3f the true remedy. The ministry might 
 be subjected to a succession of defeats in the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly without raising a question of resigna- 
 tion; and the liberal journals very seldom undertook 
 to deal with the question of ministerial responsibility. 
 Mr. Mackenzie was the "advocate of such a change in 
 the mode of administering the government as would 
 give the people an effectual control over the actions 
 of their representatives, and through them over the 
 actions of the Executive."* Most of those who essayed 
 to effect reforms, contented themselves with encounter- 
 ing abuses in detail; a mode of warfare which left 
 untouched a radically defective system of administra- 
 tion. 
 
 When we look back upon the system that existed, 
 the mind is filled with astonishment that it should 
 have enjoyed such comparative immunity from attack. 
 A party triumph at the polls carried hardly any of 
 the advantages of victory into the Legislature. The 
 members of the Executive belonged to the minority. 
 The majority might pass bills in the Assembly; but, 
 unless they pleased the ruling party, they were re- 
 jected by the crown-nominated chamber. There was 
 no general separation of legislative and judicial func- 
 
 * Advocate, January 10, 1828. — These sentiments he claimed to have enun- 
 ciated in the first number of his paper ; but if so, the utterance was not very 
 distinct.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 141 
 
 tions ; and when tlie Assembly, in 1826, addressed the 
 Imperial Government to remove the Chief Justice 
 from the sphere of polities, the answer was that the 
 Lieutenant-Governor had profited greatly by his ad- 
 vice, and that there was nothing in the circumstances 
 of the colony to render a change of system desirable. 
 The Judiciary and the members of the Executive re- 
 ceived their appointments and the greater part of their 
 j^ay from revenues belonging to England, on which 
 they were largely dependent. When the House pre- 
 sented an address to the King, praying that the 
 bounty lands which had been withheld from those 
 officers of the militia who attended a convention on the 
 grievances of the colony in 1818, Governor Maitland, 
 by the command of His Majesty, replied, that when 
 they expressed "deep contrition" for presuming to ask 
 for a redress of grievances, the lands would be granted 
 to these erring militia-men of 1812. The system re- 
 acted upon itself; the bad advice sent by irresponsible 
 ministers from this side came back across the Atlantic 
 matured into the commands of the Sovereign ; and the 
 name and the authority of England suffered, while 
 the real culprits escaped the merited punishment of 
 ejection from office by the votes of a majority of the 
 people's representatives. 
 
 It is not surprising, under these circumstances, that 
 a scheme so impracticable as Colonial representation 
 in the Imperial Parliament should have been turned 
 to, in despair, by Mr. Mackenzie. A union of the 
 colonies, which he had often advocated, would have 
 necessitated a change of system if it was to be an ef-
 
 142 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 fective remedy for the glaring defects of administra- 
 tion which then existed. 
 
 In the commencement of 1828, while advocating a 
 responsible Executive, Mr. Mackenzie disclaimed all 
 " intention or desire to assist in cutting any colony 
 adrift from its j)arent state." He confesses, how- 
 ever, that his proposal for representation in the Im- 
 perial Parliament had not met universal reprobation. 
 The ruling faction desired to have things their own 
 way ; and so comfortable were existing arrangements 
 that they were afraid of the effects of a change. The 
 people were unfortunately becoming suspicious of the 
 external influence that sustained the oligarchy ; and 
 were wisely disinclined to listen to a scheme of repre- 
 sentation in a distant Parliament, where their feeble 
 voice must have been drowned in the clangor of over 
 six hundred representatives.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 143 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Mackenzie becomes a Candidate for the Legislative Assembly — "Parliament- 
 ary Black List" — Improvement in his Pecuniary Circumstances — His Elec- 
 tion — Complexion of the New House — Mr. (afterwards Sir) Allan McNab is 
 declared Guilty of a Breach of Privilege, and on motion of Mackenzie sent to 
 Jail — Mr. J. H. Boulton Keprimanded for a like offence — Mr. Mackenzie, 
 as Chairman of a Committee on the Post-office, recommends that the De- 
 partment be placed under Provincial Control — His action as Chairman on 
 Privileges — The Chaplain of the House — The Government Pecuniarily Inde- 
 pendent of the Assembly — The Public Debt and overdue Debentures unpaid 
 — Mackenzie contends that all the Provincial Eevenues should be placed 
 under the Control of the Legislature — Resolutions on the State of the 
 Province — Sir J . Colborne does not meet the Expectations formed by him 
 — Specimen of Mackenzie's Oratorical Powers. 
 
 Having once resolved to seek a seat in the Legis- 
 \ .vture of his adopted country, Mr. Mackenzie waited 
 ttr no deputations to solicit him to become a candi- 
 date ; he submitted his claims to no clique of election 
 managers, and heeded not their voluntary resolves. 
 Months before the election was to take place, he issued 
 \n address* to the electors of the County of York, not 
 
 * ''To THE ELKCTOKS OF THE cotTNTY OF YORK. — Gentlemen: — 1 nave the 
 honu: to inform you that it is my intention to come forward as a candidate 
 at thj next Election of Members to serve for your County in the Provincial 
 Parliament ; and I most respectfully solicit your votes and support. 
 
 " I have no end in view but the well being of the people at large — no ambi- 
 ti(*Q tu serve but that of contributing to the happiness and prosperity of our 
 curnaion country. The influence and authority with which you may invest 
 me, ^1. .11 always be directed^ according to the best of my judgment, for the
 
 144 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 very prolific in promises ; containing nothing that 
 would make more than a very meagre modern " plat- 
 form ;" yet it was sufficient to satisfy the people to 
 whom it was addressed. 
 
 Mr. James E. Small was not connected with the 
 government ; but he belonged to one of the " old fam- 
 ilies" of York. He had been Mr. Mackenzie's solici- 
 
 general go 3d ; and it will be my care to uphold your rights to the utmost of 
 my power, with that firmness, moderation, and perseverance, which become tha 
 representative of a free people. 
 
 " If honored with your suffrages, it will be alike my duty and my pleasure 
 t3 watch over the local interests of this great county, and to promote every 
 public improvement and useful undertaking, which shall be found conducive 
 to your prosperity and the general welfare. 
 
 "I have ever been opposed to ecclesiastical domination ; it is at enmity with 
 the free spirit of Christianity; and nations which have bowed to its yoke, are 
 become the dark abodes of ignorance and superstition, oppression, and misery. 
 
 " That corrupt, powerful, and long endured influence which has hitherto 
 interfered with your rights and liberties, can only be overthrown by your 
 unanimity and zeal. An independent House of Assembly, to Upper Canada, 
 would be inestimable. 
 
 " I have been a careful observer of the conduct of the people's representa- 
 tives in the Colonial Assemblies; I have seen men in whom was placed the 
 utmost confidence, fall from their integrity and betray their sacred trust ; men, 
 too, who had entered upon their legislative duties with the best intentions to- 
 wards the people, and who evinced for a time a firm determination to support 
 their rights. But there are others who continue to maintain and uphold the 
 interests of their country, unshaken and undismayed; who consider it their 
 highest honor to persevere in a faithful discharge of their public duties, and 
 eagerly strive to deserve the good will, the affection, and the confidence of 
 their fellow subjects. 
 
 " Among this latter class I am desirous of being numbered ; and, unless I 
 ehall be found deserting the cause of the people, I trust that the people will 
 never desert me. 
 
 " Accept my sincere thanks for the abundant proofs of kindness and confi- 
 dence, and for the liberal assurance of support, with which you have honored 
 me, and believe me, 
 
 "Gentlemen, Your faithful and humble servant, 
 "W. L. Mack£Nzle." 
 
 York, December llih, 1827.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 145 
 
 tor, in the famous type case ; but he was astonished 
 at the temerity of his late client in venturing unasked 
 to declare himself a candidate for the representation 
 of the most populous county in Upper Canada. It so 
 hajDpened that Mr. Small was to be a candidate for 
 the same county. He called upon the presumptuous 
 editor of The Advocate, to give him some advice about 
 this York election. He dwelt on the folly of a person 
 in Mr. Mackenzie's position attempting to oppose one 
 whose long residence and family influence would be 
 more than sufficient to secure his return. These ar- 
 guments neither convinced Mr. Mackenzie nor changed 
 his determination. He had declared himself a candi- 
 date, and a candidate he would be. 
 
 The election managers took the case of the county 
 of York into their keeping. On the 4th of February, 
 1828, a committee, delegated by a public meeting held 
 at !N"ewmarket, tried to ballot Mr. Mackenzie out of 
 the field. T^ine votes were cast for Mr. Small, and 
 only three for Mackenzie ; w^hile of the other candi- 
 dates Mr. William Roe got fifty-seven, and Mr. Jessie 
 Ketchum forty-one. Had not Mr. Small told him how 
 it would be ? But he was not to be got rid of in this 
 scientific manner, and he announced : 
 
 *' I have attended two public meetings, but it is not 
 my intention to go to any more until I meet the people 
 at the hustings — it is a needless w^aste of time, — and 
 benefits nobody but the tavern-keeper. If I go int(» 
 the Legislature, it must be in my own way, or not at 
 all. For I mean to break through all the old estab- 
 lished usages, to keep no open houses, administer to 
 tlie wants of no publican, hire no vehicles to trundle 
 
 19
 
 146 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AND 
 
 freemen to the hustings to serve themselves, nor to 
 court the favor of those leading men who have so 
 powerfully influenced former elections. I will not lessen 
 my own resources for maintaining indej^endence, by 
 spending at the outset, as was done by others four 
 years ago, a sum sufficient to maintain my large 
 household for a twelvemonth ; but if I shall become 
 one of the stew^ards of the Province, I hope I shall be 
 found not only faithful, but also fully competent to 
 discharge the duties of a representative in such a way 
 as ought to secure for me the confidence of an intelli- 
 gent community." 
 
 Virtuous resolves are good ; but election expenses are 
 not easily brought under control, and no power on 
 earth is strong enough to put them down entirely. 
 ]Mr. Mackenzie's first election cost £500. 
 
 Opposed by the administration and its organs, from 
 political reasons, Mr. Mackenzie's candidature was 
 contested even by professed liberal journals, from a 
 business jealousy that derived its venom from the cir- 
 cumstance of his own paper having a circulation larger 
 than any rival in Upper Canada. Assailed by every 
 newspaper in York, except his own ; libelled in pam- 
 jDhlets, and slandered in posters, he pursued the even 
 tenor of his way, and managed to find time for the 
 preparation of electioneering documents, calculated to 
 influence not merely the county of York, but the 
 whole Province. His " Legislative Black List," early 
 commenced and assiduously kept up, contained a short 
 commentary on the divisions that had taken place 
 during the two previous Provincial Parliaments, on 
 prominent and important questions. The publication
 
 THE CANADIAX REBELLION. 147 
 
 was commenced on the 29th May, and the Provincial 
 Parliament was not dissolved till the 24th July. 
 Compared with electioneering documents of the present 
 day, whether in Canada or the States, " The Black 
 List" was mild and moderate. In republishing Mr. 
 Small's election address, he simply appended to it, 
 within brackets, " Printed at the Government office." 
 
 The effect of this new mode of election warfare was 
 visible when the time for counting votes came. Mr. 
 Jonas Jones, whose public career and conduct prob- 
 ably presented as few points on which admiration 
 could find a resting place as any other Colonial poli- 
 tician of his time, was defeated by Mr. Buell, in 
 Leeds. The Attorney General was re-elected by a 
 majority of only seventeen. Mr. G. S. Boulton, bro- 
 ther of the Solicitor General, was rejected by the county 
 of Durham ; and several other similar results were 
 visible at the close of the contest. 
 
 By this time, Mr. Mackenzie's pecuniary circum- 
 stances had greatly improved. In a letter, written 
 previous to the election, he gives us some information 
 on this point : 
 
 " By an unwearied application to business, I am 
 now again an unincumbered freeholder of Upper 
 Canada, to more than thrice the amount required by 
 law, as a parliamentary qualification, besides being 
 possessed of nearly as much more lands, with good 
 bonds for deeds. I have also a valuable personal 
 property, including a business which nothing but the 
 actual knowledge of the election of a bad parliament, 
 in aid of the present corrupt administration, would in- 
 duce me to quit. Being therefore easy in my circum-
 
 148 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 stances, entirely freed from the terrors of litigation, 
 prosperous in my business, in good health, and owing 
 very few debts, I have applied to the people of the 
 most populous county in Upper Canada, for the high- 
 est honor in their gift, the surest token of their esteem 
 and confidence." 
 
 The result showed that Mr. Small had miscalculated 
 the relative influence of himself and his opponei^t. 
 
 The first session, in which Mr. Mackenzie had a 
 seat in the Legislative Assembly, opened inauspi- 
 ciously for the advisers by whom Sir John Colborne 
 was surrounded. Having been convened on the 8th 
 January, 1829, it soon gave proof of its hostility to the 
 administration. The vote on the speakership, wdiich 
 stood twenty-one for Mr. Willson, the late Speaker, 
 and twenty-four for Mr. Bidwell, did not at all indi- 
 cate the strength of parties ; for, while Mr. Willson 
 received the support of the Grovernment, the division 
 showed that he still retained many friends among the 
 opposition. The address in reply to the speech from 
 the throne, founded on resolutions framed by Dr. 
 Kolph, and containing the strongest expressions of 
 a want of confidence in the advisers of the Lieuten- 
 ant Governor,* was carried with the nearest possible 
 
 * " For the insurance of those most important objects, we, His Majesty's most 
 faithful Commons, confiding in the candor of your Excellency, and in your 
 readiness l^ recognize us as constitutional advisers of the crown, do humbly 
 pray youi Excellency against the injurious policy hitherto pursued by the 
 Provincial administration ; and, although we at present see your Excelleney un- 
 happily surrounded by the same advisers as have so deeply wounded the feelings and 
 injured the best interests of the country, yet in the interval of any necessary change, 
 we entertain an anxious belief that, under the auspices of your Excellency, the 
 administration of justice will rise above suspicion; the wishes and interests of 
 the people be properly respected ; the constitutional rights and independence
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 149 
 
 approach to unanimity: thirty-seven against one * In 
 these da^^s an unanimous vote of censure on the Go- 
 vernor's advisers produced no change of ministry. 
 The Assembly complained of the Government, when 
 they ought to have struck a bh:>w at the system which 
 rendered it possible for a party, who could command 
 only a small minority in the popular branch of the Legis- 
 lature to continue their grasp upon the reins of power. 
 
 Such was the House in which Mr. Mackenzie first 
 held a seat ; such the practice of the Government, 
 when he first entered public life. 
 
 During this session an event occurred that brought 
 him into collision with two members of the Legisla- 
 ture, who were afterwards active in his expulsion 
 from the House, upon pretexts that were wholly in- 
 adequate to form anj^thing like a justification. The 
 new Governor, Sir John Colborne, had been exhibited 
 in efiigy at Hamilton, and a rumor had found cur- 
 rency that there was a conspiracy to liberate Collins 
 from jail by force. Whatever connection these two 
 subjects may have had, they were jointly referred to 
 a special committee of inquiry. Mr. Gurnett had 
 
 of the Legislature be held inviolable ; the prerogative and patronage of His 
 Most Gracious Majesty be exercised for the happiness of his people and thp 
 honor of his crown, and the revenues of the colony be, hereafter, sacredly do 
 voted to the many and urgent objects of public improvement, after making 
 provision for the public service upon the basis of that economy which is suited 
 It the exigencies of the country and the condition of its inhabitants." 
 
 ■* The following is the list of members: — Messrs. McDonald, Eraser, Mc- 
 Lean, Blacklock, Shaver, Brouee, Longley, Henderson, Kilborn, Buell, Morris, 
 Thomson, Dalton, Bethune, Radenhurst, Bidwell, Perry, Lockwood, Samson, 
 Peterson, James Wilson, Lyons, Ewings, Smith, Ketchum, Mackenzie, Caw- 
 thra, Matthews, John Bolpb, Robinson, George Rolph, Hopkins, Randal, Lef- 
 ferry, Terry, Woodruff, John Willson, Hamilton, Dickson, McCall, Baldwin, 
 Murnor, Malcolm, 'Wilkinson, Buby, McMartin, Berczy, and Fothergill,
 
 150 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 stated in liis newspaper* that the intention of certain 
 l)etitioners for the release of Collins was to liberate 
 him by force, if necessar3\ On the 29th January, 
 Dr. Rolph moved that Mr. Grurnett be brought to the 
 bar of the House to be interrogated touching this 
 statement. When he came he refused to answer, on 
 the ground that his evidence would implicate himself. 
 Mr. (now Sir) Allan McXab was also among the wit' 
 nesses called. He was then young and not indisposed 
 to have the House take some action against him that 
 might give him a chance of becoming a member of the 
 next Assembly ; so he refused to ansAver the questions 
 put to him. On motion of Dr. Baldwin, he was de- 
 clared guilty of a high breach and contempt of the 
 privileges of the House. Being taken into the cus- 
 tody of the Sergeant-at-arms, and brought a prisoner 
 to the bar of the House, he complained of having been 
 tried and convicted without a hearing. His defence 
 was not satisfactory to the House, and he was, on mo- 
 tion of Mr. Mackenzie, committed to York jail, under 
 the warrant of the Speaker, during the pleasure of the 
 House. Mr. McNab is said not to have looked upon 
 this inconvenience as a disservice ; but he would 
 hardly consider himself bound to be grateful for it. 
 Mr. Solicitor General Boulton was also called as a 
 witness. He, too, thought himself entitled to refuse 
 to answer the questions of the committee, and for this 
 contempt and breach of privilege was let off with a 
 reprimand from Mr. Speaker Bidwell.f Mr. Macken- 
 
 * The Gore Gazette. 
 
 f The history of England does not furnish a single instance of a witness 
 persisting in refusing, like Mr. McNab and Solicitor General Boulton, to an- 
 swer questions put by a committee of the House of Commons. There is, there-
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION". 151 
 
 zie would not have been more lenient to him than to 
 Mr. MclN'ab, and the Solicitor General was not of a 
 nature to forget or forgive. Besides, he harbored 
 contempt, not knowing that it produces its like, and 
 afterwards failed to find in the vocabulary words to 
 express the strength of that feeling towards Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie. 
 
 ^0 sooner had Mr. Mackenzie got into the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly than he became one of its most active 
 members. He commenced as he ended, by asking for 
 information, and probing to the bottom questions of 
 great public interest. In the committee room he 
 made his mark, during the first session, not less dis- 
 tinctly than in the House. As chairman of the select 
 committee to inquire into the state of the Post-office 
 department, in Upper Canada, he drew up a compre- 
 hensive report, rej^lete with the most valuable infor- 
 mation and suggestions. The mail service was mise- 
 rably performed ; and matters w^ere so managed as to 
 leave a considerable surplus profit, which failed to 
 find its way into the Provincial exchequer. Not a 
 mile of new post road could be opened, or a single 
 Post-office established, without the authority of the 
 Postmaster General, in England, who was necessarily 
 destitute of the minute local information necessary for 
 the correct determination of such questions. The 
 postage on a letter between England and Canada 
 ranged from five shillings to seven shillings and six 
 pence. The tri-weekly mail betw^een Montreal and 
 the present city of Toronto w^as slowly dragged over 
 
 fore, no precedent for the punishment that should be accorded for this con- 
 tempt and nove species of breach of privilege.
 
 152 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 roads that were all but impassable ; and it was a stand- 
 ing wonder how the mail carriers were enabled to 
 perform their duties westward. Mr. Mackenzie re- 
 commended, as the beginning of all efficient reform, 
 that the department should be placed under the con- 
 trol of the local authorities. He also laid it down as 
 a principle that no attempt should be made to draw 
 a revenue from the Post-office ; but that the entire re- 
 ceipts should be devoted to the securing of additional 
 postal facilities. In case the department came under 
 local control, he recommended the retention of Mr. 
 Stayner, then Deputy Postmaster General, on the 
 ground that he had shown himself fully equal to 
 the discharge of the duties. Complaints had been 
 made, in previous sessions, that the colonists were 
 taxed without their consent, through the Post-office 
 department, and that the surplus revenue was never 
 accounted for ; a complaint which had been met by 
 Attorney General Robinson by a reference to Dr. 
 Franklin, w^ho was said not to have regarded postage 
 in the light of taxation. Inquiries had been made; 
 but until now no bold and comprehensive remedy was 
 proposed. Here, as on so many other questions, Mr. 
 Mackenzie was in advance of his cotemporaries and of 
 the times. The remedy he suggested, of placing the 
 department under local control, came before the 
 end of another generation ; but if it had come sooner, 
 the ProA ince would have been the gainer. 
 
 'NoY was this the only committee of which Mr. 
 Mackenzie was chairman. In that capacity he made 
 a report on the privileges of the House and the con- 
 duct of returning officers at the recent election. Dr.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION". 153 
 
 Powell, a previous clerk of the House, had heon dis- 
 missed by the government, without reference to that 
 branch of the Legislature whose servant he was, and 
 his successor had been appointed in the same way. 
 The House had silently acquiesced in the appointment 
 of Mr. Fitzgibbon thus made, some years before ; but 
 Mr. Mackenzie was not willing to consecrate a princi- 
 ple that entrenched on the privileges of the body of 
 which he had become a member. At the previous 
 election, some returning officers had made charges 
 of doubtful legality against the candidates. Of that 
 nature was the item for their own services ; while the 
 cost of stationery and printing incident to the election 
 was legally charged against candidates. So was the re- 
 muneration of the poll clerk. Mr. Mackenzie reported 
 these facts to the House, without indicating a specific 
 remedy ; but he afterwards carried, on a vote of twen- 
 ty-seven against five, a resolution that the chief clerk, 
 with the approbation of the Speaker, should appoint 
 the subordinate officers of the House, except the 
 Sergeant- at- arms and any others appointed under the 
 existing law. 
 
 He endeavored to bring the clerks of the Crown up 
 to their duty; and for this purpose carried an address 
 calling the attention of the government to the fact 
 that the census returns, required to be made annually 
 under the Assessment Act, were frequently neglected 
 b)y these functionaries, and making suggestions for 
 preventing the omission. 
 
 During this session Mr. Mackenzie carried various 
 other motions and addresses to the government. On 
 nearly every vote ho was sustained by immense ma- 
 
 20
 
 154 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 jorities. When certain powerful interests were inter- 
 fered with, his success was not so marked ; and on a 
 few occasions he failed to obtain a majority. In those 
 days, the Legislative Assembly counted a chaplain 
 among its servants ; and in accordance w^ith the at- 
 tempt, which had not yet been abandoned, to give the 
 Church of England a position of ascendancy in Upper 
 Canada, he was a member of that Church. On a 
 vote of eighteen against fourteen, Mr. Mackenzie car- 
 ried a resolution which struck at this exclusiveness, 
 by declaring that, during the remainder of the session, 
 the clergy of the town, generally, be invited to of- 
 ficiate, in turn, as chaplain, and their service be paid 
 out of the contingent fund. But the bill repealing 
 the clause of a statute then existing, which provided 
 for the payment of a fixed salary to the chaj^lain, was 
 rejected by the Legislative Council. When he asked 
 the members to pay the postage of their own letters, 
 if they exceeded a certain weight, he failed of suc- 
 cess. 
 
 Upon most of the propositions he offered to the ac- 
 ceptance of the House, Mr. Mackenzie carried over- 
 whelming majorities with him. But the Government 
 was so fenced in that it could exist in the face of any 
 amount of opposition. This session it was entirely 
 independent of the House for the means of carrying 
 on the government. No money grant was asked ; and 
 the House was ofiicially informed that it would not 
 be expected to trouble itself with the matter. The 
 Crown revenue, which came into its hands, under an 
 Imperial statute of 1774 (Geo. III. cap. 88), sufficed to 
 defi'ay the expenses of the government and of the ad-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 155 
 
 ministration of justice.* And any bills passed by the 
 House, which did not meet the sanction of the govern- 
 ment, could be easily disposed of in the Legislative 
 Council. The public debt, amounting to £112,166 
 13s. 4(Z.,f might have been supposed to require special 
 attention, for there were <£32j000 of overdue debentures 
 unpaid. 
 
 With this responsibility, the Province was spoken 
 of as being "overwhelmed Avith a great public debt ;" 
 and if its embarrassment is to be held as a criterion, 
 it must be admitted that this debt was a greater bur- 
 then than some $60,000,000 is at present; though we 
 now look at the amount of the debt in 1829 as utterly 
 contemptible. Mr. Mackenzie's idea was, that a rigid 
 course of economy should be pursued till the whole of 
 the debt was paid oif. In the course of this session, he 
 brought before the House a series of thirty-one reso- 
 lutions — a moderate number compared with the cele- 
 brated ninety-two of Lower Canada — on the state of 
 the Province. He therein took a position far in 
 
 * This was generally the case — the government was financially independent 
 of the House ; and the money votes for public improvements were, under the 
 vicious system then in vogue, just as liable to be initiated by members of the 
 opposition as by the government. In Lower Canada, the Legislature con- 
 tested the right of the government to appropriate the Crown revenue. The 
 Crown revenue, in that Province, was not sufficient to defray the expense of the 
 gOTernment ; and when application was made to the House to supply the de- 
 ficiency, the whole question of revenue and expenditure was brought into dis- 
 cussion. There had previously been complaints that the Post-office revenue 
 was not under the control of the House; and Mr. Mackenzie was among the 
 first to suggest that all the revenue raised in the Province ought to be appro- 
 priated by the local Legislature. 
 
 f The public debt had been contracted for the following purposes : Militia 
 pensions, £11,6G6 13s. 4d. ; Kettle Creek Harbor, £3,000; Burlington Canal, 
 £12,500 ; "Welland Canal, £75,000 ; public service for tiie year 1824, £10,000.
 
 lo6 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 advance of tlie times. Contending for that right of 
 local self-government, of which the constitution — sub- 
 stantially the same which united Canada now pos- 
 sesses — contained the guarantee, he asserted the right 
 of the Houso to control the entire revenue arising 
 within the Province ; complained that money voted 
 for the civil service had been applied to the pension- 
 ing of individuals in suras of from £1,000 to £500 a 
 year: denounced the favors shown to a particular 
 church, pensions — in a rather wholesale way it must 
 be admitted, — monopolies, and ex-officio and criminal 
 prosecutions, at the instance of the Crown, for political 
 libels. The necessity of making the Canadian judges 
 independent was asserted, in opposition to opinions 
 expressed in high quarters in England. The un- 
 limited power of sheriffs, holding office during plea- 
 sure, was declared to be dangerous to public liberty ; 
 especially as the office was often filled by persons of 
 neither weight nor responsibility. The patronage 
 exercised by the Crown or its agent, the Lieutenant 
 Governor, in the Province, was asserted to be at 
 variance with sound policy and good government. 
 Though the importance of Canada to England, as a 
 nursery for her seamen, and as a country consuming 
 a larger quantity of British goods in proportion to 
 the population, was insisted on, it was alleged that 
 the discontents arising from the abuse of power were 
 among the causes that led to the invasion of the Pro- 
 vince in the war of 1812 ; the losses suffered from the 
 war, by the most active friends of the British power, 
 falling most heavily on the ISTiagara District, ought, it 
 was contended, to be made good out of the territorial re-
 
 THE CANADIAI^ REBELLION. 157 
 
 venue of the Crown,* instead of being left unliquidated 
 or allowed to fall on a poor province. The appoint- 
 ment of an accredited agent at the seat of the Imperial 
 Government, was declared to be desirable. The reso- 
 lutions constituted a budget of grievances, most of 
 which have not only been redressed, but forgotten. 
 The resolutions were not without blemishes ; the chief 
 of which consisted of the advocacy of the protective 
 S3'stem; a fault very common in those times, when 
 free trade had not become fashionable, and when the 
 chief organs of English opinion asserted that sufficient 
 favor was not shown to the productions of Canada. 
 So little does even the popular branch of the Legisla- 
 ture appear to have been conscious of the justice and 
 necessity of many of the principles asserted in several 
 of these resolutions, that they were not pressed on the 
 House for adoj)tion. So far was Mr. Mackenzie in 
 advance of his contemporaries. 
 
 The arrival in the Province of Sir John Colborne, 
 in the capacity of Lieutenant Governor, had been 
 hailed as the sure promise of a new era. Before the 
 close of the session, during which an Executive Coun- 
 cil, which found itself in a permanent minority in the 
 popular branch of the Legislature, had been kept in 
 office,f the illusion had vanished. Mr. Mackenzie, 
 who had been elated by hopes which were destined 
 
 ♦ The war losses compensation was a constant subject of discussion for 
 eome twenty years after the war was over. In many cases exorbitant chiims 
 were probably made; and this was one cause of the delay in settling them. 
 Another difficulty was about the funds out of which they were to be paid. 
 
 f The following is a correct list of the names of those members who 
 focmed the Executive Council, the dates of the mandamuses, and the time
 
 158 
 
 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 not to be realized, now uttered complaints where lie 
 had before been disposed to bestow praise. 
 
 He had gone into the Legislature with a desire 
 to point out and, if possible, remedy what he be- 
 lieved to be great abuses in the Grovernment. Of his 
 speeches during the first session, he took the trouble 
 to preserve but few. The first speech he publicly de- 
 livered, of which I find any record, was made before 
 the "Constitutional Society of Upper Canada," in 
 March, 1828. It gave a premonition of that power of 
 swaying the masses, which he was afterwards to wield 
 with so much effect.* The speech was made in oppo- 
 
 when each of them were sworn into office ; one of whom had held office for a 
 period of thirty-seven years : 
 
 NAMBS. 
 
 DATES OF MANDA- 
 MUSES. 
 
 WHEN SWORN IN. 
 
 Jjimes Baby 
 
 John Strachan .... 
 William Campbell . . 
 James B. Macaulay , . . 
 Peter Robinson . . . 
 George H. Markland . . 
 
 5th May, 1794. 
 25th July, 1817. 
 
 5th May, 1825. 
 5th July, 1827. 
 6th July, 1827. 
 
 9th July, 1792. 
 12th February, 1818. 
 2Gth October, 1825. 
 27th June, 1826. 
 6th February, 1828. 
 6th February, 1828. 
 
 * This speech was made in opposition to a proposal to elect Francis Collins 
 a member of the Society ; and as it is the first of his I find on record, it may 
 not be amiss to give an extract: "I have been accused, sir, of enmity and 
 disaffection to this government; but the charge was as unjust as it was foolish. 
 I have lent my feeble energies to the cause of truth ; and would desire to see 
 men at the helm of affairs who "vouid call out and foster the latent genius of 
 our people ; who would patronize, protect, cherish, and multiply among us 
 seminaries of useful learning, and become the distinguished friends of science, 
 the arts, domestic manufactures, and great public improvements, whose am- 
 bition would be to add to the sum of human happiness, to enlighten the mind 
 of the benighted peasant, and call even from the recesses of the forest and the 
 wilderness of Canada to Senate and Assembly men whose patent of nobility 
 would bear the impress of their Maker's image, and who would forget personal 
 aggrandizement in the nobler and better purpose of promoting the public good. 
 . . . Sir, I wish to live in peace with all men, before God and the world. 
 I envy no man, nor have I any revenge to gratify. The tomb will soon, very 
 Boon, cover these limbs of mine ; and the dust of death will bury in oblivion
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 159 
 
 sition to a proposal to elect Francis Collins a member 
 of the Society. 
 
 the recollection of political triumphs and political reverses. ... I have 
 suffered years to elapse before I undertook even to defend myself against the 
 sweeping denunciations of a being who delighted to trample upon truth and 
 justice, and to hold me up to the people as a traitor to the true interests, happi- 
 ness, and glory of my adopted country. I come at length to the facts on which 
 my objection rests." Mr. Mackenzie seldom replied to personal abuse; and he 
 refused to receive or read the productions of the " Kennel Presses," as he called 
 the journals that pursued him with slander. Speaking of them towards the 
 close of 1829, he said: "These vehicles continue, week after week, to vomit up 
 calumny with the force and effect of so many forty shrew-power steam engines. 
 It is of no use to try to shame them, they have no sense of shame." And a 
 week or two later, he again noticed the "Kennel Presses," in these words: 
 "We stated lately the titles of some six or seven provincial vehicles of news, 
 which we had declined to. receivo,read, or exchange with. To that list has been 
 Eince added, the York Observer. We positively do not want to have served up 
 to us, almost daily, an endless fkrrago of nonsensical jargon and abuse. Those 
 who admire the eloquence of a scolding woman will stay and hear her hold 
 forth ; those who do not, will maintain a proper distance from her bell-clapper. 
 Although desirous to take rank among the latter class, we must concede the 
 fact, that a female shrew or a male scold will, eaci of them, have their cwn 
 way ; there is no stofping them."
 
 160 LIFE OF MACKE^^ZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Visit to the Unit"^ States — Admire; Cameronian Preaching and Scottist 
 Psalmody — Letter to tht National, Gazetie — Comparisons between the State 
 and Canada — A Charge of Disloyalty met — Mr. R. Baldwin elected to the 
 Assembly, but does not take his Seat — Action for Libel, growing out of this 
 Election, brought by Mr. Small against Mr. Mackenzie — The Legislative 
 Session of 1830 — The House Unanimous in demanding a Change of Admi- 
 nistration — The Lieutenant Governor sends a Contemptuous Reply — Mac- 
 kenzie proposes to send a Commissioner to England to lay the state of the 
 Province before the Imperial Government — Is Chairman of the Committee on 
 Banking — The Government hold one-fourth of the Shares in a Bank — The 
 Chaplain Question — Revenue — Libel Laws — Disgraceful State of Prisons- 
 Placemen in the Legislative Council — The Canal Era — Financial Jugglery — 
 Etiect of the Canals on the Price of Produce. 
 
 Englishmen travelling in the United States may 
 be divided into two classes : enthusiastic admirers or 
 critical objectors. British subjects of all ranks and 
 conditions have been found in each class. Young 
 and inexperienced persons, who are willing to accept 
 appearance for reality, were most likely to become the 
 admirers of American institutions. Nothing short 
 of a fixed residence :.n the States, for some years, 
 would cure these persons of their predilections. The 
 ardent temperament of Mr. Mackenzie was well cal- 
 culated to betray him into admiration with specious 
 appearance, the real value of which could only be de- 
 tected by years of observation.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 161 
 
 In the spring of 1829 he visited 'New York, Wash- 
 ington, Philadelphia, and other places in the United 
 States, with a disposition to view every thing he saw 
 there in couleur de i^ose ; adding brilliancy to the hues 
 and tints by hideous contrasts. The alarming sound 
 of a threatened dissolution of the Union even then 
 fell upon his ears ; he could detect in them nothing 
 but the complaints of disappointed faction. He, how- 
 ever, learned something of the American character 
 which he did not know before, and his mind was 
 taken back to the Alien question. In one of his let- 
 ters, written on the 14th May, he confessed: " I have 
 never yet seen an American who would prefer another 
 system of government to his own : local circumstances 
 may cause him to emigrate, but an American is, in his 
 heart, an American still ;* and the more I see of this 
 country the better I can account for the objections 
 made by persons in office, in Canada, to the admis- 
 
 * It was evidently not Mr. Mackenzie's intention to say this in dispraise of 
 the Americans, for he noticed with disapprobation the following versified and 
 offensive expression of the same idea in The Upper Canada Courier : — 
 
 " I turn my lay, a feeble lay, I fear, 
 To those small men who've just departed here. 
 And meet for legislation once a-year. 
 But let me say, before my bark I launch, 
 I sing the lower, not the higher branch. 
 First — who's their head? A man of solid sense, 
 A 3Ir. Bidwell, saving of his pence. 
 By birth a Yankee — what can you expect 
 From Democrats with British honors decked ? 
 Though they may crouch and cringe to you, and pray, 
 Their natal feeling ne'er will wear away. 
 And e'en when cherished far above the rest. 
 Still rankling venom works within their breast. 
 Still they'll contend that happiness or bliss 
 Is not 'beneath a Government like this.' " 
 21
 
 162 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 sion of its citizens to naturalization among us." A 
 Scotsman " in feeling and principle," he looked upon 
 the United States as an asylum for the oppressed of 
 all countries, in spite of that slavery which was " the 
 worst and darkest blot on its escutcheon." 
 
 Two things, mentioned in his letters from !N^ew York, 
 serve to show that the influence of the principles 
 which had been instilled into him from his earliest 
 days had not been effaced in the rude collision with the 
 outer Avorld. " In the afternoon," he writes, " I went 
 to hear Dr. McLeod, a steadfast Presbyterian of the 
 old school ; the genuine Cameronian, and a good 
 preacher. There the old and solemn tunes of our 
 fathers have not yet made way for ballad rhymes ; 
 there the single line of old Scottish Psalmody is given 
 out by the preacher in truly national style ; there the 
 discourse is divided and subdivided into heads and ob- 
 serves in true covenanting fashion. I felt more at 
 home in this church, the members of which are either 
 Scotch, or generally from the north of Ireland, than 
 I have often done w^iile listening to the splendid elo- 
 quence of much more popular orators." The other 
 instance is to be found in a reference to Tom Paine, of 
 whom he says : " Had he had sense enough to remain 
 contented with his ample share of fame as the author 
 of ' The Rights of Man,' and ' Common Sense,' with- 
 out interfering with revealed religion, he would at 
 this day have probably stood next to Washington and 
 Franklin, as a promoter of the glorious revolution 
 which gave freedom to America." 
 
 When Mackenzie' republished some of Paine's poli- 
 tical works, political malice ascribed to him a participa-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 163 
 
 tion in the skeptical opinions expressed by the author 
 in some other works. On the injustice of an imputa- 
 tijon made on such grounds, "and upon sucli a pretext, 
 there cannot be two opinions. 
 
 While' on his visit to the United States, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie wrote a long letter, on the political condition of 
 Canada, to the editor of the National Gazette. The 
 authorship was not avowed, and though various con- 
 jectures were hazarded on the subject, it is difficult 
 to see how it could have been a question at all. The 
 letter bore the strongest internal evidence of its author- 
 ship, and was besides little more than an amplification 
 of the thirty-one resolutions he had brought before 
 the Legislature in the previous session. The princi- 
 pal points in the letter, that were not urged in the 
 resolutions, were an elective Legislative Council, which, 
 like so many other changes which found in him an 
 early advocate, has since been effected, and an elec- 
 tive Grovernor, which nobody now asks for. He re- 
 garded the Legislative Council as serving in some sort 
 as a shield to the Lieutenant Governor, by relieving 
 the Executive of a responsibility which it must other- 
 wise often have assumed. But as its members owed 
 their appointment to the Crown, and most of them 
 were office-holders of one grade or another, the in- 
 strument did not conceal the hand that had used it. 
 
 The contrasts made between the government of 
 Canada, as then administered, and that of Washing- 
 ton, could hardly be otherwise than of dangerous ten- 
 dency. An English statesman might make them with 
 impunity ; but if a Canadian followed his example, 
 his motives would not fail to be impugned. So it was
 
 164 LIFE OF MACKE?^ZIE, AND 
 
 with Mr. Mackenzie, who claimed to be, in English 
 politics, neither more nor less than a Whig, These 
 contrasts obtruded themselves by the propinquity of 
 the two countries ; and there is no reason to suppose 
 that in Mr. Mackenzie's case, they, at this time, im- 
 plied any disloyalty to England.* 
 
 * Attached to one of the letters which Mr. Mackenzie addressed to the Earl 
 of Dalhousie, in May, 1827, is a manuscript note: " I was for England in 1820, 
 1824, 1827, 1833, 1834 ; but 1836-7 choked off my loyalty." As the general 
 election of 1831 approached, the misrepresentations of the ohject of Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie's mission to the United States continued to he repeated with increased 
 virulence and rancor. He met them by the publication of the following letter ; 
 
 Department op State, "1 
 ■Washington, July 28, 1830. | 
 
 "Sir : — Your letter of the first of this month to the Secretary, on the sub- 
 ject of an article which appeared some time ago in the columns of the New 
 York Courier and Enquirer, and has since been re-published in other public 
 journals, both of Canada and the United States, with additional innuendoes 
 and particulars, was received on the 19th inst. at this office, during his absence; 
 but I lost no time in communicating its contents to him. The object of the 
 article or articles referred to, is, to indicate a visit to the United States and to 
 its capital during the last summer, as connected with some revolutionary move- 
 ment in the Canadas, in relation to which your agency was employed with the 
 Federal Government; and you call upon the Secretary, in his official capacity, 
 positively and decidedly to contradict it. 
 
 "I have, accordingly, just received a letter from Mr. Yan Buren, the Secre- 
 tary, dated at Albany, the 23d of this month, expressly authorizing me to deny 
 all knowledge of or belief, on his part, in the designs imputed to you, as I now 
 have the honor of doing, and to state, moreover, that he has not the smallest 
 ground for believing that your visit had anything political for its object. He 
 dlirects me also to add, that if the President were not likewise absent from the 
 SJat of Government, he is well persuaded he would readily concur in the de 
 claration which I have thus had the honor of making in his behalf. 
 "I am. Sir, respectfully, 
 
 '• Your obedient servant, 
 
 "DANIEL BRENT, Chief Clerk. 
 
 "William L. Mackenzie, Esq, Tot\, Upper Canada." 
 
 The narrative would be incomplete if it were not added that the late Mi*. 
 G«orge Gurnett, as publisher of the Upper Canada Courier, was active in cir-
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 165 
 
 During the parliamentary recess, a vacancy having 
 occurred in the representation of York, by the ap- 
 pointment of Attorney Gleneral Robinson to the Chief 
 Justiceship of the Court of King's Bench, the vacant 
 seat was contested between Mr. Robert Baldwin, whose 
 father was then a member of the House, and Mr. 
 James E. Small. Mr. Mackenzie supported the foi- 
 mer, who obtained ninety-two votes against fifty-ono 
 given to his opponent f and after the election was 
 over, the journalist felt himself entitled to counsel the 
 successful candidate not to carry into the Legislature 
 the habits of the advocate. 
 
 The day before the election commenced, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie printed charges against Mr. Small, that were 
 afterwards made the subject of an action for libel. 
 The matter complained of as libellous, consisted of 
 statements made by Mr. James Hogg, of Milford Mills, 
 and Mr. Daniel McDougal, affecting the reputation 
 of Mr. Small, as Solicitor, in a case in which they 
 were concerned, one as plaintiff, the other as defend- 
 ant. 
 
 Taking the House of Assembly for our guide, it 
 
 culating these accusations. Of the latter, Mr. William "Wallace, formerly a 
 pa-tner of Mr. Gurnett, wrote from Eichmond, Virginia, September 1, 1830, 
 that wbile living there, *' he (Mr. Gurnett) renounced his allegiance to all po- 
 tentates, and particularly to the King of Great Britain, as is recorded in our 
 Court." Mr. Gurnett afterwards became Clerk of the Peace for the county of 
 Tork, and Police Magistrate of Toronto. He died in the fall of last year. 
 
 * The House declared the election null and void upon a point of privilege. 
 The Governor had assumed the responsibility of issuing the writ, contrary, it 
 was said, to the privileges of the House, who had the right to adjudge the 
 Beat vacant, and order the speaker to issue a writ for a new election. The Gov- 
 ernor yielded the point; causring the great seal to be affixed to the writ issued 
 by the House. Mr. Baldwin was re-elected.
 
 166 LIFE OF MACKEIN-ZIE, AND 
 
 would be difficult to imagine a government admin- 
 istered in more direct defiance of the public will than 
 that of Canada, in 1830. The Legislative session opened 
 on the 8th of January- ; and in the address in reply to 
 the speech of the Lieutenant Grovernor, the House 
 was unanimous in demanding the dismissal of the Ex- 
 ecutiv^e Council. " We feel unabated solicitude," said 
 the representative? of the people, " about the admin- 
 istration of public justice, and entertain a settled con- 
 viction that the continuance about your Excellency of 
 those advisers, who, fi-om the unhappy policy they 
 have pursued in the late administration, have long, 
 deservedly, lost the confidence of the country, is highly 
 inexpedient, and calculated seriously to weaken the 
 expectations of the people from the impartial and dis- 
 interested justice of His Majesty's Government." The 
 House was unanimous in desiring the removal of the 
 advisers of the Lieutenant Governor; but a discussion 
 arose upon the proper method of accomplishing that ob- 
 ject. Mr. Fothergill suggested impeachment; but there 
 were two objections to such a procedure. Impeach- 
 ment must proceed upon a specific crime; but here it 
 was a question of non-confidence. And before whom 
 could the impeachment be tried ? The Legislative 
 Council might be asked to adjudicate upon the case ; 
 but, as Dr. Rolph remarked, that would be to ask the 
 son to try the father. Mr. Mackenzie hit upon the 
 true remedy. " I would," he said, " candidly inform 
 His MaJ3sty's ministers that they do wrong to encour- 
 age and support in authority an organized body of 
 men in direct opposition to the wishes of the people 
 of the country." If there was any hope of making
 
 THE CANADIAN EEfiELLION. 167 
 
 the wishes of the House prevail, it was by an appeal 
 to England. The Lieutenant Governor had, in the 
 previous session, been appealed to by an almost unan- 
 imous vote of the House, to remove his advisers ; but 
 he had felt himself at liberty to ignore the wishes of 
 the peojDle's representatives. On a direct vote of a 
 want of confidence, the government had, in the pre- 
 vious session, been able to muster one vote out of 
 thirty-eight ; now their solitary supporter had de- 
 serted them. By the personal favor of the Governor, 
 they were still retained in office. Mr. Mackenzie's 
 proposition to send a commissioner or commissioners 
 to England, to lay before the Imperial authorities the 
 state of the colon}^, looked to an efficient remedy, and 
 if acted upon, might have led to the result which the 
 whole House desired to produce. 
 
 The Lieutenant Governor received the address of 
 the House with a curtness that reveals a petulant 
 sullenness bordering on insult: "I return you my 
 thanks for your address," was all he condescended to 
 say. That it might not appear invidious, he used the 
 same formula in receiving the echo address of the 
 Legislative Council. 
 
 No member of the House had the same knowledge 
 of financial matters, revenue, banking, and currency, 
 as Mr. Mackenzie. There were more finished schol- 
 ars and more brilliant, though not more powerful, 
 orators than he ; but in his knowledge of the myster- 
 ies of accounts he was unrivalled. At the commence- 
 ment of the session, he concluded an able sj^eech on 
 the currency, by moving for a committee of inquiry. 
 Of this committee he was chairman ; and in that capa-
 
 168 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 city made an elaborate report* on banking and currency. 
 One of the results of the inquiry was the passage of 
 an Act (Greo. IV. cap. 6) introduced by Mr. Macken- 
 zie, declaring that such British coins as were depre- 
 ciated more than one twenty-fifth of their weight, 
 should not be a legal tender. There was much room 
 for amendment in the principles on which the banks 
 were established. One fourth of the stock of the 
 Bank of Upper Canada was held by the government, 
 
 •"The system of banking," said the' report, "in most general use in the 
 United States, and which may with propriety be termed 'the American 
 Banking system,' is carried on by Joint Stock Companies, in which the stock- 
 holders are authorized to issue notes to a certain extent beyond the amount of 
 their capital ; while their persons are privileged from paying the debts of the 
 institution, in the event of a failure of its funds to meet its engagements." On 
 this system, which had found its way into Canada, Mr. Mackenzie was anx- 
 ious that no more banks should be chartered; but in case the House resolved 
 upon that course, he recommended the following precautions, as likely to af- 
 ford some security to the bill-holders : " First, That a refusal to redeem their 
 paper should amount to a dissolution of their charter. Second, That the 
 dividends be made out of the actual bona fide profits only. Third, That stock 
 should not be received in pledge for discounts. Fourth, That stockholders, 
 resident within the district in which any bank is situated, should not vote by 
 proxy. Fifth, That either branch of the Legislature should have the power to 
 appoint proper persons to ascertain the solvency of the bank, or detect mis- 
 management, if they should see fit to institute an inquiry. Sixth, And it 
 should be stipulated, that any act of the Legislature, prohibiting the circula- 
 tion of bills under five dollars, shall not be considered an infringement of the 
 charter. Seventh, The book or books of the company, in which the transfer 
 of stock shall be registered, and the books containing the names of the stock- 
 holders, shall be open to t-.e examinaticr of every stockholder in business 
 hours, for thirty days previous to any election of directors. Eighth, Full, true, 
 and particular statements should be periodically required, after a form to be 
 determined on, and which will exhibit to the country the actual condition of 
 the bank to be chartered." To fourteen difierent questions put to them by Mr. 
 Mackenzie, the ofiicers of the Bank of Upper Canada refused to reply; but it 
 does not appear that any of them were committed for contempt. Such a thing 
 had never occurred in the Parliamentary history of England ; but the bank 
 officers here had the bad precedent o\ the Solicitor General, who was also their 
 solicitor, for their guide.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 169 
 
 and the stockholders were only responsible for the 
 amount of their shares. 
 
 The Provincial government had, as we have seen, 
 assumed the appointment of a chap.ain to the Legis- 
 lative Assembly. Mr. Mackenzie took up the ques- 
 tion as one of privilege ; and proposed to resolve that 
 the House refuse to receive the Rev. Dr. Phillips as 
 its chaplain ; but that, instead, the ministers of the 
 different denominations of York be requested to offici- 
 ate during the session as chaplains, under such ar- 
 rangements as may be made by the Speaker. But 
 Mr. Mackenzie treated the question as something 
 more than one of privilege; as a part of a system 
 which gave a positive dominancy to a particular de- 
 nomination. Resolutions embodying these views re- 
 ceived the assent of the House. 
 
 He moved an address for detailed accounts of the 
 different branches of the public revenue ; introduced a 
 bill— which passed unanimously at its final stage — 
 providing that the publication of truth, unless with 
 malicious intent, should not be a libel ; and that the 
 defendant in an action for libel should be entitled to 
 plead truth in justification and produce his proofs. 
 Another bill he introduced for the support of the poor, 
 lame, blind, and persons deprived of their reason. 
 The libel bill was rejected by the Legislative Council, 
 in company with over forty others. 
 
 As chairman of a committee, Mr. Mackenzie brought 
 to light some disgraceful facts bearing upon the con- 
 ditions of the Provincial prisons. Into an under- 
 ground cell of the York jail, three female lunatics 
 were stowed ; one of whom had become deranged by 
 
 22
 
 170 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the desertion of her husband. They were lodged in 
 lock-up cribs, on straw ; two in one crib, and the third 
 in another. The stench of their insalubrious dungeon, 
 where they were confined in strait jackets, was com- 
 plained of by the prisoners above. The bed clothes 
 of some of the prisoners were not washed for six or 
 eight months together. The atmosphere was in the 
 last degree pestilential, and the food insufficient. An 
 idle apprentice and a person charged with murder 
 associated in the same room ; which necessarily be- 
 came a school of vice for the less hardened. 
 
 As in the previous session of 1829, Mr. Mackenzie 
 brought forward resolutions, directed against the prac- 
 tice of filling the Legislative Council with dej)endent 
 j)lace-men ; but they were not pressed on either occa- 
 sion. If this point had been pressed by the House, 
 which showed an inexplicable backwardness in dealing 
 with it, there is reason to believe that it would have 
 been conceded by the Imperial Government,* 
 
 * In a dispatch, addressed by Sir George Murray, then Colonial Secretary, 
 to Sir James Kemp, Governor of Lower Canada, Sept. 29, 1829, and also 
 "virtually" addressed to Sir John Colborne, as he was officially advised, the 
 following passage on the subject of the Legislative and Executive Councils 
 occurs : 
 
 *' The constitution of the Legislative and Executive Councils is another sub- 
 ject which has undergone considerable discussion, but upon which His Majes- 
 ty's Government must suspend their opinion until I shall have received some 
 authentic information from your Excellency. You will, therefore, have the 
 goodness to report to me, whether it would be expedient to make any altera- 
 tion in the general constitution of those bodies, and especially how far it would 
 be desirable to introduce a larger proportion of members not holding offices at 
 the pleasure of the Crown ; and if it should be considered desirable, how far 
 it may be practicable to find a sufficient number of persons of respectability 
 of this description." Under these circumstances an immense power was placed 
 in the hands of the Governors.
 
 THE canadia;n eebelliox. 171 
 
 The canal era preceded that of railroads. In 1824, 
 not a single effort of a practical nature had been made 
 to improve the inland navigation of the Province. 
 In 1830, the Kideau had been completed. A vessel 
 of eighty-four tons burthen had, in the previous IS'o- 
 vember, passed through the Welland. The Burling- 
 ton and the Desjardins canals were far advanced to- 
 wards completion. Mr. Mackenzie, who had been a 
 warm advocate of internal improvements, obtained a 
 committee, in the session of 1830, to inquire into the 
 management and expenditure of the Welland Canal 
 Company. The whole thing had so much the appear- 
 ance of a financial juggle — the original estimates of 
 £15,000 to £23,000 having been followed by an ex- 
 penditure of over £273,000* — that curiosity must 
 have been much excited to know by Avhat legerdemain 
 the different steps in the financial scheme had suc- 
 ceeded one another.-}- Mr. Mackenzie fully appreci- 
 
 * This canal has now cost £1,727,922 5s. 2,d. 
 
 f The original estimates were only for a canal that would pass vessels of 
 forty tons burthen. The company's capital was originally limited to £40,000. 
 The government was empowered to take the work at the end of thirty years, 
 on paying the company twenty-five per cent premium on the outlay. The es- 
 timates were made in 1824 ; and in April, 1828, an act was passed increasing 
 the capital stock to £200,000. The Province subscribed for £25,000 of the 
 stock. In 1825 ; and next year it loaned to the company £25,000, at interest, for 
 three years. In 1827, this loan was converted into stocks, by a very close 
 vote, twenty against eighteen. In 1826, the Legislature had been told that 
 the work would be completed by the spring of 1827, at a cost of £20,000 less 
 than the company's capital. "When 1827 came, the usual story about unfore- 
 seen circumstances was told ; and by 1830, it was admitted that the whole ex- 
 penditure would be £300,000 Although Lower Canada had only a remote 
 interest in the work, her Legislature came forward, in 1827, with a subscrip- 
 tion of £25,000 to the stock. Next year, Mr. Merritt visited England, and 
 obtained from the British Government a loan of £50,000, insecurity for which 
 authority was afterwards given to assign the whole work. He also sold some
 
 172 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ated the effects of these internal improvements upon 
 the price of produce. " Instead of Is. lOJtZ. to 2s. 6d. a 
 bushel for the superior wheat of this fertile Province," 
 he said, in May 1830, " paid too often to the farmer in 
 goods at double their value, we now find the miller 
 and the merchant eagerly purchasing grain at 5s., and, 
 in some places, even at 6s. currency per sixty pounds." 
 As a commercial speculation the work was not des- 
 tined to pay the stockholders ; but the Province, 
 which became the proprietor of the canal, has been 
 amply repaid by the increased value given to its pro- 
 duce. A more striking example of this fact than that 
 given by Mr. Mackenzie need not be desired. So well 
 satisfied was he with the result of the internal im- 
 provements, so far made, that he declared, " I would 
 cheerfully consent to involve the Province in debt, in 
 conjunction with Lower Canada, in order to improve 
 the Srt. Lawrence to the ocean." Lower Canada had 
 taken the lead by making an appropriation for the 
 survey of the St. Lawrence above Montreal. 
 
 shares elsewhere. In 1830, stockholders in New York had paid in £72,000; 
 in Lower Canada, £12,825 ; and in Upper Canada only £2,462, exclusive of 
 th3 LegislatiT3 subscription.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 173 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Small Libel Salt — Mackenzie Pleads his own Cause and Succeeds — Din 
 of the Electoral Battle — Kesponsible Government — Canada compared with 
 other Countries — Kules for Elections — A subdued Black List — The Opposition 
 to Mackenzie's Re-election — The Principles on which he Successfully Ap- 
 pealed to the People — The Politics of Bank Discounts — Success of the Offi- 
 cial Party in the Election. 
 
 In writing the biography of one who had many 
 enemies in the public period of his life, while some 
 of his cotemporaries are still living, it is impossible 
 to avoid the revival of recollections that will give pain, 
 or cause offence. But the duty of the impartial bio- 
 grapher is plain. While it should be his study not 
 to inflict needless wounds upon the feelings of the 
 living, the author is not at liberty to omit prominent 
 facts which are essential to the elucidation of his sub- 
 ject. It is my aim, in dealing with events that may 
 revive unpleasant recollections in the minds of some 
 of the actors, to present the facts in the spirit of im- 
 partial history, free from rancor or animosity. 
 
 When Mr. James Edward Small appealed to the 
 electors of York, in 1828, to select him instead of Mr. 
 Mackenzie, a story affecting his professional reputa- 
 tion was circulated to his disadvantage. Everv one 
 iOves to find some other cause for his want of success 
 than the relative merits of himself and his opponent;
 
 174 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 and Mr. Small alleged that lie liad lost the election 
 by the circulation of a statement aifecting his profes- 
 sional integrity. He stated, on the hustings, his in- 
 tention to prosecute. Mr. Mackenzie was not the 
 author or retailer of the alleged slander. Mr. George 
 Ridout, Mr. Small's brother-in-law, canvassed Mr. 
 James Hogg, of Milford Mills, for his vote. The 
 miller replied that he could not vote for a manwho 
 had cheated or defrauded him out of forty or fifty 
 dollars. Mr. Hogg was ];)rosecuted for slander. He 
 was not permitted to justify, or produce evidence 
 in support of the accusation. The jury gave Mr. 
 Small fifty pounds damages. The costs swelled the 
 amount to £78 19s. 
 
 The story had been told by Hogg for Mr. Macken- 
 zie's benefit — at least that was the efi'ect, though it 
 was probably not the intention — and he, in turn, re- 
 peated it, on the strength of the evidence in the Hogg 
 trial, for the benefit of Mr. Baldwin. Mr. Mackenzie 
 was prosecuted, too, but with a very different result. 
 The alleged libel bore date !N'ovember 25, 1829. The 
 evidence in the former trial, which formed the staple 
 of the second alleged libel, showed that one Daniel 
 McDougal held a note against Hogg for £3 13s., " pay- 
 able in liquor at the market price." The liquor had 
 not been taken, and the question was whether the not^ 
 could be collected. Mr. McDougal called to consult 
 Mr. Small on the matter. The lawyer gave an opi- 
 nion that the note, if sued in the Court of King's 
 Bench, could be collected. Mr. McDougal left the 
 note with Mr. Small, but alleged that he ordered hira 
 not to sue or make costs upon it, and that he made a
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 175 
 
 second visit to the lawyer to repeat these instruc- 
 tions. The note was sued, and the costs reached 
 £12. Mr. McDougal further stated that he brought 
 Mr. Small before the Court of Requests to compel him 
 to pay over the amount of the verdict, but that de- 
 fendant pleading his privilege as a barrister, McDou- 
 gal had to pay the costs, and was kept out of his 
 money still longer. Mr. Mackenzie, in publishing 
 this statement, reflected upon Mr. Small for taking 
 advantage of the monstrous maxim, " the greater the 
 truth the greater the libel," arguing that the j)roper 
 way for a man to wipe a stain from his reputation 
 was " not by £50 verdicts, but by producing and ad- 
 mitting all the facts, but utterly disproving the charge 
 made against him."* The alleged libel was an argu- 
 ment upon statements sworn to in a suit for slander, 
 and so far from being charged with malignity, it con- 
 tained such admissions as this : " I myself have had 
 some dealings with Mr. Small, and although I looked 
 carefully into his conduct towards me, I am hapj^y to 
 testify that I found him jusf and honorable in his 
 dealings." It must be confessed that, if the evidence 
 of Daniel McDougal could be relied u]oon, Mr. Small 
 had taken advantage of a legal maxim that has since 
 ceased to disgrace the laws of England. 
 
 * Judge Hagerman told the jury that if they believed that Hogg had used 
 the words complained of, they must find a verdict for Small ; that great scan- 
 dal had been occasioned to the detriment of Small, by the unwarrantable con- 
 due*, of Mr. Hogg ; that a lawyer's reputation was of the utmost importance to 
 him in his profession ; that the |ury must discard McDougal's evidence, show- 
 ing the cause of Hogg's using these expressions, since it was inadmissible ; that 
 McDougal ought to have been stopped sooner ; and he concluded by directing 
 them to give a verdict for the plaintiff.
 
 176 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Sucli was the alleged libel, whicli came to trial on 
 the 8tli of April, 1830. A special jury had been struck, 
 at the instance of Mr. Small. Messrs. Baldwin and 
 Sullivan were solicitors for Mr. Mackenzie ; and at 
 one time it was his intention that they should act as 
 his advocates, at the trial ; but he finally resolved to 
 be his own advocate. Mr. Draper appeared for Small. 
 The trial lasted from half past nine in the morning to 
 the same hour at night. Four hours out of the twelve 
 were taken up by Mr. Mackenzie's address to the jury. 
 During the whole time, the court-house was densely 
 crowded. Mr. Justice Sherwood presided ; and Mr. 
 Mackenzie has commended his impartiality on the 
 occasion. The Chief Justice and the Hon. Mr. Allan 
 took seats beside the presiding judge. The jury,* 
 who remained out all night, gave a verdict for the 
 defendant ; and they are said to have debated among 
 themselves whether it was not competent for them to 
 award damages to Mr. Mackenzie for the annoyance 
 of a frivolous prosecution. 
 
 The verdict was set aside by the Court above, on 
 the ground that the witnesses had been permitted to 
 say too much in the way of justification. But Mr. 
 Small, far from thinking it desirable to push this 
 seeming advantage, was willing to let the matter rest 
 where it was — the costs having been thrown on the 
 defendant — but Mr. Mackenzie desired to fight the 
 contest to its natural close. With that view, he 
 offered a special plea in justification ; but the judges, 
 
 * Their names, Messrs. Joseph Wixon, Pickering; Jas. Pearson, "Whit- 
 church ; Stilwell V^ilson, John Chew, and Thos. Bell, of York; Wm, Cornell, 
 Scarboro' ; John Dalziol, Vaughan ; Christian Eeesor, Markham; Joseph 
 Sylvester, Vaughan, and John Austin, of Toronto.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 177 
 
 on application of Mr. Small, put off the new trial till 
 the spring of 1831. A general election was to take 
 place in the interim ; and it was destined that the 
 new trial was to be indefinitely postponed, Mr. Small 
 remaining satisfied with his first defeat. 
 
 After the close of the session of 1830, the belief 
 seems to have generally prevailed that the Executive 
 government would dissolve a House which had been 
 unanimous in asking the Lieutenant Governor to dis- 
 miss his advisers. The death of the King, George lY., 
 settled all doubts that might have existed on this head. 
 But before the intelligence of this event reached Up- 
 per Canada, the battle cry of party had been raised, 
 in anticipation of a dissolution of the new House. In 
 the month of July, Mr. Mackenzie addressed a series 
 of very long letters to Sir John Colborne, Lieutenant 
 Governor, apparently intended to influence the consti- 
 tuencies. Several columns of the first letter were 
 devoted to a complaint founded on the accusations 
 brought by the government press against the loyalty 
 of the Legislative Assembly, and abuse of its mem- 
 bers.'"*' These attacks followed closely upon the pub- 
 
 * The Upper Canada Co uner, published hy the late Mr. Gnrnett, described 
 the House, as a "tyrant gang whose hatred is levelled at all loyal subjects; 
 the Speaker, as " a treacherous plotter," whose face and form were "spiteful 
 and bitter as the venomed asp;" whose heart was "the home of every evil 
 passion," and whose "looks betray the mawkish hypocrite." 
 
 " Mouthpiece of a tyrant gang, (the House of Assembly,) 
 
 "Whose hatred is levelled at all loyal subjects. 
 
 Poor abject creature, of a rebel race, 
 
 I scorn thy brief and undeserved authority." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " A thing like him (the Speaker) will only breed contempt, 
 And cause our House to prove a scene of riot, 
 23
 
 178 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 lication of a despatch from Sir George Murray, Col- 
 onial Secretar}^, to Sir James Kemp, Lieutenant Gov- 
 ernor of Lower Canada, in which the Imperial Minis- 
 ter inculcated " the necessity of cultivating a spirit of 
 conciliation towards the House of Assembly ;" plainly 
 showing the feelings of the British government on the 
 subject. After collecting a long list of accusations 
 against the dominant party in the Assembly, Mr. 
 Mackenzie met them by quoting the remark of a 
 " celebrated politician," that, " by this means, like the 
 husband who uses his wife ill from suspicion, you 
 may in time convert your suspicions into reality." 
 But before he had completed the series, he met the 
 charge of disloyalty brought against the Legislative 
 Assembly and the party it more particularly repre- 
 sented, in direct terms. " The people of this Province," 
 he said, " neither desire to break up their ancient con- 
 nection with Great Britain, nor are they anxious to 
 become members of the Xorth American Confedera- 
 tion ; all they want is a cheap, frugal, domestic gov- 
 ernment, to be exercised for their benefit and controlled 
 by their own fixed land-marks ; they seek a system by 
 which to insure justice, protect property, establish 
 
 Uproar, and noise. A theatre for spouting 
 Disgusting trash and scurvy billingsgate, 
 The scoff and scorn of all who witness it. 
 
 "Devoid of dignity, address, and manners, 
 He seems a thing unworthy to preside 
 O'er doating fools who loiter at camp meetings, 
 To hear old women prate in mawkish phrases. 
 
 " Out upon them (the House of Assembly) ; shouldst *.hou choose him 
 (Mr. Bidwell) Speaker, 
 Thou'lt prove thyselves a base and shameless, faction, 
 Disgraceful both to government and people."
 
 THE CANA.DIAN EEBELLIOff. 179 
 
 domestic tranquillity, and afford a reasonable prospect 
 that civil and religious liberty will be perpetuated, 
 and the safety and happiness of society effected." It 
 was one of Mr. Mackenzie's complaints, that the mem- 
 bers of the Executive government were not responsi- 
 ble to the people of Canada, through their repre- 
 sentatives ; and that there was no way of bringing 
 them to account for their conduct. When the election 
 contest approached more nearly he put forward re- 
 sponsible government as a principal of vital import- 
 ance. As a needful reform, he placed it on a level 
 with the necessity of purging the Legislative Coun- 
 cil of the sworn creatures and dependents of the 
 Executive, who comprised the great majority. Of 
 Upper Canada politicians, we are entitled to place 
 Mr. Mackenzie among the very earliest advocates of 
 responsible government.* It is doubtless true that 
 others afterwards made the attainment of this principle 
 of aduiinistration more of a specialty than he did ; for 
 where abuses grew up with rank luxuriance, he could 
 
 *In September, 1830, he put forth the following programme, and after- 
 wards frequently repeated its publication : 
 
 " To insure good government, with the aid of a faithful people, the follow- 
 ing five things are essential : 
 
 "1. The entire control of the whole Provincial revenues are required to be 
 vested in the Legislature — the territorial and hereditary revenues excepted. 
 
 "2 The independence of the judges; or their removal to take place, only 
 upon a joint address of the two Houses, and their appointment from among 
 men who have not embarked in the political business of the Province. 
 
 " 3. A reform in the Legislative Council, which is now an assembly chief- 
 ly composed of persons wholly or partly dependent upon the Executive gov- 
 ernment for their support. 
 
 "4. An administration or Executive government responsible to the Province 
 for its conduct. 
 
 " 5. Equal rights to each religious denomination, and an exclusion of every 
 sect from a participation in temporal power."
 
 180 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 uot help pausing to cut them clown in detail. The in- 
 dependence of the judiciary, for which he persistently 
 contended, has, like responsible government, long 
 since been attained ; and in'deed, the somewhat fanci- 
 ful idea of making judges only of persons who have 
 never dabbled in the muddy waters of colonial poli- 
 tics is the only change which he put prominently for- 
 ward, iji 1830, that has not now been long in the enjoy- 
 ment of Canadians. 
 
 His letters to Sir John Colborne are not free from 
 remarks to which a general consent would not now be 
 given. In drawing up an indictment, containing a 
 hundred counts against the administration, the consti- 
 tution was not always spared ; but the system of ad- 
 ministration, then pursued, w^ould now find no suj)- 
 porters in this Province; and if we were obliged to 
 believe that it was constitutional to sustain in power 
 a ministry condemned by the unanimous voice of 
 the people's representatives, the necessity for consti- 
 tutional reform would be universally insisted on. If 
 the British government and even the British consti- 
 tution came in for a share of condemnation, it must 
 be remembered that the oligarchical system, which 
 reduced the popular branch of the Legislature to a 
 nullity, was sustained by the Imperial Grovernment; 
 and that the Reform Bill of Lord John Russell had 
 not yet been passed. 
 
 The letters to the Lieutenant Governor were imme- 
 diately followed by ^^An ai)])eal to the peojjle of Upper 
 Canada from the judgments of British and Colonial Go- 
 vernments.''^ This "Appeal" w^as one of the mildest 
 productions Mr. Mackenzie ever wrote. Free from
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 181 
 
 personalities, it consisted entirely of an appeal to the 
 reason and the better feelings of the people. But no 
 description would convey so good an idea of it as a 
 few extracts ; and for that reason I resort to the latter 
 method. Addressing the farmers of the country, he 
 shows his love for Canada by comparing it with other 
 countries : 
 
 "A kind Providence hath cast your lot in a highly 
 favored land, where, blessed with luxuriant harvests 
 and a healthful climate, you are enabled to look back 
 without regret upon the opulent nations of Europe, 
 where the unbounded wealth of one class, and the 
 degrading poverty of another, aJfford melancholy proofs 
 of the tyranny which prevails in their governments. 
 Compare your situation with that of Russia, an empire 
 embracing one half of the habitable globe, the popula- 
 tion of which are slav^es attached to the soil, and trans- 
 ferable to any purchaser; or with Germany, Italy, 
 Portugal, and Spain, where human beings are born 
 and die under the same degrading vassalage. Tra- 
 verse the wide world and what will you find? In one 
 place, a privation of liberty; in another, incapacity to 
 make use of its possession ; here, ignorance, vice, and 
 political misrule ; there, an immense number of your 
 fellow men, forced from their peaceful homes and oc- 
 cupations ' to fight battles in the issue of which they 
 have no interest, to increase a domain in the posses- 
 sion of which they can have no share.' Contrast their 
 situation with yours, and let the peaceful plains, the 
 fertile valleys of Canada, your homes, the homes of 
 your wives and children, be still more dear to you. 
 Agriculture, the most innocent, happy, and important
 
 182 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 of all human pursuits, is your chief employment, your 
 farms are your own ; you have obtained a competence, 
 seek therewith to be content. 
 
 " ' Contentment, rosy, dimpled maid, 
 
 Thou brightest daughter of the sky, 
 Why dost thou to the hut repair, 
 
 Ana from the gilded palace fly ? 
 I've traced thee on the peasant's cheek; 
 
 I've marked thee in the milkmaid's smile ; 
 I've heard thee loudly laugh and speak, 
 
 Amid the sons of noonday toil ; 
 Yet in the circles of the great, 
 
 "Where fortune's gifts are all combined, 
 I've sought thee early, sought thee late. 
 
 And ne'er thy lovely form could find. 
 Since then from wealth and pomp you flee, 
 I ask but competence and thee!' " 
 
 The plea of poverty — which is very liable to lead 
 to corruption — as an excuse for not attending the poll, 
 he met by saying: — "Poor, indeed, in soul or in sub- 
 stance must that farmer or mechanic be, who, being in 
 health, cannot, in two or four years, spare time for one 
 day's journey to the hustings to express an opinion by his 
 vote, concerning the persons chosen to watch over the 
 public welfare." Far from having any desire to change 
 the monarchical for a republican form of government, 
 he said: — "It is ni)t a change in the form of govern- 
 ment which will remove any difficulties or grievances 
 under which you labor;" and so little did he flatter 
 the people, that he told them " The grand panacea is 
 self- reformation." He went further: "Beware," he 
 said, "of electioneering sycophants! for if they flatter 
 you, they will assuredly flatter power after you elect 
 them." Never were truer words spoken, or more 
 necessary advice given. Of the further rules he gave
 
 THE ca:n^adian eebelliox. 183 
 
 for tlie selection of representatives, the following are 
 not worthless specimens : 
 
 "If you find a lawyer w^ho has tried to fill his neigh- 
 borhood with litigation — who is more famed for gain- 
 ing causes than for scrupulous virtue in accepting 
 their management, he is 'a minister of municipal liti- 
 gation, and the fomenter of village vexation,' — avoid 
 him. But wherever a lawyer can be found among 
 you, worthy of the high vocation whereto he has been 
 called — learned, industrious, and faithful — less anxious 
 for the fees of office than for the j^eace of societ}' — al- 
 ways willing to embark in the most perilous duties of 
 his profession, the protection of property, personal 
 rights, domestic peace, and parental authority, entreat 
 him to come forward as a candidate; elect him with 
 acclamation; he will surely maintain your rights, and 
 stand as a sentinel upon the watch-tower of Freedom, 
 to warn you of approaching danger.* Men whose con- 
 duct, in their private dealings with their fellows, 
 has been found to be regulated by covetous, un- 
 christian, selfish principles, will be sure to make dis- 
 honest and unprincipled legislators; for how can he 
 who takes daily advantage of the necessities or the 
 follies of his brother, be a lover of mankind, benevo- 
 lent, and kind? Mind not his boasted patriotism, nor 
 his exclamations against existing .tbases; for there is 
 guile in his heart and deceit on his lips." 
 
 Against the votes of members during the late Par- 
 liament, there was much less to be said, from Mr. 
 
 * There is reason to believe that, in giving this description, Mr. Mackenzie 
 had Dr. Rolpb in tis mini; for he had previously spoken of him in nearly 
 equivalent terms.
 
 184 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Mackenzie's point of view than against those of their 
 immediate predecessors. The J^lack List — a running 
 commentary upon prominent votes— was therefore 
 meagre and comparatively feeble. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's re-election for York was opposed 
 by nearly every newspaper in the country ; and the 
 few that did not oppose, remained silent. Some car- 
 ried the virulence of personal abuse to an extent that 
 caused him to complain of injustice ; but he would 
 neither condescend to reply nor to meet his assailants 
 with their own weapons. He would not reply, " be- 
 cause," as he said, " he thinks that his conduct, during 
 his political career of seven years, 'has sufficiently 
 enabled the people to judge of the value which ought 
 to be attached to such productions." The county of 
 York returned two members ; and of the four candi- 
 dates on this occasion, two represented the opposition, 
 and two the official party. On the liberal interest 
 stood Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Jesse Ketchum ; op- 
 posed to .them were Mr. Simon Washburn and Mr. 
 Thorne. So far did Mr. Mackenzie carry his sense of 
 fairness that he publicly announced that he would 
 " abstain from using the press as a medium of injur- 
 ing, in the public estimation," whoever might be op- 
 posed to him as candidates ; an English-like love of 
 honor and fair-play that might be copied to advantage 
 in the present day. " He was," he said, " anxious to 
 gain his election, more as a triumph of principle, than 
 as a personal gratification. He will, therefore, neither 
 keep open houses, bring voters to the hustings, nor in 
 any Avay treat, entertain, or recompense any electors, 
 either before, at, or after the polling. His return
 
 THE CANADIAN" REBELLION. 185 
 
 (should he be elected) must be the deliberate result 
 of j)ublic opinion alone, opposed, as it would be, to 
 the powerful influence of the local government, the 
 dominant priesthood, the provincial bank, and every 
 human being who profits by the present irresponsible 
 system."* On this ground he put the contest ; and 
 the result f justified his confident anticipations. 
 
 The new HouseJ met on the 7th of January, 1831. 
 
 * Shortly before the election came on, Mr. Mackenzie had given " Eeasons," 
 occupying four newspaper columns, "why the farmers and mechanics should 
 keep a sharp look-out upon the Bank [of Upper Canada] and its managers." 
 These reasons were based upon the refusal of the officers of the Bank, in the 
 previous session, to answer the inquiries on numerous points of a parliamen- 
 tary committee ; on the statement, in evidence of Mr. E. Baldwin, that notes 
 had been discounted and refused discount from political reasons ; on the pal- 
 pable defects which then existed in the charter, defects which were such as 
 even then no economist or good business man in Europe would have thought 
 of defending. In order to exclude Mr. Mackenzie from the last annual meet- 
 ing proxies had been refused. 
 
 f The result of the polling was : For Ketchura, 616 ; Mackenzie, 670; Wash- 
 burn, 425 ; Thorne, 243. 
 
 J The following are members returned with the places they represented : 
 
 Glengary. — Alex. McMartin and Hastings. — Keuben "White and Jas. 
 Alexander Eraser. H. Samson. 
 
 Stormont. — Archd. McLean and P. Lennox and Addington. — Marshall S. 
 Vankoughnet. Bidwell and Peter Perry. 
 
 Dundas. — John Cook and Peter Northumberland. — James Lyon and 
 Shaver. Archibald McDonald. 
 
 Grenville. — Kichard D. Eraser and Durham. — John Brown and George 
 Edward Jessup. S. Boulton. 
 
 Leeds. — William Buell, jr. and Matt. York, [Town). — William Botsford 
 M. Howard. Jarvis. 
 
 Brockville. — Henry Jones. York, {County). — Jesse Ketchum and 
 
 Carleton. — John Bower Lewis. William L. Mackenzie. 
 
 Lanark. — Williaic Morris. Simcoe. — William B. Kobinson. 
 
 Frontenac. — Hugh C Thomson and Middlesex. — Mahlon Burwell and 
 John Campbell. Koswell Mount. 
 
 Kingston, (Town). — Christopher A. Norfolk. — Duncan McCall and Wm. 
 Hagerman. Willson. 
 
 24
 
 186 LIFE OF MACKENZIE; AND 
 
 JN'o previous Assembly had committed half as many 
 follies as the one that now met for the first time was 
 to perpetrate. 
 
 Oxford. — Chas. Ingersoll and Cbas. Ealton. — Wm Chisholm and James 
 Duncombe. Crooks. 
 
 Kent. — William Berezy. Niagara, {Town). — Henry J. Boul- 
 
 Essex. — William Elliott and Jean ton. 
 B. Magon. Lincoln. — Kobt. Kandal, John Clark, 
 
 Wentworth. — John Willson and Al- 'William Crooks, and Bartholomew C 
 Ian N. McNab. Beardsley. 
 
 Haldimand. — John Br&nt.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLIOX. 187 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Meeting of the New House — The Official Party elect Mr. M.Lean Speaker — 
 The Chaplain and State Church Question — Cause of the Party Eevolution — 
 Power of the Purse — State of the Representation — Mackenzie obtains a Com- 
 mittee upon it — Officials and Dependants on the Executive in the House — 
 Grants of Public Lands to Menabers of the House — Cheering in the Galleries 
 of the Assembly — Permanent Civil List first Granted — Mackenzie inquires 
 into the Public Expenditure, and becomes a Thorn in the Side of the Official 
 Party — Bank Mysteries made Public — Unsuccessful Attempt to expel Mac- 
 kenzie for distributing Copies of the Journals of the House at his own ex- 
 pense — Mr. McNab tries to pay off the Grudge of his previous Imprison- 
 ment — Scheme of Eepresentative Reform — Undue Influence of the Execu- 
 tive on the Legislative Council — Mackenzie starts an Agitation for Respon- 
 sible Government and other Reforms — Petitions to the Imperial Authorities 
 — Journey to Quebec — Shipwrecked in the Ice of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 The first trial of party strength, in the new House, 
 showed that the majority had passed to the official 
 side. It was then the habit of the Upper Canada As- 
 sembly, as it is now that of United Canada, to change 
 the Speaker with every revolution of party. The re- 
 election of Mr. Bidwell, by the new House, was out 
 of the question ; and Mr. Archibald McLean became 
 his successor, on a vote of twenty-six against four- 
 teen. He was the first native Canadian elected to the 
 chair of the Upper Canada Assembly. His father 
 had emigrated from Argyleshire, Scotland ; and the 
 son had, in previous local parliaments, allied himself 
 with the Official or Family Compact party. Person-
 
 188 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ally, he was not obnoxious, even to the oj)position ; and 
 his pleasing address was much in his favor. But his 
 election indicated a complete change in the politics of 
 the House; and the party now dominant in both 
 branches of the Legislature, as well as in the govern- 
 ment, was subject to no check whatever. The way in 
 which it abused its power, will hereafter be seen. 
 
 Early in the session, Mr. Mackenzie brought for- 
 ward a resolution re-affirming the right of the House 
 to api^oint its own chaplain, and denying that the Ex- 
 ecutive government had been entrusted with the power 
 to prescribe the religious duties, exercises, or cere- 
 monies of the House, or to incorporate with the tenets 
 of any particular sect the institutions of the country. 
 In Lower Canada, where the majority of the popula- 
 tion, and of the Legislative Assembly, was Roman 
 Catholic, the House had no chaplain. But this was 
 not necessarily the result of the denominational com- 
 plexion of the population ; for Upper Canada was the 
 only British American Province where the govern- 
 ment undertook to appoint a chaplain to the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly. Even in Nova Scotia, where the 
 Church of England was fully established, the popular 
 branch of the Legislature claimed and exercised the 
 right of appointing its own chaplain. The legal es- 
 tablishment of the Church of England in Canada was 
 contested ; and it was chiefly as a protest against the 
 assumj^tion that it occupied such a position, that Mr. 
 Mackenzie brought up this question, session after ses- 
 sion. If the Church of England was not securely 
 established, as a State Church, it had made some 
 not unsuccessful efforts at dominancy. It claimed a
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION". 189 
 
 seventh of all the granted lands in the Province. It 
 had obtained control of the University of King's Col- 
 lege, at York ; and it had obtruded a chaplain on an 
 unwilling House of Assembl}^ In the temper of the 
 new House, no decision could be got upon the ques- 
 tion raised by Mr. Mackenzie. It was superseded by 
 a motion, brought forward by ex-Speaker Willson, 
 " that the question be not now put." Mr. Mackenzie 
 then moved that a request be presented to the min- 
 isters of the different denominations, in York, to say 
 prayers in the House, during the session, under such 
 arrangements as the Speaker might make ; but a large 
 majority of the ■ members — about three-fourths — re- 
 fused to entertain the question, and the subject was 
 referred to a committee, consisting of Messrs. McNab, 
 Willson, and Samson. In the course of the debate. 
 Solicitor General Hagerman threatened the House 
 with " confusion," and that " an end would be put to 
 their proceedings," if they ventured to oppose the 
 wishes of the Lieutenant Governor. Attorney Gen- 
 eral Boulton compared the assumption of the House, 
 of the right to appoint its own chaplain, with the right 
 of the assassin who shoots down a man in the street — 
 the exercise of mere brute force. And the House ac- 
 cepted the argument, and bowed before the menace. 
 
 It was already evident that Mr. Mackenzie had lost 
 in the new House the influence he had exercised in 
 that which the Executive — unable to find in it a single 
 friend in need — had caused to be dissolved. Instead 
 of praying for a remoA^al of the ministry, as on the 
 previous occasion, the Address of the House was a
 
 190 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 mere echo of the speech with which the Lieutenant 
 Grovernor had opened the session. 
 
 It is impossible to note the change in the character 
 of the House produced by the election of 1830, with- 
 out inquiring to what possible causes so extraordinary 
 a party revolution was attributable. The enigma 
 seems to be not wholly incapable of solution. The 
 opposition to the Executive, in the previous House, 
 had gone far to abolish all party lines; Very few 
 members, who served from 1828 to 1830, had any se- 
 rious political sins to answer for, in respect to that 
 period. The purse-strings were held by the Execu- 
 tive. Holding the crown revenues independent of the 
 Legislature, it could wield the influence which money 
 gives ; and, in a young colony, poor and struggling, 
 this was necessarily considerable. The state of the 
 representation was. in some respects, worse than that in 
 the unreformed House of Commons. The session was 
 not very old when Mr. Mackenzie moved for a com- 
 mittee of inquiry on the subject. When he rose to 
 address the House, a collector of customs sat at his 
 elbow, and anether^of these officers was contesting the 
 election of a member who held office under the Exe- 
 cutive during pleasure ; while the Speaker whom he 
 addressed held the office of Clerk of the Crown in the 
 district where he lived. In England, a postmaster 
 could not vote for a candidate seeking a seat in the 
 unreformed Parliament; half a dozen postmasters 
 held seats in the Upper Canada Assembly. There 
 were, besides, office-holders of almost every grade : a 
 Sheriff, Inspectors of still and tavern licenses. County 
 Registers, and Commissioners of Customs. If any
 
 THE CAT^TADIAN REBELLION. 191 
 
 one is innocent enough to suppose that this crowd of 
 officials could make independent representatives, a re- 
 collection of the fate of Mr. Fothergill will serve to 
 undeceive him. . Mr. Fothergill had been dismissed 
 from the office of King's Printer, on account of the 
 independent position he had taken in the House. 
 Capt. Matthews, of the Royal ISTavy, had been temj)o- 
 rarily deprived of his pension, through the complaints 
 of spies, who made it a subject of serious complaint 
 against him that, when he had indulged too freely in 
 wine at dinner, he had thoughtlessly or imprudently 
 called on the orchestra to give " Yankee Doodle," in 
 the little theatre of York. Mr. Mackenzie, with his 
 colleague for York and the member for Lanark, re- 
 presented a larger number of people than fifteen other 
 members. There was more than one member whose 
 whole constituency did not number over twenty or 
 thirty votes. The county of York, which had two re- 
 j)resentatives, contained more people than Hastings, 
 Dundas, Haldimand, ISTiagara, and Brockville. A 
 majority of the whole House represented less than a 
 third of the population ; and if property were taken 
 into account as a basis of representation, the matter 
 would be still worse. Members of this House and its 
 predecessor had obtained grants of crown lands, over 
 which the Executive and not the Legislature held con- 
 trol, to the extent of from five hundred to two thou- 
 sand acres,* on simply paying the fees exacted by the 
 officials. With great force Mr. Mackenzie urged these 
 facts, for the most part discreditable, as a reason for 
 
 * These grants were probably legal. The objection was to the system which 
 permitted 5f abuse.
 
 192 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 inquiring into the state of the representation. On a 
 vote of twenty-eight against eleven the House granted 
 the committee ; and after two attempts on the part of 
 the officials and their friends to break the force of the 
 conclusion arrived at, Mr. Mackenzie got a committee 
 of his own nomination, consisting of Messrs. Shaver, 
 Howard, Buell, Lyons, and himself. 
 
 Even when his speeches did not move the House, 
 they sometimes caused the galleries to respond with 
 involuntary cheers. One instance of his forcible way 
 of putting things will show the secret power that 
 brought these dangerous responses from beyond the 
 bar. Mr. Burwell had proj)osed to grant a life pen- 
 sion to the widow of one of the leading public offi- 
 cers, when Mr. Mackenzie oj^posed the proposition in 
 these terms : — 
 
 " He objected to the introduction of a pension list 
 of this kind, because if it were admitted that the lady 
 of one public functionary had a right to a pension, it 
 would follow that others had the same right, and gen- 
 tlemen holding lucrative situations would depend on 
 the public and squander more profusely their ample 
 incomes. A man came from Scotland with a most 
 excellent character, expended all he had to bring him- 
 self, a wife, and large family to these shores ; had 
 Lord Bathurst's letter in his pocket deluding him 
 with the hopes of a grant of land, found it a decep- 
 tion, and went back into the bush upon a reserve to 
 combat ill health, poverty, and disappointment. The 
 Lieutenant Governor and Council would do nothinor 
 for this poor man ; his wife, separated from her friends, 
 pined and died ; her husband had a few hours before
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 193 
 
 come to inform him, with tears in his eyes, that slie 
 had been that very da}'^ coffined. Was it to be borne 
 that while respectable emigrants were thus made the 
 sport of a faction in the colony as pitiless as death 
 itself, that the rich, the wealthy, the opulent, they who 
 had obtained and doubtless well deserved thousands 
 of acres of public lands and thousands of pounds of 
 public money, should now, at the eleventh hour, come 
 forward and seek pensions out of the hard earnings of 
 British emigrants? — and that where British settlers 
 with empty pockets were told to buy land at its high- 
 est price and pay with interest for leave to live in 
 a wilderness, ladies of fortune and high connection 
 should receive pensions out of the public bounty ? It 
 might be fashionable in Britain, but was quite unfit 
 for Canada." 
 
 The utterance of these words was followed by clap- 
 ping of hands and cheering in the galleries, which 
 produced a motion ordering that strangers should be 
 required to withdraw. The ebullition of feeling ap- 
 peared to have been uncontrollable, and after a dis- 
 cussion on the subject, in secret session, the public 
 was re-admitted. 
 
 During this occasion a permanent Civil List of 
 £6,500 was granted. £8,000 had been asked from 
 the House, by the Imperial Government, which, at 
 this time, surrendered its interest in certain duties, 
 estimated at £11,500 a year, levied under Imperial 
 statute, and which had previously been applied to the 
 support of the civil government. The Civil List granted 
 in return for these revenues provided for the salaries 
 of the Governor, the Judges of the Court of Queen's 
 
 25
 
 194 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Bench, the Attorney and the Solicitor General, five 
 Executive Councillors, and the Clerk of the Executive 
 Council.* The revenue now ceded had recently made 
 the Executive independent, in money matters, of the 
 House ; and as there was no other means of making 
 the advisers of the representative of the Crown re- 
 sponsible to the Legislature, the granting of a perma- 
 nent Civil List was looked upon, by the Reform party, 
 as another means of perpetuating that immunity from 
 control, which the Executive enjoyed, and which was 
 the source of so many evils. There was no reason to 
 expect that the Legislature would long have remained 
 satisfied to permit these revenues to be disposed of 
 without its sanction ; for, though they were raised 
 under Imperial statute, they were paid by the Pro- 
 vince, and were in their nature essentially local. The 
 Legislative Assembly, if armed with the power of 
 annually voting the salaries of the members of the 
 government, might, Mr. Mackenzie and those who 
 acted with him thought, have some control over them. 
 If the government had been responsible to the Legis- 
 lature, this ground of opposition to what received the 
 name of the " Everlasting Salaries Bill," would, in all 
 probability, not have been taken, because the object 
 which the opposition sought to accomplish would have 
 beer, more efi'ectually obtained by other means. The 
 vote upon the question was a strictly party vote, and 
 it is very certain that, under the conditions of go- 
 
 * The salaries were : Lieutenant Governor, £2,000 sterling ; Judges of tha 
 Court of King's Bench, altogether, £3,300 sterling; Attorney and Solicitor 
 General, £500 sterling, each ; Five Executive C-Juncillors, £500 sterling, each ; 
 Clerk of the Executive Council, £200 sterling.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 195 
 
 vernment which then obtained, no permanent Civil 
 List would have been granted either by the preced- 
 ing or the subsequent House of Assembly. Under 
 other circumstances — in the presence of a responsible 
 government — the Liberals would probably not have 
 opposed the granting of a permanent Civil List; but 
 under a system w^hich deprived the Assembly of all 
 control over the advisers of the Lieutenant Governor, 
 they can hardly be blamed for seeking to enforce Exe- 
 cutive responsibility by the only means that seemed to 
 be in their power. 
 
 It had already become evident that, even in the 
 present House, Mr. Mackenzie would frequently get 
 his own way, and that he would give no end of trou- 
 ble to the official party. He brought forward mo- 
 tions which the House, in spite of its adverse compo- 
 sition, did not venture to reject, and they were some- 
 times accepted without opposition. He had carried a 
 motion of inquiry into the fees, salaries, pensions, and 
 rew^ards paid out of that portion of the revenue which 
 w^as not at the disposal of the Legislature, as well as 
 a motion for a return of all sums, paid out of the same 
 source, to religious denominations. He had made 
 strong efforts to effect a reform in the very defective 
 system of banking which then prevailed. The friends 
 of bank mj^stery had been obliged to give way, and 
 allow regular returns of the state of the Bank of Up- 
 per Canada to be made. Attorney General Boulton, 
 who was solicitor for the bank, held out against the 
 requirement of publicity as long as he could, but he 
 had to give way. On this subject Mr. Mackenzie did 
 not carry his motion, but he compelled those who
 
 196 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 opposed him to yield much of what he conte^nded 
 for. 
 
 If a member, who gave the official i)arty so much 
 trouble could be got rid of, how smoothly things 
 might be expected to glide along in the House, as at 
 present constituted! Could a vote of expulsion not be 
 carried? To this question an attempt was made to 
 give a practical answer. Previous to the general elec- 
 tion, Mr. Mackenzie had distributed, at his own ex- 
 pense, several copies of the journals of the House, 
 unaccompanied by comment, and precisely in the shape 
 in which they w^ere printed by the House. The de- 
 clared object of the distribution was to give the voters, 
 in different places, the means of referring to the official 
 record of the votes and proceedings of the House, in 
 order that they might be able to trace every vote, 
 motion, and resolution of their late representatives, 
 and to ascertain wdien they w^ere absent and when 
 l^resent ; whether their votes were acceptable or not. 
 It appears that it had been decided at a private party 
 meeting, at which several of the leading officials are 
 said to have been present, that this should be treated 
 as a breach of privilege, and be made the ground of 
 a motion to expel the member guilty of it. For this 
 purpose, the aid of a committee of inquiry was 
 obtained- consisting of Attorney General Boulton, 
 Messrs. McjN'ab, Willson, Samson, and Wm. Robin- 
 son. Mr. MclN'ab was selected as the minister of ven- 
 geance; and it may be presumed that he performed 
 his task con amore^ since he had an old grudge to 
 settle with the member, on w^hose motion he had, in a 
 previous session, been sent to prison for refusing to
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 197 
 
 answer the inquiries of a committee of the House. 
 Mr. McNab based his complaint chiefly upon the fact 
 that the journals had been distributed without the 
 appendix. If the appendix had gone too, he owned 
 " that he should not so readily have made up his mind 
 on the question of privilege." The idea he attempted 
 to convey was, that the journals alone gave a partial 
 view of the proceedings of the House ; but this pre- 
 tence was wholly groundless. All the votes and pro* 
 ceedings of the House are contained in the journals. 
 The motion was in these words: "That it having 
 appeared upon the report of the select committee, to 
 whom was referred the resolution of this House, and 
 the report of the Clerk on the subject of printing the 
 journals, that William Lyon Mackenzie, Printer, of 
 this town, who was employed to print the said jour- 
 nals, had abused the trust reposed in him by pub- 
 lishing portions of the said journals, and distributing 
 the same for political purposes, among individuals not 
 entitled to copies thereof; thereby committing a 
 breach of the privileges of this House." The Solicitor 
 General made no hesitation in denouncing the circu- 
 lation of the journals as "altogether disgraceful, and 
 a high breach of the privileges of the House." He 
 deemed it monstrous to circulate them, " without the 
 consent or approbation of the House," and for the 
 shameful purpose of letting the constituencies know 
 how their members had voted. The Attorney General 
 said the question was whether, for this "bad purpose, 
 any portion of the journals of the House could be pub- 
 lished;" and he answered it by unhesitatingly declar- 
 ing his "opinion, as a lawyer, that such a publication
 
 198 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 was a breach of Parliamentary privileges, whether 
 done with an evil intent, or for a praiseworthy purpose." 
 He attempted to make the British constitution respon- 
 sible for the folly his party were attempting to perpe- 
 trate. "He had been suffering much from indisposi- 
 tion all day; but he felt it to be his duty to stop in 
 his place and vindicate those privileges which ought 
 to be dear to every man who loved, as he did, the 
 British constitution." The spirit of the dominant 
 party of the day is fairly shown by this style of plead- 
 ing. Technically speaking, there may be little doubt 
 of the correctness of Mr. Boulton's Parliamentary law; 
 but nobody knew better than he, that the rule which 
 forbids any one to publish the proceedings of the House, 
 without authority, was violated every day; and that 
 its violation was looked upon, not as a crime to be 
 punished, but a public benefit and a general conve- 
 nience. Mr. Dalton had, in the previous session, 
 published portions of the proceedings of the House in 
 his journal;* aild if Mr. Mackenzie was liable to be 
 punished, so was he. Every newspaper publisher 
 was equally guilty. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie had a clear appreciation of the effect 
 which such an ill-advised movement would produce 
 on the public mind. "If," he said, "the object of this 
 resolution is to do me injury, it is but another proot 
 of the incapacity and folly of the advisers of this go- 
 vernment, who could not have better displayed their 
 weakness of intellect and unfitness for office, than by 
 bringing me before the public as a guilty person, on 
 an accusation, against which the whole country, from 
 
 * The Patriot.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 199 
 
 one end to the other, will cry out, ' Shame !' Of what 
 am I accused? Why, Mr. Speaker, I have committed 
 the high crime and misdemeanor of distributing, be- 
 fore a general election, at my own private expense, 
 one hundred and sixty-eight copies of the public offi- 
 cial journals of this House, without note or comment, 
 and after the Clerk had corrected the proofs, in order 
 (as the circular letter I sent with them declares) that 
 the freeholders in every district might have in their 
 own hands the best possible means of judging of the 
 fitness or unfitness of honorable members again to 
 represent their feelings and interests ; and in order 
 that means might be at. hand to refute the slanders 
 of those who would desire to mislead the public by 
 anonymous placards, handbills, and idle gossip, in 
 favor of one candidate to the prejudice of another." 
 "Were this motion to carry," he said in another i^art 
 of his defence, "we should find that we had privileges 
 contrary to precedent, contrary to usage; privileges, 
 of which no popular legislative body, until now, ever 
 heard or dreamed; privileges, which set common sense 
 and human reason at defiance. If I have done wrono-, 
 every newspaper editor in London, in Lower Canada, 
 and in this Province, is deserving of punishment." 
 
 IS'othing could be plainer than that the charge on 
 which it was sought to justify the motion for expul- 
 sion was a mere pretext. For if the publication of 
 the proceedings of the House, and worse still, as was 
 alleged, of a portion of those proceedings, was an of- 
 fence which that body, in vindication of its privileges, 
 was bound to punish, proceedings ought to have been 
 taken against every newspaper publisher. It was not
 
 200 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the member but the publisher of the journals who was 
 alleged to have offended in this instance ; and why 
 should the member be punished for what the pub- 
 lisher had done, while every other newspaper pro- 
 2)rietor, who was obnoxious to the same charge, was 
 to go scot free ? These considerations must have 
 flashed upon the House ; and in spite of its subserv- 
 iency to the administration, and in spite of the desire 
 to get rid of Mr. Mackenzie's active opposition by 
 removing his presence from the House, a majority, 
 fearing the effect of the proceeding upon the constitu- 
 encies, shrank from sustaining Mr. McJS'ab's motion. 
 The vote stood fifteen against twenty ; the names of 
 the Attorney General and the Solicitor General figur- 
 ing in the minority. 
 
 Baffled for the time, but resolved not to forego their 
 purpose of getting rid of a troublesome opponent, a 
 new pretext was soon invented. It was pretended 
 that Mr. Mackenzie, the journalist, had printed a libel 
 upon the House. But for libel the law had provided 
 severe remedies, and placed the accused at the great 
 disadvantage of not being able to plead in justification 
 that the alleged libel was true. To the law of the 
 land, the accused journalist was amenable ; and 
 might have been put upon his trial, either civilly or 
 criminally.* But this would not have answered the 
 purpose of Mr. Mackenzie's assailants ; which was to 
 rid the House of his presence and his opposition. 
 
 * I do not, of course, intend to deny the constitutional right of the House t« 
 jiunish for libels upon itself. But the power is one that requires to be ex- 
 ercised with great caution; and assuredly it should not be abused by making it 
 a pretext for the expulsion of a member, who is found troublesome to the 
 dominant party.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 201 
 
 Before the time came for the second motion for ex- 
 pulsion, the House had entered on another session ; 
 and in the interval Mr. Mackenzie was far from hav- 
 ing done any thing to conciliate the dominant faction. 
 On the 16th of March, 1831, the committee on the 
 state of the representation, of which he was chairman, 
 reported. It condemned the practice of crowding the 
 House with placemen ; showed that the Legislative 
 Council had repeatedly thrown out bills for allowing 
 the same indemnity to members for towns as was paid 
 to those for country counties — ten shillings a day, 
 without any allowance for travelling expenses — recom- 
 mended the modification of that provision of the law 
 which gave a representative to every town having one 
 thousand inhabitants, so as to include a portion of the 
 adjoining country sufficient to give the constituency 
 four thousand inhabitants ; an approach to the equal- 
 ization of constituencies, in other cases, was recom- 
 mended in detail. Some of the suggestions have 
 since been carried into effect. The report is entirely 
 free from that quackery which consists of the iteration 
 of what is readily accepted as a principle, but which 
 without some modification does not admit of practical 
 application. It was shown that the Executive had 
 exerted undue influence on placemen who held seats 
 in the Legislative Council ; and compelled them to 
 change their tone and vote in direct opposition to 
 their convictions j^reviously expressed in their places. 
 A few had had spirit enough to protest ; but submis- 
 sion had been the rule. 
 
 The Legislative recess was of less than ordinary 
 length ; the Provincial Parliament, prorogued on the 
 
 26
 
 202 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 16th of Marcli, having been again convened on the 
 17th of IS'ovember, 1831. But the period had been 
 long enough for Mr. Mackenzie to arouse an agitation 
 which shook XJj)per Canada throughout its whole ex- 
 tent. Toothing like it had ever before been witnessed 
 in the Upper Province. In the middle of July, he 
 issued, in temperate language, a call for public meet- 
 ings, to appeal to the King and the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment against the abuses of power by the local authori- 
 ties. He did not mistrust the justice or the good 
 intentions of the Sovereign. On the contrary, he 
 showed the people that there were substantial reasons 
 for believing in the good intentions of the King to- 
 wards the Province. " If," he said, in a publie ad 
 dress, " you can agree uj^on general principles to be 
 maintained by the agents you may appoint in London. 
 I am well satisfied that bis Majesty's government will 
 exert its utmost ]30wers to fulfil your just and reason- 
 able requests ; your King's noble efforts on behalf of 
 your brethren in England, Ireland, and Scotland, are 
 an earnest that you have in him a firm and powerful 
 friend." In these public meetings, York led off; and 
 was followed by responsive movements throughout the 
 Province. Mr. Mackenzie was personally present at 
 many of the meetings, and even in such places as 
 Brockville and Cornwall he carried every thing as he 
 wished. Each petition adopted by those meetings was 
 an echo of the other ; and many appear to have been 
 exact copies of one another. To produce a certified 
 copy of the proceedings of the York meeting was sure to 
 obtain assent to what it had done. A demand for a re- 
 sponsible government found a place in these petitions
 
 THE CA:N^ADIAN REBELLION". 203 
 
 The King was asked " to cause the same constitutional 
 principle which has called your present ministers to 
 office to be fully recognized and uniformly acted upon 
 in Upper Canada ; so that we may see only those who 
 possess the conndence of the people composing the 
 Executive Council of your Majesty's representative." 
 Representative reform — which then occupied so much 
 attention in England — was demanded. The control 
 of all the revenue raised in the Province was asked to 
 be placed in the Legislative Assembly f- the disposal 
 of the public lands to be regulated by law ; the secular- 
 ization of the Clergy Reserves ; the establishment of 
 municipal councils which should have the control of 
 local assessments ; the abolition of exclusive privi- 
 leges conferred upon particular religious denomina- 
 tions; law reform; provision for impeaching public 
 servants who betray their trust ; the exclusion of 
 judges and ministers of the gospel from the Execu- 
 tive Council and the Legislature ; the abolition of the 
 right of primogeniture : these items completed the list 
 of those grievances, of which redress was asked. Some 
 of the copies varied a little from the original formula ; 
 in substance the different petitions presented but little 
 variation. * 
 
 Of these petitions Mr. Mackenzie afterwards be- 
 came the bearer to England. The aggregate number 
 of signatures appended to them was over twenty-four 
 
 * In respect to Lcwer Canada this principle had already been conceded. 
 Lord Howick had stated in the Imperial Parliament, on the 11th of April pro- 
 rious, that " the government of Canada would be asked to surrender to the 
 Provincial Assembly, the whole of the disputed revenue ; but at the same time 
 he would ask of them a, moderate provision for the salaries of the governor and 
 judges ;" a civil list, in fact, to be granted every seven years.
 
 204: LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 thousand, five hundred. In spite of counter petitions 
 numerously signed, Mr. Mackenzie's mission, as we 
 shall see, was far from being barren of results. 
 
 During the spring of 1831, Mr. Mackenzie made a 
 journey to Quebec, to pay a visit to some of the lead- 
 ing politicians of Lower Canada. He took passage at 
 Montreal, in the steamer Waterloo, for Quebec. 
 While on her way down, the vessel was wrecked, 
 early on the morning of the 13th April, opposite St. 
 Nicholas, and the passengers had a narrow escape for 
 their lives. The vessel went down in deep water. 
 The accident arose from the supposition that the ice- 
 bridge at Cap Rouge had given way, and left the 
 channel clear. It was the general wish of the passen- 
 gers that the vessel should proceed, and the captain 
 acted upon it. Mr. Mackenzie wrote an account of 
 the occurrence, dated — " Malhot's Hotel, Quebec, 
 April 13, 1831. 
 
 "When off Dechambault, one of the company's 
 pilots came on board and said he had certain infor- 
 mation that the ice at Cap Rouge had gone down and 
 left the channel clear. Towards night, Mr. Lyman, 
 of the house of Hedge & Lyman, Montreal, expressed 
 to me some doubts as to the danger of our situation, 
 but I confess I had no fears whatever, but believed 
 that by midnight, at least, we would be off the wharf 
 here. About twenty miles above this city, however, 
 we came near to the great body of ice with which the 
 channel is choked up, and the master and pilot judged 
 it prudent to turn about and anchor in what was con- 
 sidered a safe place several miles up the river. Late 
 in the night we cast anchor in clear, smooth water ;
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 205 
 
 the Lady having previously anchored not far above 
 us. We neither saw nor dreamt of the bay of ice 
 that afterwards bore down upon us with the ebb of 
 the tide. The passengers and the crew numbered, 
 perhaps, upwards of fifty persons, five or six being 
 women, one with a child only nine weeks old. There 
 were about fourteen in the upper cabin with me, and 
 the wife of Mr. Collins, an Englishman, from Oxford, 
 occupied the ladies' cabin below ours. By eleven the 
 passengers were all in bed, except Mr. Lalanne, of 
 
 Montreal, and myself. At midnight Mr. L also 
 
 retired, and I sat above another hour reading a book 
 that interested me. Mr. Lyman had only lain down 
 with his clothes on, such were his just apprehensions. 
 I took the candle about one in the morning, went 
 round the vessel ; found all well ; no appearance of 
 storm or danger ; I then stripped, went to bed, and fell 
 fast asleep. At two o'clock Mr. Lyman and other pas- 
 sengers awaked me, said we were in danger, that the 
 ice had come down upon us and was driving us among 
 the ice above Cap Rouge, where in all probability, we 
 should be lost. The ice made a dreadful din, but I 
 confess I apprehended nothing, so went asleep again, 
 and was again awaked. We had dragged one anchor, 
 and lost the other, and had drifted into the midst of 
 the ice. The vessel had become unmanageable. The 
 efforts of the crew to back her out were useless, the 
 cables being in the ice. For three hours before the 
 wreck several passengers had declared their convic- 
 tion that we would all go to the bottom, but I lay still 
 in my berth and listened to their arguments pro and 
 con until half-past five. In a moment, as it w^ere, a
 
 206 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 vast mass of ice came down upon her with a tremen- 
 dous force ; the engine instantly stopped, and in less 
 than a minute she filled. I jumped up in my shirt, 
 caught hold of my trowsers and overshoes, and was 
 soon on a large cake of ice on which they had hauled 
 the ship's boat and a bark canoe. The passengers had 
 all previously gone upon the ice, and were stepping 
 from island to island, or rather from hill to hill, and 
 from valley to valley of ice, endeavoring to make the 
 shore, which was about a mile distant. Capt. Perry, 
 his mate, and some of his people remained with the 
 boat, near to the wreck, which at that time had been 
 left by all, it being supposed that she would suddenly 
 be engulj^hed by reason of the very heavy cargo and 
 the weight of her engine. After helping to haul the 
 boat a little farther on the ice, I w^ent close to the 
 steamer, observed that the water ceased to make as at 
 first, and returning to Capt. Perry took his advice as 
 to the chance I had of going down if I returned for 
 my clothes and baggage. He thought I might ven- 
 ture, and in a moment I was on board ; got my watch 
 and pocket-book from under my pillow ; seized hold 
 of my saddle-bags, valise, great coat, and other 
 clothes, and without hat or boots made for the land. 
 It was a difficult task, but I was last, and the track 
 of the feet of others often guided me when 1 could 
 see no one. The tide was then making, and the 
 water in several places gushed up through the rent 
 and rotten ice as if it would forever stop my pro 
 gress. In one hole I was nearly up to the neck m 
 water, and as my overshoes would not stay on my 
 feet, I added them to my luggage, of which I was
 
 THE CAJiTADlAN EEBELLION". 207 
 
 heartily tired. At length I came up with Mr. Lyman 
 and a poor woman who had almost given in and was 
 
 weeping bitterly. Mr. L-^ 's leg had been broken 
 
 during the Montreal Tailors' Riot of last summer, by 
 a stone thrown Dy a tailor, and he found walking very 
 difficult. I kept company with him and the woman 
 until by the good providence of God and the wonder- 
 ful bridge of ice he had that morning provided for us 
 his humble creatures, we all got safe to land at the 
 village of St. Mcholas, the property of Sir John Cald- 
 well, about sixteen miles above this city. I was quite 
 hoarse with cold, and very much fatigued, for no other 
 passenger had ventured to stop for his baggage. See- 
 ing, however, from the shore that the vessel was still 
 above water, and correctly judging that she was sup- 
 ported by the ice that had got under her wings, the 
 passengers offered rewards to the Canadian peasants 
 to bring baggage ashore. With their efficient aid, 
 the assistance of Mr. Sutton, a most hospitable and 
 friendly man who resides in the seigniorial house at 
 St. Nicholas ; the advice of the parish priest, Mr. Du- 
 fresne, who took an active, lively interest on behalf 
 of the wrecked ; and of the captain, mate, and sea- 
 men, (all of whom I admired for their coolness and 
 deliberation,) nearly all of the upper cabin furniture, 
 and bedding, the most of the passengers' baggage, and 
 the boat's books and pajDcrs were saved. Among the 
 rest of the odds and ends my hat and boots made 
 their appearance, the latter well soaked in water. * * * 
 " I must not omit to state that the sterling honesty 
 of the Canadians in humble life never appeared to me 
 in a fairer light than in their transactions of the morn-
 
 208 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ing of tlie shipwreck. Not one pin's value of pro- 
 perty did the humblest of their peasants or peasants' 
 boys attempt to secrete or claim. No! It was de-. 
 lightful to see the little fellows one by one come up 
 to Mr. Sutton's with their loads and lay them down 
 among the baggage, without even claiming praise for 
 their exertions. Had some of our legislators, who 
 made invidious comparisons between the Upper and 
 Lower Canadas last winter in the Assembly been with 
 me to see the benevolent creatures exert themselves 
 on our behalf, they would certainly have felt ashamed 
 of their censures." 
 
 There is one incident connected with the landing 
 of the passengers, not mentioned in this letter, which 
 Mr. Mackenzie often related. The poor woman whom 
 he overtook, in company with Mr. Lyman, was un- 
 able to jump from one piece of ice to another, or 
 was afraid to venture. Mr. Mackenzie threw him- 
 self across the breach, and she walked over upon his 
 body !
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 209 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 First Expulsion of Mr. Mackenzie from the House for an alleged Libel and 
 Breach of Privilege — His Defence — Partial Character of the Proceedings 
 against him — Libels on the previous House complimented by the Lieutenant 
 Governor — Mackenzie's Defence voted an Aggravation of his Offence — The 
 House refuses to inquire whether any one else has Libelled them during the 
 Session — Libellous Language of the Crown Officers — The Feeling excited by 
 these Proceedings — Petitioners go in a body to the Government House — 
 Fears of the Government shown by Military Preparations — The Expelled 
 Member carried triumphantly through the Streets, amid the Acclamations 
 of the Populace — Public Meeting resolve to present the Expelled Member 
 with, a Gold Medal in Approbation of his Political Career — His Ee-clection 
 — His Opponent gets One Vote — Gold Medal and Chain Presented. 
 
 In the last session, the attempted expulsion of Mr. 
 Mackenzie had failed. The pretext adduced to excuse 
 the pro]30sal was so flimsy and untenable that a ma- 
 jority of the House shrank from committing them- 
 selves to it. A new crime had been invented, and a 
 new pretext found. Before it was a breach of privi- 
 lege, for distributing the journals of the House ; now 
 it was a libel, constituting a breach of privilege. The 
 House met on the 17th N'ovember, 1831, and on the 
 6th December Mr. Mackenzie's first expulsion Avas 
 proposed. The proceedings were initiated by a flour- 
 ish about the privileges of Parliament ; the intention 
 
 27
 
 210 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 being to justify an outrage which it was proposed to 
 perpetrate in their name. The ball was opened by 
 Mr. John Wilson, a late Speaker of the House, sup- 
 ported by Mr. Burwell, against whose motion to create 
 a pension, in the previous session, Mr. Mackenzie had 
 roused an uncontrollable feeling in .the galleries. This 
 preliminary motion affirmed, " that the j)rivileges of 
 Parliament were established for the support and 
 maintenance of the independent and fearless discharge 
 of its high functions, and that it is to the uncompromis- 
 ing assertion and maintenance of these privileges in 
 the earliest periods of English history, that we are 
 chiefly indebted for the free institutions which have 
 been transmitted to us by our ancestors." Mr. Bid- 
 well, seconded bj'' Mr. Perry, with a view of showing 
 the animus of the proceedings, moved in amendment 
 that so much of the journals as related to the previous 
 attempt at expulsion be read ; but in a House of forty 
 members he was beaten by a majority of ten. Mr. 
 Bidwell returned to the charge, proposing to amend 
 the resolution so as to give credit to " a free 
 press, in modern and enlightened times, notwith- 
 standing the many different attempts to destroy its 
 liberty," a share in the preservation of the free insti- 
 tutions transmitted to us by our ancestors. This 
 amendment being rejected, on a vote of twenty-four 
 against sixteen, another amendment, embodying an 
 extract from the Colonial Advocate of the 24th Novem- 
 ber, 1831, and another of the 1st December, was 
 moved. It had for sponsors Mr. Samson and Mr. 
 Thomson, the latter of whom was proprietor of the 
 Kingston Herald^ a prper opposed in politics to Mr.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 211 
 
 Mackenzie.* The first of tliese articles was a mere 
 summary of the proceedings of the House on the sub- 
 
 *The amendment was as follows: — "That an article published in the news- 
 paper called the Colonial Advocate, of date the 24th of November, 1831, in the 
 following words : 
 
 "'State of the Colokt. — The people of this Province will probably be 
 able to form a tolerably fair estimate of the manner in which their petitions 
 on public affairs are likely to be treated in the Kepresentative branch of the 
 Legislature, when they learn the manner in which the first of the series has 
 been disposed of. The petition of the people of Vaughan, unanimously agreed 
 upon at their town-meeting, and signed by the chairman, secretary, and from 
 two to three hundred freeholders and other inhabitants, was the first presented to 
 the House; and after it had been read and had lain two days on the table, Mr. 
 Mackenzie, a representative of the people from whom it came, moved that it 
 should be referred to a committee of five members, viz : Mr. Ketchum, the 
 ether member for the county in which the petition was voted, and Messrs 
 Buell, Perry, and Shaver, with the mover, as a matter of course. Mr. Thom- 
 son, of Frontenac, the editor of the Kingston Herald, who had previously ex- 
 pressed great bitterness against the petitioners and their petition, in the public 
 journals, immediately rose and objected to referring the petition to its friends, 
 and allowing them to consider of and introduce any measures desired by the 
 petitioners, and which they might consider expedient, to the notice of the 
 Legislature. "We told the people of York last July, that this would be the 
 result of any application to the Assembly; and therefore the more earnestly 
 requesting them to unite in addressing the King's Government, as by this 
 means distinct propositions could be submitted to a new Assembly, called, as in 
 England, on the Reform Bill. We now urge all those entrusted with the 
 general petitions to the King and House of Assembly, to send them to York, 
 by mail, on the earliest possible day, in order that the former be forwarded to 
 London, and the latter submitted to the Assembly, now in session. We learn 
 that Chief Justice Robinson's successor in the law business, Mr. Draper, either 
 has gone off this week to London, or is now about to set off, to oppose the general 
 petitions, and advocate the interests of the Executive faction here, with His 
 Majesty's Government. They take the utmost pains to conceal their weakness 
 in the estimation of the country, and one of their ablest assistants leaves his 
 own private business and prospects, to watch the signs of the times at home. 
 Mr. Thomson's amendment, already spoken of, was a resolution, • that the pe- 
 tition of the people of Vaughan, with all other petitions relating to the same 
 subject, be referred to a select committee of seven members, to be chosen at 
 twelve o'clock to-morrow.' The Attorney General characterized the petitions 
 as, ' the expression of a few people,' ' a few individuals,' ' mere casual meetings,' 
 •he happened to have seen some of these meetings, but a few respectable
 
 212 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ject of certain petitions, praying for a redress of 
 grievances, and the second certainly did not exceed 
 
 farmers met together, did not at all understand the subject;' and termed the 
 committee 'a one-sided committee.' 'The petitions he had never seen till 
 that day — they had been got up by somebody or other.' The Solicitor General 
 wished the petitions to be referred to a committee of the whole House, and 
 thus be got rid of at once, and not referred to the committee named by Mr 
 Mackenzie, who would call witnesses where none were wanted, and thus in- 
 crease the expenses of the session. He asserted this, although there was 
 nothing in the motion that gave the committee any power to call a single wit- 
 ness. Messrs. Burwell, Jarvis, and others opposed to the rights of the people, 
 were, of course, in favor of Mr. Thomson's amendment ; the votes in favor of 
 which were as follows : — Messrs. Shade, Henry J. and George Boulton, Bur- 
 well, Elliott, A. Eraser, E. D. Eraser, Sheriff Jarvis, Lewis, McNab, 
 MoMartin, Solicitor General, Magon, Mount, Samson, Thomson, Warren, 
 and W. Willson. 
 
 '"The members opposed to Mr. Thomson's amendment, (introducing a 
 species of vote, in which the constituents of members could not learn how they 
 had acted,) and who would have entrusted the petitions to a committee of per- 
 sons favorable to the prayer of the petitioners, were Messrs. Buell, Campbell, 
 Cook, Duncombe, Howard, Ketchum, McCall, Mackenzie, Perry, Koblin, 
 Shaver, and White. The Executive faction carried their measure by a majority 
 of six. 
 
 "And also a certain article in the said paper, called the Colonial Advocate, 
 of the date of 1st December, 1831, in the following words: 
 
 "'Excellent Example of Lower Canada. — The harmony which sub- 
 sists between the Governor-in-Chief, the House of Assembly, and the Colonial 
 Secretary, Lord Viscount Goderich, must be pleasing and gratifying to every 
 true friend of representative government; fur it is evidently the consequence 
 of a just and honorable course of procedure in those high parties towards the 
 people of Lower Canada. We are glad to perceive, by Lord Goderich's dcs- 
 jiatch in answer to the Assembly's petition sent home last spring by Mr. Vigor, 
 that all the Judges are to be dismissed both from the Executive and Legisla- 
 tive Council ; that the revenues from the Jesuits' Estates are to be applied by 
 the Province to educate the Canadians ; that the power of regulating trade is 
 to be exercised in future with great attention to the interests of the colony ; 
 that provincial bills for giving corporate powers and making local regulatic>n8 
 will be sanctioned ; that the right of the colonists to regulate their internal 
 affairs is fully admitted ; that offices of trust and profit are to be more equally 
 distributed in future ; that officers who have lost the confidence of the country 
 arc to be dismissed, if the complaints made against them are proved ; that all 
 the proper influence of government is to be given to the satisfaction of the
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 213 
 
 the latitude of political criticism, at that time con- 
 stantly taken by the English press. It would be easy to 
 quote from leading London journals numerous exam- 
 
 colony, and that any colonial law increasing the responsibility and accounta- 
 bility of public officers will be sanctioned by England. In the Assembly we 
 see noble and patriotic eflbrts made to increase the happiness of the people, 
 enlighten their understandings, and watch diligently over their rights and 
 privileges; and on ihe part of the Governor-in-Chief there does really appear 
 to be a willingness to act with the House of Assembly, and faithfully to assist 
 them in securing for the country the inestimable advantage of good laws and 
 free institutions. 
 
 '"The contrast between their Executive and ours, betwixt the materiel of 
 our Assembly and theirs, and between the use they make of an invaluable con- 
 etitution and our abuse of it, is anything but satisfactory to the friends of free- 
 dom and social order in Upper Canada. Our representative body has degene- 
 rated into a sycophantic office for registering the decrees of as moan and mer- 
 cenary an Executive as ever was given as a punishment for the sins of any part 
 of North America in the nineteenth century. We boast of our superior intel- 
 ligence, of our love of liberty ; but where are the fruits ? Has not the subser- 
 vience of our Legislature to a worthless Executive become a bye- word and a 
 reproach throughout the Colonies ? Are we not now, even during the present 
 week, about to give to the municipal officers of the Government, as a banking 
 monopoly, a power over the people, which, added to their already overgrown 
 influence, must render their sway nearly as arbitrary and despotic as the 
 iron rule of the Czar of Muscovy ? Last winter, the majority of our Assembly, 
 with our Speaker at their head, felt inclined to make contemptuous comparisonii 
 between the French inhabitants of a sister colony and the enlightened con- 
 stituents who had returned them, Ihe said majority. In our estimation, and 
 iudging of the tree by its fruits, tha Lower Canadians are by far the most de- 
 serving population of the constitution they enjoy; for they show them- 
 eelves aware of its value. While judging the people here by the representa- 
 tives they return, it might be reasonably inferred that the constituents of the 
 McLeans, Vankoughnets, Jarvises, Eobinsons, Burwells, Willsons, Boultons, 
 McNabs, McMartins, Erasers, Chisholms, Crookes, Elliotts, Browns, Joneses, 
 Macons, Samsons, and Hagermans, had immigrated from Grand Tartary, 
 Russia, or Algiers the week preceding the last general election ; for, although 
 m the turgid veins of their members, there may be British blood, there cer- 
 tainly is not the appearance of much British feeling" : — 
 
 "Are gross, scandalous, and malicious libels; intended and calculated to 
 bring this House and the government of this Province into contempt, and to 
 excite groundless suspicion and distrust ir the minds f the inhabitants of this
 
 214 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 pies of greater severity of denunciation. At the dis- 
 tance of less than a quarter of a century, we look 
 back with amazement at the paltry passions and nar- 
 row judgment that could construe these articles into li- 
 bels on the House, constituting a breach of privilege, for 
 which nothing less than ignominious expulsion of the 
 author would be a fitting or adequate punishment. 
 
 "When the charge had been put into a tangible 
 shape, the accused member was asked to avow or dis- 
 avow the authorship of the alleged libels. He 
 promptl}' accepted the responsibility of the articles, 
 both as author and publisher. The Speaker, being ap- 
 pealed to, decided that Mr. Mackenzie had a right to 
 be heard in his own defence. The latter then pro- 
 ceeded to address the House ; but before he had con- 
 cluded, an adjournment took place. IS'ext day, Mr. 
 Bidwell moved for a committee to inquire whether 
 any libels had been published on the House during 
 the session. The motion was declared to be out of 
 order. The Speaker also announced that he had given 
 an erroneous decision, on the previous day, in giving 
 the accused the right of self-defence. But Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie was allowed to proceed. He denied the jurisdic- 
 tion of the House, in prosecutions for libel; they could 
 not, he argued, be a fit tribunal in a case where they 
 would occup}^ the impossible position of complainant, 
 judge, and jury. If they complained of libel, they 
 could address the Lieutenant Governor to order the 
 
 Province, as to the proceedin2:s and motives of thair representatives ; and is, 
 therefore, a breach of the privileges of this House. And "W. L. Mackenzie, 
 having avowed the authorship of the sa" I articles, be now called upon for hia 
 defence."
 
 THE ca:k^ad. an rebelliox. 215 
 
 crown officers to institute legal proceedings.* Upon 
 the charge brought against him, he was entitled to, 
 and he demanded, a legcxl trial before a jury of his 
 country. 
 
 So much did Mr. Mackenzie urge against the judicial 
 fairness of the proceeding. It must be admitted, how- 
 ever, the strongest point he made was not by the use 
 of arguments which tended to question the compe- 
 tency of the tribunal ; but in demonstrating the par- 
 tial and one-sided nature of the proceedings.f He 
 was not the only member of the House who published 
 a newspaper ; and others had, in speaking of the pro- 
 ceedings of the Assembly, used much harsher language 
 than he had. But the truth was, one party was per- 
 mitted any latitude of language, in dealing with their 
 opponents. This had been apparent in the prosecu- 
 tion of Collins, and the menaced proceedings against 
 Mackenzie, while the newspaper organs of the official 
 party w^ere left undisturbed in their carnival of un- 
 measured abuse of opponents. It was the policy of 
 tying the hands of your antagonist, and then setting 
 your fiercest hounds upon him. 
 
 The Lieutenant Governor, whose nod would have 
 been sufficient to quash these proceedings in a House 
 swarming with placemen and dependents on the Ex- 
 ecutive, had received " with much pleasure," a petition 
 from certain " gentlemen," residing in the county of 
 Durham, in which the previous House was spoken of 
 as " a band of factious demagogues, w^hose acts per- 
 
 « This was done in the case of Wilkes, whose expulsion was not pronounced 
 nntil it was found that he had absconded. 
 
 f See Appendix B
 
 216 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ceptibly tend to disorganize society, to subvert legiti- 
 mate authority, and to alienate men's minds from con- 
 stitutional government." And in another part of the 
 document thus graciously receii'-ed, the Assembly was 
 described as being composed of " unprincipled and 
 designing men ;" deluders " under the dark mantle of 
 specious patriotism." 
 
 So far as related to the decision of the House, it 
 was to no purpose that Mr. Mackenzie exposed the 
 gross partiality of these discreditable proceedings. 
 The majority had marked their victim, and no argu- 
 ment that could be used would induce them to forego 
 the sacrifice. 
 
 At half past five o'clock on the evening of the 9th 
 of December, Mr. Mackenzie, having closed his de- 
 fence, retired from the House, leaving the majority to 
 act unembarrassed by his presence. 'No vote was 
 taken that night. Xext day, Mr. Perry, seconded by 
 Mr. Cook, moved that the order of the day on the 
 question of privilege be discharged. He obtained but 
 fifteen votes against twenty-seven. This was the third 
 division on the proceedings, and it was in complete 
 harmony with the two Avhich had taken place before 
 Mr. Mackenzie had made his defence. Attorney Gen- 
 eral Boulton, who seems to have feared that Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie would renew his defence, moved to amend Mr. 
 Samson's resolution by striking out the order for hear- 
 ing the accused in his defence ; and it was carried by the 
 same party majority that had voted down Mr. Perry's 
 amendment. On the same day, the House acting 
 as accuser, judge, and jury, declared Mr. Mackenzie 
 guilty of libel. The vote was precisely the same as
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 217 
 
 on the two previous divisions — twenty-seven against 
 fifteen — a fact which shows, in the strongest light, how 
 incapable was this partisan tribunal of deciding fairly 
 upon a question of libel. By a party vote Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie's guilt had been pronounced; by a party vote 
 he was to be expelled. 
 
 On the 12th December — Sunday having intervened 
 since the last proceedings on the subject — on motion 
 of Mr. Samson, seconded by Mr. McNab, the House 
 declared the defence of Mr. Mackenzie to be a gross 
 aggravation of the charge brought against him, and that 
 " he was guilty of a high breach of the privileges of 
 this House."* They refused to strike a committee to 
 
 * "MOKDAT, December 12, 1831. 
 
 '♦ Mr. Samson, seconded by Mr. McNab, moves. That it be resolved that 
 William Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., a member of this House, having avowed 
 himself the author of the articles published in the newspaper, called the Colo- 
 nial Advocate, mentioned in the resolution of this House on Saturday last — 
 which articles are grossly false, scandalous, and defamatory — and having been 
 heard in his place in defence of the same, has by the whole tenor of such de- 
 fence flagrantly aggravated the charge brought against him, and is therefore 
 guilty of a high breach of the privileges of this House. [The word ' there- 
 fore' was afterwards struck out.] 
 
 " In amendment, Mr. Peny, seconded by Mr. Lyons, moves, *hat after the 
 word Resolved, in the original, the whole be expunged, and the following 
 words inserted : ' That as this House has allowed many other publications to 
 pass without punishment or censure, reflecting on the character and motives 
 of its members for many years past, and as addresses to the head of the Pro- 
 vincial government for the time being have been published in the Official Ga- 
 zette, containing such reflections with answers of His Excellency, the then 
 Lieutenant Governor, expressing his thanks for such addresses, and as this 
 House has, by the resolution adopted on Saturday last, asserted its privi- 
 leges, and shown its determination hereafter to take notice of such offensive 
 publications, it is not expedient to take any further notice of the said libels 
 published in the Colonial Advocate.^* 
 
 " On which the House divided. 
 
 "Yeas — Messrs. Beardsley, Bidwe 1, Buell, Campbell, Clark, Cook, How- 
 ard, Ketchum, Lyons, McC^all, Perry, Randal, Roblin, and Shaver — 14. 
 28
 
 218 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 inquire whether any other libels upon them had been 
 published since the commencement of the session. 
 
 *' Nays — Messrs. Attorney General, Berczy, Burwell, Boulton, Brown, Dun- 
 combe, Elliott, Fraser A., Eraser R., Ingersoll, Jones, Lewis, McNab, Mc- 
 Martin, Ma9on, Morris, Mount, Eobinson, Samson, Shade, Solicitor General, 
 Thomson, Vankoughnet, Warren, Werden, and Wilson W. — 26. 
 
 Then the question was taken on that resolution, whether Mr. Mackenzie's 
 defence was an additional offence ; and the twenty-six members who had voted 
 against Messrs. Perry and Lyons' amendment, as above stated, voted that it 
 was. The fourteen who had voted for Messrs. P. «&; L.'s amendment voted that 
 it was not. Question carried — found guilty of the defence by a majority of 
 twel P'e. 
 
 "Mr. Samson, seconded by Mr. Asa Werde.i, moved that it be resolved, that 
 William Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., be expelled this House. 
 
 ♦' In amendment, Mr. Perry, seconded by Mr. Lyons, moves, that after the 
 word ' moves,' in the original, the whole be expunged, and the following in- 
 serted : ' That this House having fully asserted its privileges by resolving some 
 particular remarks contained in the Colonial Advocate of the 24th of Novem- 
 ber and of the 1st of December, reflecting on the proceedings of this Assem- 
 bly, and some of its members, to be a libel, and a high breach of the privileges 
 of this House, it is expedient to appoint a Committee of Privilege to inquire 
 and report to this House what other, if any, libels have been published against 
 the proceedings of this House, or any of its members, since the commencement 
 of this present session, and that Messrs. Attorney General, Berczy, Duncombe, 
 Beardsley, and Ketchum do compose said committee.' 
 
 " On which the House divided. 
 
 "Teas — Beardsley, Bid well, Buell, Campbell, Clark, Cook, Howard, 
 Kotchum, Lyons, McCall, Perry, Randal, Roblin, Shaver — 14. 
 
 " Nats — Attorney General, Berczy, Boulton, Brown, Burwell, Duncombe, 
 Elliott, Fraser A., Fraser E., Ingersoll, Jones, Lewis, McMartin, McNab, 
 Ma^on, Morris, Mount, Robinson, Samson, Shade, Solicitor General, Thom- 
 son, Vankoughnet, Werden — 24. 
 
 ♦'The amendment was lost by a majority of ten. 
 
 " In amendment to Mr. Samson's motion for the expulsion of W. L. Mac- 
 kenzie, Esq., Mr Duncombe moves, that after the word 'moves,' in the origi- 
 nal motion, the whole be expunged, and the following be inserted, * Resolved, 
 That William Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., be called to the bar of this House, and 
 that he be reprimanded by the Speaker. Yeas, 7. Nays, 31. 
 
 '« On the original question the House divided, and the yeas and nays were as 
 follows : — 
 
 "Fob Expelliko Mr. Mackenzie. — Messrs. Attorney General, Berczy. 
 Boulton, Brown, Burwell, Elliott, Fraser A., Fraser R., Ingersoll, Jones,
 
 THE CANADIAJ5 REBELLION. 219 
 
 The majority had no idea of exercising their tyranny 
 in an impartial manner. Their object was to sacrifice 
 their opponents ; not to deal out the same measure of 
 punishment to their friends. Among those who would 
 have been found guilty, if the inquiry had been pushed, 
 were some of Mr. Mackenzie's accusers and judges. 
 The vote for expulsion stood twenty-four against fifteen, 
 and there were four absent members belonging to the 
 ofiicial party, all of whom would, if present, have 
 borne true allegiance on this occasion. 
 
 Attorney General Boulton, acting as prosecuting 
 counsel on behalf of the majority, described the ac- 
 cused as a " reptile ;" and Solicitor Greneral Hager- 
 man varied the description to "a spaniel dog." His 
 accusers and judges affected to regard his censure as 
 equivalent to praise ; while taking the most extraor- 
 dinary pains to prove by their acts that they believed 
 precisely the contrary. 
 
 The Imperial Parliament has, times innumerable, 
 punished individuals for libels upon either House. A 
 libel upon an individual member has always been 
 treated as a libel upon the whole body to which he 
 belonged. Admitting the force of English precedent, 
 Mr. Mackenzie, if guilty of libel upon the House, was 
 liable to punishment. But the articles complained of 
 as libellous, in his case, can hardly be said to have 
 
 Lewis, McMartin, McNab, Ma9on, Morris, Mount, Eobinson, Samson, Shade, 
 Solicitor General, Thomson, Vankoughnet, Warren, "Werden — 24. 
 
 " Against the Expulsion. — Messrs. Beardsley, Bidwell, Buell, Campbell; 
 Clark, Cook, Duncombe, Howard, Ketchum, Lyons, McCall, Perry, Kan- 
 dal, Eoblin, Shaver— 15." 
 
 The Courier, an organ of the official party, announced that Messrs. Wilson, 
 Cook, Cbisholm, and Jarvis, who were absent, would, if present, have voted 
 for the expulsion.
 
 220 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 exceeded the legitimate bounds of discussion ; and 
 they were not nearly so bad as many others which the 
 House thought it proper to overlook ; and of which, 
 indeed, some of the majority concerned in his con- 
 demnation had been guilty. It is this gross partiality, 
 this want of even-handed justice, which renders the 
 proceedings against him so odious. Some of the 
 libels which, in his defence, he showed had been 
 levelled at particular members of the House, through 
 the press, against other members, reflected upon a 
 previous Parliament; but if English precedent be 
 worth any thing, no right is clearer than that of one 
 House to punish for libels upon a previous House. 
 If the Assembly could punish for libel at all, it could 
 punish for libels upon a previous Assembly. The 
 punishment in Mr. Mackenzie's case, was altogether 
 unusual. Deprivation of his seat was wholly unjusti- 
 fiable. 
 
 The feeling excited in the unbiassed reader's own 
 mind, as he goes over this recital, will be no safe indi- 
 cation of the degree of public indignation aroused by 
 this atrocious mockery of justice. During the week of 
 the sham trial, petitions to the Lieutenant Governor 
 were numerously signed, praying him to dismiss a 
 House tainted with the worst vices of judicial par- 
 tiality. For the result had been foreseen by the 
 preliminary divisions. On the day of the expulsion, 
 a deputation from the petitioners waited upon the 
 Governor's private secretary, and informed him that 
 next day, at two o'clock, a number of the petitioners 
 would go to Government House in a body, to receive 
 his Excellency's reply. At the appointed hour, nine
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 221 
 
 hundred and thirty j)ersons proceeded to fulfil their 
 mission. They were received in the audience chamber ; 
 and the petition having been presented, they were 
 dismissed with the studiously curt reply: " Gentlemen, 
 I have received the petition of the inhabitants." 
 
 But the precautions taken betrayed the fears of the 
 Government. " The Government House," says Mr. 
 Mackenzie, in a fragment of manuscript relating to 
 the event, " was protected with cannon, loaded, served, 
 and ready to be fired on the people ; the regiment in 
 garrison was supplied with a double allowance of ball 
 cartridges, and a telegraph j)laced on the viceroyal 
 residence to command the services of the soldiers if 
 necessary." There were even then some who urged 
 an appeal to force; and the strange supposition seems 
 to have been entertained tbat the Scotch soldiers 
 would not fii'e upon them.* Mackenzie checked the 
 impetuosity of the more ardent spirits, who advised 
 violent measures. He had strong confidence in the 
 disposition of the new Reform ministry in England, to 
 do justice to the Province ; and he inculcated the ne- 
 cessity of patience. 
 
 What his enemies intended to make the day of his 
 humiliation and ruin, proved the day of his triumph. 
 The violence exercised toward him by the dominant 
 faction w^on for him the sympathies of the people. 
 After the return of the petitioners from the Govern- 
 ment House, they proceeded to the residence of Mr. 
 Mackenzie, in Richmond street, largely reinforced. 
 The man rejected by the Assembly, as a libeller, was 
 
 * I find that even now some of the active men of those times are still of this 
 opinion ; and speak in a tone of the greatest confidence.
 
 222 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 carried through the streets amidst the acclamations cf 
 the populace, who took this emphatic way of testify- 
 ing their approbation of his conduct, and of their 
 determination to uphold the rights of a free press, 
 which they felt had been outraged in his person. 
 Among other places, the procession stopped at the 
 Parliament House and cheered. They were cheers of 
 triumph and defiance; telling how quickl}'- the de- 
 cision of the Assembly had been reversed by that 
 public opinion, to which all elective bodies are ulti- 
 mately accountable. At the office of the Guardian 
 newspaper, then edited by the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, 
 who had warmly espoused the cause of Mr. Macken- 
 zie, the procession halted to give three cheers. From 
 a window of the Sun Hotel, Mr. Mackenzie addressed 
 the people ; and cheers were given for the " Sailor 
 King," and for Earl Grey and the Reform ministry. 
 When Mr. Mackenzie had retired, the meeting was 
 reorganized, and resolutions were passed, sustaining 
 the course he had taken as a politician and a journal- 
 ist ; complaining of the reply of the Lieutenant Gover- 
 nor to the petitioners as unsatisfactory and insulting ; 
 asserting the propriety of petitioning the Sovereign to 
 send to the Province, in future, civil instead of mili- 
 tary Governors ; and pledging the meeting, as a mark 
 of their approbation of his conduct, to present Mr. 
 Mackenzie with " a gold medal accompanied by an 
 appropriate inscription and address." 
 
 At the same sitting at which the expulsion of Mr. 
 Mackenzie had been decreed, the House had ordered 
 the issue of a new writ for the election of a member 
 in his place. The election was held at the Red Lion
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 223 
 
 Inn, Yonge street, on the 2nd of January. By what 
 accident it is not necessary to determine, the election 
 took place on the same day on which the town meet- 
 ings were held throughout the county ; but in spite 
 of this coincidence over two thousand persons were 
 present. There was a show of opposition made to the 
 re-election of Mr. Mackenzie ; but any thing so pitiful 
 had seldom been witnessed. Mr. Street was nomi- 
 nated by Mr. Edward Thomson, and supported by 
 the influence of Mr. Washburn, a candidate at the 
 previous election. Forty sleighs had come into town 
 in the morning to escort Mr. Mackenzie to the polling 
 place. An hour and a half after the poll opened, Mr. 
 Street, having received only one vote, against one 
 hundred and nineteen cast for Mr. Mackenzie, aban- 
 doned the hopeless contest. 
 
 After the close of the poll, came the presentation 
 of the gold medal. It cost $250, and was accounted 
 *' a superb piece of workmanship." The medal and 
 chain weighed one hundred and eighty-two dwts., or 
 over nine ounces. On one side were the rose, the 
 thistle, and the shamrock, encircled by the words, 
 " His Majesty King William lY., the people's friend. 'V 
 On the reverse was the inscription : '' Presented to 
 William L. Mackenzie, Esq., by his constituents of the 
 county of York, U. C, as a token of their approbation 
 of his political career, January 2, 1832." The mas- 
 sive cable chain, attached to the medal, contained forty 
 links of about one inch each in length.
 
 224 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 Trluraplial Entry into York — A Body of Electors force through the outer door 
 of the Legislative Building — Commotion in the Galleries, on a motion for 
 Ke-expulsion being made — Solicitor General Hagerman prevails upon the 
 House to declare a Disability unknown to the Law — One hour for the Ac- 
 cused to make his Defence — The Abuse of Pri\ilege — Specimen of a Solici- 
 tor General's powers of Vituperation — Mackenzie's Defence cut short by 
 the Speaker and the House — The Legislative Council call on the House to 
 afford it Reparation for an alleged Libel — Impassioned Appeal to the Elec- 
 tors of York — Ee-election after the Second Expulsion — Proposed Address 
 for Dissolution — Bank Bills carried in Mackenzie's absence. 
 
 The return to York was a triumphal procession. 
 An immense sleigh, belonging to Mr. Montgomery, 
 constructed with an upper story, carried, besides the 
 members elect, over twenty others, with a couple of 
 Scotiish pipers. Over fifty sleighs joined the pro- 
 cession, which numbered over a thousand persons. 
 ■^A small printing press, emblematic of the instrument 
 of victory, kept in order by the warmth of a fur- 
 nace, was throwing off impressions as the monster 
 sleigh moved along. Among the numerous flags 
 that surmounted the sleigh carrying the re-elected 
 member, one bore the device, " The Liberty of the 
 Press;" another, "Mackenzie and the People." As 
 Grovernment House and the Parliament Building were 
 passed, the deafening cheers of the throng announced 
 the reversal of the decision of the House of Assem-
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 22o 
 
 bly, by tlie freeholders of the count}^ of York. Seve- 
 ral soldiers of the 79th regiment went to the election, 
 and rode back on the sleighs. They appear to have 
 gone for the purpose of enjoying the excitement; and 
 as their presence was contrary to law, the government 
 papers strongly censured the commanding officer for 
 permitting them to attend. 
 
 When Mr. Mackenzie returned to the House, with 
 the unanimous approbation of his constituents, the 
 question of re-expulsion was immediately brought up.* 
 
 * <* House of Assembly. Tuesday, January 3rd, 1832. 
 
 "On the Speaker announcing to the House the return of William Lyon 
 Mackenzie, Esquire, ai member for the county of York — 
 
 "Mr. Vankoughnet, seconded by Mr. Mcl^ab, moved "That it be resolved, 
 that the entries on the Journals of the 12th December last, relating to the ex- 
 pulsion of William Lj'on Mackenzie, Esq., be now read. 
 
 Mr. Vankoughnct also read to the House the two following resolutions, 
 which he declared to contain the object he had in view by moving the above 
 resolve : 
 
 "Mr. Yankoughnet, seconded by Mr. McNab, moves that William Lyon 
 Mackenzie, Esq., returned a member to represent the county of York in Pro- 
 vincial Parliament, having been expelled this House during this present 
 session for the publication of certain gross, scandalous, and malicious libels, in- 
 tended and calculated to bring this House and the Government of the Province 
 into contempt, and excite groundless suspicion and distrust in the minds of the 
 inhabitants of the Province, as to the proceedings and motives of their Eepre- 
 Bentatives ; and having made no reparation or atonement for his said offence, 
 but on the contrary, in the interval between his said expulsion and subsequent 
 re-election, having, in a certain newspaper called the Colonial Advocate, of 
 which he, the said William Lyon Mackenzie, has avowed himself the proprietor, 
 and responsible for the matter therein published, endeavored to justify and 
 maintain the said gross, scandalous, and malicious libels, in high contempt of 
 this House and its privileges ; he, the said William Lyon Mackenzie, is unfit 
 and unworthy to be a member of this House, and that his seat therein be there- 
 fore declared vacant. 
 
 "Mr. Vankoughnct, seconded by Mr. McNab, moves that it be resolved, 
 That the Speaker of this House do issue his Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown 
 in Chancery, for a new writ for the election of a member to serve in the pre- 
 sent Parliament as Representative of the county of York, in the stead of the 
 29
 
 226 LJFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 While he stood at the bar of the House, waiting to be 
 sworn in, Messrs. Yankoughnet and McJN'ab raised 
 the question, but the majority of the House seemed 
 disinclined to incur the odium of a second expulsion ; 
 an amendment to proceed to the order of the day 
 being carried by a vote of twenty-four against twenty. 
 The motion was met by hisses below the bar, which 
 were only suppressed by a threat to clear the House of 
 strangers. The crowd of voters who had accompanied 
 their re-elected representative to York, pushed their 
 way into the House. An attempt was made to pre- 
 vent their entering the lobby ; but they forced through 
 the outer door and got in. 
 
 The movers in the business had not put the case very 
 skilfully. They had complained of alleged libels, as 
 calculated to bring the government as well as the 
 House into contempt ; as if the House, in addition to 
 being the guardian of its own privileges, had also been 
 a constitutional screen for the protection of the gov- 
 ernment from censure. JSTo new libel was charged ; 
 
 said William Lyon Mackenzie, who has been declared unfit and unworthy to 
 be a member of this House.' 
 
 " In amendment to Messrs. Vankoughnet and McNab's first resolution, 
 Mr. Perry moved, in substance, that the House should proceed to the other or- 
 dinary business of the day, and drop all further proceedings in the libel case. 
 
 " In favor of dropping the proceedings, and against Mr. Yankoughnet's 
 resolutions, voted Messrs. Attorney General, Beardsley, Bidwell, Buell, Camp- 
 bell, Clark, Cook, Duncombe, Howard, Ingersoll, Ketchum, Lyons, McCall. 
 McDonald, A., McDonald, D., Morris, Norton, Perry, Eandal, Eoblin, Sara- 
 son, Shaver, Willson, W., and Warren — 24. 
 
 For proceeding with Mr. Yankoughnet's resolutions for re-expelling Mr. 
 Mackenzie, or rather of preventing him from taking his seat, and ordering a 
 new election, (he having declared that step to be the object of his first resolve,) 
 voted Messrs. Berczy, G. Boulton, Brown, Burwell, Crooks, Elliott, Eraser, A., 
 Jarvis, Jones, McMartin, McNab, Ma5on, Mount, Robinson, Shade, Solicitor 
 General, Thomson, Chisholm, Yankoughnet, and Werden — 20.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 227 
 
 and the only offence that concerned the House con- 
 sisted of an attempt to justify what the majority had 
 previously voted a libel and a breach of privilege. 
 The question raised was rather one of disability than 
 of any new offence. It was probably owing to the 
 fact that the majority saw this ground to be untenable 
 that they refused to sanction the motion. The House 
 had an undoubted right to expel any member for ade- 
 quate cause ; but it had no right to create a disability 
 unknown to the law. 
 
 Solicitor General Hagerman, who appears to have 
 knowm more of Parliamentary law than either Mr. 
 Vankoughnet or Mr. McJV^ab, felt that it was neces- 
 sary, in bringing up the question of the re-expulsion, to 
 go upon the ground of a new libel upon the House. 
 He therefore moved, January 6th, a resolution declar- 
 ing certain matter which had appeared in the Colonial 
 Advocate of the previous day,* and of which Mr. 
 
 * The following are the only passages that reflect upon the House : — 
 
 " I have charged the present House of Assembly with sycophancy, in my ca- 
 pacity of a public journalist ; I here before you and in the face of the world 
 reiterate that charge, as applied to the majority of its members. 
 
 "They have passed, at the request of the local Executive, and contrary to 
 British Constitutional principle, the everlasting salary bill ; refusing at tho 
 same time to limit its operation to the present reign ; refusing to provide fc- 
 the independence of the judges on the Executive, while they secured to them 
 for ever the most extravagant incomes; refusing also to inquire into tho 
 wasteful and dangerous system of applying the greater part of the revenue by 
 a p6wer unknown to the constitution; refusing to exclude the judges from 
 Beats in the Legislative and Executive Council ; refusing to exclude bishops, 
 archdeacons, and gospel preachers from seats in the Executive Council ; and 
 refusing to curtail the extravagance of the Council clerk, and the unjust 
 charges of the Crown officers, before these officers had voted themselves and 
 their successors, and the said clerk and his successors, incomes out of the taxes 
 for ever. 
 
 " They have imitated the Legislative Council in squandering your revenues
 
 228 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Mackenzie admitted liimself to be the autlior, to be a 
 false, scandalous, and malicious libel upon the House 
 
 under the head of contingencies ; they douhle and treble the incomes of some 
 of their servants, grant the most extraordinary demands for services, care- 
 lessly examine accounts, and openly vote down, session after session, ordinary 
 motions of inquiry into the items of expense which compose the thousands of 
 pou'ids demanded in a lump from time to time as contingencies by the Legis" 
 lative Council. Adding together the probable incidental charges of the two 
 Houses, from March last until March next, we shall have about £9,000. And 
 as the whole expense of their sittings, £25,000. The Legislature of Vermont 
 costs annually about half as many dollars, including the salary of Governor, 
 judges, and all other charges; yet the population of Yermont exceeds ours. 
 
 " They allowed the St. Lawrence to remain unimproved, although its being 
 made navigable would have benefitted everybody ; and neglected further to 
 encourage education, although the people cried out for it ; they put a negative 
 in their first session upon the bill for distribution of intestate estate, although 
 Upper Canada had but one voice in its favor ; they delayed and refused to pass 
 the Clergy Keserve address in the same session, lest (as they said) the peti- 
 tioners by Mr. Kyerson should profit by it; and found, nevertheless, £50,000 
 to expend on Welland Canal, an unprofitable undertaking, a job prematurely 
 gone into for the advantage of a few oflicers of this government, legislative 
 counsellors, and speculators in waste lands. 
 
 "They neglected your numerous petitions, presented by myself and other 
 friendly members, praying for the passage of many salutary enactments, or 
 delivered them into the custody and safe keeping of placemen, by whom I had 
 been personally insulted and defamed as a rebel and traitor ; and by this means 
 prevented several useful bills being introduced into the House on your peti- 
 tions. 
 
 " They passed the obnoxious York Marke, Bill in opposition to your peti- 
 tions; and in defiance of the protestations of your members, they negatived and 
 condemned the principle of voting by ballot ; they disapproved by their votes of 
 the excellent principle of regulating by law the sales of all public or Crown 
 .iinds, and preferred the present secret or corrupt system; they refused to cen- 
 sure the Lieutenant Governor for keeping back this election twenty-one days 
 instead of eight, in order that it might interfere with your town-meetings and 
 delay my return ; they refused to inquire into the Tea Monopoly, by which 
 you are so heavily taxed ; they refused to remonstrate against the principle of 
 the trade act of last April, so deeply affecting your interests ; they allow the 
 important statements respecting extravagant pensions, salaries, fees, and law 
 charges to slumber on their shelves, and thereby increase the incomes of attor- 
 neys, bailiflFs, sherifis, and other public functionaries at the expense of justice 
 and good government ; they neglect tc inquire into the details of the many
 
 THE CA]S^ADIAN REBELLION. 229 
 
 of Assembly, and a high breach of its privileges ; that 
 the author be expelled the House, and declared un- 
 worthy to hold a seat therein.* Mr. Hagerman had 
 
 thousands of pounds granted for road and bridge improvements ; they neglect 
 to inquire into the whole provincial expenditure, and to provide due chocks on 
 the revenue officers; they propose to double the power of the political bank at 
 this place, and they get rid of motions for inquiring into the state of its afiairs 
 by motions for adjournment. 
 
 " They appoint committees on the state of the representation of the people 
 in their own House, and refuse to allow said committees to report. 
 
 "They get rid of bills for the general regulation of Banking; revenue in- 
 quiries; bank inquiries; inquiries into salaries, incomes, fees, and perquisites ; 
 bills to amend the representation ; inquiries into fines, forfeitures, seizures, and 
 the application of the same, and of your opposition to destructive monopolies, by 
 Eummarily expelling a member you sent to attend to these matters. 
 
 " They (the said majority) are chiefly placemen, during pleasure, such as 
 sheriffs, crown lawyers, postmasters, judges, registrars, custom-house officers, 
 military men on half pay or retired allowances, collectors of the customs elect, 
 &c., &c., who receive from the government six if not ten times the amount they 
 obtained from the people as legislators. They are the enemies of free discus- 
 Bion through the press, although such free discussion of the conduct of public, 
 men is your best guarantee for the preservation of the rights of freemen." 
 
 *"Jan-tjary 6, 1832. — Mr. Solicitor General, seconded by Mr, Elliott, 
 moves that it be resolved, That William Lj^on Mackenzie, Esq., a member 
 returned to represent the county of York, in Provincial Parliament, has been 
 expelled this House during the present session for the publication of certain 
 gross, scandalous, and malicious libels, intended and calculated to bring this 
 House and the Government of this Province into contempt, and to excite 
 groundless suspicion and distrust in the minds of the inhabitants of the Pro- 
 vince as to the proceedings and motives of their representatives. 
 
 "That since his re-election, in a certain newspaper called the Colonial Advo- 
 cate, dated 5th January, instant, in an article therein published, entitled, 
 'Articles of Impeachment, or public accusations read and submitted to the 
 consideration of the electors of the county of York, in County Court assem- 
 bled, on Monday, January 2, 1832, by Mr. Mackenzie, their late member, 
 against the Lieutenant Governor and the advisers of the Crown,' of which he 
 has avowed himself the author, has, in high contempt of this House and its 
 privileges, not only re-asserted the said gross, scandalous, and malicious libel, 
 for which he, the said William Lyon Mackenzie, had been expelled ; but hath 
 also in the sa'd articles endeavored, by false, scandalous, and malicious repre- 
 sentations, to 2ause His Majesty's subjects of this Province to believe that the
 
 230 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 the prudence to leave out of view the general censures 
 on the Executive Council, and the demand for the dis- 
 missal of himself and Attorney General Boulton, 
 which were to he found in the article, part of which 
 he l^rought forward as a ground for expelling the au- 
 thor from the House. It is not to be supposed, how- 
 ever, that he was insensible to these reflections ; and 
 the Imperial Groverment afterwards took the advice 
 of Mr. Mackenzie to dismiss both these functionaries. 
 One of the princi])al grounds of that dismissal was 
 the part they took in the expulsion of a political op- 
 ponent from the House, upon pretexts that were 
 deemed to be constitutionally untenable. 
 
 Only one hour was given to Mr. Mackenzie to pre- 
 jmre his defence, during which the House adjourned. 
 On its re-assembling, the clerk, at the request of the 
 accused, read the whole of the article — part of which 
 was complained of as a libel upon the House — ex- 
 tending to more than five newspaper columns. 
 
 majority of their Eepresentatives should'''be held in execration and abhorrence 
 by posterity, as enemies to the liberties of the people they represent — as persons 
 who would, by violent and unconstitutional means, destroy the liberty of the 
 press, and convert the fifty members of which the House is composed into 
 tyrants in close and unholy alliance with trained bands of public robbers: — 
 Wherefore, It is resolved that the said William Lyon Mackenzie be expelled 
 ^his House, and declared unfit and unworthy to hold a seat therein. 
 
 "In amendment, Mr. McNab, seconded by Mr. Vankoughnet, moves, 
 that after the word • therein,' the following be added, 'during the present ses- 
 iion of Parliament.' 
 
 •' Debates ensued, and the House adjourned." 
 
 •'Saturday, Jantjaky 7, 1832. — Mr. Perry, seconded by Mr. Shaver, 
 moves that so much of the order of the day as relates to the question of pri- 
 vilege be discharged. Lost — Yeas 17, Nays 22. 
 
 "Mr. McNab's amendment (see above, Jan. 6,) was then carried. Nays 19, 
 Yeas 27. 
 
 " The final questioE, as thus amended, was then carried. Yeas 27, Nays 19
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 231 
 
 Such an article would not now arrest the attention 
 of the House; much less cause its author to be pun- 
 ished for libel, in any shajoe. Whether, technically 
 speaking, it was libellous or not, it was far less sc 
 than many articles in other newspapers, some of them 
 written by members of the Assembly, and of which 
 the writers were neither prosecuted in the courts, nor 
 expelled from the House. 
 
 Solicitor General Hagerman showed a disposition 
 to carry the abuse of privilege as far as the most des- 
 potic sovereign had ever carried the abuse of prero- 
 gative. That he had no natural dislike of libels he 
 clearly proved,. by the profuse use he made of them 
 under cover of that very privilege in the name of 
 which he asked the expulsion of a fellow member.* 
 He described Mr. Mackenzie as "the worst of slan- 
 derers," who " would govern by means of the knife, 
 and walk over the bleeding bodies of his victims." 
 Of the minority of the House, he said, if they con- 
 tinued there, they " would continue as slanderers, or 
 supporters of slanderers." " Mr. Mackenzie," he said, 
 when he had closed his defence, " cast a malignant 
 and wicked glare across the House ;" and that " at 
 that moment, he left what was most virtuous within 
 the walls, and took away what was the most vile and 
 debased." When, in the course of his defence, Mr. 
 Mackenzie read extracts from the speeches of Sir 
 
 * When the question of Mr. Mackenzie's first expulsion was before tho 
 House, Mr. Hagerman, after disclaiming all personal feeling in the premises, 
 said, ■" he would now vote for Mr. Mackenzie's expulsion ; but if he should bo 
 re-elected, be would be the first to receive him ; he would not interfere with 
 the elective franchise ; ae would leave to the people the free choice of theii 
 representatives . ' '
 
 232 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Francis Burdett, Earl Grey, Lord Broughani, Mr. 
 Macaulay, and others, the Solicitor Gleneral exclaimed 
 that they were " base and diabolical." Here were 
 libels a hundred times worse than that against which 
 they were uttered. The difiference was, that the So- 
 licitor General, as a member of the House, was treated 
 as a privileged libeller ; though assuredly the use of 
 language which from its violence strikes at the very 
 existence of deliberative assemblies, by tending to 
 render all discussion impossible, could hardly be in 
 order. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie attempted to convince the House of 
 its error, by showing that it was setting itself in oppo- 
 sition to public opinion ; and pointing in proof to the 
 approbation of his constituents, as shown both by his 
 re-election, and the gold medal that had been pre- 
 sented to him. He then took out of his pocket the 
 massive gold medal, and by means of the enormous 
 chain of the same material suspended it round his 
 neck ; declaring that he would wear it while he held 
 his seat, if it were only for an hour. The alleged 
 libel had been read by him at the hustings; and after 
 the electors had heard it, only one person could be 
 found to vote against him. This was pretty strong 
 proof of public opinion, in the metropolitan county 
 of the Province ; and no doubt the result would have 
 been the same if the appeal had been to any other 
 populous county in the Province. The county of 
 York had an unequal representation in the House ; 
 and the matter would be made worse by depriving it 
 of one of its members. The constituency that had 
 approved his conduct and sent him back was on its
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 233. 
 
 trial ; and if he were expelled, the electors " would feel 
 it their duty to come to the bar and defend their 
 rights." The Solicitor General objected to the lati- 
 tude taken by the accused ; and the Speaker, being 
 appealed to, declined to interfere ; but he expressed a 
 hope that " too great latitude would not be taken." 
 xVfter two or three other attempts on the part of the 
 Solicitor General to stop the defence, on such grounds 
 as that the reading of extracts from the English press 
 to show the degree of liberty allowed there to criti- 
 cisms upon Parliament, the Speaker deckired Mr. 
 Mackenzie out of order. Having appealed against the 
 decision of the Speaker, whom the House sustained 
 by a large majority, Mr. Mackenzie resolved to at- 
 tempt no more. It was, he said, a farce and a mock- 
 ery for the House to call on him to make his defence, 
 and then prevent his proceeding. He disdained to 
 attempt any further defence before such a tribunal. 
 He then, according to the report of a journal violent- 
 ly opposed to him, tied up his papers, " after giving 
 them a kick or two to put them in order, and walked 
 out of the House amidst loud cries of ' order' from all 
 sides." 
 
 The question was soon settled; the House voting the 
 re-expulsion, by nine o'clock, the second day of the dis- 
 cussion, on a division of twenty-seven against nineteen.* 
 
 * Teas — Messrs. Attorney General, Berczy, G. Boulton, Brown, Burwell, 
 Chisholm, Crooks, Elliott, A. Frazer, Jarvis, Jones, Lewis, Magon, McMartin, 
 NcNab, Morris, Mount, Kobinson, Samson, Shade, Solicitor General, Thom- 
 son, Vankoughnet, Warren, John Willson, "W. Wilson, and Wcrden — 27. 
 
 Nays — Messrs. Beardsley, Bidwell, Buell, Campbell, Clark, Cook, Dun- 
 combe, Howard, Ketchum, Lyons, McCall, A. McDonald, D. McDonald, 
 Norton, Perry, Kandal, Eoblin, Shaver, and White — 19. Mr. Ingcrsoll, 
 who was out of the House, would have voted with the majority. 
 SO
 
 234 LIFE OF mackexz.:e, and 
 
 The resolution, forged in the mint of the Solicitor Gene- 
 ral, went much beyond a mere expulsion. It declared 
 the expelled member incapable of holding a seat in the 
 House during that Parliament ; thus assuming that a 
 mere resolution of the House could create a disability 
 to which nothing short of a specific law could give legal 
 force.* If the object of Mr. Hagerman had been to 
 place the House in the wrong, he could not have suc- 
 ceeded more effectually. 
 
 On the day that this second expulsion was proposed, 
 the Legislative Council came to the aid of the Assem- 
 bly. It complained of being libelled in the same arti- 
 cle that had been arraigned in the other branch of the 
 Legislature ; and instead of addressing the Grovernor 
 to order a prosecution of the publisher for libel, it 
 sent to the Assembly resolutions, containing a "confi- 
 dent reliance" that the House "will view with just 
 indignation the efforts made by one of their members 
 for impairing the independence of the Legislative 
 Council, and diminishing the respect which is due to 
 them as a part of the constitution of this Province, 
 and that they will desire to afford reparation to the 
 Legislative Council for so unwarrantable a breach of 
 their privileges."*!* Supposing this complaint of libel to 
 
 * " If," says May, in his Constitutional History of England, "by a vote of the 
 House a disability, unknown to the law, could be created, any man who be- 
 came obnoxious might, on some ground or other, be declared incapable. In- 
 capacity would then be declared, not by the law of the land, but by the 
 arbitrary will of the Commons." 
 
 + On the 9th January the House resolved to send a message to the Legisla- 
 tive Council, in answer to its resolutions. "The Solicitor General, seconded 
 by Mr. Thomson, moves. That it be resolved that the Honorable the Legisla- 
 tive Council be informed that the resolutions of that honorable body of the
 
 THE CANADIAN EEiSELLION. 235 
 
 have been well-founded, the pruper course would have 
 been for the Council to address the Governor to order 
 a prosecution, as was done by the House of Commons, 
 in the case of Wilkes, who was only expelled after he 
 had absconded to France. But there was a very sub- 
 stantial reason for avoiding this course. No convic- 
 tion could have been obtained. 
 
 The alleged libel on the Legislative Council con- 
 tained some plain truths which could not but grate 
 harshly upon the ears of that Assembly. It also ex- 
 pressed some ojoinions, regarding which people differed 
 at the time, and a few about which people still differ ; 
 but the number is less now than it was then. It was 
 unhappily true that the Legislative Council was 
 crowded with placemen and Executive dependents, and 
 Mr. Mackenzie had the faculty of stating such unplea- 
 sant facts in a way calculated to create unpleasant 
 sensations in those whom they affected ; but in this 
 case the greater part of the alleged libel consisted of 
 a mere recital of bills rejected by the Second Cham- 
 
 6th instant were received at the time this House was engaged in the investiga- 
 tion of charges against the memher named in those resolutions for an alleged 
 breach of the privileges of the House of Assembly, which investigation has 
 resulted in the expulsion of the said member as unfit and unworthy to hold a 
 seat in this House, and therefore no further proceedings can be had on the 
 complaint of the Honorable the Legislative Council. On which the House 
 divided, as follows : — 
 
 "Yeas — Messrs. Berczy, Boulton, Brown, Burwell, Chisholm, Crooks, Dun- 
 combe, Elliott, Eraser A., IngersoU, Jarvis, Jones, Lewis, McMartin, McNab, 
 Ma^on, Morris, Mount, Kobinson, Samson, Shade, Solicitor General, Thom- 
 son, Warren, Werden, "Wilson W. — 26. 
 
 "Nays — Messrs. Beardslcy, Bidwell, Buell, Campbell, Clark, Cook, How- 
 ard, Ketchum, Lyons, McCall, McDonald A., McDonald D., Norton, Perry, 
 Randal, Koblin, Shaver, ar.d White — 18. 
 
 "Question carried; maicrity eight."
 
 236 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ber.* Whether these measures were good or bad was 
 a matter of opinion. Mr. Mackenzie thought they 
 
 * Here is the alleged libel: — "The Legislative Council is chiefly composed 
 of persons dependent on the Executive government for their salaries, pensions, 
 and fees of office, or who have been selected by that gover^.ment, upon the 
 principle on which the English Tories have selected peers and bishops for the 
 last forty years, absolute and unlimited servility. It also contains naval and 
 military half-pay officers, Koman Catholic and Protestant bishops, venerable 
 archdeacons, excise officers, and bank directors, and its official organ is the 
 chief criminal judge of the colony. From its very nature and composition it 
 has scarce one feeling or sentiment in common with the cou'.try, being the 
 mere breath of the Executive, and an expensive and cumbrous screen to shield 
 that Executive from deserved odium. 
 
 "The Legislative Council rarely, if ever, originates any bills of general in- 
 terest for the advancement of the public prosperity. 
 
 " It has, on innumerable occasions, rejected the most wise, salutary laws — 
 laws earnestly desired by the people, and calculated to promote their welfare. 
 Among the measures thus wantonly rejected by the Council since my entrance 
 into the Legislature, I shall particularly enumerate bills for abolishing the law 
 of primogeniture and dividing real estate more equally among the sons and 
 daughters of land-owners who die intestate ; for selling a part of the Clergy 
 Reserves for the benefit of the country ; for rendering sherifls and their depu- 
 ties ineligible to seats in Parliament for places within their jurisdiction ; for 
 appointing commissioners to meet commissioners already appointed by Lower 
 Canada, to consider of the regulation of trade, customs' duties, and other mat- 
 ters of mutual interest; for appointing, first, the Hon. J. W. "Willis, and, se- 
 condly, Mr. Speaker Papineau, to act as a judge in equity and reconsider the 
 case of Mr. Eandal's Chaudiere estate ; for assigning yards to debtors incarce- 
 rated in prison ; for facilitating the administration of justice, by removing the 
 grounds on which frequent charges of partiality and corruption, or deep sus- 
 picion of corruption, have often been made against sheriffs and coroners for 
 arbitrarily returning and impanelling juries ; for excluding the judges from 
 the Legislative and Executive Councils ; for relieving Quakers, Mennonists, and 
 Tunkards from the payment of fines for non-performance of militia duty in 
 time of peace; for establishing, on a just and liberal principle, Upper Canada 
 College in this town ; for authorizing creditors to sue for debts against the 
 Canada Company ; for allowing persons who may be charged with felony, and 
 unable to defend themselves, the benefit of full defence by counsel ; for the 
 belter regulation of township meetings and the duties of town and township 
 officers ; for more fully securing the independence of town members, by grant- 
 ing them the same wag?s as county members ; for stopping the payment of an 
 Episcopalian chaplain when the Assembly no longer required his services; for 
 allowing the people of Kingston to elect municipal officers instead of having
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 237 
 
 were good, and the expression of that opinion coukl 
 hardly be considered libellous b}" any disinterested 
 person in possession of his reason. 
 
 The appeal which Mr. Mackenzie now made to the 
 electors of York was in his most impassioned style, 
 and may be taken as a very fair sample of his powers 
 of agitation. As such I subjoin a few extracts from a 
 somewhat unequal, and what lawyers would probably 
 call a seditious, document : — 
 
 their local affiiirs regulated by a few irresponsible individuals arbitrarily se- 
 lected by the Executive government; for granting a small aid for a few years 
 to the Academy incorporated in Grantham'; for incorporating a number of you 
 as an association to hold your public store-house in York and store your grain ; 
 for repealing the £2,500, or pension-fund act; for amending the law of evidence 
 and contracts ; for amending the law of libel; for granting in 1829 £13,650 
 in aid of the roads ; and for authorizing the appointment of commissioners of 
 roads and other officers for the management of highways by the township 
 meetings. Also, for lessening the number of lawsuits and authorizing the ap- 
 pointment of arbitrators in certain cases, &c., &c. 
 
 " The Legislative Council is the cause of much waste of time and money in 
 the House of Assembly, by continually rejecting bills much called for by the 
 people, which causes great delay in the business of the Assembly each year, in 
 again going through and discussing the same measures. The Gourlay Banish- 
 ment Kepeal Bill, the Prince Edward Division Bill, and several other bills of 
 a general or local character, were often passed in the Lower House at a great 
 expense to the colony, and finally assented to. 
 
 '* The Legislative Council is opposed to a liberal system of banking, because 
 its members are almost all deeply interested in the political and exclusive bank 
 already established, as well from their profits as stockholders as from the influ- 
 ence they derive as placemen from the secret control of this dangerous institution. 
 
 •' The Legislative Council have passed addresses in favor of particular church 
 establishments, and are as much opposed to the independence of the judges on 
 the Crown, as they were anxious to secure their independence of the people. 
 They have no fear of the present judges lacking in pliability towards any ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 •'The Legislative Council grant the money arising from the taxes levied on 
 you to their door-keepers and favorites for pretended extra services, and last 
 spring grossly imposed upon the House of Assembly by representing a demand 
 made to pay a door-keeper a douceur for some jiretended service some years 
 before, as being to pay contingencies of the then existing session."
 
 238 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 " Canadians ! You have seen a Grourlay unlawfully 
 banished ; a Thorpe persecuted and degraded ; a Ran- 
 dal cruelly oppressed ; a Matthews hunted down even 
 to the gates of death ; a Willis dragged from the 
 bench of justice, slandered, pursued even across the 
 Atlantic by envy and malice, and finally ruined in his 
 fame, fortune, and domestic happiness ; you have seen 
 a thousand other less noted victims offered upon the 
 altar of political hatred and party revenge ; sacrificed 
 for their adherence to the principles of the constitu- 
 tion ; their love of liberty and justice ; their ardent 
 desire to promote the happiness of your domestic fire- 
 sides. How many more sacrifices the shrine of unlaw- 
 ful power may require, none can tell. The destroyer 
 is made bold by your timidity, and the base and un- 
 principled triumph over your truest friends, because 
 they believe you will show a craven spirit, and put 
 up with every possible insult, however aggravated. 
 The hired presses style you the tag-rag and bob-tail 
 who assemble at town meetings, and in the Legisla- 
 ture your most faithful members are daily insulted 
 and abused as rebels in heart, and the factious abet- 
 tors of the libeller, the disafi*ected, and the disloyal. 
 * * * Had Charles X. profited by experience as 
 did his brother Louis XVIIL, the elder branch of the 
 Bourbons had yet reigned in France. Louis was illu- 
 minated by his journey to Grhent, and stuck by the 
 charter ever after. But it is said that our great men 
 put their trust and confidence in the troops at Kings- 
 ton and in this garrison. Do they expect to make 
 butchers of British soldiers, the soldiers of liberty, 
 the friends of freedom, the conquerors of the tyrant
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 239 
 
 of France, the gallant followers of the noble-hearted 
 Colonel Douglas? Are these the men they expect 
 to protect them should continued misrule bring upon 
 them the indignation of an injured, outraged, and 
 long-suifering community? Do they suppose that 
 men of honor would violate their obligation to their 
 country and their God, and imbrue their Lands in the 
 blood of their kind and confiding brothers, to gratify 
 the bitter enemies of their noble King? Surely, the 
 champions of British liberty are unfit to perform the 
 drudgery of menial slaves ! Surely, the men whom 
 our beloved Sovereign has sent here to protect us from 
 foreign aggression cannot desire to abridge our privi- 
 leges. Their rights are ours — their history our his- 
 tory — their earliest recollections ours also ! We ac- 
 knowledge one common origin ; our fathers worshipped 
 together in one temple. Does the infatuated junto, 
 who are now acting so foolishly, expect the bravest of 
 Scotland's sons to sabre their countrymen merely be- 
 cause they do not conform to the doctrines of prelacy 
 and follow the example of Archdeacon Strachan to 
 apostacy and worldly wealth? Do they believe there 
 is a soldier in Canada whose youthful heart ever 
 bounded with joy in days of yore, on old Scotland's 
 hills, while he sang the national air of ' Scots wha hae 
 wi' Wallace bled,' and who&e manhood has been em- 
 ployed in repelling foreign aggression, who would dis- 
 grace his name and the regiment he belongs to by 
 increasing the widows and orphans of Canada ? And 
 yet, if such are not the expectations of our rulers, why 
 do they trifle with the feelings of the people ? What 
 would a handful of troops be to the natural aristo-
 
 240 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AND 
 
 cracy of Canada, the hardy yeomanry who own the 
 soil, even if the former were of the most ferocious class 
 of human beings, instead of the manly and accom- 
 plished defenders of their country, covered with im- 
 mortal honor and unstained laurels on many a victo- 
 rious battle field? I disdain to hold out threats, but 
 it is time to speak with plainness. * * * 
 
 " We come, at last, to the leading question, What is 
 fo be done? Meet together from all sections of the 
 country, at York, on Thursday next, the nineteenth 
 instant, in this town, on the area in front of the court 
 house ; let the farmer leave his husbandry, the me- 
 chanic his tools, and pour forth your gallant popula- 
 tion animated by the pure spirit of liberty ; be firm 
 and collected — be determined — be united — never trifle 
 with your rights ; show by your conduct that you are 
 fit for the management of your domestic affairs, ripe 
 for freedom, the enlightened subjects of a constitu- 
 tional Sovereign, and not the serfs of a Muscovite, 
 or the counterpart of a European mob ! Strive to 
 strike corruption at its roots ; to encourage a system 
 calculated to promote peace and happiness ; to secure 
 as our inheritance the tranquil advantages of civil and 
 religious freedom, general content, and easy independ- 
 ence. Such a connection as this with our parent state 
 would prove long and mutually beneficial ; but if the 
 ofiicials go much further they will drive the people 
 mad." 
 
 To a certain extent, the majority of the Assembly 
 had, by the injustice of which they had been guilty, 
 gained their point. They had goaded their victim 
 into the use of expressions which in his cooler mo-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION". 241 
 
 ments he had never used. It must not be overlooked, 
 however, that whatever there was of menace in his 
 impassioned language, it was directed against the Pro- 
 vincial oligarchy. A marked distinction was made 
 between them and the " noble King," whose " soldiers 
 of freedom" were the " champions of British lib- 
 erty." If he was indiscreet, we must not forget the 
 galling provocation to which he had been subjected : 
 :n being not only expelled the Legislature for libels 
 diat others might print with impunity ; but, with a 
 view of preventing his re-election, the organs of the 
 official party had represented that he was loaded with 
 a disability unknown to the law, the creation of the 
 arbitrary will of the House of Assembly. We shall 
 see, as we proceed, that some members of the Family 
 Compact shortly afterwards threatened to throw off 
 their allegiance upon infinitely less provocation. 
 
 The election of a member, to represent the county 
 of York, in the place of the expelled represen- 
 tative, commenced on the 30th January ; Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie being proposed, for the fourth time, by Mr. 
 Joseph Shepherd. Two other candidates, besides Mr. 
 Mackenzie — Mr. James E. Small, and Mr. Simon 
 Washburn — presented themselves. Mr. Small stated 
 from the hustings that " he did not come before the 
 freeholders as approving of the conduct of the As- 
 sembly, in their repeated expulsions of Mr. Macken- 
 zie ; he considered their proceedings, in these cases, 
 arbitrary and unconstitutional. But as they had de- 
 clared Mr. Mackenzie disqualified, he had come for- 
 ward, presuming that the electors would see the ex- 
 pediency of not electing a member who could not take 
 
 31
 
 242 XIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 his seat. He opposed Mr. Washburn, not Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie, who, he was satisfied, would have a majority 
 of votes." Mr. Washburn, on the contrary, expressed 
 his approval of the proceedings of the Assembly, in 
 the expulsion of Mr. Mackenzie, of whom he spoke in 
 terms of harshness, similar to those used by the more 
 violent of the majority of the House. Mr. Washburn 
 retired, on the second day of polling, much disgusted 
 at having received only twenty-three votes. Mr. 
 Mackenzie received six hundred and twenty-eight 
 votes, and Mr. Small ninety-six. 
 
 Such a result might have been expected to convince 
 the Assembly of the folly of their proceedings ; but the 
 truth is, the majority was entirely inaccessible to reason. 
 
 In the meantime, the Legislative session had been 
 closed. Before the prorogation, Mr. Peter Perry 
 moved to address the Lieutenant Grovernor to dissolve 
 the House, in consequence of the excitement created 
 in the country by the two expulsions of Mr. Mackenzie; 
 for which motion he obtained eighteen votes against 
 twenty-seven. The House, as if proud of its achieve- 
 ments, ordered two thousand copies of the proceedings 
 on the privilege question to be printed. 
 
 In the absence of Mr. Mackenzie from the Assem- 
 bl}' the Bank of Upper Canada had been authorized 
 to increase its stock to a very large extent, in spite of 
 the refusal of its managers, on a previous occasion, to 
 give to a committee of the House information on 
 points of the first importance. The Bank was unpopu- 
 lar from the circumstance of the government hold- 
 ing stock in it, and appointing representatives of that 
 stock at the Board of Direction. A large amount of
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 243 
 
 stock was held by members of the Legislative Council ; 
 who, in enlarging the powers conferred by the char- 
 ter, were legislating for their oAvn individual interests. 
 Under the rules to which the Assembly is now obliged 
 to conform, members similarly situated would not be 
 permitted to vote at all on the question. JN"© other 
 member of the House understood so well as Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie the checks necessary to impose on banking cor- 
 IDorations, for the security of the public ; and his ex- 
 pulsion caused the suspicion to be expressed that the 
 interested members of the House were not uninflu- 
 enced by the consideration that, in his absence, any 
 bank scheme they might bring forward would be sure 
 to succeed.* The bill was, however^ vetoed in England, 
 at the instance of Mr. Mackenzie, as based on unsound 
 principles. 
 
 Frazer, a man of coarse manners and violent lan- 
 guage, publicly threatened to horsewhip Mr. Macken- 
 zie from his place in the Assembly during the mock 
 trial ; and it is said that within twenty-four hours 
 he received from Sir John Colborne a promise of the 
 collectorship of Brockville. The promise was faith- 
 fully fulfilled. 
 
 * It is proper to say that very few shares were held by members of the 
 House. Mr. H. J Boulton was interested as Solicitor to the Bank, and doubt- 
 less many other members expected favors from it. A Bank of U. C. return 
 for 1831 showed that only fifty-seven shares were held by members of the 
 House. 1,629 shares were held by members of the Legislative Council, and 
 1.402 by officers of the government; the government itself holding, on be- 
 half of the Province, 2,000 shares. Other Provincial Banks were, at that 
 time, conducted upon anything but correct principles. The whole caj/i- 
 tal stock of the Bank of Montreal, on the loth Novembtr, 1830, was £250,000 ; 
 and at the same time the Directors had borrowed from t-:e bnnk £120,473, and 
 were endorsers for others for £60,570 more! In short they had borrowed 
 nearly three-fourtns of th ■ whole capital of the bank.
 
 2-44 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Popular Excitement and Sympathy for Mackenzie — Grievance Petitions — 
 Attempt to Assassinate Mackenzie — Trial and Conviction of Kerr for the 
 Outrage — Mackenzie Denounced by a Catholic Bishop — Disturbances in 
 York, and another Assassination Plot — Journey to England — Witnesses the 
 final reading of the Reform Bill — His Impressions of Earl Grey, O'Connell, 
 Eev, Mr. Irving, and Cobbett — Hume forwards his Objects — Interview with 
 Lord Goderich, Colonial Minister — Eefuses the Postmaster Generalship of 
 Upper Canada — Lord Goderich's Dispatch and Concessions — The Legisla- 
 tive Council and Assembly on the Dispatch — Mackenzie procures the Dis- 
 missal of the Crown Officers in Upper Canada — The Tories threaten to 
 revolt — Hagerman restored to the Solicitor Generalship, and Boulton 
 appointed Chief Justice of Newfoundland — Post-office Policy and Revela- 
 tions — Disallowance of Bank Charters — Other Colonial Agents — Macken- 
 zie's " Sketches of Canada and the United States" — Revisits Scotland — Re- 
 turns to Canada — Declines public Dinners. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott has stated somewhere that man- 
 kind feel more interest in the fortunes of two lovers 
 than in the fate of a nation. An interest scarcely in- 
 ferior attaches to the career of an individual whom the 
 public regards as the victim of injustice, whose crime 
 consists of his having defended a popular right or 
 contended for a principle. The majority of the As- 
 sembly, in attempting to crush an opponent, nad mad* 
 c martyr. The natural result followed. The expelled 
 member had crowds of sympathizers, in all parts of 
 the Province. Public meetings were held to denounce 
 this arbitrary stretch of privilege. Petitions to the
 
 THE CAxN'ADIAX REBELLION. 245 
 
 King and the Imperial Parliament for a redress of 
 grievances, of which the expulsion of Mr. Mackenzie 
 was one, were numerously signed. Of these petitions, 
 it was already known, Mr. Mackenzie was to be the 
 bearer to the Colonial office ; where he would person- 
 ally advocate the reforms for which they prayed. 
 
 A counter movement was set on foot by the official 
 party. With the Reform ministry, in England, this 
 party was not very sure of its standing. The petitions 
 that had already been sent to the Colonial office, from 
 Upper Canada, complaining of grievance and praying 
 that they might be redressed, had produced an im- 
 pression adverse to the official party in the Province. 
 What might be the result of Mr. Mackenzie's visit, 
 armed with numerous petitions, unless some antidote 
 were applied, it would be impossible to tell. The 
 prospect which this state of things held out enraged 
 the official faction ; and in more than one instance they 
 resorted to violence, from which Mr. Mackenzie only 
 escaped, by something little short of a miracle, with 
 his life. 
 
 On the 19th of March, 1832, one of the meetings 
 called by the government party was held at Hamilton. 
 Mr. Mackenzie attended by special invitation. The 
 meeting was a public one ; and the opposition had de- 
 termined to measure numbers with their opponents. 
 Mr. Wm. B. Sheldon, of Barton, was proposed to be 
 voted into the chair ; and the Tories, fearing a defeat, 
 assumed a tone of menace. Wm. J. Kerr, showing 
 a more violent disposition than the rest, swore that 
 no one but the Sheriff should preside. As too often 
 happens where two political parties attempt to out-
 
 246 LIFE OF MACKET^ZIE. AND 
 
 number one another, at a public meeting, great con- 
 fusion occurred. On a show of hands both parties 
 claimed the victory; but the Sheriff took the chair. 
 The other party — rej)resented by a local paper as 
 being much the more numerous — retired to the Court 
 House Green; where an address to the King was 
 adopted. 
 
 After the meeting, Mr Mackenzie had retired to 
 the house of a friend, Mr. Matthew Bailey, where he 
 dined, a few other friends being present. A rumor 
 had been circulated, in whispers, that a plan had been 
 formed, during the day, to take Mr. Mackenzie's life, 
 or at least to do him such bodily injury as would 
 render it impossible for him to make his contemplated 
 journey to England. Several of his friends apprised 
 him of this, and urged him strongly to leave town 
 before dark. Mr. Davis three several times attempted 
 to persuade him to go in his carriage to Wellington 
 Square. He declined all this advice, and all offers 
 of conveyance that would take him out of town before 
 dark ; saying that he should prefer to start by the 
 stage at eleven o'clock. About nine o'clock that night, 
 when he was sitting in a parlor up stairs, with a 
 friend, writing, the door was suddenly opened with- 
 out any premonition, and in stepped Kerr and one 
 George Petit. When asked to take seats, one of them, 
 Kerr, at first refused, but almost immediately after sat 
 down. He almost instantly rose again, and walking 
 up to the table and turning over the sheets Mr. 
 Mackenzie had been writing, remarked with much 
 apparent good humor : " W&ll, Mr. Mackenzie, have 
 you got all our grievances redressed at last?" Some-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 247 
 
 thing more was said, when Kerr, asking Mr. Macken- 
 zie to speak with him in private, was at once lighted 
 down stairs by the unsuspecting victim, by whom he 
 was followed. Kerr opened the street door ; and, 
 while standing on the steps in front, introduced Mr. 
 Mackenzie to' two or three accomplices,* remarking, 
 " This is your man," or " This is our man." All at 
 once, one of them seized him b}^ one side of the coat 
 collar, while Kerr seized the other. The candle was 
 dashed to the ground, and the}^ attempted to drag 
 their victim, in the dark, into an open space in front 
 of the house. Mr. Mackenzie, on whose mind the 
 terrible truth now flashed — the warnings he had re- 
 ceived that a plan had been made to murder him, and 
 a threat made by Kerr some months before to take his 
 life, instantly coming to his recollection — grasped the 
 door, and struggling in the hands of the assassins, 
 shrieked, " Murder." One of the party now struck him 
 a terrible blow with a bludgeon, felling him down 
 upon the stone steps, whence he was dragged into the 
 square in front of the house ; where he received re- 
 peated kicks and blows, and his life was only saved 
 by the opportune arrival of some neighbors, with Mr. 
 Bailey's brother ; one of whom, named Peck, an Irish 
 laborer, caused Kerr to desist by apj^roaching him 
 with an uplifted billet of wood. The villains took 
 to their heels, except Kerr who was upon the ground ; 
 
 * It was stated in a local paper, at the time, the editor of which was present 
 with Mr. Mackenzie, in the House, that two of these were James Dennis and 
 Oliver Richie ; and the statement was afterwards repeated in a work published 
 by Mr. Mackenzie, in London. There is, however, no judicial evidence of 
 the identity of Kerr's accomplices ; as he was the only one brought to trial for 
 the outrage.
 
 248 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 and when he rose, he resorted to the stratagem of 
 assuming not only the innocent man but the j)ro- 
 tector, saying, " Don't be afraid, Mr. Mackenzie ; you 
 shan't be hurt, you shan't be hurt." He then scamp- 
 ered off as well as he could — for he was permanently 
 lame — after his accomplices ; and next morning he 
 was heard boasting at the Burlington canal — a govern- 
 ment work of which he was manager — that he had 
 saved Mackenzie's life from the attempt of a band of 
 ruffians ! The victim was found to be bleeding pro- 
 fusely, disfigured in the face, injured in the head, and 
 hurt in the chest. " I was very unwell all next day," 
 he said, " but able to sit up. I was a ghastly spectacle 
 to look upon ; and for months after I felt the effects 
 of the blows and bruises." 
 
 Mrs. Bailey was so alarmed at the outrage enacted 
 in front of her husband's house, that she was seized 
 with convulsions, and was in such an alarming condi- 
 tion, during the greater part of the night, that it was 
 at one time feared she would lose her life or her rea- 
 son. She gradually recovered towards morning. 
 
 It has been stated that Kerr and his friends met 
 next day, vowing to complete, at night, the work they 
 had begun ; but, however this might be, Mr. Bailey's 
 house was too well guarded to render such an attempt 
 at all prudent, and it was not made. 
 
 Kerr was a magistrate, and had charge of a public 
 work. He was a man who might safely be looked to 
 to take his share of rough work, without any disap- 
 pointment of expectations, as this outrage is sufficient 
 guarantee. He was brought to trial, for the part he 
 played in it, in August, 1832, at the Gore District As-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 249 
 
 sizes ; some person, unknown to Mr. Mackenzie, having 
 laid the information. Mr. Macaulay was the presiding 
 judge; and, considering the relations of all the par- 
 ties, it is proper to say that he showed the greatest 
 impartiality on the trial, though there might be a ques- 
 tion about the adequacy of the punishment awarded. 
 A fine of $100 is hardly felt by a man said to be worth 
 £5,000 or £6,000. And the assault was of that ag- 
 gravated nature which irresistibly carries with it the 
 idea of serious premeditated injury, if not something 
 more. The first blow would probably have proved 
 fatal, had not the bludgeon come in contact with the 
 lintel of the door. Solicitor General Hagerman ap- 
 peared as prosecutor on the part of the Crown. 
 
 The name of Mr. MclN'ab, as probable adviser of the 
 outrage, has been freely used, both at the time and 
 since ; but as there is no evidence, beyond the fact that 
 some of his friends were engaged in it, he must be 
 acquitted. As the facts clearly show a conspiracy, 
 it is strange that Kerr was the only one convicted 
 On what ground Petit could have been allowed to go 
 scot-free, it is difficult to imagine ; but he was admitted 
 as a witness on the part of the defence, and he was 
 permitted to evade answering the question whether 
 he knew anything about a premeditated attack, by 
 saying he himself had not gone to Bailey's to assault 
 Mr. Mackenzie. His numerous evasions of the ques- 
 tion, put in various shapes, could only lead to one con- 
 clusion, and that conclusion pointed to a conspiracy 
 which no attempt Avas made to unravel. 
 
 The example of Hamilton was to be followed in 
 York. Parties were pretty equally balanced at the 
 
 32
 
 250 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 capital ; and the otiicial magnates were not always in- 
 clined to make a displa}^ of their tolerance at public 
 meetings. On the 6th of July, 1830, they had refused 
 to allow Mr. Mackenzie to be heard, at a public meet- 
 ing called to organize an Agricultural Society, and 
 now they were emboldened by the measurable suc- 
 cess of the Hamilton venture. The meeting having 
 been called for the 23d of March, the semi-official 
 organ"^ of the Government undertook to " caution the 
 faction against any attempt at deception," at the meet- 
 ing, and threatening that, if the caution were not 
 heeded, " we most assuredly would not ensure the 
 leading revolutionary toolsf a wdiole skin, or a whole 
 bone in their skins, for the space of fifteen minutes." 
 A sufficiently audacious threat ! At the present time 
 we look back with astonishment at the insolent tone 
 of the semi-official journals of those days ; but when 
 Ave scan the conduct, and read the language of Soli- 
 citor Greneral Hagerman, in the Assembly, we cannot 
 doubt that they faithfully reflected the feelings of the 
 official party. No special constables were sworn in, 
 or any other precautions taken to preserve the peace. 
 The meeting having assembled at the Court House, 
 Dr. Dunlop, of the Canada Company, and Mr.Ketchum, 
 member for York county, were respectively proposed 
 
 * The Upper Canada Courier. 
 
 f The same paper, after the meeting, spoke of the farmers of Yonge street 
 as a herd of swine: "Every wheel of their well organized political machine 
 was set in motion to transmute country farmers into citizens of York. Ac- 
 cordingly, about nine in the morning, groups of tall, broad-shouldered, hulk- 
 ing fellows were seen arriving from Whitby, Pickering, and Scarborough, 
 some crowded in wagons, and others on horseback ; and Hogg, the miller, 
 headed a herd of the swine of Yonge street, who made just as good votes at 
 the meeting as the best shop-keepers in York "
 
 • THE CA2^ADIAX REBELLION. 251 
 
 as chairman. As is usual, in such cases, both parties 
 claimed the victory; but Dr. Dunlop took the chair, 
 when the Reformers withdrew and organized an open 
 air meeting, in front of the Court House, making use 
 of a farmer's wagon for a platform. Mr. Ketchum 
 being made chairman, Mr. Mackenzie, suffering con- 
 siderably from the injuries he had received at Hamil- 
 ton, began to address the meeting; stones and other 
 missiles were thrown by the opposite party ; close con- 
 nections of some of the officials being engaged in the 
 work. The riot soon assumed a serious aspect. A 
 ruffian in the crowd drew a knife, with which -he 
 threatened the speaker. The wagon in which Mr. 
 Ketchum and the speaker were standing was seized 
 and drawn for some distance, amidst threats and im- 
 precations. The Sheriff told Mr. Ketchum he was un- 
 able to preserve the peace, and begged him to bring 
 the meeting to a close. Some one hit upon the expe- 
 dient of advising the " friends of the Governor" to 
 go up to Government House and cheer His Excellency. 
 This being done, peace was restored, a new chairman 
 appointed, and an address to the King resolved upon. 
 After Mr. Mackenzie had addressed the meeting for 
 about twenty minutes, those who had not signed the ad- 
 dress went to his residence, at the corner of Church and 
 Richmond streets, where, upon tables in the street, 
 four hundred and thirty-eight names were added. 
 While on his way, Mr. Mackenzie was seized hold of by 
 Captain Fitzgibbon. On being questioned as to his in- 
 tentions. Captain Fitzgibbon said he was going to take 
 him to jail, to secure his protection from the mob. Mr 
 Mackenzie's friends, to whom his answer was given, re-
 
 252 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 plied that there was no necessity for this, as they would 
 undertake to guarantee his safety; upon which Mr. 
 Mackenzie went to his own residence. The disorderly 
 mob, who had been to cheer the Governor, returned, 
 bearing an effigy of Mackenzie, which they burnt, and' 
 then made an attack upon the office of Tlie Colonial 
 Advocate. They broke the windows and destroyed 
 some of the type, and were only prevented from doing 
 further mischief by the exertions of a few individuals, 
 among whom was an apprentice in the printing office, 
 named Falls, Avho fired a gun loaded with type,* over- 
 awing the rioters. Captain Fitzgibbon did everything 
 in his power to restore peace ; and the Lieutenant 
 Governor gave orders for seventy-five soldiers to be 
 ready at a moment's notice, if required. Three or four 
 magistrates remained at the police office all night, 
 swearing in special constables ; and a guard of citizens 
 volunteered to protect Mr. Mackenzie's house and 
 printing office. At midnight a mob surrounded tbe 
 office, when Captain Fitzgerald ordered them to dis- 
 perse, and threatened, if they did not obey, to call out 
 the troops, which were kept under arms all night. 
 This admonition had the desired effect, and the crowd, 
 headed by a son of one of the Executive Councillors, 
 moved off without venturing to execute the violence 
 they had meditated. The house had to be guarded for 
 three weeks, during which time Mr. Mackenzie re- 
 mained in the country for safety ; and the young man, 
 who fired on the rioters, had to leave the city in con- 
 sequence of his life being threatened. 
 
 A novel division of parties took place at this meet- 
 
 * Christian Guardian.
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 253 
 
 ing; the Roman Catholics going with the Family Com- 
 pact. Mr. Mackenzie, who at all times made it a point 
 of respecting every man's honest religious convictions, 
 and quarreling with none on account of their particu- 
 lar views, had somehow managed to get at loggerheads 
 with Bishop McDonnell. It was stated on clerical 
 evidence that the latter had denounced him from the 
 altar.* The bishop received an annuity of some £500 
 sterling, and the Church something more, from the go- 
 vernment; and these grants were objected to as invi- 
 dious and unjust to other denominations. From one 
 party came the emolument; from the other the objec- 
 tions; a condition of things that might well be sup- 
 posed to influence the political preference even of a 
 bishop, not otherwise burthened with wealth. But, 
 however it may be explained, the Roman Catholics 
 were, contrary to their usual habit, found in alliance 
 with the Family Comj^act, on this occasion. At the 
 
 * Dr. O'Gracly, a Koman Catholic Priest, in his evidence before the 
 Grievance Committee, in 1835, stated that Bishop McDonnell " got up a petition 
 against Mr. Mackenzie, attended a public meeting in Mrs. Jordan's inn, and 
 harrangued the people; and by the use of the most inexcusable misrepresenta- 
 tions, obtained signatures to the said petition, inducing the signers to believe, 
 from altars dedicated to the service of religion, that the document to which 
 he invited them to affix their names was intended solely for the advancement 
 of the Catholic Church. Shortly after heleft here (York) for Penetanguishine, 
 accompanied by the Kev. Messrs. Gordon and Crevier ; and Mr. Gordon told mo 
 lliat he stopped on his way to perform divine service in the Catholic Church of 
 the township of Toronto, and that he did, on that solemn occasion, instead of 
 preaching the morality of the gospel, inveigh in the most violent and unbe- 
 coming manner against William Lyon Mackenzie. He went from that [place] 
 to Adjula, where he parted from the Eev. Mr. Gordon, having given him 
 previoas instructions to obtain signatures in the best manner he could to a 
 blank paper, which he left with him for that purpose. The Eev. Mr. Gordon 
 told me that he was shocked and scandalized at the manner in which this po- 
 litical crusade was conducted."
 
 254 LIFE OF MACKEI^ZIE, AND 
 
 same time there appears to have been a good deal of 
 political division among them; a meeting having 
 immediately after been held in York, at which no 
 decision was come to on the relative merits of the two 
 political parties. 
 
 In April, 1832, Mr. Mackenzie started on his jour- 
 ney to England, as the bearer to the Imperial Grovern- 
 ment of petitions, w^hich had, for the most part, been 
 born of the excitement arising out of his expulsion 
 from the Legislative Assembly. He expected, to 
 return in six months; but was delayed nearly a year 
 and a half. During his absence, Mr. Randal Wixon 
 took charge of The Colonial Advocate. The packet 
 Ontario,* on which Mr. Mackenzie sailed, wuth his 
 
 * The following song, wishing God-speed to the agent, is one of several of 
 the same kind, published about this time. It was dated Markham, April 10, 
 1832, and signed Diogenes : 
 
 Now Willie's awa' frae the field o' contention, 
 
 Frae' the Land o' misrule, and the friends o' dissension ; 
 
 He's gane owre the waves, as an agent befittin'; 
 
 Our claims to support, in the councils o' Britain. 
 
 Nae mair shall the Soup-kitchen beggars* annoy him, 
 Nor the Hamilton murdWers attempt to destroy him ; 
 Nae dark deed o' bluid shall he dread their committin'; 
 He's safe frae their fangs, on his voj'age to Britain. 
 
 Blaw saftly ye breezes ! nae turbulent motion 
 Disturb, wi' rude billow, the breast o' the ocean; 
 But zephyrs propitious, wi' breath unremittin', 
 May waft him wi' speed, and wi' safety to Britain. 
 
 There, there, the Eeformers shall cordially meet him. 
 An' there his great namesake, Kikq "Willie, shall greet him; 
 Our Patriot Monarch, whase name shall be written, 
 Wi' letters o' gowd in the Records o' Britain. 
 
 • This refers to some of the persons engaged in the York riot, on the 23d of March.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION". 2o5 
 
 wife, had on board sixteen cabin and six steerage pas- 
 sengers. He described her as "a sort of JSToah's ark," 
 having on board pigs, poultry, turkeys, geese, and a 
 milch cow." The passage from 'New York to Ports- 
 iriouth was made in twenty-nine days, commencing 
 on the first of May. Writing to Toronto, after he had 
 got on board at T^ew York, he said: "I trust that the 
 good providence of that merciful Power who has pro- 
 tected and watched over your humble correspondent 
 until now, will continue to preserve him, direct all his 
 steps, and promote the object of his mission, in as far 
 as that object w^ould be for the good, of Canada and of 
 the English people." 
 
 The number of letters he wrote on board the vessel 
 attests that constitutional activity which always pre- 
 vented his remaining idle; an activity which sometimes 
 took strange freaks, and of which an example may be 
 given in his going up to the mast-head, the first night 
 
 Gae, Canada's Patriot, gae, Strang in your mission, 
 Gae bear to our Sov'reign, his subjects' Petition; 
 Our Despots unmaslt — sbaw the deeds they're committin', 
 Pervertin' the blest Institutions o' Britain. 
 
 An' dread na the Tories — they're toss'd frae their station, 
 Thae tools that degraded and plundered the nation, 
 The Bigots — the mitred, the titled are smitten 
 To earth — and the "Whigs are triumphant in Britain. 
 
 Tho' here, we've a brood o' the Keptiles remainin', 
 
 Like Vampyres, the vitals o' Canada drainin'; 
 
 Yet lax is their tenure, unstable their fittin', 
 
 An' they'll soon be extinct like the Vermin o' Britain. 
 
 Gae, Champion o' Freedom! fulfil your great mission; 
 
 The cause you're engaged in defies opposition ; 
 
 An' Liberty's laurels, new glories emittin', 
 
 Shall garland your brows when returnin' frae Britain.
 
 256 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 in a storm, and only descending just before one of the 
 sails was blown away. 
 
 The organs of the official party affected to be merry 
 at the idea of a man who had twice been expelled from 
 the Legislature, and declared incapable of sitting 
 during that Parliament, taking a budget of grievances 
 to Downing street, and expecting to obtain a hearing. 
 But they had reckoned without their host, as the 
 event proved. 
 
 He arrived in London in time to witness the third 
 reading of the Reform Bill in the House of Lords : 
 
 "Having obtained the order of a member of the 
 House of Lords for admission to the gallery on the 
 eventful night of the third reading of the Reform Bill, 
 I went as early as four o'clock, and obtained an excel- 
 lent seat both for seeing and hearing in the front tier 
 of seats immediately opposite the throne. It was well 
 that I did so. Had I been a few minutes later, the 
 order would have been of no avail, as the gallery holds 
 only eighty persons, and each nobleman being enti- 
 tled to give an order for the admission of one person, 
 it was filled to overflowing almost immediately. At 
 half past four but few of the peers had arrived ; and 
 perhaps a dozen members of the Commons' House 
 were standing at the bar. They have either to stand 
 or sit down on the matting, there being neither chairs 
 nor benches placed for their accommodation." 
 
 With the appearance and bearing of Earl Grey he 
 was in raptures: — 
 
 "Well does Earl Grey merit the high station and 
 distinguished rank to which he has been called ; truth 
 and sincerity are stamped on his open, manly, Eng-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 257 
 
 lish countenance; intelligence and uprightness in- 
 scribed on all his actions. You may read his speech 
 in The Times or Chronicle ; you may imagine to your- 
 self the noblest, happiest manner in which such senti- 
 ments might be delivered by a sincere and highly 
 gifted patriot ; still your conception will fall far short 
 of the reality of the admirable address and manner 
 of the prime minister of Britain. His Lordship had 
 need of neither the peerage nor the post he fills to 
 point him out as one of the first among men ; he was — 
 he is one of that aristocracy of nature which in any 
 free country are found among the pillars of its liber- 
 ties, and in any despotism among the foremost to 
 break the tyrant's yoke, or perish in attempting it." 
 There was every thing to hope, Mr. Mackenzie wrote, 
 from the justice of Earl Grey. Upper Canada affairs, 
 he felt assured, would " be put to rights." He was 
 naturally of a sanguine disposition, and was also sub- 
 ject to severe fits of despondency. 
 
 His impression of O'Connell was also very favor- 
 able : — 
 
 " I have heard Mr. O'Connell, the great Irish agita- 
 tor and champion of emancipation, address a meeting 
 of one of these [Trades' Political] Unions, not less 
 than eight hundred or one thousand members being- 
 present. He has the most perfect self-command, and 
 an inexhaustible fund of genuine wit and broad humor ; 
 is one of those speakers you can listen to for hours, 
 and yet regret when you cease to hear the sound of 
 his voice. There is a quaintness in his manner of ex- 
 pression which gives double effect to his jokes and 
 witticisms. Yet he can be lofty and majestic when he 
 
 33
 
 258 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 pleases ; and I rejoiced to perceive tliat his original 
 and flowing eloquence, as he told in strong and em- 
 phatic language of the wrongs of Ireland, drew from 
 an English audience the most enthusiastic, sympathetic 
 cheers. I rarely ever witnessed a more successful 
 speaker, in his popular character of an agitator, than 
 Mr. O'Connell." 
 
 After he had been introduced to Mr. O'Connell, he 
 writes under date, " 19 Wakefret Street, Brunswick 
 Square, London, July 28, 1832. 
 
 " Mr. O'Connel is a man of whom all Irishmen 
 ought to be proud. In their cause, in Ireland's cause, 
 in the cause of civil and religious freedom all over the 
 globe, he is a powerful and consistent champion, and 
 likely to be a successful one. He has also manifested 
 the warmest attachment to the Canadas ; and the kind 
 manner in which he spoke to me of our affairs, and the 
 interest he manifested on our behalf, entitles him to 
 my lasting gratitude." 
 
 Having frequently gone to hear the celebrated Mr. 
 Irving, who was then making a great sensation in 
 London as a preacher, Mr. Mackenzie wrote : — 
 
 " Although I do not like the interruption from per- 
 sons speaking, as if inspired, in an unknown tongue, 
 yet there is something so noble, so honest, so captivat- 
 ing about this eloquent divine that I always leave the 
 church more firmly determined to go back next Sun- 
 day, and always do so. There is such a power and 
 energy in his discourses, such a simplicity in hjs man- 
 ner, such convincing proofs of great judgment and 
 sincere good-will towards men in his language and
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 259 
 
 actions, that I cannot but feel the greatest regard for 
 him as a minister. He preaches seventeen times a 
 week, in doors and out, and his audiences frequently 
 include the first families in the land." 
 
 Canadian aifairs were aicorded attention in social 
 circles, where Mr. Mackenzie moved.* His estimate 
 of Cobbettj formed from a personal acquaintance, does 
 not exclude the defects of that remarkable man. In 
 a letter, dated " September 20, 1832," he writes : — 
 
 " I am not sure that I mentioned to you that I dined 
 on Sunday, last July, with the celebrated Mr. Cobbett, 
 at his country-seat, Kensington. I was glad to accept 
 an invitation which enabled me to see a man who has 
 filled a large space in the public annals of Britain for 
 the last forty years, at home. Mr. Cobbett is the cen- 
 tre of a party, formidable in numbers and not defi- 
 cient in talent. He is a keen and unsparing critic, 
 reviewing and animadverting upon the plans of other 
 men with great severity and unquestioned skill. He 
 is likely to succeed in being returned for the two hun- 
 dred thousand inhabitants of Manchester to the new 
 Parliament, Avhich will give him great weight. His 
 plans then will be exposed to the test of Legislative 
 
 • In his letter of the 28th July, from which an extract has already been 
 made, he says : — " I was lately an invited guest at a dinner given in the White 
 Conduit House, Pentonville, to the memory of Major Cartwright, an old and 
 constant Eeformer. Many distinguished friends of reform were present ; Mr. 
 Hume was chairman, supported by Sir John Scott Lillie, Deputy Lieutenant 
 of Middlesex, the Editor of the Westminster Review, Colonel Evans, Mr. Bab- 
 bage, etc. In the course of the evening, Mr. Hume gave as a toast, ' Reform 
 in the Colonies,' and spoke at some length on the state of the Canadas. Of 
 course, I returned thanks in a short speech. A Polish Professor from Warsaw 
 spoke next, and gave a very interesting but melancholy account of the present 
 state of Polan(/ "
 
 260 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 investigation, and we shall see how far he will be able 
 to carry into practice his theory of an equitable ad- 
 justment of the national grievances, debts, bonds, and 
 obligations. Mr. Cobbett I consider a happy man. 
 With the experience of threescore he possesses the 
 vivacity of eighteen. He is pleased with himself, 
 with his plans, and his prospects. Has a fine family, 
 a comfortable fireside, and enjoys excellent health. 
 He talks as much of trees, and flowers, and gardening, 
 a'ld agriculture, as of matters of government; and 
 has evidently made farming his study to a great ex- 
 tent. I should not be at all surprised if we find him 
 not so great a democrat in the House of Commons as 
 he is in the WeeMy Begister. Mr. Cobbett is tall and 
 well made, ruddy complexion and good-looking; his 
 hair is as white as snow, and no sign of baldness. He 
 is evidently a man of an ardent temperament, of strong 
 and powerful passions, and I believe his object is to 
 increase the comforts and lessen the misery of the 
 great body of the people ; but it is evident he is not 
 very scrupulous as to the means of bringing about 
 this great good. Mr. Noah, of New York, in his Ad- 
 wcate, and more recently in his Enquirer, and Mr. 
 Co))bett, of Bolt Court, in his Begister, appear to me 
 to have adopted the maxim that ' all's fair in politics' — 
 they both put forth, in a powerful strain of sarcasm 
 or invective against political opponents, statements not 
 always so correct as they niight be. Indeed, Mr. Cob- 
 bett has evidently acted towards both Whigs and To- 
 ries for many years as though he considered them an 
 organized band of public plunderers, legalized by un- 
 just statutes to oppress mankind, and of whom no-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 261 
 
 thing could be said that would be ' too bad.' Mr. Cob- 
 bett's manner is kind and prepossessing, but I think 
 he does not bear contradiction so well as some men 
 of less genius and power of mind." 
 
 Cobbett noted down the heads of an article which 
 he intended to write on Canada, but he does not ap- 
 pear to have carried his intention into effect. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie made the acquaintance of Mr. Rin- 
 toul, editor of the Spectator^ and Mr. Black, editor of 
 the Morning Chronicle^ which then held almost as im- 
 portant a position as The Times ; and he was enabled 
 to address to the British public, through these jour- 
 nals, any observations he had to make on the subject 
 of Canada. 
 
 Of all the members of the House of Commons, Mr. 
 Hume rendered the greatest assistance to Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie. He was on the best terms of friendship w^ith 
 the Ministry, though he kept his seat on the opposi- 
 tion benches, and pursued that independent course 
 which seemed to be the only one possible to him. 
 When he laid before the House of Commons the peti- 
 tions of which Mr. Mackenzie was bearer, he did so 
 not only with the knowledge and consent of the go- 
 vernment, but " he was happy to have the assurance of 
 Viscount Groderich, [Secretary of State for the Colonies,] 
 that his Lordship was bus}^ inquiring into the griev- 
 ances complained of with a view of affording relief." 
 Mr. Mackenzie had, by this time, already had an in- 
 terview with the Colonial minister, and, in company 
 with Mr. Hume, Mr. Yiger — who had gone to England 
 on a similar mission, on behalf of Lower Canada — and 
 Mr. Greorge Ryerson — who had gone to England on
 
 262 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 behalf of the Methodist Conference — he was to have 
 another interview, in a few days. 
 
 This first interview, at which all the four gentlemen 
 named met Lord Goderich, took place on the 2nd of 
 July, 1832, at two o'clock, and lasted between two and 
 three hours. The attempts made to lessen Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie's influence, in the shajDe of attacks by political 
 opponents in Canada, in the various forms they had 
 taken, appeared to go for nothing with Viscount Gode- 
 rich. Mr. Mackenzie could not trace the effect of such 
 influence. " The conduct of the Colonial minister," 
 he found to be " friendly and conciliatory ; his lan- 
 guage free from asperity ; and I left him," adds Mr. 
 Mackenzie, " with the impression strongly imprinted 
 on my mind that he sincerely desired our happiness 
 as a colony, and that it was his wish to act an impar- 
 tial part." The agent of the Upper Canada petition- 
 ers explained at length his views of the state of Upper 
 Canada. Yiscount Goderich encouraged the deputation 
 to lay the petitions before the House of Commons ; 
 and he appears to have recognized, from the first, the 
 substantial nature of many of the grievances which 
 were subject of complaint. If the ministry. had shown 
 a disposition to treat the petitions as of no great im- 
 portance, Mr. Hume would have brought the whole 
 subject jf the political condition of Upper Canada 
 before the House of Commons ; and as he would have 
 been warmly seconded by O'Connell and others, an 
 eflective demonstration would have been made. Al- 
 though Mr. George Ryerson was present at this in- 
 terview, he took no part in any of the questions dis-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 263 
 
 cussed except those relating to religion and education, 
 with which he had been specially charged. 
 
 On the 3d of August, Mr. Mackenzie, in coir pany 
 with Mr. Hume and Mr. Viger, had a second inter- 
 view with Yiscount Goderich, at the Colonial office, 
 commencing at two o'clock and lasting about an hour 
 and a half. "We left the Colonial office," Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie wrote, *' well satisfied that measures are about 
 to be taken that will go a great way towards neutral- 
 izing the existing discontents." 
 
 These interviews were not obtained through the in- 
 tercession of Mr. Hume, by whom the agent had first 
 been introduced to members of the ministry, but at 
 the request of Mr. Mackenzie, who desired that the 
 three other gentlemen might be included with himself. 
 He afterwards had several interviews with Lord Gode- 
 rich, at which no third person was present. The Co- 
 lonial Minister listened to Mr. Mackenzie's statements 
 with the greatest attention, though he observed a de- 
 corous reticence as to his own views ; and even when 
 he had come to conclusions, he did not generalW an- 
 nounce them till he put them into an official shape. 
 In one of those interviews, Mr. Mackenzie complained 
 that the revenue of the Post-office Department, in 
 Upper Canada, was not accounted for, when Lord 
 Goderich proposed to divide the management of the 
 department in Canada, and give Mr. Mackenzie con- 
 trol of the western section, with all the accruing 
 emoluments. Mr. Mackenzie replied by saj'ing : 
 " So far as I am concerned, the arrangement would 
 be a very beneficial one, as I could not fail to be per- 
 sonally much benefited by it ; but your Lordship must
 
 264 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 see," he added, "that the evil I comj)lain of would be 
 perpetuated instead of being remedied. I must there- 
 fore decline the offer." Mr. Mackenzie estimated the 
 value of the office, undivided, at $15,000 a year ; one 
 half of which he would have obtained if he had ac- 
 cepted Lord Goderich's offer. This was in strict ac- 
 cordance with the whole practice of his life. With 
 every opportunity of acquiring competence, and even 
 wealth, he lived a large portion of his life in poverty, 
 and died under the pressure of pecuniary embarrass- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie was not received at the Colonial of- 
 fice in a representative character — he was delegated 
 by the York " Central Committee of the Friends of 
 Civil and Religious Liberty" — but as an individual 
 having an interest in the affairs of the Province, and 
 a member of the Legislature of Upper Canada. It 
 was agreed that he should address what complaints he 
 had to make to the Colonial Secretary in writing ;t and 
 he addressed, among other documents, a lengthy " Me- 
 
 * He made the fullest use of this privilege ; writing long drx;uments on a 
 great number of subjects in which Canadians were then interested. It was in 
 the preparation of these papers that he performed the extraordinary feat re- 
 ferred to in a previous part of this work, of continuing to write six days and six 
 nights, without ever going to bed, and only falling asleep occasionally, for a few 
 minutes, at the desk. He ventured to predict that, unless the system of gov- 
 ernment, in Upper Canada, were ameliorated, the result must be civil war. 
 "Against gloomy prophecies of this nature," Lord Glenelg replied, "every 
 man conversant with public business must learn to fortify his mind," adding, 
 that he regarded them as the usual resource of those who wish to extort from 
 the fears of governments conclusions in favor of which no adequate reasons 
 can be oifered. Mr. Mackenzie often afterwards referred to this prediction ; 
 and so far from having intended it as a threat, took credit for it as a warning 
 of the inevitable results of the policy pursued, contending that, if it had been 
 heeded, al the disasters that followed would have been averted.
 
 THE CANADIAT^ REBELLION". 265 
 
 moir" on the state of the Province, embracing a va- 
 riety of topics. To this and some other documents 
 Lord Goderich replied at great length, on the 8th of 
 November, 1832, and in a tone and temper very dif- 
 ferent from those in which the local officials were ac- 
 customed to indulge. 
 
 Lord Goderich at first stated the number of names 
 to the petitions of which Mr. Mackenzie was the bearer 
 at twelve thousand and seventy -five ; while he added 
 that there were other petitions signed by twenty-six 
 thousand eight hundred and fifty-four persons, " who 
 concur in expressing their cordial satisfaction in those 
 laws and institutions which the' other sort of peti- 
 tioners have impugned." At the instance of Mr. 
 Mackenzie, Lord Goderich afterwards caused the 
 names to be counted again, and it was found that in- 
 stead of twelve thousand the number " far exceeded 
 twenty thousand."* While combating a great many 
 of the arguments adduced by Mr. Mackenzie, Lord 
 Goderich yielded to his views upon several points. 
 Hitherto no indemnity had been paid to members of 
 the Assembly representing town constituencies. The 
 effeci:, it was argued, was to confine the people in their 
 choice of town representatives to persons who could 
 affin\l to spend their time at the seat of the govern 
 ment^ during the legislative session, without a reim 
 bursement of their expenses. Lord Goderich directed 
 the Governor not to oppose objection to any measure 
 that might be presented to his acceptance, " for placing 
 
 * Letter of Lord Howick to Mr. Mackenzie, January 22, 1833. Mr. Macken- 
 sie [Seventh Report on Grievances ) stated the mmiLer of signatures at about 
 24,500. Earl Kipon afterwards stated the number at 24,500. 
 34
 
 266 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the town and county representatives on tlie same foot- 
 ing in this respect." He agreed to place upon the 
 same footing as Quakers other religious bodies who 
 had a like objection to taking an oath. Another com- 
 plaint Lord Goderich had anticipated. It was alleged 
 that the local Executive distributed the public lands 
 among their favorites without the authority of law ; 
 and His Majesty, upon the advice of the Colonial 
 minister, interdicted the gratuitous disposal of public 
 lands, and requested that they should be made subject 
 to public competition, w^ith a view " to the utter ex- 
 clusion of any such favoritism as is thus deprecated." 
 He instructed the Lieutenant Governor to adopt all 
 constitutional means to procure a repeal of the law 
 which disqualified British subjects from voting at 
 elections, after their return from foreign countries ; 
 also that " His Majesty expects and requires of you 
 neither to practice, nor to allow on the part of those 
 who are ofiicially subordinate to you, any interference 
 with the right of His Majesty's subjects to the free 
 and unbiassed choice of their rej^resentatives." In 
 the name of His Majesty's Government, Lord Glenelg 
 disclaimed all responsibility for the opinion attributed 
 to Mr. Hobinson, that the children of the yeomanry 
 ought to be consigned to ignorance lest knowledge 
 should render them independent in thought and 
 action ; and he enlarged on the advantages of popular 
 education. " In the same spirit," he added, " His 
 Majesty now directs me to instruct you to forward to 
 the utmost extent of your lawful authority and influ- 
 ence, every scheme for the extension of education 
 amongst the youth of the Province, and especially the
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 267 
 
 poorest and most destitute among their number, which 
 may be suggested from any quarter, with a reasonable 
 prospect of promoting that design." It had been the 
 custom of the Lieutenant Grovernors to excuse them- 
 selves from laying a full statement of the revenue and 
 expenditure before the Legislature, by pleading the 
 restrictions imposed by their instructions. But Lord 
 Goderich rendered this excuse impossible in future, 
 by the averment that " if the Royal instructions are 
 supposed to forbid the most unreserved communica- 
 tion with the House of Assembly of the manner in 
 which the public money, from whatever source derived, 
 is expended, such a construction is foreign to His Ma- 
 jesty's design." ^'Nothing," it was added, "is to be 
 gained by concealment upon questions of this nature, 
 and a degree of suspicion and prejudice is naturally 
 excited, which, however ill-founded, often appears in 
 the result to be incurable." Coming to the question 
 of ecclesiastics holding seats in the Legislative Coun- 
 cil, Lord Goderich said it was expected of the Bishop 
 and the Archdeacon, " that they should abstain from 
 interference in any secular matter that may be agitated 
 at that Board." But even under this restriction, 
 Lord Goderich added, "I have no solicitude for retain- 
 ing either the Bishop or the Archdeacon on the list of 
 Legislative Councillors ; but, on the contrary, rather 
 predisposed to the opinion that, by resigning their 
 seats, they would best consult their own personal 
 comfort, and the success of their designs for the spiri- 
 tual good of the people." But as their seats w^ere 
 held for life, their resignations must be voluntary ; 
 since, it w^as argued, there would be no justification
 
 268 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 * 
 
 for degrading them from tlieir positions, wlien no spe- 
 cific violation of duty had been imputed to them. If 
 the expense of elections was so inordinate as repre- 
 sented, the Lieutenant Governor was instructed to 
 " signify to the Legislative bodies that it is the earnest 
 desire of His Majesty, that every practical method 
 should be taken for correcting what would be so great 
 an evil, by reducing the cost " within the narrowest 
 possible limit." In reference to an independent judi- 
 ciary, so strongly opposed by Mr. Stephens, counsel 
 to the Colonial office in 1828, Lord Goderich, antici- 
 pating the complaints now addressed to him, had di- 
 rected the Lieutenant Governor to suggest the enact- 
 ment of a bill for that purpose. Thus another point, 
 urged by Mr. Mackenzie and those who acted with 
 him, when they conceived that Judge Willis was 
 offered up a sacrifice to the displeasure of the local 
 Executive, had been gained. 
 
 Such are some of the concessions obtained by Mr. 
 Mackenzie, during his visit to England, from the Im- 
 perial Government. The dispatch of Lord Goderich 
 was intended for the public eye, and its style was 
 eminently diplomatic. On several points he differed 
 from Mr. Mackenzie; and sometimes he succeeded 
 in putting his correspondent in the wrong. Unfortu- 
 nately, there were reasons, as afterwards appeared, for 
 doubting the sincerity of some of Lord Goderich's pro- 
 fessions. In this very dispatch, he said: " With respect 
 to the charge of showing an undue preference to preachers 
 of religion belonging to the established churches of this 
 country, it is so utterly at variance with the whole 
 course of pol'cy which it has been the object of my
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 269 
 
 dispatches to yourself to prescribe, that I cannot 
 pause to repel it in any formal manner." On the 5th 
 of April of the same year, he had written in reply to a 
 private dispatch of Sir John Colborne: "I quite con- 
 cur with you in thinking that the greatest benefit to 
 the Church of England would be derived from apply- 
 ing a portion of the [Clergy Reserves] funds at least 
 under the control of the Executive Government, in 
 the building of rectories and churches ; and I would add, 
 in preparing as far as may be for profitable occupa- 
 tion, that moderate portion of land which you propose 
 to assign in each township or parish for increasing the 
 future comfort, if not the complete maintenance, of the 
 rectors." This dispatch appears to have been marked 
 "private," when it was written; but the seal of privacy 
 was taken from it when it was published by order of 
 the House of Commons, some years after. 
 
 The reception which the dispatch of Lord Grod- 
 erich met at the hands of the Family Compact, shows 
 better than almost any thing else the lengths to which 
 a Provincial faction, spoiled by a long course of un- 
 checked and irresponsible power, carried its insolence. 
 The Legislative Council, instead of placing it on their 
 journals, took the unusual course of returning it to 
 the Grovernor. Mr. Mackenzie's correspondence, to 
 which the Colonial Secretary had taken so much trouble 
 to reply, they assured the Lieutenant Grovernor they 
 viewed " with the most unqualified contempt ;" and the 
 dispatch of Lord Groderich, so far as it was a reply to 
 that correspondence, they could not " regard as calling 
 for the serious attention of the Legislative Council." 
 This branch of the Legislature felt a presentiment of
 
 270 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 its impending doom. Its equanimity was seriously 
 disturbed by the question of its being made elective 
 having been raised. AYe can now look back with per- 
 fect composure upon the party quarrels of those days ; 
 but it is impossible for any impartial observer not to 
 be struck with the fact that the Tories of those times 
 were the real revolutionists. A Crown-nominated 
 chamber, crowded with placemen and dependents 
 upon the government, pursued a course of conduct 
 that caused a demand to be made for an Elective 
 Council ; and to this circumstance we owe a revolution 
 in that branch of the Legislature. Whether that 
 change will eventually prove to be for evil or for good, 
 it is impossible yet to say. 
 
 The Legislative Assembly discussed, at great length, 
 the question of sending back this dispatch. Attorney 
 General Boulton thouo-ht it ill became the Colonial 
 Secretary to " sit down and answer all this rigmarole 
 trash ;" and that " it would much less become the 
 House to interfere with it," by giving it publicity. 
 His whole speech was in a characteristic tone of su- 
 preme contempt. Solicitor General Hagerman ob- 
 jected to the printing of the papers.* Mr. Yankough- 
 net, though belonging to the majority of the House, 
 met such speakers as the Attorney and the Solicitor 
 General by their own arguments. " If," he said, 
 ** you are opposed to Mr. Mackenzie, there can be no 
 
 * After his reinstatement in office, from whicli his dismissal -will shortly be 
 iescribed, Mr. Hagerman found it necessary to declare his concurrence in 
 the principles laid down in this dispatch. On the 5th of February, 1836, he 
 voted for a resolution pledging the House to " advance and maintain the prin- 
 ciples of government set forth in the dispatch," '"of the Right Hon. the Earl 
 of Eipon (previously Lord Goderich) of the 8th of Ifovember, 1832."
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLIOX. 271 
 
 better mode, if his papers [sent with the dispatch] 
 contain such falsehood and fallacy as it is pretended 
 they do, to expose him than by publishing them." The 
 House, by a vote of twenty-one against twelve, resolved 
 not to allow the documents accompanying the dispatch, 
 and on which it was founded, to go upon the journals. 
 A subsequent House gave such portions of these docu- 
 ments as Mr. Mackenzie selected an enduring record, 
 in the famous Seventh Beport of the Committee on 
 Grievances. 
 
 The newspaper advocates of the official party went 
 a little beyond the officials themselves. The principal 
 of them* described the disj^atch of Lord Goderich as 
 " an elegant piece of fiddle-faddle," " full of clever 
 stupidity and condescending impertinence." 
 
 But the end was not yet. The repeated expulsions 
 of Mr. Mackenzie from the Legislative Assembly, in 
 which Crown officers had borne a conspicuous and dis- 
 creditable part, had attracted the attention of the Im- 
 perial Government. The constitutional objections to 
 the proceeding had been brought before the attention 
 of the Lieutenant Governor, for the information of the 
 Crown law officers. The objections which the Colonial 
 Secretary entertained to these expulsions were early 
 communicated to Sir John Colborne ; and they were 
 fully explained, in the summer of 1832, to the Crown 
 officers, Messrs. Hagerman and Boulton, and to 
 others " whose official situation placed them in a 
 confidential relation to the government."-}- The matter 
 was first brought before the attention of the Colonial 
 
 * The Courier. 
 
 f Letter of Oeneral Kowan to Mr. Mackenzie, November 30, 1833.
 
 272 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 office by Mr. Hume ; and the authorities sent instruc- 
 tions to Sir John Colborne to desire the officials by 
 whom he was surrounded not to be concerned in the 
 repetition of so objectionable a procedure. But not- 
 withstanding this warning, they remained contuma- 
 cious. While absent, in England, Mr. Mackenzie had 
 again been expelled from the Legislative Assembly ; 
 and the Attorney General, opposing his constitutional 
 law to that of the Imperial Government, argued for the 
 legality of the course pursued by the House. Both 
 the Crown officers voted for a motion to return the 
 dispatch and accompanying documents, and found 
 themselves in a minority. 
 
 The Solicitor General, who had obtained an odious 
 distinction for the virulence of his language, in urging 
 the previous expulsion of a political opponent, had 
 attempted to preserve his consistency by inducing a 
 majority of the Assembly to read Lord Goderich a 
 lecture for having, in his disj^atch, noticed allegations 
 that " rested on no better testimony than that of an 
 individual who had been twice expelled this House, 
 and who, in consequence of his having fabricated and 
 reiterated libels of the grossest description, had been 
 declared unfit and unworthy of a seat in the Assem- 
 bly during the present Parliament." Of what these 
 " libels" consisted we have already seen. The resolu- 
 tion of the House, that pretended to create an arbi- 
 trary disability unknown to the law, was the produc- 
 tion of the Solicitor General, and to sustain his own 
 act he found it necessary to undertake to snub his 
 superiors. The dismissal of Attorney General Boul-
 
 . THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 273 
 
 ton and Solicitor General Hagerman,"^' resolved upon 
 in March, 1833, was the result of the discreditable 
 
 * The subjoined correspondence, which took place at York, explains tho 
 
 cause of these dismissals : — 
 
 " Government Ho»se, April 29, 1833. 
 
 "Sir: — I have the honor, by the direction of the Lieutenant Governor, to 
 transmit to you the accompanying copy of a dispatch from the Secretary of 
 State for the Colonies, in which His Excellency is interested, to inform you and 
 the Solicitor General, that His Majesty regrets he can no longer avail himself 
 of your services, and that you are to be relieved from the duties of your re- 
 spective offices. I have, &c., 
 
 " [Signed] William Kowan. 
 
 "Henry John Boulton, Esq., &c., &c., &c. 
 "No. 118. [COPY.] 
 
 " Downing Street, March 6, 1833. 
 
 " Sir : — By the accounts I have lately received of the proceedings of the Le- 
 gislature of Upper Canada, I have learned that the Attorney and Solicitor 
 General of that Province have, in their places in the Assembly, taken a part 
 directly opposed to the avowed policy of His Majesty's Government. As mem- 
 bers of the Provincial Parliament, Mr. Boulton and Mr. Hagerman are, of 
 Qourse, bound to act upon their own view of what is most for the interest of 
 their constituents, and of the Colony at large ; but if, upon questions of great 
 political importance, they unfortunately differ in opinion from His Majesty's 
 Government, it is obvious that they cannot continue to hold confidential situa- 
 tions in His Majesty's service, without either betraying their duty as members 
 of the Legislature, or bringing the sincerity of the Government into question, 
 by their opposition to the policy which His Majesty has been advised to pursue. 
 
 " His Majesty can have no wish that Mr. Boulton and Mr. Hagerman should 
 adopt the first of these alternatives ; but, on the other hand, he cannot allow 
 the measures of his Government to be impeded by the opposition of the Law 
 Officers of the Crown. In order, therefore, that these gentlemen may be at 
 full liberty, as members of the Legislature, to follow the dictates of their own 
 judgment, I have received His Majesty's commands to inform you that ho 
 I egrets that he can no longer avail himself of their services, and that from tho 
 time of your receiving this dispatch, they are to be relieved from the duties 
 imposed upon them in their respective offices. 
 
 "You will transmit copies of this dispatch to Mr. Boulton and Mr. Hager- 
 man. I have the honor, &c., «&c., 
 
 " [Signed] Goderich. 
 
 "M. G. Sir John Colborne, K. C. B., &c., &c., &c. 
 
 "York, April 29, 1833. 
 
 " Sir : — Under the circumstances in which I find myself suddenly placed, 
 without any previous intimation from His Majesty's Government, and more 
 85
 
 274 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 part they had taken in the repeated expulsion of Mr. 
 Mackenzie from the Legislature, as well as for having, 
 upon other questions, opposed the policy of the Impe- 
 rial Governmeiit, and thus cast doubts upon the sin- 
 cerity of its motives. Mr. Mackenzie had described 
 them to Lord Goderich as "the most active men in 
 the Province in their opposition to measures to which 
 your Lordship and the people are friendly ;" and as 
 being backed in the Executive Council by their rela- 
 tives, who, it was said, formed a majority of its mem- 
 bers. " Without some change of men," added Mr. 
 Mackenzie, " what are considered good measures can- 
 not be carried into effect. A Governor would stand 
 alone if he was to declare himself of your Lordship's 
 opinion. All his legal advisers would be found his 
 uncompromising opponents ;" for which inconvenience, 
 one would suppose, a remedy would be found in their 
 
 especially in the absence of the Solicitor General, who is equally affected by 
 the measure with myself, I feel it due to him, as well as to myself, and to our 
 respective friends, to request, that His Excellency will have the kindness to 
 inform me for what breach of public duty His Majesty has been advised to le- 
 move us from office? I have the honor, &c., 
 
 "[Signed] H. J. Bodlton. 
 
 " To Lieutenant Colonel Rowan, 
 
 a Private Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor." 
 
 " Government House, April 29, 18?5 
 "Sir: — I have the honor to acquaint you in reply to your letter of this day, 
 that the Lieutenant Governor understands, that the part of your political pro- 
 ceedings to which the dispatch of the Secretary of State particularly adverts, is 
 that you and the Solicitor General promoted the repeated expulsion of a mem- 
 ber of the Assembly, although the constitutional objections to that course had 
 been conveyed to His Excellency by His Majesty's Government, and were, it 
 is concluded, communicated by him to you. 
 
 " I have the hotor, &c., &c., 
 "[Signed] William ilowAK. 
 
 •'To H. J. Boulton, Esq., &c., &c., &c."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 275 
 
 dismissal. Mr. Mackenzie enumerated a long list of 
 questions, on Avhich he assured Lord Groderich the 
 Crown officers had opposed the wishes of the King's 
 government. Among them were : A reform of the ex- 
 clusive charter of King's College ; the monopoly by the 
 Church of England of the Clergy Reserves ; eligibility 
 of Quakers for election to the Legislature ; the disfran- 
 chising of British subjects for seven years after their 
 return to Canada ; the indemnity of members of the 
 A-Ssembly representing town constituencies ; the ex- 
 pulsion, contrary to law, of a member of the Legisla- 
 ture, a second time for the same offence ; the inde- 
 pendence of the judges; and the naturalization of 
 aliens. 
 
 The removal of Messrs. Boulton and Hagerman 
 was made before these statements were reduced to 
 writing. On the 7th of March, Mr. Mackenzie had a 
 long interview with Lord Howick, under-Secretary of 
 State for the Colonies, at the Colonial office ; and it 
 was at the request of that official that he put his com- 
 plaint against the Crown officers into writing. Next 
 day, March 8, they assumed the required form ; and 
 on the 10th, he had another interview with Lord Gode- 
 rich, when, in reference to the Crown officers, the 
 Under-Secretary remarked : " They are removed." 
 But it appears, by the date of Lord Groderich's letter, 
 that their removal had been determined on four days 
 before. 
 
 Mr. Jameson was ppointed Attorney General, and 
 Mr. Mackenzie said he had good reasons for believing 
 that Dr. Rolph, whom he recommended, was made 
 Solicitor General, but that Sir John Colborne and
 
 276 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Chief Justice Robinson prevented the a2:)pointment 
 taking effect. 
 
 When the dispatch of Lord Goderich, ordering the 
 removal of the Crown Law officers, reached Upper 
 Canada, Mr. Hagerman had started for England, 
 where, on the 6th of May, while going into the Colo- 
 nia. office, he met Mr. Mackenzie comina: out. Mr. 
 Boulton was all York, but soon followed. It is inter- 
 estmg to see how the official party, which had long- 
 claimed a monopoly of loyalty, bore this reverse. An 
 article appeared in the Upjper Canada Courier^ attri- 
 buted to the pen of the deprived Attorney Greneral, 
 containing direct threats of rebellion. The removal 
 of these two functionaries was described as being " as 
 high handed and arbitrary a stretch of power as has 
 been enacted before the face of high heaven, in any of 
 the four quarters of this nether world, for many and 
 many a long day." " The united factions of Mac- 
 kenzie, Goderich, and the Yankee Methodists" were 
 spoken of in the most contemptuous terms. The friends 
 of Messrs. Boulton and Hagerman it was confessed, 
 " instead of dwelling with delight and confidence upon 
 their connection with the glorious empire of their 
 sires, with a determination to support that connection, 
 as many of them have already supported it, with their 
 fortunes or their blood, their affections are already 
 more than half alienated from the government of that 
 country ; and in the apprehension that the same insult- 
 ing and degrading course of policy towards them is 
 likely to be continued, they already begin to ' cast 
 about ' in ' their mind's eye,' for some new state of 
 political existence, w^hich shall effectually put the
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 277 
 
 colony beyond the reach of injury and insult from any 
 and every ignoramus \yliom the political lottery of the 
 day may chance to elevate to the chair of the Colonial 
 office." The Colonial Secretary, it was added, by his 
 course of liberality, had not only " alienated the aifec- 
 tions" of the Boulton-Hagerman school of politi- 
 cians; but had "produced the feelings of resent- 
 ment, and views with regard to the future," which 
 caused them to look for " some new state of political 
 existence." 
 
 When Mr. Mackenzie came into possession of Lord 
 Goderich's dispatch, he at once desired Mr. Hume to 
 withdraw his intended petition to the House of Com- 
 mons ; and he wrote to Canada, expressing a hope that 
 no more petitions would be sent to England; since the 
 Imperial Grovernment had shown its anxiety to redress 
 all the greivances that had been a subject of com- 
 plaint. The dismissal of the Crown officers com- 
 pleted his satisfaction. 
 
 But affairs were soon to take another turn. Mr, 
 Hagerman arrived in England about the time the 
 dispatch ordering his removal reached Canada ; and 
 Mr. Boulton followed immediately on learning of his 
 dismissal. Mr. Stanley, who succeeded Lord Gode- 
 rich as Secretary for the Colonies, restored Mr. Hag- 
 erman to his official position, in the June following ; 
 within three months after his dismissal. It was after- 
 wards officially stated that his restoration was the con- 
 sequence of exculpatory evidence offered by Mr. Hag- 
 erman. Mr. Boulton at the same time obtained the 
 office of Chief Justice of JSTewfoundland, where he 
 soon embroiled himself with a large and influential
 
 278 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 section of the population. The Imperial Government, 
 conceiving his usefulness to be destroyed, relieved 
 him of that charge also.* He besieged the Colonial 
 office for a pension or other compensation ; but the 
 Imperial Grovernment, not feeling that he was entitled 
 to the one or the other, turned a deaf ear to his de- 
 mands. He never afterwards obtained any position 
 to wipe out the stain of that dismissal. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie, recently overjoyed at the success he 
 had met, in obtaining the concessions contained in 
 Lord Goderich's dispatch, and the dismissal of law 
 officers of the Crown in Upper Canada, f was now- 
 plunged into despair by finding a portion of that suc- 
 cess already neutralized. He addressed to Mr. Stan- 
 ley a memorial, the object of which was to procure the 
 cancelling of Mr. Hagerman's re-appointment. It 
 was of course not successful ; and it may well be ques- 
 tioned whether it was judicious to tell the Colonial 
 Secretary that the re-appointment " would be a spoke 
 in the wheel of another violent revolution in America." 
 After recently expressing the greatest confidence in 
 the justice of the Imperial Government, he now bit- 
 
 * In the report of tlie Privy Council, deciding upon Mr. Boulton's remcva) 
 from the Chief Justiceship of Newfoundland, July 5, 1838, we find the 
 members expressing regret "to he under the necessity of reporting that we 
 have found, in some of the transactions brought under our consideration, so 
 much of indiscretioc in the conduct of the Chief Justice, and that he has 
 ^,ermitted himself so much to participate in the strong feelings which appear 
 anfortunately to have influenced the different parties in the Colony, (although 
 we do not find that his judicial decisions have been affected thereby,) that we 
 feel it our duty to state that we think it will be inexpedient that he should be 
 continued in the office of Chief Justice of Newfoundland." 
 
 I On the 6th of May, he wrote: "Nothing can exceed the willingness I have 
 of late found on the part of the government here, to do the people justice, in 
 the North American Provinces."
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 279 
 
 terly exclaimed: "I am disappointed. The prospect 
 before us is indeed dark and gloomy." 
 
 The restoration of Mr. Hagerman seems to have 
 been due as much, if not more, to the change that had 
 taken place in the administration of the Colonial 
 office,* as to the exculpatory evidence he had offered. 
 Lord Goderich, so long as he retained the seals, 
 continued to court interviews with Mr. Mackenzie, 
 and to solicit information from him on the affairs of 
 Canada. Thus on the 27th of March, 1833, Lord 
 Howick wrote him: "I am desired by his Lordship 
 to acquaint you that he is disj)osed to think that much 
 advantage might be derived from a personal commu- 
 nication from yourself and Mr. Yiger, either to this 
 place, the Postmaster General, or the Secretary of the 
 Post-office, on the questions which have been agitated 
 in Upper and Lower Canada, respecting the Post- 
 
 * " I am sorry to observe," wrote Mr. Hume to Mr. Mackenzie, under 
 date, 'Bryanston Square, June 24, 1833,' "by some of the proceedings of Mr. 
 Stanley, that he is rather disposed to promote than to punish the men who 
 have been removed from Upper Canada for improper conduct, and thereby 
 to encourage misgovernment on the part of the public officers of that Province 
 which Lord Goderich's late proceedings were calculated to prevent." " In- 
 deed," Mr. Hume added, " the promotion of Mr. Boulton to a high judicial 
 office in Newfoundland, after the declaration of Lord Goderich of his conduct 
 and unfitness for office, I consider as an insult to the people of Upper Canada, 
 and to every lover of good government ; and it may be taken as an earnest 
 that he will support the misgovernment which Lord Goderich had set himself 
 against." Lord Stanley consulted Earl Ripon (previously Lord Goderich) on 
 the appointment of Mr. Boulton to the Chief Justiceship of Newfoundland ; 
 and the latter, though he had dismissed him from the Attorney Generalship 
 of Upper Canada, gave his entire concurrence in the new appointment. " I 
 Rm bound to add," says Earl Ripon, in a letter to Mr. Boulton, dated Au- 
 gust 20, 1835, "that though the explanations which you gave on your return 
 to England did not, in my judgment, alter the facts upon which I had advised 
 a change in your situation, they did affect the inference which had been drawn 
 frenc those facts."
 
 280 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 office, in those Provinces." If his known inten- 
 tion to leave London, in a few days, would prevent a 
 personal interview, Mr. Mackenzie was requested to 
 put any suggestions he might have to make into 
 writing. He thereupon drew up a scheme of Post- 
 office reform for the Province; supporting his recom- 
 mendation by a number of documents, including 
 several reports on the subject by committees of the 
 Houses of Assembly, in Upj^er and Lower Canada. 
 The request for an interview, on the part of Lord 
 Goderich, was repeated; but when that gentleman was 
 about resio-nino' the administration of the Colonial 
 office, he directed that the whole matter be left over 
 for the determination of Mr. Stanley. The new Colo- 
 nial minister decided to send for Mr. Stayner, Deputy 
 Postmaster General at Quebec, to hear his exj^lana- 
 tion, before arriving at any conclusion ; and Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie left London the day on which Mr. Stayner 
 arrived there. The result of these movements of Mr. 
 Mackenzie was to bring out information regarding the 
 Post-office revenue, which had been persistently re- 
 fused to the demands of the House of Assembly. A 
 return,* which Mr. Stayner was requested to make for 
 
 * This return formed a gauge of the circulation of the Canadian journals; 
 though of course the entire edition did not go by mail. The amount of postage 
 paid on the different papers in Canada, in 1830, was : 
 
 Upper Canada. — Christian Guardian (Sterling Money), £228 ; Colonial 
 Advocate, £57; Courier, £45; Watchman, £24; Upper Canada Gazette, £18; 
 Canadian "Wesleyan, (commenced, 1831,) £18; Brockville Recorder, £16 ; Ham- 
 ilton Free Press, (commenced, 1831,) £11; Catholic, 0; Patriot, £6; Star, 0; 
 York Observer, £3; Kingston Chronicle, £10 ; Kingston Herald, £11 ; Brock- 
 ville Gazette, £6 ; Niagara Gleaner, and the Herald (together), £17 ; St. 
 Catharines Journal, £6; Perth Examiner, £10. 
 
 Lower Canada. — Quebec Gazette (thrice a week), £66 ; Montreal Gazette 
 (thrice a week), £57 ; Muutreal Herald (twice a week), and New Gazette
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 281 
 
 the information of the House of Commons, showed 
 him to be in possession of perquisites to several times 
 the amount of his salar}^ With allowances, his salary 
 was £811 a year; and he received in addition the 
 whole of the postage of Colonial newspapers, amount- 
 ing to £1,508, and a further sum derived from postage 
 on United States papers, a percentage on United 
 States letters, and other perquisites not stated in the 
 return, but estimated altogether by Mr. Mackenzie — 
 perhaps too highly — at £2,000. 
 
 In course of a long interview had with Mr. Stanley, 
 at the Colonial office, in the month of May, during 
 half an hour of which an archbishop was kept waiting, 
 Mr. Mackenzie strongly urged the necessity of giving 
 the Canadians the control of the Post-office revenue, 
 as well as every other arising in the Province ; as 
 mismanagement must lead to discontent and estrange 
 the colonist from the mother country. Mr. Stanley 
 was "exceedingly kind and friendly;" and when Mr. 
 Mackenzie w^as going away asked if there were any 
 other matter about which he wished to speak ; but he 
 made no " admission that he was favorable to a change 
 of the system condemned." 
 
 As has been already stated, Mr. Mackenzie success- 
 fully invoked the Royal veto against the bill, passed 
 in ' his absence from the House occasioned by his 
 
 (weekly), £75 ; Montreal Vindicator (twice a week), £40 ; Montreal Minerve 
 (twice a week), £'}0; OfBcial Quebec Gazette, £56; Canadian Courant (twice 
 a week), £46; Quebec Mercury (twice a week), £21. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Dalton, proprietor of the Patriot newspaper, being examined 
 before the Grievance Committee of the House of Assembly, in 1835, stated 
 that the official return of postage paid by him on that journal, in 1829, 1830, 
 and 1831, was not correct. The whole amount given for the three years was 
 £6 ; whereas the real amount paid was £70 or £80 
 36
 
 282 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AN"D 
 
 second expulsion, for increasing the capital stock of 
 the Bank of Upper Canada. This result was obtained 
 after the objections to the measure had been stated at 
 length to Lord Gr^derich, and much correspondence 
 with the Board of Trade. Among other things, the 
 objections stated that the bank was in the habit of 
 lending on the security of landed property ; that 
 the act contained no provision for winding up the 
 affairs of the corporation, in case it became bankrupt ; 
 that only one-tenth of the proposed additional stock 
 of £100,000 was required to be paid down, and that 
 the act did not define what would constitute a fraudu- 
 lent failure. At the same time, and for similar reasons, 
 the Kingston Bank Act was disallowed. 
 
 It may strike the reader, at this time of da}'', as 
 singular that an agent and leader of a Colonial party, 
 which claimed to be the exponents of a liberal creed 
 and the interpreters of popular opinion, should be so 
 ready to invoke the interference of the Imperial Gov- 
 ernment, and the Royal veto, in the local affairs of the 
 Province. To a certain extent the seeming anomaly 
 admits of explanation. On many questions, the local 
 Executive, acting through the Crown-nominated and 
 dependent Legislative Council, thwarted the wishes 
 of the people's representatives ; and, under an irre- 
 sponsible local administration, there was no effective 
 appeal possible but to the Imperial Government. But, 
 in some cases, interference against the decisions of the 
 popular branch of the Legislature was invoked. Ap- 
 peals of this nature, unless some plain and obvious 
 principle were violated, could hardly be justified. 
 
 The Rev. Egerton Ryerson, arriving in England
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 283 
 
 while Mr. Mackenzie Wcis there, was through him 
 introduced to the Colonial office. Mr. Ryerson was 
 delegated by the Canada Conference to submit a pro- 
 position for an union between the body it represented 
 and the English Methodists. Without entering into 
 the merits of the case, it will be sufficient to say that 
 the course pursued by Mr. Ryerson, while in England 
 and after his return to Canada, gave Mr. Mackenzie 
 great offence, and he used often, to the last years of 
 his life, to express regret that he had done any thing 
 to secure Mr. Ryerson admittance to the Colonial 
 office, which, in spite of the access which Mr. Macken- 
 zie obtained, had for nearly eighteen months shut its 
 doors in the face of Mr. Vigor, who went as the dele- 
 gate of the Lower Canada Assembly. And Mr. Bald- 
 win, who afterwards visited London, was never able 
 to obtain an audience of the Colonial minister. Mr. 
 Viger was in London long before Mr. Mackenzie, 
 whom he had vainly solicited to accompany him, 
 offering to bear the charge of his expenses. 
 
 Early in 1833, Mr. Mackenzie published in London, 
 an octavo volume of five hundred pages, under the title 
 of Sketches of Canada and the United States, It treated 
 of a great variety of subjects, having no necessary 
 connection with one another, and little regard was 
 paid to method in the arrangement. The greater part 
 of the book consisted of notes taken by the author 
 while travelling, at different times, in the United 
 States and Canada ; and if this had been explained, the 
 intermingling of topics would not have appeared in- 
 congruous, as it did under the arrangement adopted. 
 Political topics were not forgotten ; and there was an
 
 284 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 agreeable seasoning of racy and remarkable anecdotes. 
 Illinois, we learn from this source, bad a model Gov- 
 ernor, named Grilmer, whose salary was $500 a year ; 
 and who, uniting the business of tavern-keeper to the 
 position of chief magistrate, boarded the members of 
 the Legislature at the rate of $2 a week. A Brant- 
 ford clergyman marries a couple in a stable ; and 
 when the ceremony is over, the bridegroom breaks the 
 clergyman's table in revenge for the indignity put 
 upon him. Politics form the serious part of the book. 
 Any thing but an inviting picture is drawn of the 
 irresponsible government with which Canada was then 
 blessed. " The government of Upper Canada," we 
 read, " is a despotism; a government legally existing 
 independent of the will of the governed. Responsi- 
 bility to the people from their rulers is in law," and 
 practice too it might have been added, " merely nom- 
 inal." The book is gossiping, disjointed, pleasant or 
 censorious, according to the nature of the multiform 
 subjects treated. 
 
 Before returning to Canada, Mr. Mackenzie revisited 
 his native Scotland, in company with Mrs. Mackenzie, 
 after making a tour of a large part of England. When 
 he arrived in his native city of Dundee, he was struck 
 with the changes that time had wrought. In a letter 
 dated " Dundee, April 15, 1833," he says : 
 
 "After a long absence from a country, me of the 
 most striking changes is that in the age of the people. 
 I have been introduced to cousins I left in the cradle, 
 who are now grown men and women — some of them 
 married, some studying law, some at college, some 
 clerks in banks, some learning mechanical occupa-
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 285 
 
 tions, and others farming. Many persons I knew as 
 heedless youths are heads of hirge families, sober, 
 staid, and prudent. 'Not a few I knew in active life 
 are now sunk into the vale of years and helplessness. 
 I have taken much pains to find out some of my old 
 school-fellows, but how altered they are ! One of the 
 most active, spirited, intelligent youths I ever knew, 
 is married, has a large family, and toils in poverty as 
 laborer on a farm !" 
 
 In the churches the same changes are visible : — 
 
 " In the two Sundays spent here and in Strathmore 
 we have regularly gone to the Kirk, sometimes to the 
 Seceders, and sometimes to hear the established clergy. 
 The walls of the kirks, the seats, the pulpits, many 
 in the congregation I could remember from infancy, 
 but the ministers were, some of them, new to me. 
 There were enough, however, of old recollections to 
 make these last visits to Scottish places of worship 
 deeply interesting." 
 
 The reference to last visits was prophetic. About 
 two years before he died, he earnestly desired to re- 
 visit Scotland, but was unable to gratify that wish. 
 
 " Here," he says in another place, still speaking of 
 Dundee, " I was partly educated, and here I passed 
 some of my happiest days — the days of joyous youth 
 unencumbered with care." This was the bright side 
 of the picture, for he had elsewhere said: "Poverty 
 and adversity were my nurses, and in youth were 
 want and misery my familiar friends." But it is in 
 the nature of buoyant youth to enjoy gleams of hap 
 piness under the most discouraging circumstances 
 " In the midst of our relations, friends, and acquaint
 
 286 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ances of other years," he wrote from Dundee, *'we 
 are passing the time very agreeably." 
 
 There was one thing in Dundee that he did not like — 
 the misery of its manufacturing population — and as his 
 idea about large manufactories is opposed to the idea 
 now prevalent in Canada, it may as well be given : — 
 
 " The number of mills for spinning flax into yarn 
 in Dundee is now very numerous. The smoke of 
 their steam-engines darkens the face of the heavens, 
 and many a poor and miserable boy and girl eke out 
 a wretched existence by long and incessant toil in 
 these ever-to-be detested establishments — the graves of 
 morality, and the parents of vice, deformity, pauper- 
 ism, and crime. Lon^ may Canada be free of all such 
 pests ! Let our domestic manufactures be those which 
 our children can easily carry on under the eyes and in 
 the houses and home« of their fathers and mothers." 
 
 T\"]iile in Dundee Mr. Mackenzie made a settlement 
 with such of his creditors as he had been unable to 
 pay, when he left Scotland for Canada, in 1820, with 
 their consent. Mr. Edward Lesslie, who was perhaps 
 his largest Scottish creditor, had long since emigrated 
 to Canada, where his claim, amounting to about £70, 
 was paid. 
 
 Partly satisfied with his success, though somewhat 
 discouraged by the restoration of Solicitor G-eneral 
 Hagerman to office, Mr, Mackenzie left England for 
 Canada. The impression created on his mind by the 
 latter act was that there was little reason to hope for a 
 favorable change in the administration of the govern- 
 ment of Upper Canada. He left London on the 25th 
 of June, 1833, taking passage in the Jordeson^ and
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 287 
 
 arrived at Quebec on the 18th August, accompanied 
 by Mrs. Mackenzie. Both in Quebec and Montreal 
 he was pressed to accept of public dinners, but in 
 both cases he declined, excusing himself on the ground 
 of his long absence from Canada, and his desire to 
 arrive at York as soon as possible. 
 
 To the last years of his life, Mr. Mackenzie was 
 proud of the reforms which his journey to England 
 was the means of effecting in the government of 
 Upper Canada ; and he ever continued to cherish a 
 grateful remembrance of the aid rendered him by 
 Mr. Ellice, Mr. Hume, and others, from whom he 
 received assistance in the execution of his mission. 
 Considering that he went to England in no official 
 capacity ; that he was probably opposed in the pri- 
 vate communications of the military Governor ; that 
 attempts had been made by his enemies to disgrace 
 him by thrice expelling him from the Legislative As- 
 sembly, it must be confessed that the success which 
 he achieved was greater than that of any other man 
 who ever went from Canada, in a non-official capa- 
 city, on a similar errand. 
 
 Of this journey the people's agent was left to bear 
 the greater part of the expense. The actual disburse- 
 ments were £676, of which he received £150. The 
 balance remained unpaid all his life, and the country 
 he had served with such disinterested devotion allowed 
 him to go down to the grave in poverty. He despised 
 the means by which many of his cotemporaries sought 
 to obtain wealth, and held of greater value than stores 
 of gold and silver a reputation unsullied by any stain 
 of corruption
 
 288 LIFE OF MACKENZIEj AND 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's Third Expulsion from the Legislative Assembly — Is re- 
 elected by Acclamation — Eefusal of the Commissioners to administer the 
 usual Oath — The House pretends that the Unanimous Election is no Elec- 
 tion — Eefuses to receive the Member Elect — Another Election by Acclama- 
 tion — A Large Crowd of Electors accompany Mackenzie to the House — 
 Excitement in the crowded Galleries — The House cleared of Strangers — 
 Mackenzie Forcibly Ejected, while waiting to be Sworn in — A Stalwart 
 Highlander interposes — Mackenzie declared Expelled, without being per- 
 mitted to take the Oath as a Member — 'The Attorney General decides that 
 the Oath must be Administered — The Commissioners apologize for not Ad- 
 ministering it — Mr. Hume's '* Baneful Domination" Letter — Produces great 
 Excitement — The Oath taken — Mackenzie walks into the House and takes 
 his Seat — Is Forcibly Ejected by the Sergeant-at-arms — Hissing in the Gal- 
 leries — The House refuse to issue a Writ for a New Election — Mr. Stanley on 
 the Constitutionality of one Branch of the Legislature pretending to create 
 a Disability — Eeview of the Expulsions — The Proceedings Expunged from 
 the Journals of the House — Mr. McNab votes for the Erasure. 
 
 It has already been stated that Mr. Mackenzie was 
 expelled, for the third time, from the House of As- 
 sembly, while he was absent in England. Some de- 
 tail of this proceeding, which was clearly unconstitu- 
 tional must now be given. The third session of the 
 eleventh Provincial Parliament, of Upper Canada, 
 commenced on the 31st October, 1833. On the 2d 
 November, Mr. McIN'ab, -without waiting till the Gro- 
 vernor's speech was answered, having found a se- 
 conder in Mr. J. S. Boulton, whom Mr. Mackenzie 
 had offended by giving him in the list of pages of the
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION, 289 
 
 Legislative Council, moved that the entries in the 
 journals relative to the previous expulsion be read. 
 Solicitor General Hagerman, who was then in pos- 
 session of the constitutional ohjections urged by the 
 Imperial Grovernment against these proceedings, con- 
 tended that though the county of York could elect whom 
 they pleased, the House had the right, by a simple 
 resolution, to determine the eligibility of whomsoever 
 they might send ; and thus, in fact, to create a disa- 
 bility not sanctioned by law. Yery little argument 
 w^as required to convince the majority that this mon- 
 strous stretch of privilege was equally proper and ex- 
 pedient. The resolution having been carried, on a 
 division of fifteen against eight, all that remained to be 
 done was to prove or assert the identity of the Wil- 
 liam Lyon Mackenzie, elected for York, with the Wil- 
 liam Lyon Mackenzie previously expelled by the 
 House, and to declare him ineligible to sit or vote in 
 the House. Mr. McJSTab and his faithful seconder 
 thought it sufficient to assert the fact and the disa- 
 bility. They moved a second resolution to this effect.* 
 Mr. Boulton assured the House that the fact was 
 " notorious, and constituted a sufficient reason for the 
 proposed re-expulsion." The second resolution hav- 
 
 • The resolution read: "That William Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., returned to 
 serve in this Assembly as Knight Representative for the county of York, in 
 the same Williivm Lyon Mackenzie mentioned in the said entries, and twice 
 expelled this House, and declared unworthy and unfit to hold a seat therein, 
 during the present Parliament; that by reason thereof the said William Lyon 
 Mackenzie cannot sit or vote in this House as a member thereof." Eor which 
 voted: Messrs. Attorney General, (Boulton,) G. S. Boulton, Burwell, Chis- 
 hulm, D. Frazer, Jarvis, McNab, Mount, Piney, Samson, Shade, Solicitor 
 General Hagerman, Werden, J. Willson, W. Wihon. Against it voted 
 Messrs. Bidwell, Buell, Howard, Ketchum, McCuU, Norton, Perry, Shaver. 
 37
 
 290 LIFE OF MACKET^ZIE, AND 
 
 ing been carried, on the same division as the first, the 
 third expulsion was decreed, for no other reason than 
 that there had been two others — a ground which Mr. 
 MclN'ab himself afterwards admitted to be untenable * 
 Already the question of visiting the county of York 
 with partial disfranchisement, for its persistence in 
 sending back a member whom the House had re- 
 peatedly expelled, was raised. Mr. Samson, who had 
 taken so prominent a part in the first expulsion, ex 
 pressed the opinion, that no writ for a new elec- 
 tion ought to issue till an act should be passed to 
 divide the county. But the Attorney General, not 
 wholly unmindful of the admonition of the Imperial 
 Government, hesitated to go to this length. Still he 
 argued that it would be the duty of the Returning 
 Officer to refuse any votes that might be off*ered for 
 Mr. Mackenzie.f Mr. Perry attempted to obtain from 
 the House a reconsideration of the expulsion, on the 
 
 * When the question of expunging these proceedings from the Journals 
 came before the House, on the 16th February, 1835, Mr. McNab admitted his 
 error, and voted for the motion. "He was willing to admit," he said, "thflj 
 the last words which went on to say that Mr. Mackenzie was expelled by rea- 
 son of a former resolution were wrong, and we had no right to expel him oa 
 account of a former expulsion." Mr. McLean, in noticing this remark, " saw 
 nothing in it which should influence the minds of honorable gentlemen." 
 
 f He said, "he would endeavor to show, that the causes of the disqualifica 
 tion of Wilkes and Mackenzie were the same. They were both expelled foj 
 insults against the House of which they had been constituted members — the 
 difference being in their punishment, not their crime. Wilkes being declared 
 for ever unfit to become a candidate for the seat, the other only for the present 
 Parliament. Unless a candidate be ineligible, he cannot be prevented from 
 sitting in that House; but being ineligible, 't is the duty -f the Keturning 
 Officer to refuse his votes and not receive any for him. He justified the pro- 
 ceedings of the House in this case, on the grounds of custom and expediency, 
 and would run the risk of any abuse of such precedent, whether the case should 
 happen on the side which he e«poused or on the other."
 
 THE CAXADTAN EEBELLrOX 291 
 
 ground that it had been affirmed when a large number 
 of the members were absent ; but his proposition was 
 supported by only ten votes, in a House of twenty-nine 
 members. 
 
 In the absence of Mr. Mackenzie, his friends brought 
 his claims before the electors. The electors considered 
 their privileges invaded ; and so strong was the feeling 
 that no one ventured to come forward and declare 
 himself the candidate of the official party. Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie was therefore unanimously re-elected. 
 
 The Returning Officer had not acted upon the hint of 
 the Attorney Greneral, and assumed that Mr. Macken- 
 zie was incapable of being elected. There was no 
 opportunity of refusing votes, for the election took 
 place by acclamation ; but if the Attorney Greneral 
 was right in assuming that any votes given to Mr. 
 Mackenzie would be throw^n away, he was incapable 
 of being returned by acclamation, because he would 
 have been incapable of election ; and, on this view of 
 the matter, the Returning Officer should have reported 
 that no election had taken place. Mr. Fitzgibbon re- 
 fused to administer to the member elect the usual 
 oaths. This time there was to be no expulsion. The 
 matter had assumed a new shape. It was contended 
 that there had been no election. Mr. Bidwell brouaht 
 the question to a vote. He moved, in substance, that 
 Mr. Mackenzie had been duly elected for the county 
 O'f York ; that he was under no legal disability, and 
 was by the law and constitution a member of the 
 House ; and that, upon taking the oath, which the 
 law made it the duty of the commissioner to adminis- 
 ter, he would have a right to sit and vote in the
 
 292 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 House. The motion was rejected on a vote of 
 eighteen against seven.* The etiect cf this vote was 
 to punish and disfranchise the courty of York for 
 having presumed to elect a candidate who was under 
 no legal disability. Mr. McIVab admitted Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie's eligibility for election; but contended that, 
 though the county of York might elect, the House had 
 the right to refuse to receive the member elected. 
 Mr. MclSTab had taken up an impossible position. 
 He had voted that Mr. Mackenzie was incapable of 
 holding a seat in the House during that Parliament ; 
 though he held that the electors had a right to elect 
 him. AVhen it was notorious that they would elect 
 nobody else, the resolution of the House not to re- 
 ceive him could only keep up a perpetual contest, the 
 l)ractical effect of which was to disfranchise the county. 
 Mr. Perry asked the House to affirm a principle, which 
 is now held by the best authorities to embody sound 
 constitutional law : that the House had no right with- 
 out the concurrence of the other branches of the go- 
 vernment, to disfranchise any elector, or to disqualify 
 any person from being elected, when such elector or 
 person elected is under no legal disability; but he was 
 able to command onlv thirteen votes in a House of 
 thirty-two members. On a vote of eighteen against 
 fifteen, the House then repeated its resolution, that 
 Mr. Mackenzie should not be permitted to take a seat 
 or vote as a member during the session ; after which, 
 
 * The division was: Yeas — Messrs. Bidwell, Campbell, Buncombe, Hor- 
 nor, Howard, Kctchum, Shaver. Nays — Berczy, Boulton, Burwcll, Chis- 
 holra, Elliott, A. ^razer, D. Frazer, Jarvis, Jones, McNab, McNeilledgo, 
 Morris, Kobinson, onade, Thompson, "Werden, John TVillson, W. Wilson.
 
 THE CAXADIAN EEBELLION. 203 
 
 amoti3n ordering a writ for a new election was carried 
 by a hare majority of one ; the minority being of 
 opinion that Mr. Mackenzie, having been duly elected, 
 was qualified to serve, and that in reality there was 
 no vacancy. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie went back to his constituents on the 
 16th of December, 1833, and was onie more re-elected 
 without opposition. It deserves to be noticed that, in 
 his address to the electors, he declared " the grand de- 
 fect in the Colonial Constitution" to be " the want of 
 responsible government." The election being over, a 
 series of resolutions were put to the meeting and car- 
 ried unanimously. Among other things, they called 
 for an inquiry into the conduct of Lieutenant Governor 
 Sir John Colborne, whom it charged with interfering 
 with the constitutional rights of the people. The in- 
 tention of a large body of the electors to accompany 
 Mr. Mackenzie to the House of Assembly, at York, 
 being known, he entreated them to abstain from any 
 acts of violence. They reached the House of As- 
 sembly soon after midday. The galleries were soon 
 filled; some were admitted below the bar, and others 
 remained in the lobbies, for want of room inside. The 
 result was awaited with great anxiety by the large 
 body of electors, who were becoming indignant at 
 being defrauded of the franchise, by the repeated ex- 
 pulsion of one of their members from the House, or 
 the refusal of the majority to receive him. Mr. Perry 
 rose to present a petition against a repetition of the 
 proceedings by which the county of York had been 
 deprived of half its legal representation. Several 
 members spoke against receiving it. Mr. McNab, ^n
 
 294: L.FE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 opposing its reception, was hissed from the gallery. 
 It was now proposed to clear the gallery of the crowd 
 of strangers with which it was packed ; and when the 
 operation had been partially completed, the Sergeant- 
 at-arms went up to Mr. Mackenzie, who was waiting 
 below the bar to be sworn in, and ordered him to 
 leave. He replied that, as had been stated by Mr. 
 Perry, he had been unanimously elected by the county 
 of York ; and that the writ had been returned to the 
 Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, who was present in 
 the House. If leave were given, he would prove that 
 he had a right there. The Sergeant-at-arms — Mr. Mc- 
 ]^ab, father of the member — then seized him by the 
 collar, in a violent manner, saying, while he dragged 
 him towards the door, " You shall go out." A brawny 
 Highlander, one of the four or five who still remained 
 with Mr. Mackenzie, interposed either with a blow at 
 the officer of the House, or held him back. As soon 
 as the door was opened, the crowd, who had descended 
 from the gallery to the lobby, rushed forward; but 
 before they could get in, the door was bolted and bar- 
 ricaded with benches, members and officers pressing 
 towards the door to prevent it being forced. The gal- 
 leries, which had only been partially cleared, were the 
 scene of great confusion. The excitement was ex- 
 treme, and the business of the House was brought to 
 a stand. Many of the members were in a state of 
 violent agitation. Several of them went out, and ha- 
 rangued the people. The question of sending to 
 prison the stalwart Highlander, who had interfered 
 with the Sergeant-at-arms, was raised ; but a b3''stander 
 remarked that " he feared it would be no easy matter
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 295 
 
 to find the jail, on such an errand." That official now 
 returned to Mr. Mackenzie, asking him to give proof 
 of his election. This having been done, the officer of 
 the House informed the Speaker, from whom he re- 
 ceived orders to clear the space below the bar of 
 strangers, that Mr. Mackenzie claimed to remain as a 
 member. The Speaker urged the commissioners to 
 refuse to administer the oaths, and afterwards decided 
 that Mr. Mackenzie was a stranger because he had not 
 taken them. Mr. McTv^ab (the member) said that to 
 allow Mr. Mackenzie to remain below the bar would 
 be a proof of pusillanimity in the House, in issuing an 
 order which they had not the courage to enforce. Mr. 
 Burwell said the scene recalled the tumult of the 
 French JSTational Convention. It was not till after a 
 long debate, that the Speaker decided that Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie was a stranger, and not entitled to remain 
 below the bar. 
 
 The hissing that took place in the gallery was un- 
 justifiable ; it could but tend to put a stop to delibe- 
 ration. Such a procedure is almost invariably the 
 23recursor of a revolutionary movement. But let us 
 apportion the degree of censure due to the various 
 parties. The electors of York had been defrauded of 
 their elective rights, by the proceedings of the House, 
 some of which were clearly unconstitutional. The 
 endurance of the electors was well nigh exhausted ; 
 and while we cannot justify their interference with the 
 deliberations of the House, by expressing their disap- 
 probation in hisses, we must take into account the re- 
 peated provocations they had received. The conduct 
 of the majority was revolutionary.
 
 296 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 This will be a memorable day in Canada, There 
 were among the electors some who argued that, if their 
 member was forcibly ejected from the House, they too 
 would be justified in resorting to force in defence of 
 their violated rights. They had, they said to one an- 
 other, some old rusty muskets which they might fur- 
 bish up for future use, if this sort of thing was to be 
 continued. 
 
 Next day, Mr. Morris, seconded by Mr. Donald 
 Fraser, moved that Mr. Mackenzie having libelled the 
 House on the 14th of December, 1831 — more than two 
 years before — and made no reparation, a previous 
 resolution declaring him unworthy of a seat therein 
 ought to be adhered to ; to which Mr. McNab added, 
 by wa}^ of amendment, " and therefore the said Wil- 
 liam Lyon Mackenzie, again elected and returned to 
 represent the county of York in this present Parlia- 
 ment, is hereby expelled."* The resolution, as amend- 
 
 * Here is the official record : " Mr. Morris, seconded by Mr. Donald Fraser, 
 moves that it be Resolved, That this House on the 14th day of December, 1831, 
 in consequence of a false and scandalous libel published against a majority of 
 its members by V^illiam Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., one of the members then re- 
 presenting the county of York, of which ho avowed himself the author and pub- 
 lisher, was induced to expel him, the said William Lyon Mackenzie, from thi3 
 House; that notwithstanding the gross and scandalous nature of the said libel, 
 this House, in the hope that the said William Lyon Mackenzie would abstain 
 from a continuance of the offensive conduct for which he bad been expelled, 
 permitted him to take his seat on the 3rd day of January following as a member 
 for the county of York, after being re-elected ; that, in this hope, so important 
 to the deliberate transaction of public business, so essential to the respectability 
 of the Legislature and peace of the country, a few days' experience convinced 
 this House there was so little reason to rely, that on the 7th day of the same 
 7nonth of January it was by a large majority again deemed necessary to expel 
 the said William Lyon Mackenzie for a rej)etition and aggravated reiteration 
 of the aforesaid false and scandalous libel ; and in doing so, this House, in 
 order to support the dignity whicli ought to belong to a Legislative body, con-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION". 297 
 
 ed, was carried by a very narrow majority, the vote 
 being twenty-two against eighteen. How a person, 
 who was not a member, and who was not permitted 
 to take the oaths or his seat, or even to be heard in liis 
 defence, could be expelled, is an enigma which it would 
 have puzzled the actors in the affair to explain. 
 
 On the evening of the 17th December, Mr. Macken- 
 zie addressed a communication to the Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor, stating what had occurred, and requesting to 
 be permitted to take the oath before His Excellency, 
 according to a provision of the constitutional Act ; or 
 that some other prompt and immediate relief might 
 be afforded to him and his constituents. The ques- 
 tion was referred to Attorney General Jameson, who 
 reported that Mr. Mackenzie was entitled to take the 
 oath, and that no person commissioned by the Go- 
 
 sidered it just and proper to declare the said William Lyon Mackenzie unfit 
 and unworthy to hold a seat in this House during the continuance of the pre- 
 sent Parliament ; that as the said William Lyon Mackenzie has never made 
 reparation to this House for the gross injuries he has attempted to inflict on its 
 character and proceedings, there is no reason to depart from the Resolution of tho 
 said 7th day of January, 1832. Mr. McNab, seconded by Mr. Robinson (bro- 
 ther to the Chief Justice), moves in amendment, That the following words be 
 added to the original resolution, ' and therefore he, the said William Lyon 
 Mackenzie, again elected and returned to represent the county of York in this 
 present Parliament, is hereby expelled.' Several motions to adjourn the de- 
 bate were negatived, the House refusing to give Mr Ketchura an opportunity 
 to reserve his objections till the following day, although it was then near eleven 
 o'clock at night. The House then divided, and Mr. Morris's resolution, with 
 McNab's amendment, was adopted by the following vote : 
 
 "Yeas — Messrs. Berczy, Boulton, Brown, Burwcll, Chisholm, Crooks, Elliott, 
 Fraser, A., Fraser, R. D., Jarvis, Jones, McNab, McNeillege, Merrit, Morris, 
 Robinson, Samson, Thomson, Vankoughnet, Werden, Willson, J., and Wil- 
 son, W.— 22. 
 
 "Nays — Messrs. Bid well, Buell, Campbell, Clark, Cook, Buncombe, Eraser, D. 
 
 Hornor, Howard, Ketchum, Lyon, McDonald, A., Norton, Perry, Randal, 
 
 Roblin, Shaver and White— 18." 
 S8
 
 298 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 vernor had a right to refuse, since his office was min- 
 isterial and not judicial. The Governor therefore 
 directed Mr. Beikie, Clerk of the Executive Council, 
 to administer the oath. Mr. Mackenzie did not go 
 before the commissioner, Mr. Beikie, for this purpose 
 till the 11th February ; feeling no doubt that, as the 
 House had declared him expelled, he would not be 
 allowed to take his seat. He finally made the trial at 
 the urgent request of his friends. But we must here 
 pause to notice some events, and their consequence, 
 that occurred in the interval. 
 
 The majority of the House were more than half 
 afraid of the possible consequence of their own act. 
 They were disturbed by a rumor that the Governor 
 was in possession of instructions that would compel 
 him to remonstrate with the House ; and unless they 
 changed their course, to resort to a dissolution. But 
 the Governor was completely under the control of his 
 irresponsible advisers. He firmly believed that the 
 official party was the sole depositary of loyalty in the 
 Province ; and that the opposition, whose only object 
 had been the reform of abuses, wished to deprive 
 England of her remaining American possessions. 
 The course he pursued tended to the realization of his 
 fears, unfounded as they were when first entertained. 
 In reply to representations made to him at a persona] in- 
 terview, by Messrs. Mackenzie, Mackintosh, Ketchum, 
 and Shepard, the Lieutenant Governor, through Mr. 
 Secretary Bowan, under date, December 27, 1833, 
 recommended " that Mr. Mackenzie may offer to make 
 the reparation which the House, by their late resolu- 
 tion seem to expect from him." A i^iece of advice
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBEILION. 299 
 
 that was veiy unlikely to be taken. From the posi- 
 tion taken by the Imperial Government, Sir John Col- 
 borne felt it necessary to say, that on these questions 
 of privilege, the House had decided " uninfluenced by 
 the Executive Government ;" an assurance the value 
 of which could best be determined by an observation 
 of the course taken by such of the irresponsible ad- 
 visers of the Governor as had seats in the House. In 
 their interview with Sir John Colborne, Mr. Macken- 
 zie and the three gentlemen who accompanied him, 
 had complained of the refusal of Mr. S. P. Jarvis and 
 Mr. Joseph Fitzgibbon, commissioners appointed to 
 administer the oaths to members of the Assembly ; 
 and along with Mr. Secretary Rowan's letter their 
 apology was sent. Mr. Jarvis pretended that he was 
 at first prevented from reporting Mr. Mackenzie's re- 
 turn, by the question of order that arose ; and that 
 when he did so, " the Speaker declined leaving the 
 chair till the question of order had terminated;" that 
 he " did not leave the House till a few minutes before 
 six o'clock," and that no second application was made 
 to him on the subject. Mr. Mackenzie had been forci- 
 bly ejected from below the bar, in the meantime. 
 Fitzgibbon said he would have administered the oath, 
 if he had been asked, before the expulsion took place. 
 Petitions breathing defiance began to reach the 
 Lieutenant Governor. " Loyal as the inhabitants 
 of this country unquestionably are," said a petition 
 from Whitby, "your petitioners will not disguise from 
 your Excellency, that they consider longer endurance 
 under their present oppressions, neither a virtue nor 
 a duty. For though all mankind admit the claims of
 
 300 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 good government to the respect and support of the 
 governed, yet very different considerations are due to 
 that which is regardless of public interests, wars with 
 public inclinations and feelings, and only aids or con- 
 nives at oppression." From N"ewmarket came a peti- 
 tion praying the House, since they would not allow 
 the member so often elected to sit, in its wisdom to 
 •' nominate four fit, proper, competent and discreet 
 persons,* to represent the county of York, who may 
 be elected, pursuant to your choice, next general elec- 
 tion." When Mr. Ketchum discovered that this peti- 
 tion was a burlesque upon the House, he withdrew 
 it. The Governor's reply to the deputation, already 
 noticed, was criticized in petitions presented to him ; 
 the electors complained that laws were passed without 
 their consent, and a dissolution of the Legislature was 
 prayed for. A town meeting, in King, refused to ap- 
 point an assessor and collector of taxes, on the ground 
 that they had no right to pay taxes, when the As- 
 sembly robbed them of half their representation. 
 
 Mr. Hume, removed from the influence of local 
 feelings and prejudices, wrote from London to Mr. 
 Mackenzie, giving his opinion that the events of the 
 16th and 17th of December — Mr. Mackenzie's unan- 
 imous re-election and his forcible ejection and re-ex- 
 pulsion — would hasten the crisis that would terminate 
 in the independence of Canada.f But he was smart- 
 
 * An act had been passed dividing the county of York into four Kidings, 
 each of which was, at the next general election, to send a member. 
 
 f This letter is dated " Bryanston Square, 29th of March, 1834," and con- 
 tains some very strong language, " Your triumphant election," Mr. Humo 
 Bays, "on the 16th, and ejection from the Assembly on the 17th, must hasten 
 the crisis whicl. is fast approaching in tbe affairs of Canada, and which will
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 301 
 
 mg under a sense of injury, in consequence of some 
 attack made upon him by the Rev. Egerton Ryerson ; 
 
 terminate in independence and freedom from the baneful domination of the 
 mother country, and the tyrannical conduct of a small and despicable faction 
 in the colony." "I confidently trust," he added, "that the high-minded jieo- 
 ple of Canada will not, in these days, be overawed or cheated of their rights 
 and liberties by such men as Mr. Stanley and the Colonial compact. Your 
 cause is their cause; your defeat would be their subjugation. Go on, therefore, 
 I beseech you, and success — glorious success — must crown your joint efforts." 
 The subject of this letter was brought up in the City Council of Toronto, (late 
 York,) when Dr. Morrison moved an amendment to a resolution proposed by 
 Alderman Dennison : "That Mr. Hume justly regards such conduct [the 
 repeated expulsions of Mr. Mackenzie from the House] on the part of the 
 Legislature, countenanced as it was by the Crown officers, and other Execu- 
 tive functionaries in the Assembly, and unredressed by the Royal prerogative, 
 as evidence of baneful and tyrannical domination, in which conduct it is both 
 painful and injurious to find the Provincial officials systematically upheld by 
 the minister at home against the people." Mr. Hume accepted this as the 
 true explanation of his views. Proceeding to another topic, Mr. Hume said : 
 "I have lately seen, with mingled feelings of pity and contempt, the attacks 
 made by Mr. [Eev. Egerton] Ryerson against my public and private conduct." 
 "1 never," he said, "knew a more worthless hypocrite or so base a man as 
 Mr. Ryerson has proved himself to be. I feel pity for him, for the sake of our 
 common nature, to think that such human depravity should exist in an en- 
 lightened society ; and I fear the pangs of a guilty and self-condemning con- 
 science must make his venal and corrupt breast a second hell, and ere long 
 render his existence truly miserable." Mr. Hume must have been severely 
 stung by the attacks made upon him or he could not have brought himself to 
 employ such terms of censure as these. Mr. Hume felt the more hurt becanse 
 he said he had paid a great deal of attention to Mr. Rj'erson when the latter 
 was in England ; regarding him as the *' representative of a good cause and a 
 distant people," who were much in need of some influence being exerted in 
 tlieir favor in London. After this letter had been made a subject of discussion 
 in the City Council, Mr Hume wrote another letter to Mr. Mackenzie, bearing 
 date 14th of June, 1834, in which he says of the oligarchical system that then 
 existed in Upper Canada: "To submit quietly to such domination would be 
 an acknowledgment of servitude of the most odious nature, as unworthy of 
 the people of Canada, as disgraceful and injurious to Great Britain." Con- 
 gratulating Mr. Mackenzie on his election as first Mayor of Toronto, he said : 
 " It is cheering to see the five times rejected by the selfish faction, elected the 
 fi>rst Justice of the Peace by the people, and placed in the post of authority 
 and honor."
 
 302 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 and his letter is at once intemperate and indiscreet.* In 
 speaking of the " baneful domination" of the mother 
 country as a thing for Canada to rid itself of as soon 
 as possible, he failed to make the proper distinction 
 between the Colonial Oligarchy and the Imperial Grov- 
 ernment ; though the latter, with every desire to do 
 justice, upheld a false system, and was not unfrequent- 
 ly misled by the prejudiced and interested statements 
 of the knot of permanent and irresponsible officials by 
 whom the Lieutenant Grovernor was surrounded. 
 
 The Methodist Conference, probably moved by Mr. 
 Hume's attack on Mr. Ryerson, on the 20th of June, 
 1834, while in session at Kingston, unanimously 
 adopted an address to Sir John Colborne, in which 
 ihej " disclaim, with strong feelings of indignation, the 
 recent avowal of revolutionary principles and pur- 
 poses. "f 
 
 * The language at which Mr. Hume took offence stated that he had "no in- 
 fluence as a religious man; has never been known to promote any religious 
 measure, or object, as such, and has opposed every measure for the better ob- 
 servance of the Sabbath, and even introduced a motion to defeat the bill for 
 the abolition of Colonial slavery." 
 
 t This address was signed by Gordon Grindrod, President, and James Kich- 
 ardson. Secretary. In September, 1831, Lieutenant Governor Maitland had 
 replied in the most offensive terms to an address of this same body of Metho- 
 dists. He told them that their preachers, whether from the United States or 
 any other foreign country, would, " ivhile they act honestly, and respect British 
 institutions," enjoy the same protection as other Americans who had sought an 
 asylum in the country. «'But," he added, "you will readily admit, that the 
 sober-minded of the Province are disgusted with the accounts of the disgrace- 
 ful dissensions of the Episcopal Methodist Church and its separatists, recrimi- 
 nating memorials, and the warfare of one church upon another." With regard 
 to the system of public education, of which the Methodists had complained, 
 Sir John told them that it " would not be abandoned to suit the limited views 
 of leaders of societies, who perhaps have neither experience nor judgment to 
 appreciate the value or advantages of a liberal education."
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 303 
 
 The Colonial oligarchs, and their supporters in the 
 Assembly, were just as ready to complain of the domi- 
 nation exercised by Downing Street over the local affairs 
 of the Province as Mr. Hume himself, when their 
 interests were interfered with. The disallowance of 
 the bank charter acts, to which reference had already 
 been made, almost created a rebellion among the 
 Tories of Upper Canada. In March, 1834, the House 
 of Assembly passed an address to the King, protesting, 
 in the most energetic terms, against the exercise of the 
 Ptoyal veto* in this case; laying down the general 
 
 * The following, which contains the substance of the address, will suffi- 
 ciently show its spirit: — "We, Tour Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, 
 the Commons House of Assembly of Upper Canada in Provincial Parliament 
 assembled, in full assurance of Your Majesty's earnest desire to promote the 
 welfare of your people, beg leave humbly to address ourselves to Your Majesty 
 upon a matter of the deepest interest to your faithful subjects in this Province. 
 * • * We humbly represent, that, although the disallowance of these acts 
 may appear to be authorized by the letter of the statute of the British Parlia- 
 ment, * * * yet it is contrary to its spirit and meaning, and to the principles 
 of a free government. We believe that this provision was made to remedy 
 the evil which might be occasioned by the Eoyal assent being given in the Co- 
 lony to a Provincial Act that should be found incompatible with the rights and 
 interests of other portions of the Empire, but we cannot think it was intended 
 to give a power of interference with our internal affairs. Against such an in- 
 terference we respectfully, but plainly and solemnly protest, as inconsistent 
 with those sacred constitutional principles which are essential to a free govern- 
 ment; since it is manifest, that if Your Majesty's ministers, at a distance of 
 more than four thousand miles, and not at all controllable by, or accountable 
 to, Your Majesty's subjects here, and possessing necessarily a slight and imper- 
 fei't knowledge of the circumstances of this country, the wants, and habits, and 
 feelings if the inhabitants, and the mode of transacting business among us, can 
 dictate a different course, in relation to measures affecting ourselves only, from 
 that which the people by their representatives, and with the concurrence of tlie 
 other branches of the Provincial Legislature, have chosen, we are reduced to 
 a state of mere dependence upon the will and pleasure of a ministry that are 
 irresponsible to us, and beyond the reach and operation of the public opinion of 
 the Province ; and no.one can rely upon our Provincial laws, although they may 
 be constitutionally and deliberately formed, but the most unhappy uncertainty
 
 304^ LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 principle that, in all local affairs, the Provincial Legis- 
 lature ought to be supreme. To have extorted assent 
 to such a declaration from a section of the Tories,'^' was 
 no small gain. There seems to be no question that 
 the}^ did not comprehend the full force of a declaration 
 that was to make the Legislature supreme in local 
 matters. The truth is, the popular branch of the Le- 
 gislature was a complete nullity. It had no control 
 over the Executive Council ; and the second Chamber 
 constantly interposed between the representatives of 
 the people and the Family Comj^act of officials, to 
 
 and want of confidence will prevail and extend their disastrous influence over 
 all our business transactions. "We respectfully claim the same right, in be- 
 half of Your Majesty's subjects in this Province, to be consulted in the mak- 
 ing of laws for their peace, welfare, and good government, which our fellow 
 subjects in Great Britain enjoy, in respect to laws to which their obedience is 
 required ; and although, from the necessity of the case, power must be granted 
 to the Head of the Empire of preventing Colonial laws being adopted and en- 
 forced which are incompatible with treaties between Your Majesty's Govern- 
 ment and foreign States, or with the just rights of any other of Your Majesty's 
 Colonies ; yet, with these exceptions, we humbly submit that no laws ought to 
 be, or rightfully can be, dictated to, or imposed upon, the people of this Pro- 
 vince, to which they do not freely give their consent, through the constitu- 
 tional medium of representatives chosen by and accountable to themselves. 
 The force of our humble and dutiful remonstrance against the principle of an 
 interference of Your Majesty's ministers with our internal affairs, we are rot 
 willing to diminish, by insisting upon the inconveniences and evils likely to 
 follow from the exercise of power which, &c. » » * 
 
 "We, therefore, respectfully and humbly pray that Your Majesty, taking 
 these matters into your favorable consideration, will be graciously pleased not 
 to disallow these Provincial Acts, and not to permit Your Majesty's ministers 
 to interfere with our internal aflftiirs ; but to leave the same entirely to the dis- 
 cretion and control of the Legislature of this Province." 
 
 * In a House of thirty members, six voted against that part of the Address 
 given in the previous note, fire of whom were Tories. It was moved by Mr. 
 BidweP., and seconded by Mr, Perry, in the shape of an amendment to another 
 address that had been proposed. Nine Tories voted for the amendment ; and 
 thus affirmed principles mainly sound in themselves, but with which the whole 
 practice of their live^ was in contradiction.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 305 
 
 whose recommendations its members owed tlieir Le- 
 gislative position. The Tories in the House went the 
 length of complaining of the interference of the minis- 
 try, in England, with its resolves, on the ground that 
 it was not responsible to that Chamber ; though they 
 steadfastly supported a local ministry that could, at 
 any time, set the Assembly at defiance, with impunity. 
 Without intending it, the upholders of the oligarchy 
 proved the necessity of having a responsible govern- 
 ment in the Province. 
 
 The House, as we have seen, passed a resolution 
 expelling Mr. Mackenzie, on the 17th of December, 
 1833. On the 11th of February, no new writ had been 
 issued for a new election ; and Mr. Mackenzie, at the 
 request of his friends, went before the Clerk of the 
 Executive Council and took the oath prescribed for 
 members of the Legislature. The Clerk acted on the 
 authority of the Governor's instructions, backed by 
 the opinion of Attorney General Jameson. At three 
 o'clock on the same day, Mr. Mackenzie w^alked 
 into the House of Assembly, and took his seat among 
 the members. The House was in Committee of the 
 whole, Mr. Donald Macdonald in the Chair. He had 
 not been long there when he received a visit from Mr. 
 McN-ab, Sergeant-at-arms, who informed him that he 
 was a stranger, and must retire. Mr. Mackenzie re- 
 plied that he was a member of the House, legally 
 elected and duly sworn ; and he produced an attested 
 copy of the oath. He was, he said, charged with no 
 offence or irregularity that could disqualify him for 
 sitting and voting. Before going to the House, he 
 had given public notice that he should not leave his 
 
 39
 
 306 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 seat unless violence were used ; and lie now told the 
 Sergeant- at- arms that, if he interfered, it would be at 
 his peril. This officer replied that he must use force. 
 Mr, Mackenzie was three times forcibly taken from 
 his seat; and when he appealed to the Speaker for 
 protection, that functionary replied that it was not 
 possible for the Sergeant-at-arms to have mistaken his 
 duty. Mr. McNab, the member, said he was ready to 
 vote to send Mr. Mackenzie to jail. Mr. Merritt, in 
 a passion, said he ought to be put out of the House, 
 and two men stationed at the door to prevent his re- 
 turn. A resolution in favor of his taking his seat was 
 lost on a vote of twenty-one against fifteen. Mr. 
 McNab attacked the Lieutenant Governor for having 
 instructed the Clerk of the Executive Council to ad- 
 minister the oath to Mr. Mackenzie; saying he "had 
 interfered very improperly, and in a manner no way 
 creditable to himself; and that he might find, like the 
 Vicar of Bray, by taking both sides of the question, 
 he might fall through between." Mr. W. Robinson 
 said Mr. Mackenzie would not have gone to the 
 House, if he had not had the Grovernor's sanction in 
 his pocket ; and that the conduct of the head of the 
 government was entirely unjustifiable. 
 
 "While these proceedings were going on, there was 
 a dense crowd in the gallery, whose general conduct 
 was orderly and decorous ; Mr. Mackenzie having 
 previously cautioned them to remain " quiet and pas- 
 sive spectators." Once there was a hiss from the gal- 
 lery. It was in response to a remark of Mr. Robin- 
 son that Mr. Mackenzie ought to be punished with 
 imprisonment and without being heard in his defence.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 307 
 
 In giving his reasons for again making an attempt to 
 take liis seat, Mr. Mackenzie says he did so because 
 he believed it to be his duty. In reference to the 
 threats of imprisonment, he said: "I greatly desire 
 23ersonal liberty ; but the fear of a prison, or of poverty, 
 or of danger to life or limb, will not, I trust, make a 
 coward of me in a good cause." 
 
 A few days after these arbitrary proceedings, on the 
 part of the majority of the House, had taken place, 
 Mr. Duncombe made a motion Avhich was intended to 
 bring about a new election for the county of York, by 
 a side wind. Mr. Mackenzie's friends did not admit 
 that his seat was legally vacant; and therefore they 
 could not vote for the issuing of a writ for a new. 
 election. Mr. Buncombe's resolution instructed the 
 Speaker to take the necessary steps to have any 
 vacancy in the House forthwith supplied ; but it was 
 rejected, as was also a motion proposed by Mr. 
 McjN"ab for issuing a writ for the election of a member 
 for York, in the place of Mr. Mackenzie expelled.* 
 
 * The vote for the issue of a writ for a new election would have been to as- 
 fiume that the expulsion had been legal, and had created a vacany. A case in 
 point occurred about this time, in Lower Canada. The Lower Canada House 
 of Assembly had assumed to disqualify Mr. Mondelet by resolution, on th .1 
 occasion of his having taken office. The Governor-in-Chief, Lord Aylmer, 
 refused to affix his name to a new writ for the election of a member for the 
 county of Montreal, in the place of Mr. Mondelet. Mr. Stanley in a dispatch, 
 communicated to the House on the 18th of January, 1834, expresses his entire 
 approval of the conduct of the Governor. In that dispatch, the Colonial Se- 
 cretary said the House of Commons, by their knowledge of the British consti- 
 tution, and of what was due to the privileges of the other branch of the Legis- 
 lature, had been preserved " from the fatal error of arrogating tc themselves 
 the monstrous right of giving to their resolutions the force of law." He added 
 that 'the House of Commons "neither possesses, nor has ever claimed to pos- 
 eesS) any right, authority, or power without the consent of the CrowT and the
 
 308 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 To have ordered a new election would only have been 
 to prepare the way for a fresh outrage in the shape of 
 another expulsion. One result of these various pro- 
 ceedings against Mr. Mackenzie, was to dejDrive the 
 county of York of one of its two members, during the 
 term of nearly a whole Parliament. 
 
 Thou^'h some of the actors in this drama are still 
 living, we are sufficiently removed from the time in 
 which the events occurred, to be able to take a view of 
 them unclouded by passion or prejudice. The recital 
 of the facts will often create a feeling of honest indig- 
 nation ; but this feeling will be quite as strong in the 
 mind of the reader fifty years hence. A brief review 
 of the whole proceedings will give the best idea of the 
 spirit in which they were conducted. At first, an at- 
 tempt was made to expel the obnoxious member, be- 
 cause he had, at his own cost, distributed copies of the 
 Journals of the House, without note or comment, un- 
 accompanied by the appendix. A majority was 
 ashamed to act upon so flimsy a pretext ; but one ob- 
 ject was gained : Mr. Mackenzie did not again tender 
 for the printing of the Journals, and the work was a 
 godsend to the partisans of the government. JSText, a 
 pretended libel, published in a newspaper, was made 
 a ground of expulsion, and acted upon. JN^ either of 
 the articles complained of was half so severe as arti- 
 
 House of Peers, to make laws relating either to the qualification or disqualifi- 
 cation of electors or candidates, or rather to effect their object by resolutions 
 only." And should the Speaker be called upon, In the exercise of his minis- 
 terial capacity, to issue a warrant for a new election, "in consequence of a 
 member being unseated by an illegal resolution, the duty would devolve upon 
 the Lori Chancellor to take notice of the cause of vacancy, as recited in tha 
 warrant, and on the ground of illegality to refuse to affix the great seal to the 
 new writ."
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 309 
 
 cles that are now daily published without exciting at- 
 tention. Then a new libel was discovered, and made 
 the cause of a second expulsion. This time the House 
 stretched the power of privilege to the monstrous ex- 
 tent of creating a disqualification unknown to the laAv. 
 The third time, the House contented itself with giving 
 force to this declared disability. 'Next time, a unani- 
 mous re-election was declared to be no election at all ; 
 though the Returning Officer had returned Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie as duly elected, and no candidate had a2:)peared 
 to oppose him. The fifth time, he was declared ex- 
 pelled, though not allowed by the House to take the 
 oaths or his seat ; and the same majority that now ex- 
 pelled him had declared, a short time before, that he 
 was not and could not be elected; they having as- 
 sumed that he was incapable of being elected during 
 that Parliament. This last time he was, at first, for- 
 cibly ejected from the space below the bar, on a motion 
 to clear the' House of strangers ; because not having 
 taken the oaths, which the Speaker urged the commis- 
 sioners not to administer, he must be treated as a 
 stranger ; and then, after he had taken the oath, be- 
 fore a commissioner, instructed by the Lieutenant 
 Governor, on the advice of the Attorney General, to 
 administer it, he was again forcibly dragged from his 
 seat by the Sergeant-at-arms, condemned to silence 
 under the outrage, and threatened with imprisonment. 
 The frequency and the facility with which the majority 
 shifted their ground, showed that all they wanted was 
 a colorable pretext for carrying out a foregone conclu- 
 sion, to rid themselves of the presence of an opponent 
 who gave them so much trouble.
 
 310 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 As in the case of Wilkes, who was expelled from 
 the House of Commons, the whole of the proceed- 
 ings relating to these expulsions, were expunged from 
 the Journals of the Assemoly ; being declared sub- 
 versive of the rights of the whole body of electors of 
 Upper Canada.* This was done in the first session 
 
 . * Here is the resolution : *' Mr. Mackenzie, seconded by Mr. Mcintosh, 
 moves, That it be resolved, that all the declarations, orders, and resolutions of 
 this House, respecting the several elections of William Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., 
 into Parliament for the county of York, as void elections, and the incapacity 
 of William Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., to serve in the said Parliament, and for 
 his expulsions therefrom, and disqualification by the mere force of a former 
 vote or votes of expulsion, as also all orders, declarations, and resolutions, de- 
 nying that the elections of William Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., were good, true, 
 and valid, or affirming that the House having expelled and declared him unfit 
 and unworthy to take a seat therein during the said Parliament, and that being 
 convinced of the propriety of such expulsion and declaration, would not allow 
 him to sit and vote, be expunged from the Journals of this House, as being 
 subversive of the rights of the whole body of electors of this Province. Which 
 was carried on a vote of twenty-eight against seven." 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie was not the first member of the Upper Canada Assembly 
 who had been expelled for breach of privilege consisting of alleged libel. On 
 the 4th of March, 1817, Mr. Durand, member for Wentworth, was declared 
 guilty of a false, scandalous, and malicious libel, and ordered to be sent to the 
 York jail during the session. Having placed himself out of the reach of the 
 officer of that House; and for this " high contempt" of the authority of the 
 House, and " flagrant breach " of its privileges, he was expelled. The libel 
 arose out of an irregular suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, by Sir Gordon 
 Drummond, administrator of the Government of Tipper Canada, during the 
 latter part of the war of 1812. This act had been suspended during the former 
 part of the war ; and the House having refused to renew the suspension, Sir 
 (iordon Drummond took it upon himself to declare the suspension by procla- 
 mation. In a newspaper called the St. David's Spectator, Mr. Durand alleged 
 that great atrocities had been committed both by the regular trocps and the 
 militia, at the time when the administrator of the government assumed the ex- 
 ercise of a disputed power. The Assembly, in 1815, asked Sir Gordon Drum- 
 mond for any papers he might have explaining the act ; when he replied, in a 
 style too much in fashion in those days among persons having authority in 
 Colonial governments: "All measures of that nature were adopted by me, as 
 commanding His Majesty's forces, and resulted from the exercise of my dis- 
 cretion." Mr. Durand's libel on the House appears to have consisted of a
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 311 
 
 of the next Provincial Parliament, on the 16th of 
 July, 1835. Mr. McXab voted to expunge his own 
 resolutions, and frankly admitted that the House was 
 wrong in grounding its third expulsion on the fact of 
 the second. He had copied the formula of the reso- 
 lution, on that occasion, from one framed for the case 
 of Mr. Christie, from the Journals of the Lower Canada 
 Assembly. Among Mr. Mackenzie's notes I find a 
 statement that Mr. Hagerman confessed, on this oc- 
 casion, that he had, from the first, thought the whole 
 of these expulsions inexpedient ; but that, having been 
 overruled by those with whom he acted, he had pub- 
 licly supported them. But I find nothing of the kind 
 in Mr. Hagerman's published speech. He did not 
 defend the expulsions, it is true ; he declared he would 
 not stoop to inquire whether this act was right or 
 wrong; it was sufficient for him that the House had 
 done it. He objected to one Assembly, acting judi- 
 cially, reversing the decision of a previous Assembly. 
 From first to last, the proceedings against Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie were conceived in a party spirit, and carried by 
 party votes. No worse description or condemnation 
 of them could be given ; seeing that they were in their 
 nature judicial 
 
 btatemei.t of the alleged condition of things in the House, when the renewal 
 of the Habeas Corpus suspension was proposed. "The House at this time," he 
 said, " seemed agitated by prospects before them according to their various 
 feelings — the tide of temptation, at this crisis, ran high — the terrors of thu 
 bill were on one hand, good contracts were on the other ; and of course the 
 man who opposed the President's will was for ever shut out."
 
 312 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 York changed to Toronto — "Was it the Site of the Indian Toroiito ? — Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie elected First Mayor of the City — Mayor and Corporation borrow 
 £1000 f;r Municipal Purposes on their Individual Eesponsibility — Sd. in the 
 £1 considered a monstrously oppressive Tax — Public Meeting called by the 
 Mayor to justify the 3c?. Tax — Is adjourned and a Frightful Accident oc- 
 curs by the giving way of a Balcony — The Cholera of 183'1 — How the Mayor 
 braved Disease and Death — Is attacked with Cholera — Formation of the 
 Canadian Alliance Society — Loss of his Infant Son — Kesolution to abandon 
 the Press — Mackenzie as a Journalist. 
 
 On the 6th March, 1834, the town of York had its 
 limits extended, and it was erected into an incorpo- 
 rated city, under the name of Toronto.* On the 15th 
 
 * Toronto is an Indian name, but that the Indians gave that name to the 
 place now called Toronto is more than doubtful. All the evidence I have seen 
 is against the supposition. Upon the early French maps the present site of 
 Toronto was designated Teiaigon or Teiaiagon. In a Carte du Canada ou de la 
 Nouvelle France, by Del Isle, of the French Academy of Sciences, and first Geo- 
 grapher of the King, published at Paris, in 1803, it is called Teiaiagon. In 
 the Carte Generale du Canada, of Baron Lahonton, in his Nouveau Voyage dans 
 U Amerique Septentrionale, written at different times from 1683 to 1692, and pub- 
 lished at the Hague, Penetanguishine Bay [mouth of the Severn] is set down aa 
 Baye de Toronto; and in another work, Memoires de L' Amerique Septentrionale, 
 the same traveller says of Lake Huron : " On voit au nord-est de cette Kiviere 
 la Baye de Toronto qui a vingt ou vingt cinq lieues de longueur et quinze 
 d'ouverture, il se d^eharge une Riviere que sort du petit lac du meme nom, 
 [Lake Simcoe,] formant plusieurs cataractes impracticables, tout en descendant 
 qu' en montant. De sa source on peut aller dans le lac de Frontenac [Ontario] 
 •en faisant un portage jusqu'a la Riviere de Tonaouat^ [the Don at the present 
 city of Toronto] que s'y d^charge. Vous pouvez reraarquer au c6t6 Meridional 
 de la Baye de Toronto le Fort suppose, dont je vous a fait mention dans ma
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 313 
 
 March, a proclamation was issued calling an election 
 of Aldermen and Common Councilmen, for the 27th 
 of that month. The Reformers in the new city were 
 opposed to the act of incorporation on the ground of 
 expense, because the assessment law was deemed ob- 
 jectionable, and Mr. Mackenzie expressed the oj^inion 
 that it would not work well. The Reformers resolved, 
 however, to profit by the circumstance, and having 
 carried the elections, they selected Mr. Mackenzie for 
 Mayor: the first Mayor not only of Toronto but in 
 the Province. The event was looked upon as possess- 
 ing some political significance, for Toronto was the 
 seat of government and the headquarters of the Fa- 
 mily Compact. And, as the sequel proved, it was pro- 
 phetic of the result of the next? Parliamentary elec- 
 tion in the city. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie gave his time gratuitously to the 
 interests of the city; and discharged the duties of 
 Mayor with the same vigor that he carried into every 
 thing he undertook. Every thing had to be done. 
 The whole frame-work of municipal government had 
 to be constructed and set in motion. There was not a 
 side-walk in the city ; and those of planks were intro- 
 duced by the first corporation. The city finances were 
 in a condition that much increased the difiiculty of the 
 task. The value of all the rateable property in the 
 
 vingt troisieme lettre." The English pronunciation of the name of the Don 
 River at Toronto would be something like Tonawatah, from which Toronto 
 could not have come as a corruption. Nor is it necessary to resort to any such 
 hypothesis, since Toronto is certainly an Indian name. It is clear enou"-h, 
 from all the evidence, that the site of the city of Toronto was not known to 
 the Indians by that name, but that there were a Bay, a Lake, and a River to 
 the north called Toronto 
 40
 
 314 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 city was only £121,519 ; and there was a debt of £9,240, 
 contracted on account of the market buildings, on which 
 the interest was £550 a year. In anticipation of the 
 taxes, it was necessary to borrow £1,000. The Bank 
 of Upper Canada refused to advance the money ; its 
 j>resident, the late Dr. Widmer, having unsuccess- 
 fully opposed Mr. Mackenzie in the ward election for 
 Alderman. The advertisements of the bank were, at 
 the same time, withdrawn from The Colonial Advocate. 
 Application was next made to Truscotte of the Farmers' 
 Bank. He asked what security would be given. The 
 city charter was liable to be vetoed in England ; and 
 in this state of uncertainty personal security became 
 necessary. The Mayor and other members of the 
 corporation signed the note. To meet the demands 
 on the city treasury, it was necessary to levy a rate 
 of 3d on the pound. This was regarded as a mon- 
 strous piece of fiscal oppression ; almost sufficient to 
 justify a small rebellion.* Fifteen times as much is 
 now paid without a murmur. To such an extent was 
 the public dissatisfaction carried at what was consid- 
 ered the exorbitant taxes, that the Mayor found it 
 necessary to call a public meeting, to make an expla- 
 nation .f This was felt to be the more necessary 
 
 * " There was," Mr. Mackenzie said, "a wonderful outcry raised in Toronto 
 tbatthe inequality of the taxes, and the burthensome extent to which they had 
 been laid upon the citizens, were the acts of the corporation, and still more 
 especially the doings of the Mayor. This unfounded statement induced many 
 persons, not only to manifest an unwillingness to pay, but also to urge others 
 to withhold payment, and gave the collectors a great deal of trouble ; while 
 Bome of the members of the council were daily met by complaints, to each of 
 whom a long detail of facts had to be gone into, the whole appearing inter- 
 minable." 
 
 ■j- At this meeting, the Mayor proceeded to expl ain the system of assessments ; 
 the nature of the loan made for roads ; the £1,000 assessed from the citizens to
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 335 
 
 because a small meeting, composed cliiefly of officials 
 and their immediate friends and dependents, had 
 already passed a censure upon the Mayor for having, 
 as a journalist, published Mr. Hume's celebrated 
 " baneful domination" letter. The meeting, called by 
 the Mayor, took place on the 29th of July. After 
 Mr. Mackenzie had explained, at some length, the 
 necessity for the three penny tax, Mr. Sheriff Jar vis 
 interrupted, saying it was his intention to move a 
 censure on the conduct of the Maj^or. There were 
 some two thousand persons present ; and as the 
 majority were the friends of the Mayor, he met this 
 menace by a resolution pledging the citizens not to sup- 
 port, at the next Parliamentary election, a candidate 
 whose position as an office-holder made him dependent 
 on the government. The Sheriff felt the force of the 
 retort ; and showing signs of impatience by taking out 
 his watch, his friends in the crowd raised a storm of 
 disapprobation, intended to drown the voice of the 
 Mayor. The confusion of voices, on both sides, ren- 
 dered it impossible for any one to obtain a further 
 hearing ; and the meeting was adjourned till next day. 
 The meeting had commenced at six o'clock in the 
 evening ; and on the morning of the second day, the 
 opponents of the Mayor issued placards calling the 
 adjourned meeting at three o'clock in the afternoon — 
 
 be expended by the district magistrates ; the legacy of 400Z. of city debt left by 
 the justices, and of :E9,400 more for the market building ; the " dreadful and 
 unbearable" condition of the streets ; the complaints of the prisoners in jail ; 
 the presentment of tie grand jury, and the absolute refusal of the justices to 
 co-operate with the aty council for a remedy ; the expenses likely to be In- 
 curred in case the chol ira were to spread, and the licence moneys witJihcld hy 
 government.
 
 316 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 an hour at which it would be very inconvenient for 
 the mechanics and business men to attend. The 
 Mayor, regarding this as a breach of faith, forbade 
 the city bellman to cry the meeting for that hour, and 
 resolved not to attend it himself. The market in 
 w^hich the meeting was held, was a parallelogram ; 
 and over the butchers' stalls was a balcony to accom- 
 modate spectators. While the Sheriff was addressing 
 the meeting he said : " I care no more for Mackenzie 
 than" — here he looked up and saw a crow flying over 
 — " that crow," he added. This was deemed a great 
 oratorical stroke, and it elicited a cheer. The crowd 
 above, in stamping their feet, broke down the balcony ; 
 and in the descent some were impaled on the butchers' 
 hooks, others broke their limbs or received some other 
 injury. Seven or eight died of the injuries they re- 
 ceived, and others were crippled for life. 
 
 The arms of the city of Toronto, with the motto 
 " Industry, Intelligence, Integrity," were designed by 
 Mr. Mackenzie. 
 
 During the term of Mr. Mackenzie's mayoralty, the 
 cholera revisited the city, and swept away every 
 twentieth inhabitant. During the whole of the time 
 that it raged, the Mayor was at the post of duty 
 and of danger. He sought out the helpless vic- 
 tims of the disease, and administered to their wants. 
 He was constant in his attendance on the cholera hos- 
 pital. In the height of the panic, occasioned by this 
 terrible disease, when nobody else could be induced 
 to take the cholera patients to the hospital, he visited 
 the abodes of the victims, and placing them in the 
 cholera cart, with whatever assistance he could get
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 317 
 
 from the families of the plague-stricken, drove them to 
 the hospital. On some days he made several visits of 
 this kind to the pest-house. Day and night he gave 
 himself no rest. At length worn out by fatigue, the dis- 
 ease, from which he had done so much to save others, 
 overtook himself. The attack was not of an aggra- 
 vated nature; and he was fortunate in obtaining the 
 timely assistance of Dr. Widmer; for medical men 
 were difficult to be obtained, and many persons with- 
 out medical education or experience practised on the 
 unfortunate suiferers. 
 
 The Mayor was assiduous in his attention at the 
 Police Court, where he constantly sat to decide the 
 cases that came up. He was frequently accompanied 
 by Alderman Lesslie. At the Mayor's court, too, he 
 presided. Here he had the assistance of juries. His 
 magisterial decisions generally gave satisfaction ; but 
 he was much censured for putting into the stocks an 
 abandoned creature, who had frequently been sent to 
 jail without any beneficial effect, and who was, on this 
 occasion, excessively abusive to the Mayor. But 
 this species of punishment was not new. The stocks 
 had till then formed a regular means of jounishment. 
 The error belonged to the times quite as much as to 
 the individual. A little before that time, no crimi- 
 nal was allowed to have a counsel for his defence : 
 and when this privilege was accorded, the Chief 
 Justice expressed his doubts of the wisdom of 
 the change. Mr. Bidwell, one day, made an elo- 
 quent speech in behalf of a negro charged with theft; 
 and the Chief Justice thought the dangerous influence
 
 318 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 of such appeals was the best proof that could be given 
 of the doubtful character of the new privilege accorded 
 to persons accused of crime. 
 
 In the beginning of the year, before Toronto was 
 incorj^orated, Mr. Mackenzie had been elected Town 
 Warden, and, b}'' a strange perversity of accidents, 
 Church Warden also, Presbyterian as he was. Before 
 the close of his mayoralty, he issued a circular, stating 
 his determination to decline to come forward again for 
 the City Council ; but w^hen his friends complained 
 that he had no right to desert the Reform cause, he, 
 at the eleventh hour, permitted his name to be used 
 by the parties who had insisted on nominating him 
 for re-election. The Reformers — for the election was 
 made a party question — were defeated ; Mr Mackenzie 
 being put out on a national cry raised by the friends of 
 Mr. (afterwards Judge) Sullivan, the second Mayor of 
 Toronto. The grounds of this cry consisted of a judi- 
 cial investigation, arising out of an unpleasant occur- 
 rence at the dinner of the St. Patrick's Society, in 
 which the Mayor unnecessarily, Mr. Sullivan con- 
 tended, required the evidence of certain ladies. 
 
 On the 5th January, 1835, he received the unani- 
 mous thanks of a public meeting, " for the faithful 
 discharge of his arduous duties during the period of 
 his office." 
 
 While Mayor of Toronto, Mr. Mackenzie was 
 elected to the Assembly by the Second Riding of 
 York, this being the first election since the division 
 of the county into four Ridings. His opponent, Mr. 
 Edward Thomson, obtained one hi;iidred and seventy-
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 319 
 
 eight votes against three hundred and thirty-four. 
 The general election took place in October, 1834 ; and 
 in addition to the personal success of Mr. Mackenzie, 
 the party with whom he acted secured a majority in 
 the new House. Mr. Bidwell was elected Speaker, 
 for the second time. 
 
 On the 9th December, 1834, the " Canadian Alliance 
 Society" was formed at York. Mr. James Lesslie was 
 President, and Mr. Mackenzie Corresponding Secre- 
 tary. In the declaration of objects, formed upon re- 
 solutions drawn up and submitted by Mr. Mackenzie, 
 for the attainment of which the society was formed, 
 there were eighteen subjects of legislation, twelve of 
 which have been acted upon.* In most cases these 
 
 * These are : Eesponsible Government ; Abolition of the Crown-nominated 
 Legislative Council ; A more equal Taxation of Property ; Abolition of the 
 law of Primogeniture; Disunion of Church and State; Secularization of the 
 Clergy Keserves ; Provision for the gradual liquidation of the Public Debt ; 
 Discontinuance of undue interference of the Colonial Office in the local affi^irs 
 of the Province; Cheap Postage; Amendment of the Libel Law; Amendment 
 of Jury Laws ; The Control of all the Provincial Kevenue to be in the Kepresen- 
 tatives of the people. The other objects sought for, but which did not recommend 
 themselves to the public reason, were : The prevention of a Legislative Union 
 of Upper and Lower Canada, a "Written Constitution, and the Ballot. The 
 abolition of all licensed monopolies, and of all monopolizing land companies, 
 is not accomplished; some may question how far our law system has 
 beer, simplified and cheapened : two objects of the Alliance, in the latter of 
 which much progress has been made. " To lessen the taxation on labor," and 
 "increase the security of property," are such general propositions that different , 
 persons would dispute as to how far they had been carried into effect. The 
 Alliance was to exercise the duties of a political vigilance committee, by 
 watching the proceedings of the Legislature, and enforcing economy and re- 
 trenchment. The members were also to devote themselves to the political educa- 
 tion of the people, by the " diffusion of sound political information by pamphlets 
 and tracts." And they were to look beyond Upper Canada by " entering into 
 close alliance with any similar association that may be formed in Lower 
 Canada or the other colonies "
 
 320 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 questions have been disposed of in the way recom- 
 mended by the Alliance, and in others the deviation 
 therefrom is more or less marked. The objects of the 
 Society were denounced by the partisans of the go- 
 vernment as revolutionary. Their tendency was cer- 
 tainly democratic; and the carrying out of many 
 of the objects of the Alliance shows how far we have 
 advanced in that direction. In making the Legisla- 
 tive Council elective, we have declared the impossi- 
 bility of realizing Pitt's idea of building up a Colonial 
 aristocracy. By the abolition of the laws of primo- 
 geniture, we have taken away the only foundation on 
 which a landed aristocracy could rest. And, in sev- 
 ering the connection of Church and State, we have 
 placed all denominations on a common level. But 
 we have stopped short of the aims of the Alliance. 
 We have not set up a written constitution, " embody- 
 ing and declaring the original principles of govern- 
 ment," nor applied the ballot to the election of Jus- 
 tices of the Peace. We do not select such officers by 
 popular election at all, except as an incident of muni- 
 cipal dignity. For the time, the tide of democracy 
 has been arrested by the civil war in the neighboring 
 Republic ; and we may possibly remain at the point 
 of democratic advancement at which we have arrived. 
 On his return from England, Mr. Mackenzie had 
 announced his intention of giving up the publication of 
 a newspaper. The death of his infant, Joseph Hume 
 Mackenzie, occurring on the 26th of October, 1833, 
 had deeply affected him, and had much to do in bring- 
 ing him to this determination. He seems to have 
 acted on the impulse of grief; for two days after that
 
 THE CAXADIAN EEBELLIOJf. 321 
 
 on which the chihl died, this announcement was made. 
 He wouhl issue one or two irreguLir papers, and then 
 stop the publication. He had commenced when Re- 
 form was less fashionable ; and now there were other 
 liberal journals, so that his own could be better spared. 
 But the few fugitive sheets counted up to forty-eight, 
 from October 28, when the announcement was made, 
 to JNTovember 4, 1834, when the last number of The 
 Colonial Advocate was published. 
 
 When he commenced the arduous, and in those days 
 perilous, task of a Reform journalist, Mr. Mackenzie 
 had no enemies among the official party. Setting out 
 with Whig principles, he was driven by the course of 
 events into the advocacy of Radical Reform. " I en- 
 tered," he saj^s, " the lists of opposition to the Execu- 
 tive, because I believed the system of government to 
 be wretchedly bad, and was uninfluenced by any pri- 
 vate feeling, or ill-will, or anger towards any human 
 being whatever." He threw away much of the profits 
 of his business by circulating, at his own expense, an 
 immense number of political documents, intended to 
 bring about an amelioration of the wretched system 
 of government then in existence. " Gain," he truly 
 says, " was with me a matter of comj)aratively small 
 moment; nor do I regret my determination to risk all 
 in the cause of Reform ; I would do it again." He 
 did afterwards risk all on the issue of Revolution, and 
 lost the game. He had, he thought, in 1834, done 
 with the Press for ever. The Advocate was incor- 
 porated with the Correspondent, a paper published by 
 Dr. O'Grrady, a Roman Catholic priest, who was at 
 loggerheads with his bishop, under the name of the 
 
 41
 
 322 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AND 
 
 Correspondeuf and Advocate; and Mr. Mackenzie ex- 
 pressed a wish that no one woukl withhold subscrip- 
 tions from any other paper, on the expectation that 
 he would ever again connect himself with the Press. 
 
 This will be a convenient place to make an estimate 
 of the subject of this biography as a journalist. His 
 writings show an uneven temper; but taking them in 
 the mass, and considering the abuses he had to assail, 
 and the virulence of opposition he met — foul slanders, 
 personal abuse, and even attempted assassination — we 
 have reason to be surprised with the moderation of his 
 tone. In mere personal invective he never dealt. He 
 built all his opposition on hard facts, collected 
 with industry, and subject to the usual amount of 
 error in the narration. Latterly, he had entirely 
 abandoned the practice of replying to the abusive 
 tirades of business competitors or political opponents. 
 
 "I part company," he said, "with the corps edito- 
 rial in the best possible humor." With papers that 
 pursued him with abuse, he ceased to hold any com- 
 munication ; refusing either to read or receive them. 
 He borrowed this metaphor to show how he might 
 have failed to come up to his original intentions : 
 "We begin to cross a strong river, with our eyes and 
 our resolution fixed on the point of the opposite shore 
 on which we propose to land; but gradually giving 
 way to the torrent, we are glad by the aid perhaps of 
 branch and bush to extricate ourselves at some distant 
 and perhaps dangerous landing place, much farther 
 down the stream than that on which we had fixed our 
 intentions." He generally wrote in the first person ; 
 and his productions sometimes took the shape of letters
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 323 
 
 to important i^olitical personagesi Ilis articles were 
 of every possible length, from the terse, compact 
 paragraph to a full newspaper i)age. On whatever 
 objects exerted, his industry was untiring; and the 
 unceasing labors of the pen, consuming nights as well 
 as days, prematurely wore out a naturally durable 
 frame. Though possessed of a rich fund of humor, 
 his work was too earnest and too serious to admit of 
 his drawing largely upon it as a journalist. Of Robt. 
 Kandal, when his constituents had given him a new 
 suit of clothes, he said: "He now moves among us 
 literally clothed from head to foot with the approba- 
 tion of his constituents." He sometimes kept note of 
 time by printing at the head of his labors: " Midnight 
 Selections and Reflections (half asleep)." Whatever 
 he did*, he did with an honest intention; and though 
 freedom from errors cannot be claimed for him, it may 
 truly be said that his very faults were the results of 
 generous impulses, acted upon with insufficient reflec- 
 tion.
 
 324 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Meeting of the new House — Discussion of Mr. Hume's " Baneful Domination* 
 Letter — Solicitor General Hagerman charged with threatening Physical 
 Force Eesistance — The Grievance Committee — Epitome and Analysis of ita 
 Contents — Read by the King — Meeting of the Legislature delayed till a 
 Reply to Grievance Report could be sent — Total Dependence of the Local 
 Government on Downing Street proscribed — Mr. Mackenzie appointed 
 Director of the Welland Canal — The Disclosures he makes — Career of Mr. 
 Hincks — Mackenzie visits Papineau and the other Popular Leaders of Lower 
 Canada — Letter to Mr. Hume. 
 
 The new House met on the 15tli of July, 1835. On 
 the first vote — that on the Speakership — the govern- 
 ment was left in a minority of four.* The Solicitor 
 Greneral branded Mr. Bidwell as a disloyal man, who 
 " wished to overturn the government and institutions 
 of the country." Mr. Mackenzie thought it necessary 
 to acquit Mr. Bidwell of the charge of being a member 
 of the Canadian Alliance Society. 
 
 The taunt of the Solicitor General was not forgotten 
 when the Lieutenant Grovernor's speech came up to be 
 answered. The resolutions on which the Address was 
 founded were moved by Mr. Perry, a member of the 
 opposition. The letters of Mr. Hume to Mr. Macken- 
 zie had been denounced by the official party as rank 
 treason. Referring to this circumstance, the Address 
 
 * The vote was thirty-one against twenty-seven.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 325 
 
 in reply to the Lieutenant Governor's speech expressed 
 satisfaction that " His Majesty has received, through 
 your Excellency, from the people of this Province, 
 fresh proofs of their devoted loyalty and of their sin- 
 cere and earnest desire to maintain and perpetuate the 
 connection with the great Empire of which they form 
 so important a part;" i^roofs which would ''serve to 
 correct any misrepresentations intended to impress 
 His Majesty with the belief that those who desire the 
 reform of many public abuses in the Province are not 
 well affected towards His Majesty's person and go- 
 vernment." It also deprecated the spirit in which 
 honest differences of opinion had been treated by 
 persons in ofl&ce, who, on that account, had impeached 
 the loyalty, integrity, and patriotism of their oppo- 
 nents, as calculated " to alienate the affections of His 
 Majesty's loyal people and render them dissatisfied with 
 the administration." " But," the Address concluded, 
 " should the government be administered agreeably to 
 the intent, meaning, and spirit of our glorious con- 
 stitution, the just wishes and constitutional rights of 
 the people duly respected, the honors and patronage 
 of His Majesty indiscriminately bestowed on persons 
 of worth and talent, who enjoy the confidence of the 
 people, without regard to their political or religious 
 opinions, and your Excellency's councils filled with 
 moderate, wise, and discreet individuals, who are 
 understood to respect, and to be influenced by, the 
 public voice ; we have not the slightest apprehension 
 but the connection between this Province and the 
 Parent State may long continue to exist, and be a 
 blessing mutually advantageous to both."
 
 326 LIFE OF MACKEN^ZIE, AND 
 
 A majority of the House— the vote was twenty- 
 nine against twenty-four — rejected an amendment 
 indirectly censuring Mr. Hume's " baneful domina- 
 tion" letter; on which the Solicitor General remarked 
 that the majority avoided the opportunity of " con- 
 demning treasonable sentiments." "If," he added in 
 allusion to Mr. Hume's letter, " there be an honorable 
 member of this House who is bound to identify him- 
 self with treason ; who will stand up and sustain him* 
 who says you are to keep in continual view the revolu- 
 tion of the United States and its results ; and that a 
 crisis is fast approaching in the affairs of Canada 
 which will terminate in its independence from the 
 baneful domination of the mother country, I would 
 pronounce such a man to be deeply disloyal indeed." 
 At the same time, Mr. Hagerman found it necessary 
 to defend himself from an insinuation that he was the 
 author of a declaration which, on behalf of the Tories, 
 had threatened to look out for a new state of political 
 existence. 
 
 During this debate, Mr. Mackenzie sat silent; 
 though it was against him, as the correspondent of 
 Mr. Hume, that the thunder of the Solicitor General 
 was launched. But the aim, not being direct, left 
 nothing to be parried. 
 
 But the matter was not to rest here. On a future 
 day — January 30th — Mr, Go wan brought up the ques- 
 tion of Mr. Hume's letter, but without naming it. 
 Having no love for the Family Compact, he in- 
 cluded in his resolution of censure the " public de- 
 claration of Christopher Alexander Hagerman, Esq., 
 
 ♦ Mr. Hume.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 327 
 
 His Majesty's Solicitor General for Upper Canada, 
 that he would resist, by physical force, a law passed 
 by the constituted authorities of the land, and upon 
 the especial recommendation of the King's Govern- 
 ment." The Solicitor General's explanation was that 
 he had said he would not pay a ca^^itation tax on 
 emigrants — though it was very clear he could not bo 
 asked, since he was not an immigrant — but would 
 rather be sent to prison. Mr. Mackenzie saw that 
 " this proceeding was intended as a shot at him over 
 the head of Mr. Hume ;" as the publisher of the letter, 
 the resolution must affect him even more than the 
 writer. " Mr. Hume had said the affairs of the 
 Canadas were coming to a crisis ; and had he not the 
 best authority for saying so ? The Governor-in-chief 
 had said, in one of his dispatches, that Lower Canada 
 was fast going into a state of confusion." "As for 
 himself," Mr. Mackenzie added, " his loyalty was not 
 suspected either in this country or in England." 
 
 In the early part of the session, (January 26,) Mr. 
 Mackenzie moved for and obtained the since cele- 
 brated Select Committee on Grievances, whose report, 
 Lord Glenelg stated, was carefully examined by the 
 King, was replied to at great length by the Colonial 
 minister, and was taken by Sir Francis Bond Head 
 — so he said — for his guide, but was certainly not 
 followed by him. As we approach the threshold of 
 an armed insurrection, it is necessary to obtain from 
 those engaged in it their view of the grievances which 
 existed. For this purpose an analysis of the famous 
 Seventh Report of the Committee on Grievances will 
 be necessary.
 
 328 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Soon after, in addressing the Assembly, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie said : — " I would impress upon the House the 
 importance of two things: the necessity of getting 
 control of the revenue raised in this country, and a 
 control over the men sent out here to govern us, by 
 placing them under the direction of resj^onsible ad- 
 visers." The House, about the same time, addressed 
 the Lieutenant Grovernor for information " in respect to 
 the powers, duties, and responsibilities of the Execu- 
 tive Council ; how far that body is responsible for the 
 acts of the Executive Government, and how far the 
 Lieutenant Governor is authorized b}' His Majesty to 
 act with or against their advice." The Lieutenant 
 Governor replied that the Executive Council had no 
 powers but such as were conferred on them by "• tlie 
 express provisions of British or Colonial statutes," 
 about which the House knows as much as he knew. 
 However, he condescended to proceed to particulars. 
 " It was necessary," he said, " that they should con- 
 cur with the Lieutenant Governor, in deciding upon 
 applications for lands, and making regulations rela- 
 tive to the Crown Lands Department." And as if 
 there was a peculiar necessity for contradicting his 
 first statement, he said these duties were additional to 
 those imposed by statute. " It was, also," His Excel- 
 lency proceeded to state, " the duty of the Executive 
 Council to afford their advice to the Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor upon all public matters referred to them for 
 their consideration." He himself, as well as his coun- 
 cil, Avas responsible to the Imperial Government and 
 removable at the pleasure of the King. Where by 
 statute the concurrence of the Executive Council was
 
 THE CANADIAN llEBELLION. 329 
 
 required to any act of the government it could not be 
 dispensed with, and in such case the Executive Coun- 
 cil must share the responsibility of the particular act. 
 But the Lieutenant Governor claimed the right to 
 exercise "his judgment in regard to demanding the 
 assistance and advice of the Executive Council, ex- 
 cept he is confined to a certain course by the instruc- 
 tions of His Majesty." 
 
 The Lieutenant Grovernor fairly expressed the offi- 
 cial view of ministerial responsibilit}^, as was after- 
 wards shown by Sir Francis Bond Head's instructions, 
 on his appointment to the Lieutenant Governorship 
 of Upper Canada. 
 
 In order to understand what were, at this time, the 
 subjects of complaint by the popular party in Uj^per 
 Canada, the contents of the Grievance Report must be 
 examined. And to discover the spirit in which these 
 complaints were met in England, the reply of Lord 
 Glenelg, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
 must be consulted. We are not entitled to pass over, 
 as of no interest, these complaints which proved to be 
 the seeds of insurrection, and the prompt response to 
 which would have prevented the catastroj^he that fol- 
 lowed, in less than three years after. 
 
 To the Select Committee on Grievances was referred 
 a number of documents, including the celebrated dis- 
 patch of Lord Goderich, and the accompanying docu- 
 ments, written by Mr. Mackenzie while in England ; 
 the answer of the Lieutenant Governor in reply to 
 an address of the House of Assembly for information 
 regarding the dismissal of the Crown officers, the reap- 
 pointment of one of them, and the selection of Mr. Jame- 
 
 42
 
 330 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 son as Attorney General; together with petitions, 
 vice-regal messages, and other documents. The com- 
 mittee examined witnesses as well as documents, and 
 their Report, with documents and evidence, makes a 
 thick octavo volume, 
 
 " The almost unlimited extent of the patronage of 
 the Crown, or rather of the Colonial minister for the 
 time being," the Report declared, was the chief source 
 of Colonial discontent. " Such," it added, " is the 
 patronage of the Colonial office, that the granting or 
 the withholding of supplies is of no political import- 
 ance, unless as an indication of the opinion of the 
 country concerning the character of the government." 
 Mr. Stanley, while in comnjunication with Dr. Baldwin, 
 as chairman of a public meeting in York, some years be- 
 fore, had pointed to the constitutional remedies of " ad- 
 dressing for the removal of the advisers of the Crown, 
 and refusing supplies." The former remedy had been 
 twice tried, but without producing any good effect, and 
 almost without eliciting a civil reply. The second 
 was hereafter to be resorted to. When the Province 
 first came under the dominion of the British Crown, 
 certain taxes were imposed by Imperial statute for 
 the support of the local government. In time, as the 
 House of Assembly acquired some importance and had 
 attracted some able men, the control of these revenues 
 became an object of jealousy and desire. Before there 
 had been any serious agitation on the subject, in Up- 
 per Canada, these revenues were surrendered in ex- 
 change for a permanent Civil List. An opportune 
 moment was chosen for effecting this change. Neither 
 of the two previous Houses would have assented to the
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 331 
 
 arrangement, nor would that which had now come 
 into existence, so long as there were no other consti- 
 tutional means of bringing the administration to ac- 
 count than that which might have been obtained by a 
 control of the purse-strings. The granting of a per- 
 manent Civil List had looked to the Reformers like 
 throwing away the only means of control over the 
 administration. Indirectly the Executive controlled 
 what w^as, properly s^^eaking, the municipal expendi- 
 ture. Magistrates appointed by the Crown met in 
 Quarter Session to dispose of the local taxes. The 
 bench of Magistrates in the Eastern District had, that 
 very session, refused to render the House an account 
 of their expenditure. This was, somewhat illogically, 
 held to be proof that the mode of their appointment 
 was vicious. Considered as dispensers of local taxes, 
 the objection was good ; but if it extended to their 
 magisterial duties, it was bad. This distinction was 
 overlooked by the committee. The old objections to 
 the Post-office being under the control of the Imperial 
 Grovernment were reiterated. The patronage of the 
 Crown was stated to cover £50,000 a year, in the 
 shape of salaries and other payments, exclusive of 
 the Clergy Reserve revenue ; the whole of the money 
 being raised within the Province. The £4,472, which 
 had annuall}^ come from England for the Church of 
 England, had been withdrawn in 1834. Considering 
 the poverty of the Province, the scale of salaries 
 were relatively much higher than at present. Ten 
 persons were in receipt of $4,000 a year each for 
 their public services. The mode of treating the sala- 
 ries received by the public functionaries, pursued in
 
 332 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 tills report, is not free from objection. The bare 
 statement that "the Hon. John H. Dunn has received 
 £11,534 of public money since 1827," joroved nothing ; 
 yet the aggregate sum was calculated to create the 
 impression that there was something wrong about it. 
 Some salaries and fees were undoubtedly excessive. 
 Mr. Ruttan received, in fees, as Sheriff of the New- 
 castle District, in 1834, £1,040, and in the previous 
 year, £1,180. Pensions had been pretty freely dis- 
 pensed out of the Crown revenue. 
 
 Under the head of pensions, £30,500 is set down as 
 having been paid to eleven individuals, within eight 
 years ; but we hardly think the payment to Bishop 
 McDonnell should have come under that designation. 
 While the Church of England received the proceeds 
 of the Clergy Reserves, annual payments were made 
 by the government to several other denominations.* 
 Profuse professions of loyalty sometimes accompanied 
 applications for such payments ; and there seemed to 
 be no shame in confessing something like an equiva- 
 lent in political support. The Church of England 
 managed to get the lion's share ; and this naturally 
 brought down on her the envy and jealousy of other 
 denominations. Of twenty-three thousand nine hun- 
 dred and five acres of public lands set apart as glebes, 
 
 * Archdeacon (afterwards Bishop) Strachan, when called before the com- 
 mittee, said : "There should be, in every Christian country, an established re- 
 ligion ; otherwise it is not a Christian, but an infidel country." The Eoman 
 Catholics, under the treaty between England and France, by which they were 
 guaranteed all their accustomed rights and dues, at the conquest of the country, 
 collected tithes from their own people in Glengary and Essex, the two parts 
 of the Upper Province where the Catholics were numerous. The tithe, as it 
 was called, extended to only a twenty-sixth part of the tithable produce.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 333 
 
 between 1789 and 1833, tlie Church of England had 
 obtained twenty-two thousand three hundred and forty- 
 five acres. 
 
 It was complained that much of the money gi'antcd 
 for general purj^oses was very imperfectly accounted 
 for. " The remedy," said the Report, " would be a 
 Board of Audit, the proceedings of which should be 
 regulated by a well considered statute, under a res2:>on- 
 sible government." In due time, both these things 
 came ; Mr. Mackenzie having, in these as in number- 
 less other instances, been in advance of the times. 
 
 Justices of the Peace, it was complained, had been 
 selected almost entirely fi'om one political party. 
 
 The necessity of a responsible administration to any 
 effectual reform of abuse had been frequently insisted 
 on by Mr. Mackenzie. " One great excellence of the 
 English Constitution," says this Report, "consists in 
 the limits it imposes on the will of a King, by re- 
 quiring responsible men to give effect to it. In Upper 
 Canada no such responsibility can exist. The Lieu- 
 tenant Governor and the British ministry hold in their 
 hands the whole patronage of the Province ; they hold 
 the sole dominion of the country, and leave the repre- 
 sentative branch of the Legislature powerless and de- 
 pendent." English statesmen were far from realizing 
 the necessity of making the Colonial government re- 
 sponsible ; and for some years after the official idea 
 continued to be that such a system was incompatible 
 with Colonial independence. Mr. Stanley had been 
 one of the few who thought that " something might 
 be done, with great advantage, to give a reall}' re- 
 sponsible character to the Executive Council, which at
 
 334 'life of MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 present is a perfectly anomalous body, hardly recog- 
 nized by the Constitution, and chiefly effective as a 
 source of patronage." Only a few years before. Attorney 
 General Robinson had denied the existence of a min- 
 istry in Upper Canada, and claimed the right to act 
 solely upon his own individual responsibility in the 
 House, and without reference to any supposed neces- 
 sity for agreement with his colleagues. And Lord 
 Goderich held that the Colonial Governors were alone 
 responsible. He complained that the Legislative 
 Councils had been used " as instruments for relieving 
 Governors from the responsibility they ought to have 
 borne for the rejection of measures which have been 
 proposed by the other branch of the Legislature, and 
 have not seldom involved them in dissensions which 
 it would have been more prudent to decline. The 
 effect of the institution therefore," he added, " is too 
 often to induce a collision between the different 
 branches of the Legislature, to exempt the Governor 
 from a due sense of responsibility, and to deprive the 
 representative body of some of its most useful mem- 
 bers." The Executive Council had scarcely any recog- 
 nized duties beyond those which were merely minis- 
 terial. The Lieutenant Governor did not at all feel 
 bound to ask the advice of his councillors, or to act 
 upon it when given. In appointments to office, they 
 were, as a rule, not consulted. The giving or with- 
 holding of the Royal assent to bills passed by the 
 Legislature was a matter entirely in the hands of the 
 Lieutenant Governor. Yet the Executive Council was 
 recognized by the Constitutional Act ; and cases were 
 specially mentioned in which the Governor was re-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 335 
 
 quired to act upon their advice. The Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor, coming a stranger to the Province, could not 
 act without advice ; and he was lucky if he escaped 
 the toils of some designing favorite, who had access 
 to his presence, and could determine his general 
 course. The vicious habit of sending out military 
 governors, who were wholly unsuited for civil admin- 
 istration, was in vogue. The only excuse for pursuing 
 this course was that a Lieutenant Governorship was 
 not a sufficient prize to attract men of first rate abili- 
 ties. There was great diversity of opinion as to the 
 possible success of responsible government. It had 
 never been tried in any of the old colonies. Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie had, while in England, -endeavored to convince 
 Lord Goderich that, with some modifications, it miffht 
 be made the means of improving the Colonial Gov- 
 ernment. The sum of the whole matter is that the 
 system made the Lieutenant Governor responsible, in 
 the absence of responsible advisers by whom he might 
 have been personally relieved ; and he, in turn, was 
 only too glad to make the Legislative Council perform 
 the functions which, on questions of legislation, na- 
 turally belonged to a responsible administration. He 
 had them under his control. 
 
 The Committee, insisting on the necessity of entire 
 confidence between the Executive and the House of 
 Assembly, tracing it to the material progress of the Pro- 
 vince ; thereby admitting by implication that, in the 
 early states of colonial existence, the want of a respon- 
 sible administration had not been recognized. "This 
 confidence," it was truly added, "cannot exist while 
 those who have long and deservedly lost the esteem
 
 336 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 of the country are continued in the public offices and 
 councils. Under such a state of things," it was added, 
 "distrust is unavoidable; however much it is to be 
 deplored as incompatible with the satisfactory dis- 
 charge of the public business." Sir John Colborne 
 had admitted* that, "comj^osed as the Legislative 
 Council is at present, the Province had a right to 
 complain of the great influence of the Executive Go- 
 vernment in it." In 1829, it comprised seventeen 
 members, exclusive of the Bishop of Quebec, not more 
 than fifteen of whom ever attended ; and of these six 
 were members of the Executive Council, and four more 
 held offices under the government. It was no easy 
 matter, in the then state of the Province, to find per- 
 sons qualified to fill the situation of Legislative Coun- 
 cillor ; and that circumstance had doubtless something 
 to do in determining its character. In 1834, the 
 Council contained an additional member;-]- but he 
 drew an annual salary from the government, and did 
 not therefore, by his presence, tend to increase its in- 
 dependence of the Executive. While Sir John Col- 
 borne professed to be desirous of seeing the Legislative 
 Council rendered less dependent upon the Crown, it 
 was in evidence that the Executive was in the habit of 
 coercing the members whom it could control. Instance? 
 of remarkably sudden changes of opinion, effected by 
 this means, were given. A disseverance of judicial 
 and legislative functions had been frequently asked by 
 the Legislative Assembly ; but the Chief Justice still 
 continued Speaker of the Legislative Council. From 
 
 * Dispatch to Sir George Murray, February 16, 1829. 
 f Bishop McDonnell.
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 337 
 
 the facts before tlicm, the committee concluded that 
 the second branch of the Legishxtiire had fixiled to 
 answer the purpose of its institution, and could " never 
 be made to answer the end for which it was created ;" 
 and that "the restoration of Legislative harmony and 
 good government requires its reconstruction on the 
 elective principle." 
 
 Although many may think this an erroneous opi- 
 nion, it cannot be matter of surprise that it should 
 have found expression. The Legislative Council, 
 owing its creation to the Crown, and its members 
 being appointed for life, found itself in constant col- 
 lision with the Representative Chamber. This col- 
 lision created irritation; and the people naturally took 
 the part of their representatives in the contest. If 
 there had been an Executive Council to bear the re- 
 sponsibility that was thrown on this branch of the 
 Legislature, a change of ministry would have obviated 
 the desire for a change of system. The Legislative 
 Council would have been modified by having additions 
 made to its numbers, as was done after the inauguration 
 of responsible government ; and the second Chamber, 
 being kept in harmony with the popular will, would 
 not have been attacked in its constitution. The 
 opinion that the Council ought to be made elective was 
 not confined to Canada ; it had been shared by several 
 English statesmen, including Sir James Mackintosh, 
 Mr. Stanley, and Mr. Labouchere. 
 
 Instances were adverted to by the committee, in 
 which the members of the local Executive had pre- 
 vented the good intentions of the Imperial Govern- 
 ment being carried into effect. Three members of the 
 
 43
 
 338 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Executive Council, Messrs. Markland, Strachan, and 
 P. Robinson, refused to answer several of the ques- 
 tions put to them by the committee. This un-English 
 habit had been encouraged by Lieutenant Governor 
 Maitland, who, in 1828, in a dispatch to the Secretary 
 of State for the Colonies, said : " If the Assembly can, 
 without communicating with the Lieutenant Grovernor, 
 summon the Receiver General or the Inspector Gene- 
 ral of Public Accounts, or any of their clerks, to attend 
 a Select Committee, and compel their attendance at 
 the peril of imprisonment, the government here has 
 no longer any discretion to exercise." 
 
 Such was the famous Report of the Committee of 
 Grievances.* It elicited from the Secretary of State 
 for the Colonies a reply, which we must now proceed 
 to consider. But before the reply came, Lord Glenelg, 
 October 20, 1835, conveyed to Canada the assurance 
 that the King, having had the Report before him, had 
 " been pleased to devote as much of his time and 
 attention, as has been compatible with the shortness 
 of the period which has elapsed since the arrival in 
 this country" of the dispatch enclosing the document. 
 
 * Whether from oversight or whatever cause, the Grievance Eeport had not 
 been adopted by the House ; though two thousand copies had been ordered to 
 be printed in an unusual form, and had been distributed. On the 6th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1836, however, the Assembly resolved, by a vote of twenty-four against 
 fifteen, " that the facts and opinions embodied in that report continue to re- 
 ceive the full and deliberate sanction and confirmation of the House and the 
 people whom it represents ; and that it is our earnest desire that the many im- 
 portant measures of reform recommended in that report may be speedily car- 
 ried into effect by an administration deservedly possessing the public confi- 
 dence." A copy of this resolution was ordered to be sent to the Secretary of 
 State for the Colonies. It was passed a week after Lord Glenelg's dispatch 
 had been laid before the Legislatiu-e.
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 339 
 
 In the ordinary course of things, the Upper Canada 
 Legislature would have met in T^ovember; but so im- 
 portant was it deemed that the report should be re- 
 sponded to, that Major-Greneral Colborne was directed 
 to delay the calling of the House till the ensuing 
 January — a delay of three months. At the same time, 
 an assurance was conveyed that the House would find, 
 in the promised communications, " conclusive proof 
 of the desire and fixed purpose of the King to redress 
 every real grievance, afibcting any class of His Ma- 
 jesty's subjects in Upper Canada, which has been 
 brought to His Majesty's notice by their representa- 
 tives in Provincial Parliament assembled." A belief 
 was at the same time expressed, that the Assembly 
 " would not j)ropose any measure incompatible with 
 the great fundamental principles of the constitution,'* 
 which, in point of fact, had been systematically vio- 
 lated by the ruling party. 
 
 The promised reply of Lord Glenelg was dated De- 
 cember 15, 1835. It took the shape of instructions to 
 Sir Francis Bond Head,* on his appointment to the 
 Lieutenant Governorship of Upper Canada. The 
 hope was expressed that, unless in an extreme emer- 
 gency, the House would not carry out the menaced 
 refusal of supplies. But Lord Glenelg must have 
 
 * Sir F. B. Head, who had been instructed to communicate the substance of 
 these instructions to the Legislature, hiid the entire dispatch before the two 
 Houses ; a proceeding for which he incurred the disapprobation of the Colo- 
 nial office, and of the British public. He admitted that he was aware tie 
 proceeding would embarrass Lord Glenelg ; but he excused himself by al- 
 leging that the original draft of the dispatch authorized him to communicatft 
 a copy of it ; and the King had made the alteration with his own hand ; as if 
 the original intention of the Colonial minister ought to supersede the final de- 
 ciflion of the minister and the Sovereign,
 
 340 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 seen that tlie House must be the judge of wliat con- 
 stituted such an emergency as would justify a resort 
 to this extreme measure. The patronage at the dis- 
 posal of the Crown, which had been so much com- 
 plained of, had been swelled by the practice of con- 
 fiding to the government or its officers the prosecution 
 of all offences. But this circumstance was declared to 
 be no proof of any peculiar avidity on the part of the 
 Executive for the exercise of such power. The trans- 
 fer of the patronage to any popular body was objected 
 to as tending to make public officers virtually irre- 
 sponsible, and to the destruction of the " discipline 
 and subordination which connect together, in one un- 
 broken chain, the King and his Representative, in the 
 Province, down to the lowest functionary to whom any 
 portion of the powers of the state may be confided," 
 The selection of public officers, it was laid down, must 
 for the most part be entrusted to the head of the local 
 government ; but there were cases in which the anal- 
 ogy of English practice would permit a transference 
 of patronage from the Lieutenant Governor to others. 
 Whatever was necessar}^ to ensure subordination to 
 the head of the government was to be retained ; every 
 thing beyond this was at once to be abandoned. Sub- 
 ordinate public functionaries were to continue to hold 
 their offices at the pleasure of the Crown. They in- 
 curred no danger of dismissal except for misconduct ; 
 and great evils would result from making them inde- 
 pendent of their superior. The new Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor was instructed to enter upon a review of the 
 offices in the gift of the Crown, with a view of ascer- 
 taining to what extent it would be possible to reduce
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 341 
 
 them without impairing the efficiency of the public 
 service, and to report the result of his investigation 
 to the Colonial Secretarv. He mioht make a reduc- 
 tion of offices either by abolition or consolidation ; 
 but any appointment made under those circumstances 
 would be provisional and subject to the final decision 
 of the Imperial Government. In case of abolition, 
 the deprived official was to receive a reasonable com- 
 pensation. What share of the patronage of the Crown 
 or the local government could be transferred to other 
 hands was to be reported. A comparison of claims or 
 personal qualifications was to be the sole rule for ap- 
 pointments to office. As a general rule no person not 
 a native or settled resident was to be selected for 
 public employment. In case of any peculiar art or 
 science, of which no local candidate had a competent 
 knowledge, an exception was to be made. In selecting 
 the officers attached to his own person, the Lieutenant 
 Governor w^as to be under no restriction. Appoint- 
 ments to all offices of the value of over £200 a year 
 were to be only provisionally made by the Lieutenant 
 Governor, with a distinct intimation to the persons 
 accepting them that their confirmation must depend 
 upon the approbation of the Imperial Government, 
 which required to be furnished with the grounds and 
 motives on which each appointment had been made. 
 
 If this shows a disposition to treat the colonists 
 with consideration, it was thesortof consideration which 
 we bestow upon infants, and persons wholly incapable 
 Df managing their own affiiirs. 
 
 To any measure of retrenchment, compatible with 
 the just claims of the public officers and the efficient
 
 342 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AK^D 
 
 i:)erformaiice of the public duties, the King would 
 cheerfully assent. The Assembly might appoint a 
 commission to fix a scale of public salaries. The pen- 
 sions already granted and made payable out of the 
 Crown revenues were held to constitute a debt, to the 
 payment of which the honor of the King was pledged; 
 and on no consideration would His Majesty " assent 
 to the violation of any engagement lawfully and ad- 
 visedly entered into by himself or any of his Royal 
 predecessors." At the same time, the law might fix, 
 at a reasonable limit, the amount of future pensions ; 
 and to any such measure the Lieutenant Governor 
 was instructed to give the assent of the Crown. The 
 Assembly was anxious to dispose of the Clergy Re- 
 serves, and place the proceeds at the control of the 
 Legislature. The other chamber objected ; and Lord 
 Glenelg urged strong constitutional reasons against 
 the Imperial Parliament exercising the interference 
 which the Assembly had invoked. And it must be 
 confessed that, in this respect, the Assembly was not 
 consistent with its general principles or with those 
 contended for by the popular party. It was easy to 
 put the Assembly in the wrong ; and Lord Glenelg 
 made the most of the opportunity. But with strange 
 inconsistency, the Imperial Government, in 1840, as- 
 sumed, at the dictation of the Bishops, a trust which 
 five years before they had refused to accept at the so- 
 licitation of the Canadian Assembly, on the ground 
 of its unconstitutionality. Lord Glenelg admitted 
 that the time might arrive, if the two branches of the 
 Canadian Legislature continued to disagree on the 
 subject, when the interposition of the Imperial Parlia
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 343 
 
 ment might become necessary ; but the time selected 
 for interference was when the two branches of the 
 local Legislature had for the first time come to an 
 agreement, and sent to England a bill for the settle- 
 ment of the question. 
 
 On the question of King's College and the princi- 
 ples on which it should be conducted, the two Houses 
 displayed an obstinate difference of o^^inion, and the 
 Lieutenant Governor was instructed, on behalf of the 
 King, to mediate between them. The basis of the 
 mediation included a study of Theology; and it was 
 impossible satisfactorily, in a mixed community, to do 
 this with a hope of giving general satisfaction. This 
 college question having once been placed under the 
 control of the local Legislature, Lord Glenelg could 
 not recommend its withdrawal at the instance of one 
 of the two Houses. 
 
 The suggestion for establishing a Board of Audit 
 was concurred in. As a fear had been expressed that 
 the Legislative Council w^ould oppose a bill for such a 
 purpose, the Lieutenant Governor was authorized to 
 establish a Board of Audit provisionally, till the two 
 Houses could agree upon a law for the regulation of 
 the Board. Lord Glenelg objected to the enactment 
 of a statute requiring that the accounts of the public 
 revenue should be laid before the Legislature, at a 
 particular time, and b}'- persons to be named ; since 
 this w^ould confer on them the right to " exercise a con- 
 trol over all the functions of the Executive Govern- 
 ment," and give them a right of inspecting the records 
 of all public offices to such an extent as would leave 
 "His Majesty's representative and all other public
 
 344 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AND 
 
 functionaries little more than a dependent and subor- 
 dinate authority." Besides, it was assumed they would 
 be virtually irresponsible and independent. At the 
 same time, the Lieutenant Grovernor was to be pre- 
 pared at all times to give such information as the 
 House might require respecting the public revenue, 
 except in some extreme case where a great public in- 
 terest would be endangered by compliance. 
 
 Rules were even laid down for the regulation of 
 the personal intercourse of the Lieutenant Grovernor 
 with the House. He was to receive their addresses 
 with the most studious courtesy and attention, and 
 frankly and cheerfully to concede to their wishes, as 
 far as his duty to the King would permit. Should he 
 ever find it necessary to differ from them, he was to 
 explain the reasons for his conduct in the most conci- 
 liatory terms. The celebrated dispatch of Lord Go- 
 derich, written in consequence of the representations 
 made by Mr. Mackenzie, while in England, was to be 
 a rule for the guidance of the conduct of Sir Francis 
 Bond Head. Magistrates who might be appointed 
 were to be selected from persons of undoubted loyalty, 
 without reference to political considerations. 
 
 On the great question of Executive responsibility 
 Lord Grlenelg totally failed to meet the expectations 
 expressed in the Grievance Report to which he was 
 replying. He did niore ; he assumed that " the admin- 
 istration of public affairs, in Canada, is by no means 
 exempt from the control of a sufiicient practical re- 
 sponsibility. To His Majesty and to Parliament," 
 it was added, "the Governor of Upper Canada is at 
 all times most fully responsible for his official acts."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 345 
 
 Under this system tlie Lieutenant Governor might 
 wield all the powers of the government, and was even 
 bound to do so, since he was the only one who coukl 
 be called to account. The House of Assembly, if they 
 had any grounds of complaint against the Executive, 
 were told that they must seek redress, not by demand- 
 ing a removal of the Executive Council, but by ad- 
 dressing the Sovereign against the acts of his repre- 
 sentative. Every Executive councillor was to depend 
 for the tenure of his office, not on the will of the Le- 
 gislative Assembly, but on the pleasure of the Crown. 
 And in this way responsibility to the central autho- 
 rity in Downing street, of all the public aifairs in the 
 Province, was to be enforced. The members of the 
 local government might or might not have seats in 
 the Legislature. Any member holding a seat in the 
 Legislature was required blindly to obey the behests 
 of the Lieutenant Governor, on pain of instant dis- 
 missal. By this means it was hoped to preserve the 
 head of the government from the imputation of insin- 
 cerity, and conduct the administration with firm- 
 ness and decision. 
 
 These instructions embody principles which might 
 have been successfully worked out by a Governor and 
 Council. But they were inapplicable in the presence 
 of a Legislature. There was no pretence that the 
 system was constitutional, and the elective chamber 
 must be a nullity when the Crown-nominated Legis- 
 lative Council could at any time be successfully played 
 off against it. As for responsibility to the Canadian 
 people, through their representatives, there was none. 
 All the powers of the government were centralized in 
 
 44
 
 346 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Downing street, and all the Colonial officers, from the 
 highest to the lowest, were puppets in the hands of 
 the Secretary of State for the Colonies. At the same 
 time, the outward trappings of a constitution d system, 
 intended to amuse the colonists, served no other end 
 than to irritate and exasperate men who had penetra- 
 tion enough to detect the mockery and whose self- 
 respect made them abhor the sham. 
 
 On the 6th of March, 1835, Mr. Mackenzie was ap- 
 pointed by the House of Assembly Director of the 
 Welland Canal Company, in respect of the stock 
 owned by the Province. He entered into a searching 
 investigation of the manner in which the affairs of 
 the company had been conducted; and if he showed 
 a somewhat too eager anxiety to discover faults, and 
 made some charges against the officers and managers 
 of the company that might be deemed frivolous, he 
 also made startling disclosures of worse than misman- 
 agement. With the impatience of an enthusiast, he 
 published his discoveries before the time came for 
 making his official report ; sending them forth in a 
 newspaper-looking sheet, entitled TJie Welland Canal, 
 three numbers of which were printed. A libel suit, in 
 which he was cast in damages to the amount of two 
 shillings, resulted from this publication ; and Mr. 
 Merritt, President of the company, in the ensuing 
 session of the Legislature, moved for a committee to 
 investigate the charge brought against directors and 
 officers of this company. It was a bold stroke on the 
 part of the President ; but, unfortunately for the canal 
 management, the committee attested the discovery of 
 large defalcations on the part of the company's officers.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 347 
 
 Accounts sworn to by the Secretary of the comjoany, 
 and laid before the Legislature, were proved to be 
 incorrect/'' Large sums — one amount was £2,500 — 
 of the company's money had been borrowed by its 
 own officers, without the authority of the Board. Im- 
 l)rovrdent contracts were shamefully performed. The 
 l^resident, directors, and agents of the company leased 
 water powers to themselves. The company sold, on 
 
 * In a letter to Mr Mackenzie, dated Toronto, September IGth, 1830, Mr 
 Francis Hincks, than whom there was no better judge of accounts, said : 
 "As to the Welland Canal books, I have already said, and I now publicly 
 repeat and am willing to stake my character on the truth of it, that for several 
 years they are full of false and fictitious entries, so much so that if I was on 
 oath I could hardly say whether I believe there are more true or fake ones. 
 I am persuaded it is impossible for an accountant who desires to arrive at 
 truth to investigate them with any satisfaction, particularly as the vouchers 
 are of such a character as to be of little or no service. "With respect to the 
 charges against the Welland Canal officers, the press and the public seem to 
 have predetermined that unless Mr. Merritt and others were proved guilty of 
 an extent of fraud that would have justly subjected them to a criminal prose- 
 cution, they were to be absolved from all blame, and to escape censure fur 
 the numerous charges which have been clearly proved. The conduct of the 
 press, and indeed, the House of Assembly, on this subject, has been such as to 
 encourage a similar system of managing the money o^ the people, and, most 
 assuredly, to deter any individual from even attempting to expose similar 
 abuses. It has been clearly proved that large sums of money have been lost 
 to the Company, and, of course, to the Province, which, if the present direc- 
 tors do their duty, can, in great part, be recovered; yet you, the person who 
 have discovered these losses, and what is still better, have exposed the system, 
 have been abused in the most virulent manner from one end of the Province 
 to the other, and have not obtained the slightest remuneration for your services. 
 At the same time it is n3ver asked, in any of the public prints, whether Mr. 
 Merritt, who was twice paid, (as is admitted even by himself, although as ho 
 states, ' by mistake,') about $1,000 of salary several years ago, has refunded 
 this money, or whether any steps have been taken to rectify errors already 
 proved." 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie met a shower of abuse from the men whose misconduct lio 
 had exposed. On the iloor of the Legislative Assembly they and their par- 
 tisans treated him as an enemy to the canal and to the country ; deserving, Lc 
 what he bad done, only the worst epithets they could heap upon him.
 
 348 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 a credit of ten years, over fifteen thousand acres of 
 lands, together with water privileges, for £25,000, 
 to Mr. Alexander McDonnell, in trust for an alien 
 of the name of Yates ; allowing him to keep two 
 hundred acres, forming the town plots of Port Col- 
 borne and Allanburg. A quarter acre sold at the latter 
 2>lace for $100. They repurchased the remainder, for 
 which the company's bonds for £17,000 were given to 
 Yates ; though all they had received from him was 
 eighteen months' interest, the greater part of which 
 he had got back in bonuses and alleged damages said 
 to have arisen from the absence of water power. If 
 such a transaction were to occur in private life, the 
 committee averred that it " would not only be deemed 
 ruinous, but the result of insanity." Mr. George 
 Keefer, while a director, became connected with a con- 
 tract for the locks. A large number of original esti- 
 mates, receipts, and other important documents were 
 missing; and no satisfactory account of what had become 
 of them could be obtained. The books were kept in the 
 most slovenly and discreditable manner, being blurred 
 with blunders, suspicious alterations, and erasures. 
 The length of the canal was unnecessarily extended ; 
 but if the company suffered from this cause, individ 
 uals profited by the operation. Improvident expen- 
 ditures, all the worse in a company cramped for means, 
 were proved to have been made. One Oliver Phelps 
 owed the company a debt of $30,000 covered by mort- 
 gage, which was released by the Board without other 
 satisfaction than a deed of some land worth about 
 $2,000. It was not a case of writing off a bad debt, 
 because the property covered by the mortgage was
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 3-49 
 
 good for the amount. Over §5,000 worth of timber 
 purchased by the company and not used was parted 
 with without equivalent. Some of it was stolen, some 
 used by Phelps who was not charged with it, and 
 some purchased by a member of the Assembly, Mr. 
 Gilbert M'Micking, in such a way that the company 
 derived no advantage from the sale. 
 
 The difference between Mr. Mackenzie and the 
 Committee of the House was this: he susi:>ected the 
 worst, in every case of unfavorable appearances ; they 
 were willing to make many allowances for irregularities, 
 where positive fraud could not be proved. The com- 
 mittee carried their leniency further than they were 
 warranted by the facts. In the same sentence in which 
 they acquitted the directors of any intentional abuse 
 of the powers vested in them, they confessed them- 
 selves unable to explain the Phelps transaction. 
 
 The ludicrous part of this investigation consists of 
 numerous items charged to the contingent account b}' 
 Mr. Merritt, President of the Company. A few 
 samples may be given. " Play, 3s. 9d. ;" " Barber, 7*5. ;" 
 " Repairing my watch, 7s. 6(Z;" "Segars and Snack." 
 "Club for gin, 3s. Ud. Club for segars, l-s. ;" "Paid 
 doctor for attendance, 10s." There were whole columns 
 of such figures as these, amounting to about §400, duly 
 audited and passed by the Board. But it must bo 
 admitted that even this petty larceny showed method 
 and exactness ; and if the amount had been charged 
 as travelling expenses, without a ridiculous detail, it 
 \vould probably not have been challenged. Certainly it 
 would not have excited ridicule. 
 
 In this investigation, there was employed as
 
 350 LIFE or MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 accountant, a young man of whose abilities Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie conceived a very high opinion ; so much so that 
 he remarked to him, that he should be glad to see 
 him Inspector Gleneral of Public Accounts for Upper 
 Canada. But he added with sleepless suspicion, " The 
 only question with me is, whether you would be proof 
 against the temptations of the position." That ac- 
 countant was Francis Hincks. He was afterwards 
 Inspector General for United Canada, and leader of 
 the government ; then Governor of the Windward Is- 
 lands, and is now Governor of British Guiana, with a 
 salary of .£5,000 a year, and £2,000 for contingencies. 
 He has fully justified the prevision of Mr. Mackenzie, 
 and risen by the force of his talents to a higher posi- 
 tion than the latter had ventured to assign to him. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie spent several months in this inves- 
 tigation at St. Catharine's, the head-quarters of the 
 company. In 1836, a committee of the House recom- 
 mended a compensation of $1,000 for his services ; but, 
 as the regular supplies were not granted that year, 
 the money was not paid. The Canadian insurrection, 
 occurring towards the close of 1837, led to his exile 
 for several years, in the United States ; and as he was 
 the last of the exiles to whom the Royal clemency was 
 extended, he was not paid the |1,000 till 1851, and 
 then without interest. 
 
 In !N'ovember, 1835, Mr. Mackenzie visited Quebec, 
 in company with Dr. O'Grady. They went as a depu- 
 tation from leading and influential Reformers, in Up- 
 per Canada, to bring about a closer alliance between 
 the Reformers in the two Provinces. In the Lower Pro- 
 vince affairs were more rapidly approaching a crisis than
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 351 
 
 in the West. The difficulties arising out of the control 
 of the revenue had led to the refusal of the suj^plies 
 by the Lower Canada Assembly; and in 1834, £31,000 
 sterling had been taken out of the military chest, by 
 the orders of the Imperial Government, to pay the 
 salaries and contingencies of the judges and the other 
 public officers of the Crown, under the hope that, 
 when the difficulties were accommodated, the Assembly 
 would reimburse the amount. But the difficulties, 
 instead of meeting a solution, continued to increase. 
 As the grievances of which the majority in the two Pro- 
 vinces complained had much in common, the respec- 
 tive leaders began to make common cause. The Pro- 
 vinces had had their causes of differences, arising out 
 of the distribution of the revenue collected at Quebec. 
 But the political sympathies of the popular party, in 
 each Province, were becoming stronger than the pre- 
 judices engendered by the fiscal difficulties, and which 
 had acted as a mutual repulsion. Mr. Mackenzie and 
 his co-delegate met a cordial and affectionate welcome. 
 "All the liberal members" of the Lower Canada As- 
 sembly " flocked around them to testify the sincere 
 interest they took in the progress of good government 
 in Upper Canada, and to tender them their hearty co- 
 operation."* This expression of sympathy, extending 
 to all classes of Reformers, was expected to prove to 
 the authorities, both in Canada and England, " that 
 the tide is setting in with such irresistible force against 
 bad government, that if they do not yield to it before 
 long, it will shortly overwhelm them in its rapid and 
 onward progress." Mr. Mackenzie was on good terms 
 
 * Montreal Vindicator.
 
 352 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 with. Papineau, whose word was law in the Assembly 
 of Lower Canada, of which he was Speaker, but who, 
 in Committee of the Whole, used the greatest freedom 
 of debate. This visit resulted in establishing a better 
 understanding between the Reformers of the two Pro- 
 vinces.'^' Mr. Mackenzie has left it on record that 
 "changes were then in contemplation, which would in 
 a certain degree have affected individuals," if gene- 
 rally known ; but as this statement was shortly after- 
 wards published, it cannot be taken to have reference 
 to that armed insurrection which ultimately followed. 
 To a very late period, Mackenzie and those who acted 
 with him continued to hope that the reforms for which 
 they contended would be peaceably granted. 
 
 In December, 1835, he addressed a long letter to 
 Mr. Hume — which was published just before the elec- 
 tions of the next year took place — on the condition of 
 the Province. Its principal complaints were: that 
 jury trials were in the hands of sheriffs, who held 
 office during the pleasure of the King; that an exten- 
 sive domain had been improvidently ceded to the 
 
 * In the session of the Upper Canada Legislature for 1836, Mr. Mackenzie 
 carried the following resolution by a large majority: — "That it is the desire 
 of this House to cultivate a good understanding with Lower Canada, and that 
 a select committee be appointed to draft a bill to this House, for the appoint- 
 ment of commissioners to meet any commissioners that may be appointed by 
 the Legislature of Lower Canada, to consider of matters of mutual importance 
 to both Provinces, especially the questions of boundaries, trade, emigration, 
 customs' duties, and revenue." This resolution was in the spirit of one of tho 
 declared objects of the "Canadian Alliance Society." This year, Mr. Pa- 
 pineau, the Speaker of the Lower Canada Assembly, sent a long letter to Mr. 
 Speaker Bidwell, of the Upper Canada Assembly ; in which the principles of 
 Colonial Government laid down in Lord Clenelg's dispatch in reply to tha 
 " Grievance Report" were denounced, and a responsible government and ar 
 elective Legislative Council declared to be necessary.
 
 THE CAXADIAiX REBELLION. 353 
 
 Canada Compaii}^; that the Legislative Council con- 
 tinued to reject the bills passed by the Assembly; that 
 the administration of justice was in the hands of a 
 party forming among themselves a Family Compact ; 
 that, owing to these circumstances, property and li- 
 berty were held by a very precarious tenure ; that the 
 administration of the goA^ernment was in the hands of 
 men, in whom neither the people nor their represen- 
 tatives had any confidence; that, as a consequence 
 of this state of things, there was little immigration,* 
 and many residents were thinking of quitting the Pro- 
 vince; that the idea of successive Colonial Secretaries 
 had been to govern the Province by orders sent from 
 Downing Street,' to be executed by agents selected 
 there; that there was no means of exacting strict ac- 
 countability for the public moneys ; that the Reformers 
 of both Provinces directed their exertions mainly to 
 the accomplishment of four objects: an elective Legis- 
 lative Council, an Executive Council res23onsible to 
 public opinion, the control of the whole Provincial 
 revenues, and a cessation of interference on the part 
 of the Colonial office — "not one of which," he said, 
 "I believe will be conceded till it is too late."f The 
 prediction proved correct ; but all these changes have 
 been effected since the insurrection of 1837. He ten- 
 
 * In 1835, the immigration to Upper Canada had fallen off two-thirds as 
 compared with the average of former years. 
 
 f Though all these ohjects have now been carried into effect, Sir Francis 
 Bond Head regarded their advocacy as proof of treasonable designs. In a dis- 
 patch to Lord Glenelg, dated June 22, 1836, after quoting the above passage, 
 he says: "As the Eepublicans in the Canadas generally mask thoir designs by 
 professions of attachment to the mother country, I think it important to record 
 this admission on the part of Mackenzie of the traitorous object which the Ke- 
 formers in this Province have in view." 
 45
 
 3-54 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 dered his thanks to Z^Ir. Hume for his exertions on 
 behalf of Canada in these words: 
 
 •^ On behalf of thousands whom you have benefited, 
 on behalf of the country so far as it has had conli- 
 dence in me, I do most sincerely thank you for the 
 kind and considerate interest you have taken in the 
 welfare of a distant people. To your generous exer- 
 tions it is o^vin2: that tens of thousands of our citizens 
 are not at this day branded as rebels and aliens ; and 
 to you alone it is owing that our petitions have some- 
 times been treated with ordinary courtesy at the Co- 
 lonial office. 
 
 " We have wearied you with our complaints, and 
 occupied many of those valuable hours which you 
 would have otherwise given to the people of England. 
 But the time may come when Canada, relieved fi'om her 
 shackles, will be in a situation to prove that her chil- 
 dren are not ungrateful to those who are now, in time 
 of need, their disinterested benefactors." 
 
 A shadowy idea of independence appears already 
 to have been floating in men's minds ; and it found 
 expression in such terms as are employed in his letter 
 about Canada being relieved of her shackles.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 355 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Si: /rkiiv.1* iSiW.l Head arrives in Upper Canada — His Speech on opening the 
 L^gisl:%lu.e — -JULsckenzie tries to remove the Restrictions on the Trade of 
 the th evince — The House snub the Lieutenant Governor in their Keply to 
 the Address — Why were Members of the Government supported in a De- 
 parture from Lord Goderich's Dispatch? — Sir P. B. Head affects a Readi- 
 ness to redress all Grievances — He appoints three new Executive Councillors 
 from the liberal Party — Resignation of the new Council because they were 
 not consulted on the Affairs of the Province — They are sustained by the 
 House, and the Lieutenant Governor sharply censured — Responsible Go- 
 vernment and Separation from England — The Lieutenant Governor and 
 the "Industrious Classes" — Four new Executive Councillors — The House 
 of Assembly address tue Lieutenant Governor to dismiss them — He refuses 
 — Question of Popular Colonial Councils — Sir P. B. Head boasts of having 
 provoked a Disturbance at a Public Meeting — Stoppage of Supplies and Re- 
 servation of Money Bills — Dissolution of the House — Unconstitutional and 
 violent Means resorted to by the Lieutenant Governor for carrying the 
 Elections — He instructs the Colonial Office how to act — Opposes the Sur- 
 render of the Crown Revenues and denounces the Project of a Responsible 
 Administration — "Let them come if they dare" — Practical Joke on the 
 Lieutenant Governor — His strange Doings and his Contumacy — Mackenzie, 
 Bidwell, and Perry lose their Elections — Excitenxent at Mackenzie's Elec- 
 tion — The Influences arrayed against him — He weeps over his Defeat — Is 
 attacked with a dangerous Illness — His Protest not allowed to go to an Elec- 
 tion Committee — Proof of the Lieutenant Governor's Unconstitutional In- 
 ierference in the Elections — He was required to put in his Defence. 
 
 On the 14tli January, 1836, Sir Francis Bond Head, 
 Y* ho had just arrived in the Province as Lieutenant 
 Governor,* opened the session of the Upper Canada 
 
 *Sir Francis Bond Head afterwards admitted, with admirable candor, that 
 ho "was really grossly ignorant of every thing that in any way related to the
 
 356 ' LIFE OF MACKENZIE. AND 
 
 Legislature. The Roval speech, in referring to the 
 dissensions that had taken place in Lower Canada, 
 and to the labors of the Imperial commissioners ap- 
 pointed to inquire into the grievances complained of, 
 assured the House that, whatever recommendations 
 might be made, as the result of this iuquirv. the con- 
 stitution of the Provinces would be firmly maintained. 
 As the constitution of the Legislative Council was one 
 of the subjects of inquiry, this information could not 
 be very consolatory to the Reformers. 
 
 Durinsr the session, Mr. Mackenzie carried an Ad- 
 dress to the King on the subject of the restraints 
 imposed upon the Province by the commercial legis- 
 lation of the mother country. British goods could 
 not pass through the United States, on their way to 
 Canada, without being subjected to the American duty ; 
 and the Address prayed that the Sovereign would ne- 
 gotiate with the Washington G-overnment, for the free 
 passage of such goods. The facility of transport thus 
 asked for was fully secured by the United States Bond- 
 ing Act passed ten years after. For the purpose 
 of upholding the monopoly of the East India Com- 
 
 government of oar colonies." He was somehow connected with paupere and 
 poor laws In England when he was appointe<i ; and was totally unfitted by ex- 
 perience and temperament to be Lieutenant Governor of an important de- 
 pendency of the British Crown. How Lord Glenelg could have stumbled 
 upon so much incapacity is as great a mystery to the Canadians, at this day, 
 as it was to Sir Francis when, at his lodgings at Eomney, in the County of 
 Kent, his servant, with a tallow candle in one hand, and a letter brought by a 
 King's officer in the other, enabled him to make the discovery that he had 
 been offered the Lieutenant Governorship of Upper Canada. He was in a sound 
 sleep when the servant arrived : and if other men have found themselves fa- 
 mous when they woke of a morning, Sir Francis Bond Head found himself 
 suddenly rouaed up to be informed that he was on the way to enforced greatness. 
 
 i
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. * 357 
 
 pany, not an ounce of tea could be imported into 
 Canada by way of the United States. The abolition 
 of this monopoly was demanded. Canadian lumber 
 and wheat were heavily taxed — 2o cents a bushel on 
 the latter — on their admission into the United States : 
 the same articles coming thence into the Province were 
 free of duly. Mr. Mackenzie anticipated by eighteen 
 years the Keciprocity Treaty of 1854:. The Address 
 prayed " that His Majesty would cause such represen- 
 tations to be made to the Government of the United 
 States as might have a tendency to place this interest- 
 ing branch of Canadian commerce on a footing of re- 
 ciprocity between the two countries." Nor did he 
 stop here. He thought it right that this principle of 
 reciprocity should be extended to all articles admitted 
 by Canada free of duty from the United States. 
 
 In those days, the Address in answer to the Royal 
 Speech was no mere echo of the statements and re- 
 commendations contained in that document. The oc- 
 casion was frequently seized upon as a favorable one 
 for an exposition of public grievances. On a number 
 of points, the Address, on this occasion, differed from 
 the Speech to which it was an answer. It went so far 
 as directly to rebuke the Lieutenant Governor for the 
 reference he had made to Lower Canada. " We 
 deeply regret," said the Address, "that your Excel- 
 lenc}" has been advised to animadvert upon the affairs 
 of the sister Province, which has been ena-afred in a 
 long and arduous struggle for an indispensable ameli- 
 oration in their institutions and the manner of their 
 administration. "We respectfully, but firmly, express 
 our respect for their patriotic exertions ; and we do
 
 358 • LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 acquit tliem of being the cause of any embarrassment 
 and dissensions in the country." 
 
 It was a subject of frequent complaint, in both 
 the Canadas, that the good intentions of the Im- 
 perial Grovernment were thwarted by the agents se- 
 lected to execute the Royal wishes. Mr. Mackenzie 
 introduced a series of resolutions making a complaint 
 of this nature ; and after it had been verbally amended, 
 on motion of Mr. Perry, acting, no doubt, under the 
 suggestion of Mr. Speaker Bidwell, an Address to 
 the Lieutenant Governor was founded upon it. The 
 Address asked for any dispatches that might serve to 
 explain the contradiction between the Royal instruc- 
 tions relative to the dismissal of public officers when 
 they cease to gi\^e a conscientious support to the mea- 
 sures of the government, and the retention of persons 
 — Mr. Hagerman was mentioned in the original reso- 
 lution — as legal advisers of the Crown and members 
 of the Executive Council, in spite of their opposition 
 to many of the Reforms sanctioned by the Earl of 
 Ripon, as Colonial Secretary. The case of Mr. Hag- 
 erman, whose name was not mentioned, was described 
 as glaring in the extreme ; since he had desired to send 
 back the fjimous dispatch of Lord Goderich, after- 
 wards Earl Ripon. The Solicitor General, during the 
 debate, denied that he had gone to this length; but 
 the House, by a majority of ten, refused to accept his 
 statement as correct. " We cannot reconcile with the 
 principles of our Constitution," the Address reads, 
 " the appointment and continuance in office of per- 
 sons, as counsellors and advisers of the government, 
 who arc known to stand opposed to the wishes of the
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 359 
 
 people and tlie recommendations of His Majesty, on 
 great leading questions of Reform, and who do not 
 possess the confidence of the people, and acquiesce in 
 their general political views and policy, as expressed 
 through their representatives." The appointment of 
 Mr. William Morris, whose name was struck out of 
 the amended resolutions, to a seat in the Legislative 
 Council, after he had, as a member of the other branch 
 of the Legislature, violently denounced the dispatch 
 of Lord Goderich, was condemned as contrary to the 
 recommendations of the Canada Committee of the 
 House of Commons, in 1828, and the declared princi- 
 jDles of the Imperial Grovernment ; and as calculated 
 to increase the obstacles to Reform. The union of 
 legislative and judicial powers in the Chief Justice, 
 who continued to be Speaker of the Legislative Coun- 
 cil, and the j)resence in that branch of the Legislature 
 of the Bishop of Regiopolis and the Archdeacon of 
 York, w^ere spoken of in terms of censure. Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie accepted the amendment, and declared it j^re- 
 ferable to his own resolution. 
 
 In the course of the debate on this Address, Solici- 
 tor General Hagerman professed to give a cordial 
 assent to the princij)les of Lord Goderich's dispatch, 
 which, when laid before the House he had denounced 
 in unmeasured terms ; and he still charged his oppo- 
 nents with revolutionary designs because they de- 
 manded the application of the principles laid down in 
 that state document. 
 
 Sir Francis Bond Head, unused to government, 
 had been instructed by the Colonial Secretary in the 
 rules of official etiquette and courtesy which he was to
 
 360 LIFE OF MACKENZIE. AXD 
 
 observe. And in answering this Address he did not 
 assume that objectionable tone which shortly after- 
 wards marked his utter unfitness for the position to 
 which he had been app<:'inted. In regard to the re- 
 moval of the CT«3wn officers there was a dispatch 
 marked " confidential.'' and which for that reason he 
 did not produce. He had no means of explaining the 
 continuance in office' of Solicitor General Hagerman, 
 further than that his reinstatement was the result of 
 exculpatory e^'idence offered by that person, while in 
 England. Tlie Lieutenant Governor could require, 
 and. if necessary, insist on the resignation of officials 
 who might openly or covertly oppose the measures 
 of his government : but he would not fake a retro- 
 spective view of their conduct, or question the wisdom 
 of what had been done by his predecessors, in this re- 
 spect. The same rule he applied to appointments 
 made to the Legislative Council ; as he could not un- 
 dertake to judge of the principles that guided his pre- 
 decessor. Lord Ripon, he considered, in giving his 
 opinion of the presence of the Roman Catholic Bishop 
 and the Anglican Archdeacon in the Legislative 
 Council, had expressed no intention in reference to 
 them. Sir Francis confessed, with maladroitness, to 
 the existence of dispatcTies which he did not feel at 
 liberty to communicate: besides that already men- 
 tioned, another dated Sept. 12, 1835, and containing 
 observations on the Grievance Report. He asked 
 from the House the consideration due to a stranger to 
 the Province, unconnected with the difierences of 
 party, entrusted by his Sovereign with instructions
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 361 
 
 " to correct, cautiously, yet effectually, all real griev- 
 ances," while maintaining the Constitution inviolate. 
 
 Durins: this session an event occurred which, though 
 Mr. Mackenzie was not directly connected with it. had 
 an important bearing on the general course of affairs 
 that was to lead to the armed insurrection, in which 
 he was a prominent actor. It is necessary to a clear 
 comprehension of all the circumstances which pro- 
 duced this crisis, that the event should be brieflv re- 
 lated. 
 
 On the 20th of February, 1S36, Sir F. Bond -Head 
 called three new members to the Executive Council ;* 
 Messrs. John Henry Dunn, Robert Baldwin, and John 
 Rolph,-j- The two latter were prominent members of 
 
 * Sir r. B. Head was pressed by one of the old members of the Council to 
 appoint some additional members. The number, as it stood, was only sufficient 
 for a qu' 'rum, and if one fell sick no business could be done. Besides, Mr. 
 Peter Robinson had charge of the public lands, and, as an Executive Councillor, 
 was placed in the invidious position of having to audit his own accounts. 
 "When Sir E. B. Head arrived, it was believed that he was going to reform the 
 abuses complained of, and effect the desired change in the government. Hand- 
 bills, on his arrival, were foolishly placed on the walls of the city, describing 
 the new Lieutenant Governor as a "tried Eeformer." The Tories were shy 
 and distrustful. They petitioned the King against the first act of his adminis- 
 tration. Had they not taken up this hostile position, he afterwards declared, 
 he never would have gone to the other party for material to enlarge his 
 Council ; and he would have appointed neither Mr. Baldwin nor Dr. Rolph. 
 But he soon threw himself completely into the arms of the Family Compact ; 
 adopted their design.', echoed their opinions of their opponents, and repeated 
 their worst calumnies, in official dispatches and other state documents. 
 
 f Sir Francis Bond Head, in An Address to the House of Lords against the 
 Bill lefore Parliament for the Union of the Canadas, in 1840, says that when he 
 offered office to Mr. Baldwin, the latter replied that "he considered as abso- 
 lutely n<»cessary the assistance of Dr. Eolph and of Mr. Bidwell ;" and if this 
 statemect be correct, the matter was compromised by one being taken and the 
 other left. Rolph became a member of the Executive Council, and Bidwell 
 was left out. 
 46
 
 362 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the Liberal party, and Mr. Dunn had long held the 
 office of Receiver General. Their appointment was 
 hailed as the dawn of a new and better order of things, 
 and the Lieutenant Governor professed, with what 
 sincerity will hereafter aj^pear, a desire to reform all 
 real abuses. But it was not long before this hope was 
 disappointed. On the 4th March these gentlemen, 
 with the other three members of the Executive Coun- 
 cil,'-' resigned. They complained that they had in- 
 curred the odium of being held accountable for mea- 
 sures, they had never advised, and for a policy to 
 which they were strangers. It shows the irresistible 
 force which the popular demand put forward by Mr. 
 Mackenzie and others for a responsible administra- 
 tion carried with it, that the three Tory members of 
 the Council should have joined in the resignation. 
 The current was too strong to leave a reasonable hope 
 of their being able to make way against it. But what 
 they shrunk from undertaking. Sir Francis Bond 
 Head was to ' try, by the aid of more supple instru- 
 ments, to accomplish. The six councillors, on tender- 
 ing their resignations, insisted on the constitutional 
 right of being consulted on the affairs of the Province 
 generally, and resorted to some elaboration of argu- 
 ment to prove that their claim had an immovable 
 foundation in the Provincial charter. 
 
 The Lieutenant Governor, on the other hand, con- 
 tended that he alone was responsible, being liable to 
 removal and impeachment for misconduct, and that 
 he was at liberty to have recourse to their advice only 
 when he required it ; but that to consult them on all 
 
 * Messrs. Peter Robinson, George 11. Marklaiid, and Joseph "Wells.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 363 
 
 the questions that he was called upon to decide would 
 be " utterly impossible." He, too, attempted to esta- 
 blish his position by reference to the constitutional 
 charter and other instruments ; but the House charged 
 him with garbling and misquoting. His political 
 theory was very simj)le. " The Lieutenant Governor 
 maintains," he said, " that responsibility to "the peo- 
 ple, who are already represented in the House of As- 
 sembl}^ is unconstitutional ; that it is the duty of the 
 Council to serve him, not them." A doctrine that 
 was soon to meet a practical rebuke from his official 
 superiors in England. 
 
 The answer'of His Excellency was sent to a select 
 committee of the House, who made an elaborate Re- 
 port, in which the Lieutenant Governor's treatment 
 of his Council was censured in no measured terms, 
 The increasing dissatisfaction which had been pro- 
 duced by the maladministration of Lieutenant Gover- 
 nors Gore, Maitland, and Colborne, was said to have 
 become general. The new appointments to the Exe- 
 cutive Council of liberal men, made by Sir Francis 
 Bond Head, were stigmatized as "a deceitful manoeu- 
 vre to gain credit with the country for liberal feelings 
 and intentions when none existed ;" and it was declared 
 to be matter of notoriety that His Excellency had 
 " given his confidence to, and was acting under, the 
 influence of secret and unsworn advisers." " If," they 
 said, " all the odium which has been poured upon the 
 old Executive Council had been charged, as His Excel- 
 lency proj^oses, upon the Lieutenant Governors, their 
 residence [in the Province] would not have been very 
 tolerable, and their authorit}' would become weakened
 
 364 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 or destroyed." The authority of Lieutenant Gover- 
 nor Simcoe, whose appointment followed close after 
 the passing of the constitutional Act of 1791, was ad- 
 duced to show that " the very image and transcript" 
 of the British constitution had been given to Canada. 
 The Lieutenant Governor was charged with having 
 " assumed the government with most unhappy i^reju- 
 dices against the country," and with acting " with the 
 temerity of a stranger and the assurance of an old 
 inhabitant." Much warmth of feelino- was shown 
 throughout the entire Report, and the committee gave 
 it as their opinion that the House had no alternative 
 left " but to abandon their privileges and honor, and to 
 betray their duties and the rights of the people, or to 
 withhold the supplies."'^ "All we have done will 
 otherwise," it was added, " be deemed idle bravado, 
 contemptible in itself, and disgraceful to the House." 
 
 The House adopted the Ilej)ort of the committee, 
 on a vote of thirty-two against twenty-one ; and thus 
 committed itself to the extreme measure of a refusal of 
 the supplies. To the resolution adopting the Report 
 a declaration was added that a responsible govern- 
 ment was constitutionally established in the Province. 
 
 In the debate on question of adopting the Rej)ort, 
 the Tories took the ground that responsible govern- 
 
 * The olrect of the Assembly, in stopping, or rather restricting, the sup- 
 plies, -was tc embarrass the government. They did not go to the extent of 
 refusing all money votes, but granted different sums for roads, war losses, the 
 Post-office, schools, and the improvement of navigation. Twelve of these 
 bills Sir Francis B. Head reserved, in the hope that he would be enabled to 
 embarrass the machinery of the Legislature, if they were vetoed in England. 
 But, much to his disgust, they were assented to by his Sovereign. "When he 
 received the dispatch containing the assent to these bills, he at first thought of 
 suppressing it, but on sober second thought he transmitted it to the Legislature.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 365 
 
 ment meant separation from England. " The mo- 
 ment," said Mr. McLean, " we establish the doctrine 
 in practice, we are free from the mother country." 
 Assuming that the Imperial Government would take 
 this view of the matter, Solicitor General Hagerman 
 covertly threatened the majority of the House with 
 the vengeance of "more than one hundred and fifty 
 thousand men, loyal and true." The temper of both 
 parties was violent, for already were generating those 
 turbulent passions of which civil war was to be the 
 final expression. 
 
 In times of excitement the slightest incident may 
 add fuel to the flames ; and men, rendered keen- 
 ly sensitive by the endurance of wrongs, readily re- 
 sent the most distant approach to insult. Sir Francis 
 B. Head, having received an Address, adopted at a 
 public meeting of the citizens of Toronto, assured 
 them that he should feel it his duty to reply with as 
 much attention as if it had proceeded from either 
 branch'of the Legislature ; but that he should express 
 himself " in plainer and more homely language." 
 This was regarded as a slight to the inferior capacity 
 of the " many-headed monster," and was resented 
 with a bitterness which twenty years were too short to 
 eradicate, The manner of the Lieutenant Governor 
 gave as much offence as his words. He met the de- 
 putation, surrounded by a crowd of military ofiicers ; 
 and the members fancied that he pried impudently 
 into their faces, as if he regarded them with the sort 
 of curiosity that one would look upon a collection of 
 orang outangs. 
 
 They left the Yice-regal residence, inspired by a
 
 366 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 common feeling of indignation, at wliat tliey conceived 
 to be intentional slights put upon them. It was soon 
 resolved to repay the official insolence with a rejoinder. 
 Drs. Rolph and O'Grady prepared the document. 
 Instead of being drawn up in the slip-shod style of 
 the Report of the House Committee, its biting sarcasm 
 betrayed a master hand. " We thank Your Excel- 
 lency," said the opening sentence, " for replying to our 
 Address, ' principally from the industrious classes of 
 the city,' with as much attention as if it had proceeded 
 from either branch of the Legislature ; and we are 
 duly sensible in receiving Your Excellency's reply, of 
 your great condescension, in endeaA^oring to express 
 yourself in plainer and more homely language, pre- 
 sumed by Your Excellency to be thereby brought 
 down to the low^er level of our plainer and more 
 homely understandings." They then pretended to 
 explain the deplorable neglect of their education by 
 the maladministration of former governments of the 
 endowment of King's College Universit}^, and the 
 many attempts of the Representative Chamber, baf- 
 fled by the Crown-nominated Legislative Council, to 
 apply three millions of acres of Clergy Reserves to 
 the purposes of general education. " It is," they 
 added, " because we have been thus maltreated, ne- 
 glected, and despised, in our education and interests, 
 under the system of government that has hitherto 
 prevailed, that we are now driven to insist upon a 
 change that cannot be^ for the worse." The change 
 they desired to bring about was " cheap, honest, and 
 responsible government." The responsibility of the 
 Lieutenant Governor to a government four thousand
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 367 
 
 miles distant, " and guarded by a system of secret dis- 
 patches, like a system of espionage," which kept in 
 " utter darkness the very guilt, the disclosure of which 
 could alone consummate real and practical responsi- 
 bility," liad never, they declared, " saved a single, 
 martyr to Executive displeasure." Robert Gourlay 
 still lived in the public sympathy, " ruined in his for- 
 tune, and overwhelmed in his mind, by official injus- 
 tice and persecution ; and the late Capt. Matthews, a 
 faithful servant of the public, broken down in spirit, 
 narrowly escaped being another victim. The learned 
 Mr. Justice Willis struggled in vain to vindicate him- 
 self and the wounded justice of the country ; and the 
 ashes of Francis Collins and Robert Randal lie en- 
 tombed in a country in whose service they suffered 
 heart-rending persecution and accelerated death. And 
 even Your Excellency has disclosed a secret dispatch 
 to the minister, in Downing Street (the very alleged 
 tribunal of justice), containing most libellous matter 
 against William Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., M. P. P., a 
 gentleman known chiefly for his untiring services for 
 his adopted and grateful country. We will not wait," 
 they plainly told the Lieutenant Grovernor, " for the 
 immolation of any other of our public men, sacrificed 
 to a nominal responsibility, which we blush we have 
 so long endured to the ruin of so many of His Ma- 
 jesty's dutiful and loyal subjects." After an elaborate 
 argument, to prove the necessity of a responsible ad- 
 ministration, the rejoinder concluded by w^hat Mr. 
 Mackenzie, in a manuscript note he has left, calls the 
 first low murmur of insurrection. "If Your Excel- 
 lency," the menace ran, " will not govern us upon
 
 368 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 these principles, you will exercise arbitrary sway, you 
 will violate our charter, Adrtually abrogate our law, 
 and justly forfeit our submission to your authority." 
 There was not yet, however, the most distant idea that 
 the final issue would be open insurrection. 
 
 The rejoinder being read}^,* the next question was 
 how it was to be delivered. Such a document was 
 quite irregular in ofiicial correspondence, and a viola- 
 tion of ofiicial etiquette. It was arranged that Mr. 
 James Lesslie and Mr. Ivetchum should drive in a car- 
 riage drawn by a noble Arabian horse to Government 
 House, deliver the document, and retire before there 
 was time for any questions to be asked. They did so, 
 simply saying they came from the deputation of citi- 
 zens. 
 
 Sir F. Bond Head did not even know who were the 
 bearers of the unwelcome missile. He sent it, in a 
 passion, to Mr. George Ridout, on the speculation 
 that he had been concerned in the delivery. Mr. 
 Ridout sent it back. It was in type before being dis- 
 patched, and scarcely had it reached the Governor 
 when a printed cop}" of it was in the hands of every 
 member of the House. The Lieutenant Governcr 
 was puzzled, half stupefied, and well nigh distracted. 
 
 On the 14th March, four new Executive Council- 
 lors were appointed, consisting of Messrs. Robert 
 Baldwin Sullivan, William Allan, Augustus Bald- 
 win, and John Elmsley. The latter had resigned 
 
 * It was signed by Jesse Ketclium, James H. Price, James Lesslie, Ai\drew 
 McGlashan, James Shannon, Robert McKay, M. McLellan, Timothy Par- 
 eons, "William Lesslie, John Mills, E. T. Henderson, John Dcel, Jctn E. 
 Tims, William J. O'Grady,
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 369 
 
 his seat in the Executive Council some years be- 
 fore, on the ground that he could not continue to 
 hold it and act independently as a Legislative Coun- 
 cillor, though the principle of dependence had never 
 before been pushed to the same extent as now. Three 
 days after these ai^pointments were announced, the 
 House declared its " entire want of confidence," in 
 the men whom Sir Francis had called to council.''^ 
 The vote was thirty-two against eighteen. An Ad- 
 dress to the Lieutenant Governor embodying this 
 declaration of non-confidence, and expressing regret 
 that His Excellency should have caused the previous 
 Council to tender their resignation, while he declared 
 his continued esteem for their talents and integrity, 
 was subsequently passed on a division of thirty-two 
 against nineteen. The Address requested His Excel- 
 lency to take immediate steps to remove the obnox- 
 ious Council. In reply he said he felt guiltless of 
 having caused the excited state of public feeling in 
 the Province, and was not at all disposed to listen to 
 
 * "While these proceedings were going on, the people were not idle specta- 
 tors. A petition came from Pickering township, complaining that the Lieu- 
 tenant Governor had "resolved to hold the powers entrusted to him by his 
 Sovereign, to reduce British subjects to a state of vassalage," and praying the 
 House to address His Excellency to remove his councillors. As soon as the 
 Executive Council resigned. Sir Francis Bond Head wrote to Lord Glenelg, 
 under date, Toronto, 22d March, 1836, t'Mr. Mackenzie and his party, at an 
 immense expense, forwarded to every part of the Province" copies of a circu- 
 lar, to which was annexed "a printed petition to the House of Assembly, 
 which only required the insertion of the name of the township and of the 
 Bubscribers." This is probably correct, but the authority of Sir Erancis Bond 
 Head is never reliable when he is speaking of persons whom he considered 
 it his sacred duty to revile. It is certain a number of petitions of the same 
 purport as that from Pickering were presented to the House. 
 47
 
 370 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the advice of the House, on whose good sense he, at 
 the same time, affected to be ready to rely. 
 
 The popular party had unintentionally given an 
 incidental sanction to the assumptions of the Lieuten- 
 ant Governor, founded on the dispatch of Lord Grlen- 
 elg, on the dismissal of the Crown officers, in 1833. 
 Their removal was the result of their opposition, in 
 the Legislature, to the expressed wishes of the Impe- 
 rial Government. In procuring the annulment of 
 the bank charters, Mr. Mackenzie was not sustained 
 by the party with whom he acted, and by whom the 
 dismissal of the Crown officers was gratefully accepted. 
 It was the misfortune of Sir Francis Bond Head to be 
 required to carry out the principle of complete subor- 
 dination of all the officers of the local government to 
 the Downing Street authorities, at a time when the dis- 
 position of the colonists to repudiate that system and 
 to insist on the responsibility of the Executive Coun- 
 cil to the Legislative Assembly, had become irresisti- 
 ble. But he showed the greatest reluctance to devi- 
 ate from this course after he received a confidential dis- 
 patch from Lord Glenelg,'^ laying it down as a princi- 
 ple that in the British American Provinces the Exe- 
 cutive Councils should be composed of individuals 
 possessing the confidence of the people. Every Ca- 
 nadian w^ho had advocated this principle had been 
 set down by Sir Francis as a republican and a traitor, 
 and the principle itself he had denounced as uncon- 
 stitutional. 
 
 Sir Francis Bond Head conceived his mission to be 
 to fight and conquer what he called the " low-bred 
 
 * Dated September 30, 1836.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 371 
 
 antagonist democracy." He thought the battle was 
 to be won by steadily opposing " the fatal policy of 
 concession," keeping the Tories in office, and putting 
 down the party Avhich he indifferently designated 
 Reformers, Radicals, and Republicans. He thought 
 himself entitled to claim credit for having by his 
 reply to "the industrial classes of Toronto," caused a 
 scene of violence at a public meeting, at which, ho 
 relates to Lord Glenelg with much satisfaction, " Mr. 
 Mackenzie totally failed in gaining attention," and 
 Dr. Morrison, who was then Mayor of Toronto, " was 
 collared and severely shaken." " The whole affair," 
 he adds, " was so completely stifled by the indignation 
 of the people, that the meeting was dissolved without 
 the passing of a single resolution." 
 
 The Lieutenant Governor, who had completely 
 thrown himself into the hands of the Family Com- 
 pact, had other schemes for influencing the constitu- 
 encies in favor of one party and against another ; for 
 he was not long in resolving to dissolve a House that 
 voted only such supplies as would subserve the pur- 
 poses of the majority, while it withheld others of 
 tvhich the want tended to embarrass the machinery of 
 the government.* The avowed object of reserving 
 the twelve money bills was to deprive the majority of 
 the House of what might be so distributed as to con- 
 duce to their re-election. On motion of Mr. Perry the 
 House had adopted the vicious principle of making 
 the members of the Legislature a committee for ex- 
 pending the £50,000 road mone}'' granted ; and there 
 was some point in the observation of Sir F. B. Head 
 
 * The dissolution took place on the 28th May, 183G.
 
 372 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 that this member's name appeared too often in con- 
 nection with such expenditures. But although the 
 reservation of these money bills did not lead to their 
 being vetoed, the effect on the constituencies was the 
 same. The elections were over before it was known 
 that the Royal assent had been given, in opposition 
 to the recommendation of the Lieutenant Governor, 
 who takes care to make it understood that, on this 
 question, he had the concurrence of his Council. Be- 
 fore the elections w^ere announced, steps, of which Sir 
 Francis B. Head appears to have been cognizant, were 
 taken for procuring petitions in favor of a dissolu- 
 tion of the House. Perhaps they w^ere suggested by 
 himself or his Council. Certain it is that he had 
 timely warning of petitions in process of being signed, 
 some time before they were presented. The Tory 
 l^ress divided the country into two parties : one of 
 whom was represented to be in favor of maintaining 
 the supremacy of the British Crown in the Province, 
 and the other as being composed of traitors and re- 
 publicans. This representation was transferred from 
 partisan newspapers to official dispatches and replies 
 to admiring addresses. Timid persons were awed into 
 inactivity ; not thinking it prudent to appear at the 
 polls, where their presence would have caused them 
 to be branded as revolutionists. The Tories sub- 
 scribed largely for election purposes ; votes were 
 manufactured and violence resorted to.* 
 
 * " The circumstances under which they (the members of the House) -were 
 elected, were such as to render them peculiarly objects of suspicion and re- 
 proach to a large number of their countrymen. They are accused of having 
 Tiulated their pledges at the election." "In a number of instances, too, the
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 373 
 
 By such means was Sir F. B. Head enabled to boast 
 of the perilous success he had achieved. He had done 
 ev^erything upon his own responsibility ; having never 
 consulted the Imperial Government, to whose direc- 
 tions he professed to feel it his duty to pay implicit 
 obedience. He had written to Lord Glenelg, inform- 
 ing him that it was his intention to dissolve the House; 
 and instructing him — as if he were the superior — to 
 send him no orders on the subject. 'Nor was this the 
 only occasion on which he undertook to transmit his 
 orders to Downing Street. When, in the spring of 
 1836, Mr. Robert Baldwin, one of his late councillors, 
 started for England, Sir F. B. Head described him to 
 Lord Glenelg as an agent of the revolutionary party, 
 and expressed a wish that he might not be received at 
 the Colonial Office ; adding a suggestion that if he 
 should make any application he should be effectually 
 snubbed in a letter in reply, which should be trans- 
 mitted to Canada for publication. He denounced to 
 the Colonial Minister the project of surrendering to 
 the control of the Canadian Legislature the casual and 
 territorial revenues; being desirous of keeping the 
 Executive, as far as possible, financially independent 
 of the popular branch of the Legislature. He quar- 
 relled with the Commission of Inquiry, which had 
 been sent to Canada, headed by Lord Gosford, for re- 
 
 el<y>tions were carried by the unscrupulous exercise of the influence of the go- 
 vernment, and by a display of violence on the part of the Tories, who wero 
 emboldened by the countenance afforded to them by the government ; that 
 such facts and such impressions produced in the country an exasperation and 
 a despair of good government, which extended far beyond those who had actu- 
 ally been defeated at the poll." — Barl Durham's Report on the Affairs of BrUith 
 North America.
 
 374 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 commending that the Executive Council should be 
 made accountable to public opinion ; and assured the 
 Imperial Government that the project was pregnant 
 with every species of danger. When he received a 
 confidential dispatch from Lord Grlenelg, acquainting 
 liim that this course had been determined on, he be- 
 came half frantic; and on 'the publication of a dis- 
 patch from Sir Archibald Campbell, Lieutenant (Go- 
 vernor of 'New Brunswick, directing him to increase 
 the number of his councillors, and to select them from 
 persons possessing the confidence of the people, he 
 vented his disappointment by declaring that " the tri- 
 umph which the loyal inhabitants of our TsTorth Ameri- 
 can colonies had gained over the demands of the Ke- 
 publicans was not only proved to be temporary, but 
 was completely destroyed." He carried his indis- 
 cretion to an inconceivable extent. The Province, he 
 openly declared, was threatened with invasion from a 
 foreign enemy ; and he proceeded to throw out a de- 
 fiant challenge to this imaginary foe. " In the name 
 of every regiment of militia in Upper Canada," he 
 said, " I publicly promulgate, let them come if they 
 dare." This piece of audacious folly made him the 
 subject of a remarkable practical joke. A deputation, 
 headed by Mr. Hincks, waited on him to inquire from 
 what point the attack was expected ; the inference be- 
 ing that they desired to know in order that they might 
 be prepared to repel the invaders.* If the Lieutenant 
 
 * " We, the undersigned electors of the City of Toronto," the address ran, 
 "having read in your Excellency's answer to the address of certain electors 
 of the Home District the following language : — ' They (the people of Toronto) 
 are perfectly aware that there exist in the Lower Province, one or two indi-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 375 
 
 Governor did not see that he was quizzed, he felt 
 thrust into a corner; and his face crimsoned with in- 
 dignation at the impertinent inconvenience of the in- 
 quiry. His dispatches contain a mixture of insolent 
 dictation, intended for advice, and a craven fear of the 
 disapproval of his superiors. 
 
 The fate of British dominion in America, he assured 
 the Colonial Minister, depended upon his ruinous 
 advice being taken and his mad acts sustained. Se- 
 veral times it was necessary to curb him ; and once 
 he made an inferential rather than a direct tender of 
 his resignation. He dismissed Mr. George Kidout 
 from the. offices of Colonel of the Militia, Judge of the 
 District Court of Niagara, and Justice of the Peace, on 
 the pretence that he was an active member of the Al- 
 liance Society, who had issued an address on the sub- 
 ject of the resignation of the late Executive Council, 
 which contained words personally offensive to the 
 Lieutenant Governor ;* and when this charge was 
 
 viduals who inculcate the idea that this Province is about to be disturbed by 
 the interference of foreigners whose powers and whose numbers will prove in- 
 vincible. In the name of every Regiment of Militia in Upper Canada, I pub- 
 licly promulgate, ^ Let them come if they dare.' We do not doubt the readi- 
 ness with which would be answered upon any emergency your appeal to the 
 Militia, which appeal we are satisfied would not have been made without ade- 
 quate cause. In a matter so seriously aflecting the peace and tranquillity of 
 the :'Duntry and the security of its commerce, we beg to learn from your iBx- 
 cellency from what quarter the invasion is alleged to be threatened." 
 
 * The document, to which exception was taken, is subjoined ; the par- 
 ticular words deemed most offensive being in those in italics: — "The dif- 
 ference between Sir Francis Bond Head and the House of Assembly, growing 
 out of the resignation of the late Executive Council, has led to a dissolution of 
 Parliament. The unanimous representation of the late Executive Council, se- 
 verally sigied by the Hon. Peter Robinson, Hon. G. H. Markland, Hon. Jo- 
 seph Wells Hon. J. H. Dunn, and Robert Baldwin and John Eolph, Esquires,
 
 376 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 proved to the satisfaction of Lord Glenelg to be ground- 
 less, he refused to obey the order of the Colonial Min- 
 ister to restore Mr. Ridout to office. When the only 
 charge made against Mr. Ridout had been disproved, 
 he trumped up seven others — none of which had been 
 communicated to Mr. Ridout for explanation — taking 
 the ground that he neither deemed an inquiry neces- 
 sary, nor that the person dismissed should be made 
 acquainted with the grounds of his dismissal. On 
 both these points the Lieutenant Governor met the 
 opposition of Lord Glenelg.* He refused to obey the 
 instructions of the Colonial Secretary to appoint Mr. 
 Marshall Spring Bidwell to a judgeship in the Court 
 
 we declare to be moderate, just, and constitutional. The refusal of Sir F. B. 
 Head to allow the Executive Council to discharge the duties obviously belong- 
 ing to their office, and imposed by their oath, of advising the Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor upon our public affairs, preparatory to his final and discretionary action 
 upon those affairs, betrays a disposition as a stranger to conduct the govern- 
 ment in an arbitrary, unsafe, and unconstitutional manner, which the House 
 of Assembly, unless traitors to us, could not sanction or grant supplies to up- 
 hold. The fifty-seven Kectories could not by law have been established with- 
 out the advice and consent of the Executive Council of the Province ; and 
 their recent establishment and endowment with their exclusive ecclesiastical 
 and spiritual rights and privileges, is a practical and melancholy proof of the 
 indispensable necessity of a good and honest Executive Council, alike possess* 
 ing the confidence of the King and the people. It is our duty solemnly to aS' 
 sure you, that the conduct of Sir Francis Bond Head has been alike a disregard of 
 constitutional government and of candor and truth in his statements to you. "We 
 therefore appeal to you rnost earnestly not to abandon your faithful Represen- 
 tatives at the approaching contest, but by your manly conduct prove yourselves 
 worthy of good government and honest public servants." So far from Mr. 
 Ridout being a member of the Alliance Society, he had opposed its establish- 
 ment, when Mr. Mackenzie proposed the resolutions on which it was based. 
 
 * "I am unaware," wrote Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, April 5, 1837, 
 **of so much as a single instance in which a public officer has been dismissed 
 as a punishment, and on the ground of misconduct, without the most explicit 
 disclosure to him of the reasons by which his superior vindicated such an ex- 
 ercise of authority .
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 377 
 
 of Queen's Bench ; and wlien he had done his best to 
 drive men into rebellion he claimed credit for his fore- 
 sight in having pointed out their traitorous intentions. 
 Messrs. Mackenzie', Bidvvell, and Perry, were among 
 the members of the popular party who failed to secure 
 a re-election. It w^as the first election at which the 
 county of York had been divided into Ridings. Mr, 
 Mackenzie stood for the Second Riding, having for 
 opponent, Mr. Edward Thompson, a negative sort of 
 man, without decision enough to make him a very 
 decided partisan.* As he had not energy enough to 
 be bitter, many timid voters, alarmed by the cries of 
 revolution raised by the Lieutenant Governor and the 
 Family Compact, thought that if they voted at all, 
 it would be safest, if not best, to vote for him. Pie 
 obtained four hundred and eighty-nine votes ; Macken- 
 zie, three hundred and eiglit3^-nine. Just before the 
 election, there had been a sale of lots by the Govern- 
 ment, at the mouth of the River Credit. They were 
 mostly divided into quarter acres, and were sold for 
 $32 each. Some of the patents were issued during the 
 election ; others only a few days before. But this did 
 not turn the scale of the election ; for in the list of 
 voters, I find only four who voted for Mr. Thompson 
 on lots at Port Credit. About an equal number of 
 votes otfered for Mr. Mackenzie were turned away on 
 what appear to be frivolous grounds. If such great 
 pains had not been taken by Mr. Thompson's friends 
 to prevent a scrutiny, there might, looking at the dis- 
 parity in the number of votes received by the two 
 
 * He passed for a modified Liberal at the election-, which was a 2:rent advan- 
 tage to him; and acted with the Family Compact when he got into the House.
 
 378 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 candidates, have been some reason for concluding that 
 Mr. Mackenzie was beaten by a majority of legal 
 votes. Nothing but a scrutiny could have settled 
 the point in dispute. There was said to have been a 
 suspiciously large increase in the number of voters. 
 
 The unscrupulous influence of the Grovernment in 
 the election, attested by the Earl of Durham's Report, 
 is beyond question. Streetsville was the polling 
 place for the Second Riding of York ; and violence 
 was apprehended on the day of nomination. A pro- 
 cession of Orangemen, an organization with whom 
 Mr. Mackenzie was on ill terms, took place ; the 
 "Boyne Water," " Protestant Boys," and " Croppies 
 Lie Down," being played by the band. They after- 
 wards drew up in line at a point where it was neces- 
 sary for Mackenzie to pass. Several were provided 
 with loaded fire-arms, on both sides. One Switzer, a 
 man of enormous muscular power, led the way through 
 the lines ; and Mr. Mackenzie followed unharmed. 
 He delivered a speech much more calculated to excite 
 than to soothe the hostile crowd, and which shows that 
 the idea of the possibility of England losing the Pro- 
 vince by misgovernment was floating in his mind.* 
 
 * From this speech, deliv^ered on the 27th June, I give an extract: "When 
 I last met you here I toll you the causes of our difficulties, and showed you 
 how far they might be removed by the concessions or interposition of the 
 British Government. I regret to say that all the efforts of the Keformers 
 during the last two years have only gone to show that the Government is above 
 all law ; that a person, living in one of the streets of London is the autocrat 
 of Upper Canada ; and that the people's representatives have neither power 
 nor influence to promote education, encourage trade, redress grievances, secure 
 economy, or amend your laws and institutions. I have been diligent in the 
 Legislature ; every proposition calculated to make you happier I have sup- 
 ported ; and whatever appeared to me to be against popular government and
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 379 
 
 It was said tliat be was opposed by Bank as well as 
 Government influence ; and this seems not improbable, 
 since he had procured the disallowance of two bank 
 charter bills, when he was in England.* Complaints 
 
 the permanent interests of the many I have opposed, please or oifend whom it 
 might. The result is against you. You are nearer having saddled on you a 
 dominant priesthood ; your public and private debt is greater ; the public im- 
 provements made by Government are of small moment ; the chartered Banks 
 and the Canada Company have you more and more under their control ; the 
 priests of the leading denominations have swallowed bribes like a sweet morsel ; 
 the revenues of your country are applied without your consent; the principle 
 that the Executive should be responsible to public opinion and acceptable to 
 the people is denied to your use, both by the Governor here, and by his em- 
 ployers elsewhere; the means to corrupt our elections are in the hands of the 
 adversaries of popular institutions, and they are using them ; and although an 
 agent has been sent with the petitions of the House of Assembly to the King 
 and House of Commons, I dare not conceal from you my fears that the power 
 that has oppressed Ireland for centuries will never extend its sympathies to 
 you. It will seek to elevate the few, who are suitable instruments for your 
 subjugation, in order that (like the Canada Company, Thomas Clark's :eiOO,000 
 estate, John McGill's £50,000, and I might add, Colonel Talbot's vast accum- 
 ulation) such men may will, or take their wealth elsewhere, to impoverish you. 
 Look into the history of our race: — 'Ages pass, and leave the poor herd, the 
 mass of men, eternally the same — hewers of wood and drawers of water.' I 
 have taken less pains to be elected by you this time than I ever did before, and 
 the reason is, I do not feel that lively hope to be able to be useful to you which 
 I once felt. On this subject I spoke my mind with great frankness at Cooks- 
 ville, when I told you that the country was beginning to lose all hope from 
 Reform majorities under this government, and that I feared the result of the 
 elections would show that it was so. We are, of course, to wait for the answer 
 to our petitions to England. If it be favorable, it will be our duty to uphold 
 the system of monarchical government, modified, of course, by the removal of 
 that wretched playhouse, the Legislative Council, together with the mounte- 
 banks who exhibit on its boards. If the reply be unfavorable, as I am appre- 
 hensive it will, for the "Whigs and Tories are alike dishonest, contending fac- 
 tions of men who wish to live in idleness upon the labors of honest industry 
 then the Crown will have forfeited one claim upon British freemen in Upper 
 Canada, and the result it is not difficult to foresee." 
 
 * One of these related to the Commercial Bank of the Midland District; and 
 the story told is that, about a month previous to the election, the managers of 
 the branch of this bank, at Toroi.to, sent for Attorney General Hagerman,
 
 380 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AiN'D 
 
 of bribery were also made; and if they were well 
 founded, it is reasonable to suppose that the money 
 formed part of the official election fund subscribed in 
 Toronto, After the desperate policy resorted to for 
 the purpose of ejecting Mr. Mackenzie fi'oni a previous 
 Legislature, it is not to be supposed that any etfort 
 would be spared to prevent his return. There can be 
 no doubt that the improper use of official influence 
 was the main cause of the election resultins; as it did. 
 Besides the intimidation so generally practised, at 
 these elections, the sheriff of the county, Mr. Jarvis, 
 was at Streets ville, interfering in a manner that had 
 been strongly condemned years before by Lord Gode- 
 rich. He insisted on swearing Mr. Mackenzie to his 
 qualification, a second time, till the Returning Officer, 
 Mr. Hepburn, who was a strong partisan of the Family 
 Compact, was obliged to interfere, and declare that the 
 qualification had already been sufficiently attested. I 
 do not wish to repeat a possible calumny ; and I should 
 not have ventured to give new currency to the state- 
 ment that the Lieutenant Governor had thrown out 
 hints that a worse thing than a riot might happen, had 
 he not, in his official communications with the Colo- 
 nial Office, already taken credit for having aroused a 
 feeling that produced violence at a public meeting. 
 
 took him into the bank parlor, and Mr. John Eoss the cashier, in presence of 
 the others, handed him a large number of notes due to the bank by persons 
 living in this constituency, anc gave him distinct and positive instructions to 
 he very lenient ■with every debtor who would pledge himself to vote against 
 Mackenzie, but "to put the screws on" everyone of them who refused to 
 pledge himself. It was said that a like policy was pursued by the Bank of 
 Upper Canada, whose amended charter Mr. Mackenzie had caused to be ve- 
 toed in England. But stories of this kind must always be received with some 
 defrree of allowance.
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 381 
 
 He himself rode out to the polling place during the 
 election. A clergymen offered a vote, to the validity 
 of which he refused to make oath ; * and the voters 
 were sharply questioned on both sides. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's mortification at a result which he 
 
 * The following scene occurred: The Keverend Thomas Phillips, D.D., 
 liector of Etobicoke, Chaplain to the House of Assembly, late Professor in 
 King's College, Toronto, presented himself and offered to vote. After his 
 property had been described and entered on the poll-book, the following in- 
 quiry was made : 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie. — "I think I saw your reverence standing in the rain the other 
 day, up to the ankles in mud, waiting to edge in a non-resident vote for Mr. 
 Draper, I dare say you have been going the rounds of the county, since, to up- 
 hold ' the Constitution,' and as it is probable you have your deed about you, I 
 ■wish you would produce it. 
 
 Dr. Phillips. — (Producing his deed.) — "I have a good title, or I would not 
 have taken the pains to come here. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie. — '• I find that you have bought this half or quarter acre of a 
 Band bank for £8, a year's interest on which is eight shillings Are there any 
 buildings? 
 
 Dr. Phillips. — "There are none. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie. — " No buildings ! How then is your income obtained ? 
 
 Dr. Phillips. — " I rented the property last year for a dollar ; but, this year, 
 the times are so bad that I have left the woman have it for nothing. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie. — " You have been paid for teaching others what the English 
 Constitution is for a number of years ; you have known what a 40«. freeholder 
 means for these forty years back at least ; you belong to an order who live sump- 
 tuously at the expense of the community, and enjoy fat rectories, the value of 
 which is enhanced by the farmer's labor, and you are here to-day to uphold 
 your order by voting me out of the House. I shall make your own conscience 
 the umpire between us — the inward monitor shall decide. Did you, when you 
 came here, for one moment believe you had a right to vote? Did you not 
 rather hope to edge in a bad vote on account of the respectability of your per- 
 sonal appearance? If you think you are an elector of this Eiding, take the 
 constitutional oath as such, and then you may vote ; but remember I'll look 
 carefully into the matter next session. 
 
 Returning Officer. — " The oath is as follows : — 
 
 Dr. Phillips. — "Stop, stop, I won't swear to my freehold. Eeally, Air. 
 Mackenzie, you are too sharp upon me." And the reverend gentleman, who 
 was brother-in-law of the Sheriff of the Home District, gathered up his papers, 
 slunk down stairs, and deferred the oath and his vote till another occasion.
 
 382 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AXD 
 
 believed to have been brought about by improper 
 means, was extreme. He retired with a few of his 
 supporters to the house of Mr. Graham, in Streetsville, 
 and we])t like a child. Such was the power of sym- 
 pathy, that several of the friends who were present, 
 wept with him. 
 
 About the time of the commencement of the first 
 Legislative session, which took place on the eighth of 
 IS'ovember, 1836, after the House had been elected, 
 Mr. Mackenzie was taken dangerously ill of inflam- 
 matory fever, followed by inflammation of the lungs 
 and pleura, brought on by his taking cold. It says 
 much for his constitution that he was enabled to 
 escape with his life from the hands of four doctors, 
 Barclay, of the garrison, Widmer, Rolph, and Telfer, 
 who dosed him with seventy or eighty grains of calo- 
 mel ; but it must be admitted that they were all men 
 of repute in their profession. On the 23d of J^ovem- 
 ber,,he was pronounced convalescent; but his ultimate 
 recovery was slow. 
 
 Petitions against the return of any member, whose 
 seat it is intended to contest, are required to be pre- 
 sented within fourteen days of the commencement of 
 the session. On the 13th December — one month and 
 five days after the session had commenced — Dr. Mor- 
 rison, on producing medical certificates of Mr. Macken- 
 zie's illness, obtained an extension of the time for pre- 
 senting a petition against Mr. Thompson's return. 
 Seven days were allowed. The regulation set aside 
 was not one of law, but was simply a rule of the House. 
 When the allegations in the petition had become 
 known to the House, the majority evinced extreme
 
 THE CAJ^ADIAN REBELLION. 383 
 
 anxiety to avoid inquiry. Mr. Mackenzie, continuing 
 to collect evidence and increase his list of witnesses, 
 refrained from completing his recognizances as security 
 for costs, till nearly the expiration of the time re- 
 quired: fourteen days after the presentation af the 
 petition. JN'ew facts continued to come in, and, before 
 handing in his list of witnesses, he wished to make it 
 as complete as possible. But, by an entirely new con- 
 struction of the law, he was held to have exceeded the 
 time. Dr. Rolph showed the untenableness of the 
 position which a partisan majority was ready to as- 
 sume ; but without avail. The petition was intro- 
 duced on the 20th of December. It then, as required 
 by law, lay on the table two days before being read ; 
 which last act, it was contended, completed the series 
 which made up the presentation.* The House had 
 
 * On the 20th of January, 1837, a motion having been made for allowing 
 one week to petition against the return of Mr. Charles Kichardson from the 
 town of Niagara, Dr. Kolph, seconded by Dr. Morrison, moved to add the 
 following words : — "And that the above relief be also extended in like manner 
 to such freeholders of the Second Riding of the county of York, as may within 
 the same time desire to make their complaint of any wrongs to their elective 
 franchise at the late general election ; because, as the late petition of W. L. 
 Mackenzie, complaining of the undue election and return of the sitting mem- 
 ber for that Riding (Edward W. Thompson, Esq.) was in the terms of the 
 ibrty-first rule cf this House only 'brought in' on the 20th, and not 'read' till 
 the 22nd of December, it could not till then be considered as fully presented ; 
 and because the Provincial Act, 4th Geo. IV., ch. 4, copied from the English 
 Act 25th, George III., requires that 'whenever a petition complaining of an 
 undue election or return of a member or members to serve in Parliament shall 
 be presented to the House of Assembly, a day and hour shall, by the said 
 House of Assembly, be appointed for taking the same into consideration, and 
 notice thereof in writing shall be forthwith given by the Speaker to the peti- 
 tioner or his agent;' according to which Act, in the invariable practice of the 
 British House of Commons, the bringing up readily, and acting on such peti- 
 tion, and the giving of the said notice forthwith by the Speaker to the peti-
 
 384 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 always acted on this construction ; and it could not 
 liave one rule for itself and another for petitioners. 
 The petition must therefore he considered as having 
 been presented on the 22nd ; and the fourteen days 
 
 tioner, are always immediately consecutive; and as this House have by their 
 own practice put such a construction on the said Act, as not to consider such 
 a petition presented, so as to require them to appoint a day and hour for taking 
 the same into consideration, and giving forthwith the said notice to the peti- 
 tioner, till the reading thereof on the second day after it is brought up, so the 
 exigency of the said statute ought to be considered as satisfied by the said 
 petitioner, by his computing his fourteen days from the said reading of the 
 petition, as properly the time of the full Parlianaentary presentation thereof; 
 for the same construction by which the House is governed should, in justice 
 and good faith, be applied to the petitioner, and not one construction be 
 adopted for the House, and another construction for the people praying them 
 for relief; from which it follows, that as the petition of Mr. Mackenzie was 
 brought up on the 20th, and not read and acted on by the House till the 22nd, 
 the petitioner's fourteen days reckoned from the 22nd, for entering into recog- 
 nizances as security for costs, did not elapse till the 5th of January inclusive, 
 although this House discharged the matter from the order of the day on the 
 fourth, thereby giving the petitioner only twelve instead of fourteen days : 
 and because the Speaker, in behalf of the House, did not, according to the 
 exigency of the said Statute, give notice to the petitioner 'forthwith' on the 
 22nd, but omitted to do so till the 30th of December, thereby abridging the 
 time of the notice, which would otherwise have put the petitioner and his at- 
 torney on tbeir guard; and this House having themselves been therein guilty 
 of laches, ought not rigidly to hold the said petitioner unexcused, even had he 
 been guilty of laches too: and because this House adjourned from the 22nd of 
 December till the 2nd of January,, which interval, as the Speaker was not in 
 attendance in his room at the House, ought not to be counted against the peti- 
 tioner, who should have the benefit of fourteen sitting days, and not pursue the 
 Speaker, as possibly might be needed in a future caae, to his country seat, a 
 distance of several hundred miles : and because Mr. Mackenzie had gathered 
 from "William Patrick, Esq., the Senior Clerk of this House, an otficer of 
 eighteen years' experience, that the computation of his fourteen days would be 
 from the reading of the said petition : and because an investigation into grave 
 charges affecting the freedom of election, and the invasion thereof by the 
 Executive Government, and consequently affecting the constitution and cha- 
 racter of this House, ought not to be lightly arrested, when the injured parties 
 are willing and anxious to prosecute it, but should, on the contrary, be openly, 
 fully, and honorably facilitated."
 
 THE CAN^ADIAN REBELLION. 385 
 
 for completing the recognizances would not end till 
 tlie Sth of Januar}'-, though the order had improperly 
 been discharged on the 4th ; by which the time allowed 
 by law had illegally been abridged. The Speaker 
 was required, on the 22nd, to have given notice to the 
 petitioner of the day fixed for taking the petition into 
 consideration ; but he failed to give it till the 30th, 
 and for his default, the House, not the petitioner, was 
 responsible. This argument was conclusive ; but the 
 vote was hostile, being thirty-two against fifteen. 
 
 It may seem strange that the presentation of a pe- 
 tition should include its reading — fixed by law at two 
 days after its introduction — but the House must be 
 judged by its own practice ; and this is stated to have 
 been uniformly difierent, on all previous occasions, 
 from the course now taken. Mr. Jonas Jones, by 
 whom the act relating to contested elections was 
 brought in, did Mr. Mackenzie full justice on this 
 occasion ; and the fact deserves to be noted the more, 
 since he was a political opponent of the petitioner. 
 " He considered that Mr. Mackenzie had a riuht to 
 count fourteen days from the time his memorial was 
 read, and that he had neglected no requirement of the 
 law ;" and, on this ground, Mr. Jones voted against an 
 amendment declaring that the order relating to the 
 petition had been legally discharged, and that there- 
 fore it ought not to be restored. And Mr. Gowan, an- 
 other political opponent of the petitioner, showed that, 
 in the previous Parliament, he had been placed in pre- 
 cisely the same position as Mr. Mackenzie with respect 
 to time ; and that not a single member of the House, 
 a large majority of whom were opposed to him in 
 
 49
 
 386 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 politics, raised an objection. One thing is very clear 
 — and it must be regarded as a circumstance of suspi- 
 cion — the Grovernment party was seriously anxious to 
 avoid an investigation. If they had nothing to fear 
 from a scrutiny, it is difficult to conceive what motive 
 they could have had for departing from the uniform 
 practice in order to avoid an investigation. The delay 
 on the part of the petitioner arose entirely from the 
 supposition that the time would not expire till the 
 oth of January. 
 
 He had the authority of the senior clerk of the 
 House for believing that this was the uniform prac- 
 tice, and on the 22d December, the day on which it 
 was contended the presentation of the petition was 
 completed, Mr. McXab obtained fourteen days for the 
 sitting member to prepare his list of witnesses — an 
 implied confession that the fourteen days after which 
 the petition would be acted upon commenced on that 
 day. An amendment was added to this motion giv- 
 ing Mr. Mackenzie the same time to prepare the list 
 of his witnesses, and yet the majority afterwards re- 
 fused to give, for completing his recognizances, the 
 time they had thus agreed upon. The motion to dis- 
 charge the order for taking the petition into consider- 
 ation was made by Mr. J. S. Boulton, who had taken 
 an active part in the expulsion of Mackenzie from a 
 former House, and of whose brother the petitioner 
 had some years before obtained the dismissal from 
 the Attorney Greneralship. 
 
 There was the more reason for the inquiry, because 
 the allegations in the petition included even the head 
 of the government in charges of undue interference ;
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLIOX. 387 
 
 by making inflammatory replies to addresses, with a 
 view of influencing the election ;* by the issue of land- 
 
 * Here are a few specimens of the partisan and inflammatory replies given 
 by Sir Francis Bond Head to addresses, and published with a view of influenc- 
 ing the elections generally. The following language was used in his reply to 
 the Electors of Toronto : — 
 
 " Gextlemen : — No one can be more sensible than I am, that the stoppage 
 of the supplies has caused a general stagnation of business, which will proba- 
 bly end in the ruin of many of the inhabitants of this city ; and in proportion 
 as the Metropolis of the Province is impoverished, the farmers' market must 
 be lowered ; for how can he possibly receive money, when those who should 
 consume his produce are seen flying in all directions from a land from which 
 industry has been publicly repelled ? 
 
 "In the flourishing Continent of North America, the Province of Upper 
 Canada now stands like a healthy young tree that has been girdled, its droop- 
 ing branches mournfully- betraying that its natural nourishment has been de- 
 liberately cut ofF." 
 
 Still dwelling with afl"ecled lamentation over the universal devastation caused 
 by the withholding of his supplies, (the whole amount of which was less than 
 £10,000,) he thus attempts to work the electors up to the highest pitch : — 
 
 " Gektlemex : — I have no hesitation in saying that another such a victory 
 would ruin this country. But this opinion is hourly gaining ground ; the good 
 sense of the country has been aroused ; the yeoman has caught a glimpse of his 
 real enemy ; the farmer begins to see who is his best friend : in short, people 
 of all denominations, of all religions, and of different politics, rallying round 
 the British Flag, are now loudly calling upon me to grant them constitutional 
 redress. 
 
 ""VThen the verdict of the country shall have been sufficiently declared, I 
 will promptly communicate my decision." 
 
 Denouncing the Reformers as agitators, he says : — 
 
 "GB^■TLEMEK : — My plans and projects are all contained and published in 
 the instructions which I received from the King. They desire me to correct, 
 without partiality, the grievances of this country ; and it is because the agita- 
 tors see I am determined to do so, that they are endeavoring to obstruct me by 
 every artifice in their power. They declare me to be their enemy, and the 
 truth is, I really am." 
 
 But his Address to the Electors of Newcastle District, if possible, transcends 
 the rest, and would alone, Dr. Rolph declared on the floor of the Legislature, 
 have formed a solid foundation for his impeachment: — 
 
 " As your district has now the important duty to perform of electing repre- 
 sentatives for a new Parliament, I think it may practically assist, if I clearly 
 lay before you what is the conduct I intend inflea bly to pursue, in order that
 
 388 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 patents to j^ersoiis known to be hostile to the peti- 
 tioner, without exacting a compliance with the condi- 
 tions of purchase ; besides, gross j^artiality on the part 
 of the Returning Officer, and bribery on the part of 
 the sitting member.* It would have been far better 
 that these grave charges had been subjected to the 
 test of a rigid scrutiny ; because, if they were not 
 well-founded, their refutation could most easily and 
 most effectually have been made in this way. But 
 
 by the choice of your new members, you may resolve either to support me or 
 oppose me, as you may think proper. 
 
 "I consider that my character and your interests are embarked in one anl 
 the same boat. If by my administration I increase your wealth, I shall 
 claim for myself credit, which it will be totally out of your power to with- 
 hold from me ; if I diminish your wealth, I feel it would be hopeless for any 
 one to shield me from blame. 
 
 "As we have, therefore, one common object in view, the plain question for 
 us to consider is, which of us has the greatest power to do good to Upper Ca- 
 nada ? or, in other words, can you do as much good for yourselves as I can do 
 for you? 
 
 "It is my opinion that you cannot I It is my opinion that if you choose to 
 dispute with me, and live on bad terms with the Mother Country, you will, to 
 use a homely phrase, only quarrel with your own 'bread and butter.' If you 
 like to try the experiment by electing members, who will again stop the sup- 
 plies, do so, for I can have no objection whatever; on the other hand, if you 
 choose fearlessly to embark your interests with my character, depend upon it 
 I will take paternal care of them both. 
 
 "If I am allowed I will, by reason and mi d conduct, begin first of all by 
 tranquilizing the country, and as soon as that object shall be gained, I will use 
 all my influence with His Majesty's Go verrment to make such alteration in 
 the land granting departments, as shall attr-ict into Upper Canada the redun- 
 dant wealth and population of the Mother Country. Men ! women, and mo- 
 ney are what you want, and if you will send to Parliament members of mode- 
 rate politics, who will cordially and devoid of self-interest assist me, depend 
 upon it you will gain more than you possibly can do by hopelessly trying to 
 insult me ; for let your conduct be what it may, I am quite determined, so long 
 as I may occupy the station I now do, neither to give otfence, nor to take it." 
 
 The reference to ''bread and butter," in this Address, caused the House, 
 elected in 1836, to be called the " Bread and Butter Parliament." 
 
 * See Appendix C.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 389 
 
 this is the strongest evidence that many of them were 
 true. 
 
 The decision of the House can scarcely excite sur- 
 prise ; for in a case of that peculiar nature, where 
 either side of the case could be sustained by plausible 
 arguments, a partisan majority, so violently opposed 
 as they were to the petitioner, were not likely to be 
 very scrupulous in their decision. Rightly or wrongly 
 the petitioner was firmly convinced that he had been 
 defrauded of his seat, and unfairly and illegally de- 
 nied the liberty of proving how it had been done, and 
 recovering what had been unwarrantably taken from 
 him. He had a keen sense of personal injury, and 
 when wrong done to him was also done to the 
 public, he was slow to forget, and not too ready to 
 forgive. 
 
 Dr. Duncombe, a member of the Liberal party in 
 Upper Canada, who had held a seat in the Legislative 
 Assembly, brought to the notice of the Colonial Se- 
 cretary, Lord G-lenelg, the complaints made against 
 the Lieutenant Governor, in connection with this elec- 
 tion, as well as against his general policy, and Sir 
 Francis Bond Head was required to put in his de- 
 fence.
 
 390 LIFE OF MACKENZIE AND 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Mackenzie commenoss tlie Publication of The Constitution newspaper— Eevo- 
 lutionary Literature — Mock Trial of Sir Francis Bond Head, by a Com- 
 mittee of the House of Assembly — A Verdict of Acquittal did not allay 
 the Public Discontent — Samuel Lount — The Fatal Eesolution — Personal In- 
 sult added to Political Wrong — The Session of 1836-7 — The House shows 
 its Fear of an Appeal to the People by repealing the Act by which the 
 Death of the King effected a Dissolution — Recklessness in Money Votes — 
 The House sanctions the Creation of the Rectories — Turbulent Close of the 
 Session — A Trade Appeal to "Washington — Mr. Mackenzie goes to New York 
 and purchases largely at the Trade Sales of Books. 
 
 On the 4th July — a significant date — Mr. Mackenzie 
 published the first number of The Constitution news- 
 paper, the last issue of which appeared on the 29th 
 November, 1837. The first and fourth page of the 
 number for December 6th were printed, when at this 
 stage it was brought to a violent close by the break- 
 ing out of the insurrection. The forms of type were 
 broken up by the loyalist mob. When he brought 
 The Colonial Advocate to a close, he was anxious to bid 
 adieu to the harassing cares of Canadian journalism 
 forever ; but his political friends had, by their urgent 
 entreaties, succeeded in inducing him to re-enter a 
 career to which he had 2:>reviously bid a final adieu. 
 As editor of The Constitution, he became the organ of 
 increasing discontent, and might easily be mistaken 
 for the promoter of it. But, as always happens, the
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 391 
 
 press reflected public opinion with more or less accu- 
 racy, and already the Liberal portion of it had begun 
 to speak in no muffled or ambiguous accents.* 
 
 We are entering upon the j^eriod of revolutionary 
 ideas, expressed in speeches and rhymes, in news- 
 papers and more solemn documents. Sir Francis 
 Bond Head may be said to have produced the first 
 specimens in inflammatory replies to addresses. What 
 nearly always happens, on such occasions, happened 
 on this. People found themselves committed to 
 i^volutionary ideas without the least suspicion of the 
 extent to which they had gone, much less of what 
 was to follow.. Dr. Buncombe's letter to Lord 
 Glenelg, charging the head of the Provincial Govern- 
 ment with crimes which deserve impeachment, was 
 referred to a committee of the House of Assembly. 
 Every one knew in advance what the decision would 
 be; but the proceeding was in the nature of an im- 
 peachment against Sir Francis Bond Head. For if 
 he were found guilty, what was to be done? A Col-, 
 onial Governor who misconducts himself, can only be 
 tried in England ; and unless there were a foregone 
 conclusion to exculpate him from the charges made 
 against him there could be no object in referring them 
 
 * As an example, the following verse from " Khymes for the People," which 
 Ippeared in the St. Thomas Liberal, in August, may be cited: — 
 
 "Up then ! for Liberty — for Eight, 
 
 Strike home ! the tyrants falter ; 
 Be firm — be brave, let all unite. 
 
 And despots' schemes must alter. 
 Our King — our Government and laws, 
 
 "While just, we aye shall love them, 
 Bjut Freedom's Heaven -born, holier cause 
 
 "We hold supreme above them."
 
 392 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 to a committee. Dr. Rolph, assuming a serio-comic 
 air, ridiculed the proceeding in a speech that will ever 
 be memorable in Canadian history.* 
 
 * Dr. Eolph thus opened his battery on the miscalled .,Teasury benches : 
 ' Perhaps never did a day, wearing a more lowering aspect than this, dawn 
 upon a British Colony ! The glory of Provincial Monarchy, subjected igno- 
 miniously to these proceedings, is sullied beyond the power of your acquittal 
 to redeem. Kings are sometimes tried. But nations are their judges. And 
 when a people, goaded by injury, rise in their majesty to occupy the judg- 
 ment seat, grand is the spectacle and vast the result ! Popular sympathy 
 generally mingles with the royal fate, and interest is transmitted with the 
 very block which is dyed with their blood. But Kings even in Europe 
 would dwindle into shadows, were they arraigned and tried before subordinate 
 tribunals. Only imagine it; King "William the Fourth tried by a select com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons ! The proposition, Sir, shocks you. * * 
 Impeachment, did I say ? Oh no. They have doomed their illustrious 
 personage to drink the cup of humiliation to the very dregs. The trial has 
 not been conducted even before the Legislative Council, our Provincial House 
 of Peers, who would, perhaps, regard a guilty participation little less than 
 petit treason ! It has not even been conducted before this honorable House, 
 while the chair, Sir, was occupied by the Speaker, in whom is embodied, 
 besides his Parliamentary phylacteries, the aggregate dignity of the Assembly, 
 with the Mace, surmounted with a Crown, lying massively on the table, and 
 defended by the Sergeant-at-Arms, girded with a sword and glowing with a 
 chivalrous spirit. Such inquisitorial proceedings even over Eoyalty have, 
 when clothed with stateliness and wrapt up in form, an imposing effect upon 
 the eyes of the multitude, who are therefore the less likely to have their 
 habitual reverence seriously impaired. But as if there were a conspiracy to 
 bring His Excellency to the very dust, to shadow his dignity, mortify his 
 pride, and republicanize the people, the investigation was repudiated by the 
 House, and insultingly transferred to an ordinary committee ! * * What will 
 the British Government say to this impolitic proceeding? You who ought 
 to be the first to keep within, at least, the bounds of impeachment in the 
 Mother Country, have assumed to try, and either condemn or acquit the repre- 
 sentative of the King! The Governor has been charged with interfering, 
 to an alarming degree, with the purity and freedom of the late general elec- 
 tions. It is a charge of treason against the people. You are this day teach- 
 ing them a lesson they will not easily forget. They find themselves, through 
 the persons of their representatives, bringing under the ordeal of this inquiry 
 the head of the Ex(>cative Government. If it is thought expedient to exempt 
 him from civil and criminal responsibilities in the courts of justice, by what 
 law do you now assume a jurisdiction, of which even the King's Bench is
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 393 
 
 The report, as every body had foreseen, was a ver- 
 dict of acquittal ; and a special verdict, it must be 
 remarked, since it declared that the country owed the 
 Vice Regal defendant a debt of gratitude for his pa- 
 triotism and other inestimable qualities. But if Sir 
 Francis Bond Head was pronounced a model Go- 
 vernor, by a partisan committee,* the public was not 
 convinced, and the discontents were not allayed. 
 
 A considerable portion of Dr. Buncombe's letter, 
 containino- the chara'e a^-ainst the Lieutenant Governor, 
 on which the committee had pronounced, related to 
 the Second Riding of York election, on which a com- 
 mittee had illegally been refused to Mr. Mackenzie. 
 Nor was he allowed to produce before the committee, 
 that pretended to inquire into these charges, the 
 evidence which he was prepared to produce in sup- 
 port of them. 
 
 The case of Mr. Mackenzie, though perhaps not 
 exactly like any other, cannot be regarded as having 
 stood alone. The improper means taken by the Ex- 
 ecutive to influence the elections, did not aifect him 
 alone. Sir Francis Bond Head openly proclaimed 
 
 ousted? If found guilty, will you put him into the custody of the Sergeant- 
 at-Arms ? Will you as it were dethrone him — or bring him (o the block ? 
 You may have an authority from the British Ministry to exercise this inquisi- 
 torial function ; but I cannot even then acknowledge its wisdom. When you 
 familiarize the people with these summary proceedings against Kingly func- 
 tionaries, you make them compare their own strength and importance with 
 that of their rulers. * * By the adoption of this report you acquit, and by 
 the rejection of it, you convict Sir Francis Bond Head of the high crimes and 
 misdemeanors brought against him." 
 
 * The committee first sat on the 25th of November, composed of Messrs. 
 McNab, Draper, Parke, Sherwood, and Woodruff. On the first of December 
 Messrs. Jones and Norton were added. And on the 22d, Mr. Draper retired 
 and was suc?'»eded by Messrs. Prince and Burwell, 
 50 
 
 i
 
 394 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 himself the enemy of the Reformers ; and he brought 
 all the weight of his position to bear against them as 
 a party. It was the general conviction of the popular 
 party, that if Mr. Mackenzie's complaints of the un- 
 due return of Mr. Thompson had gone before a com- 
 mittee of the House, he could not have hoped to obtain 
 justice; a conviction which prevented others from 
 seeking to reclaim seats out of which they believed 
 they had been fraudulently cajoled. This was the 
 case of Mr. Samuel Lount, who was goaded into re- 
 bellion and hanged for high treason.* 
 
 The sense of injustice engendered by these means 
 rankled in men's minds ; and it tended to beget a fatal 
 resolution to seek redress by a resort to physical force. 
 
 * " On the IStli of February, 1837," Mr. Mackenzie related, " Mr. Samuel 
 Lount, the late upright and patriotic member for Simcoe, called at my house, 
 accompanied by Mr. Thrift Mcldrum, Merchant and Innkeeper in Barrie, 
 and I mentioned to them that I was collecting evidence for a pamphlet to 
 expose the Government, as the Executive influence had cheated me out of my 
 right to do so through an election contest for the Second Eiding. Mr. Lount 
 took out his pocket memorandum book, and stated that Mr. Meldrum had 
 been requested to open his tavern for Robinson and Wickens, at the time of 
 the late election, and that he did so ; that since the election he (Meldrum) had 
 informed him (Lount) that on one occasion, he (Meldrum) accompanied Mr. 
 Wellesley Ritchey, the Government Agent, from Toronto to the Upper Settle- 
 ment; that Mr. Ritchey called him (Meldrum) to one side at Crew's tavern, 
 where the stage stopped, and told him that Sir Francis had employed him 
 (Ritchey) to give the deeds to the settlers in Simcoe, and that he (Ritchey) 
 wanted him (Meldrum) to assist in turning Lount out. Meldrum agreed to 
 do his best, opened his house, and says that Wickens paid him faithfully for 
 his liquor, &c. When Mr. Lount had read the above from his memorandum, 
 I asked Mr. Meldrum if he could swear to these facts, he said he could, for 
 they wers perfectly correct. I then asked Mr. Lount, who gave me a number 
 of important facts, why he did not contest the election, and he told me it 
 would have been throwing £100 away, and losing time, for that no one 
 who knew who the members were, could for a moment expect justice from 
 them."
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 395 
 
 This resolution, which did not assume a positive shape 
 for some time afterwards, was a capital error, and 
 one which some were to expiate with their lives, others 
 with suiferings and privations and contumely scarcely 
 preferable to death. 
 
 It was not sufficient for Sir F. B. Head and his 
 friends to j^ursue one of the two parties into which the 
 country was divided with injustice ; they were not less 
 ready to assail them with personal calumny. The 
 Tory press asked, " "Who is Wm. Lyon Mackenzie ?" 
 And then they proceeded to give their own answer. 
 The Celtic blood boiling in his veins, at the personal 
 insults oifered, Mr. Mackenzie replied in terms that 
 cannot be characterized as either temperate or dis- 
 creet.''' The fiery words, he used under the excite- 
 ment, can hardly be held to express more than the 
 exasperation of the moment ; and if they did not fall 
 harmless, it was because the government of Sir F. B. 
 Head had inclined the people to listen to desperate 
 counsels. 
 
 * "Small cause indeed," he said, "have Highlanders and the descendants 
 of Highlanders to feel a friendship for the Guelphic family. If the Stuarts 
 had their faults, they never enforced loyalty in the glens and valleys of the 
 north by banishing and extirpating the people; it was reserved for the Bruns- 
 wickers to give, as a sequel to the massacre of Glencoe, the cruel order for de- 
 population. I am proud of my descent from a rebel race; who held bor- 
 rowed chieftains, a scrip nobility, rag money, and national debt in abomina- 
 tion. And notwithstanding the doctors' late operations with the lancet, this 
 rebel blood of mine will always be uppermost. Words cannot express my 
 contempt at witnessing the servile, crouching attitude of the country of my 
 choice. If the people felt as I feel, there is never a Grant or Glenelg who 
 crossed the Tay and Tweed to exchange high-born Highland poverty for sub- 
 stantial Lowland wealth, who would dare to insult Upper Canada with the of 
 ficial presence, as its ruler, of such an equivocal character as this Mr. what da 
 they call him Francis Bond Head."
 
 396 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 In the session of 1836-7, which closed on the 4th 
 of March, Sir F. B. Head's " Bread and Butter " As- 
 sembly was very far from realizing his election pro- 
 mises of Reform * But it is not probable that any 
 section of the public was disappointed, for they were 
 not promises that any one expected to see fulfilled. 
 The fear of a legal and inevitable dissolution, which 
 seemed to be impending, weighed heavily upon the 
 "Bread and Butter" Parliament. King William IV. 
 would probably not live four years ; and on the demise 
 of the Sovereign the Legislative Assembly legally 
 ceased to exist. Sir F. B. Head was not likely to fare 
 so well in a second election as he had in the first. A 
 bill was therefore passed, taking away the effect of the 
 Sovereign's death, of dissolving the House. Of the 
 majority, who passed this act, Mr. Mackenzie said, 
 " They tremble and shake for fear of the just retribu- 
 tion their covetousness has provoked ; and at Head's 
 nod vote themselves fit to outlive kings and emperors, 
 though utterly unfit to face their injured country." 
 The Lieutenant Grovernor was greatly scandalized at 
 a vote of £50,000 for roads, in the previous session ; 
 
 * In one of his electioneering repl:'es to addresses, Sir F. B. Head said . 
 " Upper Canada has been so cruelly leceived by false statements, that the 
 farmers' interests are neglected, ■while the agitators of the Province have been 
 reaping a rich harvest. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I was sent here by His Majesty on purpose to correct the griev- 
 ances of the country. I see quite clearly who are its enemies ; and I declare 
 to you, that if the farmers will assist me, I will assist them. 
 
 " It is quite certain that I can render this Province powerful assistance ; and 
 it is equally certain that I have been ordered by His Majesty so to do." 
 
 And in another: "Gentlemen, I need hardly assure you that I myself am 
 an advocate for reform, because if you will but take the trouble to read my 
 instructions, they will show you, that I was sent to Upper Canada by our 
 Gracious Sovereign for the express purpose of carrying reform into effect."
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 397 
 
 but now ten times that amount was voted for the same 
 purpose. The bill authorized the government to ap- 
 point commissioners to expend the money. If there 
 were grave objections to allowing members of the 
 House to perform this duty, the matter was not likely 
 to be made much better by investing an irresponsible 
 administration with the entire control of the expendi- 
 ture, through agents of its selection. The money 
 bills, passed this session, show an extraordinary 
 degree of recklessness, on the part of the House, 
 in incurring debt. The Welland Canal debt was 
 increased to nearly a million of dollars. Authority 
 was given to borrow on the credit of the Province 
 over three quarters of a million (£300,000) more, 
 on account of a projected railroad from Hamilton 
 to Sandwich ; to lend $400,000 to the Toronto and 
 Lake Huron Railway Company ; for a loan of £77,000 
 for the improvement of the Trent Navigation. A 
 large number of other loans to companies connedted 
 with harbors, canals, and navigation, was authorized. 
 The entire amount voted must have been about five 
 millions of dollars ; bearing a larger proportion to 
 the revenue than a hundred millions would at present. 
 The establishment of fifty-seven Rectories by Sir J. 
 Colborne, before he left the government, which had 
 given great ofi'ence to a large majority of the popula- 
 tion,* received the approval of the Assembly. 
 
 The session closed in one of those hurricanes of pas- 
 
 » When Sir F. B. Head undertook to manage the elections, he found the 
 Rectory question one of his difficulties. "The feeling which the endowment 
 of these Rectories created through the Province," he admitted in a dispatch to 
 the Colonial Secretary, " was one of the many difficulties I had to contend 
 against, during the late elections ''
 
 398 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 sion which often precede a violent revolutionary move- 
 ment. The question of a Union of Upper and Lower 
 Canada had been before the House during the session, 
 and resolutions had been passed condemning the pro- 
 ject. At twelve o'clock on the last day of the ses- 
 sion — the prorogation was to take place at three- 
 Messrs. Sherwood and Jones asked the concurrence 
 of the House in an address to the Crown founded on 
 the resolutions. Dr. Rolph moved an amendment, 
 the object of which was to prevent a decision on the 
 question in the absence of many members who had 
 already gone home. He was followed by two other 
 speakers on the same side, and as time was running 
 rapidly against them, and Black Rod would soon 
 make his appearance, the Tories began to show signs 
 of impatience — moving about, whispering in little 
 knots together, and calling " question" and " order." 
 Then, at the instance of Messrs. Jones and Draper, 
 the* Speaker called Dr. Rolph to order, laying down 
 the rule that the question of Union could not be dis- 
 cussed on the amendment, but that it was only permis- 
 sible to argue from the absence of members. Trying 
 what he could do within these narrow limits, Dr. 
 Rolph proceeded : — 
 
 " Our geographical situation," he said,.'' is singular. 
 To the South we are barred from the Atlantic coast 
 by the American Republics ; to the IN'orth and JSTorth- 
 West you pass through barren lands to mountains 
 covered with everlasting snows, and among Indian 
 tribes unknown ; and to the East w^e are intercepted 
 by the sister Province, the very Province with which 
 -it is proposed to unite us." Here he paused amidst
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 399 
 
 a scene of wild confusion. Three members were con- 
 ferring with the Speaker, and others of the majority 
 were consulting together in clusters, when the Speaker, 
 addressing Dr. Rolph, told him he must confine him- 
 self to the question. " Most logically, sir," was the^ 
 reply, " nothing but the gossipping about you prevented 
 you from comprehending the bearing of my remarks," 
 Mr. Jones, in an undertone : " This is indecent." Dr. 
 Kolph : " The honorable and learned member says, 
 ' This is indecent.' " Mr. Jones : " I only said so to 
 you, not to the House." Dr. Rolph : " What is said 
 to me is said to the House. Indecent to discuss the 
 question of Union introduced by himself!" The 
 Speaker interposes : " That, sir, is beside the ques- 
 tion." Dr. Rolph : " Do, sir, then your duty by pro- 
 tecting the minority against the majority." There 
 was now a scene of complete confusion and disorder ; 
 members moving about, whistling and talking, amid 
 cries of "Chair." The Speaker again interposed: 
 " Really the time must not be thus consumed ; we 
 shall soon have to wait upon the Lieutenant Governor 
 with some joint address." Dr. Rolph : " Then post- 
 pone the discussion till next session ; surely want of 
 time is attributable to those who now bring on the 
 question at the eleventh hour, not to this side of the 
 House, who are forced into it." After a further alter- 
 cation, the amendment was put and lost, and just 
 as the Speaker was about to put the main motion, Dr. 
 Rolph rose, saying : " Mr. Speaker, I have another 
 amendment to propose, notwithstanding your high- 
 banded method of putting me down." Mr. Sher- 
 wood : " Order ! order ! chair." Several voices : " Pro-
 
 400 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 tect the chair." The Speaker made some remark 
 that was not audible below the bar. Dr. Rolph : 
 " Bear it ; yes, it is but little of what is deserved." 
 He then moved that the sense of the country on the 
 subject of a Union of the Province would be best 
 ascertained by dissolution, as a means of appealing to 
 the country. Having thus obtained the right to enter 
 on a wider range of discussion, he went on amid the 
 same confusion as before, and when he was uttering 
 the words, " The evil of our inland situation is ad- 
 mitted ; what is the remedy ?" — the Speaker an- 
 nounced : " The time has arrived — half-past one — to 
 wait on the Lieutenant Grovernor with some joint ad- 
 dress." And the scene was abruptly brought to a 
 close. 
 
 Thus ended the last regular session of the Upper 
 Canada Legislature preceding the outbreak of 1837, 
 though an extraordinary session w^as to intervene. 
 Several such scenes had occurred during the first ses- 
 sion of the " Bread and Butter" Parliament.* 
 
 In the last session of the previous Parliament, Mr. 
 
 * The Montreal Gazette, a Tory paper, was greatly scandalized at the "scenes 
 of an unseemly character that have lately been enacted in the Commons 
 House of Assembly of our sister Province of Upper Canada. Yv'e particu- 
 larly allude," it said, "to the disorderly, and, we must add, disgraceful man- 
 ner in which important questions were discussed during the late session, "Why, 
 we ask, on any question, however much it may involve the interests of the 
 public, or excite the feelings of contending and opposite parties, should the 
 present House of Assembly of Upper Canada, of all others, so far forget what 
 was due to itself, to the dignity of its deliberations, to the welfare of its con- 
 stituency, to the prosperity of the Province, and the fair fame and honor of 
 its character, as to permit itself for an instant to break loose like so many Bed- 
 lamites into those scenes of riotous disorder to which we have alluded, and 
 which, it is admitted on uU hands, reflect but little credit on the best and 
 wisest among them."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 401 
 
 Mackenzie, as has already been noticed, had carried 
 an address to the King, praying that the Imperial 
 Government would, by the use of its diplomatic in- 
 strumentalities, endeavor to procure for Canadians 
 transit of goods through the United States free from 
 import duties. But as it had not brought about the 
 desired result, a large number of Canadians petitioned 
 the Federal authorities, at Washington, to grant a 
 drawback of duties on Canadian imports passing in 
 transitu through the United States. And it was 
 alleged that the petition received more attention than 
 was paid to the address sent to England, though it 
 appears to me that the facts hardly bore out the state- 
 ment. 
 
 This spring Mr. Mackenzie went to 'New York, 
 arriving there about the end of March. At the trade 
 sales, then going on, he purchased several thousand 
 volumes of books, and made large additions to his 
 j^rinting establishment. About two years before he 
 had added a large book-store to his other business, 
 and his present purchases furnished decisive proof 
 that, at this time, the idea of risking every thing upon 
 an armed insurrection had not entered into his calcu- 
 lations. 
 
 51 

 
 *. 
 
 I
 
 II r,\ a lr\ 'r'^ 
 
 ^LEi\lD), BAKT,
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 ov 
 
 WM. LYON MACKENZIE. 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE CANADIAN REBELLION 
 
 OF 1837, AND THE SUBSEQUENT FRONTIER 
 
 DISTURBANCES, CHIEFLY FROM UN 
 
 PUBLISHED DOCUMENTS. 
 
 BT 
 
 CHARLES LINDSEY. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 TORONTO, C.W.: 
 P. R. RANDALL, No. 12 TORONTO STREET. 
 
 1862.
 
 Entered according to Act of the Provincial Legislature, in the year 1862, by 
 
 CHAKLES LINDSEY, 
 
 In the Office of the Eegistrar of the Province of Canada. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by 
 
 J. W. BRADLEY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Oflce of the District Court for the Eastern District of PennsylTania.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Crisia — Coercion Resolutions — Reformers' Declaration — Vigilance Committee — 
 Independence declared necessary — Calls to Arms — Disturbances 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Commercial Crisis — Extra Session of Legislatures — Threats to assassinate Macken- 
 zie — Welland Canal Libel Suit — Damages two shillings 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Rolls of Revolt — Convention Crisis — Proposal of Mackenzie to overthrow the Go- 
 vernment — It encourageq a Revolt 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Rebellion in Lower Canada — Battles of St. Denis and St. Charles — Skirmishes on 
 Road to Toronto — Flag of Truce — Failure of Negotiations — Defeat of Insurgents. 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Canadian Militia in 1837 — Mackenzie's account of his Escape to the American 
 Shore, with Notes by the Author 100 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Sympathizers at Buffalo and Oswego — Sutherland — ^Van Rensellaer — Provisional 
 Government on Navy Island — Bombardment — Stirring Reports 123 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Destruction of Steamboat Caroline — Neutrality — Trial of McLeod — Mrs. Mackenzie 
 on Navy Island — Arrest of Mackenzie for a Breach of United States Laws 144 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 Rival Generals — Handy, Theller, Sutherland — Tenderness of Michigan Governor — 
 McLeod defeated — Sutherland Prisoner 165 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mackengie'a Gazette — Joined by his Family — Execution of Lount and Matthews— 
 Conspiracy frustrated — Short Hills Expedition 185 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Declares his Intentions — Hunter's Lodges — Moonshine Bank — Federal and Cana- 
 dian Spies — Inability of United States Government to prevent Marauders — 
 
 Prescott Expedition 198 
 
 8
 
 4 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 tASM 
 
 Van Buren's Neutrality Proclamation — Real Motives — Tiuditional Policy — £100 
 Reward for Mackenzie — He Addresses Large Public Meetings — Windsor Expe- 
 dition 215 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Removes to Rochester — Disorganized State of Refugees — Canadian Prisoners in 
 England — Associations of Refugees 232 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Trial and Conviction — Eighteen months' Imprisonment — Sickness — Death of his 
 Mother — Visits her Death-bed by Stratagem — Pardon 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Visit to Washington — Kidnapping Enterprize — Poverty — Denounces Frontier 
 Movements — Actuary — New York Custom House — Tribune — New York Conven- 
 tion — Death of his daughter — Amnesty — Removes to Canada — Elected to As- 
 sembly — Sickness and Death. 269 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 Books read by Mackenzie between 1806 and 1819 303 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 Defence against Charge of Publishing Libels on the House 313 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 The Second Riding of York Election in 1836 326 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 The Declaration adopted and published in The Constitution, August, 1837 334 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 Draft of Constitution submitted to Convention for adoption 344 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 Appeal for Independence, printed in handbill form 359 
 
 APPENDIX a. 
 Proclamation by the Provincial Qovernment of Upper Canada 363 
 
 APPENDIX H. 
 Montgomery's account of Escape from Fort Henry, C. W 369 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 Names of Persons Imprisoned for their participation in the Revolt, in U. C 373
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Crisis approaching — Eeport of the Koyal Commissioners, in Lower Canada 
 •-The Effect on Upper Canada — Lord John Eussell's Coercion Kesolutions 
 for seizing the Public Chest of Lower Canada — They create a Hurricane of 
 Indignation in the Province — The Principle at Stake — Anti-coercion Meet- 
 ings — Mackenzie's Keasons for thinking the Lower Canadians would succeed 
 in an Appeal to Arms — The Declaration of the "Upper Canada Keformers— 
 Its private History — A Central Vigilance Committee formed in Toronto, of 
 which Mr. Mackenzie was Agent and Secretary — ^An Organization through- 
 out the Country set on foot, in such a way that it could be used for Mili- 
 tary purposes — It afterwards became the Instrument of Kevolt — Mackenzie 
 attends a Series of Public Meetings as Agent of the Toronto Vigilance 
 Committee — The chief Actors in many of these Meetings become involved 
 in the Insurrection — Independence declared to be necessary, and Calls to 
 Arms are made — Disturbances at the Public Meetings — "Pikes and Kifles" 
 — Two Hundred Meetings held, and One Hundred and Fifty Vigilance 
 Committees formed — Some of the Leaders joined no Association. 
 
 The crisis was now rapidly approaching. It was 
 to come first in Lower Canada, with which the for- 
 tunes of the Western Province were to become in 
 rolved. The Royal Commissioners, appointed to in- 
 quire into the grievances complained of in Lower 
 Canada, had reported ; and about the middle of April, 
 their reports — five in number — were made public. 
 The surrender of the casual and territorial revenue to 
 the Assembly, whose claim to control it had led to re- 
 peated and angry disputes, was recommended, on con- 
 dition that the arrearages of salaries amounting to
 
 b LIFE OF MACKEA^ZIE, AND 
 
 £31,000 should be paid, and a civil list, amounting to 
 about £20,000, should be granted, for the life of the 
 King. The Legislative Council, it was recommended, 
 should be erected into a court of impeachment for of- 
 fending public servants. The demands for an elective 
 Legislative Council and a responsible Executive were 
 reported against. The decision of the Commissioners, 
 on the subject of the Legislative Council, was in ac- 
 cordance with instructions they had received. In a 
 dispatch, dated July 17th, 1835, Lord Glenelg in- 
 formed the Commissioners that all discussion of one 
 of the vital principles of the Provincial Government 
 — a Crown-nominated Legislative Council was alluded 
 to — was precluded by the strong predilections of the 
 King, the solemn pledges repeatedly given for the 
 maintenance of the existing system, and the preposses- 
 sions derived from constitutional analogy and usage. 
 The decision thus communicated b}'- way of instruc- 
 tions to the Commissioners was merely echoed by them. 
 It affected Upper equally with Lower Canada ; for 
 Lord Glenelg, in his instructions to Sir F. B. Head, 
 had stated as his reasons for not answering the part 
 of the Grievance Report which referred to the consti-' 
 tution of the Legislative Council, that the instructions 
 to the Commissioners contained views, on this point, 
 which had received the deliberate sanction of the 
 King. 
 
 The Imperial Government went beyond the recom- 
 mendation of the Commissioners. Lord John Russell, 
 on the 8th of March, obtained the assent of the House 
 of Commons to resolutions which, among other things, 
 authorized the seizing of the funds in the hands of the
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 7 
 
 Receiver Greneral of Lower Canada, and applying tliem 
 to purposes for which the Assembly would only grant 
 them, on condition that certain reforms should be 
 effected. They had voted the salaries of the judges ; 
 but they were to be paid only on condition that those 
 functionaries should hold no other office under the 
 Crown. In this way they had attacked what they 
 considered an incompatible plurality of offices. The 
 Council, refusing to concur with the House, made no 
 report on the Supply Bill ; and, therefore, in one 
 sense, it might be alleged that the supplies failed in 
 that House. The Assembly made certain of the sup- 
 plies dependent uj)on a redress of grievances. On the 
 3d of October, 1836, the House had come to the reso- 
 lution to adjourn their proceedings till His Majesty's 
 Government should have commenced " the great work 
 of justice and reform, especially by bringing the Le- 
 gislative Assembly into harmony with the wishes and 
 wants of the people." Lord John Russell contended 
 that the demand for an Executive Council, similar to 
 the Cabinet which existed in Great Britain, set up a 
 claim for what was incompatible with the relations 
 'which ought to exist between the Colony and Mother 
 Country. " These relations," he said, repeating the 
 stereotyped official idea of those times, " required that 
 His Majesty should be represented in the Colony not 
 by Ministers, but by a Governor sent out by the King, 
 and responsible to the Parliament of Great Britain." 
 A Colonial Ministry, he contended, would impose on 
 England all the inconveniences and none of the advan- 
 tages of Colonies. If this system were adopted, and 
 a British subject were wronged on the banks of the 
 
 52
 
 8 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 St. Lawrence, His Majesty would have less right to 
 interfere than if the injury had been committed on the 
 banks of the Danube or the Bosphorus. As to the 
 authority of the Imperial Legislature to remedy a 
 defect in the cessation of supply, on the part of a Co- 
 lonial Assembly, he apprehended that there could be 
 no doubt. The same thing had been done only the 
 year before with respect to Jamaica; and that was 
 precedent sufficient. When a similar question was 
 raised with regard to the Legislature of the Colony of 
 New York, Dr. Franklin had admitted that the power, 
 now contended for, resided in the Imperial House of 
 Commons. With two such precedents. Lord John 
 Russell deemed himself justified in resorting to a 
 measure of confiscation, which led to rebellion.* 
 
 Mr. Hume had a better appreciation of the crisis. 
 He looked upon the proceedings as involving a ques- 
 tion of civil war. If the Canadians did not resist, they 
 would deserve the slavish bonds which the resolutions 
 of Lord John Russell would prepare for them ; and 
 he hoped that, if justice were denied to Canada, those 
 who were oppressed would achieve the same victory that 
 had crowned the efforts of the men who had established 
 that American Republic, which had given a check to 
 those monarchical principles which would otherwise 
 have overwhelmed the liberties of Europe. 
 
 How little the House of Commons was conscious of 
 the results that hung upon their decision, may be 
 
 * M. Louis J. Papineau, the leader of the insurrection in Lower Canada, 
 •tated in an account of the troubles which he published after he became a 
 refugee, in Paris: "None of us had prepared, desired, or foreseen armed re- 
 eistance," hcS re these resolutions were passed.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 9 
 
 gathered from the fact that, while Mr. Hume was 
 speaking, the House was counted to see if there was a 
 quorum. It was ascertained that there were over 
 forty members present, and the debate went on to its 
 fatal close. And in the House of Lords, the same 
 apathy was shown. Not over one-tenth of the mem- 
 bers, who frequently attend, came to listen to or take 
 part in the debate ; and except Lord Brougham, who 
 entered on the journals his protest against such pro- 
 ceedings, not a single member opposed their passage. 
 Mr. Gladstone saw nothing in the question raised but 
 how the faithful servants of the Crown could be re- 
 lieved from difficulty; and Mr. Labouchere echoed 
 these observation with some flourishes of his own. 
 Lord Stanley, who had been among the first to de- 
 nounce the Legislative Council as the source of all the 
 evils under which Upper Canada labored, and who 
 had perhaps been the first to suggest to the Colonists 
 a resort to the constitutional remedy of withholding 
 the supplies, now denounced both these remedies, and 
 declaimed about " the most odious and blood-thirsty 
 tyranny of French republicanism." 
 
 The resolutions were carried, and the result which 
 Mr. Hume had predicted, followed.* They were re- 
 
 * As these resolutions were the immediate cause of the insurrection in both 
 the Canadas, they cannot well be omitted here : — 
 
 " 1. That since the 31st day of October, in the year 1832, no provision has 
 been made by the Legislature of the Province of Lower Canada for defraying 
 the charges of the administration of justice, and for the support of the civil 
 government with'.n the said Province ; and that there will, on the 10th day 
 of April, now next ensuing, be required for defraying in full the charges 
 aforesaid, to that day, the sum of £142,100 14«. 6i. 
 
 "2. That at a session of the Legislature of Lower Canada, holden at the 
 City of Quebec, n the said Prcvince, in the months of September and October,
 
 10 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 ceived with a storm of indignation by the French 
 Canadians. The local officials and their friends were 
 
 1836, the Governor of the said Province, in compliance with His Majesty's 
 commands, recommended to the attention of the House of Assembly thereof 
 the estimates for the current year, and also the accounts showing the arrears 
 due in respect to the civil government, and signified to the said House His 
 Majesty's confidence that they would accede to the application which he had 
 been commanded to renew for payment of the arrears due on account of the 
 public service, and for the funds necessary to carry on the civil government 
 of the Province. 
 
 "3. That the said House of Assembly, on the 8d day of October, 1836, by 
 an address to the Governor of the said Province, declined to vote a supply for 
 the purposes aforesaid; and by the said address, after referring to a former 
 address of the said House to the Governor of the said Province, declared that 
 the said House persisted, among other things, in the demand of an elective 
 Legislative Council, in demanding the repeal of a certain act passed by the 
 Parliament of the United Kingdom in favor of the North American Land 
 Company ; and by the said address the said House of Assembly further ad- 
 verted to the demand made by that House of the free exercise of its control 
 over all the branches of the Executive Government; and by the said address 
 the said House of Assembly further declared, it was incumbent on them, in the 
 present conjuncture, to adjourn their deliberations until His Majesty's Govern- 
 ment should, by its acts, especially by rendering the second branch of the 
 Legislature conformable to the wishes and wants of the people, have com- 
 menced the great work of justice and reform, and created a confidence which 
 alone could crown it with success. 
 
 *'4. That in the existing state of Lower Canada, it is unadvisable to make 
 tha Legislative Council of that Province an elective body ; but that it is expe- 
 dient that measures be adopted for securing to that branch of the Legislature 
 a greater degree of public confidence. 
 
 " 5. That while it is expedient to improve the composition of the Executive 
 Council in Lower Canada, it is unadvisable to subject it to the responsibility 
 demanded by the House of Assembly of that Province. 
 
 '•6. That the legal title of the North American Land Company to the laud 
 holden by the said Company by virtue of a grant from His Majesty, under the 
 public seal of the said Province, and to the privileges conferred on the said 
 Company by the act for that purpose made in the fourth year of His Majesty's 
 reign, ought to be maintained inviolate. 
 
 " 7. That it is expedient that so soon as provision shall have been made by 
 law to be passed by the Legislature of the said Province of Lower Canada, for 
 the discharge of lands therein from feudal dues and services, and for removing 
 any doubts as to the incidents or the tenure of land in free and common soc-
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 11 
 
 jubilant at tlie imaginary success which had been 
 achieved for them. The journals of the oj)position 
 were defiant. The seizure of the revenue was de- 
 nounced as robbery. " Henceforth," said an English 
 organ of the opposition, " there must be no peace 
 in the Province — no quarter for the plunderers. Agi- 
 tate ! agitate ! ! agitate ! ! ! Destroy the revenue ; de- 
 nounce the oppressors. Everything is lawful when 
 the fundamental liberties are in danger. ' The guards 
 
 age in tlie said Provinces, a certain act made and passed in the sixth year of 
 the reign of His late Majesty, King George the Fourth, commonly called ' The 
 Canada Tenures Act,' and so much of another act passed in the third year of 
 His said late Majesty's reign, commonly called ' The Canada Trade Act,' as 
 relates to the tenures of land in the said Province, should be repealed, saving, 
 nevertheless, to all persons, all rights in them vested under or by virtue of the 
 said recited acts. 
 
 "8. That for defraying the arrears due on account of the established and 
 customary charges of the administration of justice and of the civil government 
 of the said Province, it is expedient that, after applying for that purpose such 
 balance as shall, on the said 10th day of April, 1837, be in the hands of the Ke- 
 ceiver General of the said Province, arising from His Majesty's hereditary, ter- 
 ritorial, and casual revenue, the Governor of the said Province be empowered 
 to issue from and out of any other part of His Majesty's revenue in the hands 
 of the Keceiver General of the said Province, such further sums as shall be ne- 
 cessary to effect the payment of the before mentioned sum of i;i42,100 14*. 6<f. 
 
 " 9. That it is expedient that His Majesty be authorized to place at the dis- 
 posal of the Legislature of the said Province the net proceeds of His Majesty's 
 hereditary, territorial, and casual revenue arising within the same, in case the 
 Baid Legislature shall see fit to grant to His Majesty a civil list for defraying 
 the necessary charges of the administration of justice, and for the main- 
 tenance and unavoidable expenses of certain of the principal officers of the 
 civil government of the said Province. 
 
 "10. That great inconvenience has been sustained by His Majesty's subjects 
 inhabiting the Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper Canada from the want 
 of some adequate means for regulating and adjusting questions respecting the 
 trade and commerce of the said Provinces, and divers other questions wherein 
 the said Provinces have a common interest; and it is expedient that the Legis- 
 latures of the said Provinces respectively be authorized to make provisicr for 
 the joint regulation and adjustment of such, their common interests."
 
 12 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 die — they never surrender.' "* At public meetings the 
 Imperial resolutions were denounced as a breach of 
 faith and a violation of right. Resolutions were come 
 to, to use as little as possible of imported articles 
 paying duty ;f and to raise a Papineau tribute in imi- 
 tation of O'Connell's Repeal Rent. 
 
 The Toronto Alliance Society, on the l7th of April, 
 expressed its sympathy with the Lower Canadians, 
 and condemned the coercion resolutions of the Impe- 
 rial Grovernment. 
 
 Success is the only thing that is generally held to 
 justify insurrection against a government ; and though 
 it is impossible to lay down any general rule as to 
 the point at which submission to oppression ceases to 
 be a virtue, it is generall}'' admitted that the initiation 
 of such a movement can only be excused by a reason- 
 
 * Montreal Vindicator, edited by Dr. O'Callaghan, M. P. P.f At a largo 
 meeting, held at St. Scholastique, county of Two Mountains, M. Papineau 
 said: — "They [the British Ministry] are going to rob you of your money. 
 Your duty then is plain. Give them no money to steal! Keep it in your 
 pockets ! [Loud cheers.] The British Ministry promised, fifty years ago, 
 ■when well drubbed, beaten, and humiliated by the Americans, to respect the 
 rights of the people. Now they think they are strong, and can trample under 
 foot those rights tkey solemnly promised formerly to respect. Let us ex- 
 amine what the Americans did under similar circumstances. Ten days before 
 they took up arms, they adopted the course which we are now about to recom- 
 mend to you. They abstained from taxed articles which paid duties, and thus 
 deprived their enemies of money and power to oppress and tyrannize over 
 them. Even the women, handsome and patriotic as our own Canadian wo- 
 men, dete-mined to assist their husbands, their fathers, and their brothers, in 
 resisting tne horrible oppression which their tyrants were preparing for them. 
 I fervently hope, and in the name of mine and their suffering country, I call 
 on, I implore the women of Canada to follow the bright example set them, in 
 times like the present, by the patriotic women of America, and to assist me, 
 and us all, in destroying that revenue which our oppressors are forging into 
 chains for us and our children, and by all means in their power to discourage 
 the consumption of those articles which pay duties."
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 13 
 
 able prospect of success. If the question of the 
 Lower Canada rebellion could be decided upon the 
 merits of the principle at stake, we should be obliged 
 to confess that what the Canadians fought for was just 
 as sacred as that right of self-taxation for which 
 Washington took up arms, and in defence of which 
 the thirteen American Colonies threw off the yoke 
 of England. If it is not permissible to tax a people 
 without their consent — and the House of Commons 
 had long before made a solemn declaration to this 
 effect, in the case of the Colonies — on what principle 
 could the proceeds of their taxes be seized upon by an 
 authority which had deprived itself of the power to 
 levy them ? 
 
 On the 15th of June, Lord Go s ford tried the effect 
 of a proclamation, on the agitation which was con- 
 vulsing society. He assured the people that the Im- 
 perial Parliament had neither violated nor was about 
 to violate the just rights and privileges of His Majes- 
 ty's Canadian subjects ; he exhorted all concerned to 
 discontinue writings of a seditious tendency and to 
 avoid public meetings of a " dangerous or equivocal 
 character." But the proclamation, which was torn 
 to pieces by the habitants amid cries of " A has la 
 proclamation" produced no effect, if it were not to in- 
 crease the fervor with which the coercion resolutions, 
 as they were called, were denounced. The French Ca- 
 nadians rallied to the popular cries : " Vive Papineau ! 
 Vive la libertS ! Point du despotisme !" In accordance 
 with the Lower Canada practice, many of these meet- 
 ings were held at the doors of the parish churches, 
 after the conclusion of the religious service. M.
 
 14 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, A1<!1) 
 
 Papineau, the chief agitator, a man of commanding 
 eloquence who was omnipotent with the French Ca- 
 nadian population, traversed the whole country from 
 Montreal to Rimouski ; holding meetings every- 
 where and exciting the people to the highest pitch of 
 exasperation. While he was on the South shore of 
 the St. Lawrence, Messrs. Lafontaine aud Girouard 
 were performing a similar mission on the other bank 
 of the great river. Dr. Wolfred JS'elson, too, bore 
 his share in the work of popular agitation ; having 
 made a conspicuous figure at the first of the " anti- 
 coercion" meetings, which was held at St. Ours, in 
 the County of Richelieu. Some of the meetings were 
 attended by men with fire-arms in their hands. 
 
 In the beginning of July, Mr. Mackenzie discussed, 
 in his newspaper, the question — " Will the Canadians 
 declare their independence and shoulder their mus- 
 kets ?" After referring to meetings that had been held at 
 L'Islet and Bellechasse, he proceeded, in the sugges- 
 tive style, to say : " Two or three thousand Canadians, 
 meeting within twenty-five miles of the fortress of 
 Quebec, in defiance of the proclamation, with muskets 
 on their shoulders and the Speaker of the House of 
 Commons at their head, to pass resolutions declara- 
 tory of their abhorrence of British Colonial tyranny, 
 and their determination to resist and throw it off, is 
 a sign not easily misunderstood." He then proceeded 
 to the question : "Can the Canadians conquer ?" and 
 gave several reasons for answering it in the affirma- 
 tive. He, however, excepted the fortress of Quebec. 
 He argued that they w^ould conquer every thing but 
 this ; because they were united by the bond of a
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. lu 
 
 common language, a common religion, and a common 
 origin. They had for twenty years steadily opposed 
 the oligarchical system imposed upon them. Their 
 leaders were bold and resolute, cool and calculating; 
 full of lire and energy. As marksmen, they were 
 more than a match for British soldiers. Their orizan- 
 ization was better than Lord Gosford had any con- 
 ception of. They had a large number of experienced 
 officers among them, and were constantly receiving 
 from France military men who had won laurels at 
 the feet of Napoleon. The garrison of Quebec would 
 rather desert than fight against their fellow subjects. 
 Thousands of Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen, 
 in the United States, would hasten to rail}" around 
 the standard of the Canadians; especially if they were 
 offered three hundred or four hundred acres of Clergy 
 Reserves each. The Colonial Governors had no ade- 
 quate means of resistance ; and no House of Commons 
 would sanction the spending of fifty or sixty millions 
 to put down the rebellion. 
 
 Such were the opinions deliberately written and 
 published by Mr. Mackenzie, on the 5th of July, 1837. 
 The French Canadians appealed to the other British 
 Provinces of America for co-operation, and looked to 
 the United States for support. And this co-operation 
 the leading Reformers of Upper Canada resolved to 
 give. 
 
 On the 2d August, a " Declaration of the Reformers 
 of Toronto to their Fellow Reformers in Upper Ca- 
 nada," was published in The Constitution'^' This docu- 
 ment was virtually a declaration of independence, and 
 
 * See Appendix D. 
 53
 
 16 LIFE 01 MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 it was afterwards called the " Declaration of the In- 
 dependence," of Upper Canada, but there is reason to 
 doubt whether its purport was fully understood even 
 by all who signed it. Setting out with the declaration 
 that the time for the assertion of popular rights and 
 the redress of the multiplied wrongs of half a century, 
 patiently borne, had arrived, it entered into a long 
 recital of grievances, and ended with a pledge to 
 make common cause with Lower Canada, and a re- 
 solve to call a convention of delegates, at Toronto, 
 " to take into consideration the political condition of 
 Upper Canada, with authority to its members to ap- 
 point commissioners to meet others to be named on 
 behalf of Lower Canada and any other Colonies, armed 
 with suitable powers as a Congress to seek an effec- 
 tual remed}'- for the grievance of the Colonists.'"^ 
 
 This Declaration has a public and a secret history 
 The public history is, that at a meeting of Reformers, 
 held at Mr. John Doel's Brewery, Toronto, on the 
 28th July, the troubles in Lower Canada were taken 
 into consideration. On motion of Mr. Mackenzie, 
 seconded by Dr. Morrison, a resolution was passed 
 tendering the thanks and expressing the admiration 
 of the Reformers of Upper Canada to Hon. L. J. 
 Papineau and his compatriots for their " devoted, 
 honorable, and patriotic opposition" to the coercive 
 measures of the Imperial Government. Other reso- 
 lutions were passed to make common cause with the 
 Lower Canadians, " w^hose successful coercion would 
 doubtless, in time, be visited upon us, and the redress 
 of whose grievances would be the best guarantee for 
 the redress of our own ;" and, among other things, 
 
 * See Appendix D.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 17 
 
 appointing a committee to draft and report to an ad- 
 journed meeting a declaration of the objects and prin- 
 ciples which the Reformers aimed to carry out.* 
 
 The secret histor}'' is this. The document was a 
 joint production in which O'Grady's and Dr. Rolj^h's 
 pens were engaged. The draft was taken to a meet- 
 ing, at Elliott's Tavern, on the corner of Yonge and 
 Queen Streets, previous to its being taken before the 
 adjourned meetings, at the Brewery, for adoption. 
 Dr. Morrison, on producing the draft of the Declara- 
 tion, laid it down as a sound canon that neither he 
 nor any other member of the Legislature ought to 
 be called upon to sign it. It was the privilege of 
 persons outside the Legislature to raise questions 
 of this nature, and the duty of the representatives 
 to do their best to give eifect to the wishes of the peo- 
 ple in the sphere of action assigned to them. To this 
 rale for the division of functions Mr. James Lesslie 
 took exception. A document of grave import had 
 been read to the meeting. It had been written by 
 men who gave the most of their time to politics, and 
 read to men who gave most of their attention to trade 
 and commerce. The responsibility of sigaiing such a 
 document should not be thrown upon those who had 
 not prepared it, and who knew least about its contents. 
 The professional politicians ought to set the example, 
 and then the others might follow. If the Declaration 
 contained only an enumeration of facts, and if it were 
 a proper document to be signed, the members of the 
 
 * The committee consisted of Messrs. James Harrey Price, O'Bierne, John 
 Edward Tims, John Doel, John Mcintosh, James Armstrong, T. J. O'Neill 
 and Mackenzie, with power to add to their number.
 
 18 LIFE OF MACKENZIE i YD 
 
 Legislature, such as Drs. Morrison and Rolph, ought 
 to set the example ; and if they did so, he would fol- 
 low. Dr. Morrison found it necessary to append his 
 name to the Declaration, but as Dr. Rolph was not 
 there to pursue the same course, Mr. James Lesslie 
 refused to sign and he induced his brother William to 
 erase his signature. IN'ext morning Dr. Rolph sent 
 for Mr. James Lesslie to inquire what had been done 
 at the meeting, and the latter replied by letter, re- 
 peating his objections to being put in the front rank 
 of a movement in which he ought to be a follower. 
 Dr. Morrison was not without reasons for his hesita- 
 tion and timidity, though it is too much to expect that 
 others will enter on a course fraught with danger, if 
 those who advise them to do so refuse to accompany 
 them ; for on his trial for high treason, eight months 
 afterwards, this Declaration was attempted to be made 
 a ground of conviction. 
 
 At the meeting, held at the Brewery on the 31st of 
 July, at which the Declaration was adopted, a perma- 
 nent Vigilance Committee was appointed. It con ■ 
 sisted of the members of the committee who had re- 
 ported the draft of the Declaration ; and Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie complied with a request that he would become 
 agent and corresponding secretary. The plan of pro- 
 ceeding was similar to that acted upon, in Lower 
 Canada, where the public meetings were held under 
 the direction of a central committee ; and Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie's duties as agent were to attend meetings, in 
 different parts of the country, taking, in Upper Ca- 
 nada, the role played by Mr. Papineau, in the sister 
 Province. Meetings were at once arranged to take
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 19 
 
 place in Albion, Caledon, Chingacousy, Esquesing, 
 Trafalgar, and Yaughan ; at Xewmarket, Llo}'dtovvn, 
 Churchville, and Cooksville. 
 
 The machinery of agitation, of which the motive 
 power was in Toronto, was to have four several cen- 
 tres of action outside the city. At the meeting held 
 in the Brewery, on the 28th of July, a plan submitted 
 by Mr. Mackenzie, " for uniting, organizing, and re- 
 gistering the Reformers of Upper Canada, as a politi- 
 cal Union," was adopted.'^ A net-work of societies 
 
 * The project was as follows : 
 
 "1. In order to avoid the mixture of persons unknown to each other, no 
 Society is to consist of less than twelve or more than forty persons, and those 
 to he resident as nearly as possible in the same neighborhood. 
 
 " 2. Each of these Societies shall choose one of their number to be their 
 Becretary. 
 
 " 3. The Secretaries of five of these Societies shall form a Committee, to be 
 called the Township Committee. 
 
 *' 4. Ten of these Township Committees, of citizens residing in places the 
 most convenient to each other, shall each select one of their number, and the 
 persons so chosen shall form the County Committee. 
 
 " 5. The District Committee shall consist of one member \o be chosen from 
 each County Committee within the limits of such district. 
 
 " 6. Upper Canada shall be divided into four grand Divisions, as follows : 
 
 "The Western Division to consist of the counties of Kent, Essex, Middle- 
 sex, Oxford, Huron, and Norfolk. 
 
 " The Toronto Division to consist of Lincoln, Haldimand, Wentworth, 
 Halton, York, Simcoe, and Durham. 
 
 "The Midland Division to consist of the counties of Northumberland, 
 Hastings, Prince Edward, Erontenac, Lennox, and Addington. 
 
 "The Eastern Division to consist of the whole of the counties north-east of 
 the Midland District. 
 
 " 7. Within each of these Divisions there shall be a Committee of Division 
 to be composed of two or three members elected from each of the District Com- 
 mittees within the same. 
 
 "8. The Executive shall consist of three persons, to be chosen from among the 
 members of the several Committees of Division, and be invested with the ne- 
 cessary powers to promote the objects for which the Union is to be constituted." 
 "When he first proposed this plan, Mr. Mackenzie explained and published.
 
 20 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 was to be spread over the country ; and care was to be 
 taken to have them composed of persons known to 
 one another. The objects of the organization were 
 not declared in the programme of association ; but the 
 duty of supporting Lower Canada against a coercion 
 which, if successful, it was feared would next be visited 
 upon Upper Canada, was recognized. 
 
 When Sir Francis Bond Head resorted to the most 
 unconstitutional means of influencing the elections of 
 1836, he carried despair into many a breast where 
 hope had till then continued to abide. The coercion 
 of Lower Canada by the Imperial Government and 
 Legislature caused all such persons, in the Canadas, 
 to look to a revolution as the only means of relief. 
 Mr. Mackenzie was among those who came to this 
 conclusion. But he only shared with a large class of 
 the population a sentiment which was the inevitable 
 produce of the existing state of things, and which af- 
 fected masses of men, at the same moment, with a 
 common and irresistible impulse. The Toronto De- 
 claration of the 31st of July was the first step in the 
 road to insurrection. It committed all who accepted 
 it to share the fortunes of Lower Canada. The ma- 
 chinery of organization and agitation, which was 
 created at the same time, became the instrument of 
 revolt. 
 
 that " a plan, such as I have suggested, could be easily transferred without 
 change of its structure to military purposes. The secretary of each subordi- 
 nate Society of twelve might easily be transformed into a sergeant or corporal ; 
 the delegate of five Societies to a Township Committee, into a captain with 
 sixty men under his command ; and the delegate of ten Township Committees 
 to a District Committee into a colonel at the head of a battalion of six hundred 
 men."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 21 
 
 The public meetings, which Mr. Mackenzie had un- 
 dertaken to attend, now commenced. The first was 
 held at JN'ewmarket, " north of the Oak Ridges, and 
 east of the line of King, and west of Guiliumhury," 
 on the 3d of August. The agent of the Toronto Cen- 
 tral Committee spoke an hour and a half; complain- 
 ing, among other things, that the agents and iietitions 
 of the people had been unfairly treated, in London. 
 A resolution was passed, approving of the Toronto 
 Declaration, and appointing delegates to the Conven- 
 tion to be held in that city ;'•' most of whom afterwards 
 became involved in the insurrection ; one of whom 
 was executed for high treason, and others became po- 
 litical refugees in the United States. The principal 
 complaint made in the resolutions was, that the Con- 
 stitution was " continually violated and tramjDled upon 
 by the Executive, and countenanced by the Colonial 
 Office and the English Parliament." To take these 
 grievances and the general state of the Province into 
 consideration was to be the business of the Conven- 
 tion. It was also resolved to abstain as far as possible 
 from the consumption of duty-paying articles ; and to 
 unite with the Lower Canadians, whose cause was de- 
 clared to be the cause of Upper Canada, " in every 
 practicable measure for the maintenance of civil and 
 religious liberty." A political association and a 
 permanent Vigilance Committee were formed. At 
 the suggestion of Lount, cheers were given for Papi- 
 
 * Their namos were Messrs. Samuel Lount, afterwards executed for high trea- 
 son ; Nelson Gorham, who became involved in the rebellion and was a long 
 time a political refugee in the United States; Silas Fletcher, who also became 
 a political refugee; Jeremiah Graham, and John Mcintosh, M. P. P., who, 
 though a party to the insurrection, was never arrested and scarcely suspected.
 
 22 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 neaii and the gallant people of the sister Province. 
 Lieutenant Carthew, late of the British army, called on 
 all persons opposed to Papineau to go to the right of 
 the chairman ; but .he was followed by only two others. 
 Tv/o days after, the second of the series of public 
 meetings took place at Lloydtown. Messrs. Mackenzie, 
 Lloyd, Lount, and Gribson, all of whom afterwards 
 bore an active part in the rebellion, addressed the 
 meeting. Mackenzie became head of the Provisional 
 Grovernment; Gibson was comptroller, and had be- 
 sides a military j^osition ; Lloyd was the trusted mes- 
 senger who carried to Mr. Papineau intelligence from 
 his supporters in Upper Canada. JN^o less than seven- 
 teen resolutions were passed. A resort to physical 
 force was declared not to be contemplated. " Much," 
 one of the resolutions affirmed, " may be done without 
 blood." It was complained that "a bribed and pen- 
 sioned band of official hirelings and expectants falsely 
 assuming the character of the representatives of the 
 people of Upper Canada, corrupted by offices, wealth, 
 and honors bestowed upon their influential members 
 by Sir F. B. Head, since they took their seats in the 
 House of Assembly, have refused to allow a free trial 
 to candidates ready to contest their seats — have re- 
 fused to order new elections fomiembers who have 
 accepted places of gain under the government^ — have 
 refused to institute a free and constitutional inquiry 
 into corruptions practiced at the elections through 
 Sir F. B. Head's patent deeds and otherwise ; and 
 although they were returned for the constitutional 
 period which the death of the King has brought near 
 to a close, they have violated the most solemn cove-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 23 
 
 nant of the British Constitution, by resolving that 
 their pretended powers of legishition shall continue 
 over us three years longer than they were appointed 
 to act." Approval of the Toronto Declaration was 
 expressed ; and delegates to the proposed Convention 
 were appointed.* The meeting protested against " the 
 dastardly insinuations of those who profess fears that 
 the Lower Canadians, in obtaining the just rights they 
 have so long and so patiently supplicated, are actu- 
 ated by the motive to establish the Catholic or any 
 other denomination as a state Church in this Pro- 
 vince. "f Separation from England w^as advocated, on 
 the ground that the connection imposed upon the Pro- 
 vince the evils of a state Church, an "unnatural aris- 
 tocracy, party privilege, public debt, and general op- 
 
 * Dr. W. W. Baldwin and Messrs. Jesse Lloyd, James Grey, Mark Lear- 
 mont, John Lawson, and Gerard Irwin. 
 
 f The authorities of the Roman Catholic Church in Lower Canada at- 
 tempted to curb the revolutionary impulses of the people. At Montreal, the 
 Bishop, before an assembly of over one hundred and forty priests or ecclesi- 
 astics, uttered the following words : " So solemn an occasion as the present had 
 never presented itself; he saw nearly all his clergy met before him, and he 
 was going to take advantage of the circumstance, to give to the pastors of par- 
 ishes certain notices of the highest importance in the present circumstances of 
 the country. The clergy were to use every eifort to establish charity and 
 union among their flocks ; they were to represent to their parishioners, that it 
 is never permitted to revolt against lawful authority, nor to transgress the 
 laws of the land; that they are not to absolve in the confessional any indica- 
 tion of ^the opinion either that one may revolt against the government under 
 nhich we have the happiness to live, or that it is permitted to break the laws 
 if the country, particularly that which forbids smuggling; and still less is it 
 allowed to absolve those who raay violate these laws." But the torrent of agi- 
 tation was too powerful for the bishop immediately to control. On the Sunday 
 after these resolutions reached them, the people of Laprairie and Yaudreuil 
 met in separate places, and passed resolutions, disapproving, in strong terms, of 
 all interference on the part of the clergy in politics. A priest in Two Moun- 
 tains, who denounced the movement, had his barn burned by his parishioners*
 
 24 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 pression." To avert much bloodshed on both sides, 
 loss, and dishonor of a ^var between people of a 
 common origin, the payment of a price for the free- 
 dom of the Province was suggested. If the question 
 of independence w^as tested by means of the ballot, it 
 was hinted that there could be no doubt as to the re 
 suit. Elective institutions, extending even to the 
 judiciary, were declared indispensable. 
 
 But the emblems, devices, and mottos, displayed at 
 this meeting, were even more significant than the reso- 
 lutions. On one flag was a large star, surrounded by 
 six minor lustres ; in the centre a Death's head, with 
 the inscription : " Libeety or death." Another flag 
 bore the word, " Liberty," in large letters, with 
 figures of pikes, swords, muskets, and cannons, " by 
 way of relief to the eye." Some bad verses, making 
 a call to arms, were inscribed on a third flag.* It 
 
 * A full record of these doings seems to impose upon me the duty ol pub- 
 lishing the following bad jingle : 
 
 "We* united were in days of yore, 
 Again Quebec dares to the field 
 Not that your noblest blood should pour 
 Against the States domain to yield. 
 "With her she calls you to advance, 
 On the broad path of truth and right. 
 How answer ye the sons of France ? 
 '• Up brave Canadians, to the fight." 
 She points the way, she cheers you on, 
 She bids you triumph for your right. 
 " Dare ye not do what she is doing ?" 
 " Up brave Canadians, to the fight." 
 And think ye Simcoe will not lend. 
 In such a cause, her warrior tide ? 
 Nor Albion men their steep descend,f 
 To share their peril at your side ? 
 
 * Upper and Lower Canada. 
 
 f Albion is the name of a township near Toronto.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 2o 
 
 had been intended to erect a liberty pole, one hundred 
 feet high ; but the design was abandoned. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie left Lloydtown accompanied by only 
 a couple of friends. While stopping on his way, at 
 the house of a farmer, named Godboldt, south of the 
 Oak Ridges, he learned that the Orangemen would 
 make an attempt to break up the Albion meeting. 
 About fifty young farmers therefore mounted their 
 horses, and escorted him to the village of Boltontown. 
 It was the 7th of August, As soon as Mr. Coats had 
 been called to the chair, the Orangemen declared their 
 intention to put down the meeting, and to resort to 
 force if necessary to accomplish their object. They, 
 however, listened patiently to Mr. Mackenzie, till the 
 reading of the Toronto Declaration was commenced, 
 when they proceeded to violent interruption. Find- 
 ing they were not numerous enough to prevent the 
 adoption of that Manifesto, they grew more vociferous, 
 rendering it impossible to continue the proceedings. 
 They gave Mr. Mackenzie's escort five minutes to 
 leave the place ; threatening, if their mandate were 
 not complied with, to bring out fire-arms which tbey 
 professed to have all ready loaded, in one of \ he 
 
 Ireland will sound her harp and wave 
 
 Her pure green banner for your right, 
 
 Canadians never will be slaves ! 
 
 *' Up sons of Freedom to the fight !" 
 
 By liberty's eternal name, 
 
 Our Country's proudest glory, Arm 
 
 Sweep from our shores oppression's shame, 
 
 Canadians ! cleanse the locust s\Tarm. 
 
 Degenerate Eussell's desp'rate pleas. 
 
 Both Hume and Brougham have proved vain^ 
 
 One short sharp hour your country frees, 
 
 Canadians ! to the fight again !
 
 26 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 houses. This threat was neither regarded on the one 
 side, nor carried into effect on the other. 
 
 After the public meeting had been broken up, part 
 of the business it had on hand was transacted in Mr. 
 Boulton's house. Delegates to the Convention Avere 
 appointed, and a Vigilance Committee named. Reso- 
 lutions were passed at all the other meetings, to use 
 as little as possible of imported duty-paying articles, 
 and expressing a hope that the bill to avoid an appeal 
 to the people, on the death of the Sovereign, would, by 
 the interposition of the Royal veto, be prevented from 
 taking effect. 
 
 Some hours after, when several of those who had 
 formed Mr. Mackenzie's escort to the place had gone, a 
 collision between the two parties took place. Twenty- 
 six Mackenzie men, mounted, were crossing the bridge 
 over the Plumber, when one of the opposite party 
 seized the hindmost by the thigh, as if with the 
 intention of forcing him into the river. Two others 
 Avere attacked at the same time. All the twenty-six 
 dismounted instantly, and fell upon their assailants 
 with whatever was within their reach. Blood flowed 
 freely ; and some of the assailing party, as they lay on 
 the ground, were made to confess that they had only 
 got their deserts. JNTobody was seriously injured. 
 The victorious party now returned to the village; 
 and placing themselves in the square gave three 
 cheers for " Papineau, the deliverer, and his brave 
 Canadians." The Orangemen returned to the attack ; 
 and there was another skirmish on the bridge, in 
 which the twenty-six and their friends were again 
 completely successful.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLIOX. 27 
 
 The meetings followed one another in rapid succes- 
 sion. The next was held in the township of Caledon, 
 two days after that at Boltontown. Some of the reso- 
 lutions passed at this meeting were drawn up with con- 
 siderable skill, and one of them undertook to define 
 the case in which an appeal to physical force would 
 become a duty.* It was rather inferred from general 
 
 * A resolution moved by Mr. James Baird, and seconded by Mr. Owen Garrity, 
 read thus : — " That it is the duty of the subjects of kings and governors to 
 keep the peace, and submit to the existing hiws ; that it is equally the duty of 
 kings and rulers to administer the government for the well-being and happiness 
 of the community ; and that when the existing laws and constitution of society 
 become notoriously oppressive in form or administration, it is then, and at all 
 times, the duty of free subjects, and for the benefit, safety, and happiness of all 
 parties to call meetings, and ascertain, as far as can be done, the general opi- 
 nion and estimate of all the good and evil which government dispense, as it is 
 also the duty of a just government to protect its subjects in the peaceful exer- 
 cise of such a precious and obvious right. If the redress of our wrongs can 
 be otherwise obtained, the people of Upper Canada have not a just cause to use 
 force. But the highest obligation of a citizen being to preserve the commu- 
 nity, and every other political duty being derived from, and subordinate to it, 
 every citizen is bound to defend his country against its enemies, both foreign 
 and domestic. When a government is engaged in systematically oppressing a 
 people, and destroying their securities against future oppression, it commits 
 the same species of wrong to them which warrants an appeal to force against 
 a foreign enemy. The history of England and of this continent is not wanting 
 in examples, by which the rulers and the ruled may see that, although the peo- 
 ple have been often willing to endure bad government with patience, there are 
 legal and constitutional limits to that endurance. The glorious revolutions of 
 1688, on one continent, and of 1776, on another, may serve to remind those 
 rulers who are obstinately persisting in withholding from their subjects ade- 
 quate securities for good government, although obviously necessary for the per- 
 manence of that blessing, that they are placing themselves in a state of hosti- 
 lity against the governed ; and that to prolong a state of irresponsibility and 
 insecurity, such as existed in England during the reign of James II., and as 
 now exists in Lower Canada, is a dangerous act of aggression against a peo- 
 ple. A magistrate who degenerates into a systematic oppressor, and shuts the 
 gates of justice on the public, thereby restores them to their original right of 
 defending themselves, foi he withholds the protection of the law, and so for- 
 feits his claim to enforce t'Veir obedience by the authority of law."
 
 28 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 principles than stated in so many words, that a state 
 of things existed in Lower, if not also in Upper Canada, 
 which would justify the people in resorting to arms 
 to relieve themselves from oppression. The legality 
 and the constitutionality of the import duties levied 
 on the authority of Imperial statutes, passed soon 
 after the conquest of Canada, were more than ques- 
 tioned. Taxation without representation was de- 
 nounced as a tyranny not to be borne ; " a badge of 
 slavery which our forefathers resisted, in the case of 
 Charles First's ship-money and the tea-tax at Boston." 
 The English law, which prevented Canadians from 
 purchasing tea, gunpowder, and other articles in the 
 cheapest market, was described as " jjretended legis- 
 lation." It was recommended that in case a refusal 
 to pay duties alleged to be illegally imposed led to 
 seizure, the question should be brought before the 
 courts for the opinion of a jury, and that the exercise 
 of unlawful authority should be steadily resisted. 
 The Toronto Declaration was approved ; delegates to 
 the projected Convention appointed; and a Vigilance 
 Committee formed. 
 
 From Caledon to Chingacousy, the agent of the 
 Toronto Central Committee was escorted by about 
 twenty horsemen. Here a meeting was held in front 
 of the house of Mr. John Campbell, lot 24, in the 
 Second Concession, on the morning of the 10th August. 
 Trouble had been anticipated ; and Mr. Francis Camp- 
 bell, brother of John Campbell, on whose grounds the 
 meeting was held, went with the statutes under his 
 arm, ready to read the riot act, if necessary ; and Mr. 
 John Scott, another magistrate, had gone there sur-
 
 THE CAN-ADIAX EEBELLION. 29 
 
 rounded by a number of Orangemen. Several of 
 these and some of Mackenzie's supporters had fire- 
 arms ; others carried heavy clubs. The two parties 
 were greatly exasperated against one another, and the 
 Orangemen made use of threatening language. To 
 prevent a collision, Mackenzie's party gave way. One 
 John Wiggins, the master of an Orange Ledge, was 
 appointed chairman ; the other party not disputing 
 with his supporters the majority, though it might 
 have been matter of doubt on which side it was. 
 
 An adjournment to Mr. Campbell's house took 
 place. What had become the usual routine of these 
 meetings was gone through, and one of the resolu- 
 tions mentioned independence as a state of existence 
 that would have some advantages over that which the 
 Province then enjoyed. 
 
 On the 12th August, Mr. Mackenzie was at Mr. 
 John Stewart's, in the Scotch Block, Esquesing. Here 
 at first his party were outnumbered, but after the op- 
 position had retired, resolutions were passed declaring 
 the boasted remedial measures of which the Lieuten- 
 ant Governor had, on his arrival, declared himself the 
 bearer, a deception ; that the pretended constitution 
 had been proved to be a mockery, and that the peo- 
 ple were living under the worst description of despot- 
 ism ; that they were despised by the government to 
 which, at great sacrifice, they had remained attached ; 
 I while the people of the United States were in the en- 
 joyment of the fullest extent of political liberty. 
 " There is," wrote Mackenzie, in reference to tliis 
 meeting, " discontent, vengeance, and rage in men's 
 minds. No one can have an idea of the public feel-
 
 30 I^IFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 ing wlio lias not taken the same means that I have to 
 ascertain it." 
 
 The meeting held at Hull's tavern, Trafalgar, on 
 the 14th August, Avas noteworthy chiefly for the ex- 
 citement displayed. " I am glad," Mackenzie wrote, 
 '^ they did not fight. Such excitement I never saw be- 
 fore. In every inn it is, ' Hurrah for Papineau !' " 
 
 Xone of the speeches made by Mr. Mackenzie, at 
 these meetings, were reported, or have been preserved. 
 But the effect of his prodigious power, as a speaker, 
 over a popular audience, must have been very great. 
 The mission assiii-ned to him bv the Central Commit- 
 tee of Vigilance was not without its perils. It is not 
 surprising that the Orangemen were exasperated at 
 listening to speeches, resolutions, and declarations of a 
 kind to which they were little accustomed, and which 
 to them sounded like rank treason. Some of the re- 
 solutions bear internal evidence of having been drawn 
 up by Mr. Mackenzie ; and others might, I think, be 
 affiliated to some of his political confreres in Toronto. 
 We have already seen that some of the meetings were 
 disturbed by Ckangemen. But at Churchville, on the 
 15th Aucjust, their violence was carried to a sjeater 
 extent than on any previous occasion. A contest for 
 the chairmanship having been decided, by a large 
 majority, in favor of Mr. Mackenzie's supporters, about 
 fifty Orangemen, armed with clubs, climbed up the 
 railing behind him. ]N[r. Edward Thompson, his op- 
 ponent in the late election for the Second Riding of 
 York, tried to induce them to desist; but they only 
 answered the magistrate by threatening to throw him 
 down unless be ceased to interfere. Of a number that
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 31 
 
 surrounded Mr. Mackenzie, with clubs in their hand.<, 
 one attempted to throw him down, but was prevented 
 by Mr. Stewart of Esquesing. On this effort to res- 
 cue Mackenzie being made, the Orangemen fell furi- 
 ously upon their unarmed opponents, with their 
 bludgeons. Mackenzie was not injured. The Tory 
 organs openly threatened that if he held any more 
 meetings, he would be assassinated.* It was afterwards 
 stated that a deliberate plot had been entered into, by 
 the hostile party who attended the meeting, to take Mac- 
 kenzie's life ; and that one who was a party to it, had 
 divulged the secret to a person who, at the proper 
 time, would publicly reveal it. The story was, that 
 two persons, dressed in fantastic habiliments, were 
 to draw off attention by acting the part of Merry 
 Andrews, while the assassin in the crowd was to shoot 
 the intended victim. It was added, that a pistol was 
 fired, and a gun flashed in the pan. But the evidence 
 never came out ; and the existence of the conspiracy 
 remained unproved. 
 
 Mr. E. W. Thompson informed Mr. Mackenzie that 
 if a meeting were held at Cooks ville, next day, he 
 should read the riot act and prevent its going on. 
 But all this did not prevent Mr. Mackenzie from at- 
 tending the remaining meetings except the Cooksville 
 one, at which it had been announced that he would be 
 j^resent. From the Yaughan meeting he and Mr. 
 Gribson were accompanied by a cavalcade of about a 
 
 * "Had not the attention of the • hoys,' " said the Patriot,'^ heen called in an 
 opposite direction hy the cry that • Mackenzie is coming this way,' it is much 
 to he feared that he would not have escaped with his life ; and as sure as he at- 
 tempts to call another seditious meeting, in this j-«rt of the country, so surely 
 will he lose the number of his mess." 
 55
 
 32 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 hundred horsemen and some thirty carriages ; and it 
 appears to have been understood that, in future, the 
 Orangemen, if they disturbed any more meetings, 
 should be met by their own weapons * 
 
 Between the beginning of August and the former 
 part of December, when the outbreak occurred, two 
 hundred meetings are said to have been held in the 
 country, at nearly all of which the Toronto Declara- 
 tion was read and sanctioned. One hundred and fifty 
 Vigilance Committees, in connection with the Central 
 Committee at Toronto, were formed. Disturbances at 
 the meetings frequently occurred. The nature of the 
 movement could hardly have been misunderstood by 
 the most unreflecting spectator. But only some of the 
 members of the branch societies were actually trusted 
 with the secret of the intended revolt. Some of the 
 active leaders joined no association ; and although 
 they apparently kept aloof from the movement, they 
 were secretly among its most active promoters. 
 
 * Referring to the Vaughan meeting, a writer in The Constitution, August 
 23d, over the signature of •' One who saw and heard," says : " We all sepa- 
 rated with the understanding, that to produce good order there must be hickory- 
 sticks, ' pikes, and rifles,' at our future meetings, for Orange ruffians and Tory 
 squires stand in need of such special constables as these ; and with them are as 
 meek as lambs. Go on, Canadians, forming your societies of from twelve to 
 forty ; or if it were only ten to begin with, you will soon add to your num- 
 bers. Meet seldom, but come prepared. To the Lower Canada meetings, 
 every man brings his rifle for self-defence." The expression "pikes and rifles" 
 was borrowed from a speech of the Hen. P. McGi.l, of Montreal, who, in re- 
 commending the Tories of that city to organize, said: "The organization, 
 that it may combine both moral determination and physical force, must be 
 military as well as political. There must be an army as well as a congress. 
 There must be 'pikes and rifles' as well as men and tongues."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 33 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A Commercial Crisis — Mackenzie promotes a Kun on tlie Bank of Upper 
 Canada — An Ingenious Mode of prolonging Specie Payments — An Extra 
 Session of the Legislature — Mackenzie's Declamation on the Kesult of the 
 Session — He attends more Public Meetings — Disturbances — Threats to as- 
 sassinate Mackenzie — Kevolutionary Literature — Shooting Matches — The 
 Welland Canal Libel Suit — Mackenzie cast in Damages to the Amount of 
 two shillings. 
 
 A COMMERCIAL crisis aided the public discontent. 
 In May, the New York banks suspended specie pay- 
 ments ; and those of Montreal followed. In Toronto, 
 the Bank of Upper Canada was looked upon as the 
 prop of the Grovernment ; and it was probably as much 
 for political as commercial reasons that Mr. Macken- 
 zie advised the farmers to go to the counter of the 
 Bank and demand specie for their notes. At the 
 - same time, he had small confidence in the security 
 which most of the banks then gave for the redemption 
 of their issues ; and it must be admitted that the pre- 
 vious conduct of the managers of the most important 
 of these institutions, in refusing to answer reasonable 
 questions, put to them before a committee of the 
 House, was not calculated to inspire confidence. As 
 a political weapon against the Grovernment, an attempt 
 to drain the banks of their specie by creating a panic 
 could have no sort of justification, except in times of
 
 34 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 revolution. When Mr. Mackenzie produced a run 
 upon the Bank of Upper Canada, a resort to armed 
 insurrection was a contingency to which many were 
 looking, with alternate hoj^e and fear : hope that it 
 might be avoided, fear that it would come. 
 
 The Bank of Upper Canada took an ingenious plan 
 of fighting off the wolves that wished to carry away 
 its gold and silver, leaving its own promises to pay 
 in their place. The notes were paid in silver ; and 
 tinle was gained in the counting. The bank kept a 
 number of its own friends at the counter, asking specie; 
 and what was paid out to them during the day, was 
 trundled back in a wheelbarrow, at night. A strata- 
 gem of this kind had the double advantage of econo- 
 mizing the specie, and, by prolonging the specie pay- 
 ment, tending to restore confidence. 
 
 If the Upper Canada banks had suspended specie 
 payments, their charters would have been liable to 
 forfeiture. Chiefly to prevent this result, Sir Francis 
 Bond Head called an extraordinary session of the Le- 
 gislature, on the 19th of June. In the course of the 
 session, which lasted about a month, a bill of pro- 
 spective indemnity for pursuing such a course was 
 passed. In the meantime, the Commercial Bank, at 
 Kingston, had suspended ; and the Farmer's Bank, in 
 Toronto, stopped soon afterwards. The Grovernment 
 loaned £100,000, by the issue of debentures, to the 
 Bank of Upper Canada ; £30,000 to the Grore Bank ; 
 and £40,000 to the Commercial Bank. But when 
 the rebellion came, the suspension of specie payment 
 followed. 
 
 The failure of Thomas Wilson & Co., Financial
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. So 
 
 Agents of the Province, in London, who were reported 
 to have £140,000, the proceeds of an Upper Canada 
 loan in their hands, a few weeks before, had increased 
 distrust and inflamed the discontent. 
 
 At the close of the session, Mr. Mackenzie, in his 
 journal, declaimed on the condition of public affairs 
 with scathing bitterness. The style is characteristic 
 of the man, when his soul was stirred to its inmost 
 depths, and it gives such a good idea of his power of 
 agitating masses of men, that I give an example: 
 
 *' Canadians! Brother Colonists! Your mock Par- 
 liament has done its duty. For four long weeks have 
 its members been marched and counter-marched by 
 our Kentish drill-sergeant, aided by Corporals MclS'ab 
 and Robinson. Bills and badgerings have followed 
 each other in quick succession; and the end of the 
 farce is, that the banks and the Province have been 
 handed over by a sham legislative enactment to Sir 
 Francis, like a Jamaica or other bankrupt estate, to be 
 made the most of, for the use of its foreign owners and 
 creditors, or like a farm held for a term of years at a 
 rack rent, to be impoverished in every possible shape 
 by the holder before it be given up. 
 
 "Ye false Canadians! Tories! Pensioners! Place- 
 men! Profligates! Orangemen! Churchmen. Spies! 
 Informers! Brokers! Gamblers! Parasites, and knaves 
 of every caste and description, allow me to congratulate 
 you! JSTever was a vagabond race more prosperous. 
 Never did successful villainy rejoice in brighter 
 visions of the future than ye may indulge. Ye may 
 plunder and rob with impunity — your feet are on the 
 people's necks; they are transformed into tame, crouch-
 
 36 LIFE OF MACKEXZIEj ANL 
 
 ing slaves, ready to be trampled on. Erect your Jug- 
 gernaut — the people are ready to be sacrificed under 
 the wheels of the idol. 
 
 " The four pound loaf is at a Halifax shilling ; the 
 barrel of flour brings twelve dollars ; woe and wailing, 
 and pauperism and crime meet us at every corner of 
 the streets. The settlers and their families on the 
 Ottawa, in Simcoe, in the rear of the London District, 
 and many new settlements, seldom taste a morsel of 
 bread, and are glad to gnaw the bark off the trees, or 
 sell their improvements for a morsel to keep away 
 starvation. 
 
 " The settlers are leaving the country in thousands, 
 for lands less favored by nature, but blessed w^ith free 
 institutions and just government. 
 
 " The merchants are going to ruin one after another 
 — even sycophancy and degrading servility have failed 
 to save them this time. They cry out, Why is it so? — 
 I pity them not. Money, wealth, power, was their 
 god, the Dagon of their idolatry. Let them cry aloud 
 and spare not — perhaps even now he will help 
 them. 
 
 "But why are want and misery come among us? 
 Ah, ye rebels to Christianity, ye detest the truth, ye 
 shut your ears against that which is right. 
 
 "Your country is taxed, priest ridden, sold to 
 strangers, and ruined. What then? Ye share the 
 plunder! Like the Lazzaroni of Italy, ye delight in 
 cruelty and distress, and lamentation and woe. 
 
 "I know you. I have long watched j^our move- 
 ments !" 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie continued to attend political meet-
 
 THE CANADIAN RELELLION. 37 
 
 ings in the country ; and the exasperation of his ene- 
 mies continued to increase. In Pickering, he met the 
 unfortunate Peter Matthews, who was among those 
 who were afterwards executed for high treason. At 
 Whitby, where he did not go, threats were made by 
 the opposite party to pull down the building in which 
 it had been announced a meeting would take place ; 
 and the rendezvous "was therefore changed to Mr. 
 Peter Perry's store. T^Tor was he at Malahide, where 
 there was a disturbance, where the riot act was read, 
 and the two parties came into collisioi. in a general 
 fight. In Westminster, Middlesex, the friends of Mac- 
 kenzie and the. suj^porters of Papineau turned out in 
 such large numbers that the opposite party shrunk 
 from the attempt to carry out their scheme of 
 attack. 
 
 Threats, secret and oj^en, were now made by the 
 Tory party to assassinate Mackenzie. An anonymous 
 letter, bearing the Hamilton post mark, was sent to 
 Mr. Charles Durand, Barrister of that place, inform- 
 ing him that Mackenzie would be assassinated. It 
 was signed " Brutus," as a guarantee of its sincerity. 
 The Tory press, more bold than anonymous letter 
 writers, was scarcely less explicit. Through this 
 channel, he was informed that " if he dared to show 
 himself in the London District, with the evil design 
 of poisoning the happiness of the contented settlers, 
 by agitation and strife, they would put it for ever out 
 of his power t^ repeat his crime."* And shortly 
 after, creditable witnesses swore that the source of the 
 danger lay much higher than the exasperated men 
 
 * Toronto Patriot.
 
 38 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 who carried bludgeons to public meetings ;* men who 
 bore the titles of honorable, and were thought to con- 
 stitute excellent material out of which to make Exe- 
 cutive Councillors, being charged with plotting Mr. 
 Mackenzie's destruction. At the Mayor's Court, To- 
 
 * The following affidavits were published at the tim< — 
 
 " Home District, j Before me, James Hervey Price, Esquire, a Commiv 
 "To wit: J sioner for taking affidavits in Her Majesty's Court of 
 
 King's Bench, this day cometh William Howe, of the Township of York, 
 Coach Maker, who, being solemnly sworn on the Holy Evangelists of 
 Almighty God, voluntarily deposeth and saith, that about the hour of four 
 in the afternoon, yesterday, Monday, the 13th of November instant, as this 
 deponent was walking up the street leading from the public offices to the gate 
 of Sir Francis Head, in company with Mr. John Mantach, of this city, six or 
 seven persons came out at the Governor's door and out at his gate. This de- 
 ponent only knew two of them, the Honorable William Allan, and the Hon- 
 orable John Elrasley. They were talking about Mackenzie, and this deponent 
 distinctly heard the Honorable John Ehnsley say to Mr. Allan, for he turned 
 to him while he spoke: "Mackenzie ought to have been shot at the time, 
 and the only thing to be done is to take him out and shoot him." Mr. Allan 
 said something which this deponent could not hear distinctly, and the third 
 person, who was on Mr. Elmsley's right when they came out at the gate, went 
 betwixt the other two, and appeared to notify them that they were overheard, 
 on which they looked back and changed the conversation to a duel between 
 Mr. Allan McNab and some other person. The other gentlemen, who had 
 been with them, went up straight towards King Street. This deponent ac- 
 companied Mr. Mantach to Mr. Mackenzie's residence in York Street, and 
 offered to make affidavit to the above facts 
 
 •• (Signed) William Howe." 
 
 " Sworn, &c. 
 
 " Home District, | Before me, James Hervey Price, Esquire, a Commis- 
 " io wit : J sioner for taking affidavits in tje Court of King's Bench, 
 
 Home District, cometh John Mantach, of the City of Toronto, Book Bindcv, 
 late of the 79th regiment or Cameron Highlanders, formerly serving in 
 York garrison, who, being solemnly sworn on the Holy Evangelists of 
 Almighty God, freely and voluntarily deposeth and saith, that about the 
 hour of four in the afternoon, yesterday, Monday, the 13th of November 
 instant, as this deponent was walking up Graves Street, near His Excellency 
 the Lieutenant Governor's gate, in company with Mr. William Howe, Coach 
 Builder, Yonge Street, the Honorable Messrs. William Allan, Eobert Bald-
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 39 
 
 ronto, Mr. Gurnett, who presided, denounced the habit 
 that had begun to prevail of carrying deadly weap- 
 ons ; and called attention to several recent cases of 
 stabbing with dirks. 
 
 The revolutionary literature of Ireland and ximerica 
 was ransacked, and made to yield its quota towards 
 completing the public excitement. Mr. Mackenzie 
 republished Paine's Common Sense, and from stereo- 
 type plates got out the first edition of the Bible ever 
 printed in Canada. Trials of Irish patriots, who were 
 fortunate enough to escape conviction, were repro- 
 duced. Patriotic poems, which had served in other 
 causes, had the dust shaken from them, and were 
 decked out in modern costume. Native bards imi- 
 tated the examples which they found in other coun- 
 tries. The boldest words were first uttered in rhyme. 
 Scarcely had the news of the coercion measure of Lord 
 John Russell reached Canada, when these threatening 
 
 ■win Sullivan, and John Elmsley, Members of the Executive Council of Upper 
 Canada, with several other gentlemen, came out at the said gate, from the 
 Government House ; and while the others, whose names this deponent doth not 
 know, passed up the pathway, Messrs. Sullivan, Elmsley, and Allan, crossed 
 over the street towards King Street, Elmsley in the middle, Allan on the left. 
 Elmsley was saying to Allan, " Mackenzie should (or ought to) have been 
 shot at that time, and the only thing to be done is to take him out and shoot 
 hira now." Sullivan perceived this deponent, whom he is personally ac- 
 quainted with, and instantly got in the middle, between Allan and Elmsley, 
 pinched their arms, and began to speak about McNab's gallant conduct re- 
 specting a duel. They walked on very fast, and parted from Elmsley at 
 York Street, and this deponent thought it his duty to wait on Mr. Mackenzie 
 and tell him what deponent had thus accidentally heard. Deponent's impression 
 was that they were conspiring to use Lynch Law, and that the Mackenzie 
 Bpoken of was the Editor of The Constitution. 
 
 "(Signed) John Maktach. 
 
 "Sworn before me at Toronto, this 14th of November, 1837. 
 
 "J. H. Pkice, a Comn.'.ssi,;ner for taking Affidavits, &c." 
 56
 
 40 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 utterances commenced. In Lower Canada, where the 
 great majority of the French Canadians attended the 
 " anti-coercion meetings," alarge proportion of the Bri- 
 tish population were prepared to give their assistance 
 to put down insurrection. To the question what would 
 the Catholic Irish do, a response, dated Quebec, 
 April 18, was published in a Montreal paper. The 
 last verse asks as a favor that the Irish Catholics 
 might be allo^ved to lead the van in the threatened 
 contest : — 
 
 " Choer on, cbeer on, Canadian friends ! Our foes we'd have you tell. 
 Wo rifles have in plenty, and we know their use right well — 
 For when the day of danger comes, we're with you to a man. 
 And all we ask, should strife commence, is to let us lead the Van." 
 
 Soon after we find figures of cannon significantly 
 associated with the lyric eff*usions of Patriot pens. 
 In the following, old Father Time is unfolding his 
 long record from round a cannon : — 
 
 " Unfold, Father Time ! thy long records unfold, 
 Of noble achievements accomplished of old, 
 When men, by the standard of Liberty led, 
 Undauntedly conquered or cheerfully bled ; 
 But know, 'midst the triumphs these moments reveal, 
 Their glories shall fade, and their lustre turn pale ; 
 Quebec rises up, and confirms the decree 
 That tears ofi" our chains, and bids thousands be free." 
 
 From the " Lays of the West," fugitive pieces that 
 struggled fatherless into existence, in the newpapers 
 devoted to the work of inflaming the public mind to 
 the requisite pitch, an example must conclude these 
 extracts : — 
 
 "Arise, sons of Freedom! to glory arise! 
 Let Liberty's watchword resound to the skies ; 
 Kaise, raise the proud pennon of Liberty high. 
 On, on ! to its rescue, and conquer or die,
 
 THE CANADIAX EEBELLION. 41 
 
 Nor dream that so glorious a pennant can fall, 
 
 Or that mankind's proud tyrants shall freedom appall, 
 
 No ! forward, with faith and at honor's right hand, 
 
 Strike home for your freedom, your rights, and your land. 
 
 Remember your sires ! forget not their fame ' 
 
 Nor stain ye the heirloom, their truth and their name; 
 
 Preserve the escutcheon as bright and as true, 
 
 As ere the great trust was confided to you. 
 
 Britannia, Hibernia, and Scotia unite. 
 
 Like sons of one father rush on to the fig! t ; 
 
 As floods from the mountains together rush on. 
 
 •Your numbers as thousands, your destiny One.' " 
 
 The confessions of English statesmen that the thir- 
 teen Colonies of America were right in resisting taxa- 
 tion without representation, were turned to a profit- 
 able account. Mr. Atwood's apothegm that " the 
 strength of the people is nothing without union, and 
 union nothing without confidence and discij^line," be- 
 came a standing motto of the revolutionary party. 
 And Mr. Hume's declaration, that if there had been 
 no display of force there would have been no Keforra 
 Bill, was not without its efi'ect in changing the Vigi- 
 lance Committees into nuclei of military organizations. 
 Shooting matches, first got up by Mr. Gibson, in which 
 turkeys were the immediate victims, became fashion- 
 able. Drilling was practised with more or less se- 
 cresy. An occasional feu de joie, on Yonge Street,* in 
 honor of Papineau, with a hundred rifles, would be 
 made the subject of boast in the press. Mr. Bidwell, 
 who had refused to accept a nomination to the pro- 
 posed Convention, and who kept at a safe distance 
 from all these movements, could not refuse his legal 
 advice that trials of skill among riflemen were per- 
 fectly lawful. The people were badly armed, and a 
 
 * A road, so called, running from Toronto, a distance of fortj'^ miles
 
 42 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 brisk business in the manufacture of pikes began to 
 be carried on. Some added bayonets to their rifles, on 
 the pretence that if they wounded a deer in hunting 
 and did not kill it, the supplementary weapon might 
 be found very useful ; but of these there were very 
 few, and there was hardly a single bayonet in the out- 
 break north of Toronto. 
 
 The thread of the narrative of the initiatory steps 
 of the rebellion must be here interrupted, for the pur- 
 pose of introducing an episode, in the shape of a libel 
 suit.* AVhile investigating the mysteries of the Wel- 
 
 * The passage charged as libellous is appended : — 
 
 "I have made some progress in auditing the proceedingR cf ether years, and 
 beg to state, as the result of my observations, that the books of account are 
 improperly kept, and purposely with intent to defraud the public and the canal 
 proprietors; that many erasures have been made in the journal and ledgers to 
 the injury of the company and advantage of favorites, or the connections of 
 persons in office ; that false entries have been made on the journal and ledgers 
 to a large amount ; that there is an actual defalcation of great extent on the 
 part of the officers, now lately in charge. 
 
 " That the clerks have increased and decreased at their pleasure, and impro- 
 perly altered and changed accounts of large amount, and made entries on the 
 books unauthorized by the minutes of the Canal Board, and often in direct 
 contradiction to the standing orders of that Board. 
 
 " The most of the entries on the books, since June, 1832, have been made by 
 an under clerk of intemperate habits, sometimes hired by the day for a short 
 time, and sometimes employed regularly — of late he has been paid by the year. 
 In my letter to the President, requesting that a Board should be summoned, I 
 stated ' that the confidential person who keeps the books under the Secretary's 
 superintendence is absent, and it is believed drunk, a state not unusual to him.' 
 Since I have been a Director, the Secretary of the Canal Company has some- 
 times been absent for a week at Niagara, the clerk absent at the bottle, tha 
 workmen and others demanding payment of their accounts, and no one to 
 attend upon them. 
 
 " Patrick Grant Beaton, the clerk referred to in the letter requesting the 
 Special Board, as being deeply implicated in the affairs to which I called its 
 attention, is continued as the book-keeper in the office, with the concurrence 
 of the Directors, the s&rai as if nothing unusual had occurred! When sober 
 oe is a tolerable accountant and I find that nea;ly all the entries on the jour-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 43 
 
 land. Canal iniquity, in 1834, Mr. Mackenzie published 
 a statement of progress reflecting, among other things, 
 upon the gross irregularities of a person of the name 
 of Beaton, the clerk of the Canal Company. He was 
 described as being of intemperate habits, accused of 
 neglecting his duty, of making false entries in the 
 books, and entries not authorized as far as the minutes 
 of the Board showed, and of improperly charging 
 accounts of large amount. It was admitted that, 
 w^hen not in his cups, he was a tolerable accountant, 
 and Mr. Mackenzie stated that he had urged the Board 
 not to allow the books again to come under Beaton's 
 manipulation, till they should have been investigated 
 by the Legislature. 
 
 The trial came off at Magara, on the 12th October, 
 1837, before Mr. Justice Macaulay and a special jury.'' 
 In accordance with his usual practice, in such cases, 
 Mr. Mackenzie undertook his own defence; his Soli- 
 
 nals and great ledgers for several years are by him, the others being in thi 
 handwriting of Mr. John Callaghan, a lock-keeper on the canal, and a Mi . 
 Hiram Slate, Mr. Merritt's partner in the Port Colborne Mills, and lately 
 a clerk to Garrison & Little, Contractors. I strongly urged the Directors not 
 to let Beaton touch the books any more until the Legislature had investigateo 
 them — as to Mr. Clark he does not pretend to write in them — but they have 
 given Beaton the most ample opportunity of continuing his dishonest prac- 
 tices, and of their motives for so doing the public must judge. The Assembly 
 will have to take such books and papers as they can get, and in such a state 
 of erasures and amendments as will suit the detected persons. The Directors 
 allowing Beaton an opportunity to tamper with the books of account, after what 
 has been certified by their own resolution, looks like as if they felt they were 
 in the boat together." 
 
 * The names of the jurors were: Jeffrey B. Hall, Walpole; Austin Morse, 
 Stamford; Malcolm Laing, Stamford; Jacob Servos, Gainsboro' ; Wm. Fitch, 
 Canboro' ; Dr. Eaymond, Niagara ; George Lawrence, Niagara ; "William Hix 
 son, Clinton ; Nelson Boughner, Sherbrooke; Peter W. Tonbrock, Grantham; 
 Allan Simmerman. Grimsby ; J. W. Perkins, "Walpole.
 
 44 LIFE OF MACKET^ZIE, AND 
 
 citor, Mr. Price, making occasional suggestions as to 
 the examination of witnesses. Mr. R. E. Burns and 
 Mr. Roland Macdonald, of St. Catherines, were coun- 
 sel for the plaintiff, Beaton. 
 
 Mr. Charles Richardson, who had been concerned in 
 the destruction of Mackenzie's printing office, at York, 
 in 1826, had been rewarded with the office of Clerk of 
 the Peace for the Niagara District. By liim the jury 
 list was furnished. So deficient was it that Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie oblio-ed the officers to add to it over a hundred 
 additional names. He caused others to be struck off 
 as bad ; and yet one Austin Morse, disqualified b}'' law, 
 who was a violent political opponent of the defendant, 
 somehow got on the jury. 'Nov was his name on the 
 official list of jurors. " If," Mr. Mackenzie pertinently 
 asked, " this name was not put into the ballot-box, how 
 did it come out?" 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie, before the suit was commenced, 
 admitted in writing to the plaintiff's attorney the au- 
 thorship of the alleged libel, and confident of the truth 
 of his statements he had challenged much higher game 
 than Beaton to make his allegations subject of judi- 
 cial investigation ;* but the parties who had the con- 
 
 * In a letter to the editor of the Upper Canada Courier, by whom ae had 
 been attacked for his strictures on the canal management, he threw out this 
 challenge : — 
 
 " If Mr. Merritt and his friends choose to go a step farther, and place all my 
 numbers before a jury of the country, and assert that they are untrue and pub- 
 lished from unjustifiable motives and for improper purposes, there also I will 
 meet them ; the whole bar of Upper Canada, Whig and Tory, is at their ser- 
 vice ; the Judges are not said to be prejudiced in my favor, nor the Sheriff, and 
 as to the proofs of authorship and publication, I will deliver on demand copies 
 of the several numbers, each endorsed by my own signature, to any person 
 Mr. Merritt's attorney may rame. For my own part, I have all along deter-
 
 THE CAXADIAX KEBELLION. 45 
 
 trol of the canal, and were primarily responsible for 
 the mismanagement, preferred to keep in the back- 
 ground and to put forward Beaton as the plaintiff. 
 Mr. Mackenzie took care not to lose sight of this fact, 
 and he determined in his address to the jury to take 
 a latitude that would bring the conduct of Beaton's 
 superiors under review. He asserted his right to make 
 extracts from the three broadsheets, in one of which 
 the alleged libel had appeared, with a view of explain- 
 ing the motives he had in the publication, Mr. Jus- 
 tice Macaulay, with whom he had had the terrific lite- 
 rary duel which led to the destruction of his printing 
 office eleven years before, interposed an objection. 
 He did not think all the papers could be read. Mr. 
 Mackenzie, referring to this circumstance, humorously 
 replied : " The time has long gone past, but your lord- 
 ship and myself will never forget it, w^hen in an ap- 
 peal to the public" — directed against the defendant — 
 " your lordship cited the passage, ' The fool hath said 
 in his heart there is no Grod ;' adding that if the first 
 half of the sentence were struck out, 'rhe Bible could 
 be made to advocate infidelity." This gentle spurring 
 of the memory of the judge, with the citation of an au- 
 thority and a fact, caused his lordship to withdraw his 
 objections. Mr. Mackenzie made a merciless analysis 
 of the damaging evidence in the canal inquiry before 
 the House of Assembly, placing the proved delin- 
 quencies of the managers in bold relief. The evi- 
 
 mined to employ no counsel in the courts in any matter whereof I consider 
 myself correctly informed." 
 
 The plaintiff's attorney wrote to Mackenzie to send the papers, with a letter 
 acknowledging the authorship and publication, and they were promptly for- 
 warded
 
 46 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 dence proved Beaton's habits to be the reverse of 
 temperate, and the books of the Company bore upon 
 their pages ineifaceable evidence of the tampering to 
 which they had been subjected. But the maxim then 
 universally accepted, in the British dominions, " the 
 greater the truth the greater the libel," was destined 
 to obtain a dubious triumph. All night the jury were 
 shut up, unable to agree ; but next day they found a 
 ground of unanimity in a verdict for the plaintiff, 
 with two shillings damages.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Rolls of Revolt — The intended Convention— Crisis in Lower Canada — Col- 
 lision between the ♦' Sons of Liberty" and the Doric Club, in Montreal- 
 Arrests for Sedition and Treason at Quebec — M. Dufort arrives in Toronto 
 with Messages from Papineau — Proposal of Mackenzie to seize four thousand 
 Stand of Arms, to arrest Governor Head and his Councillors, to obtain poa- 
 session of the Archives and Garrison, establish a Provisional Government, 
 and call a Convention — The Government is aware of the Conspiracy, but 
 instead of taking Measures to prevent its coming to a Head, encourage a 
 Revolt. 
 
 By the commencement of J^ovember, one thousand 
 five hundred names were returned to Mr. Mackenzie of 
 persons enrolled, and ready to place themselves under 
 arms — if arms could only be procured — at one hour's 
 notice. In the Home District, in which Toronto was 
 situated, the attendance on drill weekly was deemed a 
 duty. The Grore District, further west, was not much 
 behind its metropolitan neighbor. From one end of it 
 to the other, political unions were in the course of 
 formation. They selected their leaders and reported 
 themselves to Mr. Mackenzie, the Agent and Secre- 
 tary of the Central Vigilance Committee. The orga- 
 nizations in the country were now called Branch 
 Reform Unions ; and they were numbered according 
 to the order of their formation : that of Lloydtown 
 being No. 1. It does not appear that the Unions 
 were bound to secrecy by the obligations of an oath. 
 
 67
 
 48 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 There were two kinds of organization. In addition 
 to the Vigilance Committees and Reform Unions, 
 about seventy delegates had been elected to take part 
 in a Convention, who were to send Representatives to 
 a British American Congress. The meeting of an 
 approaching Convention, which had been determined 
 upon in the previous August, continued to be alluded 
 to, after the rising had been determined upon. And 
 if the movement had proved successful, the Conven- 
 tion would undoubtedly have been held. Some of the 
 Unions were anxious that a day for the meeting of 
 the Convention should be fixed. Seventy delegates 
 had been appointed in the Home District alone. Mr. 
 Mackenzie declared it inexpedient to take any imme- 
 diate steps for the meeting of the Convention ; and he 
 publicly stated his opinion that " the suspension of 
 the Habeas Corpus act, illegal arrests, martial law, and 
 the seizure of Reformers, with their books and papers, 
 were among the tender mercies to be looked for at 
 the hands of the Sullivan Council." 
 
 In Lower Canada the crisis had arrived. The 
 Legislative Session, convened in August, had pro- 
 duced no reconciliation between the Grovernor and the 
 Assembly. The House told the Earl of Grosford that 
 they had not been able to derive from " His Excel- 
 lency's speech, or from any other source, any motive 
 for departing even momentarily" from their determi- 
 nation to withhold the supplies until the grievances 
 of the country were redressed. The Governor replied 
 to the Address, charging the House with virtually 
 abrogating the constitution by a continued abandon- 
 ment of their functions ; and as soon as the members
 
 ■f <
 
 f%
 
 ' THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 49 
 
 had left his presence, he issued a proclamation pro- 
 roguing the Legislature. The popular agitation con- 
 tinued. Monster meetings were called in different 
 parts of the country; at one of which, held at St. 
 Charles, on the river Richlieu, on the 23d of October, 
 five thousand persons are said to have been present. 
 The Roman Catholic Bishop of Montreal, M. Lartigue, 
 a relative of M. Papineau, who had before addressed 
 a large body of ecclesiastics at Montreal to discourage 
 insurrection, now, " impelled by no external influence, 
 but solely actuated by motives of conscience," issued 
 a pastoral enjoining the clergy and faithful to discoun- 
 tenance all schemes of insurrection. But the popular 
 frenzy was too great to be at once brought under con- 
 trol, even by the powerful influence of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. There is reason to believe, however, 
 that the influence of the Roman Catholic clergy 
 eventually did more than even the British troops to 
 crush the insurrection in Lower Canada. 
 
 A society called the Sons of Liberty, formed in 
 Montreal, and said to owe its paternity to Mr. Thos. 
 Storrow Brown, extended its branches throughout the 
 country.* On the 6th of November, a collision took 
 place between the " Sons of Liberty," headed by Mr. 
 
 • I have before me an unpublished letter in French, giving an account of 
 the commencement of the troubles, by one of the actors, by whom it was sent 
 to a friend in New Orleans. After relating the arrest of the parties connected 
 with Le Liberal at Quebec, he says : " Les chefs du parti populaire k Montreal 
 B'imaginant qu'ils auorient le meme sort, et qu'ils ne seroient pas plus respect^s 
 croirient prudents de se tenir a I'ecart pendant quelque temps. Brown, qui 
 ^crit mieux qu'il se bat, avait comme tu sais, form6 une soci6t6 sous le nom des 
 fils de la liberty. Son projct reussisoit ^ merveille ; chaque jour ce corps 
 augmentoit en nombre, et deja de pareilles soci^t6s se formaient dans le cam- 
 pagnes."
 
 50 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 T. S. Brown, and an organization called the Doric 
 Club, at Montreal. One of the rules of the Sons of 
 Liberty required them to meet on the first Monday of 
 every month. This was their regular day of meeting. 
 There was no secret about it. The magistrates issued 
 a proclamation forbidding them to walk in procession. 
 In the morning, placards appeared on the walls, call- 
 ing on the members of the Doric Club to " crush the 
 rebellion in the bud." True to the call, many of them 
 prepared to come out and attack the Sons of Liberty, 
 should the latter make their appearance. In a large 
 yard, opposite the Presbyterian church in Great St. 
 James Street, the latter organization met, and passed 
 several resolutions, in an orderly manner. When they 
 came out, the members of the Doric Club confronted 
 them. Each party afterwards accused the other of mak- 
 ing the attack. Before long, the Sons of Liberty were 
 chasing their opponents on Great St. James Street, 
 amid cries of " Call out the guard ! call out the guard !" 
 Mr. Brown received some injuries. The Doric Club 
 men were soon reinforced ; and while they claimed a 
 victory in a subsequent fight, the Sons of Liberty 
 alleged that they only fled before the military, in com- 
 pany with the Tories. The truth seems to be that 
 each party obtained a victory in turn. The Sons of 
 Liberty did not begin to assemble till two o'clock ; and 
 at half past four, two companies of soldiers and some 
 flying artillery were called out. The office of The 
 Vindicator, a Liberal paper, which had for a long time 
 been publishing seditious articles, was sacked by the 
 Tory mob, and the types thrown into the street. The 
 house of Mr. E. Jolen, in Dorchester Street, was en-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 51 
 
 tered ; and the banner of the Sons of Liberty, with 
 three guns — one of them said to be seven barrelled — 
 and a sword were taken. Some of the windows of M. 
 Papineau's house were broken ; and the mob was with 
 some difficulty restrained from destroying the build- 
 ing. Although some firearms were discharged on the 
 first attack, nobody was killed. 
 
 On the 11th of November, Messrs Morin, Legare, 
 Lachance, Chasseur, and Trudeau, editors, managers, 
 and publishers of Le Liheral^ were arrested for sedi- 
 tion at Quebec. This alarmed the popular leaders, 
 who, for a time, made themselves less prominent. On 
 the 16th of the. same month, some further arrests 
 were made ; but this time they proceeded upon the 
 graver charge of high treason. 
 
 While these occurrences Avere taking place in 
 Lower Canada, a messenger bearing letters from M. 
 Papineau, arrived in Toronto. To M. Dufort this 
 mission had been entrusted.* The purport of the 
 message was an appeal to the Upper Canada Liberals 
 to support their Lower Canada brethren, when a re- 
 sort to arms should be made. Mr. Mackenzie was 
 convinced that the time to act had come. In the gar- 
 rison at Toronto, there were only one soldier and 
 three pieces of cannon ; Sir F. B. Head having sent 
 the troops to Lower Canada for the purpose, as he 
 afterwards boasted, of entrapping Mackenzie and 
 others into rebellion, by appearing to be wholly with- 
 
 * M. Dufort was on his way to Michigan, to get up an expedition to assist 
 the Canadians, where, in connection with Judge Butler, a prominent member 
 of the House of Kepresentatives of that State, he formed a " council of war," 
 embracing prominent and influential members of the House of Eepresenta- 
 tives, State's officers, and wealthy citizens.
 
 52 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 out the means of resistance. Of the fifteen hundred 
 men whose names had been returned on the insur- 
 rection rolls, only a very small proportion — perhaps 
 not over one in five — had firearms of any description. 
 There were lying in the City Hall four thousand 
 muskets, which had been sent up from Kingston, and 
 which were still unpacked. Mackenzie's plan was to 
 seize these arms, together with the archives, the Lieu- 
 tenant Governor, and the Executive Council ; and by 
 this means to affect a revolution, sans coujp ferir, with- 
 out the loss "of a single life. Chimerical as such a 
 project would be, under ordinary circumstances, it 
 must be remembered that the folly of Sir F. B. Head 
 had left the Grovernment at the mercy of any half 
 hundred men who might have undertaken to carry 
 such a project into effect. 
 
 Having made up his mind as to what ought to be 
 done, Mr. Mackenzie one afternoon, early in IS'ovem- 
 ber, called upon fourteen or fifteen persons with whom 
 he had been acting in the organization of political 
 societies throughout the country ; "and asked them to 
 meet him that evening, at the house of Mr. Doel, on 
 the north-east corner of Bay and Adeliade Streets.* 
 
 * Among the persons who assembled, on that night, to listen to a project of 
 revolution, were : Dr. Morrison, a Lower Canadian by birth, who was prac- 
 ticing medicine in Toronto; Mr. John Mcintosh, a Scotsman, who formerly 
 owned and sailed a vessel on Lake Ontario, and who retired upon a moderate 
 competence ; Mr. John Doel, an Englishman, who by a brewery and the rise 
 in the value of some real estate of which he was the owner, was well able *d 
 live on the interest of his money; Mr. Kobert Mackay, a Scotsman, ted 
 grocer, in a good way of Easiness ; Mr. John Armstrong, a Scotsman and axe- 
 maker ; Mr. Timothy Parsons, an Englishman, who kept a "dry goods" 
 store; Mr. John Mills, a Scotsman by birth, and a hatter by trade; Mr. Thos. 
 Armstrong, a Scotsman and carpenter, employing several men; Mr. John
 
 THE CANADIAIf EEBELLION. 63 
 
 They all attended. Dr. Morrison took the chair ; and 
 Mr. Mackenzie proceeded to give his views of what 
 course it would be proper to pursue, in the crisis 
 which had arisen. Fortunately his own account of 
 this meeting has been preserved. 
 
 " I remarked, in substance, that we had, in a de- 
 claration adopted in July, and signed approvingly by 
 many thousands, affirmed that our wrongs and thoso 
 of the old thirteen colonies were substantially the 
 same ; that I knew of no complaint made by the heir 
 of the Plouse of Russell in 1685, against the Govern- 
 ment of England overturned three years thereafter, 
 that could not be sustained against that of Canada ; 
 that not only was redress from Britain hoj)eless, but 
 that there was imminent danger that leading Reform- 
 ers would be seized and sent to the dungeon ; that the 
 House of Assembly had been packed through fraud — 
 the clergy hired and paid by the State — the endow- 
 ment of a hierarchy begun in defiance of the Royal 
 pledge — the public credit abused and the provincial 
 funds squandered- — offices created and distributed to 
 pay partisans — emigration arrested — discontent ren- 
 dered universal — and government converted into a 
 detestable tyranny ; while in Lower Canada chaos 
 reigned, backed by the garrisoned troops ; and British 
 resolutions to leave no check in the hands of the peo- 
 ple, upon any abuse whatever, had j)assed the House 
 of Commons. Law was a mere pretext to plunder 
 people systematically with impunity — and education, 
 
 Elliott, an Englishman and an attorney; and Mr. Wm. Lesslie, a bookseller 
 and druggist, doing a good business. Mr. Elliott was never invited to attend 
 another meeting.
 
 54 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the great remedy for the future, discouraged in Upper 
 and unknown in Lower Canada — while defaulters, 
 cheats, embezzlers of trust funds and of public re- 
 venue, were honored and encouraged, and peculators 
 sheltered from the indignation of the people they had 
 robbed. I stated, that when I saw how Ireland, the 
 condition of which was fully understood in London, 
 had been ruled, I had no hope for Canada, except in 
 resistance, and affirmed that the time had come for a 
 struggle, either for the rights of Englishmen in con- 
 nection with England, or for independence. Canada, 
 as governed, was an engine for the oppression of our 
 countrymen at home. 
 
 " I spoke with great earnestness, and was only in- 
 terrupted by some brief casual remarks. 
 
 "In adverting to the condition of societ}^ I re- 
 marked, that Head was abhorred for the conduct of 
 those he had upheld and cringed to ; that in the city 
 all classes desired a change — credit was prostrate, 
 trade languishing — and asked if the j^roper change 
 could be obtained in any possible w^ay short of revo- 
 lution? 
 
 " Still there was no answer. 
 
 " I stated that there were two ways of effecting a 
 revolution : one of them by organizing the farmers, 
 who were quite prepared for resistance, and bringing 
 them into Toronto, to unite with the Toronto people ; 
 and the other, by immediate action. 
 
 *' Dr. Morrison made some deprecatory or dissenting 
 remark, but I continued. 
 
 " I said, that the troops had left ; that those who 
 bad persuaded Head to place four thousand stand of
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 55 
 
 arms in the midst of an unarmed people in the City- 
 Hall, seemed evidently not opposed to their being 
 used ; that Fort Henry was open and empty, and a 
 steamer had only to sail down to the wharf and take 
 possession ; that I had sent two trusty persons, sepa- 
 rately, to the garrison, that day, and it was also ' to 
 let ;' that the Lieutenant Grovernor had just come in 
 from his ride, and was now at home, guarded by one 
 sentinel; and that my judgment was that we should 
 instantly send for Butcher's foundry-men and Arm- 
 strong's axe-makers, all of whom could be depended 
 on, and, with them, go promptly to the Government 
 House, seize Sir Francis, carry him to the City Hall, 
 a fortress in itself, seize the arms and ammunition 
 there, and the artillery, etc., in the old garrison ; rouse 
 our innumerable friends in town and country, pro- 
 claim a Provisional Government, send off the steamer 
 of that evening to secure Fort Henry, and either in- 
 duce Sir Francis to give the country an Executive 
 Council responsible to a new and fairly chosen As- 
 sembly to be forthwith elected, after packing off the 
 usurpers in the ' Bread and Butter Parliament,' such 
 new Assembly to be convened immediately ; or if he 
 refused to comply, go at once for Independence, and 
 take the proper steps to obtain and secure it. 
 
 " I also communicated, in the course of my remarks, 
 important facts relative to Lower Canada, and the dis- 
 position of her leading men. 
 
 " Dr. Morrison manifested great astonishment and 
 impatience toward the close of my discourse, and at 
 length hastily rose and exclaimed that this was trea- 
 son, if I was really serious, and that if I thought I 
 
 68
 
 56 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 could entrap him into any such mad scheme, I would 
 find that he was not my man. I tried to argue with 
 him, hut finding that he was resolute and determined, 
 soon desisted.* 
 
 " That the proposition I made could have been 
 easily and thoroughly carried into efi*ect, I have never 
 for a moment doubted ; and I would have gone about 
 it promptly, in preference to the course afterwards 
 agreed-upon, but for the indecision or hesitancy of 
 those who longed for a change, but disliked risking 
 anything on such issues. I made no request to any 
 one about secrecy, believing that the gentlemen I had 
 addressed were honestly desirous to aid in removing 
 an intolerable burthen, but that much difi^erence might 
 exist as to the best means of doing so ; and that the 
 Government would be kept inactive, even if it knew 
 all — ^its pretended friends, headed by a fool, pulling 
 one way, and its enemies another." 
 
 About the 18th of IN'ovember another plan of opera- 
 tion was decided upon. There were about a dozen 
 persons present when the decision was come to. The 
 organized bands, distributed over the country, were 
 to collect together, and march upon Toronto by Yonge 
 Street, the main northern entrance to the city, on 
 Thursday, the 7th of December.f The management 
 
 * Dr. Morrison, I learn, from a reliable source, had no real objection to the 
 scheme ; but he distrusted some one in the room, and was afraid to commit 
 himself. This he told to my informant ; but who it was that was the object 
 of his suspicion ho did not state. The circumstance of his afterwards agree- 
 ing to a far more dangerous project for effecting the same object, is sufficient 
 guarantee of the correctness of this information. 
 
 f In a public dispatch to Lord Glenelg, dated Toronto, December 19th, 
 1837, Sir F. Head affects to have known that the outbreak was to have taken 
 place on the 19th ; and in The Emigrant, he states that Mackenzie had fixed
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 57 
 
 of the enterprise was to be confided to Dr. Rolph, as 
 sole executive ; and the details were to be worked out 
 by Mr. Mackenzie. The correspondence with Papi- 
 neau and the other popular leaders in Lower Canada, 
 was to be conducted by the executive ; and he was to 
 communicate intelligence of their intended move- 
 ments to his associates. It was understood that the 
 day named for the rising should not be altered b}^ 
 any less authority than that by which it had been 
 fixed. The insurgent forces were to be brought as 
 secretly as possible to Montgomery's hotel, on Yonge 
 Street, about four miles north of the city of Toronto, 
 between six and ten o'clock, at night, when they were 
 to march upon the city. A force of betw^een four and 
 five thousand was expected. The four thousand 
 stand of arms in the City Hall were to be seized ; the 
 Lieutenant Governor and his chief advisers were to 
 be captured and placed in safe custody ; the garrison 
 was to be taken possession of. A convention, the 
 members of which had begun to be elected in the 
 previous August, was to be called ; and a constitution, 
 which had already assumed shape and form, was to 
 be submitted for adoption.* In the meantime. Dr. 
 
 upon this day because a girl of the name of Julia Murdock was to be ex- 
 ecuted for poisoning her mistress, Mrs. James Henry, of Toronto ; as a 
 number of men could be brought into the city under the guise of witnessing 
 the execution. The girl, he pretends, was to be rescued by " a number of 
 'fine fellows," "from a horrid and ignominious death." The whole story, 
 however it got into the brain of Sir F. Head, is a pure fiction. "A numtw 
 of the best men in the Province," he tells us, "consented to be agitators in 
 such a cause" as the reprieving of the girl. However this may be, the files 
 of Mr. Mackenzie's paper show that he did nothing to increase the agita- 
 tion. 
 
 * See Apnendix E.
 
 58 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Rolph was to be administrator of the Provisional 
 Government* Such was the helpless condition of the 
 Government, and so few were its willing supporters 
 supposed to be, that all this w^as expected to be ef- 
 fected without the effusion of blood. 
 
 * It is the fate of persons who fail in an enterprise of this kind to have 
 their motives misrepresented hy their cotemporaries ; and it is sometimes not 
 till the prejudice of their time has passed away that justice is done to thorn. 
 Sir F. Head frequently stated, in written documents, that the object of the 
 insurgents was to rob the banks and set fire to the city ; forgetting that they 
 were mainly composed of the wealthiest farmf^rs in the county of York, 
 the very class whom he (when it suited him) called ♦' yeomen " and 
 "gentlemen." "There can be no doubt," he wrote on one occasion, "that 
 could Dr. Eolph and Mackenzie have succeeded in robbing the banks, they 
 would immediately have absconded to the United States." "Nothing," 
 wrote Mr. Hincks, now Governor of British Guiana, in The Toronto Examiner, 
 "in Sir F. Head's writings has given more disgust than this assertion." Of 
 Dr Eolph, Mr. Hincks proceeded to say that "he was the most talented and 
 highly educated man in the Province, and that there never was a man less 
 likely to be influenced by pecuniary considerations." " With regard to 
 Mackenzie," Mr. Hincks added, " it has been so much the fashion to accuse 
 him of every crime which has disgraced humanity, that people really forget 
 who and what he is. We can speak impartially of Mr. Mackenzie more 
 particularly, because those who know us well, know that we have never ap- 
 proved of his political conduct. Let us not be misunderstood. We agreed 
 with him on certain broad principles, more particularly Kesponsible Govern- 
 ment, and when those principles were involved, we supported him, and shall 
 never regret it. As a private individual we are bound in justice to state that 
 Mr. Mackenzie was a man of strict integrity in his dealings, and we have 
 frequently heard the same admitted by his violent political opponents. He 
 was not a rich man, because he never sought after wealth. Had he done so 
 his industry and perseverance must have insured it. We do not take up 
 our pen to defend the political characters of either Dr. Rolph or Mr. Macken- 
 zie ; but when these false and malignant slanders arc uttered, we shall always 
 expose them. Are there ten people in Upper Canada who believe that the 
 object of either Dr. Rolph or Mr. Mackenzie was to rob the banks and ab- 
 scond to the United States ?" This was written in 1838 ; and we venture to 
 Bay that there is not to-day a single person in Upper Canada who, in good 
 faith, would answer this question in the affirmative. In pecuniary matters, 
 both Dr. Rolph and Mr. Mackenrie were men of the highest integrity; a 
 fact to which their bitterest opponents would now readily testify.
 
 THE CANADIAN" REBELLION. 59 
 
 Unless it were the day of the intended outbreak, 
 none of the movements designed to end in armed in- 
 surrection and revolution were unknown to the Go- 
 vernment. In the beginning of September, intelli- 
 gence of the purpose to which the organizations in the 
 county were being turned, was conveyed to the Lieu- 
 tenant Governor.* Before the middle of November, 
 a short time prior to the fixing of the day of rising, 
 two Methodist ministers, Kevs. Egerton Ryerson and 
 John Lever, called upon Attorney General Hagerman 
 one nio-ht at nine o'clock, and related what was eroins: 
 on in the townships of East ^and West Gwillimburg, 
 Albion, Vaughan, and other places. One of them 
 was fresh from these scenes of excitement, where he 
 had been travelling in a pastoral capacity. They de- 
 nounced to the Attorney General treasonable organiza- 
 tions, treasonable trainings, and treasonable designs 
 upon Toronto. Mr. Hagerman was inclined to laugh 
 in the faces of his informants. He did not believe, 
 he said, there were fifty men in the Province who 
 would agree to undertake a descent upon Toronto ; he 
 would like to see the attempt made. One of the 
 preachers replied by declaring his belief that there 
 were, in the Home District alone, more than five hun- 
 dred persons who had already determined upon such 
 an attack. The same representations had already 
 
 * Mr. Charles Fothergill stated, in a pamphlet which he published, that, 
 "Early in September last [1837] the Governor was made acquainted with the 
 nature, extent, and objects of these secret Committees in one of the most sedi- 
 tious quarters in the Home District by a magistrate of Pickering [Fothergill], 
 who had taken measures to watch their every motion. But it was all without 
 any useful effect. Sir Francis Bond Head was in such hands, that, if a pro- 
 phet had risen from the dead, his admonitions would have been equally inef- 
 fectual."
 
 60 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 been made to the Lieutenant Governor, in person ; 
 but as he paid no attention to them, this appeal was 
 made from the Governor to the Minister. But it was 
 in vain. The one was found to be as deaf and as ob- 
 stinate as the other. 
 
 On the 31st October, Sir Francis Bond Head had 
 refused the offer of a volunteer company to guard the 
 Government House ; preferring to wait, as he ex- 
 pressed it, till the lives or property of Her Majesty's 
 subjects should require defence. To the very last, the 
 Lieutenant Governor refused to resort to any measure 
 of precaution against the- threatened insurrection. On 
 the 2nd December, a free-mason, who resided in Mark- 
 ham, informed Capt. Fitzgibbon that bags full of pike 
 heads and pike handles had been collected ; and that 
 he had observed all the signs of a rapidly ripening 
 revolt. Capt. Fitzgibbon sought out Judge Jones, to 
 whom he repeated what he had heard. They went 
 before the Executive Council together, where the state- 
 ment was once more repeated. Mr. Justice Jones ex- 
 claimed : "You do not mean to say that these people 
 are going to rebel !" Capt. Fitzgibbon replied that 
 undoubtedly they were ; when Mr. Jones, turning to 
 the Lieutenant Governor, contemptuously exclaimed.. 
 "Pugli! pugh!" The length to which the Judge car- 
 ried his obdurate scepticism may best be illustrated 
 by the reception he gave Capt. Fitzgibbon on the 
 night of the outbreak. "The over-zeal of that man," 
 he complained, "is giving me a great deal of trouble " 
 The insurgents were already at Montgomery's. 
 
 Nor is this all. Sir Francis Bond Head made it a 
 matter of boasting that, " in spite of the remonstrances
 
 THE CAT^ADIAN REBELLION. 61 
 
 which, from almost every district in the Province," he 
 received, he allowed Mr. Mackenzie " to make delibe- 
 rate preparation for revolt ;"='= that he allowed him 
 "to write what he chose, to say what he chose, 
 to do what he chose ;" that he offered no opposition to 
 armed assemblages for the purpose of drill. Nor did 
 he rest satisfied with doing nothing to check prepara- 
 tions, the nature of which he understood so well ; he 
 encouraged the outbreak.f For this purpose he sent 
 all the troops from the Province; J and boasted that he 
 had laid a trap to entice Mackenzie and others into 
 revolt.§ Nothing could have been more culpable than 
 this conduct of the Lieutenant Governor. To encour- 
 age men to the commission of an act, and then to 
 punish its performance with death, as in the case of 
 
 * Vice Kegal speech on the opening of the third session of the thirteenth 
 Parliament of Upper Canada, December 28, 1837. 
 
 f *' I considered that if an attack by the rebels was inevitable, the more I en- 
 couraged them to consider me defenceless the better." — Narrative, p. 329. 
 
 % In his Narrative, Sir Francis Bond Head boastingly reports, " I purposely 
 dismissed from the Province the whole of our troops," p. 337. But when this 
 extraordinary conduct on the part of the Lieutenant Governor had been se- 
 verely censured both in Parliament and by the Press, he denied that he had 
 sent away the troops. " Many people," he says in The Emigrant, "have blamed, 
 and I believe still blame, me for having, as they say, sent the troops out of the 
 Province. I, however, did no such thing." He then proceeds to throw on Sir 
 John Colborne the blame of an act, of which, before he had discovered that it 
 was improper, he had eagerly claimed all the credit. "It was the duty of the 
 Government," said Sir Kobert Peel, in a speech in the House of Commons, 
 January 16, 1838, "to have prepared such a military force in the colony as to 
 have discouraged the exciters of the insurrection from pursuing the course they 
 did." How great then must be the condemnation of the Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor ! 
 
 ^ The Earl of Durham, in his Report on British North America, January 
 31, 1839, says : " It certainly appeared too much as if the rebellion had been 
 purposely invited by the Government, and the unfortunate men who took part 
 in it deliberately drawn into a trap by those who subsequently inflicted so se- 
 vere a punishment on them for their error." — pp. 59, 60
 
 62 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Samuel Loiint and Peter Matthews, is more like mur- 
 der with malice aforethought than any thing else to 
 which it could possibly be compared.* 
 
 * Sir Francis Bond Head, however, was not responsible for the executions. 
 He had left the Province before they took place ; and many who were never 
 admirers of his policy believe that he had too much magnanimity of character 
 to have pursued a vindictive course in needlessly causing an eft'usion of blood. 
 He released several prisoners, with arms in their hands, as soon as they were 
 captured, though some of them, contrary to good faith, were arrested again.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 63 
 
 CHAPTERIV. 
 
 Persons m the Secret of the intended Kevolt — Commencemer.t of the Eebel* 
 lion in Lower Canada — The Battles of St. Denis and St. Charles — Macken- 
 zie sets out to the Country to Organize the Revolt — An Appeal "to Arms" — 
 Military Leaders Appointed — Mackenzie takes no Command — Change of the 
 Day of Rising — Lount brings only eighty or ninety Tried Men to Montgo- 
 mery's Hotel — A Guard placed on the Eoad leading to Toronto — Mackenzio 
 cannot entice the Men to March on Toronto — He and three others set out to 
 ascertain the State of the City — They take two Prisoners, one of whom shoots 
 Anderson, one of his Guards — Mackenzie and Powell attempt to shoot at one 
 another — Powell escapes and informs the Governor — How and by whom Col. 
 Moodie was shot — Lount's men disheartened by the death of Anderson — The 
 Rebel Commissariat without Provisions — Messengers sent to the City never re- 
 turn — Before morning Mackenzie again urges a March on the City — Next day 
 (Tuesday, Dec. Sth) the Insurgent Force numbers Seven or Eight Hundred 
 Men — Sir Francis Bond Head sends in a Flag of Truce to the Rebel Camp 
 — Failure of the Negotiations — March for the City — Firing between the Loy- 
 alists and the Insurgents — Disorderly Retreat of the Latter — Burning of Dr. 
 Home's House — Escape of Dr. Rolph (Wednesday the 6th) — Western Mail 
 intercepted — Division in the Rebel Camp on Thursday Morning — Council 
 of War — A Party sent to burn the Don Bridge and intercept the Eastern 
 Mails — Sir Francis Bond Head, having received Succor from a distance, de- 
 termines on an Attack — The Battle of Yonge Street — Defeat of the Insur- 
 gents — Burning of Montgomery's Tavern and Gibson's House. 
 
 By some means a knowledge of the intended rising 
 reached several persons, from whom Mackenzie would 
 have desired to keep it a secret. Dr. Morrison, who 
 had so vehemently opposed the project of seizing the 
 arms in the Cit}^ Hall, and taking possession of the 
 Government in the way it was first proposed was a 
 
 59
 
 64 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 party to tlie arrangement finally agreed upon. He is 
 "believed to have disclosed the plan of insurrection to 
 several persons. "What was going on came to the 
 ears of Dr. Baldwin.* The latter, it would seem, 
 never mentioned it to his son, Robert ; for that gentle- 
 man declared that he had no knowledge of it.f Mr. 
 Bidwell had refused to become a member of the pro- 
 posed convention, and he does not appear to have 
 attended the meetings at which insurrection was or- 
 ganized. There seems to be no reason to believe, 
 however, that he is entitled to plead ignorance of the 
 movement. He was asked his opinion on the legality 
 of the shooting matches ; he was the bosom friend of 
 Dr. Rolph, with whom he was in the habit of cor- 
 dially co-operating ; and it has been stated that, with- 
 out working with the dozen persons in Toronto, who 
 were actively engaged in the organization of the 
 movement, he was secretly giving all the assist- 
 ance he could. J He accepted expatriation at the 
 
 * Dr. Baldwin's Evidence before the Treason Commission, Toronto, Decem- 
 ber 13, 1837. 
 
 f His own statement, read January 2, 1838, was : — ""With respect to the in- 
 surrection itself, I had no personal knowledge whatever of either the conspi- 
 racy itself, the intention to rise, or the attack on the city, or the persons said to 
 be implicated in it ; and since my return from England in February last I have 
 been wholly unconnected with the parties or politics of the Province." — Ap- 
 pendix to Assembly's Journals, 1837-8, page 486. 
 
 J The following extract from a letter addressed to a person in Toronto is very 
 explicit: — ""When I was in Toronto, in the fall of 1837, I became acquainted 
 with Mr. Bidwell. From him I learned the projected revolution, and general 
 calculations to be entered into. To him, my brother-in-law, Judge Butler [a 
 prominent member of the House of Kepresentatives in Michigan] made seve- 
 ral pledges in relation to my rendering assistance to the Provincial army, if a 
 general concert was required." By the writer of this letter Mr. Dufort, who 
 was in Toronto with letters from Mr. Papinfyiu, was introduced to Mr. Bidwell
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION". 65 
 
 hands of Sir Francis Bond Head, when the revolt 
 had failed.* 
 
 Two days before the insurgents occupied Mont- 
 gomery's Hotel, Mr. Price advised a neighbor Avhose 
 property was in an exposed position to make a con- 
 veyance of it, as something was likely to happen in 
 the country. 
 
 There were a great many other persons who had 
 also learned of the intended revolt, in the way it 
 
 to "consult on the proposed connection of the two Provinces." This state- 
 ment was published some years ago by Mackenzie, in his Flag of Truce, without 
 eliciting any denial from Mr. Dufort, whose attention was specially directed to it. 
 On the 30th August, 1837, Mr. Bidwell wrote to Dr. O'Callaghan expressing 
 his opinion that "all hope of justice from the authorities of England seems to 
 be extinguished." At the same time, it is proper to observe that all the evi- 
 dence produced against him by Sir Francis Bond Head, except the option to 
 leave the Province or run the risk of having his letters opened, is worthless. 
 It is true that his name was inscribed on the flag left by the rebels when they 
 retreated from Montgomery's ; but the Lieutenant Governor did not know that 
 it was an old flag of 1831 with the last figure changed into a seven. Yet such 
 is the fact. 
 
 * The day before the outbreak the Lieutenant Governor was sitting in a room 
 in the Government House, the windows of which were blocked up with rough 
 timber and loopholed. Mr. Bidwell sent in his card. When he was admitted 
 to an interview he was apparently so alarmed as to be unable to speak. Sir 
 Francis Bond Head, holding Mr. Bidwell's letters in his hand, pointed with 
 them towards the window, saying: "Well, Mr. Bidwell, you see the state to 
 which you have brought us!" " He made no reply," writes the ex-Lieutenant 
 Governor, " and as it M'as impossible to help pitying the abject, fallen position in 
 which he stood, I very calmly pointed out to him the impropriety of the course 
 he had pursued, and then observing to him, what he knew well enough, that 
 if I were to open his letters his life would probably be in my hands, I re- 
 minded him of the mercy as well as the power of the British Crown ; and I 
 ended by telling him that, as its humble representative, I would restore to him 
 his letters unopened, if he would give me, in writing, a promise that he would 
 leave the Queen's dominions forever. * * » He retired to the waitin^'- 
 room, wrote out the promise I had dictated, and returning with it, I receivod 
 it with one hand, and with the other, accoi-ding to my promise, I delivered tt) 
 him the whole of his letters unopened. The sentence which Mr. Bidwell passed 
 upon himself he faithfully executed." — The Emigrant.
 
 66 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 came to the knowledge of Dr. Baldwin ; and thera 
 were others in the background who were quietly for- 
 warding their wishes for its success, as Mr. Bid well ap- 
 2>cars to have been. 
 
 Previous to the day fixed for the outbreak in Upper 
 Canada, the clash of arms had been heard in the 
 Lower Province. On the 5th December, Lord Gos- 
 ford proclaimed martial law, and offered rewards' for 
 the apprehension of the patriot leaders.* A detach- 
 ment of twenty cavalry was sent from Montreal to St. 
 eFohns to arrest Dr. Davignon and Mr. Demaray* two ' 
 jjrominent individuals, who had attended a great rneet- 
 ing of the six counties, at which seditious language 
 was alleged to have been used. The prisoners were 
 ironed, and then seated upon the bare boards of a 
 wagon, confined in a most painful posture. Instead 
 of being taken directly to Montreal by the railroad, 
 it was resolved to take them, in the condition of 
 felons, a distance of thirty-six miles, round Chambly 
 and Longueuil, as if for the purpose of striking ter- 
 ror into the neighboring poj)ulation. When the caval- 
 cade had come near the borders of the St. Lawrence, 
 it was met by a small part}^ of Canadians who put the 
 troops to flight and rescued the prisoners. 
 
 Dr. Nelson, who lived at St. Denis, and besides fol- 
 lowing his practice, carried on a brewery and distil- 
 
 * The following are the men and the figures : — " Four thousand dollars for 
 Iiouis Joseph Papineau ; two thousand dollars each, for Dr. Wolfred Nelson, 
 Thos. Storrow Brown, Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, Joseph T. Drolet, Jean J. 
 Girouard, "William H. Scott, Edward E. Eodier, Amury Girod, Jean O'Che- 
 nier ; and four hundred dollars each for Pierre Paul Demaray, Joseph Fran- 
 cois Davignon, Julien Gagnon, Pierre Amiot, Louis Perrault, Dr. Alphonso 
 Gauvin, Louis Gauthier, Pvodolph Desrivieres."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 67 
 
 leiy, hearing of the movement for the arrest of him- 
 self and the other leaders, prepared for resistance. 
 From Lieutenant Weir, who was one of Col. Gore's 
 messengers, who appeared at St. Denis in plain 
 clothes, and was arrested when his mission became 
 known, the first intelligence of the number of troops 
 being sent on is said to ha\ i been learned. Five compa- 
 nies of troops, with one field piece, and a detachment 
 of Montreal Cavalry, under command of Col. Gore, 
 arrived at St. Denis, on the morning of the 23d of 
 Noviember. The battle commenced about nine o'clock, 
 and lasted till nearly four in the afternoon ; being 
 carried on with great bravery on both sides. From a 
 large stone store, four stories high, some of the men, 
 under the intrepid Dr. ]S'elson, kept up a galling fire 
 on the troops; till the latter, fatigued by a twelve 
 hours' march through deep mud before the battle com- 
 menced, their ammunition nearly exhausted, and 
 seeing that the patriots were being largely reinforced, 
 gave way. They left behind one cannon, some mus- 
 kets, and five wounded. Captain Markham was car- 
 ried away wounded by several shots. The loss of the 
 patriots was thirteen ; that of the British troops much 
 larger.* In this encounter, Dr. !N^elson was com- 
 pletely successful ; but he did not find himself in a 
 position to sustain a prolonged contest.f 
 
 * Dr. Nelson, in an account which he has given of the affair, says: 
 
 ' It could never be accurately ascertained what the loss of the besiegers was ; 
 
 ■but it must have been considerable." One patriot account places it at fifty, 
 
 xnother at one hundred and twelve ; but the latter figure must be an exasjge- 
 
 ration. 
 
 f If reliance can be placed in the following extract from a manuscript letter 
 in my possession, written by one of the insurgents, the parish priest of St.
 
 G8 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 Shortly after Col. Gore was ordered to return to St. 
 Denis ; and on the 2nd of December, he marched from 
 Sorel with eight companies and three field pieces ; but 
 the few remaining insurgents had abandoned the place 
 the night before his arrival. Dr. JN'elson, as well as 
 Papineau, Brown, and others, escaped to the United 
 States. The property of Dr. JN'elson was destroyed, 
 with the fortified house and defences. 
 
 At St. Charles, the insurgents, under Mr. T. S. 
 Brown, suffered a reverse. On the 25th of j^fovember, 
 five companies of the Koyals, two companies of the 
 (36th, with two pieces of artillery, and a small cavalry 
 force, under Col. Wetherall. marched on the town. 
 The whole force was between three hundred and four 
 hundred men. The house of M. Debartzch, built in 
 the substantial manner of an old French chateau, had 
 been taken possession of by the insurgents, and the 
 walls were pierced for the use of guns. Several acres 
 of ground were enclosed by barricades, in the form 
 of a parallelogram, between the Richlieu river and 
 the foot of a hill behind the house. This barricade 
 was formed by the trunks of trees banked up with 
 earth. The night before the battle. Brown sent a 
 
 Denis wielded the thunders of the Church with more effect than Cui Gore 
 had used his soldiers : " "Wetherall qui voyait qu'il n'avait pas a faire ii des 
 snfauts, envoya chercher le cur4 de St. Denis et lui dit d'^crire aux hahitans 
 de St. Denis que, s'ils nese rendoient pas, il les vouerait aux torrnensde I'cnfer, 
 et qu'il leur refuserait la sepulcre. * * * Le plan formait par le Col. Anglais 
 reussit a merveille, et sur cinq cents hommesque conimandait Nelson le dirnanche 
 au soir, il ne s'en trouve plus que cinquante lundi au matin qui ont pu resister 
 au menaces de leur cur6." Col. Gore, in his dispatch of the 7th of February, 
 describing the result of his march upon St. Charles, says : " I was accompa- 
 nied by Mons. Crenier, the parish priest, who gave me every information in 
 his power." At St. Hyacinthe the priest performed a like friendly office; in 
 fact, the priests did more than the lro>'p- to put down the rebelliou.
 
 THE CAXADIAN REBELLION. 69 
 
 number of the men from tlie camp to ascertain 
 Avhether the troops were approaching ; very few of 
 them returned ; and when the battle came on, he had 
 only a handful of men, wretchedly armed, and in 
 every way very ill prepared to encounter British 
 troops. The3'' had nothing but fowling pieces, and 
 only about one hundred and fifty of these ; many of 
 them sadly out of repair. The real leaders to whom 
 the people looked up were absadit ; and the insurgents 
 had not much faith in " Greneral" Brown's military 
 skill. He had lost an eye in the affray of the 6th of 
 !N'ovember, at Montreal ; and as the troops were ap- 
 proaching, he was thrown from his horse on the frozen 
 ground and severely injured. When they arrived 
 within range, he was outside the camp, having been to 
 the village to beat up reinforcements there. When 
 the firing v^^as commenced by the troops, he did not 
 return to the camp ; and at the end of little more than 
 an hour, he was on his way to St. Denis, and those 
 within the stockade, at the commencement, who were 
 not killed, were on the retreat or were taken prisoners. 
 The barricades were stormed and carried ; and every 
 building within the enclosure was burnt, except the 
 liouse of M, Debartzch. " The slaughter on the side 
 of the rebels," writes Col. Wetherall, " was great." 
 " I counted," he adds, " fifty-six bodies, and many 
 more were killed in the building and the bodies burnt." 
 He was much censured for what was deemed unneces- 
 sary slaughter. 
 
 This reverse was destined to have a discouraging 
 effect upon the insurgents, in Upper Canada, where 
 the work of final or£>-anization had commenced. Military
 
 70 LilE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 leaders had to be chosen, and each assigned his post 
 of duty. A tour of the neighboring country had to 
 be made ; and this duty fell to Mr. Mackenzie. On 
 the evening of the 24th of JSTovember — less than 
 twenty-foui hours before the defeat at St. Charles — he 
 left Dr. Roiph's house, on this mission. Just before 
 starting, he mentioned to one or two persons who had 
 not been parties to the plan of rising, what was going 
 to take place; but he was very careful not to communi- 
 cate the intelligence to any one on whose secrecy he 
 felt he could not rely. Except in a single instance, 
 no notices were sent beyond the limits of the Metro- 
 politan county of York. A little after dark, the first 
 night, Mr. Mackenzie, and a printer whom he had 
 taken with him. to strike oif a revolutionary placard, 
 arrived at a farmer's house about six miles from To- 
 ronto, on the east side of Yonge Street. Some cases 
 of type and a card j^i'ess, with reams of variously 
 colored paper, were taken for the use of the printer. 
 Next morning an appeal to freemen to rise and strike 
 for liberty was begun to be committed to type.* When 
 it was ready for distribution, the printer set about its 
 circulation. While engaged in distributing the papers, 
 he stumbled upon a crowd of people at an auction, 
 near Hog's Hollow, some six or seven miles north of 
 the city, on Yonge Street. The Tories became in- 
 censed at reading the revolutionary document ; and as 
 one of them, in his rage, was about to destroy the 
 papers, the printer, who had never been told of the 
 intended rising, threatened him with speedy retribu- 
 tion from the patriots, if he did not desist ; adding, to 
 
 * See Aj pendix P
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 71 
 
 give force to his menace, that they were already on the 
 road. The printer must have guessed at the object 
 of the document he had printed ; and having partaken 
 somewhat too freely of liquor, appeared to have di- 
 vulged a secret with which he had never been en- 
 trusted. Some fighting occurred between the two 
 parties of whom the auction crowd i:)roved to be com- 
 posed. On his return to the house where he had left 
 his types and press, the printer found the owner in a 
 great state of alarm. The susj)icious implements 
 were hurried out of the house ; and both types and 
 press were thrown to the bottom of a well, whence the 
 press was never recovered. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mr. Mackenzie visited Lloydtown, 
 Stouffville, Newmarket, and other j^laces in the JN'orth. 
 His business was to make the necessary preparations 
 for carrying out the plans agreed upon. Having no 
 knowledge of military operations, he refused to as- 
 sume a position of command for which he w^as by 
 experience entirely unfitted. This determination he 
 announced at Lloydtown, several days previous to the 
 intended march upon Toronto. Samuel Lount and 
 Anthony Anderson were then named to co.nmands. 
 Mr. Mackenzie deemed it essential to the success of 
 the movement that it should be directed by persons 
 of military skill and experience. lie wrote to Yan 
 Egmond, who had been a colonel under IN'apoleon the 
 Great, to be at Montgomery's Hotel, on the evening 
 of the 7th, to lead the forces into the city,* and he 
 
 * Van Eejmond was a native of Holland anl, as a colonel in Napoleon's 
 army, had seen much service. He a 30 held an English colonelcy. He owned 
 CO
 
 72 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 placed mucli reliance upon him and otlier vo/v .n.i 
 whose services he deemed it of the utmost import{j,nce 
 to secure. 
 
 On the night of the 3d of December, Mr. Macken- 
 zie, who had now been nine days in the country orga- 
 nizing the movement, arrived at the house of Mr. 
 Gibson, some three miles from the city. He there 
 learnt with dismay that, in his absence. Dr. Rolph 
 had changed the day for making a descent upon 
 Toronto, from Thursday to Monday.* Yarious rea- 
 sons have been assigned for this change. There was 
 a rumor that a warrant was out for the arrest of Mr. 
 Mackenzie for high treason — which was true — and 
 that cannon were being mounted in the park surround- 
 ing the Government House, which was false. The 
 publication of certain militia orders is said to have 
 been regarded as proof that the Government was on 
 
 thirteen thousand acres of land in the western part of the country ; and entered 
 the service of the rebels for patriotic rather than military motives. 
 
 * Silas Fletcher, who was a prominent actor in the rebellion, wrote to Mr. 
 Mackenzie, from Fredonia, N. Y., July 29, 1840: — "On the Saturday after- 
 noon previous to the outbreak back of Toronto, between three and five, I 
 called to see Dr. Kolph at his house on King [Lot] Street, and asked him, as 
 lie was the Executive, whether any alteration was to be made or ordered by 
 him as to the time of rising. He said that, as those who had the direction of 
 th3 affair had, with his consent, fixed the day for Thursday, the 7th of Decem- 
 ber, at Montgomery's as a place of rendezvous, he would make no change or 
 alteration whatever ; you had left the city previously, to carry into eifect a 
 general agreement to rise on the 7th, on Thursday, and had informed me that 
 you were on your way to Stoufl^ville, to give and send round the circulars 
 agreed on, so that all might come properly at the time settled upon. Dr. 
 Piolph's exact words to me were; 'No, by no means! I shall expect every 
 man to be active and vigilant, so as to be able to get up the expedition, and 
 come in on the 7th and take the city.' On the same afternoon, (Saturday, the 
 2d,) I returned to Newmarket, and met with Thomas Lloyd and other friends 
 ou Sunday, who told me that Dr. Eolph had sent V^^illiam Edmondstone, on
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLIOX. 73 
 
 the alert * The Lieutenant Governor, it was said, had 
 a letter from the country disclosing all the plans of 
 the patriots ; and that the Council, concluding at last 
 that there was real danger, had commenced a distri- 
 bution of arms. The real truth was, as the verbal 
 message sent to Lount stated. Dr. Rolph became 
 alarmed, under the impression that the Government 
 was giving out the arms at the City Hall, and arming 
 men to fill the garrison and form companies to arrest 
 the leaders of the expected revolt throughout, between 
 then and the next Thursday ; that they had already 
 distributed one hundred stand of arms, and had be- 
 come aware of the day fixed for the rising. These 
 circumstances, the message added, rendered it neces- 
 sary that Lount and his men should be in town on 
 Monday night.f Regarding the change of day as a 
 fatal error, Mackenzie despatched one of Gibson's ser- 
 vants with a message to Lount, who resided near 
 Holland Landing, some thirty-five miles from Toronto, 
 not to come till the Thursda}^, at first agreed upon. 
 But it was too late. The messenger returned on 
 Monday afternoon with the reply of Lount, that the 
 
 the same evening I had seen him, with orders to raise a sufficient number 
 of men to come down and take the city within the next 48 hours — this is by the 
 Monday night. 
 
 * There was something in this, as the following resolution passed at a 
 meeting held at Pickering, on the 2nd of jNovember, shows; but there is no 
 reason to suppose that it influenced Dr. Rolph's decision: 
 
 " Resolved, That there bemg a report in circulation that the local militia are 
 to be called out to Toronto, to gtard the garrison, we are resolved not to turn 
 out, except unanimously, and that we will all stand together to a man, and that, 
 if. we are compelled to fight, we will fight against the enemies of our country 
 and not against its friends." 
 
 f Both Mr. Lount and Mrs. Lount told Mr. Mackenzie that this was the 
 substance of the verbal message.
 
 74 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 intended rising was publicly known all through the 
 Xorth ; that the men had been ordered to march, and 
 were already on the road. The rude pike formed the 
 weapons of the majority; a few had rifles; there were 
 no muskets. 
 
 Much annoyed at the unexpected change in the pro- 
 gramme, Mackenzie, with the natural intrepidity of 
 his character, resolved to make the best of it. When 
 Lount arrived, in the evening, he brought only about 
 eighty or ninety men, exhausted with a march of be- 
 tween thirty and forty miles through deep mud, and 
 dispirited by the news of ihe reverse in Lower Ca- 
 nada. Though Dr. Rolph had met Mackenzie that 
 morning at Mr. Price's house, on Yonge Street, a 
 couple of miles or so from Toronto, they had no intel- 
 liofence of the state of the town after ten o'clock, 
 llolph had returned, and no messenger came to bring 
 ^lackenzie and his friends any news of what was going 
 on in the city. Regarding it as all important that 
 communication with the city should be cut off, for the 
 2^urpose of preventing any intelligence being sent to 
 the Grovernment, Mackenzie advised the placing of a 
 guard upon the road ; and that the handful of jaded 
 men who had arrived, should summon all their powers 
 of endurance, and march on the city that night. Xo 
 one seconded his proposal. Lount, Lloyd, and Gibson 
 all protested against what they regarded as a rash 
 enterprise. They deemed it indispensable to wait till 
 the condition of the city could be ascertained, or till 
 they were sufficiently reinforced to reduce the hazard 
 of venture, in which all concerned carried their lives 
 in their hands, to reasonable limits.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLIOX. 75 
 
 Thus the golden opportunity was lost. Delaj^ was 
 defeat. At this time the number of men under 
 Lount, reinforced as they would have been in the 
 city, would have been quite sufficient to effect the 
 intended revolution ; since the Government was liter- 
 ally asleep, and it was not embarrassed by a super- 
 fluity of true friends. 
 
 Failing in this proposal, Mr. ^Mackenzie next offered 
 to make one of four who should go to the city, ascer- 
 tain the state of matters there, whether an attack 
 would be likely to be attended with success, spur 
 their friends into activity, with a view to an attack 
 the next evening, and bring Drs. Rolph and Morrison 
 back with them. Captain Anderson, Shepard, and 
 Smith, volunteered to join him. They started be- 
 tween eight and nine o'clock. Before they had pro- 
 ceeded far they met Mr. John Powell, with Mr. 
 Archibald Macdonald mounted, acting as a sort of 
 patrol. Mackenzie pulled up, and with a double- 
 barrelled pistol in his hand, briefly informed them of 
 the rising ; and adding that, as it was necessary to 
 prevent intelligence of it reaching the Government, 
 they must surrender themselves prisoners, and in that 
 character go to Montgomery's hotel, where they would 
 be well treated. Any arms they might ha^e upon 
 their persons, they must surrender. They replied 
 that they had none ; and when he seemed sceptical as 
 to the correctness of the reply, they repeated it. Mac- 
 kenzie then said : " Well, gentlemen, as you are my 
 townsmen and men of honor, I should be ashamed to 
 show that I question your word by ordering you to 
 be searched."
 
 76 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Placing the two prisoners in charge of Anderson 
 and Shepard, he then continued his course, with his 
 remaining comrade, towards the city. Before they 
 had got far, Powell, who had returned, rode past 
 them. While he was passing, Mackenzie demanded 
 to know what was the object of his return, and told 
 him, at his peril, not to proceed. Regardless of this 
 warning, the Government messenger kept on. Mac- 
 kenzie fired at him over his horse's head, but missed 
 his mark. Powell now pulled up ; and coming along- 
 side Mackenzie placed the muzzle of a pistol close to 
 his antagonist's breast. A flash in the pan saved the 
 life of the insurgent chief. 
 
 Macdonald now also came up on his return. He 
 seemed much frightened ; and being unable to give 
 any satisfactory explanation was sent back, a second 
 time, by Mackenzie. In the meantime, Powell es- 
 caped. He dismounted, and finding himself pursued, 
 hid behind a log for a while ; and then by a devious 
 course proceeded to Toronto. He at once proceeded 
 to Government House, and aroused from his slumbers 
 the Lieutenant Governor, who had gone to bed with 
 a sick headache. His Excellency placed his family 
 on board a steamer in the bay — the winter being un- 
 usually mild, there was no ice to impede navigation — 
 in company with that of Chief Justice Robinson, 
 ready to leave the city if the rebels should capture it. 
 Mackenzie, having sent his last remaining companion 
 back with Macdonald to Monto-oraerv's hotel, now 
 found himself alone. A warrant had for some time 
 been out for his arrest, on a charge of high treason, 
 and the Government, informed of the presence of the
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLIOX. 77 
 
 men at Montgomery's, was already astir. It would 
 have been madness for him to proceed, companionless 
 to the city, into the very jaws of the lion. 
 
 He turned his horse's head and set out for Montgo- 
 mery's. Before he had proceeded far he found, lying 
 upon the road, the dead body of Anderson, who had 
 fallen a victim to Powell's treachery. Life was en- 
 tirely extinct. Anderson and Shepard, as al:eady 
 stated, were escorting Powell and Macdonald as pri- 
 soners to the guard-room of the patriots at ]Montgo- 
 mery's Hotel. Powell, who, on being captured, had 
 twice protested that he was unarmed, slackened the 
 pace of his horse sufficiently to get behind his victim, 
 when he shot him with a pistol through the back of 
 the neck. Death was instantaneous. Shepard's 
 horse stumbled at the moment, and Powell was en- 
 abled to escape. As there was now only one guard 
 to two prisoners, he could not have hoped to prevent 
 their escape. Macdonald followed his associate. 
 
 On w^hich side life had first been taken it would be 
 difficult to determine ; for, w^hen Mackenzie got back 
 to Montgomery's Hotel, he found that Col. Moodie, in- 
 flamed by liquor, had, in trying to force his way past 
 the guard at the hotel, at whom he fired a pistol, been 
 shot by a rifle. The guards who returred the fire 
 missed their aim ; when one of the men who was 
 standing on the steps, in front of the hotel, levelled 
 his rifle at Col. Moodie, of whom the light of the 
 moon o-ave him a clear view, and fired the fatal shot. 
 His name I have recently learned, from one to whom he 
 related the circumstance, was Ryan. He sometimes 
 went by the name of Wallace. After the retreat of 
 the rebels he fled northward and took refuge in the
 
 78 LIFE OF MACKENZIE. AXD 
 
 woods, on the shores of Lake Huron, where, apart 
 fi'om any human being, he dragged out a wretched 
 existence during the whole of the winter, gnawing 
 roots and herbs. In the spring, when he had been 
 reduced to a skeleton, he fell in with a vessel going 
 to the States, and thus made good his escape. He 
 never returned to Canada. Mackenzie's calumnia- 
 tors have sometimes stated that he shot Col. Moodie, 
 thousrh it was notorious that he was a mile distant at 
 the time the event took place.* But as this calumny 
 
 * Captain Stewart, R. N., wlio accompanied Col. Moodie, gives the follow- 
 ing account of the death of his companion: — "About 4 p. M., a large body 
 of men came along Tonge Street. The magistrates in the neighborhood met 
 at Col. Moodie's house. Col. Moodie ^vrote to His Excellency the Lieutenant 
 Governor, and Mr. Drew volunteered to take the letter to Toronto. The ma- 
 gistrates separated to do the best they could. Shortly afterwards word was 
 brought that Mr. Drew was taken prisoner by the rebels. Upon this Col- 
 Moodie determined to go to Toronto himself, against the prayers of his wife 
 and family. I (Capt. Stewart) insisted on going with him, as did also Captain 
 Bridgeford. On the road we were joined by Mr. Prime Lawrence, Mr. G. 
 Bead, and Mr. Brooks. Col. Moodie suggested that we should arrange our- 
 selves in close order, three abreast — Col. Moodie, myself, and the stranger in 
 front. Col. Moodie said, 'If they (the rebels) have a guard, we must gallop 
 through them, whatever be tDe result' On nearing Montgomery's Tavern, 
 we observed a guard across the road, armed with muskets, who desired us to 
 stop or they would fire. "We kept on steady right through them. I looked for 
 our companions, and found only Col. Moodie by my side, who remarked, ' We 
 are alone.' He put his hand on my arm and said, ' Never mind, push forward, 
 all is right yet !' About one hundred and fifty men were then in front of 
 Montgomery's door, and a voice called as we were passing, ' Guards, fire !' We 
 f>assed Montgomery's, and about one hundred yards from it was found a strong 
 guard posted in close order. VTe reached them, when pikes and bayonets were 
 presented to our horses' breasts. Col. Moodie said, ' Who are you — who dare 
 stop Dte on the Queen's highway?' The reply was, 'Tou will know that in 
 time.' Col. Moodie then fired his pistol, and, at the same moment, three guns 
 were discharged at us. Col. Moodie said, 'I am shot! I am a dead man!* 
 ' Here Brooks says he desired them to charge. We were then taken into Mont- 
 gomery's Tavern. Shortly afterwards Mackenzie came into the room and 
 asked for me."
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 79 
 
 has long since ceased to be repeated. I do not add 
 the statements of several eye-witnesses, in my pos- 
 session, in refutation. Col. Moodie died in about a 
 couple of hours after he was shot. 
 
 It has been usual to speak of Col. Hoodie's death as 
 a murder, as if every death occurring in an insurrec- 
 tion could by any possibility come within this category. 
 The circumstances connected w^ith the death of An- 
 derson were more discreditable than those connected 
 with the death of Col. Moodie : because in the first 
 place there was treachery ; in the latter there was not. 
 
 Lount's men w^ere a good deal dispirited by the 
 death of Anderson. And they had no particular rea- 
 sons for being in good humor. Lingfoot, by whom 
 Montgomery's hotel was kept, had no provisions to 
 offer them ; and none could be procured that night. 
 The handful of countrymen, exhausted by their long 
 march, with no man of military experience to excite 
 their confidence, had to sup on bad whiskey, and 
 recline upon the floor, where many from sheer fa- 
 tigue fell sound asleep. The rest were still uneasy as 
 to the state of things in the city. The bells had been 
 set a ringing ; and they were uncertain as to the rumors 
 about the arrival of steamboats full of Orangemen and 
 other loyalists. They had expected to learn the exact 
 state and condition of the city from their friends there. 
 Mackenzie with three companions, as we have seen, 
 had failed to reach the city, where the wished -for in- 
 
 Col. Moodie's foolhardincss is admitted even by Sir Francis Bond Head. 
 "He determined," says the ex-Lieutenant Governor, in The Emigrant, "that — • 
 coute qui coute — he would ride through them and give me information that they 
 ■were marching on Toronto." 
 1
 
 80 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 telligence might nave been obtained. Other messen- 
 gers were sent, but none returned. They were made 
 prisoners. 
 
 It is probable that Dr. Morrison attempted to take 
 to them the information they so much needed ; for 
 it is pretty certain that he passed the toll-gate on his 
 way out.* The sight of Captain Bridgeford in all 
 probability compelled him to go back. 
 
 By midnight, the numbers w^ere increased ; and 
 before morning, Mackenzie, with his natural impetu- 
 osity of disposition, again proposed to march on the 
 city ; but he was again overruled. And indeed, the 
 chance of success was already much diminished ; be- 
 cause the Government had now had several hours for 
 preparation. To Mr. Mackenzie's proposal it was 
 objected that nothing was known of the state of the 
 garrison. The city bells had sounded an ominous 
 alarm. The forces expected from the west had not 
 
 * The fact, if such it be, was known to but very few ; and even Mackenzie 
 was ignorart of it, for a long time after. He was firmly of opinion that Dr. 
 Morrison never crossed his threshold to go towards the rebel camp. There is 
 a curious circumstance connected with the Doctor's Yonge Street walk that 
 night with Captain Bridgeford, and the latter made no secret of the fact. 
 "When relating the circumstance one day to an acquaintance, he was asked how 
 it was possible for him to distinguish Dr. Morrison from Dr. Kolph, in the 
 dark ; the two men were so nearly of the same size. A few nights afterwards 
 Captain Bridgeford and his friend were sipping tea together ; when a female, 
 in the course of the conversation that ensued, asked Captain Bridgeford the 
 same question about his power of identifying a person who was so like another ; 
 another person present remarked, by preconcert, that this had only been stated 
 as an impression, not a positive fact. In this way Captain Bridgeford was 
 confused ; and a confession was extracted from him that he only spoke of an 
 impression. That female repeated what Captain Bridgeford had said that 
 night on tbe trial of the doctor for high treason. He did not owe his acquittal 
 entirely to this circurastAnce, however ; for an alibi was set up and was re- 
 garded as being proved.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 81 
 
 arrived ; and the Executive in the city, by whom the 
 premat ire rising had been ordered, had sent no com- 
 munication. 
 
 Next day, the relative force of the two parties was 
 such that the patriots might, if properly armed, have 
 obtained certain conquest. They had between seven 
 and eight hundred men ; but many of them were un- 
 armed. The rest had rifles, fowling-pieces, and pikes. 
 Many of those who were unarmed, returned almost 
 as soon as they discovered there were no weapons for 
 their use. Provisions, including fresh and salt beef 
 from a loyalist butcher, who lived up Yonge Street, 
 about two miles above Montgomery's, w^ere obtained 
 for the men ; for Lingfoot, the keeper of the tavern, 
 though a Tory, w^as not disinclined to turn an honest 
 penny by serving the rebels.* Sir Francis B. Head 
 claims to have had three hundred supporters in the 
 morning and five hundred in the evening ;-j- but the 
 statement has been disputed and is open to doubt. 
 His fears may be judged by his holding parley with 
 armed insurgents. On Tuesday he sent a flag of 
 truce to the rebel camp, with a message asking what 
 it was they wanted. There is no reason to doubt that 
 this was a stratagem to gain time.J Mackenzie re- 
 
 * On the Thursday morning, the day of the retreat, Mackonzio paid Ling- 
 foot's bill for victualling the whole of the men ; and as they could not make 
 change, he gave him two dollars too much, remarking that it might go to- 
 wards the next bill. 
 
 t Narrative, p. 331. 
 
 X The Upper Canada Herald argncA that: " If an attack had been made on 
 Tuesday, the city must have fallen. The flag of truce was sent on Tuesday 
 forenoon, in order to gain time in that threatening emergency, and the fact 
 that after having beaten to arms all night the Government could only muster
 
 82 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 plied : " Independence and a convention to arrange 
 details." He added that the Lieutenant Governor's 
 message must be sent in writing, and feeling time to 
 be precious he said it must be forthcoming in one 
 hour. 
 
 Whom had Sir Francis Bond Head selected as the 
 medium of communication between himself and the 
 rebels? This question touches on one of the most 
 painful subjects I have to deal with in this work. Mr. 
 Robert Baldwin could hardly have been entirely igno- 
 rant of what every one who read the newspapers of 
 the day must have been informed ; but he had neither 
 part nor lot in the revolt. But Mackenzie himself 
 was not deeper in the rebellion than Dr. Rolph ; and 
 his acceptance of the post of mediator between the 
 men he had encouraged into insurrection, and the Go- 
 
 a force of about three hundred out of ten thousand shows its deplorable 
 weakness." 
 
 It is a melancholy fact, that even in his grave official dispatches, Sir F. 
 Head could not narrate the occurrences of this insurrection with any thing 
 like accuracy. In a dispirtch to Lord Glenelg, dated Toronto, December 19th, 
 he says : "On Wednesday morning we were sufficiently strong to have ventured 
 an attack, but being sensible of the strength of our position, being also aware 
 how much depended upon the contest in which we were engaged, and feeling 
 the greatest possible reluctance at tbie idea of entering upon a civil war, I 
 dispatched two gentlemen [one of whom he had shortly before advised the 
 Colonial office not to treat with ordinary courtesy, as he was a 'republican' 
 agent] to the rebel leaders, to tell them that, before a,ny conflict should take 
 place, I parentally called upon them, as their Governor, to avoid the effusion 
 of human blood." The truth is, it was Tuesday and not Wednesday, when 
 these gentlemen were despatched to the rebel camp ; and the true reason was 
 that the Lieutenant Governor feared an attack which he was not able to re- 
 pel ; for he admits, in the same dispatch, that on Tuesday morning he had 
 only three hundred men. Fear, and not humanity was the real motive that 
 induced him to treat with the rebels. That night, he confesses, in The Emi- 
 grant, "The sun set without our receiving succor or any intimation of its 
 approach."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 83 
 
 vernment against which they had been induced to re- 
 bel, is so extraordinary an act that it is almost impos- 
 sible to account for it. The only possible explanation 
 lies in the difficulty of his position which arose from 
 his being asked to undertake this office.'-" Sheriff Jar- 
 vis, who had believed that an insurrection was ap- 
 j)roacliing, long before any member of the Govern- 
 ment could be induced to put the least faith in, it, went 
 to Mr. J. H. Price — so the latter says — and appealed 
 to him, in the name of Grod, to give his assistance 
 "to stop the proceedings of those men who are going 
 to attack us." Mr. Price replied, with much reason, 
 that if he should go out it would be said that he went? 
 to join the rebels. And he suggested: "Why not go 
 to Mr. Baldwin, Dr. Rolph, or Mr. Bidwell?" If 
 Rolph had persisted in refusing he would have lain 
 himself open to suspicion — as he did by a first refusal; 
 and if he had been arrested, the worst might have 
 happened. The Doctor's returfiing prudence may 
 have bid him go ; and perhaps he thought he could 
 perform this mission without serious injury to his 
 friends in the field.f But the effect of his arrival 
 
 * Eecorder Duggan, who was one of the two who first called upon Dr. Rolph 
 fco as?k him to accept this mission, tells me that the Doctor, in the first instance, 
 declined ; adding something to the efi'ect that the constitution was suspended 
 and the powers of the Lieutenant Governor at an end. After they left the 
 house, Mr, Duggan remarked to Sheriff Jarvis, by whom he was accompanied, 
 that Dr. Eolph ought to be arrested ; as it was evident from his manner that 
 he was deep in the plot ; and that before twenty-four hours it would be easy 
 to find plenty of evidence against him. Mr. Jarvis said he should not like to 
 arrest him ; and the matter dro{iped. 
 
 f Samuel Lount, being examined before the Commission on Treason, Dec. 
 13, 1837, said: "When the flag of truce came up, Dr. Rolph addressed him- 
 Belf to me ; there were two other persons with it besides Dr. Rolph and Mr. 
 Baldwin. Dr. Rolph said he brought a message from his Excellency tlie Lieu-
 
 84 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 with a flag of truce, about one o'clock, threw a clamper 
 on the zeal of the men. They fancied that when he 
 
 tenant Governor, to prevent the effusion of blood, or to that effect. At the 
 same time, he gave me a wink to walk on one aide, when he requested me not to 
 heed the message, but to go on with our proceedings. "What he meant was 
 not to attend to the message. Mackenzie observed to me that it was a verbal 
 message, and that it had better be submitted to writing. I took the reply to 
 the Lieutenant Governor's message to be merely a put off. * * * I heard 
 all that was said bj' Dr. Rolph to Mr. Mackenzie, which is as above related." 
 Of this statement. Dr. Rolph, in 1852, induced the flag bearer, Hugh Car- 
 michael, to sign a denial, in these terms : " During the going out and staying 
 on the ground, and returning to the city, as above stated, (all of which was 
 promptly done,) Dr. Eolph, Mr. Baldwin, and myself, being all on horseback, 
 kept in close phalanx, not a yard apart. Neither of the persons mentioned 
 could have got off his horse, nor could he have winked to Mr. Lount and 
 •walked aside and communicated with him, nor have said anything irrelevant 
 to the flag of truce, or against its good faith, as is untruly alleged, without my 
 knowledge." There are yet three other witnesses besides Mackenzie; and as 
 it is not my business to accuse or excuse any body, but to get at the truth, their 
 testimony must be given. Mr. Baldwin made a statement relating to the se- 
 cond visit to the rebels, when the answer of the Lieutenant Governor was 
 taken. Carmichael alleges that till the flag of truce was at an end. Dr. Eolph 
 could not have done what was attributed to him by Lount, whose statement 
 was corroborated, in one way or another, by three or four persons. Car- 
 michael's statement, it will be seen, does not go to the extent of saying that, after 
 the Lieutenant Governor's reply was delivered and the flag of truce declared 
 at an end, Dr. Eolph did not tell Lount to take his men into the city. It leaves 
 that question untouched. Mr. Baldwin's evidence, taken in connection with 
 Carmichael's on this point, is very important. "On the return of the Doctor 
 and myself, the second time," he says, "with the Lieutenant Governor's reply 
 that he would not give any thing in writing, we found the insurgents at the 
 first toll-gate, and turned aside to the west of Yonge Street, where we delivered 
 this answer ; after which Dr. Eolph rtjuested me to wait for him. / did wait 
 some time, during which he was out of viy sight and hearing. I was then directed 
 to ride westerly ; this occupied the time while I was riding at a common walk 
 from Yonge Street to the College Avenue, probably three-eighths of a mile. 
 The direction to ride westerly, as I then supposed, was for the purpose of the 
 flag being carried to the city by way of the College Avenue. Shortly after 
 reaching the avenue, however, I was joined by Dr. Eolph, and we returned 
 together by way of Yonge Street. I have no reason to know what com- 
 munication took place between Dr. Eolph and the insurgents when he was 
 out of my sight and hearing." — Appendix, Asscmhly's Journals, 1837-8, p. 406
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION". 85 
 
 appeared in the service of the Lieutenant Governor, 
 the patriot cause must be desperate. Mackenzie did 
 not venture to tell the real state of the case to more 
 than five or six persons ; for if it had been publicly 
 announced, the f<xct might have reached town and oc- 
 casioned the Doctor's arrest. The intelligence that 
 Bidwell had been asked to accept the mission under- 
 taken by Rolph created the false impression that they 
 were both opposed to Mackenzie's movement. Lount, 
 to whom he addressed himself, says Dr. Rolj^h secretly 
 advised him to pay no attention to the message, but 
 to proceed. Mackenzie told Lount this advice must 
 be acted uj^on ; and the order to proceed was given. 
 
 Lount was advised by Mackenzie to march his men 
 into the city, without loss of time, and take up a po- 
 sition near Osgood Hall, on Queen Street. Mackenzie 
 then rode westward to the larger body of insurgents, 
 near Col. Baldwin's residence, and ordered an instant 
 
 "Wm. Alves, who was present, says that on the second visit Dr. Eolph advised 
 the rebels to go into the city. P. C. H. Brotherton, another of the insurgents, 
 itade oath to the same eifect on the 12th December, before Vice Chancellor 
 Jameson; stating that Dr. Kolph had told him, on the 8th, that " Mackcnzia 
 had acted unaccountably in not coming into the town ; and that he expected 
 him in half an hour after he returned with the flag." These statements are 
 sufficiently conclusive as to the general fact ; the only question that is not 
 jettled is whether 1 . was on the first or second visit that Dr. Eolph told the in- 
 surgents to go into .he city. Did he give this advice on the occasion of both 
 visits ? Mackenzie and Lount say the order to go into the city was given on 
 the first visit. Against his positive evidence, Dr. Kolph produces his own de- 
 nial and a statement from the flag bearer, who attempts to prove a negative 
 from the alleged impossibility of the occurrence taking place. It must be ex- 
 plained that the statement signed by Carmichael was prepared in Quebec, 
 where it was dated, and taken to Toronto for signature. Besides this, Car- 
 michael has not been very consistent in his statements of the affiiir, having 
 told a very difierent story at other times. The weight of the evidence is there* 
 fore entirely in favor of the correctness of Lount's statement.
 
 86 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 march on tlie city. AVlien they reached the upper 
 end of the College Avenue, a second flag of truce ar- 
 rived. The answer brought by Mr. Baldwin and Dr. 
 Rolph was that the Lieutenant Governor refused to 
 comply with the demands of the insurgents. 
 
 The truce being at an end, Dr. Rolph secretly ad- 
 vised the insurgents to wait till six o'clock, and then 
 enter the city under cover of night. Reinforcements 
 to the number of six hundred were expected in the 
 city ; and they w^ere to be ready to join the forces from 
 the country, as soon as the latter arrived. Accord- 
 ingly at a quarter to six, the whole of the insurgent 
 forces w^ere at the toll bar, on Yonge Street, about a 
 mile from the principal street of the cit}', on which the 
 Government House, w^est of the line of Yonge Street, 
 was situated. Mackenzie harangued the men ; at- 
 tempting to inspire them with courage by representing 
 that there would be no difficulty in taking the city. 
 The Government, he said, was so friendless that it 
 had only been able to muster a hundred and fifty de- 
 fenders, including the college boys ; and that the 
 Lieutenant Governor's family had been put on a 
 steamer ready to take flight. The actual force claimed 
 by Sir F. B. Head, on Tuesday night, w^as " about five 
 hundred." 
 
 The patriot forces were a half armed mob, without 
 discipline, headed by civilians, and having no confi- 
 dence in themselves or their military leaders. Lount's 
 men, who were armed with rifles, were in front; the 
 pikemen came next, and in the rear was a number of 
 useless men liaving no other weapons than sticks and 
 cudgels. Captain Duggan, of the volunteer artillery,
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 87 
 
 another officer, and the sheriff's horse fell into the 
 hands of the insurgents, when they were within about 
 half a mile of the city. At this point they were fired 
 upon by an advanced guard of loyalists, concealed 
 behind a fence, and whose numbers — of which the in- 
 surgents could have no correct idea — have been va- 
 riously stated at from fifteen to thirty ; and shots 
 were exchanged. After firing once, the loyalists, under 
 Sheriff Jarvis, started back at .full speed towards the 
 city. The front rank of Lount's men, instead of step- 
 ping aside after firing to let those behind fire, fell 
 down on their faces. Those in the rear, fancying that 
 the front rank had been cut down by the muskets of 
 the small force who had taken a random shot at them, 
 being without arms, were panic stricken ; and in a short 
 time nearly the whole force was on the retreat. Many 
 of the Lloydtown pikemen, raised the cry, "^Ve shall 
 all be killed," threw down their rude weapons, and 
 fied in great precipitation. Mackenzie, who had been 
 near the front, and in more danger fi'om the rifles 
 behind than the musketry of the loyalists, stepped to 
 the side of the road and ordered the men to cease 
 firing ; being of opinion that one of the insurgents, 
 who had been shot, fell from a rifle bullet of an un- 
 skillful comrade. The impetuous and disorderly flight 
 had, in a short time, taken all but about a score above 
 the toll gate. The mortification of Mackenzie may be 
 imagined. Hoping to rally the men, he sent Alves 
 back to explain to them that the danger was ima- 
 ginary ; and putting spurs to his horse he followed at 
 a brisk pace immediately after, for the same purpose. 
 When they came to a halt, he implored them to re- 
 
 62
 
 88 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 turn. The steamers, he said, had been sent off tc 
 bring the Orangemen from the other' districts; that 
 whatever defenders the Government had in the city 
 were in a state of desperate alarm ; that the success 
 which could now be easily achieved, might on the 
 morrow be out of their reach ; for the moment the 
 timidity of the patriots became known, the Govern- 
 ment would gain new adherents ; and that if they did 
 not return, the opportunity for the deliverance of the 
 country would be lost. In this strain, he addressed 
 successive groups. He coaxed and threatened.* He 
 would go in front with any dozen Avho would accom- 
 pany him. Relying upon the succor they would 
 meet in the city, he offered to go on, if only forty men 
 would go with him. Two or three volunteers pre- 
 sented themselves ; but the general answer Avas that, 
 though they would go in daylight, they would not 
 advance in the dark. 
 
 The majority lost no time in returning to their 
 homes. And although some two hundred additional 
 
 * Mr. P. H. Watson, writing from personal knowledge, gives tlie following 
 account of this affair, in a letter dated Eochester, N. Y., November 12, 1839: 
 "When Mr. Mackenzie found (after the retreat on Tuesday night) that most 
 of the men were unwilling to enter the city that night, and perceived the dis- 
 astrous consequences that must inevitably result from delay, to encourage them 
 and show that he himself was not lacking in the quality so essential to success, 
 namely, physical courage, and with a want of which he had just been charging 
 them (in very provoking and unmeasured terms of censure), he proposed to ' go 
 forthwith into the city if twenty men would volunteer to follow him ;' but he 
 could not get out of the whole force even such a small number to go with him. 
 
 "Mr. Stiles, one of Lount's friends from the North, was so provoked at 
 Mackenzie for making use of such strong language of censure, when he was 
 haranguing them after the retreat, and vainly endeavoring to make them re- 
 turn, that he elevated his gun to shoot him (Mackenzie), and was only pre- 
 vented from doing so hy the interference of four or five of Mr. Mackenzie's 
 friends who were standing \)y and observed him."
 
 THE CANADIATs^ REBELIION. 89 
 
 forces arrived during the night, the whole number, on 
 the Wednesday, had dwindled down to about fiv« 
 hundred and fifty. One cause of the panic, on Tues 
 day night, arose from the alarming stories told bj 
 some persons who had joined them from Toronto, of 
 the preparations in the city ; how the Tories, protected 
 by feather-beds and mattresses, would fire from the 
 windows of the houses and make terrible slaughter of 
 the patriots. 
 
 Dr. Home's house, close to Yonge Street, was the 
 rendezvous of spies. Miss De Grassi had gone thenco 
 past the rebel camp and returned with the information 
 she gathered from observation. Home himself had 
 berated the Lieutenant Governor for treating with 
 armed rebels ; and insisted that they were not in suf- 
 ficient force to give any reasonable ground of alarm. 
 His house was therefore burnt by the rebels, as those 
 of Montgomery and Gibson were subsequently by the 
 loyalists.* In Home's house a search was made for 
 
 * Montgomery was not a party to the conspiracy for effecting a revolution. 
 He had no foreknowledge of the outbreak. Only a few days before he had 
 vacated his tavern, which had been rented to Lingfoot, with whom he was 
 boarding for a month, till he could move to a private house in the neighbor- 
 hood. If he had been a party to the conspiracy, he was not the man to huva 
 left his house, which was to be the rebel rendezvous, at that critical moment, 
 in the hands of a Tory, and without any provisions for the men. 
 
 It was sworn to on Montgomery's trial that he told the unKrmed men to go 
 get arms ; but a person of the name of Keed, then dying in the hospital, whose 
 evidence he was refused a commission to obtain, was prepared to swear that 
 the order in question was given by another person. Much stress was laid ou 
 the fact, at the trial, that Montgomery had, at the request of the butcher's 
 boy, put down on a piece of paper a memorandum of the quantity of meat 
 furnished to Lingfoot; the boy being apprehensive that the chalk figures would 
 rub out. But this is all he had to do with the rebellion in Canada. 
 
 "In burning that [Home's] house, we followed the distinct and eiplicit
 
 90 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 papers that might show what information was being 
 asked by the Government or sent to it ; and the fire 
 was caused by the upsetting of the stove. IS'othing 
 whatever was taken out of the house. It is not per- 
 missible to judge of acts done during civil war — re- 
 cognized by the Government sending flags of truce to 
 the insurgents — as if they were committed in a time 
 of peace. What would be dastardly arson, in the 
 latter case, might be justifiable in the former. 
 
 That night Dr. Rolph sent a messenger to Montgo- 
 mery's to inquire of Mackenzie the cause of the re- 
 treat. The answer was sent back in writing, and next 
 morning, despairing, it would seem, of all hope of suc- 
 cess, he set out for the United States, as a place of re- 
 fuge. He was soon to be followed by a large number 
 of others. 
 
 Wednesday oj^ened gloomily upon the pros23ects of 
 the insurgents. Rolph left for the States. Morrison 
 remained in his house. Mackenzie called the men 
 together and explained to them the reason for the 
 strong censures he had used on the retreat the previ- 
 ous evening. If they had taken his advice and been 
 ready to follow his example, Toronto would have been 
 theirs. The enemy had, in the meantime, been largely 
 reinforced. The}'' were well officered, well armed, and 
 had command of the steamers for bringing up further 
 reinforcements. If the patriots were to succeed it was 
 essential that they should have confidence in them- 
 selves. They were greatly in want of arms ; the 
 four thousand muskets and bayonets they had in- 
 orders of Dr. Eolpli, our Executive, which were to do so before we set off for 
 the city." — Account of the Rebellion, by Mackenzie, New York, 1838.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 91 
 
 tended to seize were now ready to be turned against 
 them. 
 
 Mackenzie, Lount, Alves, and several others set 
 off on horseback to collect arms to intercept the west- 
 ern mail, which would convey intelligence which it 
 was desirable should not be communicated to the 
 friends of the Government, and to make prisoners of 
 persons who might be carrying information for the Go- 
 vernment to the disadvantage of the insurgents. The 
 mail-stage, coming into Dundas Street, the principal 
 western entrance into Toronto, was captured, and with 
 the driver, mails, and several prisoners was taken to 
 the rebel camp. Among the letters were some ad- 
 dressed by the President of the Executive Council to 
 persons in the country, and containing information 
 that the Government expected soon to be able to make 
 an attack at Montgomery's. This exploit, which has 
 sometimes been described as a vulgar mail robbery, 
 was a natural incident of insurrection. It was a means 
 of depriving the friends of the Government, against 
 whom the rebels were in arms, of information that 
 might have a great effect on the result of the contest. 
 Admit the right of insurrection, and the detention of 
 the mails follows as a matter of course. Mackenzie, 
 not knowing that Rolph had fled, wrote to him to send 
 the patriots timely notice of the intended attack ; but 
 of course he got no answer. The messenger never 
 returned. A man on horseback told them that the 
 Government intended to make the attack on Thurs- 
 day, and the information proved correct. 
 
 Thursday found division in the patriot camp. Gib- 
 son objected to Mackenzie's plans, though they were
 
 9J - LIFE or MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 sanctioned by Col. Van Egmond, who, true to the ori- 
 ginal understanding, had just arrived. Gibson's ob- 
 jections led to a council of war. Those who objected to 
 Mr. Mackenzie's plan proposed no substitute. A new 
 election of officers took place. This caused great delay. 
 Gibson was unanimously elected Captain of one of the 
 companies, but he left his post the moment the enemy 
 appeared in sight.* In this respect he was neither 
 better nor worse than about one half of the patriot 
 force. The plan suggested by Tan Egmond, and 
 adopted by Mackenzie, was to try to prevent an attack 
 on Montgomery's till night, in the hope that by that 
 time large reinforcements might arrive. And there 
 was some reason in this, as this was the day originally 
 fixed for the general rising, and a notification of the 
 alteration had been sent only to Lount's Division. 
 One man had a force of five hundred and fifty ready 
 to bring down, and many others who were on the way, 
 when they found it was all up with the patriots, to save 
 themselves, pretended they had come down to assist 
 the Government to quell the insurrection. A militia 
 colonel was to contribute a couple of fat oxen to the re- 
 bel cause. Another colonel had made the patriots a 
 present of a gun, a sword, and some ammunition. 
 Thousands whom prudence or fear kept aloof from 
 the movement wished it success. Under these circum- 
 stances, the only hope of the patriots seemed to lay in 
 preventing an attack till night. In order to accom- 
 plish this the city must be alarmed. Sixty men, forty 
 of them armed with rifles, were selected to go to the 
 Don Bridge, which formed the eastern connection with 
 the city, and destroy it. By setting this bridge and 
 
 • ■William Alves's Letter to Mr. Eudd, N. Y.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 93 
 
 the adjoining house on fire it was thought the loyalist 
 force might be drawn off in that direction and their 
 plan of attack broken up. The party sent eastward 
 was to intercept the Montreal mails. The rest of the 
 men who had arms " were to take the direction of the 
 city, and be ready to remove either to the right or 
 the left, or to retreat to a strong position as prudence 
 might dictate." 
 
 A party was sent eastward, as agreed upon ; the 
 bridge and house w^ere fired and partly burnt; and 
 the mails intercepted. But the delay of two hours 
 occasioned by the council of war proved fatal. Three 
 steamers had, in the meantime, been bringing rein- 
 forcements to the alarmed Grovernor. 
 
 Toronto contained twelve thousand inhabitants, and 
 if the Grovernment had not been odious to the great 
 majority of the people, it ought to have been able to 
 raise force enough to, beat back four hundred rebels ; 
 for to this number the patriot army had been reduced. 
 But neither Toronto nor the neighboring country fur- 
 nished the requisite force, and Sir Francis Bond Head 
 had awaited in trembling anxiety the arrival of forces 
 from other parts of the Province.* Having, at length, 
 
 ♦ On Tuesday, Sir Francis Bond Head says, " The sun set without our re- 
 csiving any succoi or any intimation of its approach." — Emigrant. This state- 
 ment is entirely at variance with his public dispatch of the 19th December, in 
 which he says: "By the following morning (Tuesday) we mustered ahou* 
 three hundred men, and in the course of the day our number increased to 
 about five hundred." The story in The Emigrant about his being in a helplesfl 
 condition is the true one. He confesses to have been overjoyed at receiving 
 relief, on Tuesday night, from a distance: "I was sitting," says he, "by a tal- 
 »ow candle light in the large hall, surrounded by my comrades, when we sud-
 
 94 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AK^D 
 
 determined on an attack, Sir Francis Bond Head as- 
 sembled the " overwhelming forces" at his command, 
 under the direction of Col. Fitzgibbon, Adjutant Grene- 
 ral of the- Militia. The main body was headed by- 
 Col. McjSTab, the right wing being commanded by Col. 
 S. Jarvis, the left by Col. William Chisholm, assisted 
 by Mr. Justice McLean. Major Cafrae, of the militia 
 artillery, had charge of two guns.* The order to 
 march was given about twelve o'clock, and at one 
 the loyalist and the patriot forces were in sight of one 
 another. When the sentinels at Montgomery's an- 
 nounced that the loyalists were within sight, with mu- 
 sic and artillery, the patriots were still discussing their 
 plans. Preparation was at once made to give them 
 battle. Mackenzie, at first doubting the intelligence, 
 rode forward till he became convinced by a full view 
 of the enemy. When he returned, he asked the small 
 band of patriots whether they were ready to encoun- 
 ter a force greatly superior in numbers to themselves, 
 well armed, and provided with artillery. They replied 
 in the affirmative, and he ordered the men into a piece 
 of thin woods, on the west side of the road, where they 
 
 denly heard, in the direction of the lake shore, a distant cheer. In a short 
 time, two or three people, rushing in at the door, told us that 'a steamer full of 
 the men of Gore had just arrived!' and almost at the same moment I had the 
 pleasure of receiving this intelligence from their own leader. I have said that 
 my mind had been tranquilly awaiting the solution of the great problem; but my 
 philosophy was fictitious, for I certainly have never in my life felt more deeply 
 aflFected than I was when, seeing my most ardent hopes suddenly realized, I offered 
 my hand to Sir Allan McNab." "Where were the Toronto people? 
 
 * Sir Francis Bond Head, dispatch to Lord Glenelg, December 19, 1837. 
 In The Emigrant he says : " On the morning of the 7th, we had such an over- 
 whelming force that there remained not the slightest reason for delay," in mak- 
 ing the attack.
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 95 
 
 found a slight protection from the fire of the enemy 
 they had to encounter. A portion of the men took a 
 position in an open field, on the east side of the road. 
 
 "They have met — that small band, resolved to be free. 
 As the fierce winds of Heaven that course over the sea— 
 They have met, in bright hope, with no presage of fear. 
 Though the bugle and drum of the foemen they hear; 
 Some seize the dread rifle, some wield the tall pike, 
 For God and their country — for Freedom they strike, 
 No proud ensign of glory bespeaks their renown, 
 Yet the scorn of defiance now darkens their frown. 
 See the foemen advancing, and now sounds afar 
 The clang and the shout of disastrous war. 
 Yes ! onward they come like the mountain's wild flood, 
 And the lion's dark talons are dappled in blood." * 
 
 The men in the Western copse had to sustain 
 nearly the whole fire of the artillery from Toronto; 
 "And never," says Mr. Mackenzie, "did men fight 
 more courageously. In the face of a heavy fire of 
 grape and canister, with broadside following broad- 
 side of musketry in steady and rapid succession, they 
 stood their ground firmly, and killed and wounded a 
 large number of the enemy, but wero at length com- 
 pelled to retreat." 
 
 O God of my country! they turn now to fly — 
 
 Hark ! the Eagle of Liberty screams in the sky ! 
 
 "Where, where are the thousands that morn should have found 
 
 In battle array on that dew-covered ground ? 
 
 The few that were there, now wildly have flown. 
 
 Did fear stay the others ?t ♦ * * 
 
 * I quote this from Mackenzie's Gazette, to give the spirit of the proceeding as 
 far as it can be gathered from the expressions of the actors in it. A very wide 
 poetic license is here taken ; for assuredly the lion could be in no danger from 
 the force brought into action by the insurgents. 
 
 f Mackenzie's Gazette. 
 
 "They, the rebels," says Sir Francis Bond Head, "were principally armed 
 63
 
 96 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 4i Some are of th? opinion that the fighting lasted an 
 hour ; but there are difi'erent opinions on this point. 
 Mackenzie remained on the scene of action till the last 
 moment ; and till the mounted loyalists were just 
 closing upon him. *'So unwilling w^as Mackenzie to 
 leave the field of battle," says an eye witness, "and so 
 hot the chase after him, that he distanced the enemy's 
 horsemen only thirty or forty yards, by his superioi 
 knowledge of the country, and reached Col. Lount and 
 our friends on the retreat, just in time to save his 
 neck."* Immediately £1,000 reward was offered for 
 his apprehension. f This day was the turning point 
 
 with rifles, and for a short time, favored by building?, stood their ground.'' 
 There were no buildings except a few scattered on the side of the road, through 
 one of which the loyalists drove some shots. 
 
 * William Alves' letter to the Editer of the New York Reformer: Mr 
 Mackenzie's conduct, on this occasion, has been subject to much misrepre- 
 sentation — chiefly the result of political malice. It is therefore better that I 
 should give the statement of persons who were present, and who were in a 
 position to know the facts. In an unpublished letter, addressed to Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie, and dated "Watcrtown, N. Y., August 13, 1838, I find the following 
 statement: — " We are very sorry to learn from your kind letter, that any per- 
 son should charge you with cowardice, in any part of your proceedings in Ca- 
 nada ; and we are all ready to bear evidence of your courage and patriotism 
 on the occasion of the first outbreak in that country." Signed, Edward Ken- 
 nedy, John Stewart, jr., Thomas Tracy, Thomas Shepard, William Stockdalc, 
 Walter Chase, Michael Shepard, Gilbert T. Morden, 
 
 f He always kept a copy of this proclamation framed and hung up in a con- 
 spicuous part of his house : — 
 
 "Proclamation. 
 
 "By His Excellency, Sir Francis Bond Head, Baronet, Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor of Upper Canada, &c., &c. To the Queen's faithful subjects in Upper 
 Canada, 
 
 "In a time of profound peace, while every one was quietly following his occu- 
 pation, feeling secure under the protection of our laws, a band of Rebels, insti- 
 gated by a few malignant and disloyal men, has had the wickedness and auda- 
 city to assemble with arms, and to attack and murder the Queen's subjects on
 
 THE CAI^ADIAN EEBELLION. 97 
 
 in his career. It witnessed the almost total wreck of# 
 long cherished hopes. The hope of peaceable reform had 
 for some time been extinguished ; that of successful 
 revolution had been next indulged. Instead of finding 
 himself the hero of a revolution, he only preserved 
 his life by going into exile. Foiled in an enterprise 
 in which he risked all, he lost all. Ruined in pro- 
 
 the highway, to burn and destroy their property, to rob the public mails, and 
 to threaten to plunder the banks, and to fire the City of Toronto. 
 
 *' Brave and loyal people of Upper Canada, we have long been suffering from 
 the acts and endeavors of concealed traitors, but this is the first time that Re- 
 bellion has dared to show itself openly in the land, in the absence of invasion 
 by any foreign enemy. 
 
 " Let every man do his duty now, and it will be the last time that we or our 
 children shall see our lives or properties endangered, or the authority of our 
 Gracious Queen insulted by such treacherous and ungrateful men. Militia men 
 of Upper Canada, no country has ever shown a finer example of loyalty and 
 spirit than you have given upon this sudden call of dutj'. Young and old of 
 all ranks are flocking to the standard of their country. What has taken place 
 will enable our Queen to know Her friends from Her enemies. A public enemy 
 is never so dangerous as a concealed traitor. And now, my friends, let us com- 
 plete well what is begun. Let us not return to our rest till treason and traitors 
 are revealed to the light of day, and rendered harmless throughout the land. 
 
 " Be vigilant, patient, and active ; leave punishment to the laws. Our first 
 object is, to arrest and secure all those who have been guilty of rebellion, mur- 
 der, and robbery. And to aid us in this, a reward is hereby offered of one 
 thousand pounds, to any one who will apprehend, and deliver up to justice 
 William Lyon Mackenzie; and five hundred pounds to any one who will 
 apprehend and deliver up to justice David Gibson, or Samuel Lount, or Jesse 
 Lloyd, or Silas Fletcher ; and the same reward and a free pardon will be given 
 to any of their accomplices who will render this public service, except he or 
 they shall have committed, in his own person, the crime of murder or arson. 
 And all, but the leaders above named, who have been seduced to join in this 
 unnatural rebellion, are hereby called to return to their duty to their Sovereign, 
 to obey the laws, and to live henceforward as good and faithful subjects ; and 
 they will find the Government of their Queen as indulgent as it is just. 
 
 " God save the Queen. 
 
 "Thtjrsdat, 4 o'clock, p. M., December 7. 
 "The party of rebels, under their chief leaders, is wholly dispersed, and
 
 98 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 perty,* blighted in prospect, exiled and outlawed, with 
 a price upon his head, how complete was the wreck 
 of his fortune and his hopes ! 
 
 The Lieutenant Grovernor thought it necessary, so 
 he has told the world, to " mark and record, by some 
 stern act of vengeance, the important victory" that 
 had been achieved over the insurgent forces.f In the 
 j)resence of the militia, he determined to burn Mont- 
 gomery's hotelj and Gibson's dwelling house. In- 
 flying before the loyal militia. The only thing that remains to be done is, to 
 find them and arrest them." 
 
 * His ruin resulted from the failure of the insurrection. At the time of the 
 outbreak, his printing establishment was the largest and the best in Upper 
 Canada; and, although not rich, he was in good circumstances. In the pre- 
 vious year his account for public printing was $4,000. His book store con- 
 tained 20,000 volumes, and he had an extensive bindery. He had town lota 
 in Dundas, a farm lot in Garafraxa, and a claim to a proportion of the immense 
 Randall estate. A large amount was owing to him ; and all he owed was 
 only about £750. Such of his moveable property as was not destroyed by vio- 
 lence or stolen was never satisfactorily accounted for; though part of it went 
 to" pay some of his creditors, who got judgment against him under the fiction 
 of an absconding debtor. 
 
 ■j- Emigrant. 
 
 X Sir F. Head has given the following account of this burning : " Volume 
 after volume of deep, black smoke, rolling and rising from the windows of 
 Montgomery's tavern now attracted my attention. This great and lofty 
 building, entirely constructed of timber and planks, was soon a mass of flames, 
 •whose long red tongues sometimes darted horizontally, as if revengefully to 
 consume those who had created them, and then flared high above the roof. 
 As we sat on our horses the heat was intense ; and while the conflagration was 
 the subject of joy and triumph to the gallant spirits that immediately sur- 
 rounded it, it was a lurid telegraph which intimated to many an anxious 
 and aching heart at Toronto the joyful intelligence that the yeomen and 
 farmers of Upper Canada had triumphed over their perfidious enemy, 're- 
 eponsible government.' " — Emigrant. For this sneer at responsible govern- 
 ment, there might have been some excuse at a time when opinion was divided 
 as to the merits of the system, as applied to a colony ; but when The Emigrant 
 was written, responsible government had tranquilized Canada and made it 
 prosperous and happy.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 99 
 
 surgent prisoners alleged that Sir F. Head was urged 
 to include the residence of Mr. J. H. Price in the 
 programme of destruction, but that he refused to act 
 upon the suggestion. But if he executed stern ven- 
 geance, he showed that he was not incapable of per- 
 forming an act of clemency. He released several 
 of the prisoners almost as soon as captured, bid- 
 ding them go to their homes and return to their 
 duties of allegiance. In some cases, however, the 
 men, though released, were arrested again almost as 
 soon as they arrived home, without having been 
 guilty of any new act that would have warranted 
 such a procedure.* After the defeat of the insurgents, 
 and their retreat above Montgomery's, it would be 
 difficult to justify these burnings on the plea of ne- 
 cessity ; and indeed, the Lieutenant Governor, by 
 whom they were ordered, does not appear to have felt 
 the least embarrassment in describing them as an act 
 of vengeance. 
 
 * The British Government afterwards pardoned some of these prisoners on 
 the ground that the Prochimation contained a full amnesty of their offences.
 
 100 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 
 The Canadian Militia in 1837 — Mackenzie's Account of his Escape from 
 Montgomery's to the American Shore, with Notes by the Author. 
 
 The militia who went to the succor of the Govern- 
 ment was not generally a more warlike body of men 
 than the insuro:ents under Lount. Thev were drawn 
 from the same class — the agriculturists — and were 
 similarly armed and equipped. A description of a 
 2)arty — as given to me by an eye-witness — who came 
 down from the Xorth, would answer, with a very 
 slight variation, for the militia of any other part of 
 the Province. A number of persons collected at 
 Bradford, on the Monday or Tuesday, not one third 
 of whom had arms of any kind ; and many of those 
 who were armed had nothing better than pitchforks, 
 rusty swords, dilapidated guns, and newly manufac- 
 tured pikes, with an occasional bayonet on the end of 
 a pole. These persons, without the least authority of 
 law, set about a disarming process ; depriving every 
 one who refused to join them, or whom they chose to 
 suspect of disloyalty, of his arms. Powder was taken 
 from stores, wherever found, without the least cere- 
 mony, and without payment. On Thursday, a final 
 march from Bradford for Toronto was commenced ; the 
 number of men being nearly five hundred, including
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 101 
 
 one hundred and fifty Indians, with painted faces and 
 savage looks. At Holland Landing some pikes, which 
 probably belonged to Lount, were secured. In their 
 triumphant march, these grotesque-looking militiamen 
 made a prisoner of every man who did not give such 
 an account of himself as they deemed satisfactory. 
 Each prisoner, as he was taken, was tied to a rope ; 
 and when Toronto was reached a string of fifty pris- 
 oners all fastened together were marched in. Fearing 
 an ambush, these recruits did not venture to march 
 through the Oak Ridges, in the night ; and a smoke 
 being seen led to the conclusion that Toronto was in 
 flames. McCleod's tavern, beyond the Ridges, was 
 taken possession of, as well as several other houses in 
 the vicinity. In a neighboring store, all kinds of 
 provisions and clothing that could be obtained were 
 unceremoniously seized. x\t the tavern there was a 
 regular scramble for food ; and cake-baking and 
 bacon-frying were going on upon a wholesale scale. 
 Kext morning, several who had no arms, and others 
 who were frightened, returned to their homes. Each 
 man wore a pink ribbon on his arm to distinguish 
 him from the rebels. Many joined from compulsion ; 
 and a larger number, including some who had been at 
 Montgomery's, suddenly turned loyalists when they 
 found the fortunes of the insurrection had become 
 desperate. When they marched into Toronto, they 
 were about as motley a collection as it would be 
 possible to conceive. 
 
 Such was the Canadian militia in 1837, at a time 
 when Sir F. B. Head had sent all the regular troops 
 out of the Province.
 
 102 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 We left Mackenzie at the close of the defeat at 
 Montgomery's ; and he must now be allowed to tell 
 the story of his escape in his own words. 
 
 " It evidently appearing that success for the insur- 
 gents was, at that time, impossible, the Colonel and 
 many others gave way, and crossed the field to the 
 jDarallel line of road west of Yonge Street," says 
 Mackenzie. " I endeavored to get my cloak, which I 
 had left at the hotel, through which Capt. Fitzgibbon's 
 men were just then sending their six-pound shots with 
 good effect, but too late. Strange to tell, that cloak 
 was sent to me years afterwards, while in prison,* but 
 by whom I know not. 
 
 " Perceiving that we were not yet pursued, I passed 
 on to Yonge Street, beyond Lawyer Price's, and the 
 first farmer I met, being a friend, readily gave me his 
 horse — a trusty, sure-footed creature, which that day 
 did me good service. Before I had ridden a mile the 
 smoke rose in clouds behind me, and the flames of the 
 extensive hotel and outbuildings arrested my atten- 
 tion, as also another cloud of smoke which I then sup- 
 posed to be from the Don Bridge, in the city, which 
 we had sent a party to destroy or take possession of. 
 Colonel Fletcher, now of Chautauque county, JN". B., 
 handed me an overcoat, and told me he would make 
 for the States, but not by the head of Lake Ontario. 
 
 " Although it was known that we had been worsted, 
 
 no one interrupted us, save in friendship. Dr. , 
 
 from above Newmarket, informed me that sixty armed 
 friends were on their way, close by. I assured him 
 it Avas too late to retrieve our loss in that way, and 
 
 ♦ For a breach of the neutrality laws of the United States.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 103 
 
 bade him to tell them to scatter. Some, however, 
 went on, as volunteers for Sir Francis Bond Head ; 
 the rest returned to their homes. 
 
 " At the Golden Line, ten miles above the city, I 
 overtook Col. Anthony Van Egmond, a Dutch officer, 
 of many years' experience under JSTapoleon. He 
 agreed with me that we should at once make for the 
 Niagara frontier, but was taken, almost immediately 
 after, by a party who had set out from Governor 
 Head's camp, to gain the rewards then offered there. 
 
 " The Colonel was a man of large property, old, and 
 known to be opposed to Head's party. Though not 
 found in arms, he was placed in a cell, so cold that 
 they had very soon to take him to the hospital — on 
 his way to the grave. 
 
 " Finding myself closely pursued and repeatedly 
 fired at, I left the high road with one friend (Mr. J. R.) 
 and made for Shepard's Mills. The fleetest horse- 
 men of the official party were so close upon us that I 
 had only time to jump off my horse, and ask the mil- 
 ler (himself a Tory) whether a large body of men, 
 then on the heights, were friends or foes, before our 
 pursuers were climbing up the steep ascent almost 
 beside me. 
 
 *' When I overtook Col. Lount, he had, I think, about 
 ninety men with him, who were partly armed. We 
 took some refi'eshment at a friendly farmer's near by. 
 Lount was for dispersing — I proposed that we should 
 keep in a body, and make for the United States, via the 
 head of Lake Ontario, as our opponents had the steam- 
 ers ; but only sixteen persons went with me. I had no 
 other arms than a single-barrel pistol, taken from
 
 104 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Capt. Duggan during our Tuesday's scuffle, and we 
 were all on foot. Some of my companions had no 
 weapons at all. 
 
 " We made for Humber Bridge, through Vaughan, 
 but found it strongly guarded ; went up the river a 
 long way, got some supper at the house of a farmer, 
 crossed the stream on a foot bridge, and by two next 
 morning reached the hospitable mansion of a worthy 
 settler on Dundas Street, utterly exhausted with cold 
 and fatigue.* 
 
 " Blankets were hung over the windows to avoid 
 suspicion, food and beds prepared, and while the To- 
 ries were carefully searching for us, we were sleeping 
 soundly. Next morning (Friday) those who had arms 
 buried them, and after sending to inquire whether a 
 friend a mile below had been dangerously wounded, 
 we agreed to separate and make for the frontier, two 
 and two together. A lad in his nineteenth or twentieth 
 year accompanied me,f and such was my confidence in 
 the honesty and friendship of the country folks, Pro- 
 testant and Catholic, European and American, that I 
 went undisguised and on foot, my only weapon at the 
 time being Duggan's pistol, and it not loaded. Ad- 
 dress was now wanted more than brute force. 
 
 " We followed the Concession Parallel, and next to 
 the great Western Road saw and talked with num- 
 bers of people, but with none who wanted the Grovern- 
 
 * There can no longer be any reason for withholding the fact, not here men- 
 tioned by Mr. Mackenzie, that the house of Mr. Absalom "Wilcox, who had 
 several sons engaged in the revolt, one of whom was afterwards on Navy 
 Island. 
 
 t This was Allan Wilcox. I think he must have been a little older than 
 here stated, as he was then married.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 105 
 
 ment reward. About three in the afternoon, we 
 reached Comfort's Mills, near Streetsville ; we were 
 there told that Col. Chisholra and three hundred of 
 the hottest Orangemen, and other most violent parti- 
 sans, were divided into parties searching for us. Even 
 from some of these there was no real danger. They 
 were at heart friendly. 
 
 " Mr. Comfort was an American by birth, but a re- 
 sident of Canada. I asked his wife for some bread 
 and cheese, while a young Irishman in his employ was 
 harnessing up his wagon for our use. She insisted on 
 our staying to dinner, which we did. Mr. Comfort 
 knew nothing of the intended revolt, and had taken 
 no part in it, but he assured me that no fear of conse- 
 quences should prevent him from being a friend in the 
 hour of danger.* After conversing with a number 
 of people there, not one of whom said an unkind word 
 to us, my companion and I got into the wagon and 
 the young Emeralder drove us down the Streetsville 
 road, through the Credit Village (Springfield) in broad 
 daylight, and along Dundas Street, bills being then 
 duly posted for my apprehension, and I not yet out 
 of the county which I had been seven times chosen 
 by its freeholders to represent.f Yet, though known 
 
 * Comfort took out an old pocket-book, well filled with bank bills, laid it on 
 the table, and told Mackenzie to take a supply, to which the latter replied : 
 •'I have plenty of that." This arose from his independent manner, for I doubt 
 if he had much money on his person at the time. 
 
 f Comfort rode after them, at the distance of about half a mile, saying to 
 Mrs. Comfort as he left his house, " Good-bye, wife, perhaps I may never see 
 you again ;" words which proved prophetic of her sad fate. Just after Mr. 
 Mackenzie left Comfort, a man, named Falconer, who was distributing the pro- 
 clamation offering a reward for the rebel leaders, went in. He mentioned 
 that he knew Mackenzie.
 
 106 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 to everybody, we proceeded a long way west before 
 danger approached. At length, however, we were 
 hotly pursued by a party of mounted troops ; our 
 driver became alarmed, and with reason, and I took the 
 reins and pushed onward at full speed over a rough, 
 hard-frozen road, without snow. Our pursuers, never- 
 theless, gained on us, and when near the Sixteen-Mile 
 Creek we ascertained that my countryman, Col. Chal- 
 mers, had a party guarding the bridge. The creek 
 swells up at times into a rapid river ; it was now 
 swollen by the November rains. What was to be 
 
 done ? Young W and I jumped from the wagon, 
 
 made toward the forest, asked a laborer the road to 
 Esquesing to put our pursuers oif our track, and were 
 soon in the thickest of the patch of woods near the 
 deep ravine, in which flows the creek named and num- 
 bered arithmetically as the Sixteen.* 
 
 " The men in chase came up with our driver almost 
 immediately after we left, took him prisoner, seized his 
 team, gave the alarm to all the Tories and Orangemen 
 in that part of Trafalgar, and in an hour or there- 
 abouts, we were annoyed by the reports of rifles and 
 the barking of dogs near by the place where we were 
 hidden. 
 
 " Some who saw me at Comfort's Mills went and 
 told the armed Tories of Streetsville, who instantly 
 went to the worthy man's house, insulted and threat- 
 
 * When Comfort came up to about where Mackenzie left the wagon, he saw 
 several men armed with guns, keeping sentry; and on his asking what it meant, 
 they told him that Mackenzie and another person, who came that far in a 
 wagon, had taken to the woods. The truth is, Mackenzie could easily have 
 been taken, but he owed his freedom from capture to a friendly loyalist, whoae 
 name I do not feel at liberty to mention*
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 107 
 
 ened his intrepid and true-hearted wife,* proposed to 
 make a bonfire of his premises, handcuffed and chained 
 him, threw him into a wagon, and dragged him off to 
 Toronto jail, and, as they said, to the gallows. He 
 lay long in prison untried, and was only released to 
 find his excellent wife (who had been in the family way) 
 in her grave, the victim of that system of persecution 
 and terror which often classes men in America, as in 
 Europe, not according to their personal deserts, but 
 
 • Comfort had returned to within about two miles of his own house, when 
 he was taken prisoner. A loyalist neighbor interested himself in Comfort'3 
 favor, and wrote to Hagerman in his behalf. The reply was unfavorable. 
 Comfort's loyalist friend then asked, " Have you and Hagerman ever quar- 
 relled ?" Their reply was that there had been some difference between them 
 years before. "Then," rejoined the friendly loyalist, "he remembers it 
 against you; his answer is very unfavorable." Comfort's wagon and horses 
 were taken and used by the captors all winter ! He was first arrested by Col. 
 Chisholm and Chalmers, and they appear to have sent him to Toronto without 
 a guard, when he was stopped at the Credit Bridge by James McGrath, and 
 again arrested. He showed Col. Chisholm's pass. McGrath swore Chisholni 
 ■was the biggest rebel in the Province. Col. Star Jarvis examined the pass, 
 and said they ought to respect it. But McGrath insisted on sending Comfort 
 to Toronto under a guard, and prevailed. Comfort was sent to jail, where be 
 remained three months. 
 
 While he was in prison, a party, under Harry Cole, with guns and bayo- 
 nets rode briskly up to Comfort's house. The children were frightened. Mrs. 
 Comfort hearing them scream, looked out, and when she saw the threateninjj 
 demonstration she fainted and was carried to bed. Her fright arose from a 
 notion that the armed men were killing the children. She had a succession 
 of fits. When she came to herself, one of the men asked if she had any con- 
 cealed aims, and desired her to give information for the conviction of her hus- 
 band, assuring her, at the same time, that he was sure to be hanged. One 
 brute cocked a pistol, and placing it at her breast, threatened to shoot bet 
 through, if she did not tell all she knew. This threw her into another fit. 
 They then threw pails of cold water on her in bed. This revolting treatment 
 led to premature confinement, resulting in her death, on the 16th of January, 
 1838. Great efforts were made to.ob£ain leave for Comfort to attend the fune- 
 ral, on the 21st, but Hagerman wtfslmmovable, and the poor man's prediction 
 that he might never see his wife again was realized.
 
 108 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 with reference to their politics, birth-place, faction, or 
 religious profession. 
 
 " Our Irish driver had a kind heart. When I was 
 exhibited by authority in the prison at Rochester, he 
 came across to see me. He had been in the service 
 of Judge Jones and others. I was ill of intermittent 
 fever at the time, owing to close confinement and the 
 swamp around me, and could only express the grati- 
 tude I felt for past acts of good will. 
 
 "Trafalgar was a hot-bed of Orangeism, and as I 
 had always set my face against it, and British native- 
 ism, I could hope for no friendship or favor, if here 
 apprehended. There was but one chance for escape, 
 however, surrounded as we were — for the young man 
 had refused to leave me — and that was to stem the 
 stream, and cross the swollen creek. We accordingly 
 stripped ourselves naked, and with the surface ice 
 beating against us, and holding our garments over our 
 heads, in a bitter cold December night, buffeted the 
 current, and were soon up to our necks. I hit my 
 foot against a stone, let fall some of my clothes, 
 (which my companion caught,) and cried aloud with 
 pain. The cold in that stream caused me the most 
 cruel and intense sensation of pain I ever endured, 
 but we got through, though with a better chance for 
 drowning, and the frozen sand on the bank seemed to 
 warm our feet when we once more trod on it. 
 
 "In an hour and a half we were under the hospitable 
 roof of one of the innumerable agricultural friends I 
 could then count in the country. I had a supply of 
 dry flannels, and food, and an hour's rest, and have 
 often wished since, (not to embark again on the tern-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 109 
 
 pestuous ocean of politics,) but that I might have an 
 opportunity to express my grateful feelings to those 
 who proved my faithful friends in the hour when most 
 required. 
 
 "I had risked much for Canadians, and served them 
 long, and as faithfully as I could — and now, when a 
 fugitive, I found them ready to risk life and property 
 to aid me — far more ready to risk the dungeon, by 
 harboring me, than to accept Sir Francis Head's thou- 
 sand pounds. The sons and daughters of the Nelson 
 farmer kept a silent watch outside, in the cold, while 
 I and my companions slept. 
 
 "We crossed Dundas Street about 11 o'clock, p. m., 
 and the Twelve-Mile Creek, I think, on a fallen tree, 
 about midnight. By four, on Saturday morning, we 
 had reached Wellington Square, by the middle road. 
 The farmer's dogs began to bark loudly, the heavy 
 tramp of a party of horsemen was heard behind us — 
 we retired a little way into the woods — saw that the 
 men were armed — entered the road again — and half 
 an hour before twilight reached the door of an upright 
 Magistrate, which an English boy at once opened to 
 us. I sent up my name, was requested to walk up 
 stairs, (in the dark,) and told that the house, barns, 
 and every part of the premises, had been twice 
 searched for me that morning, and that McNab's men, 
 from Hamilton, were scouring the country in all direc- 
 tions, in hope of taking me. J asked if I had the least 
 chance to pass downward by the way of Burlington 
 Beach, but was answered that both roads were 
 guarded, and that Dr. Rolph was, by that time, safe 
 in Lewiston.
 
 110 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 "Believing it safest, we went behind our friend's 
 house to a thicket — he dressed himself, followed us, 
 gave a shrill whistle, which was answered, and all 
 three of us were greatly puzzled as to what safe course 
 I could possibly take. As my companion was not 
 known, and felt the chill of the water and fatigue, he 
 was strongly advised to seek shelter in a certain 
 house not far off. He did so, reached the frontier 
 safely, and continued for four months thereafter very 
 sick. 
 
 "At dawn of day it began to snow, and leaving foot- 
 marks behind me, I concluded to go to a farm near by. 
 Its owner thought I would be quite safe in his barn, but 
 I thought not. A peas-rick, which the pigs had un- 
 dermined all round, stood on a high knoll, and I chose 
 it for a hiding-place. For ten or twelve days I had 
 slept, when I could get any sleep, in my clothes, and 
 my limbs had swelled so that I had to leave my boots 
 and wear a pair of slippers ; my feet were wet, I was 
 very w^eary, and the cold and drift annoyed me much. 
 Breakfast I had had none, and in due time. Colonel 
 McDonell, the High Sheriff, and his posse, stood 
 before me. House, barns, cellars, and garret were 
 searched, and I the while quietly looking on. The 
 Colonel was afterwards second in command to Sir Allan 
 McNab, opposite Navy Island ; and when I lived in 
 William Street, some years ago,* he called on me, and 
 we had a hearty laugh over his ineffectual exertions to 
 catch a -rebel in 1837. 
 
 "When the coast seemed clear, my terrified host, a 
 wealthy Canadian,f came up the hill as if to feed his 
 
 ♦ In 1844. t ^r- G***.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. Ill 
 
 pigs, brought me two bottles of hot water for my feet, 
 a bottle of tea, and several slices of bread and butter ; 
 told me that the neighborhood was literally harassed 
 
 , with bodies of armed men in search of me, and advised 
 that I should leave that place at dark, but where to 
 go he could not tell me. He knew, however, my inti- 
 mate acquaintance with the country for many miles 
 round. Years thereafter he visited me when in Mon- 
 roe County Prison, and much he wondered to see me 
 there. I too, in those days, had taken but a surface 
 view of the conduct of a cold-blooded reptile band, 
 who pretended to love liberty, that they might thereby 
 more effectually hoodwink and betray ' a working 
 majority' of their trusting countrymen. 
 
 "After I had left his premises he was arrested; but 
 had powerful friends, gave bail, and the matter ended 
 there. 
 
 "When night had set in, I knocked at the next far- 
 mer's door — a small boy who lived, I think, with one 
 of the brothers Chisholm, (strong Government men, 
 collectors, colonels, &c.,) or who, was their nephew or 
 other relative, came to me. I sent in a j^riA'ate mes- 
 sage by him, but the house had been searched so often 
 for me that the indwellers dreaded consequences, and 
 would not see me. The boy, however, volunteered to 
 go with me, and we proceeded by a by-path to Mr. 
 
 . King's, w^ho lived on the next farm to Col. John Chis- 
 holm's, which was then head-quarters for our Tory 
 militia. The boy kept my secret ; I had supper with 
 Mr. King's family, rested for an hour, and then 
 walked with him toward my early residence, Dundas 
 village, at the head of Lake Ontario. We saw a small 
 
 65
 
 112 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 party of armed men on the road, near the mills of an 
 Englishman, but they did not perceive us. Mr. King 
 is now dead, but the kind attention I met with under 
 his hospitable roof I shall not forget. Why should 
 such a people as I tried and proved in those days ever 
 know hardship or suffer from foreign or domestic 
 misrule? 
 
 " We went to the dwelling of an old friend, to whom 
 I stated that I thought I would now make a more 
 speedy, yet equally sure, progress on horseback. He 
 risked at once, and that too most willingly, not only 
 his horse, but also the knowledge it might convey that 
 he had aided me. Mr. King returned home and I 
 entered the village alone in the night, and was hailed 
 by some person who speedily passed on. I wanted to 
 take a friend with me, but durst not go to wake him 
 up ; there Avas a guard on duty at the hotel, and I had 
 to cross the creek close by a house I had built in the 
 public square ; I then made for the mountain country 
 above Hamilton, called at Lewis Horning's, but found 
 a stranger there, passed on to the dwellings of some 
 old Dutch friends, who told me that all the passes 
 were guarded — Terryberry's, Albion Mills, every 
 place. 
 
 "I got a fresh horse near Ancaster, from an old 
 comrade* — a noble animal who did me excellent ser- 
 vice — pursued my journey in a concession parallel to 
 the Mountain Road above Hamilton, till I came near 
 to a house well lighted up, and where a guard was 
 
 * Mr. Jacol) Rymal. Mr. Mackenzie awoke him about midnight, explained 
 tis situation, and asked if he could let him have a horse. 'The best I have," 
 was the unhesitating reply.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION". 113 
 
 evidently posted to question wayfarers — and, as it then 
 seemed the safest course, pulled down the worm fence, 
 and tried to find my way through the Binbrook and 
 Glanford woods, a hard task in daylight, but far worse 
 in the dark. 
 
 "For several wearv hours did I toil throu2-h the 
 primeval forest, leading my horse, and unable to get 
 out or find a path. The barking of a dog brought me, 
 when near daylight, to a solitary cottage, and its in- 
 habitant, a negro, j^ointed out to me the Twenty-Mile 
 Creek, where it was fordable. Before I had ridden a 
 mile, I came to a small hamlet, which. I had not known 
 before — entered a house, and, to my surprise, was in- 
 stantly called by name, which, for once, I really hesi- 
 tated to own, not at all liking the manner of him who 
 had addressed me, though I now know that all was 
 well intended. 
 
 "Quite carelessly, to appearance, I remounted my 
 horse and rode off very leisurely — but turned the first 
 angle and then galloped on, turned again, and galloj)ed 
 still faster. At some ten miles distance, perhaps, a 
 farm newly cleared, and situated in a by-place, seemed 
 a safe haven. I entered the house, called for break- 
 fast, and found in the owner a stout Hibernian far- 
 mer, an Orangeman from the JSTorth of Ireland, with a 
 wife and five fine curly-headed children. The beam 
 of a balance, marked 'Charles Waters, Maker,' had 
 been hung up in a conspicuous place, and I soon as- 
 certained that said Charles resided in Montreal, and 
 that my entertainer was his brother. 
 
 " I took breakfast very much at my leisure, saw my 
 horse watered, and fed with oats in the sheaf, and then
 
 114 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 asked Mr. Waters to be so kind as to put me in the 
 way to the Mountain Road, opposite Stony Creek, 
 which he agreed to do, but evidently with the utmost 
 reluctance. 
 
 " After we had travelled about a quarter of a mile 
 in the woods, he turned round at a right angle, and 
 said that that was the way. ' JSTot to the road,' said I, 
 ' 'No, but to Mr. Mclntyre, the magistrate,' said he. 
 Here we came to a full stop. He was stout and burly ; 
 I, small and slight made. 
 
 " I soon found that he had not even dreamed of me 
 as a rebel ; his leading idea was, that I had a habit 
 of borrowing other men's horses without their express 
 leave — in other words, that I was a horse-thief. Horses 
 had been stolen ; and he only did his duty by carrying 
 a doubtful case before the nearest justice, whom I in- 
 ferred to be one of McNab's cronies, as he was a new 
 man of whom I had never before heard, though a free- 
 holder of that district, and long and intimately ac- 
 quainted with its affairs. 
 
 " This was a real puzzle. Should I tell Waters who 
 I was, it was ten to one but he would seize me for the 
 heav}^ reward, or out of mere party zeal or prejudice. 
 If I went before his neighbor, the new made justice, 
 he would doubtless know and detain me on a charge 
 of high treason. I asked Mr. Waters to explain. 
 
 " He said that 1 had come, in great haste, to his 
 house, on a December Sunday morning, though it was 
 on no public road, with my clothes torn, my face badly 
 scratched, and my horse all in a foam ; that I had re- 
 fused to say who I was, or where I came from, had 
 paid him a dollar for a very humble breakfast, been
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 115 
 
 in no haste to leave, and was riding one of the finest 
 horses in Canada, making at the same time for the 
 frontier by the most unfrequented paths, and that 
 many horses had been recently borrowed. My man- 
 ner, he admitted, did not indicate anything wrong, 
 but why did I studiously conceal my name and busi- 
 ness ? And if all was right with me, what had I to 
 fear from a visit to the house of the nearest magis- 
 trate ? 
 
 " On the Tuesday night, in the suburbs of Toronto, 
 when a needless panic had seized both parties, Sheriff 
 Jarvis left his horse in his haste — it was one of the 
 best in Canada, a beautiful animal — and I rode him 
 till Thursday, wearing the cap of J. Latimer, one of 
 my young men, my hat being knocked off in a skir- 
 mish in which one or two of our men were shot. This 
 bonnet-rouge, my torn homespun, sorry slippers^ weary 
 gait, and unshaven beard, were assuredly not much in 
 keeping with the charger I was riding, and I had un- 
 fortunately given no reply whatever to several of his 
 and his good wife's home questions. 
 
 " My chance to be tried and condemned in the hafl 
 where I had often sat in judgment upon others, and 
 taken a share in the shapeless drudgery of Colonial 
 legislation.* was now seemingly very good — but I did 
 not quite despair. 
 
 " To escape from Waters in that dense forest was 
 entirely hopeless — to blow out his brains, and he 
 acting quite conscientiously, with his five pretty chil- 
 dren at home awaiting his early return, I could have 
 done it with ease, as far as opportunity went, for 
 
 * The Legislative Assembly had held its sittings in the Court House.
 
 116 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 he evidently had no suspicion of that, and my pistol 
 was now loaded and sure fire. Captain Powell, when 
 my prisoner ten days before, and in no personal 
 danger, had shot the brave Captain Anderson dead, 
 and thus left eight children fatherless. ]S"o matter ; I 
 could not do it, come what might ; so I held a parley 
 with my detainer, talked to him about religion, the 
 civil broils, Mackenzie, party spirit, and Dr. Strachan ; 
 and found to my great surprise and real delight that, 
 though averse to the object of the revolt he spoke 
 of myself in terms of good-will. Mr. McCabe, his 
 next neighbor, had lived near me in 1823, at Queens- 
 town, and had spoken so well of myself and family to 
 him as to have interested him, though he had not met 
 me before. 
 
 " ' I am an old magistrate,' said T, 'but at present 
 in a situation of some difficulty. If I can satisfy you 
 as to who I am, and why I am here, would you desire 
 to gain the price of any man's blood ?' He seemed to 
 shudder at the very idea of such a thing. I then ad- 
 ministered an oath to him, (and with more solemnity 
 than I had ever done the like when acting judicially,) 
 he holding up his right hand as we Irish and Scottish 
 Presbyterians usually do. 
 
 " When he had ascertained my name, which I 
 showed him on my watch and seals, in my pocket-book 
 and on my linen, he expressed real sorrow on account 
 ef the dangerous situation in which I stood, pledged 
 himself to keep silence for twenty-four hours, as I re- 
 quested ; directed me how to get into the main road, 
 and feelingly urged me to accept his personal guid- 
 ance to the frontier. Farmer Waters had none of the
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION^. 117 
 
 Judas blood in his veins. His innate sense of right 
 led him at once to the just conclusion to do to his fel- 
 low-creature, as he would be done by. I perceived, 
 from his remarks, that he had previously associated 
 with my name the idea of a much larger and stouter 
 man than I am. 
 
 " When I was fairly out of danger he told the whole 
 story to his neighbors — it was repeated and spread all 
 over — he was soon seized and taken to Hamilton, and 
 there thrown into prison, but afterward released. 
 
 "When I was passing the houses of two men, Kerr 
 and Sidey, who were getting ready, I supposed, to go 
 to church, I asked some question as to the road, again 
 crossed the Twenty-Mile Creek, and at length re- 
 entered the mountain path, a little below where a mili- 
 tary guard was then stationed. While in sight of this 
 guard, I moved on very slowly, as if going to meet- 
 ing, but afterward used the rowels to some advantage 
 in the way of propellers. Some persons whom I 
 passed on the road I knew, and some I didn't. Many 
 whom I met evidently knew me, and well was it for 
 me that day that I had a good name. I could have 
 been arrested fifty times before I reached Smith ville, 
 had the Grovernor's person and proclamation been 
 generally respected. As it was, however, another un- 
 seen danger lurked close behind me. 
 
 " A very popular Methodist preacher, once a zealous 
 friend, had taken a course of which I greatly disap- 
 proved, and I had blamed him.* Unkind words 
 passed between us, through the press, he, like myself, 
 having the control of a journal widely circulated, j^o 
 
 * Egerton Ryersor.
 
 118 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 doubt many of his readers were affected thereby ; and 
 to this, and not the love of lucre, I have ascribed the 
 conduct of the two men whom I had interrogated as 
 to the road. I have since learned that they warned 
 an armed party, who immediately took horses and 
 rode after me. I perceived them when a third of a 
 mile oif, after a part of Mr, Eastman's congregation 
 had passed me, on their way home. 
 
 " I thought it safer to endeavor to put my huntsmen 
 off the track, and on a false scent, than to keep on 
 ahead of them ; so I turned short toward St. Catha- 
 rines, when I got to Smithville, and seemed to have 
 taken that road down hill at full speed. Instead of 
 doing so, however, I turned a corner, put up my horse 
 •very quickly in the stable of a friendly Canadian, 
 whose sire was a United Empire Loyalist, entered his 
 hospitable abode, he being still at church, beheld my 
 pursuers interrogate a woman who had seen me pass, 
 and then ride furiously onward by the St. Catharines 
 Road, and then went quietly to bed, and rested for 
 some four hours, had a comfortable supper with the 
 family, and what clothes I required. A trusty com- 
 panion was also ready to mount his horse and accom- 
 pany me the last forty miles, to Buffalo, should that 
 attempt prove practicable. 
 
 "Samuel Chandler, a wagon-maker, resides in the 
 Western States, but I do not now know where. He 
 was forty-eight years of age when he volunteered. 
 Avithout fee or reward, to see me safe to Buffalo — had 
 a wife and eleven children, and resided in Chippewa. 
 He is a native of Enfield, Conn., had had no connection 
 whatever with the civil broils in the Canadas ; but
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 119 
 
 when told, in strict confidence, of the risk I ran, he 
 l^referred to hazard transportation, or loss of life, by 
 aiding my escape, to accepting the freehold of eight 
 thousand acres of land which would have been the 
 reward of my betrayers. 
 
 " Other circumstances afterward excited his feelings, 
 and he joined the party taken at the Short Hills, of 
 whom Linus W. Miller, John Grant, John Vernon, 
 himself and others, were tried before Judge Jones, at 
 Niagara, sentenced to suffer death, but banished to 
 "Van Dieman's Land. Chandler soon escaped in a 
 Yankee whaler, sailed round the world, and when he 
 reached JN'ew York, on his return to his family, (after 
 I had got out of Rochester prison,) I was in no con- 
 dition to aid him, which I very unavailingly regretted. 
 A more trusty, faithful, brotherly-minded man I have 
 never met with ; may Heaven reward Lord Durham's 
 family for saving his life ! 
 
 " It was about 8 o'clock on Sunday night, when 
 Chandler and I left Smithville. We turned our 
 horses' heads toward Buffalo, crossed the Twenty, 
 ventured to take a comfortiible supper with a friend, 
 whose house was on our way, crossed the Welland 
 Canal and the Chippewa River, steering clear of the 
 officials in arms in these parts, and got safe into 
 Crowland before daylight. We soon awoke Mr. 
 f^, ,* left our horses in his pasture, and he imme- 
 diately accompanied us, on our way to the Niagara 
 River on foot. 
 
 " On inquiry, he found that all the boats on the 
 
 * I do not fill up the name of Mr. C * * * * *, not knowing whether he 
 would desire to have it done or not. 
 66
 
 120 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 river (except those at the ferries, Avhich were well 
 guarded) had been seized and taken care of by the 
 officers of Government. There was but one exception. 
 Captain M'Afee, of Bertie, who resided on the banks 
 of the ]N'iagara, opposite the head of Grand Ishmd, 
 was believed to have kept one of his boats locked up 
 beside his carria2:es. I hesitated not a moment in 
 
 advising Mr. C to state the difficulty I was in to 
 
 him, in case he had a boat, for, although he had no 
 knowledge of, or belief and participation in, the out- 
 break, yet he was well known to be a strictly upright 
 man, benevolent, not covetous, a member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, very religious, and in 
 all he said or did, very sincere. 
 
 " The brothers De Witt are censured, for giving up 
 to Charles II, (who had been himself a fugitive,) and 
 to a cruel death, three of his father's Judges ; and the 
 poor and gallant Scotch Highlanders, whom a mam- 
 moth bribe of £30,000 could not tempt to betray the 
 heir to the Crown, when a wandering fugitive in the 
 native land of his royal ancestors, are held in honor. 
 The Irish peasants who refused to give up Lord Ed- 
 ward Fitzgerald to his country's oppressors, for gold, 
 the poor sailors who enabled Archibald Hamilton 
 Rowan to escape from Ireland and an untimely fate, 
 with the proclaimed reward on a handbill in their 
 boat, and the three bold Englishmen who saved the 
 life of the doomed Labedoyere, have the merited 
 applause of an admiring world. Are these noble 
 citizens of Upper and Lower Canada, whom wealth 
 could not tempt to give up, nor danger deter from 
 aiding and saving, their fellow men, though many of
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 121 
 
 them were opposed to tliem in politics, and at a time 
 of the strongest political excitement, are they less 
 deserving of the meed of public approbation ? 
 
 " Mr. Samuel M'Afee is now over sixty years of age, 
 and, I think, he is of the New Hampshire family of 
 that name, who j)layed their part like men, in 1776. 
 Our movement had proved a failure, and he knew it. 
 He was wealthy — had a large family — and risked 
 everything by assisting me ; yet he did not hesitate, 
 no, not even for a moment. 
 
 "As well as I can now remember, it was about 
 nine on Monday morning when I reached his farm, 
 which was one of the finest on the river — an excellent 
 breakfast had been prepared for us, and I was much 
 fatigued and also hungry. But tliere was a military 
 patrol on the river, and before sitting down to a re- 
 past, I thought it safe to step out and see if the coast 
 was clear. Well for me it was that I did so. Old 
 Colonel Kerby, the Custom House officer opposite 
 Black Rock, and his troop of mounted dragoons, in 
 their green uniforms, and with their carbines read}^, 
 were so close upon us, riding up by the bank of the 
 river, that had I not then observed their approach, 
 they would have caught me at breakfast. 
 
 " Nine men out of ten, in such an emergency, would 
 have hesitated to assist me ; and to escape by land 
 was, at that time, evidently impossible ; Mr. M'xlfee 
 lost not a moment — his boat was hauled across the 
 road and launched in the stream with all possible 
 speed — and he and Chandler and I were scarcely 
 afloat in it, and out a little wa}'-, below the bank, 
 when the old Tory Colonel, and his green-coated troop
 
 122 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 of horse, witli their waving plumes, were parading in 
 front of Mr. M'Afee's dwelling. 
 
 " How we escaped here, is to me almost a miracle. I 
 had resided long in the district, and was known by every- 
 body. A boat was in the river, against official orders ; 
 it was near the shore, and the carbines of the military, 
 controlled by the collector, would have compelled us 
 to return, or have killed us for disobedience. 
 
 " The colonel assuredly did not see us ; that was 
 evident: he turned round at the moment to talk to 
 Mrs. M. and her daughters, who were standing in the 
 parterre in front of their house, full of anxiety on 
 our account. But of his companions, not a few must 
 have seen the whole movement, and yet we were 
 allowed to steer for the head of Grrand Island with all 
 the expedition in our power, without interruption ; nor 
 was there a whisper said about the matter for many 
 months thereafter. 
 
 " In an hour we were safe on the American shore ; 
 and that night I slept under the venerable Colonel 
 Chapin's hospitable roof, with a volunteer guard."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 123 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Msetings of Sympathizers at Buffalo and Oswego — Thomas Jefferson Suther- 
 land claims to be the Author of the Project of occupying Navy Island — 
 Eensellaer Van Eonscllaer heeomes Commander-in-Chief of the Patriot 
 Army — Governor Head demands the Extradition of Mackenzie, and Go- 
 vernor Marcy refuses to surrender him — The first Twenty-six land on 
 Navy Island — A' Provisional Government Established — Issues Procla- 
 mations — The Patriot Flag and Great Seal— How and of whom the Navy 
 Island Eorce was formed and how equipped — Habits of the Commander-in- 
 Chief — Bombardment — A Patriot Emissary sent through the "Western Part 
 of Upper Canada returns with the Keport that a Large Majority of the 
 People are waiting to join the " Liberators" — Four Hundred and Eighty- 
 two sworn Insurgents in the County of Hastings. 
 
 Before the plans of the Upper Canada insurgents 
 were known, an influential meeting of the citizens of 
 Buffalo, a frontier city on Lake Erie, in the State of 
 New York, to express sympathy with the Canadian re- 
 volution, was held. At this meeting, which took place 
 on the 5th of December, an Executive committee of 
 thirteen, with Dr. E. Johnson at its head, w^as formed, 
 for the purpose of "calling future meetings in relation 
 to the affairs of the Canadas and to adopt such mea- 
 sures as might be called for by public opinion." This 
 committee afterwards played an important part in 
 forwarding the movements of the exiles and sympa- 
 thizers. On the 6th of December, Mackenzie ad- 
 dressed a short letter, from the insurgent camp on 
 Yonge Street, to the Buffalo Press, explaining the at-
 
 124 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 temj^t at independence that was being made, and re- 
 questing such assistance as the citizens of the Repub- 
 lic might think proper to afford. Two days after, a 
 similar demonstration took place at Oswego. On the 
 11th of December, when Mackenzie had arrived on 
 the south side of the frontier line, the largest public 
 meeting ever seen in that city, was held in the theatre 
 at Buffalo to express sympathy with the Canadians. 
 *' Our neighbors in the IsTorth," said Dr. Chapin, 
 '•are at war, fighting for liberty. We have met to 
 express our sympathy and good wishes." After cau- 
 tioning the meeting to act prudently, he added, " I 
 have one word more to say ; I have men now under 
 my protection, at my house, on whose life a price is 
 set, and whom I am bound to protect." " Who are 
 they?" was the prompt inquiry. "One of them is 
 William L. Mackenzie." At this announcement, the 
 chronicles of the day report, " the vast assembly 
 burst into a thunder of applause. We never saw 
 such a scene," the reporter adds ; " never heard such 
 a shout of exultation."* When the outburst of enthu- 
 siasm had subsided, Dr. Chapin continued. " Fellow 
 citizens," he said, " Mackenzie's life is in our power — 
 he has thrown himself upon our protection — will you 
 protect him?" "We will," was the unanimous re- 
 sponse ; to which was added a desire that he should 
 be brought forward. Dr. Chapin pleaded the sickness 
 and fatigue of his guest; but added, " To-morrow night 
 he shall address you. I am an old man ; but at the 
 hazard of my life I will protect those who throw 
 themselves upon my hospitality. If any scoundrels, for 
 
 * Buffalo Commercial Advertiser.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 125 
 
 the sake of the $4,000 reward that is offered for him, 
 shall undertake to get him, they must first walk over my 
 body. I want six strong, brave young men, as good sons 
 as God has got among us, to go to my house to-night, 
 for fear of any attempt on the part of the loyalists." 
 "A hundred are ready," was the response. "No," 
 rejoined the venerable Doctor, " I want only six. 
 Who'll go?" "I— I— I" was heard all over the 
 theatre. The first who sprung upon the stage were 
 accepted. Mr. Stow, being called upon to address the 
 meeting, demanded : " Shall we refuse the Canadians 
 what was granted by a corrupt court of France to 
 Franklin, when he went upon the same errand?" By 
 giving their sympathy and assistance, the people of 
 the United States, he argued, would only be doing 
 what England did in the wars of the Peninsula, the 
 taking of Copenhagen, and the attack on the Turkish 
 fleet at T^avarino. The meeting broke up with cheers 
 for Mackenzie, Papineau, and Rolph. 
 
 Next night, true to the promise made by Dr. Chapin 
 on his behalf, Mackenzie appeared at the Buffalo 
 tlieatre, where he addressed a large and enthusiastic 
 audience. He explained the causes of the revolt, and 
 argued that Canada was suffering all those evils which 
 caused the thirteen Colonies, now become the United 
 States, to throw off their allegiance to England ; a 
 country of which the Grovcrnment at home was good, 
 but uniformly bad abroad. 
 
 Before the meeting closed, Mr. Thomas Jefferson 
 Sutherland stated his intention of going to Canada, as 
 a volunteer, to assist the Canadians to obtain their 
 independence; and he asked if any others present
 
 126 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 were willing to join him. At his request, a person in 
 the meeting asked the people present to contribute 
 arms and munitions of war for the benefit of the 
 people of Canada, and to take them to the Eagle ta- 
 vern. In accordance with this suggestion, contribu- 
 tions of arms were made. Sutherland claims the con- 
 ception of the plan of occupying JN^avy Island with a 
 military force ; and on the 19th of December, 1839, he 
 made oath that he set about carrying this project into 
 effect without the privity or co-operation of Macken- 
 zie.* He added that Mackenzie only joined the lYavy 
 Island expedition out of motives of personal safety. 
 Mr. Mackenzie had not been long in Buffalo -before 
 he was introduced to Mr. Rensellaer Van Ren sella er, 
 by some of the principal people of the place. They 
 represented him as a cadet of West Point; and as 
 having gained exjjerience under Bolivar, in South 
 America ; both of which representations proved incor- 
 
 * I find in a manuscript book of "Navy Island Memoranda," the following 
 document, without date, to which ninety-seven names are appended ; that of 
 Sutherland being first: "We, the young men residents of the City of BuflTalo, 
 whose names are hereunto subscribed, pledge to each other our mutual support 
 and co-operation, for the commendable purpose of aiding and assisting our Ca- 
 nadian brethren in their present struggle for liberty and those princijdes 
 which have given to the world that asylum whicli we have the honor of 
 calling our home, and which pronounces to mankind the sacred dogma of 
 equality." 
 
 On the 21st of December, Marshal Garron wrote from Eochester to N. P. 
 Benton, District Attorney : " I arrived here last night at ten o'clock ; sent for 
 General Gould and some others of this place. There is much excitement here; 
 forty soldiers marching the streets of Rochester to-day under drum and fife; 
 two pieces of cannon went ofi" this morning, and three-fourths of the people 
 here, I learn, are encouraging and promoting the thing, and seven-eighths of 
 the people at Buffalo, and all along the lines are taking strong interest in the 
 cause of the patriots ; many furnishing arms, and large quantities of provisions 
 contributed and forwarded to them, and volunteers continually going on."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 127 
 
 rect. He was a son of General Van Rcnsellaer of Al- 
 bany, and belonged to the influential family of that name, 
 in the State of Xew York.* Another person to whom 
 Mr. Mackenzie was introduced was Mr. Sutherland, 
 of Bufl'alo, who was described as a military man of 
 experience. Sutherland soon showed that he was 
 totally wanting in discretion, by publicly recruiting for 
 volunteers for Canada, issuing a public call for a 
 military meeting, and marching through the streets 
 to the sound of martial music. Mackenzie, seeing the 
 folly of the procedure, begged Sutherland to desist ; 
 but it was to no purpose. 
 
 At that time, it was thought that Dr. Duncombe w^as 
 at the head of a large force in the Western District of 
 Upper Canada ; and Mackenzie wished the friends of 
 the Canadian insurgents to go over to Fort Erie, on the 
 
 * He was fur some time em])lojed as a clerk in the Post-ofBce, at Albany, 
 under his father. He married a daughter of Maj. S. S. Forman, of that city. Af- 
 ter his connection with the Canadian patriots, and his imprisonment for a breach 
 of the United States Neutrality Laws, arising out of that connection, he settled 
 at Albany. Of a proud and ambitious temper, his disappointments cast a me- 
 lancholy gloom over his existence. He became pecuniarily embarrassed, and 
 the loss of one of his children, to whom he was devotedly attached, caused 
 him to take the dreadful resolution of putting an end to his existence. On the 
 I't of January, 18,50, his wife and her fiither complied with an invitation to 
 visit at the house of a friend. He remained at home, complaining of being 
 unwell, but promised that if he improved he would follow. In the course of 
 the afternoon, he ordered a man-servant to fill a portable furnace with char- 
 coal and place it in the library. This was done. After a while more charcoal 
 was ordered and taken. The servant went a third time of his own accord to 
 take a fresh supply, when he found his master stretched pale and lifeless upon 
 the sofa. Van Rensellaer was of a literary turn of mind, and in his latter years 
 spent much of his time among books, oecasionally contributing articles to agri- 
 cultural periodicals. The Albany newspapers, in chronicling his melancholy 
 death, described him as " highly respected in the circle of his. acquaintance, 
 ajid in his intercourse with tue community, quiet and unobtrusive." 
 67
 
 128 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Canada side, and there organize a force that should ^ 
 join that of Duncombe, or act separately, if that should 
 appear to be the best course. But he was overruled ; 
 and it was determined that the refugees and their 
 friends should take up a position on Navy Island. 
 This island, awarded to England by the Treaty of 
 Ghent, is situated in the Niagara River, a short distance 
 above the world-renowned cataract. A swift current 
 sweeps past the island on either side, on its way to 
 the vast abyss below ; but its navigation is practicable 
 for steamers or row boats. Van Rensellaer had been 
 urged by Sutherland to take command of the Patriot 
 forces ; Sutherland, being previously unknown to Van 
 Kensellaer, had brought a letter of introduction from 
 Mr. Taylor, a previous Speaker of one branch of the 
 Legislature of New York. He was told that he would 
 derive his authority from Dr. E-olph and Mackenzie ; 
 and he was to be invested with the entire military 
 command. Van Rensellaer's own account of the rea- 
 sons that induced him to accept this position,* repre- 
 sents him as wishing the success of the cause of repub- 
 licanism, and desirous to imitate the example of Sam 
 Houston, in Texas. " Dr. Rolph," says Van Rensel- 
 
 * He was impressed with the idea "that Canada was only prevented frcrt 
 throwing oft' the yoke of foreign despots; and notwithstanding the unfortunate 
 i-isue of the ill-concerted battle of Toronto, that a vast majority of the peop.'e 
 were in favor of a political revolution ; that if one successful battle was fought 
 »nd a good stand maintained for a time, they would concentrate their force»s, 
 »nd do their own fighting afterwards. With the hope of being instrumental 
 In hastening a crisis so desirable to all the republican world my wish a? a 
 Northerner to see the chivalrous example of the South in the case of Texas 
 emulated here — my innate detestation of tyranny and oppression, however 
 manifested — finally relying upon numberless promises of being sustained, and 
 trusting m the smiles of heaven, I accepted the offer."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 129; 
 
 laer, " went so far as to propose, himself, and to insist 
 that I should have the power to arrest any member 
 of the Executive Council, provided it became necessary 
 to do so, in order to prevent his interference in my 
 department. Mr. Mackenzie," he adds, " after a slight 
 show of opposition, was obliged to acquiesce." 
 
 In the meantime, it became known that Lieutenant 
 Governor Head was about to make a requisition upon 
 Grovernor Marcy, of the State of New York, for the 
 extradition of Mr. Mackenzie as a fugitive from jus- 
 tice, for alleged crimes growing as incidents out of the 
 insurrection. Dr. Bethune was selected as the bearer 
 of the dispatch in which this demand was made. Gro- 
 vernor Marcy declined to comply v/ith the application, 
 on the ground that the offences charged, being inci- 
 dents of the revolt, were merged in the larger imputed 
 crime of treason, a political offence excepted by the 
 laws of the State of New York from those for which 
 fugitives could be surrendered. Attorney General 
 Beardsley, at the request of Governor Marcy, drew up 
 an elaborate opinion, in which the inadmissibility of 
 the demand was shown. But, before the demand was 
 presented to Governor Marcy, Mr. Mackenzie had 
 passed from the limits of the State of New York ; and 
 as he was on British territory, the proper course would 
 liave been for Sir Francis Bond Head to send to Navy 
 Island and take him. The real object of this demand 
 was to obtain possession of a political refugee, under 
 the pretence that he was guilty of other offences, and 
 execute him for high treason, with which he was 
 chained. Without seeing the documents in which 
 the demand was made, and trusting to public rumor
 
 130 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 that one of the charges related to the death of Colonel 
 Moodie, Mr. Mackenzie declared his readiness to 
 meet that charge and submit to a trial. " I distinctly 
 offered," he says, " by letter addressed to Mr. Secre- 
 tary Stanley, to go over at once to Toronto, and stand 
 luy trial on any charge that had been made by Go- 
 vernor Head, or that might be made by any other per- 
 son, relative to the part I took in the death of Col. Moo- 
 die, no matter who might be the judge or jurors." 
 
 On the thirteenth of December, Van Rensellaer and 
 Mackenzie landed on Navy Island. They called at 
 Whitehaven, on Grand Island, ten miles from the 
 City of Buffalo, on the way. There they expected to 
 find assembled the volunteers, by whom they were to be 
 accompanied, and of whose numbers, enthusiasm, and 
 equipment so much had been said. These volunteers 
 had been represented as two hundred and fifty strong, 
 and as having two pieces of artillery and some four 
 hundred and fifty stand of arms, besides provisions 
 and munitions in abundance. The surprise both of 
 Mackenzie and Van Rensellaer must have been great 
 Avhen they found only twenty-four volunteers waiting 
 to accompany them. " I was not prepared," says Van 
 Rensellaer, " for such a surprising falling off. Mr. 
 Mackenzie, on noticing it, sank inert and spirit-brokea 
 upon the frame of a cannon, where he passively re- 
 clined until aroused by a false alarm."* But even 
 this crushing disappointment was not to put an end 
 
 * The published letter of Van Eensellaer, dated March 30, 1838, from which 
 I here quote, was written in a spirit of hostility to Mr. Mackenzie, to whom 
 the writer, in a letter now in my possession, dated Albany, February 24, 
 1840, admits that he was unjust.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 131 
 
 to the enterprise. It was expected that the promises 
 of assistance so liberally made would be realized ; and, 
 says Van Rensellaer, '' trusting in the good faith of 
 our friends and in Providence, the word was given, 
 ' Push off; " 
 
 A provisional government, of which Mr. Macken- 
 zie was President, was organized on the island. A 
 proclamation, dated Navy Island, December 13, 1837, 
 was issued by Mr. Mackenzie, stating the objects 
 which the attempted revolution was designed to secure, 
 and promising three hundred acres of public lands to 
 every volunteer who joined the Patriot standard.* A 
 few days after, another proclamation was issued, add- 
 ing $100 in silver, payable by the 1st of May, 1838, 
 to the proffered bounty .f The fulfilment of the pro- 
 mises held out in these proclamations must, however, 
 be dependent upon the success of the cause in which 
 the volunteers were to fight. By way of burlesquing 
 the rewards offered by Sir Francis Bond Head for 
 Mackenzie and others, the first proclamation offered the 
 sum of £500 for the Lieutenant Grovernor of Upper 
 Canada. The offering of this reward was the main 
 cause that induced Sir Francis, on his return to Eng- 
 land, to forego his intention of passing through the 
 
 * See Appendix G. 
 
 f "Proclamation, — Three hundred acres of the most valuable lands in 
 Canada will be given to each Volunteer who may join the Patriot Forces now 
 encamped on Navy Island, U. C. Also, $100 in silver, payable on or before 
 the Ist of May next. 
 
 " By order of the Committee of the Provincial Government. 
 
 "W. L. MACKENZIE, 
 
 " Chairman Fro. Tem. 
 "Navy Island, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 1837."
 
 132 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 States. At his request, Sir John Harv^e}^, Lieutenant 
 Governor of IS'ova Scotia, secured hiin a passage in a 
 vessel sailing from Halifax. 
 
 The Patriot flag, with its twin stars, intended to re- 
 present the two Canadas, was hoisted; and asa govern- 
 ment, even though it be provisional, is nothing without 
 a great seal ; this requisite was also obtained. Besides 
 the twin stars, the great seal showed a new moon 
 breaking through the surrounding darkness, with the 
 words Liberty — 'Equality. The Provisional Govern- 
 ment issued promises to pay in sums of one and ten 
 dollars each. They are said to have been freely taken 
 on the American side;* but what amount was issued 
 I cannot ascertain. Dr. Rolph was appointed, on the 
 28th of December, " to receive all the moneys w^hich 
 may be subscribed within the United States on behalf 
 of the Canadian patriots struggling to obtain the inde- 
 pendence of their country ;" but he declined to act in 
 that capacity. 
 
 The men were quartered in huts made of boards ; 
 and the head-quarters of the Provisional Government 
 and the General-in-Chief differed from the rest only 
 in being of greater dimensions. 
 
 How the handful of men who first took possession 
 of ISTavy Island came to be swelled to between five 
 hundred and six hundred, must now, for the first time, 
 be explained. All the correspondence on !N'avy Island 
 was conducted by Mr. Mackenzie; and the numerous 
 
 • The best proof of the truth of this assertion is to be found in an oflRcial re- 
 port of one of the Patriot Generals to Mackenzie, dated January 26, 1838, re, 
 lating an offer of the owner of the brig Virginia, to sell her for $8,500, and 
 take his pay in bonds.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 133 
 
 letters addressed botli to him and Yan Rensellaer, 
 none of which have ever been published, are now in 
 my possession. Let it not be supposed that the Pro- 
 visional Grovernment was free from the trouble of deal- 
 ing with applications for situations. Surgeons offer 
 their services to attend the wounded; engineers seek 
 employment in their line of business; military veterans 
 offer to train citizens into soldiers. Several persons 
 who have held positions as officers in the militia of the 
 different States, and some w^ho have been in the army 
 of the United States, tender their services on condition 
 that they obtain equivalent positions in the Patriot 
 army. The motives of persons offering their services 
 were various. Most of them appear to have been im- 
 pressed with the idea that it would be a fine thing to 
 join an army intended to give liberty to an oppressed 
 people. Some betray their hatred of England ; others, 
 their fear that the fact of that country possessing a 
 large part of this continent, is a source of danger to 
 the United States. Some want employment ; others 
 seek adventure. A large number of those who went 
 to the island, or whose services were offered, were 
 provided with letters of introduction guaranteeing 
 their respectability. To come to details, by way of 
 example: A society sends word it has money to give 
 to the cause ; and could, if the law permitted, send 
 one hundred men. An old man offers four hundred 
 acres of land in Canada for the soldiers. "Are you 
 sufficiently supj^lied with cannon?" one person writes, 
 "and if not, let me know whether it be very important 
 that you should be supplied with them." A man 
 who lost $3,000 worth of property in Canada, by what
 
 134 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 he describes as the fraud of enemies, wants to know 
 whether he wouUl get it back, if he assisted the Pa- 
 triots and they were successful. A person writes to 
 inform Yan Rensellaer that there are, at Batavia, two 
 thirty-six pounders, one eighteen pounder, two thou- 
 sand stand of arms, one hundred cannon balls, five 
 hundred musket cartridges, and various other mate- 
 rials. Another sends a lot of cartridge boxes, by way 
 of Schlosser. The state of the roads prevents one 
 person desirous of volunteering from going and taking 
 a six pound brass cannon with him. One letter tells 
 of a meeting at which a resolution was come to to join 
 the Patriots, in case of war between England and the 
 United States. A dejected correspondent relates how 
 the interference of one man prevented fifteen A^olun- 
 teers from starting. At a meeting held to denounce 
 the destruction of the Caroline, which I shall soon 
 have occasion to describe, ten volunteers started for 
 the island. A number of persons forward provi- 
 sions ; and they are careful to remark that their object 
 is not to aid in a war against England, but that the 
 duties of humanity forbid them to see their fellow men 
 exposed to the possibility of want. One old cannon is 
 sent and another is promised, with the remark, " If 
 you want cannon, we are ready to cast them for you." 
 • An ex-member of the Legislature of ISTew York, with 
 two certified captains, go with a letter of introduc- 
 tion, to confer with Yan Rensellaer as to what mea- 
 sures the sentries — of an arsenal I presume — might 
 take to furnish warlike supplies, without infringing 
 the law. A Rochester editor gives a letter of intro- 
 duction to " an efiicient friend of the Patriot cause."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 135 
 
 Several Germans, residing in Philadelphia, political 
 refugees from their own country and members of 
 patriotic associations in Europe, "intimately con- 
 nected with the Liberals and Republicans of France, 
 Switzerland, Germany, and England," send word that 
 they are desirous to " hasten to the standard of liberty, 
 rather from their burning love of the immortal cause 
 than with any expectation of reward." They are rep- 
 resented as men of education and great influence ; one, 
 who was a major in the Prussian army, had gained 
 distinction ; and they could bring assistance from 
 Europe. Daniel McCleod, late major in the Gren- 
 ville Militia, who was making a tour algng the frontier, 
 in company with Silas Fletcher, to beat up volunteers 
 and arms, reports that they will dispatch several 
 Canadians to the island next day — the letter is dated 
 Watertown, January 2d, 1838 — with two field pieces 
 and other arms. He reports that " arms in abund- 
 ance can be had for the asking." In the same letter, 
 the notorious Bill Johnson — Admiral Johnson I be- 
 lieve he was called — who afterwards took up a position 
 among the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, is 
 described as a man in whom it is perfectly safe to 
 confide. Fletcher gives him a separate certificate, 
 describing him as a gentleman of intelligence, equal 
 to fifty ordinary men. He is recommended for a com- 
 mission, because " he can greatly annoy the Kings- 
 tonians;" and besides "his influence" is described as 
 being so great " that he can raise, in this quarter, 
 two hundred bold volunteers as ever drew a trigger." 
 From Sackett's Harbor, Fletcher writes : " The inhab- 
 itants led us into town by a procession, colors flying, 
 
 68
 
 136 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 guns roaring, and shouts of ' Grod prosper the Pa- 
 triots !' " A letter with seven signatures suggests, 
 that if the proclamation of the Patriots " can be so 
 amended that the aggrieved can have their just due, in 
 case of success, you can have the assistance of many 
 wealthy and able citizens, who were driven from their 
 lands and property in Canada, during the last war.'^ 
 From another source go funds, blankets, guns, and 
 men. An old man writes: "I have followed the 
 greatest cavalry officer in the world, Murat, from the 
 deserts of Africa to the cold plains of Russia. I have 
 fought at Lodi and Hohenlinden, at Moscow anc 
 Waterloo." After asking a commission in the caval 
 ry force for a well trained lad of nineteen, he adds : 
 " I am now old and poor ; but if you will grant my 
 request, I will send you my son, the last descendant 
 of a noble line of warlike commanders of France." A 
 man who has been "preaching the gospel," in the 
 neighborhood of Toronto, sends the Patriots word of 
 what is doing on there. Another Canadian declares 
 his belief that all is over, unless there be a war be- 
 tween Canada and the States. A vigilant friend warns 
 the Navy Islanders that the Tories have sent a negro 
 cook to poison all the Patriots ; and Sutherland, being in 
 Buffalo, hears the same story and repeats it. A sym- 
 pathizer, in offering to raise a cavalry squadron, de- 
 sires to know how soon a regiment will be required, 
 and if equipments can be furnished by the Patriots. 
 The Patriots are warned that the United States Mar- 
 shal is going to interfere with them. Van Rensellaer 
 is warned that the United States Grovernment is about 
 to demand and insist upon receiving back the arms
 
 % 
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 137 
 
 said to belong to it; and he is asked whether, if it 
 should come to a question of having to surrender 
 either to Great Britain or his own Government, it 
 would not be better to have to deal with a generous 
 foe than a false friend. A friend sends the system of 
 tactics drawn up by order of the United States Secre- 
 tary of War for the discipline of citizen soldiers. A 
 West Point graduate contributes instructions for the 
 defence of the island. A company of riflemen, under 
 a leader who served in the last frontier war, offer their 
 services. An American militia officer, who has com- 
 mand of a regiment, is ready to raise one for the Pa- 
 triot service. An Upper Canadian writes that he 
 can raise forty volunteers. The Patriots are notified 
 of the approaching arrival of three loads of armed 
 men and fourteen kegs of powder. A present of 
 grape shot is announced. The next boat is to convey 
 two or three pieces more artillery. From another 
 quarter are to be presented two hundred muskets, 
 besides other arms and stores. It is announced that 
 provisions are being sent ; and that the country peo- 
 ple are , doing wonders. " An empty hand, a stout 
 heart, and fair knowledge of military tactics," are prof- 
 fered. Donations of blankets, boots, shoes, and 
 stockings are sent from one quarter; from another 
 go blankets alone. A baker sends one hundred and 
 seventeen loaves of bread " for the good of the cause." 
 On the 30th of December, arrangements were made 
 for getting eight tons of grape and nine pound shot 
 made. A discreet man, if such a one could be found, 
 could raise three hundred volunteers in Albany. Twv) 
 loads of beef, pork, and bread, are sent, " with some
 
 138 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 gentlemen well equipped for figlit." The son of a 
 Lieutenant-Colonel in the United States army, who 
 has been two years at a military academy and is a 
 pretty good master of military tactics, could bring a 
 number of young men with him. One hundred 
 muskets, word is sent, may be expected in forty- 
 eight hours. A late Lieutenant in the United States 
 army, who was in the war of 1812, desires to be ap- 
 pointed Brigadier General of the patriot force. A 
 letter from Batavia, N. Y., says : " We nave sent off 
 from our village four loads [of volunteers], and at the 
 moment I am writing, another load is on the point 
 of starting." This correspondent was about getting up 
 a county meeting ; at which he expected something 
 "substantial" would be done for the Patriots. In 
 making a donation of a cannon, a sympathizer ex- 
 plains how he got it. "I have been keeper of the 
 State arsenal of this place for more than thirteen years. 
 When I tooK charge, I found that gun in the village, 
 but not in the arsenal. I have therefore, in my annual 
 returns to the commissary department, never reported 
 said gun." This guardian of the State arsenal had 
 mentioned his intended destination of the stray gun, 
 at a public house ; and " some of the citizens felt and 
 expressed a warm anxiety in favor of the project, and 
 now talk of mounting and completely equipping it for 
 service, by voluntary subscription." 
 
 In this way was the force on JSTavy Island aug- 
 mented from the original number of twenty-six to 
 about six hundred. From the 15th to the 31st of 
 December, the majority of those present were British 
 subjects. After that date, the American element was
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 139 
 
 probably in the ascendant.* The arms and provisions 
 were chiefly obtained from the States. The rolls of 
 names have been preserved, with a partial diary of 
 occurrences. 
 
 Van Rensellaer's conduct, while on the island, has 
 been the subject of much obloquy. While his bravery 
 is admitted, he has been especially accused of almost 
 habitual intemperance ; and though he denied the 
 charge, in letters it has fallen to me to peruse, Gibson, 
 Graham, and others, who were on the island with him, 
 have left on record their opinion that his intemperance 
 ruined the prospects of the Patriots. One who was a 
 witness of his habits, assures me that Yan Kensellaer 
 made a pretty equitable division of his time between 
 drinking brandy, of which he always had a bottle un- 
 der his head at night, and writing love-letters. His 
 own account, contained in an unpublished letter, gives 
 him more serious employments.f He admits to have 
 been occasionally under strong mental excitement, and 
 particularizes two occasions : when the Patriots fired 
 
 * Van Rensellaer, in a published letter dated March 29th, 1838, stated that 
 the Canadians always continued in a majority on the island; but I am not 
 sure that his authority is reliable on this point. 
 
 f He describes himself as spending the day in "plodding four weary milts 
 through mud and water, round our little republic, to dispose of the recruits 
 and superintend the erection of defences. On ray return, nearly prostrate 
 with fatigue, haggard and careworn, when seated in my quarters to partake of 
 a much needed meal, perhaps a call to receive a boat load of visitors, or an 
 alarm which was always occurring at first, attended to in person, would compel 
 me to leave it untouched. So at night, when reclined in full dress to snatch 
 my 'day's' slumber, the same causes would often oblige me to forego even that; 
 and for the first fortnight I never had more than an hour's sleep at a time, fre- 
 quently not more than two hours out of twenty-four. Nor did I undress my- 
 eclf once during the whole period of my stay. * * « I ^as ever ready to 
 incur any danger and willing to submit to any hardship or privation, in order 
 to inspire my men with confidence, and to insure their comfort and welfare."
 
 140 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 their first gun, and again, "when Capt. Elmsley, with 
 his boat's crew, at early dawn, made his way in safety 
 round the island, under fire of our guns. He came 
 off, I am told," adds Van Rensellaer, addressing Mac- 
 kenzie, on the information of the spy Genouing, " to 
 seize you on your intended passage to the American 
 shore."* Having the entire military power in his 
 hands, Van Rensellaer chose to keep his plans to him- 
 self, and his refusal to act or explain his intentions 
 finally exhausted the patience of his men. The latter 
 were anxious to cross to the main land. 
 
 * Genouing, an American by birth, was employed as a spy by the Federal 
 authorities, and it was admitted by District Attorney Eodgers that he rendered 
 important service to the Government. He acted under the orders of General 
 "Worth. But so odious was his calling regarded by the American people that 
 wherever he presented himself he was set upon by a mob; and for safety he 
 was once locked up a fortnight in a private room of the District Attorney. 
 After some time he fled to Toronto, the American authorities being unable to 
 protect him; but whether he remained there or went back to some part of the 
 States where he was not known, I am not aware. The royalists had a number 
 of spies in their service, one of whom oifcred to sell their secrets to the Pat- 
 riots ; but he would tell nothing unless he were paid. His name was Jones, 
 an Englishman by birth, and a dentist by profession. He was a sort of sub- 
 Bpy, employed by one Matthew Hayes, who had been a sergeant in the Fif- 
 teenth Regiment. He went to Navy Island on the 21st December, learnt 
 what he could, repeated what he knew to his employers, and became a witness 
 against some prisoners who were afterwards taken. While on the island, ho 
 ■was suspected and detained by Mackenzie, when he employed Jones to carry 
 letters to the royalist forces. Early in January, he offered to sell the secrets 
 of nis employers. He pretended to know the point of intended attack, and 
 said the simplicity of the plan was a guarantee of its success. He could, he 
 said, instruct the Patriots how to throw up works in an hour that would frus- 
 trate the project. He also added, that if a thousand Patriots were to cross to 
 the main land, half the royalist army would desert and join their standard. . 
 Among the host of other spies who visited the island were persons named 
 Farnsworth, Smith, "Wrigley, and Thorne. From these persons the royalists 
 must have been thoroughly acquainted with the condition and force of Um 
 Liland.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 141 
 
 The defences made on the island consisted of trees 
 thrown along the lower banks, and extending into the 
 water, where there was reason to anticipate that a 
 landing would be attempted. A road was cut in the 
 woods round the island, near the margin, that men 
 and cannon might be moved to any point where re- 
 quii'ed. A loyalist force, at first under Col. Cameron, 
 and afterwards under Col. McNab, appeared on the 
 Chippewa side, and a bombardment commenced. The 
 island was scarcely out of musket range of the main 
 land, where the British forces were stationed ; and one 
 man, on the main land, was killed from the island by 
 a musket or a rifle. But for all this, the fire of the 
 loyalist cannon and mortars, kept up day after day, 
 was almost entirely harmless ; only one man on the 
 island being killed by it. The extent of the mischief 
 done by the Patriots was greater, because they were 
 not baffled by woods, on the main land, where the 
 enemy Avas encountered. But the efi*ect of the fire 
 of the twenty-four cannon in possession of the Patriots 
 was very small. Many of the houses on the Chippewa 
 shore were pierced with stray balls ; but the number 
 of persons killed was insignificant. The men got im- 
 patient under the ineffectual efforts they were making; 
 and Van Rensellaer was repeatedly urged to lead 
 them to the enemy who neglected to come to them. 
 In reply to these importunities, he would answer that 
 when his plans were complete he would announce 
 them ; that in the meantime it was for the men to 
 hold themselves ready to execute his orders. At one 
 time he consented that the forces should cross to the 
 main land ; and Capt. Grorham went to Buffalo to try
 
 142 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 to get a steamboat for that purpose, but the vigilance 
 of the United States authorities prevented his suc- 
 ceedinir. Van Rensellaer stated in a letter to Mac- 
 kenzie, dated Buffalo, January 21, 1838, that when 
 they were about securing the steamboat jN'ew England, 
 Cxen. Scott outbid the Buffalo Committee by $500, and 
 carried off the prize. 
 
 What gave courage to the patriots was the belief that 
 the moment they crossed over to the main land, they 
 would be joined by large numbers of the population 
 anxious to revolutionize the Grovernment. Chandler, 
 who assisted Mackenzie in his escape, was sent over 
 to distribute proclamations and ascertain the feeling 
 of the country. He returned to the island with the 
 report that a large majority of the population was ripe 
 for revolt, and only awaiting assistance to fly to arms. 
 Such loose information as this is liable to mislead ; 
 but there were parts of the country from which Mac- 
 kenzie had much more precise information. From 
 the county of Hastings he had lists of four hundred 
 and eighty-two persons who had " pledged themselves 
 upon oath to embark their lives, their honor, and 
 their fortunes in the cause of liberty."* Hastings 
 was far from being one of the most disloyal counties 
 in Upper Canada ; and when it furnished nearly five 
 hundred sworn rebels, some idea may be formed of the 
 extent to which the revolutionary .feeling had infected 
 the population. With such information as this in his 
 hands, a man of Mr. Mackenzie's impetuous tempera- 
 
 * These words are from the secret communication. The four hundred and 
 eighty-two were distributed as follows : BelWille, 41 ; Thurlow, 93 ; Sidney, 
 165 ; Kawdon, 86 ; Tyendenago, 37 ; Huntingdon, Madac, and Hungerford, 60.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 143 
 
 ment was not likely to be at ease under tlie inaction 
 to which Van Rensellaer, as Commander-in-Chief, 
 doomed the men under his control. But it is not diffi- 
 cult to conceive why Yan Rensellaer hesitated to move 
 in the face of a vastly superior force, in the midst of a 
 Canadian winter, where a single night's piercing frost 
 might prove fatal to an army on the move. 
 
 69
 
 144 LIFE or MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Destruction of the Steamboat Caroline by the Loyalists — Proceedings of the 
 United States and the State Authorities in regard to Neutrality — Colonel 
 McNab knighted — Swords presented to him and Captain Drew by the Up- 
 per Canada House of Assembly — Was the Destruction of the Caroline ne- 
 cessary or advisable ? — Trial of Alexander McLeod for the murder of Amos 
 Durfee — England apologizes for the Destruction of the Caroline — The 
 Steamer Sir Eobert Peel burnt in retaliation — Mrs. Mackenzie on Navy 
 Island — Mackenzie goes to BuflFalo, is arrested for a Breach of the United 
 States' Neutrality Laws, and enters into Eecognizances — The Steamboat 
 Barcelona takes the Patriots from the Island. 
 
 Up to the 29th of December, the volunteers on 
 Navy Island had increased slowly, and they did not 
 yet number quite two hundred. About an hour after 
 midnight, an event occurred whioli for some time 
 threatened to produce war between England and the 
 United States. "We observed," says Mr. Mackenzie, 
 "about one o'clock, a. m., a fire burning on the 
 American side of the river, in the direction of the 
 small tavern and old storehouse, commonly called 
 Schlosser. Its volume gradually enlarged, and many 
 w^ere our conjectures concerning it. At length the 
 , mass of flame was distinctly perceived to move upon 
 the waters, and approach the rapids and the middle 
 of the river above the falls. Swiftly and beautifully 
 it glided along, yet more rapid in its onward course
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 145 
 
 as it neared the fathomless gulf, into which it vanished 
 in a moment, amid the surrounding darkness. This 
 Avas the ill-fated steamboat Caroline." 
 
 Col. McNab, in ordering the vessel to be cut out, 
 acted under the misapprehension that she had been 
 purchased by what he called the "pirates" and rebels"^ 
 on 'Navy Island. The ownership of the vessel is not 
 a matter of much importance, since she was running 
 for the accommodation of the patriots. But she was 
 being run as a private speculation by her owner, Mr. 
 William Wells. Col. McNab, in the course of the 
 29th, sent two officers to watch the movements of the 
 Caroline.f They reported that they had seen her 
 land a cannon and several men armed and equipped 
 as soldiers ; and that she had dropped anchor on the 
 east side of JS'avy Island. He therefore determined 
 
 * Kebels they certainly were, but by no possible latitude of language could 
 they be called pirates. Sir Francis Bond Head readily adopted the loose 
 and inaccurate designation, and even Mr. Fox, the British Minister at Wash- 
 ington, applied it to the American portion of. the force. Piracy is described 
 by writers on international law, as "robbery or a forcible depredation on the • 
 high seas, without lawful authority, and done animo furandi, and in the spirit 
 and intention of universal hostility." This description was totally inapplica- 
 ble to a body of men whose sole object was to revolutionize the Government of 
 Upper Canada, and set up another in its stead. 
 
 \ Alexander McLeod, being at Buffalo, on Christmas eve, heard that the 
 Caroline was going to run between Schlosser and Navy Island ; and he went 
 and informed Colonel McNab of the fact. On the morning of the 28th, he, 
 Captain Graham, and some others went round the island in a boat, but did not 
 see her. About two in the afternoon, thoy saw her crossing from Schlosser 
 to Navy Island. Though Sir Allan McNab refused, in his evidence in 
 McLeod's trial for the murder of Durfee, in the Caroline fray, to give the 
 names of the persons from whom he received his information about the vessel, 
 there can be no doubt that McLeod was one of ther: .
 
 146 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 to destroy her that night * Captain Drew,f R. N"., was 
 instructed to collect a force of A^olunteers to burn, 
 sink, or destroy the vessel.J The requisite number 
 of volunteers were obtained, and at the moment of 
 their embarkation, many of them were kept in igno- 
 rance of the service they were required to perform. 
 All Captain Drew condescended to tell them, in ask- 
 ing them to take part in the enterprise, was " that he 
 wanted a few fellows with cutlasses, who would follow 
 him to the devil. "§ • " • 
 
 The expedition comprised seven boats, || with an 
 average of about nine men each, armed with pistols, 
 cutlasses, and boarding pikes. This force of some 
 sixty persons pushed off from the mouth of the Chip- 
 pewa River about eleven o'clock. The joll-y boats 
 
 * Sir Allan McNab's evidence in McLeod's trial. Johi^Sheridan Hogan 
 used to complain that the credit of the project for destroying the Caroline, due 
 to him, was usurped by another. Whatever truth there may be in this story, 
 it will afterwards appear that Hogan entered into a conspiracy for bringing 
 about a war between England an(i the United States, on account of the de- 
 struction of this vessel. 
 
 •{• On the 20th of December, Col. McNab, entrusted with the command of 
 the loyal forces on the frontier, appointed Captain Drew to take charge of the 
 Naval Department, and to organize a force of armed vessels and bos^ts as a flo- 
 tilla to protect the landing, and transport one thousand men to Navy Island 
 They were never sent. 
 
 J Captain Drew's letter to Colonel McNab, December 30, 1837. *,; 
 
 § Sir Francis Bond Head's dispatch to Lord Glenelg, Toronto, February 9, 
 1838. Most of the commanders of the boats selected their own men. Colonel 
 McNab asked some besides Capt. Drew; and though some, if not all <»f these 
 were in the secret, Col. McNab did not give his fina". orders, which were 
 verbal, till a few minutes before the boats started. 
 
 II Captain Drew says there were only five boats, but in this he is contra- 
 dicted by a dozen Canadian witnesses on the McLeod trial, all of whom state 
 from personal knowledge — being engaged in the expedition — that seven boats 
 started, and five reached their destination. One grounded on Buckhorn 
 slauJ, and another was provided with inetBeient rowers.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 147 
 
 w^ere respective!}'' commanded by Captain Drew, Lieu- 
 tenants M'Cormack, John Elmsley, and Christopher 
 Bier, all of the Roj^al Navy ; Mr. John Gordon , cap- 
 tain of the steamboat Britannia, running on Lake 
 Ontario ; Mr. Thomas Hector, of Kingston, and Lieu- 
 tenant Battersby of London, Canada West. When 
 they had got opposite Navy Island, Captain Drew" 
 ordered the men to rest on their oars, when he said 
 to them : " The steamboat is our object ; follow me."* 
 Captain Drew, in his report of the transaction, leaves 
 it to be inferred that he expected to find the steamer 
 at ISTavy Island ; but whether there were good grounds 
 fdr. such an expectation or not is of no consequence, 
 since his orders were to destroy the steamboat wher- 
 ever he could find her.f But they soon discovered 
 that she was at the wharf at Schlosser, on the United 
 States side* of the Niagara River.J The boats went 
 silently towards the fated vessel, and do not appear 
 to have been discovered till within a few yards of 
 
 * Lieutenant Bier and Mr. Cleverly's evidence in the McLeod trial. Sir 
 F. Head (dispatch to Lord Goderich, February 9th, 1838) says Drew commu- 
 nicated to the men the object of the expedition as soon as they had pushed off; 
 but it is not likely they would rest on their oars in that rapid current till they 
 got in shelter of Navy Island. 
 
 f Sir Allan McNab's evidence in McLeod's trial. Lord A&hburton was 
 hardly warranted in stating, in his letter to Mr. Webster, July 28, 1842, that 
 "the expedition was sent to capture the Caroline where she was expected to be 
 found on the British ground of Navy Island, and that it was only owing to 
 the orders of the rebel leader being disobeyed that she was not so found." 
 The orders of the rebel leader were not disobeyed. 
 
 - X Captain Drew in his report to Col.McNab, December 30th, 1837, states that 
 a vessel was " moored between an island and the main shore." It is called 
 Home's Island, and is about thirty rods from the main land — Evidence of 
 James King on McLeod's trial. But sevoral witnesses who accompanied him, 
 stated under oath, when their evidence was taken by commission in McLeod'n 
 trial, that she was fastened to the wharf at Schlosser.
 
 148 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 her * The hands belonging to the steamer had gone 
 to Niagara Falls that night, and Mr. Wells had al- 
 lowed strangers — two of whom were sailors — to occupy 
 tlieir berths till their return. They came back at 
 twelve ; but the strangers do not appear to have left 
 before the attacking party arrived. The crew of the 
 steamer, which was only of forty-six tons measurement, 
 consisted of two men and a black boy. The watch on 
 deck was prevented by the shade of the buildings 
 from seeing the boats till they were near ; and at first 
 he supposed the crews to be Indians. The sentry or 
 the gangway hailed the approaching boats, and in 
 a hurried manner called out, " Boat ahoy ! who 
 comes there ?"f A man in the leading boat replied, 
 " Friends."! The sentinel then, turning to alarm 
 the slumbering crew of the doomed vessel, shouted, 
 "Turn up, boys, the enemy are coming !"§ In reply 
 to the sentinel's demand for the countersign, Captain 
 Drew said : " I'll give it to you when we get on 
 board." II At this time, Captain Drew was close to 
 the vessel ; and the sentinel, fully comprehending that 
 an assault was to be made on the vessel, is said to 
 have fired ; but whether with a pistol, a musket, or a 
 rltle, it is impossible to determine from the conflict- 
 ing evidence. He denies having fired at all, or being 
 armed The steamer's crew being surprised asleep, 
 and having scarcely an}" other arms on board 
 
 * Captain Drew says they were not discovered till within twenty yards ; Sir 
 P. B. Head says fifteen. 
 
 t Sir F. B. Head's dispatch, February 9th, 1838. 
 
 X Daniel J. Stewart, on McLeod's trial. 
 
 § Evidence of Mr. Johii Harris, of London, C. W., in McLeod's trial. 
 
 II Sir F. B. Head's dispatch, February 9th, 1838.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 149 
 
 besides the piece discharged by the sentinel, hardly 
 any resistance was offered. In a couple of minutes 
 the vessel was in possession of the assailing party ; 
 and in the fray that took place on deck five or six 
 persons were killed.* There was much hallooing, 
 cursing, clashing of swords, and firing of pistols. 
 Persons .n board the boat when she was boarded 
 state that some one ordered the gangway to be 
 guarded ; adding, with an oath, " Show the rebels no 
 quarter." It is in evidence that forty or fifty shots 
 were fired. The men on board were almost utterly 
 defenceless, the attacking party met hardly any resist- 
 ance when they got on board. At this time the light 
 in the companion way was put out to prevent the 
 assailants distinguishing those below. One person, 
 desperately wounded, was taken ashore by orders of 
 Captain Drew.f Captain Drew cut down one man in 
 the fray, disabled another, "and with the flat of his 
 sword, driving three before him, occasionally hasten- 
 ing them with the point, he made them step from the 
 vessel to the wharf."J One shot was fired from the 
 American shore on the assailing party. By the orders 
 of Captain Drew, Lieutenant Elmsley and some of the 
 men went on the American shore, and cut the vessel 
 from her moorings, previous to setting fire to her, to 
 prevent the destruction of other j^roperty by the 
 spreading of the flames. The lamp was j^h'^ced in a 
 large basket, used for carrying Indian corn, and the 
 
 * Captain Drew's report. One of tbem was killed by Lieutenant McCor- 
 mick. •' His death was caused," says McCormick, in the evidence in Mc- 
 Leod's trial, " bv a blow from me immediately after he had wounded me." 
 
 t Sir r. J5. Head's dispatch, February 9th, 1838. 
 
 X Evidence of Mr. Smart Light, of North Oxford, in McLeod's trial.
 
 150 LIFE or MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 cross-bars of the windows torn off and placed above 
 the lamp, which set them on fire.* The vessel was 
 then towed out, by the boats, from the wharf, till she 
 was under the influence of the current. She was cut 
 loose by Mr. Edward Zealand, of Hamilton.^ If the 
 strength of the current had not been too great,J it seems 
 probable that an effort would have been made to take the 
 Caroline across the river to the Canadian shore ; for both 
 Colonel McNab and Captain Drew give that as a rea- 
 son for setting her on fire and sending her over the 
 mighty cataract, above which she was found moored. 
 When she had been towed out about fifteen or twenty 
 rods, the victorious expedition gave three cheers and 
 abandoned her to the force of the current. 
 
 When Mr. Wells, the owner of the boat, had man- 
 aged to escape to the shore, he fancied he was pursued, 
 but soon met instead of the assailants two of his men. 
 " You are hurt," he said to King. " Yes, they have 
 almost cut me to pieces," was the reply. The body 
 of Amos Durfee lay between the inside railroad and 
 the old warehouse. He had been shot in the back of 
 the head, and his brains were scattered around. The 
 pistol must have nearly touched him when it was 
 fired, for his cap was singed with the powder. The 
 ball had gone quite through the head. 
 
 Under all the circumstances, the right of the British 
 authorities to destroy the Caroline, even by the inva- 
 
 * Evidence of James H. King on McLeod's trial. 
 
 ■}• Edward Zealand's evidence in McLeod's trial. 
 
 I The force of the current was stated on McLeod's trial to be about five 
 and a half knots an hour on the American side, and six knots on the Cana- 
 dian side of Navy Island. Whatever it may bf its force must have been 
 pretty well known before the expedit' on set out.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. lol 
 
 sion of American territory, cannot be successfully dis- 
 puted.* The refugees had been seduced by American 
 citizens into abusing the right of asylum ; and they 
 found among these citizens a large number who had 
 joined their standard, and engaged in a war against a 
 nation with whom their own Grovernment was at 
 peace.f The executive government was not armed 
 
 * Vattel lays down the principle applicable to the case: "II est certain 
 que si mon voisin donnait retrait a mes ennemis lorsqu'ils auraient du pire 
 et se trouveraient trop faible pour m'^chapper, leur laissant le temps de se 
 refaire, et d'^pier I'ocoasion de tenter une nouvelle irruption sur mes terres, 
 cette conduite, si pr^judiciable a ma surety et mes inter^ts serait incompa- 
 tible avec la neutralite. Lors done que mes ennemis battus se retirent chez 
 lui, si la charity ne lui permet pas de refuser passage et surety, il doit les faire 
 passer outre le plus tot possible, et ne point souffrir qu'ils se tiennent au aguets 
 pour m'attaquer de nouveau ; autrement il me met en droit de les aller chercher 
 dans ses terres. C'est ce qui arrive aui nations qui ne sont pas en ^tat de faire 
 respecter leur territoire ; le theatre de la guerre s'y ^tablit bientot ; on y marche, 
 on y eampe, on s'y bat, comme dans une pays ouvert k tout venants." The 
 Americans had themselves in 1818 asserted and acted upon the principle laid 
 down by Vattel. The Seminole Indians, who inhabited Florida, then a Span- 
 ish possession, were in the habit of making incursions upon the neighboring 
 territory of the United States. On the 18th May, the United States forces, 
 under Gen. Jackson, pursued the savage enemy, and in doing so took posses- 
 Bion of Pensacola, and Barrancas Fort, in West Florida, though they were at 
 peace with Spain. President Monroe, in his second annual message to Con- 
 gress, Nov. 17, 1818, said: "The right of self-defence never ceases. It is 
 among the most sacred and alike necessary to nations and individuals ; and 
 whether the attack be made by Spain herself or those who abuse her power, 
 its obligation is not the less strong. * * * In pursuing these savages to 
 an imaginary line in the woods, it would have been the height of folly to have 
 suffered that line to protect them. Had that been done, the war would never 
 cease. Even if the territory had been exclusively that of Spain, and her 
 power complete over it, we had a right, by the law of nations, to follow the 
 enemy on it, and to subdue him there." The Senate, however, did not ap- 
 prove of all that was done in this case by the United States forces. 
 
 f On this subject Henry Clay said, in the American Senate, on the 5th Jan- 
 uary, 1838; " If any citizens of these United States choose to renounce their 
 citizenship and enter into the concerns of foreign states, he (Mr. C.) would 
 noc dispute their right to do so ; but, so long as they remain citizens of this 
 70
 
 152 LIFE or MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 with legal powers necessary to restrain its own citi- 
 zens.* But it had not been entirely inactive. On the 
 day of the Yonge St. retreat, and two days after the 
 meeting of sympathizers was held at Buffalo, District 
 Attorney Benton for Northern New York was offici- 
 ally instructed to watch and prosecute all violators of 
 the neutrality laws. At the same time, Mr. Forsyth, 
 Secretary of State, by direction of the President, called 
 the attention of Grovernor Marcy, of the State of New 
 York, to the contest, and asked his prompt interfer- 
 ence to arrest the parties concerned, if any interference 
 of a hostile nature should be made in the state of 
 New York against a foreign power in amity with the 
 United States. Similar letters were, on the same day, 
 
 country, they ought not to be allowed to take part in a foreign war -with which 
 this country has no concern." And Mr. "Webster, in an official letter to Mr. 
 Fox, dated April 24, 1841, gives it as the settled opinion and practice of the 
 Federal Government that neutral states are bound to be strictly neutral ; and 
 that it is a manifest and gross impropriety for individuals to engage in the 
 civil conflicts of other states, and thus to be at war while their government 
 is at peace. "War and peace are high national relations which can properly be 
 established or changed only by nations themselves." 
 
 * Mr. Poinsett, Secretary of "War, in instructing General Scott, January 5, 
 1838, to proceed to the Canadian frontier, to endeavor to preserve the neutral- 
 ity of American citizens, said : — " The Executive possesses no legal authority 
 to employ the military force to restrain persons within our jurisdiction, and 
 who ought to be under our control, from violating the laws by making incur- 
 sions into the territory of neighboring and friendly nations, with hostile 
 intent." And on the same day, President Van Buren, by Special Message, 
 called the attention of Congress to this defect in the national legislation ; and 
 recommended such a revision of the laws as would "vest in the Executive full 
 power to prevent injuries being inflicted upon neighboring nations by the un- 
 authorized and unlawful acts of citizens of the United States, or of other 
 persons who may be within our jurisdiction and subject to our control." On 
 the 10th of March, 1838, an act was passed for the purpose of more efi"ectually 
 restraining military enterprises, from the United States into the British Pro-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 153 
 
 addressed to the Governors of Michigan and Vermont, 
 within the borders of which latter states some of the 
 Lower Canada insurgents, after the defeat at St. 
 Charles, had taken up their quarters. They had col- 
 lected at Swanton, Ilighgate, and other- places; and 
 on the 6th December had, with three pieces of cannon, 
 and small arms and ammunition, obtained from citi- 
 zens of the United States, made a descent upon 
 Canada, been repulsed, and retreated to Vermont. 
 The gov^ernors of these states were directed to prose- 
 cute without discrimination all persons who had com- 
 mitted a breach of the laws enacted for the preserva- 
 tion of the neutral relations of the United States. 
 Governor Jenison, of Vermont, issued a proclamation 
 enjoining neutrality on its citizens. In JSTew York, 
 Mr. Marcy took the same course. But the destruction 
 of the Caroline added to the sympathy for the cause 
 of revolution, in Canada, an almost uncontrollable in- 
 dignation at the invasion of American territory, which 
 all classes of Americans joined in representing as un- 
 warranted by the law of nations and not justified by 
 the circumstances of the case. The President in- 
 formed Congress that a demand for rej)aration would 
 be made ; public meetings were held to denounce 
 what was considered as a wanton outrage; the press 
 aided in inflaming the public excitement,* and it was 
 said that, when General Burt had collected from 1,500 
 
 * Of the poetic effusions, the followinc: example is from the Rochester Demo- 
 crat : — 
 
 "DESTRUCTION OF THE CAROLINE. 
 
 "Oh, what were the dreams, as they sunk to rest, 
 Of that devoted band, 
 \
 
 154 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 to 2,000 militiamen to guard the frontier of New York 
 State, it was with the greatest difficulty they could be 
 
 "Who lay, as a babe on its mother's breast, 
 
 On the shores of their native land ? 
 Breathed they of fire, or of streaming blood, 
 
 Or the thundering Cataract's whelming flood ? 
 
 '< Strong manhood's Godlike f)rm was there, 
 
 With his bold and open I row, 
 And age, with his wearied .ook of care. 
 
 And his floating locks of snow; 
 And the agile form of the stripling boy, 
 
 With his throbbing pulse of hope and joy. 
 
 "They dreamed of the happy hours of home — 
 Of a blessed mother's prayer — 
 Of the cherished wife in that sacred dome — 
 • Of the lisping prattlers there; 
 
 And the stripling dreamed of his young Ioto's smile, 
 When he left her, bound for the 'fatal isle.' 
 
 "Oh, what was that dim, ominous sound. 
 That struck on the sleeper's ear, 
 Yet roused him not from his rest profound, 
 
 'Till the unsheathed blade was near ? — 
 And it seemed as the air and rocks were riven, 
 By the slogan of death and the wild shriek given. 
 
 " Ah! vain was the strife of the struggling few, 
 
 With a well-armed murderous band ; 
 For the gallant bark, with her blood drenched crew, 
 
 Is floating from the strand, 
 And the young boy's quarter cry it bore 
 
 To the purple wave, with his own heart's gore. 
 
 " On — wildly onward — sped the craft. 
 As she swiftly neared the verge ; 
 And the demon guards of the black gulf laughed, 
 And chanted a hellish dirge ; 
 ■• And the booming waters roared anew, 
 
 A wai^ for the dead and dying crew.
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLIOX. 155 
 
 restrained from going over to Navy Island to join tlie 
 insurgents and sympathizers collected there. The 
 feeling that an unjustifiable outrage had been com- 
 mitted by British subjects on American territory con- 
 tinued to inflame the population and to influence 
 opinion in Congress.* 
 
 «' As over the shelving rocks she broke, 
 
 And plunged in her turbulent grave, 
 The slumbering Genius of Freedom woke, 
 
 Baptised in Niagara's wave, 
 And sounded her warning tocsin far, 
 From Atlantic's shore to the polar star." 
 
 "The young boy's quarter cry" mentioned in the fifth verse, has reference 
 to a monstrous rumor which obtained extensive credence, that Captain Drew 
 had, with his own sword, run a boy through. Some of the witnesses on 
 McLeod's trial stated that they never saw the boy again ; but thp newspapeTg 
 of the day mentioned where he had been seen after his escape. 
 
 * On the 13th of February, 1841, Mr. Pickens brought in a report from the 
 Committee of the United States House of Eepresentatives, on Foreign Affairs, 
 on the burning of the Caroline and the imprisonment of McLcod; in which 
 the following language was used : 
 
 "It is believed that, even in war, a neutral power has the right to trade in 
 contraband articles, subject, of course, to seizure and confiscation, if taken 
 within the jurisdiction of either of the contending parties. What is contra- 
 band of war is not always certain. Treaty stipulations frequently include 
 some articles, and exclude others recognised in the law of nations. Trading in 
 contraband articles is no excuse for invading the territory and soil of a neutral 
 and independent power, whose private citizens may choose to run the hazards 
 of such a trade. In this instance, there were two foreign powers engaged in 
 war; but all concerned in the outbreak or excitement within the British ju- 
 risdiction, claimed to be British subjects, in resistance of the authorities of 
 Canada, a province of the British empire. Even admitting, then, that the 
 Caroline was engaged in contraband trade, yet it was with citizens who 
 claimed to be subjects of the same empire with those who were styled the le- 
 gitimate officers of the Province. Abstractly speaking, how was a private 
 citizen to decide who were right and who wrong in these local disputes ? And 
 which portion of citizens of the same province must our citizens refuse to have 
 any communication with ? But the boat was merely used for one day as a 
 fierry boat; and on the night of the day she commenced running, she was
 
 156 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 I have an unpublished letter of District Attorney 
 Rogers to Van Rensellaer, written on the day be- 
 fore the Caroline was destroyed, in which it was 
 stated: — "The public authorities upon this frontier 
 cannot and will not remain inactive in case our soil is 
 made the theatre of operations for either of the belli- 
 gerent armies. It is the duty as well as the policy of 
 this Grovernment to maintain a strict neutrality with 
 Great Britain, and no means will be spared on the 
 part of the public authorities to sustain and enforce 
 the laws enacted for that object." The letter con- 
 cluded by expressing a hope that if Van Rensellaer 
 had any intention of landing his forces on Grand Is- 
 land, it would be abandoned.* 
 
 However justifiable the destruction of the Caroline 
 may have been in the eye of international law, it was 
 
 seized while moored at the wharf in Schlosser, and burnt. Several men were 
 assassinated ; certainly one, who fell dead upon the dock. Now the insinua- 
 tion of the British Minister, [Fox,] that Schlosser was 'nominally' within 
 the territory of the United States, may well be retorted, as we can with equal 
 truth say that Navy Island was 'nominally' within the 'territory' of the Bri- 
 tish Government; for at the period to which we allude, the people collected 
 there had as efiFectually defied the Canada authorities as any portion of our 
 people had disregarded ours. Yet British authority thought proper to pass by 
 Navy Island, then in its ' nominal' territory, and in the plenitude of its 
 power, to cast the asgis of British jurisdiction over American soil. This was 
 truly extending over us that kind guardianship which they had not the ability 
 at that time to extend to a portion of their own territory, and which recom- 
 mends itself to us, full as much from its assumption as from its love of right 
 or law." 
 
 And Mr. Stevenson, the American Minister, in London, took the ground 
 that the forces on Navy Island, commanded by an American citizen, were 
 engaged in a civil war; and that as respects belligerent and neutral rights, 
 civil wars are not distinguishable from other wars. 
 
 * Grand Island is an American island, situated a little higher up the Niagara 
 Eiver than Navy Island.
 
 THE CAN^ADIAN REBELLION". 157 
 
 an act of great rashness. A militia colonel, without 
 the least authority from his superiors, orders the 
 invasion of the territory of a nation with whom his 
 government is at peace; and when that nation was 
 using efforts, not very successful it must be confessed, 
 to maintain neutrality in a contest in which they were 
 no way concerned. The British Grovernment assumed 
 the responsibility of the act; and with a degree of 
 haste that was justly censured at the time, conferred 
 the honor of knighthood on Col. McIS'ab before the 
 reclamation of the American Government had been 
 disposed of. The Upper Canada House of Assembly 
 tendered its thanks to the men engaged in the destruc- 
 tion of the Caroline, and granted swords to Colonel 
 McNab and Captain Drew. 
 
 If the right to destroy the Caroline was clear, the ne- 
 cessity and expediency of exercising it are open to doubt. 
 Mne days before the event, when there was only a 
 handful of men on the island. Col. McIS'ab had ordered 
 Captain Drew to " organize such a force of armed ves- 
 sels and boats for a flotilla," as would protect the 
 landing and transport of a thousand men from the 
 Chippewa shore to JN'avy Island ; and Sir Francis 
 Bond Head states that, after a fortnight's occupation 
 of the island, by the patriots, there were plenty of 
 boats lying idle on the shore, and "everything was in 
 readiness to enable an overwhelming force to land, 
 and with the point of the bayonet clear the island."* 
 The militia are described as having been eager for the 
 
 * The Emigrant. On the 9th of Jiinuary, Sir John Colborne, writing to 
 Lord F. Somerset, from Montreal, said: "Not less than five thousand men are 
 assembled under Col. McNab." on the Niasrara frontier. 
 
 #
 
 158 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 attack ; and several wagons full of athletic negroes are 
 said to have craved the honor of leading the forlorn hope 
 in the anticipated attack.* It would seem from these 
 statements that there was no urgent necessity for de- 
 stroying the steamer at the American shore, since the 
 Patriots could have been dispersed by other means. 
 It is not necessary to inquire into the correctness of 
 this statement ; it is sufficient that it was made on the 
 authority of the Lieutenant Grovernor of the day. 
 There were on the island, at that time, less than two 
 hundred men ; but they were inspired with such a 
 desperate determination that far from having provided 
 any boats for their escape, they had taken the pins 
 out of the screws of the scows and burnt the oars, re- 
 solved, if attacked, to conquer their assailants or die 
 in the attempt. 
 
 "If 'sons of liberty' can keep 
 No resting place but this. 
 Then here we'll stand — or wildly leat^ 
 Into the dark abyss." f 
 
 The Caroline had only been cut out of the ice on 
 the 28th, and she was destroyed on the night of the 
 only day on which she had run between Schlosser and 
 the island. The Washington authorities, in these 
 ante- telegraph days, could not have been aware that 
 she was carrying articles contraband of war; though 
 rumor might have w^afted them some intelligence of 
 her intended movements, and their officers, as well as 
 those of the State of !N'ew York, on the frontier, might 
 
 * Sir Francis Bond Head's Emigrant. 
 
 t From a poem entitled, «' Liberty and Navy Island," dated January 29, 
 1837.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 159 
 
 have known of what was going on. Sir Francis Bond 
 Head, however, far from conipUiining of the exertions 
 made by Governor Marcy to preserve the neutrality 
 of citizens of New York, declared his appreciation of 
 them, and had proposed to meet him in Buffalo on 
 the very day on the night of which the Caroline was 
 destroyed. If, as I think, these facts prove, that the 
 destruction of the vessel at the United States bank of 
 the river was not a necessity, it was in the last degree 
 inexpedient. 
 
 President Van Buren seems to have been sincerely 
 anxious to avoid a war with England ; and it required 
 all his address to prevent the Caroline massacre from 
 interrupting the friendly relations of the two coun- 
 tries. The demand upon England for "reparation and 
 atonement" was two years and a half undisposed of. 
 In the meantime, Alexander McLeod was arrested on 
 a charge of having murdered Amos Durfee, whose 
 body was left on American territory, at Schlosser, as 
 alread}^ described. While the whole question w\is 
 still open, the British Government demanded his 
 " immediate release." The demand was refused ;* and 
 
 *' In communicating to Mr. Fox, British Minister at Washington, that re- 
 fusal, Mr. Secretary Forsyth said: " The transaction out of which the question 
 nrises, presents the case of a most unjustiflaMe invasion, in the time of peace, of 
 a portior. of the territory of the United States, by a band of armed men from 
 Ihu adjacent territory of Canada, the forcible capture by them within our own 
 waters, and the subsequent destruction of a steamboat, the property of a citizen 
 of the United States, and the murder of one or more American citizens. If 
 arrested at the time, the offenders might unquestionably have been brought to 
 j jstice by the judicial authorities of the State within whose acknowledged ter 
 ritory these crimes were committed; and their subsequent voluntary entrance 
 within that territory places them in the same situation. The President is not 
 aware of any principle of international law, or indeed of reason or justice, 
 which entitles such otienders to impunity before the legal tribunals, when 
 71
 
 160 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 McLeod was put upon his trial,* in the Circuit Court 
 of the State of New York, at Utica, in October, 1841. 
 It commenced on the fourth, and lasted eight days. 
 Whether McLeod was guilty or innocent — the jury 
 declared him not guilty — it must be admitted that 
 
 coming voluntarily within their independent and undoubted jurisdiction, hf>- 
 cause they acted in obedience to their superior authorities, or because their acta 
 have become the subject of diplomatic discussion between the two Govern- 
 ments. These methods of redress, the legal prosecution of the offenders, and 
 the application of their Government for satisfaction, are in'dependent of each 
 other, and may be separately and simultaneously pursued. The avowal or 
 justification of the outrage by the British authorities, might be a ground of com- 
 plaint with the Government of the United States, distinct from the violation 
 of the territory and laws of the State of New York. The application of the 
 Government of the Union to that of Great Britain, for the redress of an autho- 
 rized outrage of the peace, dignity, and rights of the United States, cannot de- 
 prive the State of New York of her undoubted right of vindicating, through 
 the exercise of her judicial power, the property and lives of her citizens." 
 
 In the report of Mr. Pickens, already quoted, it was argued that the Federal 
 Government had no power to give up McLeod. '"Jurisdiction," it was said, 
 "in State tribunals over criminal cases, and trial by a jury of the venue, are 
 essential points in American jurisprudence; and it is a total misapprehension 
 of the nature of our system to suppose that there is any right in the Federal 
 Executive to arrest the verdict of the one or thwart the jurisdiction of the 
 other. If such a power existed, and were exercised, it would overthrow, and 
 upon a vital point, the separate sovereignty and independence of these States." 
 Mr. Secretary Forsyth also took the ground that the Federal Government had 
 no power to interfere in the matter ; and that the decision must rest solely 
 with the State of New York. 
 
 * Alexander McLeod was a Scotchman by birth ; and was born at the Fein 
 of Carnoustie, about half way between Dundee and Arbroath. His father was 
 from Inverness. Alexander enlisted as a soldier when young; and about the 
 year 1825, emigrated with his parents and the rest of the family to Upper 
 Canada, He and his sister Margaret first kept a store in Kingston. He after- 
 wards moved to Toronto, where he carried on the business of a grocer. In poli- 
 tics, he was at this time strongly opposed to the Family Compact. A few years 
 l>efore the rebellion, he was appointed Deputy SheriflTof the District of Niagara; 
 and about the same time joined the Orange Society. As Deputy Sheriff, it 
 fell to him to execute an order for the extradition of Jesse Happy alias Solomon 
 Moseley, a fugitive slave from Kentucky, who, in effecting his escape, had
 
 .-.^^m.. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF McLEOD.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 161 
 
 many a man has been hanged upon much weaker evi- 
 derice than that which was produced against him. 
 Three witnesses swore that they saw him get into one 
 of the boats engaged in the expedition ; one, that he 
 saw him get out on the return of the boats ; two, that 
 they had heard him admit being present ; three, that 
 he had killed one man. One of them swore that ho 
 admitted that he had killed Durfce. On the part 
 of the defence, an alibi was set up : the witnesses 
 brought forward to establish it, being Margaret Mor- 
 rison, of Bellevue Cottage, near Stanford, mother of a 
 girl ^fho lived with McLeod, but whether they lived 
 as man and wife she could not say ; and one other of 
 the girl's relatives. William Press, a tavern-keeper, 
 at JN'iagara, swore that he took McLeod, a little before 
 dark, in a wagon, from Chippewa to Morrison's house. 
 Besides over a dozen persons who took part in the 
 expedition, and who must have been McLeod's accom- 
 plices if he were guilty, swore that he was not there, 
 
 carried off one of his master's horses. An attempt was made to rescue the 
 fugitive, in which one Herbert Holmes was killed by the officials, and others 
 wounded. Mr. Mackenzie relates an incident in proof of his courageous dis- 
 position. When the latter was Mayor of Toronto, McLeod went from Ni- 
 agara to that city and took the disease. " I put him into the Cholera Hospi- 
 tal," says Mr. Mackenzie, " where I personally saw his case ; he was well at- 
 tended to, recovered, and returned home ; but I did not see that the fear of 
 death alarmed him in the least." In Mackenzie's trial for the Welland 
 Canal libel, McLeod did all he could to correct the fraudulent list of special 
 jurors said to have been made out by Charles Kichardson, Clerk of the Peace. 
 It is said, and Mr. Mackenzie believed the report, that McLeod positively re- 
 fused to hang Moreau, one of the Canadian Patriots convicted of high treason. 
 "While Deputy SheriiF, he became deeply involved in debt; and on the death 
 of Sherilf Hamilton, February 19, 1839, he was balked in his expectation of 
 succeeding to the office. He was about forty years of age at the time of the 
 Caroline outrage, and is still living near Toronto.
 
 162 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 or that they did not see him and were not aware of his 
 presence.* 
 
 The verdict of " not guilty" probably prevented a 
 war between England and the United States. The 
 English view of the matter was that the destruction 
 of the Caroline was a public act, performed by persons 
 obeying the orders of their superior authorities ; and 
 that no one engaged in it could be held individually 
 accountable. The authorities of the States were pro- 
 bably not very anxious for a conviction ; but they had 
 to appease public indignation by the ceremonial of a 
 trial. ' • 
 
 The foil}'' of the destruction of the Caroline, under 
 the circumstances described, is best proved by the 
 necessit}'" which England was under of finally apo- 
 logizing for the act. Lord Ashburton, while engaged 
 in the settlement of the north-east boundary question, 
 addressed to Mr. Webster, under date, Washington, 
 July 28, 1842, an apology for the invasion of Ameri- 
 can territory. " I am instructed," his lordship said, 
 " to assure you that Her Majesty's government consi- 
 der this [the violation of American territory] a most 
 serious fact, and that far from thinking that an event 
 of this kind should be lightly risked, they would un- 
 feignedly deprecate its existence ; looking back to what 
 passed at this distance of time, what is, perhaps, most 
 to be regretted is that some explanation and apology 
 
 * Sir Allan McNab; Mr. John Harris, of London, C. W.; Edward Zealand, 
 Hamilton, C. W'.; W. S. Light, North Oxford; Kobert Armour, Cobourg ; 
 John Gordon, Captain of the Steamer Britannia ; Christopher Beer, of Chip- 
 pewa : H, R. O'Eielly, of Hamilton ; Shepherd McCormiok of London, C. 
 W.; Frederick Cleverly, London, C. W.; Thomas Hector, of Toronto ; Neil 
 McGregor, of Chippewa; J. P. Battersby, of Ancaster.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 163 
 
 for this occurrence was not immediately made." This 
 apology was accepted in the conciliatory spirit whicb 
 marked Lord Ashburton's letter, and the President 
 consented to " make this subject, as a complaint of 
 violation of territory, the topic of no further discus- 
 sion between the two governments," 
 
 The British steamboat. Sir Robert Peel, was burnt 
 in retaliation, on the 29th of May, 1838, while taking 
 in w^ood at Well's Island, three miles from French 
 Creek. 
 
 Mrs. Mackenzie was the only female who spent any 
 length of time on T^avy Island. She arrived there a 
 few hours before the destruction of the Caroline, and 
 remained nearly a fortnight with her husband, mak- 
 ing flannel cartridge-bags, and inspiring with courage, 
 by her entire freedom from fear, all with whom she 
 conversed. At the end of about a fortnight, ill-health 
 obliged her to leave. Mr. Mackenzie accompanied 
 her to the house of Captain Appleby, Buffalo, and 
 w^hile on his way he was arrested, in the railway car, 
 by the United States Marshal for a breach of the neu- 
 trality laws. He entered into recognizance in $oOCK) 
 for his appearance, and returned to the island the next 
 morning, where he remained till Gen. Van Rensellaer 
 announced his intention to evacuate it, with the force 
 under his command, on the 13th of January. There 
 was much excitement when he was arrested. A Mr. 
 Burton, who was suspected of having informed against 
 him, was greeted with hisses and groans, and handed 
 round to be gazed upon by the crowd as a monstrosity. 
 Three gentlemen immediately stepped forward and 
 entered into recognizances for the amount required.
 
 164 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 The Buffalo Committee of thirteen seems to have had 
 more power than the Provisional Government, for the 
 question of evacuating the island was decided by it. 
 At this time, Mr. Mackenzie seems to have had very 
 little influence with Van Rensellaer, who was vested 
 with the entire military command. It is matter of 
 surprise that the island, which was intended as a 
 ])oint cV aiypid from which to take a liberating army . 
 into .Western Canada, was permitted to be occupied 
 by insurgents, and American citizens who sjmipathised 
 with them, for a period of over a month without being 
 assaulted by the vastly superior force on the main 
 land, who were spending their time in an inglorious 
 and inactive campaign. 
 
 On the evacuation of the island, another difficulty 
 with the States' authorities was very near occurring. 
 Captain Drew ordered two schooners to be placed in 
 the middle of the stream, between Xavy Island and 
 the American shore, to watch the steamboat Barce- 
 lona, said to be taking the islanders across, to bring 
 her to in case she attempted to pass, and if she should 
 succeed in passing to follow her until she was cap- 
 tured, or at least till it was seen on what part of the 
 shore she landed. But whether from a misapprehen- 
 sion of Captain Drew's orders — which were changed 
 two or three times in one day, has been disputed — 
 fortunately no collision occurred.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION, 165 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Dispersion of Dr. Duncombe's Insurgent Force — Van. Kensellaer ser ds Briga- 
 dier General Sutherland to the West — The Patriot Army of the North- 
 West — Rival Generals— The Steamer McComb and the Schooner Anne 
 engaged to carrj' Patriotic Troops and Munitions of War — General Brady 
 of the United States Army seizes the Steamer McComb — The Steamer 
 Brady which takes her place is also Seized — The Governor of Michigan 
 gives General Handy, in Command of the Patriot Army of the North-Wesi. 
 a Friendly Warning of the Approach of United States Troops — General 
 Handy's Plan of attacking Fort Maiden — Who shall Command ? — Theller 
 sails the Schooner round the Island of Bois Blanc, and Fires into Amherst- 
 burg without Demanding it to Surrender — The Act is denounced by other 
 Patriots as Piracy — Sutherland takes possession of Bois Blanc, and issues a 
 Proclamation to the "Citizens of Upper Canada" — Retreats to Sugar Island 
 against the Remonstrances of the Men — The Michigan Governor's tender- 
 ness towards the Patriots — Handy resents Theller's Foray on Amherstburg. 
 and sends men to arrest Theller and Sutherland — Handy's Secretary burn* 
 a Report he was sent to get Printed — Of the two Rival Generals, the Men 
 Elect Handy — Sutherland goes to Detroit and tries to raise Men indepen- 
 dently of Handy — How the Governor of Michigan helps Handy out of ii. 
 Difficulty — Plot for transferring the Arms of the Michigan Militia to the 
 Patriots — The latter were to be in the Pay of the State while preparing for 
 an Attack upon Maiden — Sutherland defeats the Scheme by seizing the 
 Arms, which are Discovered and Restored — General McLeod and Colonel 
 Vreeland arrive on the Western Frontier — McLeod takes possession of Figlit- 
 ing Island, being disappointed in the Receipt of Arms is driven off by Bri- 
 tish Troops — Mackenzie warned against Assassins — Mackenzie and Van Ren- 
 eellaer Disagree — Projected Assault upon Kingston — Van Rensellaer goes to 
 Hickory Island with a Large Force, but Retreats without making an attempt 
 to go to the Main Land — Apologizes for Charges against Mackenzie — Gene- 
 ral McLeod sends a Force to Point au Pel^ Island, whence they are driven 
 Dy British Troops — General Sutherland taken Prisoner. 
 
 When the patriots took possession of Navy Island, 
 tbey expected soon to be able to cross over to the
 
 166 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 main land and join Dr. Duncombe's forces in the West. 
 The doctor, who had been in constant correspondence 
 with the Lower Canada patriots, had under his com- 
 mand between three and four hundred men ; but a 
 hirge number of them were without arms. They 
 were assembled at Brantford, whither Colonel McNab, 
 with a detachment of about three hundred and sixty 
 men, repaired. On his approach, Dr. Duncombe re- 
 treated to a place called Scotland. Colonel McNab 
 was reinforced at Brantford by one hundred and fifty 
 volunteers and one hundred Indians, under command 
 of Captain Kerr. When a plan of attacking the in- 
 surgents simultaneously at three points had been 
 agreed upon, and was to have been executed next 
 morning, Dr. Duncombe retreated. He told the men 
 that Mackenzie had been defeated near Toronto, and 
 they had better disperse. In the meantime, Colonel 
 McXab, learning of the anticipated retreat, dispatched 
 messengers to Simcoe, Woodstock, and London, re- 
 questing all the volunteers that could be mustered to 
 march down and intercept the rebels. On the 14th 
 of December, while at Scotland, his force was increased 
 by about one thousand additional volunteers. Hun- 
 dreds more had been expected to join Duncombe, 
 from the neighborhood of St. Thomas and other places 
 in the west. Here Colonel McNab seized all Dun- 
 combe's papers, as well as those of Eliakim Malcolm, 
 and took several prisoners, whom he sent under an 
 escort to Hamilton. In spite of the retreat of Dun- 
 combe, and the dispersion of his men, Colonel McNab 
 t?ent to the Lieutenant Governor a strong recommen- 
 dation to sanction the raising of volunteer companies of
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 167 
 
 one hundred and fifty men each. While at Scothind, 
 deputations of insurgents visited him offering to sur- 
 render their arms, take the oath of allegiance, and, if 
 necessary, form part of his force. In other places 
 large numbers of undetected rebels, when they found 
 the tide turning against them, joined the loyal forces ; 
 so that the number of volunteers was no proof of the 
 popularity of the government. At a place called So- 
 dom, township of ISTorwich, many of Buncombe's men 
 surrendered themselves to Colonel McXab, who, with 
 a degree of humanity that reflects credit upon him, 
 after receiving what arms they had, permitted them 
 to return to their homes, on condition that they should 
 again surrender themselves, should His Excellency not 
 extend the Royal clemency to them. Some of the ring- 
 leaders were sent to London, undei; an escort, for trial, 
 where Joshua Guilam Doan, for whose apprehension 
 a reward had been offered, was executed, on the 6th 
 of February, 1839. 
 
 On the 19th of December, 1837, Colonel MciN'ab men- 
 tions a report that considerable disaffection prevailed 
 in the western district, particularly in the neighborhood 
 of Sandwich. But the insurrection was put down in the 
 western part of the Province without a shot being fired. 
 
 In the " Navy Island memoranda," I find the origi- 
 nal order of Van Rensellaer to General Sutherland to 
 set out to Detroit to make preparations for making a 
 descent upon Canada.* But when he reached the 
 
 ♦ " Hkadquarters, Navy Island, "| 
 December 28, 1837. j 
 "Brigadier General Sutherland wiU repair with all dispatch to Detroit and 
 its vicinity, ani promote every arrangement for making a descent upon Ca- 
 nada, in favor )f the Patriots, as he in his judgment mgj deem most adviu- 
 72
 
 168 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Western frontier, he was destined to encounier a rival, 
 in the person of Henry S. Handy, of Illinois. In 
 Michigan, what was called the Patriot army of the 
 Xorth West had been organized, and Henry S. 
 Handy, of Illinois, had been appointed Commander- 
 in-chief. His command extended over the whole of 
 Western Canada. The other officers were James M. 
 Wilson, Major General ; E. J. Roberts, Brigadier 
 General of the first Brigade ; Dr. Theller, Brigadier 
 General, to command the first Brigade of French and 
 Irish troops to be raised in Canada. A number of 
 colonels were also appointed and sworn in. The staff 
 was then made out and the organization commenced. 
 The council of war proceeded to collect men and 
 materials of war.* Theatres and public houses were 
 made depots for arms. When things had gone on 
 smoothly for some time, the friendly Governor of 
 Michigan, about the 1st of January, quietly intimated 
 to Handy and General Roberts, that he should be 
 obliged to disperse the Patriot forces, and that they 
 must move to some other place. The coujicil then 
 placed the troops and munitions under the control 
 of General Handy, by whom a contract was made for 
 the steamboat McComb, and the achooner Anne was 
 
 able, after consulting with the Canadian and American friends of the cause in 
 that quarter. 
 
 " R. V. R., &c., &c., &c. 
 
 » I take this relation from General Handy's elaborate manuscript reports. 
 The council of war here referred to must have been that formed in Michigan 
 by the exertions of M. Dufort; and in deference to the wishes Mr. Bidwell 
 expressed in Toronto in the previous November, some of the leading men of 
 Michigan had given all the aid in their power to this scheme of co-operation 
 with the Patriots.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 169 
 
 also obtained for the purpose of effecting their removal 
 to the point of intended operations. On the night of 
 the 5th of Januar}^, the arms, munitions, and provi- 
 sions, were put on board the schooner, and she was 
 taken down the river a short distance and moored. 
 Her sails were on another vessel ; and without the 
 tow of a steamboat she was helpless. It was intended 
 to place the troops on the steamer McComb, and then 
 use her to tow the schooner ; but before this could be 
 done, the Brady Guards with a few United States 
 regulars, under General Brady, seized the steamer 
 and placed a guard over her. A contract was then 
 made for the steamer Brady to take her place ; but 
 she also was seized. General Handy then ordered 
 General Wilson to take the troops in squads, during 
 the night, to Gibraltar, on American Island at the 
 mouth of the Detroit River opposite Fort Maiden, to 
 man the yawl-boats with six oarsmen each and thus 
 tow the schooner clown the river. When they arrived 
 at River Rouge a sail was obtained fur the schooner, 
 and she started under command of Colonel Davis for 
 Gibraltar. On the way she encountered the steamer 
 United States, with sixty men on board; but on seeing 
 the three pieces of ordnance on the deck of the Anne, 
 the steamer made off for the Canada shore. Colonel 
 Davis was probably alarmed by the sight of this 
 steamer; for, instead of continuing down the river, he 
 returned after going ten miles below Detroit. Gen- 
 eral Handy, learning this disobedience of his orders, 
 sent instructions to General Roberts to take the com- 
 mand. On the 6th of January, Handy sent an order to 
 Colonel Davis of Mount Clements, to move his two
 
 170 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 companios of riflemen from the mouth of the Clinton 
 River to Peach Island, six miles above Detroit, where 
 next morning the general was to join him with re- 
 cruits. That day, Greneral Handy received an intima- 
 tion from the Grovernor of Michigan that he and the 
 Brady Guards would probably be at Gibraltar on the 
 18th, from which point he should be obliged to dis- 
 perse the troops. Gen. Handy then sent an order to 
 Brigadier General Roberts to put all the arms and 
 inanitions on board the schooner Anne, and to put 
 the troops on board the sloops, scows, yawl-boats, and ca- 
 noes, in the morning before the Governor would arrive ; 
 to land the troops on Bois Blanc Island, and to moor 
 the schooner Anne in the small bay, near the head of 
 the island and directly opposite the fort; to discharge 
 from the schooner every thing except three cannon, 
 and thirty men under Colonel Davis to man them. 
 A temporary fortification was to be thrown up ; on 
 the evening of the 8th the schooner was to be made 
 ready for action, and on the morning of the 9th the 
 tri-colored flag was to be raised and the surrender of 
 the fort demanded. In case of refusal a brisk cannon- 
 ade was to be opened; the troops, with a heavy piece 
 of ordnance, landed, and the fort carried by storm 
 At the same time, General Handy, with Colonel Davis' 
 troops, was to take possession of the public stores at 
 Sandwich and Windsor, and march thence to Maldeii 
 and take command. 
 
 On the morning of the 7th, General Handy started 
 from Mount Clements to meet Col. Davis ; and in the 
 afternoon of the next day, an express from General 
 Roberts reached him, with the intelligence that Gen-
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 171 
 
 eral Sutherland had arrived from Cleveland with 
 about two hundred troops ; and that, in virtue of the 
 instructions he had received from General Van Ren- 
 sellaer, he claimed the command. General Handy 
 had no idea of being balked in his ambition to lead 
 the troops ; and he found that it was necessary for him 
 to hasten, with all possible speed, to Gibraltar, where 
 General Theller, in violation of the orders and ap- 
 pointment he had received from the Council of War, 
 had taken up the cudgels against General Roberts, 
 and done all in his power to place General Suther- 
 land at the head of the command. The Ohio troops 
 had no knowledge of the organization of the North 
 Western army, and thinking the order of General 
 Van Rensellaer ought to be respected, a serious 
 difficulty as to wiio should have the command arose. 
 A compromise w^as proposed : " That if," says General 
 Handy, " Sutherland would implicitly obey the orders 
 of the Commander-in-chief sent to General Roberts, 
 the command should be given to him until by express 
 I could reach the island." To this proposition Gen- 
 eral Roberts assented ; and the command of the 
 schooner was given by General Sutherland to General 
 Theller. But the expectation of landing on Bois 
 Blanc Island was disappointed. " Either by adverse 
 winds or tnrough disobedience of orders," says Gen- 
 eral Handy, " the landing was made on Sugar Island." 
 General Theller sailed the schooner round the foot of 
 Bois Blanc, and when passing the fort she was hailed 
 by the sentinel, who, receiving no answer, fired into 
 her. General Theller, so Handy was informed, when 
 opposite Amherstburg, fired a nine pounder into the
 
 172 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 town, instead of aiming at the fort, contrary to all 
 usaires of war, as he had not even demanded the sur- 
 render of the place. After this exploit Greneral Thal- 
 ler returned and moored the schooner near the camp 
 on Sugar Island, for the night. General Roberts of 
 the Patriot army denounced the firing upon the 
 town, without a demand for surrender being pre- 
 viously made, as a piratical act ; and he recommended 
 General Handy to arrest Generals Sutherland and 
 Theller for disobedience of orders. 
 
 On the 9th, General Sutherland called for sixty vo- 
 lunteers, for whom arms were ready, to proceed with 
 him to Bois Blanc Island. Boats and craft were got 
 ready to make a landing. General Sutherland then 
 ordered Colonels Dodge, Davis, and Brophy, with 
 eighteen others, on board the schooner Anne, which 
 then sailed round to the foot of the island, and moored 
 in a small basin near the head of the island, opposite 
 Fort Maiden. General Sutherland, with his sixty 
 volunteers, landed on the island near the light-house, 
 where he hoisted the tri-colored flag and issued his 
 proclamation to the citizens of Upper Canada, 
 
 % 
 
 * " Proclamation to the Patriotic Citizens of Upper Canada. — Tou 
 are called upon by the voice of your bleeding country to join the Patriot forces, 
 and free your land from tyranny. Hordes of worthless parasites of the Bri- 
 tish Crown are quartered upon you to devour your substance — to outrage 
 your rights — to let loose upon your defenceless wives and daughters a brutal 
 soldiery. 
 
 "Rally, then, around the standard of Liberty, and victory and a glorious 
 future of independence will be yours. 
 
 " Thomas J. Sutherland, Brigadier General, 
 •'Commanding Second Division Patriot Army, U. C. 
 
 " Headquarter!?, Second Division, "} 
 Bois Blanc, U. C, Jan., 9, 1838.")
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 173 
 
 The schooner Anne, only about half rigged, having 
 but one small sail, was drifted towards the main shore, 
 where she was beached in three feet of water * A 
 brisk fire— so Handy reports— was now opened upon 
 her by the royalist troops on shore. General Suther- 
 land ordered the yawl-boat to row him to the foot of 
 the island, where he discovered that the schooner had 
 been boarded by the British troops. Returning to his 
 men, he, without landing, ordered them to retreat im- 
 mediately to Sugar Island. The men entreated him 
 to permit them to go with their boats to the rescue of 
 the schooner, but he positively refused to grant their 
 request; and, with apparent alarm, cried out, "Away 
 to Sugar Island ! Fly, fly, fly, all is lost !"t He then 
 hurried to the main body of the troops on Sugar 
 Island, whence the destruction of the schooner could 
 be seen. Though it is not certain, General Theller is 
 believed to have followed the instructions of General 
 Sutherland in taking the schooner where he did. " I 
 have no doubt," says General Handy, in his report, 
 " that General Theller has the Patriot cause at heart, 
 but for want of cool discretion, and perhaps that skill 
 which a man of his rank should have, he may have 
 
 * Colonel Bradley states there was only one sailor oe board, and that he Avas 
 Bhot at the helm, after which the vessel became unmanageable. The schooner 
 Anne appears, from a statement of General Handy, to have been given to the 
 Patriots by Captain Gillet, who assisted them in other ways. 
 
 + Colonel Bradley afterwards denounced Sutherland as a coward, and said 
 that if a landing had been effected Amherstburg would easily have been taken. 
 It was also stated that three hundred or four hundred Canadians would have 
 joined him as soon as he had landed. These added to those under Suther- 
 land's command would, it was contended, have been more than a match for 
 any resisting force they would have met. By this means a triumphant en- 
 trance into the western part of Canada had been expected.
 
 174 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 committed an error; but as to General Sutherland, 
 his course of conduct, after that period — his entire 
 recklessness, gross violation of good faith, together 
 with the fact (as reported to me) of his being closeted 
 in a room in Detroit with Colonel Prince, for some 
 hours, and his immediate departure from Gibraltar, 
 there leaving his side-arms, and starting for Point au 
 Pole on foot, travelling on the Canadian side, meeting 
 Colonel Prince and there suffering Colonel Prince to 
 take himself and his aid with his single arm — gives 
 me good ground to believe that he was both a traitor 
 and a coward." 
 
 The Governor of Michigan seems to have used a 
 great deal of gentleness in the performance of his duty 
 of dispersing the patriots and sympathizers. On the 
 morning of the 8th, he, with the Brady Guards and 
 a number of United States troops, fell in with Gene- 
 ral Handy at Gibraltar. In an interview, which lasted 
 only a few minutes, the Governor requested Handy to 
 seek other quarters, as he had come down to disperse 
 the Patriots, none of whom were then at that point. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 9th, General Handy, acting 
 on the suggestion of General Roberts, dispatched two 
 persons in a canoe to arrest Generals Sutherland and 
 Theller on Sugar Island, for having committed a 
 piratical act, in violation of orders ; but, in conse- 
 quence of the roughness of the river, they had to land 
 on Grosse Isle. The messengers were Colonel Cham- 
 berlain and Colonel Wilkins.* The latter was the 
 
 * While sentencing Colonel Yreeland, in the summer of 1838, for taking 
 part with the Patriots, Judge Wilkins said : — 
 
 "The Constitution and Laws of your country give ample freedom of opinion
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 175 
 
 judge before whom General Theller was tried for a 
 breach of those neutrality laws in which the accused 
 had the judge for an accomplice ! Handy dis- 
 patched Mr. Lawton, his secretary, to Detroit with 
 General Roberts's report of what had occurred ; but 
 the secretary was so much alarmed that he burnt 
 the report instead of getting it printed. In conse- 
 quence of the rumors that got afloat, the American 
 public lost all confidence in Generals Handy and Ro- 
 berts. 
 
 About noon on the 10th, the steamboat Erie arrived 
 at Gibraltar with Handy 's Adjutant General, Pay- 
 master, Commissary, and Quartermaster, with some 
 stores. General Roberts, Colonel Mackenzie, Major 
 Fryer, and some others, started in company with Ge- 
 neral Handy for Sugar Island. General Sutherland, 
 on being introduced to General Handy, proffered him 
 the command, which the latter refused to accept. He 
 gave as reasons for this refusal that the troops had no 
 sufficient suj)plies of arms, ammunition, blankets, or 
 camp equipage; that the United States authorities 
 were making great efforts to put down the Patriots ; 
 that the confidence of the public had been lost by the 
 failure of the first attempt to strike a blow in the West 
 for the liberation of Canada, that, until the orders he 
 
 and of speech to every citizen. "We all can sympathize with the suffering 
 friends of liberty every where, and there is and can be no restraint imposed 
 upon the utterance of our opinions. But beyond this, until our common coun- 
 try constitutionally calls us to the field, we can do and ought to do nothing in 
 our own jurisdiction. The flag of freedom may be planted in the Canadas, 
 and we all may pray for its triumph over what we conceive to be oppression 
 and tyranny ; nay, we might join it there ; all this can be done with impu- 
 nity, but the law prohibits us from organizing a hostile expedition in our own 
 country, with the intent of invading the possessions of peaceful powers." 
 73
 
 176 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 had giren had been disobeyed — though the truth was, 
 vSutherland was just as much the commander-in-chief 
 as he was — there was not a piece of ordnance west of 
 Toronto in possession of the British troops, but that the 
 arms and ammunition which had fallen into the hands 
 of the loj^alists. when they ca^^tured the schooner 
 Anne, would be sufficient for a winter's campaign 
 for a thousand men * Greneral Sutherland then pro- 
 posed to leave it to the troops to decide which of the 
 two should be their commander; and after both he 
 and Handy had addressed them, the seven hundred 
 men, with two exceptions, voted for Handy. 
 
 General Handy then ordered General Roberts to 
 place a guard on the steamer, till he could learn the 
 situation of the arms and ammunition ; his intention 
 being, if he could raise sufficient for one hundred and 
 fifty men, to make an immediate descent on Fort 
 Maiden. On examination he found that there were 
 not over sixty firearms on the island fit for use. The 
 steamboat then returned to Detroit with General Suther- 
 land. This discarded general — if we accept Handy's 
 account of the affair — was very far from keeping the 
 obligation into which he entered when he appealed to 
 the troops to elect their general. Sutherland at once 
 called a meeting, in Detroit, for the purpose of pro* 
 curing volunteers. He got into difficulty. For pub- 
 
 * Colonel Kadcliffe, of the Canadian militia, tells a different story: — "He 
 found on board," he says, " twenty-one persons ; one killed, eight wounded, 
 twelve prisoners, three pieces of cannon, not very useful, about two hundred 
 stand of arms, buff cross-belts, and ammunition, but of this a small supply." 
 The Canadian militia, in boarding the vessel, waded up to their arms. Captain 
 Ironside was one of those who boarded the schooner ; her flag was taken by 
 him.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 177 
 
 lishing his proclamation,* in the United States, he 
 was arrested and held to bail. General Handy re- 
 mained several days on the island drilling the troops, 
 and in expectation of the arrival of arms, ammunition, 
 and provisions, from Detroit. But no supplies arrived, 
 and the accumulation of ice had cut off all the or- 
 dinary means of communication for weeks. The ice 
 was now descending the river in large quantities ; and 
 unless the men made their escape, they were very 
 likely soon to find themselves without provisions and 
 unable to get away. In this condition of things. Gen- 
 eral Handy called on the friendly Governor of Mich- 
 igan for succor! He sent an exjDress to him, desiring 
 him to go to Sugar Island with a steamboat, in com- 
 pany with no other person than General Brown, for 
 the purpose of dispersing his — General Handy's — 
 forces. The Governor consented ; and next evening 
 he and General Brown met Handy at Gibraltar, 
 whence they proceeded in the steamer Erie to Sugar 
 
 * " Pboclamatiox to the Deluded Supporters of British Tyranny 
 IX Upper Canada. — You are required to lay down your arms, and return 
 quietly to your homes. The Patriot army of Upper Canada desire not blood- 
 shed. "We fight only for liberty, and personal and public safety. 
 
 " Your persons and property shall be protected, all your private rights pre- 
 served to you, your homes secured, your possessions untouched, on condition 
 that you yield up your weapons and return to your accustomed occupations. 
 
 " You are now enjoying a moiety of liberty vouchsafed to you from motives 
 of caprice or interest on the part of your rulers. We will secure to you all 
 the blessings of freedom by a permanent and honorable tenure. 
 
 "Avoid then the horrors of war. Enrage not soldiers already exasperated 
 by oppression. Save yourselves from confiscation. Cease resistance, and all 
 will be well with yon. 
 
 " Thomas J. Sutherland, Brigadier General, 
 " Commanding Second Division, Patriotic Ar? 7, U. 0. 
 
 " Headquarters, Second Division, ] 
 Bois Blanc, U. 0. Jan. 10, 1838." J
 
 178 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Island. General Roberts, who had the troops in a line 
 on the bank, amidst their camp fires, received them with 
 a salute. The Governor and General Brown visited 
 General Handy's quarters ; after which the arms and 
 ammunition w^ere taken on board, and the troops es- 
 corted the Governor and General Brown to the river 
 bank. One boat with the troops landed at Gibraltar 
 about one o'clock in the morning. The Governor 
 took from General Roberts a receipt for the arms ; 
 after which the boat left with the Governor and Gen- 
 eral Brown for Detroit. 
 
 But the idea of renewing an attack on Fort Maiden 
 was not given up. The men were taken to some shan- 
 ties, that had been used by canal laborers, about four 
 miles from Gibraltar, where they w^ere drilled without 
 arms for some ten days. General Handy was waiting 
 in expectation of succor arriving ; but the vigilance of 
 the United States Marshal and the troops under Gen- 
 eral Brady stood in the way of the execution of any 
 arrangement for that purpose. The Governor, " for 
 reasons which," says Handy, " we will not require," 
 called out six hundred of the militia to enforce the 
 neutrality of the United States. Three hundred of 
 them had the City Hall of Detroit for their head- 
 quarters. An extraordinary plot, in which the militia 
 was implicated, was formed. On the night they re- 
 ceived their arms they stacked them in the outer porck 
 of the City Hall, for the purpose of htiving them taken 
 for the use of Handy's men, who were to become vol- 
 unteers and have their services paid for by the State 
 while they got ready to make an attack on Fort Mai- 
 den ! But the rival general, Sutherland, ignorant of
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 179 
 
 this extraordinary arrangement, arrived in Detroit 
 from Pontiac, on the second night of the occupation 
 by the militia of the City Hall, seized the arms and 
 secreted them. But they were retaken next day. 
 *' This course of conduct," says Handy, " highly ex- 
 asperated the Governor" — who was favorable to the 
 Patriot movements — and the citizens ; and from that 
 time General Brady refused to trust the militia w^ith 
 arms. " Thus," says Handy, in his manuscript report 
 from which this statement is taken, " was the third 
 and last arrangement to carry out the campaign 
 broken up either by treachery or ignorance." 
 
 The United States Marshal got out sixty writs for 
 the arrest of Handy's officers ; and that functionary 
 called on Generals Roberts and Handy, and informed 
 them that, if they would disperse the men, the writs 
 would be returned unserved. Next day the men 
 were assembled at Gibraltar; when General Handy 
 informed them that all prospects of carrying out the 
 campaign were at an end, and they unanimously re- 
 solved to disband. But at the same time, they " took 
 a solemn obligation" to hold themselves ready for the 
 Patriot service ; and that they would again assemble 
 whenever Handy should require them to do so. 
 
 General Handy admits, in an unjDublished letter, 
 that " the Executive and many worthy officers of the 
 State [of Michigan] and United States have been 
 more or less concerned in our exertions to sus- 
 tain the Canadian standard ; and he predicts that 
 they will assuredly hereafter do more. This letter 
 is without date, but the accompanying documents 
 prove it to have been written near the end of May,
 
 180 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 1839. These facts have a significance which time 
 has done nothing to impair. I have it from more 
 than one source, though I cannot vouch for the ac- 
 curacy of the statement, that, if Toronto had fallen, 
 some of the principal men in the United States army 
 would have resigned their commissions, and entered 
 the Patriot service. 
 
 Colonel Vreeland and General McLeod* arrived on 
 the Western frontier, soon after the time of the evacua- 
 tion of JN'avy Island, with a brigade to join the army 
 of the JSTorth-west. Yreeland reported himself Com- 
 mander of the brigade ; but he was in fact, Handy 
 says. Colonel of ordnance and Inspector of commissa- 
 riat.f Between him and McLeod there was no good 
 feeling. The latter denounced him in his official re- 
 ports to Van Rensellaer as a " Judas" and a " traitor." 
 Under a j)romise from Vreeland that he would supply 
 them with arms, including seven or eight pieces of 
 artillery, and plenty of ammunition, a Patriot force 
 crossed over, on a cold night in February, to Fighting- 
 Island, when they found themselves without other 
 means of defence than forty-three firelocks which they 
 had taken with them, and some of which were useless. 
 The truth is, however, that General Scott had seized 
 the arms on the night previous. On the 25th of Fe- 
 
 * Donald McLeod was born at Fort Augustus, Invernesshire, Scotland. His 
 father was a common soldier, and lie himself became a sergeant in the British 
 army. After his discharge he taught school at Brockville, Upper Canada. 
 On the breaking out of the rebellion, he became a refugee in the United States, 
 and attracted thither a good many Canadians. W^hile there he was very ac- 
 tive in the service of the Patriots. After it was all over, he got office in Ca- 
 nada, from Dr. Eolph, and, I think, now enjoys some sort of retiring allowance. 
 
 f I find from the original minutes a meeting at which he was appointed, held 
 at Canneaut, January 29, 1838, that Vreeland was Brigade Inspector.
 
 THE CANADIAN HEiiELLlUX. 181 
 
 bruaiy they encountered a force of British Hcgulars, 
 stated by McLeod to have been five hundred in num- 
 ber. Five of the Patriots were wounded, and McLeod 
 gives it as a rumor that the British troops lost five 
 killed and fifteen wounded. 
 
 The refugees were frequently in danger from secret 
 enemies or private assassins. On the 21st of Janu- 
 ary, 1838, Van Rensellaer wrote from Buffalo to Mac- 
 kenzie, who was in Rochester, to warn him that there 
 were desperadoes in the former city whose object was 
 to assassinate him. 
 
 Soon after they left JN^avy Island, Mackenzie and 
 Van Rensellaer found it impossible to continue work 
 together. In the month of February, an expedition 
 was planned for the purpose of making a descent upon 
 Kingston. Van Rensellaer claims to have planned it, 
 and though this seems to be true, there is reason to 
 believe that before this time he had agreed not to inter- 
 fere further with the afi*airs of Canada.* However this 
 may be, he and Mackenzie were playing at cross 
 purposes, and the latter came to the resolution to have 
 nothing to do with the expedition, if it was to be 
 directed by Van Rensellaer, " I cannot," said Macken- 
 zie, in a letter to a friend, " sail in a boat to be piloted as 
 he tliinks fit." While Van Rensellaer sought the con- 
 trol of the expedition got up at French Creek to make 
 a descent upon Kingston, Mackenzie was most anx- 
 ious that he should not have it. On Mackenzie's part 
 
 * On the lOth of February, 1838, Captain Graham wrote to Mackenzie that 
 Van Eensellaer had passed through Eochester on the previous night with tho 
 intention of "getting up another Navy Island explosion on tho St. Lawrence," 
 and this seems to be the first Mackenzie heard of it.
 
 i .2 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 this desire aruse from the utter unfitness of Van Ren- 
 sellaer, as proved by his conduct on j^^avy Island, for 
 such a command. Mackenzie was no military man, 
 and desired no command for himself, but when he 
 found that it was to be vested in Yan Rensellaer he 
 resio-ned all connection with the movement. 
 
 It had been arranged, by correspondence carried on 
 by Mackenzie, that a rising should take place in Ca- 
 nada, when the expedition crossed. Fort Henry was 
 garrisoned by civilians ; a person in the fort had agreed 
 to spike the guns, on the approach of the Patriots, and 
 at a concerted signal to throw open the gates for their 
 admittance. The intended assault became known in 
 Kingston, and sixteen hundred men were placed under 
 arms with a view of defending the place. At Gano- 
 noque two companies of Regulars had been stationed, in 
 addition to the local force. JN^ear the end of February, 
 Van Rensellaer crossed from French Creek, a village 
 situated on the American side of the St. Lawrence, 
 a short distance below Kingston, to Hickory Island, 
 about two miles from Ganonoque, with a force that has 
 been variously stated at from fifteen to twenty-five 
 hundred men. Yan Rensellaer, while here, kept 
 his bed, in such a state of intoxication that he 
 could not give an intelligent answer to any ques- 
 tion put to him. The men, disgusted or alarmed, be- 
 gan to move off in squads, and when all chance of suc- 
 cess had been lost, a council of war was held, and it 
 was determined to retreat. The morning after the 
 island was evacuated, Yan Rensellaer reports that the 
 loyalists were upon it two hundred strong. 
 
 Yan Rensellaer published a letter, dated Albany,
 
 THE CAXADIAN" EEBELLIOX. 183 
 
 [March 29, 1838, in which* he blames Mr. Mackenzie 
 for having interfered with his plans, by way, it would 
 seem, of accounting for his own failure. That letter 
 contained accusations against Mr. Mackenzie which 
 Van Rensellaer himself afterwards admitted to be un- 
 just. In an unpublished letter addressed to Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon, and dated Albany, Februar}^ 24, 1840, he 
 says : " Since I have had time for reflection, for ar- 
 riving at correct information, and for weighing dis- 
 passionately circumstances which led me to an un- 
 just conclusion, while penning my statement, although 
 I am yet of opinion that he has committed errors — 
 and who has not? — I am bound as a man of honor 
 to admit that all my charges, whether expressed or 
 implied, against his moral integrity or honesty of 
 purpose, are, as far as my present knowledge and in- 
 formation extend, incorrect." After which confession 
 he exclaims, " I am mightily relieved." 
 
 Soon after this. Gen. McLeod dispatched Col. Sew- 
 ard with about four hundred men to Point au Pele Is- 
 land, some forty miles south east of Amherstburg. On 
 the 4th of March, McLeod was on the point of joining 
 them, when he received a dispatch from Col. Bradley, in- 
 forming him that they had been defeated, wdth a loss of 
 fifteen or twenty missing, and retreated to the American 
 shore. " The loss of the enemy," says McLeod, in an 
 unpublished letter, " is fifty or sixty, and a great num- 
 ber wounded." The loyalist troops were supported 
 by cavalry and artillery, and one of the Patriot col- 
 onels attributes their retreat principal^ to want of 
 artillery. The British troops were under Colonel 
 Maitland. and consisted of five companies of Regu- 
 
 74
 
 184 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, aND 
 
 lars, with about two hundred militia and Indians. 
 Nine prisoners were taken by the British, among 
 whom was General Sutherland. He was not taken 
 on the island, and his trial was afterwards declared 
 illegal by the British Government and his release or- 
 dered. He was, however, kept in prison for a long 
 time. 
 
 From this western frontier a combination of great 
 force, extending over the two Canadas, was soon to be 
 made, and but for the occurrence of an accident, it is 
 impossible to say what the result might not have 
 been.
 
 THE CAXADIAX EEBELLION. 185 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's Movements — He Commences the Publication of MacTcenzie't 
 Gazette, in New Tork — Is joined by his Family — Canadian Belief Associa- 
 tion — Treason Legislation — Execution of Lount and Matthews — Prisoners 
 escape from Fort Henry — Monster Conspiracy for Eevolutionizing Canada, 
 and how it was Frustrated — General Handy Superseded by General Bierce — 
 The Short Hills Expedition. 
 
 While the abortive expeditions of Bois Blanc and 
 Point au Pele were in progress, Mr. Mackenzie was 
 sounding the public feeling in other places. He 
 visited some of the Patriot leaders of Lower Canada, 
 at Plattsburg, soon after leaving Navy Island, and 
 went to Xew York, Philadelphia, and other places. 
 
 When the question of evacuating IN'avy Island was 
 before the Buifalo committee of thirteen,* Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie had become impressed with what he conceived 
 to be the necessity of establishing a public journal 
 to express the views of the Patriots in Canada, and 
 their friends in the United States. The project was 
 finally carried out by himself. On the 17th of April, 
 the prospectus of Mackenzie's Gazette was published, 
 and the first number of the paper made its appear- 
 ance, on the 12th of May, in JNTew York, and was con- 
 tinued till the close of 1840. During the greater part 
 
 * On this committee were Dr. Johnson, a former Mayor of Buffalo, Mr. 
 Seymou*', Master in Chancery, Mr. Macy, Mr. "Wilkinson, and other local 
 celebrities.
 
 186 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 of this time, the paper was published in Rochester, a 
 frontier city on the Genesee River. To establish a 
 newspaper, under the circumstances, appealing chiejly 
 to the public interest on a single question, must have 
 been up-hill work. On the 17th July, 1838, the pub- 
 lisher complained, that of the subscribers to the Ga- 
 zette, about one-fifth had paid " from one dollar to 
 three each," and the remaining four-fifths had paid 
 nothing. We do not, however, find many subsequent 
 complaints of this nature, and the commercial success 
 of the venture was probably quite as good Ss could 
 have been expected. 
 
 In Ma}", Mr. Mackenzie was joined by his family, 
 in New York ; all of whom, except Mrs. Mackenzie, 
 had till now remained in Canada. There had neces- 
 saril}^ been but little intercommunication between 
 them, and that had taken place indirectly and for the 
 most part through friends passing between Canada 
 and the States. 
 
 In March, stejos were taken to organize the Cana- 
 dian refugees. At a meeting of some of these per- 
 sons, held at Lockport, State of Tv^ew York, on the 
 19th of March, 1838, a committee was formed to as- 
 certain the numbers, location, and condition of the 
 Canadian refugees in the States, and to draw up arti- 
 cles of association by " means of which their sufler- 
 ings may be mitigated and a redress of their griev- 
 ances obtained," and — such was the latitude given — 
 " to adopt such other measures as, in their discretion, 
 may best conduce to their welfare."* This organiza- 
 
 * The committee consisted of Dr. A. McKenzie, Messrs. George H. Clark, 
 Samuel Chandler, Michael Marcellus Mills, Dr. J. T. "Willson, Silas Fletcher,
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 187 
 
 tion Wc\s called the " Canadian Refugee Relief Asso- 
 ciation." It was resolved to send agents of the asso- 
 ciation through the country, and the formation of 
 branch unions was part of the plan. Dr. Mclvenzie, 
 formerly of Hamilton, was President of the Asso- 
 ciation, and all correspondence was ordered to be 
 directed to him at Lockport. The subject of this bio- 
 graphy was not present at the meeting, for I find the 
 circular of the association addressed to him by Dr. 
 McKenzie. It appears, from a letter written by Dr. 
 McKenzie, on the fly-sheet of this circular, that Gen- 
 eral McLeod was one who was to be entrusted with 
 the work of general organization. He had just come 
 from the West, was " not discouraged," and was on 
 the point of starting for the River St. Lawrence under 
 instructions of the general committee. Dr. McKen- 
 zie sighed for the advice of William L. Mackenzie, 
 and deplored the " ignorance or want. of action," which 
 he was obliged to witness in reference to the affairs 
 of Canada. This association proceeded to the execu- 
 tion of schemes in which W. L. Mackenzie took no 
 part, and in which he was in no way concerned, either 
 by advising or otherwise. It will hereafter be seen 
 that several of the members of this committee were 
 personally engaged in the ill-advised Short Hills ex- 
 pedition ; and, at least, one of them appears to have 
 . been concerned in the destruction of the Sir Robert 
 Peel, in which twelve are said to have been engaired. 
 
 In the session of the Canadian Legislature for 
 1837-8, several bills were introduced relating to per- 
 
 Dr. Charles Duncombe, "William L. Mackenzie, General D. McLeod, William 
 
 H. Doyle, James Marshalls, Jacob Eynr.al, and Nelson Gorhara.
 
 188 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 sons charged with high treason and treasonable prac- 
 tices. By an Act passed on the 12th of January, 
 judges were forbidden to bail persons under such 
 charo'es, without an order froni the Lieutenant Gover- 
 nor, and providing that no writ of Habeas Corpus 
 granted in their behalf should be made returnable in 
 less than thirty days ; and all applications for such 
 writs w^ere required to be reported to the Lieutenant 
 Grovernor. Another Act was passed providing that 
 if any subjects of Her Majesty should, in company 
 with subjects or citizens of foreign states, carry on 
 w^arlike expeditions within the Province they should 
 be liable to be tried and punished by court-martial ; 
 and that citizens or subjects of foreign countries so 
 offending should be tried either before the civil tribu- 
 nals or courts-martial. A third Act w^as passed pro- 
 viding that trials for these crimes might be held by 
 commission out of the District in w^hich they were 
 committed. It was not till the next session, held in 
 the course of the year 1838, that provision was made 
 for the more speedy attainder of persons indicted for 
 high treason. In January, 1840, the House of As- 
 sembly, at the instance of Mr. Edward Thompson, the 
 successor of Mr. Mackenzie in the representation of 
 East York, addressed the Lieutenant Grovernor to 
 cause immediate steps to be taken to confiscate the 
 property of persons who had been convicted of trea- 
 son since December, 1837. But penalties of forfei- 
 ture, were, I believe, never enforced in respect to the 
 property of persons attainted of treason. 
 
 In the spring of 1838, executions for high treason 
 commenced in Canada. On the 12th of April, 1838,
 
 THE CAXADIAN REBELLION. 189 
 
 Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews, the first wf the 
 victims, were executed at Toronto. Lord Glenelg, 
 hearing that there was a disposition, on the part of 
 the local officials in Canada, to treat with undue 
 severity persons who had been concerned in the re- 
 volt, remonstrated against such a course being pur- 
 sued * But Sir George Arthur, who, like his prede- 
 cessor in the Lieutenant Governorship of Upper Can- 
 ada, had fallen in with the views of the Family 
 Compact and imbibed some of their violent political 
 passions, failed to carry out his instructions to use his 
 influence to prevent the adoption of extreme measures. 
 The Executive Council determined to interpose their 
 harsh decision to prevent the possibility of the Royal 
 
 « In a despatch dated Downing Street, March 14, 1838, addressed to Sir 
 George Arthur, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, in these terms : 
 
 " Sir, representations have reached this department from various quarters 
 that during the present session of the Legislature of Upper Canada, measures 
 of unusual severity and of extensive application have heen proposed against 
 those who may have heen in any way implicated in the late insurrection in 
 the Province. As these representations have not reached me in any official 
 form, I am inclined to hope that they may prove exaggerated ; but I shall 
 await with anxiety your report of the proceedings of the Legislature during 
 their present Session. 
 
 *' Her Majesty's Government are fully alive to the difficult position in which, 
 at such a period of alarm and confusion, the Legislature and the Government 
 of Upper Canada are placed. But as I trust that the causes of apprehension 
 so lately existing are now, through the loyalty of the great body of the pop- 
 ulation, almost entirely at an end, I earnestly hope that they will be as dis- 
 tinguished by moderation after success, as they have been by gallantry in the 
 time of danger. Nothing, I fear, would be more likely to impair the moral 
 effects of the late events than unnecessary severity ; I trust, therefore, that 
 while every measure will be adopted essential to the security of the Province, 
 your influence will be successfully exerted in moderating the zeal of those, if such there 
 be, who might be disposed to proceed to extreme measures, and in allaying the irrita- 
 tion which, however natural, cannot but be attended with danger to the publio 
 peace."
 
 190 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 clemency saving Lount and Matthews from a death 
 upon the gallows. " Petitions," Sir George Arthur 
 admits, " signed by not less than eight thousand per- 
 sons, have been presented in their favor within the 
 last three or four days." Lount had been a political 
 opponent of the brother of Chief Justice Robinson, by 
 whom the prisoners were tried. There was, indeed, 
 no question about their guilt ; but the Chief Justice 
 afterw^ards performed the ungracious office of assuring 
 the Executive Council that " he saw no ground upon 
 which he felt that he could properly recommend a 
 pardon or respite." Attorney General Hagerman 
 closed his ears to the cry of mercy, and only regretted 
 that the gallows had not more victims. The general 
 impression to-day is that the execution of these men 
 was a judicial murder. Sir Francis Bond Head had 
 led them into the trap — had encouraged the rebellion 
 when it was his duty to have taken measures to sup- 
 press it in its incipient stages — and there can be but 
 one name for the execution of men whom the Execu- 
 tive had enticed into the commission of the crime for 
 which they were made to suffer death. There is rea- 
 son to believe that Lount could have purchased his 
 life by putting the Government in possession of evi- 
 dence that might have tended to place others in the 
 position he occupied ; but he resolutely refused to ac- 
 cept it on such terms ; and, instead of blaming others 
 for his fate, continued to the last to express fervent 
 wishes for the cause in which he offered up his life.* 
 
 * Jiis widow, Elizabeth Lount, in a letter addressed to Mr. Mackenzie, 
 under date, Utica, Macomb Co., Michigan, December 8th, 1838, says: 
 
 " Dear Friend. — I have been perusing a piece in one of your papers taken
 
 THE CAJ^ADIAX REBELLION. 191 
 
 Much lias been said about the salutary eifects of the 
 strangulation of these men, as an example to others. 
 The facts which I shall adduce, and which have never 
 before been published, wall show that the number of 
 men who afterwards organized in Canada, with a view 
 to revolt, was much greater than before. Instead of 
 striking awe into men's minds, the effect was some- 
 times to produce a feeling of revenge. I find a re- 
 markable example of this in the case of one of Lount's 
 friends, who, after he had been at the Short Hills ex- 
 pedition, distinctly states : " I have been doing all in 
 my power ever since to avenge the blood of Lount 
 and support the cause he died for." 
 
 When Lount and Matthews were executed, a num- 
 ber of other political prisoners, under sentence of 
 death at Toronto, could witness, from the jail windows, 
 a fate which they expected soon to be theirs. Shortly 
 
 from the Christian Guardian, * * stating that my hushand had spoken very 
 much against you, which assertion I and my family know to be false ; and I 
 am persuaded you were acquainted with Mr. Lount years enough to think 
 otherwise. He ever taught his family to respect Mr. Mackenzie as one of the 
 most honest and honorable men he ever met with. I was with him during 
 the three last days of his life. Instead of berating his friends, he prayed for 
 their success, as well as his country's freedom, and believed Canada could not 
 long remain in the power of such merciless wretches as have murdered its in- 
 habitants for their love of liberty. But he forgave his enemies and prayed 
 they might repent of their wickedness, although he considered himself unjustly 
 put to death by them, and wished me never to ask life of his enemies. But 
 my anxiety would not allow me to leave the least undone that was in my, 
 power to do towards saving his life, therefore I appeared before Sir George 
 Arthur in behalf of my husband, as has been stated. His answer was, 'If 
 your husband is as well prepared to die as is represented, perhaps he will never 
 again be as well prepared, if reprieved now, and I do not think he can be pre- 
 pared to die without bringing other guilty men to justice, as the Council thinks 
 he knows of many whom, I think, if he would make known, mercy would be 
 shown to him, and I wish you would return direct to the jail and tell him this 
 from me.' He made me several other answers which are not stated here." 
 75
 
 192 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 after, tLeir sentences were commuted to transportation 
 for life ; and they, with others who were banished with- 
 out trial, were sent to Fort Henry, Kingston, for safe 
 keeping, till they could be sent off to Yan Dieman's 
 Land. From Fort Henry they managed to eifect 
 their escape;* and John Montgomery and several 
 others, after great suffering, succeeded in reaching the 
 United States.f 
 
 About the 1st June, many persons who had been 
 connected with the rebellion, crossed the frontier line, 
 at the West, and took refuge in Michigan. And now 
 commenced an organization for revolutionizing Canada, 
 comprising a much larger number of Canadians than 
 has ever been suspected. 
 
 The centre of the organization was in Michigan, and 
 Gen. Handy was among the most active in its promotion. 
 Lodges were formed, every member of which took an 
 oath to be subject to the Commander-in-chief, Gen. 
 Handy, and not to obey any order except from him to 
 General Roberts.^ Handy signed blank commissions, 
 
 * The numes of those who escaped were : Edv/ard Kennedy, Wilson Ecad, 
 Thos. Tracy, Thos. Shepard, John Marr, John Stewart, Stephen Biud Bro- 
 phy, Michael Shepard, Walter Case, John Anderson, John Montgomery, 
 Gilbert Fields Morden, 
 
 f For an account of tl"if escaje, never before published in detail, see Ap- 
 pendix H. 
 
 + Whethei the oath was changed before the affair of Sandwich, next win- 
 ter, when Gen. Bierce had supplanted Handy in the command, or not, I can- 
 not say ; but Col. Prince afterwards read the fidlowing oath at the Sandwich 
 assizes. Mr. Mackenzie says he never heard of this oath ; it was read in Court 
 by Colonel-Prince and published : 
 
 "Tou do solemnly swear, in the presence of the Almighty God, that you 
 will bear allegiance and fidelity to the Sons of Liberty engaged in the Pat- 
 riot service and in the cause of Canadian Independence — that you will 
 obey the orders of your superior officers in whatever department you may
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION". 193 
 
 and sent some trusty individuals through the Pro- 
 vinces to form revolutionar}^ societies, and enroll all in 
 whom he thought he could confide. In every square 
 mile of settled country a person was appointed to 
 grant commissions in the secret army of revolt. 
 Handy's commissions were given to the captains ; and 
 the associations were left to elect their own colonels. 
 Couriers and spies, one hundred in number, were con- 
 stantly kept in motion through the Provinces, taking 
 intelligence daily to Handy. Each of them had a 
 beat of ten miles, at either end of which he communi- 
 cated with others ; and this distance he regularly made 
 both wa^^s every day. Two hundred companies, of 
 one hundred men each, were enrolled ; making an ag- 
 gregate force of 20,000 men in the Canadas, ready to 
 rise whenever called upon ; and through the system 
 of couriers in operation, they could have been called 
 into action with the least possible delay. The 4th of 
 July, 1838, w^as fixed upon for striking the first blow. 
 The Patriot standard was to be raised at Windsor, a 
 Canadian village opposite Detroit ; and when this was 
 
 serve — that you will never communicate or in any way divulge the existence 
 or plans of said association. You also swear that you will devote your time, 
 your person, your interest in promoting said cause, so far as may be consistent 
 with your other duties — that you will never sell, barter, or in any way alter 
 any badge that may be bestowed upon you for the purpose of designating your 
 rank in said association. You also swear that you will not disclose or in' any 
 way communicate to any person the contents or purport of this Oath, and that 
 you will not converse with any person in reference to this Oath, except in Con- 
 vention, or with the man who first presents it to you." 
 
 (Signed,) James Brewer, Henry De Forest, 
 
 Jno. Aleianderson, Major Ward, 
 
 James Chafey, A. D. Burdennis, 
 
 H. H. Dennis, George S. Reid.
 
 194 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 accomplislied, the couriers were to be prepared to 
 transmit the intelligence, with all possible si:>eed, and 
 a general rising was to take place. The first thing to 
 be done was to seize all available public arms, ammu 
 nition, and provisions, and then the fortification of 
 some prominent point designated was to be com- 
 menced. 
 
 If an accident had not occurred to prevent the execu- 
 tion of this plan, it is diflicult to say what would have 
 been the result. Before Windsor was occupied, it was 
 necessary for Handy to be possessed of a good supply 
 of arms. The State Arsenal of Michigan was his re- 
 liance. Some of the sentinels were men who had, 
 years before, served under Handy, and others had 
 been in the Patriot service the year before. They had 
 proffered him their confidence ; they unbolted the 
 windows, and thus prepared the way for the rob- 
 bery of the arsenal which it was their duty to protect. 
 The keys of the magazine, at Detroit, were placed in 
 the hands of Gen. Roberts, by another trusty keeper. 
 Gen. Koberts obtained two scows of about twenty tons 
 each, and took them up within a few rods of the 
 arsenal. About thirty men were then sent into the 
 building to remove 15,000 stand of arms, fifteen can- 
 non, and ammunition. 
 
 And now took place the occurrence which defeated 
 all Handy's plans. In cases of combined insurrection 
 and invasions, there will be individuals who, with no 
 motive but plunder, will try what they can snatch 
 from the general confusion. A ruffian of this stamp, 
 named Baker, came across the path of Gen. Handy. 
 He got up an expedition on the Black River, and in-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 195 
 
 duced forty men to join liini by falsely representing 
 that he was authorized by Gen. Handy to cross to the 
 Canada shore with the men as freebooters. They 
 seized some flour, and being discovered and followed 
 to the Michigan shore, the affair created a commotion 
 that set Gen. Brady of the United States arm}^- — who 
 appears to have used his best exertions to put down 
 all these expeditions — on the alert. A new guard was 
 set on the arsenal ; and on the day before Windsor 
 was to have been captured, preparatory to a general 
 rising in Canada, the conspiracy had collapsed from 
 the want of arms. 
 
 Generals Handy and Roberts sent a delegation to 
 Cleveland to see what could be done after this new 
 failure. Gen. Putnam, whom Handy had appointed 
 to command the brigade of London Guards, after the 
 standard of the Patriots should have been raised and 
 sustained in Canada, was consulted. He and others 
 had reasons, whatever they may have been, for sup- 
 planting Handy by Gen. Bierce. Gen. Handy seems 
 to have been poorly repaid by his associates for all 
 his exertions and sacrifices. He appears to have been 
 thoroughl}^ unselfish, so far as pecuniary considera- 
 tions go ; having at one time conducted extensive 
 hydraulic operations with the hope of making from 
 1200,000 to $300,000, for no^other purpose than that 
 of being able to devote ii to the revolutionarv cause 
 in which he had engaged.'-' 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie appears to have had no connection 
 whatever with this movement, of which, in spite of the 
 
 * This account is taken from General Handy's official, and of course unpub- 
 lished, reports.
 
 196 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 change of Commander-in-cliief, the attack upon Wind- 
 sor, in December following, must be regarded as the 
 final result. In 1839, Mr. Mackenzie made affidavit 
 that, when he heard of these intended expeditions at 
 Short Hills, and against Prescott and Windsor, 
 through the public press, he wrote to Lockport, ear- 
 nestly urging those whom he thought likely to have 
 influence with the refugees — the Refugee Association 
 Committee, no doubt — to abandon all such attempts as 
 injurious to the cause of good government in Canada. 
 He was still favorable to the independence of the 
 Canadas; but he was not convinced that the means 
 proposed were calculated to secure the object. He 
 came to this conclusion, it would seem, in February, 
 when he refused to "sail in the same boat" with Van 
 Rensellaer, to be piloted as the latter might think fit. 
 Besides, he was under bonds to take his trial for a 
 breach of the neutrality laws of the United States, 
 with the provisions of which he was not acquainted, 
 when, at the instance of persons in Buffalo, he joined 
 the Navy Island expedition. 
 
 Of the Short Hills affair, which took place in June, 
 1838, he first learned from the frontier newspapers. 
 Those who took part in it, I find, claim to have had 
 five hundred and twenty-six men, well armed and 
 equipped ; but it is quite certain that there was not 
 over one-fifth of this number who fell in with the 
 lancers at Overholt's Tavern. The rest, if there were 
 any such number as is alleged, must have been Cana- 
 dians. A few men crossed the Niagara River, in 
 small bodies, taking with them what arms they could. 
 These they deposited at an appointed place, which
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 197 
 
 was reached by a march of some fifteen miles in the 
 woods, and went back for more. These arms must 
 have been intended for Canadians. In this way, eight 
 days were spent before the parties were discovered. 
 Being fired upon by a body of hincers from Overholt's 
 Tavern, they finally set fire to it; taking prisoners all 
 that survived, but shortly afterwards releasing them. 
 The invaders soon after dispersed, going in difi'erent 
 directions ; but thirty-one of them were taken pri- 
 soners,"" and it is believed very few escaped. 
 
 * " Among them were James IVIoreau, an American, who was then Colo 
 nel ; Benjamin "Wait, a native of Upper Canada, then Major; Samuel Chand- 
 ler, an American by birth, who had been many years a resident of Uppet 
 Canada, and who acted as commissary; Jacob Beamer, who was concerned in 
 the insurrection in the London District, under Dr. Duncombe; Alexander 
 McLeod and John McNulty, both of whom were of the Montgomery Tavern 
 insurgents; and a Dr. Wilson, who seems to have been an active and influential 
 partisan among them." — Solicitor General Draper'' s Narrative of the Short Hillt 
 Affair. Moreau was hanged at Niagara for his participation in this affair.
 
 198 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie Declares his Intentions to become an American Citizen — 
 Hunters' Lodges — Secret Convention in Cleveland, at whicli a Provisional 
 Government for Upper Canada is formed, and a Kepublican Bank, with a 
 Moonshine Capital of Seven-and-a-half Millions of Dollars established — 
 Federal Spies on the Frontier Movements — Sir George Arthur's Spies — 
 The American Government declares its inability to prevent marauding Ex- 
 peditions on the Frontier — The Prescott or "Windmill Point Expedition — 
 The Leaders of that Expedition try to throw the blame of the Failure on 
 one another — Mr. Mackenzie had no connection with it — Ferocious Disposi- 
 tion of the Militia. 
 
 KoT till the autumn of 1838, did Mr. Mackenzie 
 take the initiatory step provided by the federal con- 
 stitution for becoming a citizen of the United States.* 
 
 * " City of New York, ss. 
 
 " Be it remembered that William Lyon Mackenzie, late of the United King- 
 dom of Great Britain and Ireland, appeared in the Marine Court of the City 
 of New York, held in the City Hall of the said City, on the fifth day of Sep- 
 tember, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight, 
 (the said Court being a Court of Kecord, having Common Law Jurisdiction, 
 and a Clerk and Seal,) and declared on oath, in open Court, that it waa bona 
 fide his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce 
 forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign Prince, Potentate, State, or 
 Sovereignty whatsoever, and particularly to the Queen of the United King. 
 dom of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 "In testimony whereof, the Seal of the said Marine Court of the City of 
 New York is hereunto aifixed, this fifth day of September, in the year cf 
 our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight, and of our Inde- 
 pendence the sixty-third. 
 
 " John Baebene, Clerk"
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION". 199 
 
 But he never felt entirely at home in the States, and 
 almost always continued to sigh for an opportunity of 
 returning to his beloved Canada. His private letters 
 contain frequent references to the subject. 
 
 It is difficult to determine whether the organization 
 set on foot by Handy was identical with what was 
 known as Hunters' Lodges. But I am inclined to 
 think that it was not. The oath which he speaks of 
 as having been taken by his followers is quite diff*er- 
 ent from that usually ascribed to the Hunters.'^' Hun- 
 ters' Societies are generally supposed to have origi- 
 nated in the State of Vermont, in May, 1838. I have 
 been able to track some of their proceedings, and to 
 unravel some of their conspiracies. 
 
 A convention of the Hunters' Lodges of Ohio and 
 Michigan was held at Cleveland, from the 16th to 
 the 22d September, 1838. There were seventy dele- 
 gates present. Mr. Mackenzie was not cognizant of 
 the intended meeting, and the result of its delibera- 
 tions were not officiall}' communicated to him. He 
 was not a member of the society, and by its rules none 
 but the initiated could be admitted to its secrets. But 
 
 * The following I find in the publications of the time, given as the Hunter's 
 oath : — " I swear to do my utmost to promote Eepublican Institutions and 
 ideas throughout the world — to cherish them, to defend them ; and especially 
 to devote myself to the propagation, protection, and defence of these institu- 
 *»pns in North America. I pledge my life, my property, and my sacred ho- 
 or to the Association ; I bind myself to its interests, and I promise, until 
 death, that I will attack, combat, and help to destroy, by all means that my 
 superior may think proper, every power, or authority, of Eoyal origin, upon 
 this continent; and especially never to rest till all tyrants of Britain cease to 
 have any dominion or footing whatever in North America. I further solemnly 
 swear to obey the orders delivered to me by my superior, and never to dis- 
 close any such order, or orders, except to a brother 'Hunter' of the same de- 
 gree. So help me God.'' 
 76
 
 ifOO LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 a Master of a Lodge did communicate to him surrep- 
 titiously a general idea of what was done. A Repub- 
 lican government for Upper Canada was formed with 
 a President, Vice-President, and Secretary of State, of 
 Treasury, and of War. A Commander-in-Chief, Com- 
 missary-General, Adjutant General, two Brigadier Ge- 
 nerals, and a long list of Majors and subalterns were 
 named. A Republican Bank was formed, and a day, 
 not stated in the letter from which I derive this infor- 
 mation, was fixed for commencing the invasion of 
 Canada. " There never," says Mr. Mackenzie's in- 
 formant, " was such an organization before ; and if we 
 do not succeed it will be by reason of some traitor." 
 But some others gave a much less flattering account 
 of the Cleveland proceedings. Dr. Buncombe was 
 among the actors in this convention. Against what 
 point the organization was intended to operate Mr. 
 Mackenzie was not informed, even in the irregular 
 way in which this information was conveyed to him. 
 
 These Lodges had difterent centres, and there does 
 not appear to have been, at all times, perfect harmony 
 between the various central committees. The ambi- 
 tion of individuals to exercise a controlling influence 
 seems to have led to an occasional playing at cross- 
 purposes. All the Lodges in Ohio and Michigan were 
 required to report to the centra] committee, at Cleve- 
 land. There aj^pears to have been some serious 
 charges brought against the Cleveland committee, 
 arising perhaps out of the management of the Bank 
 scheme. " If the Cleveland committee," I fmd it sug- 
 gested by the Master of a Lodge required to report to 
 that centre, " has forfeited the confidence of the friends
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 201 
 
 of our cause by peculation or other gross mismanage- 
 ment, then we must organize de novo.^^ 
 
 From " a circular address to the different Lodges 
 upon the subject of a Joint Stock Banking Company," 
 I learn the details of the whole Bank scheme. The 
 name was to be "the Republican Bank of Canada," 
 and the officers and directors were first elected on the 
 16th of September, 1838, for the period of one year. 
 There are reasons for giving Dr. Buncombe credit for 
 the paternity of the scheme. I find the circular 
 among Mr. Mackenzie's papers, under the head of 
 Buncombe, and that he was, among his numerous 
 accomplishments, a currency doctor, is proved by his 
 subsequently writing a book on banking. The circu- 
 lar sets out with the enunciation of certain principles 
 relating to government and currency; one of which is 
 that "gold and silver should be the only legal money 
 of a country ;" but then it is added that necessity may 
 be made a plea for breaking through this rule, in 
 which case, it is laid down, the paper should be issued 
 by a " Republican Bank controlled by the people." 
 Then follows the offer of the stock of a Republican 
 Bank, and those who subscribe to the stocks are 
 fairly warned that they need expect to receive back 
 their money with interest only in case " the cause tri- 
 umphs ;" otherwise they must be content with the 
 reflection that they have given so much to establish 
 " liberty, equality, and fraternity," in Canada. The 
 bank was to make loans for the Patriot service before 
 individuals could expect discounts. The capital of the 
 Bank was to be $7,500,000, divided into $150,000 shares 
 of $50 each to commence with ; but it was afterwards
 
 202 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 to be increased so as to give every individual on the 
 continent the chance of becoming the lucky possessor 
 of a share, and after the $7,500,000 had been disposed 
 of, no one would be allowed the privilege of taking 
 more than one share. Ao some compensation for this 
 abridgment of liberty, no limit was placed upon sub- 
 scriptions to the original stock. " The vignette of the 
 bills," we read, " are to be the heads of the late Mar- 
 tyrs to the cause of liberty in Canada ; the head of 
 Matthews on the left end of the bill ; the head of 
 Lount on the centre of the bill, wdth the words in a 
 semi-circle over it, " the murdered ;" and the head of 
 Moreau on the right end of the bill, with the names 
 of these heroes under their heads, with a motto, 
 " Death or Victory;" on the margin of the bills will 
 be the words " Libert}^, Equality, Fraternity." The 
 circular ends with the prayer : " Grod prosper the 
 cause of Liberty, Equal Rights, and Brotherly Love ;" 
 another proof, I should say, of Duncombe's author- 
 ship. It was stated in evidence, on the trial of the 
 Windsor prisoners captured in December, 1838, that 
 the greater part of the stock was actually sold ; but 
 this is not credible. And I find from a letter written 
 by a person who was in all the secrets, dated Cleve- 
 land, November 1, 1838, that up to that period only 
 $300 had been secured, although the convention had 
 by resolution, bound themselves to raise $10,000 in a 
 fortnight. Of this bank Mr. J. Grant, jr., appears to 
 have been President, and Messrs. B. Bagley and S. 
 Moulson, Vice-Presidents.* A Canadian refugee, 
 
 * One account states that a Cleveland merchant of the name of Smith was 
 President, ani that it was under his ma».agement that the stock was sold; but
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 203 
 
 writing from Cleveland, said the conventionists were 
 "all Americans, men of poor fortunes." "Whether 
 they will account for the moneys received," he adds 
 suspectingly, "time will tell." The Patriots — Cana- 
 dian refugees I presume to be meant in this case — 
 were appointed only to minor offices in the organiza- 
 tion ; and on the 1st of November, their Commander- 
 in-chief — Bierce is no doubt intended — had taken " no 
 effective measures to raise and embody men." The 
 person whose letter I am quoting, himself no less than 
 a General, says : " I am here poor and penniless. I 
 applied to Dr. Smith, a few days ago, for some assist- 
 ance from the funds collected, but to no purpose ; they 
 have got the management in their own hands, and 
 will act as they think proper." 
 
 At this time the Federal Government had spies on 
 the frontier endeavoring to unravel the conspiracy 
 going on for the invasion of Canada. A stranger to 
 Mr. Mackenzie writes to him from Washington, to 
 assure him, on "undoubted authority," that the United 
 States authorities are on the alert. " There are two 
 United States officers on the frontier," he says, " one 
 called John W. Turner and the other Captain JN". 
 Johnson, who are, as I understand, expressly deputed 
 by the collector of Oswego, to keep an eye on any 
 movements of men, arms, or munitions of war. Capt. 
 Johnson is now ostensibly on the Erie and Ontario 
 steamboat agency, and he can be identified on boats in 
 that capacity. He has already possessed himself of 
 the sign of communication of the Patriots, and thinks 
 
 the names I have given are appended (copied) to the copy of the circular 
 "jrospectus in ray possession.
 
 204 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AXD 
 
 he has a key which will give him access to important 
 information. He now enjoys the confidence of the 
 Patriots : look out for him. Duncombe. Mcl^reod, 
 Johnson, and others are watched." The writer was 
 probably in one of the departments at Washington. 
 He appears to have had access to the reports of these 
 spies ; for he is enabled to tell ]Mr. Mackenzie that 
 '• the organization on the frontier is immense.' At 
 the Cleveland Convention the two spies, Johnson and 
 Turner, were present. 
 
 Sir George Arthur too had his spies on the frontier. 
 Hayes continued to supply him with whatever be 
 could learn of these movements. The information 
 these pei^ons obtained, whatever credence it might be 
 entitled to, created great alarm at Toronto. They 
 told him that, at the end of October, there were at least 
 forty thousand persons in the invasion plot, on the 
 frontier States, which was •• carried on by means of 
 masonic lodges, secretly established in almost every 
 town along the frontier, the members of which com- 
 municate with each other by private signs, and are 
 divided into several grades of initiation."* Hunters' 
 Lodges are no doubt intended. 
 
 But when Sir George Arthur had learned something 
 of the plot, the expedition of Windmill Point was on 
 the eve of taking place, and it had been carried into 
 effect two days before Mr. Secretary Forsyth could 
 reply to Sir George's complaint, conveyed to the 
 
 * The CleTeland conspirators wctc of opinion th»t the spy who gave this 
 information to Sir G«orge Arthur, had given Mr. Bag^^v as his authorjtr : 
 bet stiU Bagley does not seem to haTe b^en suspected 1>t hi? t'e'.lo-x conspira- 
 tors.
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLIOX. 205 
 
 President through Mr. Fox. The Federal Govern- 
 ment, as we have seen, had previously learned, from 
 its own spies, some particulars of these movements. 
 But it pleaded its inability to arrest them. "The 
 utter impracticability," said Mr. Forsyth, '• of placing 
 a frontier extending nearly one thousand miles, in a 
 military attitude, sufficiently imposing and effective 
 to prevent such enterprises, is evident." But, it was 
 added, regular military armaments and the movement 
 of armed bands to any considerable extent from the 
 American side of the line, would be successfully re- 
 pressed : and the Federal Government promised to 
 use all the means at its disposal to put down all other 
 hostile preparations. 
 
 Between the 1st and 10th of Xovember, the Hunters' 
 Lodges were concentrating their forces for an attack 
 on Prescott.* On Sunday morning, the 11th, two 
 schooners, in tow of the steamer TTnited States, left 
 Milieu's Bay between Sackett's Harbor and Duck 
 Creek. The steamer ITuited States left Milieu's for 
 Prescott, having on board men, arms, and munitions 
 of war. The men who came down in the steamer were 
 transferred to the schooners in the evening; one of 
 which was in command of Van Shultz. a brave Pole.t 
 
 * The places at which there were Lodges, according to statements made hy 
 prisoners taken at Prescott, were: Oswego, Salina, liverp-xl, Svraoase, Au- 
 l«Qm, Great Bend on the Black Eiver, Palema. Dexter, Ethu's MilL\ 'Waier- 
 lown. Brown ville, Leravrille, Sackett's Harbor, Cape Tineent, Clanmoct, 
 Millen's Bar, Alexandria, Orh^r.s, Flat Eock, Ogdenshnrg, Et'ssie Tillage. 
 
 i Van Shultz Nils Sezolterki. a native of Poland, was at this time only 
 thirty-one years of age. He had been residing near Salina, N. Y. : he was 
 introdaced to some of the Patri'tts by Mr. Stone, a merchant of that place. 
 In October, 1838, he was in New York, where he signed commissions m
 
 206 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 and tlie other in charge of the notorious Bill Johnson. 
 While on their way down the river, the management 
 of the expedition was discussed by Colonel Van Shultz, 
 Captain Buckley, Colonel WoodruiF, and others. Yan 
 Shultz proposed to land, immediately on their ar- 
 rival, on the Prescott wharf, all the men in the expe- 
 dition, about six hundred in number ; then, after 
 leaving a sufficient force to guard the boats, to divide 
 them into three bodies, with the principal of which 
 he should march through the village, while Colonel 
 Woodruff should lead one wing round on one side 
 and another person the other, on the other side. The 
 three bodies were then to meet between the village 
 and the fort, in case any resistance were offered from 
 that point.-'=' But the fort was only then in course of 
 construction, and there was not a man in it.f Van 
 Shultz proposed to keep the schooners in the river 
 below the fort for the purpose of preserving a com- 
 munication with Ogdensburg, and transjDorting pro- 
 visions, ammunition, and reinforcements of volunteers. 
 With the fort, the village, and river at his command, the 
 artillery he had with him with what more he expected 
 to find in the fort, he fancied he should be able to pre- 
 vent the British boats descending till the numbers of 
 the invaders and the inhabitants by whom they would 
 be joined would become irresistible. He was opposed 
 to first landing on the American side, at Ogdensburg, 
 fearing that the number who would refuse to go back 
 
 cipher, as commander of the Patriotic Army. He obtained some Polish and 
 German recruits, -whose expenses he paid. 
 
 » A Narrative of the Expedition to Prescott, by Sebastian John Meyer, who took 
 part in it. 
 
 f General Bierge's Account of the Prescott Ex/edition.
 
 THE CAJfADIAN REBELLIOI^. 207 
 
 to the vessels would be greater than that of the ad- 
 ditional volunteers who would be obtained. 
 
 The principal officers of the expedition opjoosed the 
 plans of Van Shultz ; yet, in skill and bravery, they 
 were all very far his inferiors. They did land at 
 Ogdensburg; when Greneral Bierge, who was to have 
 commanded the expedition, fell sick with a sudden- 
 ness that created a suspicion of cowardice, which he 
 was never able to remove. The men lost couraii'e on 
 seeing their leader show the white feather; and in- 
 stead of crossing one thousand strong, as they had 
 been taught to believe, Van Shultz took over about 
 one hundred and seventy men in one of the schooners, 
 about nine o'clock, on the morning of the 12th. Bill 
 Johnson managed to run the other schooner upon the 
 bar, with many arms and much ammunition on board. 
 She never crossed to the succor of Van Shultz.* The 
 steamer United States was prevented from passing 
 down below the town by the British steamer Experi- 
 ment. The schooner which had been aground started 
 in tow of the Paul Pry for the Canada shore, and 
 when fairly in the Canada waters — the magistrates of 
 Ogdensburg had sent Lieutenant Powell a request, to 
 which he acceded, not to fire in American waters — 
 the Experiment opened upon her with grape and 
 canister. The Paul Pr}'^ now left the schooner to her 
 fate, and hastened to take shelter at Ogdensburg 
 Lieutenant Powell now ran the Experiment within 
 ten yards of the schooner ; and was about taking her 
 in tow, when he found himself in shoal water, and the 
 United States coming rapidly down upon him. Tlie 
 
 * Sebastian John ileyer's Narrative.
 
 208 LIFE 01 MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Experiment found it necessary'- to move towards the 
 town, when a brisk fire took place between her and 
 the other two vessels. The schooner got into Ogdens- 
 burg, and the United States, having received some 
 shot in her hull, and one of her engines being struck 
 by an eighteen pound ball, followed soon after.* 
 
 On hearing of the expedition, Captain Sandom, com- 
 manding the Royal Navy in U2:)per Canada, set out 
 from Kingston in pursuit, with a detachment of forty 
 men and a party of marines, in the steamer Victoria, 
 accompanied by the Cobourg. He arrived at two 
 o'clock, on the morning of the 13th ; and the men 
 having been landed, they, with a party of militia, 
 under Colonels Young, Frazer, and Growan, proceeded 
 in two columns to attack the iuA^aders, who were 
 strongly posted behind stone walls, on rising ground. 
 After an engagement of an hour's duration, the in- 
 vaders were driven into a large circular stone mill, of 
 which the walls were of immense thickness, and a 
 stone house adjacent.f Capt. Sandom with an armed 
 steamer took up a position on the river below the 
 mill ; but the fire of his guns made no impression on 
 the thick walls. The men in the mill and the stone 
 house kept up a galling fire, both true and steady ; 
 and as no impression was being made on the buildingfe. 
 it was deemed best to withdraw the greater part of 
 the loyalist forces, at three o'clock in the afternoon, 
 leaving strong pickets to prevent the escape of the 
 invaders, till heavy artillery could be obtained from 
 Kingston. 
 
 * Lieutenant Fowell to Captain Sandom. 
 f Col. Young's Report.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 209 
 
 Meanwhile Colonel Van Sliultz, not receiving the 
 expected reinforcements from the leaders of the expe- 
 dition who remained in Ogdensburg, and not being 
 joined by any of the inhabitants, was reminded by the 
 one hundred and seventy men under his command of 
 the hopelessness of their position. They begged him to 
 lead them back to the States. But there was not a 
 single boat at their disposal, and the British steamer 
 Experiment kept a vigilant look-out on the river. 
 During the night, Van Shultz dispatched a man across 
 the river on a plank, to implore that boats might be 
 sent. On Tuesday evening, he received for reply that a 
 schooner would be sent over to take them away. They 
 carried their wounded down to the river bank, and 
 waited with anxiety for the promised vessel ; but she 
 came not.* The Paul Pry did cross during the night of 
 Thursday, and, not being able to go very near the shore, 
 sent two small boats to the windmill. Mr. Preston 
 King, afterwards a member of Congress, declared that 
 Col. Worth of the United States Army, suggested that 
 an attempt should be made to rescue the Patriots from 
 the windmill, and that for this purpose he would per- 
 mit the Paul Pry, then in the custody of the United 
 States Marshal, to be used.f Though the American 
 shore had been lined with thousands of spectators 
 during the day, only from twenty-five to twenty-six 
 persons accompanied Mr. King in the Paul Pry; and 
 though the visit led to a council of war being held in the 
 windmill, no practical result followed. Some small 
 
 * Letter of Van Shultz, dated December 1, 1838. 
 
 f Published letter of Preston King to Mr. Gilbert, dated Ogdensburg, Octo- 
 ber 6, 1840
 
 210 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 boats, expected to follow, never went. Colonel Worth 
 refused to allow the Paul Pry to go back a second 
 time ; and thus the attempt to rescue Van Shultz and 
 his devoted band was at an end. 
 
 On the 16th, at noon, Colonel Dundas returned to 
 Prescott from Kingston with four companies of the 
 Eighty-third regiment, and two eighteen pounders and 
 a howitzer. The guns were placed in position with 
 all possible dispatch, on rising ground, about four 
 hundred yards from the house and the mill occupied 
 by the invaders. ]N"early every shot perforated the 
 massive mill. When this last battle commenced. 
 Colonel Yan Shultz says he had only one hundred 
 and eight men left. He was surrounded by a force 
 which he estimated at two thousand. At the same 
 time. Captain Sandom took up a position on the river 
 below the mill with two gunboats and a steamer ; but 
 the fire of his eighteen pounders, less effective, failed 
 to produce a breach in the thick walls of the mill. 
 About dark, Colonel Dundas moved closer to the 
 buildings ; while the militia acted on both flanks, sup- 
 ported by a company of the 93d, to prevent the escape 
 of the enemy. Under cover of night, the division of 
 Van Shultz's men, who were in the stone house, took 
 refuge in the brushwood on the bank of the river, 
 where, with their commander, they were taken pri- 
 soners. Van Shultz had undertaken the defence 
 of the house with ten men, because he could get 
 no one else to do it. A flag of truce was dis- 
 played from the mill, whence the firing had ceased; 
 and Colonel Dundas accej)ted an unconditional sur- 
 render.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 211 
 
 There were probably not less than one hundred 
 and fifty lost, in killed and wounded, on both sides, 
 though the official reports are somewhat contradic- 
 tory on this point.* 
 
 One hundred and fifty-seven prisoners were taken, 
 of whom eleven were executed, including the gallant 
 and heroic, but misguided and betrayed leader, Col. 
 A^an Shultz. They were fastened to a rope, with Yan 
 Shultz at the head, and in this way marched to Fort 
 Henry. 
 
 The various leaders in this ill-starred expedition 
 tried to throw the responsibility of the disaster upon 
 one another, no one being willing to accept it. Bill 
 Johnson, who induced many to take f)art in it, went 
 over to the windmill in a small boat on Monday 
 night, and took away some of his friends, telling them 
 
 * Colonel Plomer Young, in his report of the 14th of November, giving an 
 account of the first battle, " computes" the killed and wounded of all ranks at 
 forty-five. Colonel Van Shultz, who states the original number of his men at 
 one hundred and seventy, says, that on the commencement of the last battle he 
 had only one hundred and eight men left ; thus confessing to a loss of sixty-two 
 men up to that time. But this must be an error, as is proved by the number of 
 prisoners captured. Besides, Bill Johnson, who took away four of Van Shultz's 
 men, alleges that he sent him fifty others. If this statement were true, which 
 I doubt, Van Shultz must have lost about one hundred men up to the time of 
 the last battle. Van Shultz complains that he did not receive the expected re- 
 inforcements, but this can hardly be taken to mean that he did not receive any 
 at all. In the battle of the 16th he reports that he lost only one man, and Ad- 
 jutant General Foster gives the entire British loss at forty-five killed and 
 wounded. If this be correct. Colonel Young's computation of the loss in the 
 first battle must have been very wide of the mark. An eye-witness assures 
 me that on the morning after the last battle, when the windmill had been eva- 
 cuated, he counted one hundred dead bodies. This would include the whole 
 loss of the invaders in killed, for although an hour's cessation of hostilities 
 was given on the Friday befora the steamers took up their position near the 
 mill, for burying the dead, the invaders were unable to bury theirs for want 
 of shovels.
 
 212 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 that he was certain the expedition must fail ; and, 
 after that, had the baseness to induce a number of 
 Americans to go over and join Van Shultz and his 
 devoted band* When Van Shultz had been sen- 
 tenced by a court-martial to be executed, he execrated 
 "the miserable cowardice of General Bierce and Bill 
 Johnson."f " I only wish," he said, " those cowardly 
 rascals, General Bierce and Bill Johnson, might be 
 punished, who brought us into this prison, and I 
 would die content."J He relied upon them for rein- 
 forcements, but Bierce feigned sickness, and Bill 
 Johnson pretended that, after he had given up two 
 hundred and sevent}^ stand of arms in his possession, 
 he was deprived of his commission by his superiors, 
 and left without the power to act. Eatis, another 
 leader, remained inactive at Ogdensburg. General 
 Bierce retaliated on Yan Shultz, by alleging that the 
 act of crossing to the Canada side was unauthorized ; 
 that he himself had been at Ogdensburg four days 
 before, when he became convinced that if the place 
 were not not taken by surprise it could not be taken 
 at all ; that a large number of persons in and near 
 Prescott would join the standard of the invaders, if 
 the town and fort were taken ; but that otherwise no 
 assistance could be expected from the inhabitants, 
 who would be obliged to rally to the call of 
 Colonel Young to defend the town. Yan Shultz 
 
 * This admission was afterwards made by Johnson to Mr. Mackenzie, at 
 Albany. 
 
 f Letter from Van Shultz to Mr. J. E. Parker, Oswego, dated Fort Henry, 
 December 1, 1838. 
 
 I Letter published in the Water! :)wn Jeffersonian, December 1, 1838.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. . 213 
 
 Bierce adds, acted rashly and in ignorance of all these 
 facts.* 
 
 Van Shultz, when under sentence of death, which 
 was sternly carried into effect, caused his thanks to be 
 publicly made known to the officers and men of the 
 Eighty-third Regiment, for the kind treatment he had 
 received from them. lie declared that the prisoners 
 owed their lives to them ; that it was owing solely to 
 their protection, after they surrendered, that the mili- 
 tia did not kill the greater number of them. Unhap- 
 pily this ferocious disposition on the part of the mili- 
 tia is attested on the highest authority. In commend- 
 ing the conduct of Colonel Dundas, Sir George Arthur 
 said: "To his determined resolution, indeed, it is to 
 be ascribed that the militia of the country gave any 
 quarter to the brigands ; nothing, I believe, but the 
 j^resence of the regular troops having saved any of 
 them from being cut to pieces." 
 
 Van Shultz was in New York a short time before 
 the expedition against Prescott, but he neither con- 
 sulted or in any way communicated with Mr. Macken- 
 zie, who was then living there. " I knew nothing of 
 the expedition," Mr. Mackenzie publicly promulgated 
 in his Gazette of the 14th of T*fovember, 1840, " never 
 saw or wrote a line to Van Shultz, was four hundred 
 miles distant, and had nothing to do with the matter 
 whatever ; nor did any of the sufferers, when on trial, 
 or going to the gallows, or to banishment, once name 
 me."f And he afterwards made the same remark 
 
 * Bierce's Account of the Prescott Expedition. 
 
 f This statement is fully borne out by official documents. See Correspond- 
 ence Relating to the Affairs of Canada, Part II. : published by the House of Com-
 
 214 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 with regard to the Windsor expedition, with which he 
 had no connection whatever. 
 
 A simultaneous attack upon different points seems 
 to have been at one time intended, and several of 
 those who took part in the Prescott expedition were 
 led to believe that it would take place. Montreal and 
 Quebec they expected would at the same time be as- 
 saulted, and they were told that three weeks would be 
 sufficient to achieve the independence of Canada. Each 
 man engaged in the expedition was to receive twenty 
 dollars bounty, ten dollars a month while on service, 
 and one hundred and sixt}^ acres of land, when the 
 new government was established.* 
 
 xnons, 1840. From pages 56 to 76, inclusive, the space is taken up with an 
 alphabetical list of the prisoners taken at Windmill Point, with a column con- 
 taining the names of " persons living in the United States, accused by the pri- 
 soners of advising or taking part" in the expedition. The only prominent 
 Canadians mentioned in this connection were Drs. Eolph and Buncombe. The 
 latter was an American by birth, and his connection with the expedition goes 
 to show that it was no stranger to the Cleveland conspiracy. But whatever 
 connection Dr. Eolph may have had with this expedition, either by advising 
 or assisting, there is reason to believe that he had very little to do with the 
 froijtier movements on the American side. 
 
 * Mr W. H. Draper's Report to Lieutenant Governor Arthur, January 21, 
 188 i.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 215 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 President Van Buren's Neutrality Procliiraation — Its Reception by the Re- 
 fugees — Real Motives of the Federal Government with regard to Canada — 
 Traditional PolicyofLeading Statesmen of the States on the Subject — Sir 
 George Arthur renews the Reward of £1000 for the Apprehension of Mr. 
 Mackenzie — Judge Jones urges that Mr. Mackenzie ought to be given up by 
 the Americans — Mr. Mackenzie addresses large Public Meetings at New 
 York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore, in favor of the Destitute 
 Canadian Refugees — The Windsor Expedition — Col. Prince orders Prison- 
 ers to be Shot in cold blood. 
 
 A FEW days after the Prescott expedition, Presi- 
 dent Yan Buren issued a proclamation calling upon 
 the citizens of the United States to give neither coun- 
 tenance nor encouragement to persons who, by a breach 
 of neutrality, had forfeited all claim to the protection 
 of their own country ; but to use every effort in their 
 power to arrest for trial and punishment every of- 
 fender against the laws, " providing for the perform- 
 ance of their oblio-ations bv the United States." 
 From this moment, many of the Canadian refugees 
 in the States, and others who sympathized with them, 
 denounced Mr. Van Buren in the strongest terms of 
 censure they could command. " His officials assure 
 me," Mackenzie, who had been in Washington, wrote 
 to Dr. O'Callaghan, " that he is every thing Fox wishes 
 him to be ;" and there can be no doubt that the re- 
 fugees generally believed that he was doing all he 
 
 78
 
 216 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 could to preserve the neutrality of the United States. 
 And I see no reason to doubt that he did his duty, in 
 that respect, to the best of his ability. 
 
 I have, however, been enabled to penetrate beneath 
 the surface of fair appearances to the real motives of 
 the American Government with regard to Canada. In 
 February, 1838, an interview took place between a 
 Greneral of the United States Army and a^leading Ca- 
 nadian Patriot, in which the General said : " I am de- 
 sirous, for your own good, for that of the refugees 
 generally, and for that of the Canadians in Canada, 
 to make you acquainted with the views of our Govern- 
 ment and of m3^self relative to the difficulties existing 
 in Canada. It is the wish of us all and of the people 
 of the United States, nine out of ten, that you 
 should effect your emancipation ; but we do not see 
 the slightest shadow of hope for you at ]present. If 
 the outbreak had occurred one year sooner, or was to 
 [occur] one year later than now, there would be no 
 doubt of your success, which is our cordial wish ; but 
 as there is [now] no hope for your success, and as an 
 attempt followed by failure w^ould surely end in a 
 dreadful loss of life, and expose the resident people 
 of Canada to harsher treatment than they might 
 otherwise experience, we a,re, out of humanity, deter- 
 mined to suppress any movement on your part. It 
 would take a force of 6,000 men, well armed, to enter 
 Canada, and they should take with them a large sup- 
 ply of arms, etc., for the people, and also to commence, 
 for contingencies, with £200,000, to be followed by 
 £2,000,000 more. This supply the Patriots cannot 
 now procure, and without it they cannot succeed. If
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLTON. 217 
 
 you had only arms you might do, [here he derives the 
 necessity of such a large amount of cash;'-'] if you 
 could get a small loan, with that you could purchase, 
 if necessary, 50,000 stand of arms in the States ; there 
 would be no difficulty in conveying them into Canada 
 in less than three months ; but you cannot get the 
 mone}^ or the arms ; so you must give up your hope 
 for the present. If you are about any preparation for 
 invasion, pray discontinue, and prevail on your friends 
 to abandon your project." At the interview in which 
 the American Greneral thus expressed himself, there 
 was a bank president present; a circumstance which, 
 says the Canadian Patriot, " prevented both the 
 General and myself saying all that each wished ; and 
 although I met him once since, he has been so beset 
 by his friends and our enemies, that 1 have not ven- 
 tured to sound him on some delicate points. He 
 plainly told me, at both interviews, that it was neces- 
 sary for the United States to go to war ; that such an 
 occurrence would be of the greatest advantage to 
 them." The General is now in the Federal Army, 
 and the Canadian Patriot, who had the interview with 
 him, is still living: circumstances which induce me to 
 withhold their names. 
 
 JNTor must it be supposed that the views expressed 
 by the United States General regarding Canada were 
 confined to military men. A civilian, who has since 
 been a member of the Federal Government, wrote to 
 Mr. Mackenzie, under date Washington, March 30, 
 1841 : " Of one thing you may rest assured, that no 
 
 * These words are in the letter from which I transcribe this account of the 
 American General's speech.
 
 218 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AJs'D 
 
 man in x\merica more ardently desires the cessation 
 of British power on this continent than I do, or more 
 anxiously watches for an opportunity to promote that 
 great and noble object, which is alike important to 
 the peace and well-being of the United States and the 
 freedom and progress of the oppressed people of the 
 colonies." At this time, there were few people on the 
 face of the earth freer than these very colonists ; the 
 full control of all their local affairs having been unre- 
 servedly granted to them. Even Mr. Calhoun, strange 
 as it may seem, remarked to Mr. Mackenzie that the 
 United States wanted more free territory. His idea 
 may have been that it would be required as a balance 
 to an equivalent portion of slave territory to be ac- 
 quired in Cuba and elsewhere. 
 
 Another leading Patriot who visited the Federal 
 capital a few days after the issue of Mr. Yan Buren's 
 neutrality proclamation, wrote to Mr. Mackenzie, 
 under date Washington, December 20, 1838: — "The 
 President and most of his intimate friends hide their 
 partiality for, or fear of, England, under the philan- 
 thropic love they have for peace, under the philo- 
 sophic faith they have that justice and argument 
 must be all powerful, in this moral and enlightened 
 age, and will force England to discontinue its tyranny. 
 Their hearts and their prayers are with us, and that's 
 all. I told them to leave the duty of prayers to the 
 chaplains of their houses; that they had other duties 
 to perform," And again: "On all sides," he is speak- 
 ing of the leading politicians of both parties, "they 
 are agreed that it is possible that the warfare on the 
 borders mny end in collision between the governments,
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 219 
 
 if the pride of England urge it to declare war ; that 
 they ought not themselves to begin it, because the 
 natural and rapid increase of population on the lakes, 
 in Michigan and Wisconsin, must inevitably, within a 
 few years, give them the Canadas with lighter sacri- 
 fices than at present, when they are greatly weakened 
 by the greater inequality that exists between the two 
 parties than had ever been the case in this country" 
 before. Ail the leading politicians at Washington urged 
 the sending of agents to England and France by the 
 Canadian Patriots; and M. Papineau's subsequent visit 
 to France seems to have been in some such capacit3\ 
 
 This has been something like a traditional policy 
 on the part of American statesmen. An unpublished 
 autograph letter, written by ex-President Madison to 
 the then President Monroe, in my possession, goes to 
 prove this. The letter is dated Montpelier, Novem- 
 ber 28, 1818. After some reference to the impress- 
 ment question, Mr. Madison saj^s: "The remaining 
 danger to a permanent harmony would then lie in the 
 possession of Canada [by England] ; which, as Gr. B. 
 ought to know, whenever rich enough to be profitable 
 will be strong enough to be independent. Were it 
 otherwise. Canada can be of no use to her when at war 
 with us ; and when at peace will be of equal value, 
 whether as a British colony or an American state. 
 Whether the one or the other, the consumption of 
 British manufactures and export of useful materials 
 will be much the same. The latter would be guarded 
 even against a tax upon them by an article in our 
 Constitution. But, notwithstanding the persuasive na- 
 ture of these considerations, there is little probability
 
 220 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 of their overcoming the national pride which is flat- 
 tered by extended dominion, and still less perhaps 
 ministerial policy, always adverse to narrow the field 
 of patronage. As far as such a transfer would affect 
 the relative power of the two nations, the most 
 unfriendly jealousy could find no objection to the 
 measure ; for it would evidently take more weakness 
 from Grreat Britain than it would add strength to the 
 United States. In truth, the only reason we can have 
 to desire Canada ought to weigh as much with Great 
 Britain as with us. In her hands, it must ever be a 
 source of collision which she ought to be equally 
 anxious to remove, and a snare to the poor Indians, 
 towards whom her humanity ought to be equally 
 excited. Interested individuals have dwelt much on 
 its importance to Great Britain, as a channel for 
 evading and crippling our commercial laws. But.it 
 may well be ex23ected that other views of her true 
 interest will prevail in her councils, if she permits 
 experience to enlighten them."* 
 
 The recent prediction of Mr. Secretary Seward that 
 these British-American Provinces wdll make excellent 
 States of the Federal Union, and the still more recent 
 official avowal of President Lincoln that the great 
 work of the last half century has been to destroy 
 European power in America, preclude the belief that 
 the secret wishes and ultimate policy of the leading 
 men of the United States have changed. There had 
 been, years before the war between the Xorth and the 
 
 * For the opinions of Washington, Jay, Adams, Franklin, on the import- 
 ance of Canada forming part of the United States, see Mackenzie's Trial atCa- 
 iiandaigua: pp. 248 — 9 — 50 — 1.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 221 
 
 Soutli broke out, leading politicians in the Northern 
 States, in favor of breaking up the Federal Union 
 with a view of the non-slaveholding States forming a 
 connection with British America. For obvious rea- 
 sons, I withhold their names. 
 
 Two days after the surrender of Van Shultz, Sir 
 George Arthur issued a proclamation renewing the 
 reward of £1,000 for the apprehension of Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie. The pretext for this procedure was the pre- 
 tence that he had been seen, on the 17th of jS'overa- 
 ber, in the neighborhood of Toronto. On that very 
 day he was in Philadelphia, where he addressed a 
 meeting of five thousand persons. About a month 
 after, he was warned that an attempt would be made 
 to kidnap him, and take him over to Canada. Judge 
 Jones, an old political opponent, wrote to a brother 
 judge, in the State of JN'ew York, complaining that the 
 political refugee was not given up to the vengeance 
 of his enemies ; though he must have known that 
 there is nothing on which England more prides her- 
 self than that she is enabled to offer an asylum to all 
 classes of political refugees, and that about the last 
 thing she would consent to do would be to surrender 
 one of them for punishment. 
 
 As Kossuth did afterwards, in the case of Hungary, 
 Mr. Mackenzie held a series of public meetings in some 
 of the principal cities of the States, in favor of Canadian 
 independence. The first was held at Yauxhall Gar- 
 den, New York, on the 15th of November. While 
 disclaiming all intention of interfering with the do- 
 mestic arrangements of other nations, or violating the 
 neutrality laws of the United States, the meeting ex-
 
 222 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 pressed its abhorrence of the executions which had 
 taken place in Canada, for political offences ; called on 
 the Federal Government to insist on full and complete 
 satisfaction for the Caroline outrage, and recalled to 
 grateful recollection the services rendered in the Ame- 
 rican revolution by Lafayette, Montgomery, De Kalb, 
 Kosciusko, Steuben, and other foreigners. A commit- 
 tee was formed to collect funds for the relief of the 
 " suffering republicans of Canada," who had been 
 driven into exile. In Lower Canada, Dr. Nelson had, 
 a few days before, made a new appeal to arms,"^ and 
 
 * On the night of the 3d of November, the habitants between the TamasKa 
 and llichelieu Elvers flew to arms, and leaving their villages, assembled at St. 
 Ours, St. Charles, and St. Michael. The habitants of Beauharnois are repre- 
 sented as having risen en masse, and made a great many prisoners. About feu** 
 thousand concentrated at Napierville, under command of the intrepid Dr. Nel- 
 son, Cot^, andGagnon,between the 3d and the 6th. Sir J. Colborne dispatched 
 the corps under Major General Sir James McDonald and Major General Clith- 
 eroe to march to Napierville to attack them. The troops did not arrive till 
 the morning of the 10th, and the insurgents had left the night previous. A 
 small body of them were attacked by the militia while on the march from the 
 La Colle to House's Point. They were overpowered, lost three hundred stana 
 of arms and one field-piece, and were driven across the frontier. On the 9th 
 a party of insurgents, under Dr. Nelson, came into collision with a body of vo- 
 lunteers who had taken possession of a church at Odell Town, in which they 
 suffered great loss. Major Carmichael, with a detachment of the Seventy-first 
 Kegiment and two battalions of Glengary Militia marched to Beauharnois on 
 the 10th. The insurgents were driven back, and four or five men of the Se- 
 venty-first Regiment were killed and wounded. See Sir John Colborne's Dis- 
 patch to Lord Glenelg, November 11, 1838. On this occasion the militia is said 
 to have committed great atrocities. The following statement is from an un- 
 published letter among Mr, Mackenzie's papers: — 
 
 " L'AcADiE, April 2, 1889, 
 '•* A probable estimate of property destroyed by the volunteers and troops at 
 the command of Sir John Colborne in the county of L'Acadie, during the 
 month of November, 1833 : — 74 houses and 22 barns burnt, $49, 760 ; 6 houses 
 interior destroyed and 335 houses pillaged, $26,800 ; total, $76,560 ; 243 chil- 
 dren and 131 -vomcu turned into the street naked in the month of November."
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 223 
 
 issued a Declaration of Independence on behalf of a 
 Provisional Government for that Province, followed 
 by a proclamation, offering security and j^rotection to 
 all who should lay down their arms and cease to op- 
 pose the new authority that claimed to be in existence 
 before the old one had expired. Notice was taken of 
 this circumstance by the meeting, which tendered its 
 sympathy to Lower Canada. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie was not, at this time, in the secrets 
 of the Lower Canada Patriots any more than in those 
 of the pretended government of Upper Canada which 
 had been set up at Cleveland. Dr. Robert Nelson had 
 been in New York a short time before, and,palling on 
 Mr. Mackenzie, proposed to tell him the plans of the 
 Lower Canada Patriots, when Mr. Mackenzie stopped 
 him, by saying : " Tell me nothing, more or less ; as I 
 am to take no part, I have no means to aid, and I 
 want to know nothing either as to what has been done 
 or may be intended." On the 12th of June previous, 
 he had been indicted, at Albany, for a breach of the 
 neutralit}^ laws of the United States, for the part he 
 had taken in the Navy Island expedition, and while 
 
 The atrocities committed by the militia beggar description. Colonel Angus 
 McDonell, commanding the Fourth Eegiment of Glengary Militia wrote his 
 uncle, Bishop Macdonell, November 19, 1838: "We proceeded down towards 
 Beauharnois by a forced march, burning and laying waste the country as we 
 went along ; and I must say it was a most distressing and heart-rending scene 
 to see this fine settlement so completely destroyed, the houses burnt and laid in 
 ashes, and I understood the whole country to St. Charles experienced the same ; 
 the wailing and lamentation of the women and children, on beholding their 
 houses in flames and their property destroyed ; their husbands, fathers, bro- 
 thers, sons, dragged along prisoners, and such of them as did not appear were 
 supposed to be at the rebel camp." The details of some of these atrocities it ia 
 impossible to put into print. 
 79
 
 224 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the trial was hanging over him, he had an additional 
 reason for being anxious to keep clear of all similar 
 movements. 
 
 At Philadelphia Mr. Mackenzie addressed the vast 
 assemblage for an hour and a half. " There was a gen- 
 eral cry of 'Gro on,'" a local journal reported, "when- 
 ever he evinced a disposition to bring his speech to 
 a close." He was further described as " a plain busi- 
 ness-like speaker, using no rhetorical flourishes, and 
 keeping in a rather homely strain as close to the point 
 as possible, which, combined with his earnestness and 
 fluency, enabled him to fix the attention of his hearers 
 much longer than is usual in a popular assembly."* 
 A committee similar to that of New York was ap- 
 pointed. In an address to the citizens which this 
 committee issued, they disclaimed the idea of asking 
 for arms or recruits ; they only asked for sympathy 
 and the means of alleviating the sufferings of the re- 
 fugees. But it does not appear that any collections 
 were made. In a letter addressed to Mr. Mackenzie, 
 dated Washington, December 20th, 1838, the writer 
 says : " You have seen splendid assemblies in Albany 
 and New York ; large committees jappointed to make 
 laro:e collections. Not a man of them has moved ; not 
 a farthins: has been obtained. The directions from 
 Washington have in a moment staid and cooled the 
 warmest enthusiasm." One of the leading refugees 
 appealed to Congress to succor his distressed compa- 
 triots ; but the written constitution was pleaded as a 
 bar to their doing so. Mr. Mackenzie then went to 
 Washington, and there held a meeting very much to 
 
 * Penntylvanian, Nov. 19.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 225 
 
 the annoyance of Mr. Yan Buren. Two of the Wash- 
 ington papers refused to publish an advertisement 
 announcing the intended meeting ; the other two pub- 
 lished it. Some of the Heads of the IH^partments sent 
 circulars to their clerks, ordering them not to attend. 
 About a thousand persons were present at the meeting, 
 the failure of which had been predicted, even by some 
 who favored it. The last of these meetings, held at 
 Baltimore on the 22d of !N^ovember, was well at- 
 tended. 
 
 We have seen that Bierce superseded General Handy 
 in the command of the " Army of the IS'orth-West." 
 He w^as a lawyer, living at Akron, Portage County, 
 Ohio ; where, about that time, he was United States 
 Attorney. He was appointed by the Cleveland Com- 
 mittee of Hunters. Handy's plan of first raising the 
 standard of revolt at Windsor, and then causing a 
 simultaneous rising of the organized corps in Canada 
 to take place, was abandoned under the new manage- 
 ment. Prescott was probably thought to be a better 
 point of operations for the purpose of obtaining a foot- 
 ing in the Province, from its more central position on 
 the frontier, and •the readiness with which the wind- 
 mill could be converted into a fort. But when Yan 
 Shultz had failed at Prescott, Mr. Bierce was to revive 
 the project of Handy at Windsor. For this purpose 
 men were collected at various points on the frontier, 
 to the number of nearly four hundred. Monroe County, 
 Michigan, supplied about one hundred refugees and 
 Patriots ; Buffalo, something over sixty ; Rochester, 
 seventeen.* The Rochester and Buffalo men took 
 
 * Heman A. Keep, one of the Windsor expedition.
 
 22G LIFE OF MACKENZIE AND 
 
 steamer at the latter cit}^, and received a reinforce- 
 ment at Munroe. From this place they walked to 
 Swan River, the central rendezvous of the party. At 
 this point they remained forty-eight hours, their num- 
 bers then being three hundred and sixty-two. On the 
 morning of the third day, they marched to the Junc- 
 tion, four miles from Detroit, equipped themselves 
 and made ready to cross into Canada, where they 
 seem to have expected that they were about to com- 
 mence a winter campaign. General Bierce and most 
 of the Patriots are said to have been well supplied 
 with money — the proceeds it may be of the Cleveland 
 banking scheme — and Commissary Bronson, of Buffalo, 
 had a good supply both of money and provisions. The 
 men had been led to expect that a steamer would be 
 in readiness to take them over from the Junction ; 
 but no steamer was there. A fatality attended all 
 these movements, from the battle of Yonge Street till 
 now : there was always some great want ; some fatal 
 blunder was committed ; some gross neglect of duty 
 occurred; some act of indiscretion, or cowardice, or 
 some fatal delay marred the whole plan. Such are 
 the results of civilians undertakin<g to conduct war- 
 like operations. By night the men had marched to 
 Detroit ; a steamer was ready to take them across ; but 
 General Bierce, whom they had never seen, was not 
 ready. They were ordered to march back into the 
 woods ; and having obeyed, they returned next night 
 to the outskirts of the city, prepared to cross. Gen- 
 eral Bierce sent his aid to say that the steamer was 
 not ready; though the men had the evidence of their 
 own senses that it had steamed up twenty hours be-
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLION. 227 
 
 fore. They were irritated and soon became suspicious. 
 Was Bierce bribed b}^ the agents of the British in 
 Detroit ? Or did he hokl back from cowardice ? Such 
 were the questions they asked themselves. Two full 
 companies left in disgust. The delay was ruinous to 
 the expedition. A knowledge of the encampment 
 was spread abroad ; and couriers were sent through 
 the "Western District to bring up men from the defence 
 of Windsor, Sandwich, and Fort Maiden.* On the 
 night of the fifth day, when the numbers had been 
 much reduced by desertions. General Bierce was ready 
 to cross, the steamer was ready, and a crossing wrh 
 made.f Bierce is said to have shown a strong disin- 
 clination to cross ; and to have been finally com- 
 pelled to do so by the reproaches of the officers and 
 men under his command. 
 
 In going down to the steamer Champlain, on the 
 evening of the 3d of December, the invaders marched 
 openly through the streets of Detroit, and were allowed 
 to pass within sight of the sentinels stationed at the 
 public arsenal, without interruption. On the following 
 morning, when the attack was made upon Windsor, a 
 large concourse of persons, of which the number has 
 been estimated as high as 5,000, stationed themselv*es 
 on the wharves, steamboats, and other vessels, cheering 
 the invaders on ; and when the tri-colored Patriot flag 
 displayed its twin stars and the word "Liberty" in 
 the breeze, on Canadian ground, the air was rent with 
 
 * Heman A. Keep, 
 
 \ Some of the prisoners stated the number who crossed at three hundred 
 and fifty ; but this was probablj' an exaggeration. Keep stated it at only cue 
 hundred and sixty-fuur
 
 228 LIFE OF MACKEXZIE, AND 
 
 shouts of applause from the assembled multitude on 
 the American shore.* The small band of daring in- 
 vaders were marched in two divisions : the first being 
 commanded by Cols. Putnam and Harvell ; General 
 Bierce bringing up the rear, and having a special re- 
 gard to his own personal safety. On landing, he had 
 briefly addressed the men, and issued a proclamation 
 to "the citizens of Canada. "-|- On approaching a house 
 
 * Eeport of Henry Sherwood, Judge Advocate, on the case of the Windsor 
 prisoners, January 2(3, 1837. Heman A. Keep. 
 
 f The address was in these terms: — 
 
 •'Soldiers! the time has arrived that calls for action — the blood of o.ir 
 slaughtered countrymen cries aloud for revenge. The spirits of Lount, and 
 Matthews, and Moreau, are yet unavenged. The murdered heroes of Prescott 
 lie in an unhallowed grave in the land of tyranny. The manes of the ill-fated 
 Caroline's crew can only be appeased by the blood of the murderers. 
 
 "Arouse, then, soldiers of Canada! Let us avenge their wrongs! Let us 
 march to victory or death ; and ever, as we meet the tyrant foe, let our war 
 cry be: ' Kemkmber Pkescott.' " 
 
 Here is the proclamation, signed by "William Lount, who was taking this 
 means of avenging the execution of his father : — 
 
 •' Citizens of Canada ! We have received the Standard of Liberty on 
 our shores. It is not an ensign of oppression, but of protection. We have 
 returned to our native land, not as enemies, but as friends. Charges, false as 
 the hearts of our oppressors, have been made against us; and you have been 
 told that we are pirates, robbers, banditti, and brigands. Tou have been told 
 that we came to plunder and destroy ; and that the reward for which we are 
 contending was iiidiscriminate robbery. False is the charge — alike false and 
 deceptive. We come to restore to our beloved country, that liberty so long 
 enjoyed, and so tyrannically wrested from us. This is our only object — this is 
 the end of our desires, and of our ambition. When this is accomplished, 
 gladly will we return to the cultivation of our beloved fields, and the enjoy- 
 ments of the domestic fireside. 
 
 "No one who remains at home shall be molested in his avocations — those, 
 only, found in arms, or aiding our oppressors, will be treated as enemies; 
 those aiding us in restoring liberty to Canada, will be hailed as friends to us, 
 \c Canada, to humanity. 
 
 " Let every one, then, who has not the spirit to engage in the cause of 
 liberty, remain at home, and pursue his usual avocations in peace.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 229 
 
 used as barracks for the militia, shots were exchanged 
 between the occupants and the invaders ; and a Capt. 
 Lewis, from the London District, who was with the 
 latter, was killed. The invaders set the building on 
 lire, and two militia-men are said to have been burnt 
 to death. The sentinel was shot. A negro who re- 
 fused to join the assailants was killed ; and Staff-sur- 
 geon Hume, who went up to them under the supposi- 
 tion, it is said, that they were Canadian Militia, lost 
 his life, and his body was barbarously mutilated after 
 death. The steamer Thames, embedded in the ice, 
 shared the fate of the barracks. As the flames from 
 the building and vessel curled up in the gray of the 
 breaking morn, three cheers were given from the 
 Detroit shore, and answered by the invaders. While 
 the barracks were being taken, Bierce remained in the 
 rear. 
 
 After this, the party proceeded towards the centre 
 of the town, to the cries of " Remember Prescott," and 
 " Remember the Caroline," where the principal di- 
 vision was met by a militia force under Col. Prince 
 and Captain Spark, and driven into the woods, where 
 they were notMmmediately pursued. The rear-guard 
 remained at a distance with a number of prisoners. 
 Col. Broderick, with detachments of royal artillery 
 and the Thirty-fourth Regiment and a nine pounder, 
 arrived from Amherstburg. Bierce resolved to retreat, 
 
 •' But above all, let those who ask for honor, and glory, and their country's 
 good, espouse the cause of the Patriots of Canada. 
 "Head Quarters. Patriot Army, "Windsor, Nov, 30. 
 
 "By order of the Commandor-in-Chief, 
 
 ♦' Wm Lount, Military Secretary.'^
 
 230 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 and leave the larger body of the men who had taken 
 refuge in the woods. Signals were made to the 
 steamer Erie, which had a detachment of United 
 States troops on board, to come to their rescue, but 
 she declined. The retreating party were reduced to 
 the necessity of picking up canoes, or whatever they 
 could find, in which to escape. One of the boats was 
 fired upon by the cannon while crossing, and one man 
 was killed. The United States steamer Erie, in at- 
 tempting to cut ofi^ the escape of these persons, fired 
 several inefi^ectual shots. 
 
 In this raid, twenty-five of the invaders lost their 
 lives, and forty-six more were taken prisoners. Of the 
 twenty-five, four were taken prisoners and shot, in 
 cool blood, without the form of a trial, by order of 
 Col. Prince. This act was condemned by Lord 
 Brougham and others in terms of great severity ; and 
 there can be no doubt that, whatever excuses may be 
 made for it, Colonel Prince committed a terrible 
 mistake. If the opinion of the Attorney General of 
 Upper Canada was of any value, in such a case. Col. 
 Prince might have pleaded it as authority. In the 
 month of March previous, the magistrates of Sand- 
 wich, with Col. Prince at their head, had complained 
 to the Lieutenant Governor that the American pri- 
 soners, taken in the schooner Anne, and at Point au 
 Pele, were not punished ; and the case being referred 
 to Attorney General Hagerman, that functionary re- 
 ported that " the}'' might have been put to death by 
 their captors, at the moment they were taken, as 
 outlaws, who had forfeited all claim to the pro-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 231 
 
 tection of the Jaws of every civilized nation." It 
 is sufficient to say that the general verdict of man- 
 kind has not held Colonel Prince excused for the 
 slaughter of these men without even the ^rm of a 
 trial. 
 
 80
 
 232 LIFE OF MACKENZIE AND 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzis removes to Kochester — Disorganized state of the' Eefi.gees— 
 Canadian Political Prisoners in England — General Handy reappears upon 
 the Scene — He sends McLeod to the West to get up an Organization — 
 McLeod's Reports — Proposals to bring Indians into the Patriot service — ■ 
 Materials of war — Associations of Canadian Refugees formed at Rochester, 
 Auburn, and Cincinnati. 
 
 So long as Mr. Mackenzie remained at I^ew York, 
 he was between four and five hundred miles from the 
 nearest centres of frontier operations. During the 
 last three quarters of the year 1838, he had been oc- 
 cupied in the publication of a newspaper; and was 
 now about to yield to the solicitations of his friends to 
 remove to Rochester, where it was thought its influ- 
 ence would be more directly felt. In the early part 
 of January, 1830, he visited that city, and resolved to 
 remove there with his family and Printing Office. 
 
 After visiting Rochester, he gave an account of the 
 condition of the refugees in a private letter, which I 
 have received, with many others, from the person to 
 whom it was addressed. " Their organization and 
 union," he said, " apart from that of the associations 
 who aid them, is nothing. They have little influence, 
 nor will it increase until a better system is adopted." 
 He thought Canada could easily be revolutionized, "if 
 men would go right about it." " I shall try," he said.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 233 
 
 under date Rochester, Jan. 10, 1839, "to get up such an 
 organization here and on the other side, and to make 
 such use of that already in operation, as will probably 
 somewhat change the aspect of Canadian affairs. The 
 material is before us if we choose to make use of it." 
 
 Early in February, Mr. Mackenzie moved from ]^e\v 
 York to Rochester, with his family, in express carriages. 
 The last number of the Gazette issued in New York 
 bore date January 26, and the next number made its 
 appearance in Rochester, on the 23d of February. 
 
 .About New Year, 1839, twelve Canadian pris- 
 oners, three of whom had been convicted of political 
 offences and the other nine, transported by Sir George 
 Arthur, without form of trial, arrived in England, on 
 their way to Van Dieman's Land. All of them were 
 under sentence of transportation for life. The trans- 
 portation of the nine unconvicted prisoners had been 
 ordered under authority of an act of the Legislature 
 of Upper Canada, empowering the Lieutenant Grover- 
 nor to grant a pardon to all persons charged with 
 treason, who should, previous to their arraignment, 
 confess their guilt. He could attach to the pardon 
 whatever condition he thought fit. 
 
 While in the custody of the jailer at Liverpool, a 
 writ of Habeas Corpus was issued, and the prisoners 
 were brought before the Courts of Queen's Bench and 
 Exchequer, Westminster, and their discharge moved 
 for. Their case excited much interest in England ; 
 and the most absurd opinions were expressed regard- 
 ing them. " One person would ask," a journal of the 
 day reported, " ' How are they dressed ?' and become 
 utterly astonished, not to say disappointed, when he
 
 234 LIFE OF MACKENZIE. AND 
 
 found that they wore ordinary hats, coats, and breeches." 
 It was decided that they were legally held in custody, 
 and that the jailer of Liverpool was justified in assist- 
 ing the captain of the vessel in which they had been 
 brought to England. 
 
 Petitions were presented to the Crown impugning 
 the legality of the sentences, and praying that they 
 might not be carried into effect. The Courts of 
 Queen's Bench and Exchequer had only decided one 
 of the three questions which the cases involved. They 
 had not decided whether the compulsory removal 
 of the prisoners from England, or their compulsory 
 detention in Van Dieman's Land, would be legal. In 
 some of the cases, the Imperial Government was of 
 opinion that Sir Francis Bond Head's proclamation 
 of December 7, 1837, amounted to an amnesty of their 
 offences. And it was inferred by those who attended 
 the discussions before the courts, "that the judges en- 
 tertained a very grave doubt whether the Government 
 could lawfully proceed further against the prisoners," 
 unless they could be brought to trial for treason in 
 England.'^ "A trial," the Marquis of Normanby 
 confessed, "must have resulted in their a«"quittal," be- 
 cause, among other reasons, such a prosecution would 
 have been justly regarded with the utmost disfavor 
 by the court and jury. 
 
 The group of prisoners, as given in the wood-cut, 
 was taken for a Londonperiodical while judgment was 
 being delivered upon Mr. Hill's application for a rule 
 nisi, for an attachment against the Liverpool jailer. 
 
 * Dispatch from the Marquis of Normanby to Sir George Arthur, Downing 
 Street, July 23, 1839. See Appendix I for names of persons imprisoned for 
 their parti jipation in the revolt, in U. C.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 235 
 
 At the extreme left of the group is Paul Bedford, a 
 Canadian farmer, who resided in the London District. 
 The second, Lenies Miller, was an American law-stu- 
 dent, li^dng at Rochester, at the time of the outbreak. 
 William Reynolds was the third, an American from 
 Philadelphia. The next was Finlay Malcolm, whose 
 uncle of the same name had previously been a repre- 
 sentative of the London District, in the Upper Ca- 
 nada Legislature. After him comes John G. Parker, 
 who had been a storekeeper in Hamilton. Randal 
 Wixon, the sixth in the group, was a schoolmaster 
 and a Baptist minister. He had charge of The Colo- 
 nial Advocate, it will be remembered, while Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie was in England. Leonard Watson, the next, 
 was living near Montgomery's at the time of the out- 
 break there. The eighth was Ira Anderson, at whose 
 tavern political meetings had frequently been 'held. 
 Then comes William Alves, a carpenter, who was 
 working at Montgomery's hotel, at the time of the 
 rebellion. James Brown, the tenth in the group, was 
 a Canadian farmer from the London District. Robert 
 Walker, the next, was a native of Scotland, a black- 
 smith by trade, and had emigrated to Canada some 
 years before. James Grant, whose position is at the 
 extreme right of the group, was a native of Upper 
 Canada. 
 
 At this period General Handy, whom Bierce had 
 superseded, some months before, in the command of 
 the Army of the North-west, again appears upon the 
 scene. He reappears in his old character, why or by 
 what means does not appear. On the 1st of January, 
 1839j he directed General McLeod, in whom he had
 
 236 LIFE OF MACKEXZlEj AND 
 
 great confidence, to proceed to tlie "West to get up a 
 military organization, and report his proceedings* 
 McLeod returned " 3,250 efficient men ready for ser- 
 vice when called for." The summary of his report, 
 which I find in manuscript, is without date ; but as 
 McLeod was in Chicago, in execution of his mission, 
 on the 14th of March, it was probably not before 
 April or May when he made his return. At Cold- 
 water, Missouri, were fifteen hundred Indians and 
 five hundred volunteers, to be commanded by General 
 J. B. Stewart, formerly of the United States Army ; 
 at Chicago five hundred and sixty Catholic Irish, to 
 be commanded by A. Smith. Considering the size 
 of Chicago, in 1839, it must have been a central point 
 for the collection of these men, for they could not 
 have been resident there. On the Desplain River were 
 two hundred and fifty men, but whether they were 
 Indians or whites is not stated. They must, I should 
 think, have been Indians. They were to be com- 
 manded by Colonel W. R. Miller. At Kankakee, 
 one hundred and forty French Canadians w^ere ready 
 to take the field under Francis Brodieau. On the line 
 
 * I find a manuscript copy of the order, which is in these terms:— 
 
 "Headquarters, "Windsor, U. C.,") 
 January 1, 1839. j 
 " General Donald McLeod — Sir : Tou will forthwith proceed to the 
 "West, as far as your judgment may dictate, and in your discretion you will or- 
 ganize and arrange in military order, and commission all such individuals as 
 you may deem worthy, and give them such directions as in your judgment may 
 seem expedient, and direct, if you receive no further orders, all the affairs con- 
 nected with the Patriot cause according to the best of your judgment, until 
 you are enabled to make your returns. 
 
 "I am, sir, with much respect, yours, &c., 
 
 "H. S. Handy, 
 " Commanding General, N. W. A. P."
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 237 
 
 of the Illinois and Fox Rivers were three hundred 
 Canadians, Dutch, and Irish, who were to be com- 
 manded by Major Luddington. 
 
 From men General McLeod proceeds to material 
 of war. About arms no difficulty was anticipated. 
 Besides the men reported by McLeod, Handy men- 
 tioned a great many more whom he could raise. " Of 
 the several tribes of Indians," he said, " in the States 
 of Mississippi, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin Ter- 
 ritory, and west of the Mississippi River, I have a 
 general knowledge, and for reasons hereafter to be 
 explained, I have a social and friendly alliance with 
 them." If he could raise sufficient means to clothe 
 and pay them, he could get as many as he would be 
 willing to receive. He then turns to Canada. " From 
 the enrollment of the returns from the Upper Pro- 
 vince during the last summer," I quote the exact 
 words of the document, " which amounts to 38,000, I 
 can safely calculate on 4,000 efficient and determined 
 men." Indians, I presume, are meant here, as in the 
 other cases ; but I doubt very much whether the 
 Canadian Indians could have been induced to fight 
 against the government. Donations of lead suffi- 
 cient for a campaign had been promised, and from 
 'twenty to forty three and four pounders were to be 
 cast, near Detroit, for the use of Light Artillery. A 
 gentleman in Detroit had nearly brought to perfection 
 a cannon that would be able to fire from fifty to sixty 
 times a minute. In spite of the Bank scheme, of 
 which nothing is said by Handy, the greatest diffi- 
 culty was confessed to be the want of money. "If I 
 should succeed," he says, " in obtaining my antici-
 
 233 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 pated means, " I can purchase from a factor}^ thirty 
 thousand stand of muskets, by paying one-fourth in 
 advance and the remainder on credit." Handy and 
 McLeod had, a few nights before, had a conference 
 with a number of Indian chiefs, at Detroit, by whom 
 they were assured that the services of their warriors 
 could be relied upon, if fie means of paying them 
 could be found. As nothing came of these prelimina- 
 ries of an extensive organization, it is probable that 
 the movement collapsed for want of money. 
 
 On the 12th of March, Mr. Mackenzie issued a con- 
 fidential circular, calling a special Convention "to be 
 composed of Canadians, or persons connected with 
 Canada, who are favorable to the attainment of its 
 political independence, and the entire separation of 
 its government from the political power of Great Bri- 
 tain," to be held at Rochester. About fifty persons 
 attended this Convention, w^hich met at six o'clock on 
 the evening of the 21st, and concluded its sittings 
 next day. An Association of Canadian Refugees was 
 formed, of which Mr. Montgomery was appointed 
 President, Mr. Mackenzie, Secretary, and Samuel 
 Moulson, of Rochester, Treasurer. A confidential 
 circular, dated "Ofiice of the Canadian Association 
 Rochester, March 22, 1839," was issued, in which ques 
 tions were proposed and suggestions made. Whik 
 the independence of Canada was the ultimate object 
 aimed at, another object was to prevent all isolated or 
 premature attempts, such as had recently failed at 
 Ogdensburg and Windsor, fi'om being made.* The 
 
 * The objects stated in the circular are subjoined : — 
 
 " Resolved, That a society be now constituted from among inhabitants of Ca-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION 239 
 
 notion of attempting to secure the independence of 
 Canada, by means of invading parties from the States, 
 
 nada, who have left that country -within the last two years, or who are refu- 
 gees from thence, or emigrants from political causes, or who, having been born 
 British subjects, are desirous of aiding the Canadians in the achievement of in- 
 dependence of British political power, and that said society be called ' the Ca- 
 nadian Association.' 
 
 "And we declare that the objects for which this Association is established, 
 are — 
 
 *' 1. To aid in obtaining for the people of the North American Colonies the 
 unrestricted power to choose their form of government, by means of conven- 
 tions of delegates of their appointment, whose acts should afterwards obtain 
 their concurrence ; and to assist by all lawful means in removing from thii 
 nor4;hern continent the cruel yoke of the British government. 
 
 " 2. To prevent as far as possible hasty and ill-planned expeditions or attacks 
 upon parts of the Canadas, designed or begun by, or in the name of, Canadian 
 refugees, or persons in Canada. 
 
 " 3. To discountenance publicly and privately all burnings of private pro- 
 perty in Canada, and all attempts on the life of any person untried and uncon- 
 victed of crime, however deserving of condemnation and death by the Cana- 
 dians. 
 
 "4. To discountenance all attempts to invade the Canadas from these States, 
 so long as the Government and Legislature of the Union shall consider this 
 nation bound by treaties to abstain from such invasions. 
 
 "5. To act in concert with any benevolent and patriotic society or societies 
 within this State or any of the United States, formed or to be formed to aid 
 the Canadian people by all lawful means in obtaining relief from the British 
 yoke, or who may be associated for the purpose of relieving those who have 
 been forced in their hour of distress to seek refuge in this free country from 
 the heavy hand of British tyranny. 
 
 "6. To convey to some central place, for the benefit of the laboring classes 
 among the refugees, all the information that can be obtained as to the best 
 situation for their obtaining temporary employment. 
 
 «'7. * * * « * ** 
 
 "8. And lastly, to profit by the example of those who have recently exer- 
 cised power in Canada, to imprison, murder, hang, rob, and banish worthy 
 and estimable reformers, and kind and generous friends and neighbors, by ex- 
 erting our whole individual and united influence, when Canada shall become 
 free, to prevent the like cruel treatment of the Orangemen and loyalists. Our 
 earnest desire is to see Canada free and happy, not to indulge in ourselves, or 
 encourage in others, a revengeful and bitter spirit against our known or sup- 
 posed enemies, after their power to oppress our country shall have been taken 
 81
 
 240 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 was discarded. But the idea of Americans succoring 
 the Canadians, in case they shoukl themselves strike 
 for independence was unquestionably included in the 
 plan. This was shown by one of the questions asked 
 in the circular : 
 
 " In case the people of Canada shall give indications 
 that they are determined to struggle, as the fathers 
 of this republic struggled, against British oppression," 
 the question ran, " by planting the standard of free- 
 dom on their own soil, and rallying round it, what 
 help are they to expect from your society or neigh- 
 borhood, in men and arms? Be pleased at the earli- 
 est possible day to send us a table with the following 
 particulars : 
 
 " Names of volunteers in the township of who 
 
 would be ready, in case five thousand men joined them 
 on this side, to go into Canada, armed as the soldiers 
 of freedom, as soon as the Canadians should have 
 planted the standard on their own soil, rallied round 
 it, and sought their assistance. 
 
 " In the table state what arms each man has ; what 
 means he has of transporting himself to a place of ren- 
 dezvous ; and mark with a star the names of any who 
 have served in the armies of this Union, England, or 
 any other power, stating the rank held in the same." 
 
 A similar Convention, under the name of an "Ag- 
 ricultural Meeting," had been held at Auburn, in Ja- 
 
 away, but to bring into operation the Christian rule, tc do unto others as we 
 would wish them to do towards us, were they in our situatiori or circumstances 
 and we in theirs." 
 
 The blank at the mystical number "seven" leaves room for the play of the im- 
 agination, and is suggestive of a project of Canadian independence.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 241 
 
 nuary, at which Mr. Mackenzie was present and took 
 a leading part. A special Executive Committee had 
 been formed at that Convention, and the information 
 sought in the circular issued from Rochester was to 
 be laid before both the Auburn Executive Committee 
 and the Rochester secret Special Committee. The As- 
 sociation was bound by no oath or affirmation, nor 
 were its members under penalty to perform any obli- 
 gation whatever. 
 
 These associations appear to have differed from that 
 of the Cleveland in very essential particulars. The 
 Rochester Association was composed of Canadian 
 Refugees ; the Cleveland Association was composed 
 almost entirely of Americans. The former laid it 
 down as a rule that the independence of the Canadas 
 must first be asserted by the resident Canadians, and 
 then, but not till then, extraneous assistance miirht 
 be afforded them. Mr. Mackenzie claimed for the 
 Rochester Association that it prevented small maraud- 
 ing expeditions being got up. At the same time, its 
 members w^ere preparing to second the efforts of the 
 Canadians, should the standard of revolt be again 
 raised within the Provinces. Certain it is that no ex- 
 peditions were fitted out against Canada after this 
 time, although there were extensive organizations in 
 the border States, of which the object was to assist in 
 bringing about the independence of Canada. There 
 was formed an auxiliary Association of Canadian Refu- 
 gees in Cincinnati, in which there were no Americans. 
 Dr. Duncombe was connected with it. But the plan 
 of uniting the Canadian refugees, instead of allowing 
 Americans to form schemes for the " liberation" of
 
 242 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Canada, appears to have originated with Mr. Macken- 
 zie, in January, 1839. 
 
 The circular of the Rochester Association does not 
 appear to have elicited many replies, though there 
 were refugees scattered all over the Union, from Maine 
 to Florida. A few reply that they are under obliga- 
 tions to report to Lockport or elsewhere. A letter 
 from Florida volunteers the statement that " in the 
 South, all about the Gulf of Mexico, are hardy mari- 
 time people, bred from childhood to fishing, slaving, 
 privateering, wrecking, and piracy, ready, if they 
 can get commissions from any government, to cruise 
 against the rich trade of England." These materials 
 would be available, as privateers, the letter adds, if 
 *' we can only establish a fixed government [in Ca- 
 nada] for three weeks." On the 18th of May, the 
 receipts of the society amounted to seventy-seven 
 dollars, and it had not yet appointed any traveling 
 agents. 
 
 In the month of May, General Handy wrote to Mr. 
 Mackenzie, recommending, if the Rochester Associa- 
 tion should second the project, "that a call be made 
 for a general representation from the Provinces, and 
 that a General Congress be formed, with the President, 
 etc., of Canadians solely." His object was to have a 
 united representation from both Provinces, that they 
 should stand together in their united strength, under 
 one banner, " as did the thirteen United States dur- 
 ing the Revolution." The project, however, came to 
 nothing.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Tria. of Mi Mackenzie for setting on foot and providing Means in the United 
 States for carrying on a Warlike Expedition against Canada — He memorial- 
 izes the Judges to let him be put on his Trial — His Address to the Jury — 
 Conviction — Is Sentenced to Eighteen Months' Imprisonment and to pay a 
 fine of Ten Dollars for doing what the United States Marshal officially stated 
 Nine-tenths of the People of Bufialo had done — From the Jail Door to his 
 Upper Koom — A Portrait of Ephraim Gilbert, the Jailer — Mr. Mackenzie's 
 Treatment in Prison — He is Shot at through the Jail Window — Sickness and 
 Despondency — Death of his Aged Mother — He gets out of Jail by a Strat- 
 agem to visit her Death-bed — Sees the Funeral from his Jail Window — 
 Efforts for the Mitigation of his Punishment — He is ordered the Use of the 
 Jail Yard after nearly Eleven Months' Close Confinement — Hundreds of 
 Thousands petition for his Release — His Pardon. 
 
 When Mr. Mackenzie was indicted, at Albany, in 
 June, 1838, Mr. Badgley, by his instruction, informed 
 the court that he would be ready for trial next day. 
 He kept his word, and attended before the court ; but 
 Mr. District Attorney Benton was not ready. The 
 court required him to be present again in October. In 
 September, Mr. Benton assured him the trial would 
 come on. Mr. Mackenzie again attended at Albany ; 
 when the District Attorney had found reasons, in a 
 statute of Congress — could he previously have been 
 ignorant of it? — for trying the case at Canandaigua, 
 Ontario County. About a month before the June ses- 
 sion of the Circuit Court, Mr. Benton informed Mr. 
 Mackenzie that the case might come on on the very first
 
 244 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 day of the session. The defendant attended at Can- 
 andaigua ; and, his patience being exhausted, he, on the 
 second day after the court opened, addressed a mem- 
 orial to the judges expressing a desire to be aHowcd 
 to be put upon trial on the charge preferred against 
 him ; he had never shrunk from a trial, and had no 
 w^ish that it should be waived. He complained that 
 the District Attorney had refused him a list of the 
 witnesses on whose evidence the Grand Jury, at Al- 
 bany, had found the indictment, and thought they 
 . ought to ai;)pear before the Petit Jury. 
 
 This memorial was presented on the 19th of June, 
 1839, and the trial commenced before the United 
 States Circuit Court, on the next morning. It lasted 
 two days. The recognizances, into which Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie had entered, having expired some time before, 
 and not having been renewed, his appearance before 
 the court was a voluntary act. The judges were 
 Messrs. Smith Thompson, of the United States Su- 
 preme Court, and Alfred Conklin, Circuit judge of the 
 jS'orthern Division of New York. The prosecution 
 was conducted by Mr. N^. S. Benton, United States 
 District Attorney. Mr. Mackenzie, as had been his 
 custoni in cases of libel, undertook his own defence. 
 No jurors were challenged.* The jury appears, how- 
 ever, to have been irregularly struck. The sheriff, a 
 
 * The Jurors who tried the case were all from Ontario, one of the counties 
 forming the District, viz : 
 
 Dr. Otis Fuller, Naples, Foreman ; Alfred Nichols, Naples; "William Carter, 
 E. Bloomfield; Andrew Rowley, Victor ; Ezra Newton, Hopewell ; Jacob Sal- 
 paugh, Manchester ; D. Benton Pitts, Eichmond ; Seth Gates, Phelps ; Moses 
 Black, Seneca; James P. Stanton, Gorham ; Valent:ne Stoddard, Canadico ; 
 Booth P. Fairchild, Canandaigua.
 
 THE CAXAHIAX REBELLION". 2ij 
 
 count}" judge, and the county clerk were required hy 
 the hxw of JNTew York to be present at the drawing 
 of juries; and several weeks' public notice of the day 
 of drawing was required to be given. These condi- 
 tions were not complied with in this case. A deputy 
 of Marshal Garrow, who had been on a species of de- 
 tective frontier service, drew the jury in the presence 
 of the county clerk. Nor was the requisite notice 
 giveii 
 
 The indictment under a law of 1794, and another of 
 1818, never before put into execution,'^ charged the 
 defendant with setting on foot a military enterprise, at 
 Buffalo, to be carried on against Upper Canada, a part 
 of the Queen's dominions, at a time when the United 
 States were at peace with Her Majesty; with having 
 provided the means for the prosecution of the expe- 
 dition ; and with having done all this within the do- 
 minion and territory, and against the peace, of the 
 United States. It was stated in evidence, though 
 afterwards denied by persons present, and in opposi- 
 tion to all the printed rej^orts of the meetings at the 
 ^ime, that Mr. Mackenzie, at a meeting in the Buffalo 
 heatre, in the winter of 1837, called upon the people 
 f the States to imitate the example France had set 
 hem in their own case, of aiding a revolution in an- 
 ther country ; that, at Black Rock, lie had stated, 
 u reference to four or five wagon loads of muskets on 
 
 * In the case of Texas there had, in 1835, been open enlistments; and Mr. 
 Jrioe, who held the office of District Attorney for Southern New York, then 
 gave it as his opinion that the law of 1818 did not make it penal to combine or 
 confederate to promote expeditions against Texas, a part of Mexico with the 
 government of which the United States were at peace. Money was borrowed 
 in "Wall Street and stocks issued on the security of lan^s to be conquerea.
 
 246 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 their way to Xavy Island, that they would be of great 
 use to the Patriots ;* and thaC on two several occasions, 
 while the forces were on Navy Island, he was there ; 
 that a proclamation — a copy of which was exhibited 
 — the incomplete proof sheets of which were sent to 
 defendant to read, was printed at Buffalo and sent to 
 Navy Island. After the evidence for the prosecution 
 was concluded, Mr. Mackenzie addressed the jury for 
 six hours. " His speech," says a Rochester paper,f 
 " was really a powerful effort. He enchained the 
 audience, and at its conclusion, if a vote had been taken 
 for his conviction or liberation, he would have had a 
 strong vote in his favor." 
 
 The averments in the indictment were certainly not 
 all fully made out. The calling on the Americans for 
 assistance was not setting on foot an expedition ; 
 and it was certainly not shown that Mr. Mackenzie 
 furnished the means. He had lost everything he pos- 
 sessed by the outbreak in Canada ; and after leaving 
 Navy Island he had to pledge his gold watch to raise 
 money to take him and Mrs. Mackenzie to Rochester, 
 But the jury overlooked these refinements, and went 
 upon the broad fact of his undoubted connection with 
 the Navy Island expedition. He defended himself 
 at great length and with much ability ; often going, it 
 may be, in the range of his arguments, beyond the 
 limits usually taken by counsel in such cases. He 
 
 * These arms had been taken from the Court House at Buffalo; regarding 
 which transaction, Mr. Mackenzie said in his address to the Ja"* "lean 
 and do solemnly declare before God and man, and I absolve all aien from 
 secresy in the mattei, that I knew nothing of the intention of any person ta 
 take these arms." 
 
 ■(• The Daily Democrat.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 247 
 
 showed what the French did for the Americans, in 
 their revolution ; what the Dutch did for the English ; 
 what the United States had done for, and in, Texas ; 
 and how they had fitted out an expedition to Greece, 
 in violation of their treaty obligations with Turkey. 
 " I think it hard," he said, " to be singled out and 
 dragged here at this time ; but as I require an asylum 
 in your country, 1 am bound, and I do sincerely wish, 
 to pay the utmost respect to your laws. Indeed it is 
 admiration of your free institutions which, strange as 
 it may seem, has brought me here to-day." He 
 pointed out the anomaly of allowing their own citizens 
 to escape, while he and one other foreigner were 
 pounced upon. " The processes," he remarked, "were 
 innumerable, the fees beyond precedent; the convic- 
 tions may be — George Washington Case and William 
 Lyon Mackenzie, aliens ; but of Romans not one !" * 
 " We are poor, exiles, refugees, wanderers in your 
 land, little cared for, or indeed despised ; and is not 
 this misery enough ? Must we be placed as felons and 
 criminals before your people, and singled out for the 
 cell, the victims of British interest, British influence, 
 and British gold ? Surely you will never say it ! 
 Such a verdict would consign me to a prison, and 
 leave my children without bread ; but to you it would 
 be perpetual infamy. The civilized world would cry 
 shame upon the base hypocrisy of such truculent policy ." 
 He seems to have felt that the freedom with which 
 he dwelt on the partiality and inconsistency of the 
 
 * Bierce, who had led the Windsor expedition, was not molested, nor had 
 other Americans who took a leading part in the Prescott expedition befn 
 brought to trial by the Federal Government, though their guilt whs notorious 
 82
 
 248 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 American Government, might not help his case ; but 
 that consideration did not restrain him. " I have 
 been told," he remarked to the jury, "to say pleasant 
 things to you, to use honied words, and avoid any 
 topic that might touch the national pride or wound 
 the national vanity; but as I did not stoop to flatter 
 power in the few on the other side of the great lakes, 
 it is not likely that I shall cringe to it here, as appar- 
 ently vested in the many." He told them, very 
 plainly, what had been their traditional policy, in re- 
 gard to Canada. 
 
 " Why," he asked, " should there be deception used? 
 You want Canada. I know it. I never yet talked seri- 
 ously to an American, who did not admit a desire to see 
 European government removed from the North. Your 
 verdict against me would blind nobody to your real views. 
 Look back. In 1774 your Congress bade Canada revolt, 
 and in 1775 Washington sent messengers to jN'ova 
 Scotia for the like purpose. The same year he wrote 
 to R. H. Lee, (see Washington's writings, pp. 173 
 and 174,) ' Would it not be politic to invite the Ca- 
 nadians to send members to Congress?' The commit- 
 tee of your Congress, at same time, wrote Gen. Schuy- 
 ler, ' Congress desires you to exert your utmost endea- 
 vor to accede to a union with these colonies, and that 
 they form from their parishes a provincial convention, 
 and send delegates to this Congress.'. Again, (p. 70,) 
 General Washington writes Arnold and his officers, 
 '" to consider themselves as marching, not through the 
 country of an enemy, but of our friends and brethren, 
 for such the inhabitants of Canada have proved them- 
 selves to be in this unhappy content.' And again,
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 249 
 
 ''vol. 5, p. 389,) General Washington writes Landon 
 Carter, ' The accounts you had received of the acces- 
 sion of Canada to the Union were premature. It is a 
 laeasure much to be wished, and I believe would not 
 be displeasing to the people ; but, while Carleton re- 
 mains among them, with three or four thousand regu- 
 lar troops, they dare not avow their sentiments, if 
 they really are favorable, without a strong support. 
 Your ideas of its importance to our political union co- 
 incide exactly with mine. If that country is not with 
 us, from its proximity to the Eastern States, its inter- 
 course and connection with numerous tribes of western 
 Indians, its communion with them by water, and other 
 local advantages, it will be at least a troublesome if 
 not a dangerous neighbor to us ; and ought, at all 
 events, to be in the same interest and politics as the 
 other States.' Why was this union not then consum- 
 mated ? Because they were treated as now. They 
 assisted Gren. Montgomery with men, carriages, and 
 provisions on all occasions. When he was before 
 Quebec many parishes offered him their aid as volun- 
 teers, and were refused — the peasantry were ill-used 
 and plundered of their property — and their religion 
 made a mockery of — neither was a force sent to pro- 
 tect them. (Sparke's Washington, 3, p. 361, 2.) The 
 generous Lafayette, too, writes John Jay, from Paris, 
 1787 : ' I was nine years ago honored with the choice 
 of Congress, to command an army into Canada, and 
 never have I ceased to enjoy the prospect of its en- 
 franchisement.' (Sparke's Diplom. Cor. 10, p. 64.) 
 He had not changed his opinions in 1818, nor when 
 here in 1824, as I know from his conversation with
 
 250 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 in3^se]f. Had he lived to this day he would have been 
 ashamed of and grieved at this prosecutiv^n, and so 
 will many more of the best friends of free institutions. 
 John Jay, to whom he wrote, was so impressed with 
 the importance of the Canadas that he included them 
 as a part of the States in his arrangements for the 
 treaty of 1783. John Adams was for continuing the 
 war with England after 1782, rather than not hare 
 the Canalas free. He writes Samuel Adams: 'As 
 long as Great Britain shall have Canada, Nova Scotia, 
 and the Floridas, so long will Grreat Britain be the 
 enemy of the United States, let her disguise it as 
 much as she will.' (Sparke's 10, p. 257.) And, (p. 
 316,) ' If peace should unhappily be made, leaving 
 Canada, Nova Scotia, or the Floridas, or any of them, 
 in her hands, jealousies and controversies will be per- 
 j^etually arising.' And Benjamin Franklin was fully 
 impressed with the deep importance of possessing the 
 northern colonies. Congress, too, in the first consti- 
 tution, unanimously oifered free entrance to the dele- 
 gates of Canada to Congress without even the formal- 
 ity of a vote of States. On the 8th of May, 1778, 
 Congress addressed your country, and told the people 
 to ' expect not peace while an}^ corner in America is 
 in the possession of your foes. You must drive them 
 away from this land of promise, a land flowing with 
 milk and honey. Your brethren at the extremities 
 of the continent already implore your friendship and 
 protection. It is your duty to grant their request. 
 They hunger and thirst after liberty. Be it yours to 
 dispense to them the heavenly gift. And what is 
 there to prevent it?' In 1812, the one thing wanted
 
 THE CANADIAT^ REBELLION. 251 
 
 was Canada, and ' the means were provided' in the 
 person of Greneral Hull, whom you afterwards sen- 
 tenced to be shot. Do the 18,000 sokliers, the flower 
 of the English army, the pleasantries occurring daily 
 on 3,000 miles of frontier, the territory connecting 
 England with the Indians on your rear, the Maine 
 boundary, and the St, Lawrence navigation, afford 
 evidence that Canada has ceased to be to you an ob- 
 ject of deep solicitude? And if not, what will the world 
 say of the motives which dictated this prosecution?"* 
 The court admitted that the " mere meeting together 
 of individuals, or the raising of money or the collec- 
 tion of arms," referred to by the defendant, " to send 
 to Texas, was no violation of the law;" because these 
 acts did not constitute the fitting out of an expedition. 
 And Judge Thompson was careful to tell American 
 citizens exactly how far they could go without overstep- 
 ping the limits of the law. They could give their 
 sympathy a practical shape by personally carrying to 
 the oppressed money and supplies.f He added that, 
 
 * When the question of annexing Canada to the United States was raised, 
 within the Province, in 1849, Mr. Mackenzie counted about a thousand United 
 States newspapers, North and South, that gave a favorable response ; while, if 
 I recollect rightly, he told me he did not find one seriously opposed to the project. 
 
 ■)■ The same opinion had before been judicially given in the case of Texas. 
 In 1835, the matter being brought before the Grand Jury of the Circuit Court 
 of New York, they asked the opinion of the judge on the effect of the law of 
 April 20th, 1818, and the reply was: "This section [612] applies only to 
 military expeditions and enterprises to be carried on from the United States 
 against any foreign power with which we are at peace. No person shall begin 
 or set on foot or provide the means for any military expedition or enterprise, 
 to be carried on from thence ; that is, from the United States or the territory 
 within their jurisdiction. Donations in money or any thing else to the in- 
 habitants of Texas, to enable them to engage in a civil war with the sovereignty 
 of Mexico, is in no sense beginning or setting on foot, or providing the means
 
 252 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 in the case of Canada, he had no doubt, the " oppress- 
 ions detailed by the defendant really existed or do ex- 
 ist, and that all the zeal he has displayed has been the 
 zeal of a patriot." But the greater part of the judge's 
 charge bore strongly against the defendant. He told 
 the jury they must accept the law from him ; and he 
 told them to assume a great many things which had 
 not been matter of proof, but which were to be ac- 
 cepted as facts, such as that Canada was a Province 
 of England, and that Queen Victoria had succeeded to 
 the rights of William IV. 
 
 At two o'clock the jury retired; at half past four 
 they sent for a copy of the statutes of Congress, and at 
 five they came into court with a verdict of " guilty." 
 The defendant gave eighteen reasons why the sentence 
 to be passed upon him should be merely nominal. The 
 court had power to imprison for three years and levy 
 a fine of $3,000; but Judge Thompson took into con- 
 sideration that this was the first trial under a law 
 passed in 1794, that the defendant had evidently been 
 ignorant of its provision, that the case involved no 
 moral turpitude, and that the defendant had acted with 
 a zeal which actuates men who, however mistaken, 
 think they are right. The sentence was that he should 
 be confined in the county jail of Monroe, for eighteen 
 months, and pay a fine of ten dollars. 
 
 The irregularity in drafting the jury having been 
 now discovered, Mr. Mackenzie brought it before 
 the notice of the court, but Judge Conklin said it had 
 
 for a militarj'- expedition from the TTnited State-J or their t^^rritory. The 
 answer therefore to the question put by the Orand Jury i.s, th:it the fact? do 
 not amount to any offence under the Gth section of the act referred to."
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION". 253 
 
 been done under an order of the court. The exile, 
 convicted of a breach of neutrality, in which Marshal 
 Garrow had declared three-fourths of the people of 
 Buffalo had been concerned, was ordered and con- 
 ducted to jail by Deputy Marshal Macfarlane, and 
 placed under close confinement. He was, however, 
 permitted to go to his house, on the way. His wife's 
 sister, Mrs. John Mcintosh, and her husband, had come 
 from Toronto to see him, for the first time since the 
 rebellion at Toronto. When he went to the jail, ac- 
 companied by Mr. Mcintosh, he expected that he 
 would be allowed to return home for the night ; but 
 when he was once within the walls of the dungeon its 
 doors were closed upon him. 
 
 The room assigned to Mr. Mackenzie was in the 
 third story. To reach it you pass into a wide passage 
 from the main entrance, on the ground floor through 
 the ofiice and a second door; thence through a door 
 on the right leading to a flight of straight iron-shod 
 stairs, with an iron railing on one side and a wall on 
 the other ; then, from this landing, by a ladder, through 
 a trap door fastened by bar and lock, into a large room 
 extending over one entire side of the prison. In this 
 room, where criminals whose lives have been forfeited 
 by their crimes are strangled, were dangling ropes 
 and other hideous apparatus of death. You pass by 
 an ascent of a few steps through a side door into a 
 corridor, at the upper end of which, on the left side, 
 was the room set apart for William Lyon Mackenzie. 
 As you pass up the corridor you cannot fail to see, 
 through the lattice-b/irred door, on the right, the crowd 
 of abandoned women, who divide their time between
 
 254 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, A'NB 
 
 that apartment and the streets of Rochester. This 
 was the only way in which the political prisoner could 
 be reached by his family, or friends ; and they were 
 exposed, while on their passage through the jail, to 
 the coarse jests of brutal men, and the ostentatious 
 brutalities of still more brutal women. 
 
 Ephraim Grilbert, the jailer, had fallen into the exact 
 niche which ]!^ature designed him to fill. He was 
 of low stature, and looked as if he had seen about 
 fifty-five wilting summers and as man}'- very hard 
 winters. He had an exaggerated hook nose, fleshless, 
 fallen-in cheeks, over which JS'ature seemed to have 
 grudged him skin enough to spread. His sunken eyes, 
 round and peering, combined with a long habit of 
 watching, gave him a tiger-like appearance. His 
 nails, long and filthy, resembled tlie claws of an animal 
 perpetually digging in the dirt. His whole aspect was 
 of that sinister cast which caused one to shrink from 
 a contact with him. You felt, in regarding l]im, that, 
 if cast into the sea, he Avould have more power to 
 pollute it, than it Avould have to purify him. 
 
 For the first three months of his confinement, Mr, 
 Mackenzie was shut up in a single room, with an iron 
 door, which he was never once allowed to pass. 
 
 " "Within a cell — a barred and lonely cell — 
 He musing stands. Upon his limbs no chain 
 To wake him from his trance-like spell 
 And clanking, -writhe his heart in deeper pain. 
 
 " What was his crime ? His country's love ! 
 For her he fain had freedom gained ; 
 This was th' offence. For well he strove — 
 And failing — freedom's star too would.
 
 THE CAI^ADIAI^^ REBELLION. 255 
 
 " He sought a home among the bravely free, 
 He called for aid — for arms to crush the foe — 
 And asked if freedom's sons would tamely see 
 Their brothers sink beneath the victor's blow. 
 
 " For this he finds a cell ! — a prisoner lone ! 
 For this immured I he's torn from freedom's light ! 
 And still he hopes — still speaks in trumpet tone 
 Against the ills which his own country blight."* 
 
 When the room in which he was placed had to* 
 undergo extensive repairs — being new floored and 
 plastered, and getting a new door — he was allowed a 
 little more freedom ; but the moment the plaster was 
 dry, he was again subjected to the same close confine- 
 ment. Except his own family scarcely any friend was 
 permitted to see him ; though he was kept on constant 
 exhibition by the jailer, crowds of strangers being 
 allowed to feast their eyes upon a live rebel leader. 
 Having a perhaps somewhat morbid fear that he might 
 be poisoned if he accepted food at the hands of the 
 jailer, his meals were regularly taken from his own 
 house ; and sometimes his children were refused ad- 
 mission to him. Besides, if he had accepted the jail 
 fare, all he would hav^e got would have been a prepa- 
 ration of Indian corn called " mush," and molasses and 
 sour bread ; and only two meals a day at that. On 
 Sundays no one was ever allowed to visit him. During 
 the first three months, he gave the jailers $36 for per- 
 mitting his friends to visit him ; but when he had no ' 
 more to give, they began to refuse admission to visit- 
 ors they did not know ; and if admitted they were sent 
 away immediately after three o'clock P. M. Twice, 
 
 * These with three additional verses, dated Lockport, September 24th, 1839, 
 were published October 5th, 1839, under the signature of " Hamish." 
 83
 
 256 LIFE ')F MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 when lie was sick, his physicians were refused admit- 
 tance. Built on low marshy ground, the jail is sur 
 rounded with stagnant water during the greater part 
 of the year ; and as Mr. Mackenzie was particularly 
 susceptible of miasmatic influence, he suffered severely 
 from the debilitating effects of marsh fever, and was 
 a good deal dispirited. Medical certificates that 
 the close confinement had a very injurious effect on 
 his health having been laid before the Board of Super- 
 visors, they, without having an}^ power in the matter, 
 suggested that he should be permitted a little more 
 exercise within the walls of the building. " The 
 charges upon which Mr. Mackenzie was convicted," 
 they said, " are not looked upon by the community as 
 ver}^ venial nor in any way compromising his moral 
 character, and therefore would frown down indignantly 
 upon an}^ extraordinary enforcement of official author- 
 ity." But the jailer and the sheriff did not allow him 
 as much freedom as the supervisors had suggested. 
 From June to December, he was never once permitted 
 to breath the free air. Unless Mrs. Mackenzie or 
 some of his little children remained with him, he 
 never saw a human being after dark ; and when they 
 wanted to go away, they would often have to remain 
 an hour, knocking at the door, before any one would 
 appear to let them out ; and they, not unfrequently, 
 suffered detention of greater or less duration — some- 
 times extending to an hour — at some of the stages 
 from the outer door of the prison to his room. At the 
 same time, there was laxity enough in some parts of 
 the Monroe prison discipline. Criminals were allowed 
 to leave the jail, to visit their families, to frequent
 
 THE CANADIAN KEBELLION. 257 
 
 taverns, and roam about the town. Names and par- 
 ticulars were giv^en in proof of this laxity of disci- 
 pline. 
 
 On the 12th of October, 1839, the imprisoned fugi- 
 tive had a narrow escape for his life. A little before 
 noon, as he was standing at one of the windows, look- 
 ing out to see whether a friend, Mr. Kennedy, was 
 joming, a slug shot coming through one of the panes 
 whizzed past him and penetrated the plaster on the 
 Dpposite side of the room. He opened the window 
 and asked the jailer's boy, who was outside, if he saw 
 any one in the direction whence the shot must have 
 come. The boy said he had not. "Who fired the 
 shot," said Mr. Mackenzie, in a private letter, " I shall 
 probably never know ;" but, with the expectation of lon- 
 gevity, which he always entertained, he added that the 
 escape afforded " another chance for old age, with the 
 pains and penalties attached to it." The jailer, on in- 
 quiry, learned that a tall, stout man, with a gun in his 
 hand and a dog by his side — having the appearance 
 of a sportsman — had been seen beyond the mill-race, 
 whence the shot must have come, about the time of 
 the occurrence. A buckshot was found to have pene- 
 trated one of the adjoining windows, and several others 
 struck the wall. At the time of the occurrence, the 
 stone-breakers, who were usuall}^ in the jail-^^ard, were 
 at dinner, and Mr. Mackenzie had onlyjust approached 
 the window. The blasting of rocks was going on in 
 the vicinity, so that the discharge of a gun would not 
 be likely to attract much attention. In Buffalo, in 
 1838, he had been warned that assassins were on his 
 track, and a vi ung man, about his size, a brother of
 
 258 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 General Scott's secretary, had been assassinated under 
 circumstances which gave rise to the suspicion that he 
 had been mistaken for Mr. JMackenzie. 
 
 By this time the effects of the close confinement in 
 the room of a jail, surrounded by miasma, had broken 
 the luckless prisoner's health. He could not take the 
 food which his children regularly carried to him, and 
 medicine seemed to give no relief. His means were ex- 
 hausted, and the approach of a gloomy winter inclined 
 him to despair. He had depending on him a mother, 
 ninety years of age, a wife in delicate health, and six 
 helpless children. He became impressed with the 
 idea that he could not survive fourteen months more 
 of such confinement. The wet weather, which was set- 
 ting in, rendered the visits of his family more difficult. 
 Memorials, numerously signed, sent to the Executive 
 for his release^ remained unanswered. He had a,])- 
 plied, through a friend, to be permitted the limits of 
 the city, on giving security not to go beyond them, and 
 been refused. He now, October 23, 1839, memorial- 
 ized the President himself. He offered to give up the 
 publication of his paper for the remaining fourteen 
 months of his term, to go to any part of any State, whe- 
 ther north of Albany or south to l^ew Orleans, or, as an 
 alternative to continued imprisonment, even to accept 
 transportation to Texas. *' Better it were," he said, 
 to President Van Buren, "at once to, give me up to 
 the power of England than thus destroy my constitu- 
 tion and deprive my helpless infants of protection," 
 On the day that this memorial was written, the Secre- 
 tary of State, Mr. Forsyth, instructed Marshal Gar- 
 row to see that no unnecessary severitv was inflicted
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 259 
 
 on the prisoner, but the propositions in the memorial 
 received no attention from the President. From the 
 first the Secretary of State had approached the matter 
 with the greatest reluctance, and would have avoided 
 it altogether if he could. 
 
 When Mr. Mackenzie memorialized the President, 
 he had become alarmed, from the accounts given him 
 by Mrs. Mackenzie, for the health of one of his chil- 
 dren. He was not permitted to go to see her. '' My 
 dear little girl," he said, " grew worse and worse ; she 
 was wasted to a skeleton ; but I, who had watched over 
 her in a former illness, and procured the best physi- 
 cians and surgeons Toronto could afford, durst not 
 even visit her. I had followed four of her sisters and 
 a brother to the churchyard, but I might not look upon 
 her. Messrs. Poinsett, Van Buren, and Forsyth, with 
 Judges Conklin and Thompson, Marshal Garrow, and 
 Sheriff Perrin, would not even bestow that privilege. 
 One fine day she was carried, with the physician's con- 
 sent, to the prison, and her mother and I watched her 
 for forty-eight hours, but the jailer vexed us so that 
 she had to be taken home again where she was soon 
 in the utmost danger, and when her poor little sister 
 comes to tell me how she is at dusk in the evening, 
 the jailer will tell her to wait in the public place in 
 the jail, perhaps for an hour or more, till supper 
 comes as he can't be put to the trouble of opening 
 my cage twice." 
 
 By the middle of November, the memorials for the 
 release of the political prisoner had been signed by 
 between fifty and sixty thousand persons. The exer- 
 tions made had procured him a larger space to walk
 
 26(il LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 in ; medicine had, at last, produced a salutary effect, 
 and he was better in health. He was allowed to walk 
 in the hall into which his room opened, and to take 
 exercise six hours in the day, in the attic, which ex- 
 tended over the entire building. 
 
 In December, an event occurred which had a seri- 
 ous effect upon the captive exile's health and spirits. 
 His aged mother, to whom he was devotedly attached, 
 sickened and died. When, after making all the efforts 
 he could to be allowed to go see her on her death-bed, 
 he had come to the conclusion that he would not be 
 permitted to do so, he addressed to her a farewell 
 letter, full of the affection he had always borne to- 
 wards her.* But when all efforts to obtain the desired 
 
 * It is without date, and is as follows : — 
 
 "My Dear Mother: — I entertain feelings of the deepest and most lasting 
 gratitude to you for your kindness to me in youth, for your tender care over 
 me, for the education you gave me, and for the many manifestations of sincere 
 and undoubted affection you have shown towards me. The doctor tells me you 
 are dying, and it is very hard that the cruel government people will not let 
 me take a last farewell at your bed-side, but they will not do it. I, therefore, 
 write these lines, which some friend will read to you, I hope, and bring me your 
 answer, and any word you have to send me. Onr last meeting here in the jail 
 was along and happy one. I did not think that it would be the last, but I fear the 
 hard hearted Americans will grant no relief. The will of that Power to whom 
 you have so fervently prayed for many a year be done. "We must submit. If all 
 the wealth of the world were mine, and it would carry me to your bedside. I 
 would give it freely. But wealthi havenone, andof justice there is butlittlehere. 
 I think we will before long get out of this difBculty; that I will be at liberty; 
 that the family will again be comfortable ; and sorrow fills my heart when I 
 am told that you will not have your aged eyes comforted by the sight. "When 
 [I was] in London, you sent me several texts to comfort me. One of them, 
 the Ninety-first Psalm, from first verse down to the ninth, will surely now be 
 yoiir great strength. If aught that I could do would spare you a little longer, 
 how glad would I be to do it, for I cherish for you the warmest and most abid- 
 ing affection ; but if your houj is come, alas ! I can do nothing I will write 
 again to-morrow."
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 261 
 
 interTiew appeared to liave failed — when the entrea- 
 ties of Mrs. Mackenzie and the exertions of a number 
 of prominent citizens of Rochester had proved fruit- 
 less — Mr. John Montgomery hit upon an expedient by 
 which it was accomplished. He was keeping a hotel, 
 and one of his boarders was in his debt. It was ar- 
 ranged that the boarder should be sued and Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie brought out as a witness, under a writ of Ha- 
 heas Corpus ad 7 espondendum. Mr. Montgomery in- 
 duced the State Attorney to give permission to hold 
 the ccurt in Mr. Mackenzie's house. At first, the 
 sheriff flatly refused to obey the writ, but on consult- 
 ing Judge Gardner he concluded that it was better to 
 comply, and he and Ephraim, the jailer, accompanied 
 Mr. Mackenzie to his house. The ma^-istrate was not 
 very punctual in arriving ; he was very kind and very 
 cold when he did arrive, and was some time before he 
 got sufficiently warmed to open his court; and when 
 it did open witnesses who had nothing particular to 
 say were examined at considerable length. By this 
 stratagem, Mr. Mackenzie's last interview with his 
 aged and dying mother was protracted five or six 
 hours. It was an affecting scene. The mother was 
 leaving an only son, overwdielmed with calamities: 
 failing health — for the ague had again returned upon 
 liim — increasing poverty; a helpless family depend- 
 ent upon him ; and a prison for his home. The jailer 
 and the sheriff were waiting, in a room adjoining that 
 into which the door of the bed-room opened,- and the 
 interview must come to a close. Summoning, for the 
 last time, all her fortitude, the dying mother pro- 
 nounced the last farewell, bidding her son trust ia
 
 262 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 God and fear not. " I asked her," he wroto a few 
 da^^s after, " if she had that comfort for the future 
 which she expected in former years, and found that 
 *he was as happy in the prospect of a blessed eternity, 
 as tlie most steadfast martyr of ancient days." The ex- 
 pectation of seeing him had kept her up for some days, 
 and though she conversed freely while he was present, 
 she never spoke after he had gone back to his dreary- 
 prison. Mr. Clark, the magistrate, who was father 
 of " Grace Greenwood," wept like a child at what he 
 had witnessed, on his return home. 
 
 From the windows of his dungeon, the political 
 prisoner could see pass the funeral of his mother, 
 which he was not permitted to attend. His agony was 
 intense. While his mother was known to be dying, 
 and at the time of her funeral, a friend remained with 
 him in the prison. He never, till released, recovered 
 from the effects of this blow occasioned by his mo- 
 ther's death. 
 
 Mr. Secretary Forsyth's instructions to Marshal 
 Garrow had not the desired effect of producing any 
 considerable mitigation of the severity to which the 
 prisoner had been subjected. On the 14th of January, 
 1840, he memorialized Mr. Seward, Governor of the 
 State of New York, on the subject. But the laws of 
 the State gave that functionary no power to act in 
 a matter which concerned the United States alone. 
 *' JN'evertheless," said Governor Seward, in his reply 
 of the 27th of the same month, " I acknowledge most 
 freely that your offence being of a political character, 
 I think it is to be regarded in a very different light 
 from crimes involving moral turpitude, and that a
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELT.ION. 263 
 
 distinction ought to be made as far as possible between 
 the treatment of persons convicted of political offences 
 and those of the other class ;" and he wrote to the 
 Sheriff of Monroe County expressing this opinion and 
 the desire that the prisoner's position might be made 
 as comfortable as possible. Besides he did not fail to 
 make it understood that, in his opinion, almost every 
 thing depended, in such a case, upon "the kindness, 
 humanity, and discretion of the sheriff and jailer." 
 
 This correspondence having been brought under the 
 notice of the President, Mr. Forsyth was instructed, 
 on the 20th February, 1840, to express to Marshal 
 Grarrow the willingness of the Chief Magistrate of the 
 Republic " that Mr. Mackenzie should have the bene- 
 fit of any indulgence, consistent with a just execution 
 of the law, which is extended to j^ersons undergoing 
 punishment for analogous offences committed under 
 the laws of the State." But these instructions pro- 
 duced no effect, and further complaints being made, 
 the President found it necessary to rap the underlings 
 on the knuckles for their inhumanity and disobedience 
 of orders. Mr. Marshal Grarrow gave himself not the 
 least trouble on the subject. He neither visited the 
 prison nor notified the sheriff or jailer of the instruc- 
 tions he had received. In the meantime, memorials 
 for the release of the political prisoner, signed by im- 
 mense numbers of persons, continued to reach the 
 President ; and Dr. Webster, of Geneva College, and 
 Dr. Smiles, of Rochester, certified that the close con- 
 finement " has an injurious effect on his highly suscep- 
 tible nervous system ;" and that out-door exercise was 
 absolutely necessary to sustain his general health. 
 
 84
 
 264 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 It was under these circumstances, that the President'? 
 instructions to Marshal Grarrow were repeated with 
 something like a reprimand to that official for his re 
 missness. " The directions you received from this de- 
 partment," said Mr. Secretary Forsyth, under date 
 Washington, April 14, 1840, " were given in a spirit 
 entirely favorable to the application of Mr. Macken- 
 zie, and conformable to the views which the Governor 
 of New York, and the friends who have been in cor- 
 respondence with Mr. Mackenzie on the subject, liave 
 expressed in their letters to him." " It was sufficiently 
 known," he adds, at this department, " that no cases 
 entirely similar to that of Mr. Mackenzie, which grew 
 out of an act of Federal legislation, could arise under 
 the laws of the State of JS'ew York. The words ' an- 
 alogous (not similar) offences' were therefore used, 
 and intended to point to offences of a political charac- 
 ter." " It was therefore to the manner of executing 
 sentences incurred under the laws of the State for of- 
 fences of that character that your instructions directed 
 you to conform ; and they were supposed to be suffi- 
 ciently definite to convey that idea." 
 
 In what way it was customary to treat such prison- 
 ers, Mr. J. C. Sponsor, in a letter w^hicli had found its 
 way to the Department of State, described. Mr, 
 Mackenzie's offence, Mr. Sponsor showed, differed 
 " from all offences under State laws in being political 
 in its character, and in no respect involving the vio- 
 lation of private rights. It is in fact less heinous," 
 he added, " than the misdemeanors recognized by our 
 (the State) laws. The treatment of prisoners of that 
 grade has always been more mild and lenient than
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLrOX. 265 
 
 that of felons. The secure detention of their persons 
 has been supposed to he the principal object of the 
 law. They have accordingly been confined in the 
 same kind uf apartment usually assigned, to impris- 
 oned debtors ; have been allowed the free exercise of 
 tlie jail yard, and to take exercise in any part of the 
 building. Their food has usually been supplied by 
 themselves or their friends, and they have not been 
 confined to the prison diet. In fine, every indulgence 
 consistent with their safe keeping has, so far as my 
 knowledge extends, been granted to them." The 
 President, through Mr. Forsyth, instructed Marshal 
 Garrow to make Mr. Sponsor's statements his rule of 
 action in Mr. Mackenzie's case. 
 
 Mr. Garrow took his time to attend to this second 
 order. Eight days after Mr. Forsyth's letter had 
 been written, he had paid no attention to it. On the 
 22nd April, the political prisoner thus described how 
 the dreary months of confinement had been spent: 
 " This is the eleventh month of my confinement. For 
 about three months I never crossed the threshold of 
 one solitary prison room for a day. For the last three 
 months I have not been allowed to go down stairs, 
 even inside, but am kept continually in the upper story 
 of the building. The door of my apartment opens 
 within five feet of the door of the female dungeon ; 
 and the women's cells are close by. The howling and 
 yelling of twelve or eighteen unhappy creatures at all 
 hours, night and day, I shall never forget. I am 
 locked up, as usual, like the felons in JSfewgate." On 
 the 25th April, the Sheriff ordered the jailer to allow
 
 266 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie the use of the jail j^ard * The rigor 
 of his punishment was now abated, and Mr. Macken- 
 zie was allowed to take exercise as prescribed in the 
 Sheriff's order, 
 
 ' One day, observing a stranded log in the mill race, 
 on one side of the grounds, he pushed it with a stick 
 to set it free ; and when it gave way, the force of the 
 motion by which it was dislodged carried him down into 
 the water. He was seen to go in ; and instantly the 
 rumor flew through the cit}^ that William Lyon Mac- 
 kenzie had attempted to commit suicide. He had on 
 a dressing gown which helped to buoy him up ; and 
 he got out without assistance, though not without dif- 
 ficulty. 
 
 The prisoner's birthda}^ was duly celebrated by a 
 number of friends, who dined with him in jail, on the 
 2-4th of March.' Some of them, contrary to rule, smug- 
 gled in wine in their pockets ; and towards the close 
 the veritable Ephraim Grilbert was sent for. His health 
 
 * The document is a literary curiosity : 
 
 KocHESTER, 25tli April, 1840. 
 
 Ephraim Gilbert, 
 
 Dear Sir. — You •will Let William L Mackenzie have Exercise in the 
 Yard or on the publick ground of the Jail Dureing such parts of the day time 
 as yoQ May deem nessary for the benefit of his health, and he is in no cas or 
 under any pretence whatever to go beyound the Limmits or bounds of the pub- 
 lict ground Connected with the Said Jail and he is not to be permitted to have 
 any Conversation with the Prisoners which air at work in and about the said 
 Yard or ground (a thing which I presume he will not have the Least desire to 
 do) and yon will also give him all other indulgences which you may think wiJl 
 be beneficial to his health, and with his safe keeping and that of all Prisoners 
 confind in Said Jail, and in giving thos indulgences I am in hopes and, I 
 think you may expect that Mr. Mackenzie will giv as little unnessary trou- 
 ble as posable under the circumstances and the Construction of the Prison. 
 Youers Respectfully, 
 
 Darius Perrin, Sherrif of Monroe County.
 
 THE CAXADIAX REBELLIOX. 267 
 
 was duly drunk, very much to his annoyance ; but 
 Gilbert could not well refuse to drink himself, and 
 with a little j^ressure he melted so far as to take a 
 forbidden glass. I find too a note dated January 1st, 
 1840, accompanying some " bottles of generous wine," 
 sent the prisoner by a friend; not the least acceptable 
 of the many communications he received, it may be 
 presumed.* 
 
 The memorials to the President for the prisoner's 
 release now had hundreds of thousands of signatures 
 attached to them. Congress had also been petitioned 
 on the subject. It is amusing to read the letters he 
 received on the question of his pardon. One could 
 not present a petition to Congress, because it would 
 be an interference with the power of the President. 
 Another had no objection to support a petition ; but it 
 would not do for him to bring forward a matter be- 
 longing to the members for jS'orthern 'New York. One 
 department of the government could not interfere, 
 lest it should encroach on another and separate branch 
 of the government. Some had peculiar notions about 
 
 * From Philadelpliia, a friend wrote him : 
 
 ♦« In the minority of James the Sixth, the Scottish Parliament was held (or 
 fenced, in the language of that time) in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, as a place 
 of strength. In my time a portrait of that King hung in the great ball of 
 that prison, and under, in gilt letters, the following verses as near as I can 
 recollect ■ 
 
 " ' A prison is a place of care, 
 A place where none can thrive, 
 A touch-stone true to try a friend, 
 A grave to bury one alive; 
 Sometimes a place of right, 
 Sometimes a place of wrong. 
 Sometimes a place of rogues and thieve> 
 And honest men among.' "
 
 268 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 the pardoning power ; and a fellow refugee acted the 
 part of the (3omforter by boldly declaring his opinion 
 that, as a matter of principle, the President was bound 
 to refuse to grant a pardon. "The President's posi- 
 tion in this matter," a friend wrote from Washington, 
 " is very peculiar, and such as you could hardly be 
 expected to appreciate in all its bearings. In addition 
 to the other obvious considerations that tie up his 
 hands in the matter, there is the high constitutional in- 
 delicac}^, if not impropriety, of the Executive stepping 
 behind the Judiciary and supplanting its functions." 
 Another friend assured him that the President had, 
 at Saratoga, declared to different persons that he should 
 not comply with 'the petitions for a pardon, unless 
 desired b}^ the British Government to release the 
 prisoner. Did that government present such a re- 
 quest? Or did the petitions become too numerous for 
 Mr. Yan Buren to resist ? The latter seems to be the 
 true explanation ; for Mr. Mackenzie was afterwards 
 informed, at Washington, tliat the President, adverse 
 to a release to the last, felt himself unable to resist 
 the demand of three hundred thousand petitioners. 
 About the 12th of April, Mr. Forsyth told a friend 
 that Mr. Mackenzie would soon be pardoned, but that 
 ,t was necessary to keep the matter secret for a few 
 iay^ ; and on Sunday evening the 10th ( f May, 1840, 
 he wa:? permitted to bid adieu to the horrors of what 
 liQ called *^he American B'^tile.
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 269 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Bad Effects of Mackenzie's Imprisonment on his Business — The Southern 
 States and Canada — Visit to Washington — The Democrats Friendly to the 
 Canadian Patriots — Matured Opinion of Society in the States — Mnckenzie".' 
 Last Gazette — Schemes for gettins: him into the Clutches of the Canadian 
 Government — A Kidnapping Enterprise — Systematic Arrangement of his 
 Papers — Asks to he Admitted to Practice at the Bar — Poverty — " The 
 Volunteer" — The Gold' Medal 3Ielted — Alackenzie O|ino?ed to New Fron- 
 tier Movements — John S. Hogan and Dr. A. K. McKenzie enter into a 
 Conspiracy to bring about a War between England and the United States — 
 Mackenzie's ("VV. L.) House takes Fire — He regrets the attempt at Eevolu- 
 tion in Canada — Removes to New York — Again denounces Frontier Move- 
 ments — Is appointed Actuary of the New York Mechani(!s Institute — Com- 
 mences '* Sons of the Emerald Isle" — Resigns Situation of Actuary — Is nom- 
 inated to an Inspectorship in the New York Custom House — Publishes a few 
 Numbers of another Newspaper — Takes a large House on the strength of 
 his Expectations — Receives an Appointment in the Archives of the New 
 York Custom House — His Lives of Hoyt and Butler — '_' Life and Times of 
 Martin Van Buren" — Private Opinion of the Effect of Annexing Canada 
 to the States — Becomes Connected with the New York Tribune — Removes 
 to Albany, and attends the Convention for Revising the State Constitution 
 — Receives a generous offer from Mr. Bruce, and declines it — A Partial 
 Amnesty excludes Mackenzie — Death of one; of his daughter? — Regrets the 
 Rebellion — General Amnesty — Visits Canada — Rencounter with Col. Prince 
 — Is burnt in Effigy in Kingston and Toronto — Riot — Removes with his 
 
 Family to Canada — Is elected to the Legislative Assembly — In the House 
 
 His Hopeful Disposition — Traits of Character — The " Mackenzie Home- 
 stead" — Pecuniarj-- Embarrassments — Sickness and Death. 
 
 Though Mr. Mackenzie had exerted himself with 
 
 all the energy his enfeebled strength would permit 
 
 though he had continued to conduct his newspaper 
 and had compiled the Caroline Almanac which con-
 
 270 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 tained matter enougli, compressed in small type, to 
 have made a volume of respectable dimensions — ^his 
 business failed to thrive while he was imprisoned. 
 Till the death of his mother, the family never suffered 
 want ; but after that event, the gaunt spectre some- 
 times threatened to enter the door. But, in this re- 
 spect, there was still worse in store for them. 
 
 "The more I see of the South," Mr. Mackenzie wrote 
 privately ten days after his release ; " the more I see 
 it is our great enemy. It is southern slaveholding 
 influence that keeps Cuba dependent, distracts Mexico, 
 and enslaves Texas. That influence has crushed thus 
 far the American feeling for Canada." These views 
 were confirmed on a more intimate acquaintance with 
 the facts. 
 
 Shortly after his release from prison, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie revisited Washington and Philadelphia. At 
 Washington, he had private interviews with a num- 
 ber of senators and leading men from all parts of the 
 Union. "I heard much and saw much," he wrote 
 privately from Albany, on the 6th of July, on his way 
 back, "and am sure that we of the North have nothing 
 to hope from the party in power. Van Buren is with the 
 South, the English importer and the capitalist, who rule 
 this nation for their own advantage. There is much 
 and well founded discontent among northern members 
 — even of those who go with the party in power — and 
 some of them were so plain as to wish trouble on the 
 frontier — though I place no names here — while others 
 hinted that the North might push matters to the length 
 of a disunion from the slave-driving South." He still 
 hoped for the independence of Canada, to which he
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 271 
 
 was not permitted to return, and where rewards for 
 his apprehension, schemes for his extradition, and 
 plans to kidnap him were still kept alive ; and as the 
 result of his visit to \Yashington he felt, " on the 
 whole, greatly encouraged." His health was much 
 improved, and he was delighted with a day's visit to 
 the Catskill Mountains. 
 
 But, every thing considered, Mr. Mackenzie re- 
 garded the Democratic party as most friendly to Can- 
 ada ; and on the 27th of August, he privately ex- 
 pressed that opinion to a friend. " They would, even 
 if no war grew out of the Maine boundary question," 
 he said, " be friendly to us — " advocates of Canadian 
 independence — " and help us, while Webster and 
 Clay, with the whole British party at their back, 
 and old Black Cockade in the Presidential chair, 
 would go all lengths with the English Ministry to 
 crush us." 
 
 But the greater the exile's practical knowledge of 
 the working of American institutions, the less was the 
 admiration he had felt for them, when viewed from a 
 distance. " Over three years' residence in the United 
 States," he said in the last number of his Gazette^ on 
 the 23d of December, 1840, " and a closer observation 
 of the condition of society here, have lessened m}^ re- 
 grets at the results of the opposition raised to England 
 in Canada, in 1837-8. I have beheld the American peo- 
 ple give their dearest and most valued rights into the 
 keeping of the worst enemies of free institutions ; I 
 have seen monopoly and slavery triumph at their 
 popular elections, and witnessed with pain ' the bitter 
 fruits of that speculative spirit of enterprise to which,' 
 
 85
 
 272 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 as Presicleni Van Buren says in his late excellent 
 Message, his 'countrymen are so liable, and upon 
 which the lessons of experience are so unavailing;* 
 and although the leaders of parties here may not say 
 so to their followers, yet the conviction grows daily 
 stronger in my mind that your brethren of this Union 
 are rapidly hastening towards a state of gociety, in 
 which President, Senate, and House of Representa- 
 tives will fulfil the duties of King, Lords, and Com- 
 mons, and the power of the community pass from the 
 Democracy of numbers into the hands of an Aristoc- 
 racy, not of noble ancestry and ancient lineage, but of 
 monied monopolists, land-jobbers, and heartless poli- 
 ticians." 
 
 Soon after, the publication of the Gazette was closed, 
 the press and types were sold ; and the family sub- 
 sisted on the proceeds, so long as they lasted. The 
 injury inflicted on the publication by the absence of 
 Mr. Mackenzie's personal superintendence, while in 
 prison, was never overcome ; and the paper ceased to 
 l^e profitable before it ceased to exist. 
 
 The Canadian authorities resorted to every possible 
 expedient to get Mr. Mackenzie in their power, for 
 the purpose of strangling him. Rewards for his ap- 
 prehension were held out as a premium to kidnap- 
 pers ; and his personal and political enemies clubbed 
 their dollars into blood money to make the tempta- 
 tion strong enough for some vile man -catcher to un- 
 dertake the detestable speculation. In the winter of 
 1838, a Canadian judge wrote to an American judge, 
 suggesting the " exchange" of Mackenzie for a num-
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 273 
 
 "ber of Prescott and Windsor prisoners.* The offer 
 embraced a hundred for one ; and while the men to be 
 given up were guilty of invading Canada, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie, for whom it was proposed to exchange them, 
 had had no connection whatever with the expeditions. 
 Coming from an old political enemy like Judge Jones, 
 the offer had all the appearance of a revengeful thirst 
 for the blood of a fallen foe. And it surely did not 
 become Judge Jones to dragthe ermine through the dirty 
 waters of insurrectionary strife. The attempt to ob- 
 tain possession of a political refugee, who had sought 
 an asylum in another country, will forever remain a 
 blot upon his memory. 
 
 There can be no question that the suggestion made 
 by Judge Jones had the authority of the Colonial Exe- 
 cutive ; because a similar proposition was afterwards 
 put forth, in the name of the Executive Council. In 
 a report to Sir George Arthur, dated Feb. 4, 1839, 
 the Executive Council, presided over by Mr. Sullivan, 
 said : " Were it positively understood that such men 
 as Johnson, Birge, Bierce [Bierce], and Mackenzie 
 would be seized and delivered up, as having violated 
 the refuge afforded them, there would be no objection 
 to the release of hundreds of obscure criminals ; be- 
 cause we might be assured that if certain punishment 
 awaited their leaders, notwithstanding their escape 
 across the border, [at least half of them were Ameri- 
 cans and never lived in Canada,] the whole conspiracy 
 would fall to the ground for want of leaders." So faf 
 as it relates to Mr. Mackenzie, this is precisely the 
 same as if Louis Napoleon were to expect England to 
 
 * Judgi Jones to Judge Fine, of Ogdensburg.
 
 274 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 give up Frencli political refugees, who had es( aped to 
 that country. With American citizens who had in- 
 Taded Canada, in time of peace, the case was diiferent; 
 the duty of the Federal Government was not to hand 
 over these leaders, but to enforce against them its own 
 laws for the maintenance of neutrality, If this had 
 been done, the prosecution of Mr. Mackenzie would 
 have ceased to wear a partial aspect. 
 
 Sir George Arthur approved of the project for ex- 
 changing prisoners for refugees ; and the authorities 
 of the State of New York were sounded on the sub- 
 ject. Mr. W. H. Griffin, Post-office Surveyor, went 
 upon this odious mission. Not finding Mr. Seward 
 at Albany, he conversed with Mr. J. A. Spensor on 
 the subject. Mr. Spensor told him that the principal 
 obstacle to the proposed arrangeonent was the public 
 indignation its execution would excite; and he sug- 
 gested that, under the circumstances, it would be bet- 
 ter to kidnap the refugees, adding an assurance that, 
 if this were done, the State authorities — Mr. Seward 
 and the rest — would not be disposed to regard the act 
 as a breach of amity.* 
 
 Why should such a hint not be improved ? Had 
 Canada no bloodhounds ready to snatch Sir George 
 Arthur's four thousand dollars by kidnapping Mac- 
 kenzie ? It seemed not ; for a private subscription of 
 two thousand collars more, set on foot by one of the 
 exile's old political opponents, had to be added. And 
 i^ow surely here is temptation enough in the shape of 
 blood money, to turn mercenary men into kidnappers ! 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Griffin to the Hon. R N Tucker, dated Gananoque, 
 U. C, May 14, 1839
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 275 
 
 On the 14tli IS'ovember, 1840, Mr. Mackenzie received 
 from several respectable citizens of Rochester warning 
 that an attempt would be made in a day or two to 
 seize him, drag him on board the steamer Grore, and 
 carry him off to Canada.'^ Among them was Mr. 
 Talman, who called three times at Mr. Mackenzie's 
 house that day without finding him. The last time, 
 he left word that Mr. Mackenzie should, by no means, 
 leave his house after dark that night. But this warn- 
 ing was not heeded : not arriving till after night, he 
 went to see Mr. Talman. The substance of the infor- 
 mation, received from various sources, was the same. 
 A guard was placed upon his house. 
 
 The matter being brought before the attention of the 
 authorities, was made a subject of judicial investigation 
 before Mr. Wheeler, on the 20th of :^rov., 1840. Seve- 
 ral witnesses were examined ; the principal of whom, 
 Mr. Wells, stated the result of a conversation he had 
 had with Mr. James Cameron, son-in-law of the late 
 Mr. Drean, of Toronto, and brother-in-law of Mayor 
 Powell, of that place, and sometime clerk in the Bank 
 of British America, at the Rochester House seven years 
 before. Mr. Cameron commenced the conversation 
 
 * Some warned him verbally, and one, Mr. "Wells, one of the publishers of 
 ti-e Kochester Daily Whig, in writing. He said : ♦* "Wm. L. Mackenzie — 
 Sir: — I take the liberty of informing you that a plan is in contemplation to 
 carry you to Toronto. It is this: The steamboat Gore [Capt. Thomas Dick] 
 will be in this port in a day or two. She is to be at the wharf at the mouth 
 of the river, with steam up, «&c., to surprise and muffle your face, and put yoa 
 in a carriage which will be in waiting, and take you to the boat. A British 
 officer is in this place, and has disclosed the circumstances to me. Although 
 we have had some personal difference, I cannot consent to have you kidnapped. 
 Be on your guard. 
 
 " Nov- M, 1840. -W. A. Wells "
 
 276 LIFE OP MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 by introducing the subject of the Canadian troubles, 
 and asked Mr. Wells whether he had not Lad some 
 difficulty with Mr. Mackenzie that had created an un- 
 friendly feeling between them. Receiving a reply in 
 the affirmative, Cameron, thinking he might safely 
 trust a person who was on such terms with the object 
 of the kidnappers' desire, then unfolded to him the 
 scheme. Mr. Mackenzie was to be decoyed to the 
 lower part of the city, by an invitation from one whom 
 he regarded as a friend ; he was then to be seized by 
 two powerful men, a handkerchief tied round his 
 mouth, and dragged into a carriage, with a pistol 
 pointing at his face under a threat that his brains 
 would be blown out if he made a noise. In this state 
 he was to be taken on board the steamer Gore, at 
 Frankfort — the mouth of the Genesee River — which 
 was to be ready waiting with steam up. In her next 
 trip she was to bring over another person, a Scottish 
 military officer, who was to assist in the kidnapping. 
 All this was to be done with the consent of the per- 
 sons in charge of the steamer. Cameron mentioned 
 that, in addition to the reward offered by the Cana- 
 dian government for the apprehension of Mackenzie, 
 he expected to get a Colonial appointment. Came- 
 ron's counsel did not cross-examine the witnesses, but 
 took a technical exception to the form of the warrant. 
 The evidence was deemed sufficient to justify the 
 magistrate in binding Cameron over to answer the 
 charge, but the case was quashed when it came be- 
 fore the grand jury. 
 
 Cameron afterwards pretended that he had hoaxed 
 Wells in the conversation at the Rochester House;
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 277 
 
 but there is little reason to accept so shallow a pre- 
 tence. According to his account he was somewhat 
 " oblivious" of what had occurred at the interview 
 vvith Wells ; and men in their cups are very much in 
 the habit of blurting out truth which at other times 
 the}^ would conceal. The idea of kidnapping Macken- 
 zie was not a new one. A long train of preliminaries 
 pointed to precisely such an enterprise as that in 
 which Cameron told Wells he was engaged. Besides, 
 the steamer left the upper wharf that night at an un- 
 usual hour, and without ringing her bell. At tho 
 mouth of the river, seven miles below the head of the 
 Grenesee navigation, where he was to have been put 
 on board, she waited till near midnight. These are 
 circumstances of suspicion, too strong to be neutra- 
 lized by the action of the grand jury on the case. 
 
 In the winter of 1840-1, Mr. Mackenzie commenced 
 that systematic arrangement of his papers to which 
 he always afterwards adhered, and which has been 
 sufficiently described in the introduction to this work. 
 
 About a month before the last number of his Gazette 
 was issued, Mr. Mackenzie memorialized the Judges 
 of the Court of Common Pleas, in the county of Mon- 
 roe, to be allowed to be admitted to practice at the 
 bar. Fifteen barristers, in a separate memorial, 
 backed up the application. The applicant was will- 
 ing to submit to the usual examination prescribed for 
 barristers, but a few days after the memorial had 
 been taken into consideration. Judge Dayton wrote 
 to inform him that it had been unanimously refused 
 by the court. The refusal appears to have proceeded 
 upon the ground of his being an alien. But this did
 
 278 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 not prevent him, a few months later, about March, 
 1841, from notifying the public that William Lyon 
 Mackenzie's Law Office was to be found in an upper 
 room in St. Paul Street. It was a last effort of despair, 
 and came to nothing. 
 
 The clouds of adversity gathered thick and gloomily 
 over the exile's head. Bereft of his property by an 
 insurrection, in which he had borne a leading part, he 
 had known what it was to commence the world anew 
 among strangers. A long imprisonment had ruined the 
 precarious profession of a journalist, who appealed to 
 the public sympathies only upon a single subject. He 
 found himself without occupation, and with only very 
 limited and uncertain means of subsistence. At this 
 period, it would frequently happen that, for twenty- 
 four hours on a stretch, the family had not a morsel 
 of food, and neither light nor fire. Yet no father 
 could be more assiduous in his endeavors to provide 
 for his family. After a day and night's enforced fast- 
 ing, he would go shivering forth in the morning's cold, 
 hoping to collect a small sum due to him, or, failing 
 m that, to borrow from a friend the means to purchase 
 bread for his famishing children. Many a time, when 
 all else failed, did his ever faithful friend, John Mont- 
 gomery, divide with him his last sixpence, or his last 
 meal. The younger children never ceased to cry for 
 food, while those more advanced in years suffered in 
 silence. What could the father do? Whither turn 
 for succor ? He tried another newspaper — The Volun- 
 teer — of which the first copy appeared on the 17th of 
 April, 1841, and the last on the 10th of May, 1842. 
 During that period only nineteen numbers were issued.
 
 THE CANADIAN REBilLLION. 279 
 
 They were printed when the means to print them 
 could be obtained. This attempt to revive a general 
 interest in the Canada question failed, and without 
 that interest a paper devoted to it could not live. 
 
 In the summer of 1841, the massive gold medal, 
 the gift of the electors of York, was melted into an in- 
 got. In May, 1838, a loan of one hundred and ten 
 dollars had been obtained upon it, in New York, and 
 on the 23d of June, 1841, Mr. Mackenzie was notified 
 that the ingot had realized $146 13, after deducting 
 the expense of melting and assaying. The amount 
 of the loan with interest was $129 60, and the balance 
 coming to him was $16 53. The intelligence of the 
 melting of the medal reached him on the very day 
 when silver spoons had been given to the landlord to 
 make up the amount of a quarter's house rent ! The 
 day to redeem never came. During the winter of 
 1841-2, the exile and his family drank the cup of po- 
 verty to the dregs. One night, when the younger 
 children were crying for food, he went to the cupboard 
 to see whether there was nothing to be found there. 
 All he got was a book, of which, by the light of the 
 feeble embers that formed the only light and the only 
 fire, he discovered that the title was " The Dark Ages," 
 at which he could not refrain from indulging in a 
 hearty laugh, after which the family went supperless 
 and breakfastless to bed. ' 
 
 During this winter Mr. Mackenzis expressed, in 
 decided terms, in private letters to friends, his strong 
 disapproval of all projected movements against Canada. 
 Writing to his eldest son, on Christmas day, he said: 
 " We have stories here about boats to be captured — 
 
 86
 
 280 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 eagles — Gren. hordes from Kentucky— balls cast- 
 ing- at Akron, and what not. I'm glad I'm free of it 
 all ; it will end in picking some folks' pockets — it may 
 end Windsor or Prescott fashion, but can do no great 
 good." It appears from the letters of other refugees to 
 him that he had been long inactive. In August, 1840, 
 one of them reproached him : " You will not propose 
 any plan yourself, nor adopt those that are formed" 
 by others. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1842, Lord Ashbur- 
 ton's intended visit to the United States was a subject 
 of conversation. On its success depended the settle- 
 ment of some very delicate questions. From the 
 North-east boundary difficulty and the destruction of 
 the Caroline, many had anticipated — some hoped, 
 some feared — war. The chances of an international 
 quarrel were likely soon to j)ass away. While they 
 lasted, John Sherdan Hogan and Dr. A. K. McKenzie 
 entered into a conspiracy to improve them. Hogan 
 was to be arrested as a party to the Caroline outrage; 
 and, after his committal, he was to give a history of 
 the whole affair, in an address to the public, admit 
 himself to have been a participator, and throw him- 
 self on the protection of the British Government. 
 This scheme was developed in a letter written by Dr. 
 Mackenzie to Wm. Lyon Mackenzie, and dated Lock- 
 port, February 15, 1842. It was carried by Hogan 
 himself to Rochester. W. L. Mackenzie replied that 
 he would be no party to the scheme ; that an attempt 
 to execute it would be dangerous, as Hogan would 
 probably be maltreated by the mob. But Hogan ap- 
 pears to have got alarmed at a scheme which was not
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 281 
 
 witlK^t danger to liiiii. He wrote to Dr. Mackenzie 
 that he was going to get married in the following 
 June ; and that if it were supposed that he had any- 
 thing to do with the Caroline affair, his prospects 
 would be entirely ruined. He therefore appealed to 
 Dr. McKenzie, as a proof of his friendship, to send 
 him a pair of good pistols, which he promised to re- 
 turn when he got to Canada. He was arrested, in 
 spite of this protest ; but he was discharged after the 
 case had undergone a judicial investigation. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's pecuniary circumstances experi- 
 enced no improvement ; and to make things worse, 
 his house took fire in March, and a portion of his fur- 
 niture was burnt. The family suffered much from 
 sickness, the result of pinching want. " The more I 
 see of this country," he wrote privately to his son, 
 under date March 15, 1842, " the more do I regret the 
 attempt at revolution at Toronto and St. Charles." 
 
 And now, despairing of any measure of success in 
 Rochester, where he had spent three and a half weary 
 years, the repentant outlaw turned his regards once 
 more towards New York. On the 10th June, 1842, 
 he left with his family for the latter city in the canal 
 line boat Henry Allan, and with two dollars and fifty 
 cents in his pocket. For the thirty-nine dollars pas- 
 sage money he obtained credit from Mr. John Allan, 
 from whom he received the kindest treatment; and 
 the night before starting he obtained a loan of twelve 
 dollars from Mr. Henry Allan. Without this, though he 
 had borrowed ten dollars from Mr. John Fisk, he would 
 have been unable to move. " I feel," he wrote to his 
 son, " it very hard to be thus forced from place to
 
 282 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 place, at my time of life; but poverty and age are a 
 conjunction in my lot, and it's no use to fret." He 
 states very plainly the cause of his removal : " After 
 an utterly ineffectual attempt to live here with my 
 family," he says, "I'm starved out." In the same 
 letter he denounces, in strong terms, the movement 
 on the frontier for a new raid upon Canada. " Some 
 new scheme of plundering the gulls in the wind !" he 
 says. " An attack upon (! ! !), and much more, never 
 to be done, by way of raising the wind. I presume 
 
 could give you the history of it if he chose. He 
 
 has been at Lewiston, but I have not heard from him. 
 
 Of course it is base humbug ; but and all such 
 
 have ever found gulls. It may injure the Van Die- 
 man's Land prisoners." 
 
 After his arrival at IS'ew York, the unfortunate re- 
 fugee spent most of his time in collecting some of his 
 old debts and devising ways and means to Jive, till an 
 influential political friend — Mr. Ewbank, I believe — 
 obtained for him the situation of Actuary of the ]N"ew 
 York Mechanics' Institute. He refused situations in 
 two or three newspaper offices, because he would not 
 occupy a subordinate position on the j^ress ; and this 
 disposition to be every thing or nothing was no bad il- 
 lustration of his character. In his new office, Professor 
 Grale, of Columbia College, had been his predecessor. 
 He could have gone into business ; but declined to do 
 so, because the chances of success were not promising. 
 " I could have got credit," he wrote to his son James ; 
 " but a store here, commenced in times like these, on 
 other men's means, with high house and store rents 
 and great scarcity of money among the people, would
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 283 
 
 hav3 proved a source of embarrassment." He was 
 pleased with his new office. " The prospect brightens," 
 he said, "and I may enjoy a little ease in my old 
 days ;" a hope which was never realized. His emolu- 
 ments were chieilv derived from fees ; and these were 
 paid with so little punctuality or honesty, that his new 
 employment proved but a slight mitigation of his dis- 
 tress. Among the fragmentary " Reminiscences" he 
 has left, I find the following note, under date Septem- 
 ber 8th, 1842. "My daughter Janet's birthday; 
 aged thirteen. When I came home in the evening, 
 we had no bread — took a cup of tea without it ; and 
 Helen, to comfort us, said it was no better on the 
 evening of my own birthday, the 12th of March, 1842." 
 At the close of the year, however, he considered him- 
 self "very comfortably settled." "I was much be- 
 hind, when I got into the office," he wrote privately, 
 December 24th, " but during the year for which I am 
 engaged, I have no doubt that I shall place myself 
 and family once more in comfortable circumstances, 
 the more gratifying as we have suffered much poverty 
 and long continued privation." Such was his pride in 
 his children, his ideas of duty, and his appreciation of 
 the advantages of education, that he continued to keep 
 them at good schools. 
 
 While in this situation, Mr. Mackenzie commenced 
 a work entitled " TJie Sons of the Emerald Isle, or Lives 
 of One Thousand Remarkable Irishmen.''^ On the 3d of 
 February, 1844, he made application for a copyright, 
 and entered into a written agreement with Burgess, 
 Stringer & Co., of N'ew York, to become the publishers. 
 In July, 1843, he speaks of having nearly five hundred
 
 284 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 of the biographical sketches ready ; but only two num- 
 bers — there were to have been eight or ten in all, 
 averaging fifty pages each — were published. The sub- 
 jects selected were Irish patriots or their descendants ; 
 and the concise sketches contain a multitude jf facts 
 and much matter of novel character. He had access 
 to sixteen thousand old American newspapers, extend- 
 ing over a period of forty years, from which he was 
 enabled to study the character of the men and the 
 measures of that time. He wrote to his son James, 
 after the first two numbers were out, that the work 
 would be immensely profitable ; but want of means 
 seems to have prevented his continuing it. 
 
 At the end of the year, he gave up his office in the 
 Mechanics' Institute, retiring with an unanimous ap- 
 l^roval of his conduct. Owing to the remissness of the 
 members in paying, it turned out a poor place ; and in 
 January, 1844, he declares that he has had as hard 
 times in New York as he ever had in Rochester. Hav- 
 ing been introduced to the son of President Tyler, Mr. 
 Mackenzie was offered an Inspectorship of Customs, 
 at TsTew York, at $1,100 a year ; but when the nomina- 
 tion was sent to Washington, it was rejected by the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, because the nominee was a 
 British outlaw and had attacked the late President. He 
 had issued three numbers of a new paj^er, called the New 
 York Examiner, but he gave it up on his nomination to 
 this office. Tyler wrote him that he mii^-ht have any 
 other office in his gift of equivalent value. Always 
 anxious to cloak his poverty under a genteel exterior, he 
 now, on the strength of the expectations thus raised, 
 moved to a large house in William Street, at a rent of
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 285 
 
 |450 a year. The same feeling urged him to the greatest 
 sacrifices to keep his family genteely dressed ; and if 
 they starved they made a presentable appearance. 
 How little did the outside world know of the suffer- 
 ings of those tastefully dressed delicate children ! How 
 cheerless that large house, with its big rooms and 
 marble mantles to the very casement! The son of 
 the President visits the outlaw in mid-winter. As the 
 only fire is in the cooking stove, he must be enter- 
 tained in a fine large room, furnished in a style a little 
 above the common shabby genteel. The room where 
 the solitary fire is, serves for study, nursery, and 
 kitchen; and there so much space in that large house! 
 In that room, the author of The Sons of the Emerald 
 Isle is sketching his portraits amid impediments of 
 culinary occupations and crying babies. A servant is 
 kept ; and with singular devotion that true hearted 
 Irish mrl is content to starve with the rest. If anv 
 thing is going, she will get more than her share ; but 
 if there is nothing, she is never heard to complain. 
 Late rising, as a means of extracting from the blankets 
 — almost the solitary remnants of the Canada wreck — 
 a warmth which want of fuel prevents being generated 
 in 9 i.iore regular way, is indulged in. When the 
 promised situation comes, it is in the shape of a tem- 
 porary clerkship, in the archives ofiice of the New 
 York Custom House, with a salary of only $700 a year. 
 Out of this it was impossible to pay $450 rent ; and in 
 the beginning of July, it became necessary to move to 
 Williamsburg, across the East River, to a house rent- 
 ing at $250 a year. 
 
 While engaged in the Custoii House, it became Mr.
 
 286 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Mackenzie's duty to read a correspondence between 
 Messrs. Jesse Hoyt and Benjamin Franklin Butler, 
 of a very extraordinary character. Hoyt had been 
 collector of customs at New York, and in that capacity 
 had embezzled $250,000. Mr. Mackenzie, thinking 
 that, in his haste to secure the money, Hoyt had for- 
 gotten that he had left certain private letters in the 
 public archives, induced Mr. Henry Ogden to call 
 upon him and ask him to take them away. Hoyt re- 
 plied that he had already taken all he wanted. By 
 permission of the collector Mr. Mackenzie copied the 
 letters ; and he had official authority to do what he 
 pleased with them. He sent copies of several of these 
 letters to President Polk ; and the result of their per- 
 usal was to prevent the appointment of Coddington 
 to the collectorship of New York. Mr. Mackenzie 
 then, on the 1st of June, resigned his office ; and in 
 1845 published The Lives and Opinions of Benjamin 
 Franklin Butler^ United States District Attorney for the 
 Southern Bistrict of New York, and Jesse Hoyt, Coun- 
 sellor at Law, formerly Collector of Customs for the Port 
 of New York ; a compact octavo volume of one hun- 
 dred and fifty-two pages. In a very short time, fifty 
 thousand copies were sold; when an injunction was 
 obtained from the court of Chancery, to restrain the 
 further publication of the work. The copies went up 
 to double the previous price. The injunction was 
 granted at the instance of Mr. Hoyt, and on a com- 
 plaint that three of his letters were comprised in the 
 publication. While the publishers made a very large 
 profit on the book, the author, to avoid all ground for 
 the imputation of improper motives in the publication,
 
 THE CAXADIAN REBELLION. 287 
 
 refused to take any remuneration for his labor ; though 
 he lived on borrowed money for several months while 
 he was preparing the work for press. He took out a 
 copyright and assigned it without consideration to the 
 publishers. Chancellor Walworth, on appeal, dis- 
 solved the injunction granted by the Vice Chancellor, 
 after the lapse of two and a half years ; deciding that 
 the author had a right of property in the book, 
 and that a Court of Equity had no power to restrain 
 its publication. Unsuccessful attempts were, at dif- 
 ferent times, made before grand juries to indict the 
 author for the use he made of these letters, but with- 
 out avail. 'No new edition of the work was given to 
 an eager public by the publishers, Cook and Co., of 
 Boston, 
 
 In 1846, Mr. Mackenzie published The Life and 
 Times of Martin Van JBuren, a closely printed octavo 
 volume of three hundred and eight pages. It is en- 
 riched by contributions from the bundle of letters left 
 by Mr. Hoyt in the New York Custom House ; though 
 a large portion of the materials are draw^n from other 
 sources. Of this work he sold the copyright to Mr. 
 Wm. Taylor of JS'ew York for $1,000, of which S400 
 was paid at the time of the agreement, and the re- 
 mainder w^hen the copy was completed. The sale of 
 copyright is dated Nov. 25, 1845, and the book Avas to 
 be completed by about the 15th of January following. 
 This work dealt Van Buren his political death blow. 
 He never rose again. While in prison, at Rochester, 
 the author was severe in his comments on Yan Buren 's 
 administration ; but after his release all this was for- 
 gotten, and at different places he made speeches, in 
 
 87
 
 288 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 public, in favor of the administration. Before the 
 next Presidential election, he wrote privately to a 
 friend : "If Van Buren fails being elected, Grod help 
 us exiles ! we shall have a poor time of it." It was 
 the discovery of the damning evidence, in the Hoyt 
 and Butler papers, that caused Mr. Mackenzie to alter 
 his opinion of Van Buren and to change his course to* 
 wards him. 
 
 During eight years, Mr. Mackenzie's political opin- 
 ions had undergone a great change. When the Ore- 
 gon difficulty threatened war, " I fervently pray," he 
 said in a private letter to his son, January 9, 1846, 
 " that we may escape it, its burthens, its massacres, 
 its enormities, and its devastations. That England 
 and America should fight about a desert wilderness, 
 or empty country beyond the Rocky Mountains, would 
 only be wicked and barbarous. It is true the fight 
 might be for Oregon as a pretext, but for the Canadas 
 in reality ; and even whether these — much as I once 
 desired such a contest — would be improved by the 
 grip of our harpy financiers I very much doubt ; while 
 the only refuge of the flying African from real op- 
 pression, in its most odious form, would be cut oif." 
 
 In the course of this year, Mr. Mackenzie became 
 connected with the JVew York Tribune, of whose edi 
 tor, Mr. Grreeley, he continued to the day of his death 
 to entertain the highest opinion. On the 1st May, he 
 arrived in Albany, for the purpose of attending the 
 convention to revise the State Constitution. He daily 
 wrote to The Tribune a long letter on the proceedings of 
 the convention. Commencing in the early part of June, 
 the convention continued its sittings till the 9th of
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 289 
 
 October. Many suggestions made by Mr. Mackenzie 
 were adopted and embodied in the amended constitu- 
 tion. I recollect him telling me that it was at his 
 suggestion that the judges were made elective; and 
 when I asked him if he did not hope to be forgiven 
 for introducing so dangerous a principle, he defended 
 its working, and contended that jDopular election was 
 preferable to the Canadian mode of appointing judges. 
 This could not have been over three years before his 
 death. Almost immediately after arriving in Albany 
 seven of the family took the smallpox ; but they all 
 recovered. 
 
 " I am more of a misanthrope than I once was," he 
 wrote privately, Oct. 12, 1846 ; " I never attend or 
 speak at public meetings, and creep as it were through 
 the afternoon of life." But in some respects times 
 with him had improved. He had plenty of offers of 
 literary employment. He had found a real friend in 
 Greeley ; and he received from Mr. Greorge Bruce, the 
 great type founder of JSTew York, a very tempting of- 
 fer. The large printing establishment of Percy & 
 Reid, New York, had been sold at sheriif' s sale ; and 
 Mr. Bruce had become the purchaser at $10,000. He 
 oflfered it to Mr. Mackenzie on a credit of ten years, 
 with means to carry on the business. The offer was 
 gratefully received, but was rejected, contrary to the 
 advice of his family and friends, principally because the 
 business would have required a partner, and Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie disliked partnerships. He remained in Albany 
 one year ; in the latter part of which he performed 
 the duftes of correspondent in the Legislative Assem- 
 bly for The Tribune,
 
 290 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 On the oth March, he wrote to his son, from Al- 
 bany, referring to past experience : " You never can, 
 never will, know what I have borne and suffered, in 
 many ways. Yet I am here, healthy and (somewhat) 
 hopeful, though poor and within a week of fifty-two." 
 And he adds : " After what I have seen here, I frankly 
 confess to you that, had I passed nine years in the 
 United States before, instead of after, the outbreak, I 
 am very sure I would have been the last man in 
 America to be engaged in it." 
 
 When he returned to New York, Mr. Mackenzie 
 continued his connection with Tlie Tribune, till 
 Mr. McElrath, one of the partners in the estab- 
 lishment, expressed some dissatisfaction with his writ- 
 ings, and he left with the intention of never returning. 
 This was early in April, 1848. He spent some time 
 in the composition of a work on British America, 
 which he never completed. He always continued on 
 good terms with Mr. Grreeley ; and in October, 1848, 
 he agreed to attend the next session of Congress as 
 correspondent of The Tribune. But he did not leave 
 JN'ew York till about the New Year. 
 
 By the end of the year 1843, an amnesty — not gen- 
 eral but very comprehensive — had enabled numerous 
 political exiles to return to Canada. But while Pap- 
 ineau, Rolph, Buncombe, and O'Callagan were par- 
 doned, Mackenzie was still proscribed. Mr. Hume 
 wrote him, stating that the exclusion arose from the 
 belief entertained by the English Ministry that the 
 origin of the rebellion was due to him. Three years 
 after, Mr. Isaac Buchanan wrote to Sir Robert Peel 
 and Lord Palmerston, begging that they would have
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 291 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie included in the amnesty. The reply 
 was that, before this would be done, the Canadian 
 Ministry must recommend the measure. But the 
 latter were adverse to such a course, and to them alone 
 his continued exclusion from Canada was owing. The 
 remembrance of this circumstance probably infused 
 some gall into his opposition to the men who com- 
 posed this ministry after his return to Canada. In 
 1848, the Canadian Assembly unanimously addressed 
 the Queen to grant a general amnesty of all political 
 oifences. 
 
 On the 17th of July of this year, his daughter Mar- 
 garet died after a long and painful illness. Next year, 
 February 3d, 1849, Mr. Mackenzie addressed a com- 
 munication to Earl Grrey, at the Colonial Office, con- 
 taining some remarkable confessions ; the good faith 
 of which is sufficiently guaranteed by numerous state- 
 ments in private letters, some examples of which have 
 already been given. From this communication I quote 
 the following remarkable extracts : 
 
 " A course of careful observation, during the last 
 eleven years, has fully satisfied me, that, had the vio- 
 lent movements in which I and many others were 
 engaged on both sides of the jN'iagara proved success- 
 ful, that success would have deeply injured the people 
 of Canada, whom I then believed I was serving at 
 great risks ; that it would have deprived millions, per- 
 haps, of our own countrjaiien in Europe, of a home 
 upon this continent, except upon conditions which, 
 though many hundreds of thousands of immigrants 
 have been constrained to accept them, are of an ex- 
 ceedingly onerous and degrading character. I have
 
 292 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 long been sensible of the errors committed during that 
 period to which the intended amnesty applies. No 
 punishment that power could inflict or nature sustain, 
 would have equaled the regrets I have felt on account 
 of much that I did, said, wrote, and published ; but the 
 past cannot be recalled." * * * " There is not a living 
 man on this Continent who more sincerely desires that 
 British Glovernment in Canada may long continue, 
 and give a home and a welcome to the old country- 
 men than myself. Did I say so, or ask an amnesty, 
 seven or eight years ago, till under the convictions of 
 more recent experience ? No ; I studied earnestly the 
 workings of the institutions before me, and the manners 
 of the people, and looked at what had been done, un- 
 til few men, even natives, had been better schooled. 
 The result is — not a desire to attain power and in- 
 fluence here — but to help, if I can, and all I can, the 
 country of my birth." 
 
 Pressed by Mr Hume and others, the Canadian 
 Government, in 1849, originated a measure for a com- 
 plete amnesty of all oifences arising out of the events 
 of 1837-8. Mackenzie had for some time been the 
 last exile. It passed unanimously in both Houses, 
 and in the name of the Queen, Lord Elgin, as Gov- 
 ernor General, gave it the Royal assent, on the 1st of 
 February, 1849. Immediately on receiving this in- 
 telligence, Mr. Mackenzie resolved to return to Car - 
 ada permanently. But after so long an absence, he 
 was in some doubts as to how he would be received 
 there. In this state of uncertainty, he resolved to try 
 the effect of a personal visit. 
 
 Before visiting Toronto, the scene of his former ex-
 
 THE CAT^ADIAN REBELLION. 293 
 
 ertions and his future home, he called at Montreal, 
 then the seat of the Canadian Grovernment. What 
 Sir Greo?o-e Arthur had ten vears before denounced as 
 Macken.'^ie's scheme of Responsible Government was 
 now in full operation f but it was administered by 
 person.^, only one of whom, Mr. Hincks, paid the least 
 attention to the man who had been reviled as its 
 author so long as it was deemed odious or unpopular. 
 This member of the Grovernment had paid him a 
 casual visit in the Kochester prison ; while others 
 from Toront©, on whose friendship he had much 
 greater claims, had passed on without giving any 
 pi oof that they retained a consciousness of his exist- 
 ence. While in Montreal, he visited the Legislative 
 library, in his right as an ex-member, and on the 
 assurance of the deputy librarian as to the uniform 
 practice. He was consulting the catalogue when Col. 
 Prince, a member of the House, went up to him and 
 demanded to see the ticket of the member by whom 
 the ex-member was introduced ; or, said he, with em- 
 phasis, " I will kick you down stairs if you don't leave 
 this moment." Mr. Mackenzie, thus assailed, left the 
 library. Col. Prince met him in the lobby and re- 
 newed his threats. The Post office messenger of the 
 House, named Webster, thought himself entitled to 
 imitate such distinguished ruffianism ; for which he 
 was very severely reprimanded by M. Morin. Col.' 
 Prince, who has the generous feelings which are often 
 allied to impulsiveness, soon expressed his regret for 
 this occurrence. In a letter to Dr. Barker, of Kings- 
 ton, written only seven days after the occurrence, he 
 
 * Dispatch to the Marquis of Normanby, August 21st, 1839.
 
 :!94 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 said: "I acted on the impulse of the moment; and I 
 tell you candidly that, had I known then what you and 
 Chisholm have since informed me of, he might have 
 enjoyed his studies in our library as long as he pleased, 
 without any interruption from me." Mr. Mackenzie 
 was afterwards introduced to the library by a volunteer 
 member, Hon. Sandfield Macdonald, with whom he 
 had no previous personal acquaintance. A story is 
 told that when Mr. Macdonald returned to Glengarry, 
 his Highland constituents complained of his suspicious 
 civilities to a pardoned rebel ; and that Mr. Macdon- 
 ald, who is entirely destitute of the objectionable 
 clannishness ascribed to some of his countrymen, re- 
 plied: "Do you think I would see an Englishman 
 kick a Scotchman and not interfere ?" This sufficed, 
 so the story goes, instantly to silence all complaint. 
 On his way westward, the returned exile was burnt in 
 effigy in Kingston. 
 
 His arrival in Toronto was the signal for a Tory 
 riot. On the evening of the 22d March, a mob col- 
 lected in the streets, with flambeaux and effigies of 
 Attorney General Baldwin, Solicitor General Blake, 
 and Mackenzie. They marched defiantly past the 
 Police Office, burnt two of the effigies opposite the 
 residences of the Crown officers, and then proceeded 
 up Yonge Street, to the house of Mr. John Mcintosh, 
 where Mr. Mackenzie was staying. Here, by the aid 
 of two or three blazing tar-barrels, the mob burnt the 
 remaining effigy and assailed the house, broke the 
 windows, and attempted to force their way through the 
 door. All the while, the Chief of Police and at least 
 one member of the City Council were quietly looking
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 295 
 
 on. T^cxt da}^, the Mayor caused special constables 
 to be sworn in with a view of preventing a repetition 
 of these outrages ; and an alderman, in his place in 
 the Council, declared that he "would not hesitate an 
 instant" to assassinate Mackenzie, were he not re- 
 strained by fear of the law! For many nights after 
 the house was well guarded, and was not again at- 
 tacked. The JExaminer had condemned these outrages 
 in fitting terms, and the premises of the proprietor 
 were threatened with attack. A mob assembled in 
 King Street for that purpose; but when it became 
 known that there was a number of armed men in the 
 building, they dispersed without attempting any vio- 
 lence. Two persons had been stationed on the ground 
 floor with double-barrelled guns, and the first man who 
 might have broken in would have been instantly shot. 
 On the 1st May, 1850, Mr. Mackenzie started with 
 his family from New York for Toronto, where they 
 arrived a few days after. So long as he remained in 
 New York, his connection with The Tribune continued ; 
 and his regular salary gave him the means of sup- 
 porting his family in comfort. Such was his confi- 
 dence in his own popularity, that he resolved to stand 
 for the first constituency that might become vacant. 
 It happened to be Haldimand ; for which county he 
 was elected in April, 1851, his principal opponent be- 
 ing Mr. George Brown. This constituency he con- 
 tinued to represent till the summer of 1858, when he 
 resigned his seat, partly, I believe, because he did not 
 agree with his constituents on the merits of a particu- 
 lar railroad bill afi^ecting their interests. While in 
 the House, he never sought a leading position, and,
 
 296 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 Tiot allying himself closely with either party, he was 
 free to criticize the doings of both. Considering all 
 he had undergone, how many trials of temper he had 
 had in twelve years of exile, it is surprising how free 
 his speeches were of the gall which chronic opposition 
 engenders. He would frequently draw upon his large 
 fund of humor, and keep the house in roars of laugh- 
 ter by the hour. If any reference were made to the 
 rebellion, he always treated the subject jocosely. 
 " There's the Attorney Greneral for Lower Canada," 
 for instance, he would say; "when the British Grov- 
 ernment placed an estimate on our heads, they valued 
 mine at four thousand dollars, and his at only two 
 thousand." He generally voted in the minority, and 
 sometimes, as in the case of the Municipal Loan Fund 
 Bill, he stood alone. It is not long since, but a large 
 majority of the people of Canada would now vote the 
 same way. 
 
 Hope of brighter days always cheered him even in 
 the darkest hour of adversity, and he was constantly 
 trying to inspire others, with whom he was in intimate 
 relations, with the same feeling. Here is an example, 
 in a letter to his son James, October 3, 1850 : " Cheer 
 up — do not despond — there are moments of pain and 
 anguish which time only can alleviate, and of these 
 you are seemingly to have your share ; but there are 
 also green spots in the desert of life, and you and I 
 may fall upon one or two of them yet : after the dark- 
 ness comes light. The Bible tells us that they who 
 have loved on earth shall meet in a land where pain 
 and sorrow are no more : it is indeed a pleasing pro- 
 mise, a cheerful hope ; and let us play our part here
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 297 
 
 like men, fearless and faithful, trusting that ' in due 
 time we shall reap if we faint not.'" Soon after this, 
 political malice accused the man who thus wrote, in 
 all the confidence of paternal affection, of Atheism or 
 something of the kind. There never was a grosser libel. 
 Two well-thumbed copies of the Bible, in which almost' 
 every passage bearing on liberty and oppression is 
 underscored, show how carefully he read that book. 
 There is scarcely a passage, such as the following, 
 which is not marked round or underlined : " Behold, 
 I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, 
 but there is no judgment." He was very far from 
 being contracted in his religious views ; and, if he was 
 not orthodox, he had the greatest respect for opinions 
 sincerely held, no matter by what denomination, though 
 he might not be able to share them. 
 
 Of a highly sensitive nature and somewhat secretive, 
 he was never fully understood, perhaps, even by his 
 most intimate friends. There was no sacrifice which 
 he would not cheerfully make for his children ; he could 
 enter into all their childish feelings, and would at al- 
 most any time leave his studies to engage in their 
 play ; yet he was sometimes unapproachable. The 
 rude collision with the world, in which he received so 
 many hard knocks, would temporally weaken the springs 
 of his elastic temper, and till the fit was over the 
 gloom that crowded upon his thoughts would cast its 
 dark shade on all around. In his children he took 
 the greatest pride ; and the stern politician, who carried 
 on so many relentless contests, wore the watch of his 
 eldest daughter, around his neck, for twelve years
 
 298 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 after her death, in almost superstitious veneration of 
 her who had passed away. 
 
 After his return to Canada, his stern, independence 
 conciliated the respect of all parties. He was very far 
 from being rich ; but he taught the world this moral, 
 that it is not necessary to be rich to be politically in- 
 dependent. Immediately after his return, Mr. Isaac 
 Buchanan, with that princely munificence for which he 
 is noted, offered to make him a gift of $1,000 ; but he 
 refused it, lest it should interfere with his indepen- 
 dence of action. Twice he was offered office under 
 the government — once directly and once indirectly — 
 but he treated the offers as little short of insults ; such 
 was his almost morbid jealousy of a covert attack on 
 his independence. The county of York paid him some 
 £300 due on account of previous Legislative services ; 
 and the government paid for his services as Welland 
 Canal Director before the Union. In 1856, some 
 friends started a subscription for a " Mackenzie Home- 
 stead ;" and after several years' exertions, some £1,250 
 was collected ; £950 was invested in a house, in To- 
 ronto, and the rest was loaned by the committee to 
 himself. Owing to a difference of opinion between 
 himself and the committee, he inserted a notice in the 
 public journals, in 1859, refusing to allow any more 
 subscriptions — of which there were about $1,500 out- 
 standing — to be collected. From February 1853 to 
 the Autumn of 1860, he published a weekly paper, 
 Mackenzie's Message, but not with great regularit}^ 
 
 Pecuniary embarrassments threw a gloom over the 
 last days of Mr. Mackenzie's existence. His health 
 was failing; he was without income. He owed nearly
 
 THE CANADIAN EEBELLION. 299 
 
 $3,000. Bills matured and he had not the means 
 wherewith to pay. What could he do? He had 
 tried his best — and failed. Hope, his constant com- 
 panion in the darkest hours of his life, failed him at 
 last. There remained nothing but for him to lay down 
 and die ! During his la^t illness, he would take nc 
 medicine, take no stimulant, obey no medical direc- 
 tions. As he sank gradually, intervals of unconscious- 
 ness would occur of sometimes over thirty hours.* On 
 the 28th of August, 1861, his wearisome life came to 
 a close, and the troubled spirit sank to rest. Four 
 days after, a mournful cortege^ extending half a mile 
 in length, accompanied his mortal remains to the 
 Toronto Necropolis. 
 
 " Mute is the tongue that eloquently plead 
 
 Our country's right, our country's sacred cause, 
 "Whose burning words not seldom have availed 
 To gain for freemen, freemen's rights and laws. 
 
 " Cold is the heart that never ceased to yearn 
 For Canada, her welfare and her weal, 
 Consuming lavishly life's precious oil 
 In deep, unresting, and undying zeal. 
 
 "And if the glowing zeal that fired his heart. 
 Crushed by injustice and oppression long, 
 Burst into action, erring, rash, and wild, 
 
 Maddened by private and by public wrong — 
 
 * It is proper here to notice a gross fabrication whicli appeared in the Al- 
 bany Evening Journal, stating that Mr. Mackenzie had written long letters to 
 Mr. Weed, its editor, in depreciation of England, and taking a particular 
 view of the war in the United States ; and that he had continued to write up 
 to within four days of his death. I deliberately charge Mr. Weed with in- 
 venting the whole story for some base purpose of his own. Medical testimony, 
 as well as that of myself and every member of his family, can be adduced to 
 show that Mr. Mackenzie was incapable of writing a single word, a full month 
 before his death.
 
 300 LIFE OF MACKENZIE, AND 
 
 " Yet was the flashing of that rebel brand 
 The herald of Canadian liberty ; 
 A beacon light to guide our country's bark 
 Safely into the harbor of the free. 
 
 ■' An alien and an outlaw from the land 
 
 His darkest errors had conspired to bless, 
 Sinning — though sinned against — it was denied 
 To give atonement, or to find redress. 
 
 Blighted life's harvest years — their due reward 
 Snatched from the ready pen and busy brain, 
 
 Exile, imprisonment, and penury, 
 Stamped on his heart and brow deep lines of pain. 
 
 ♦» Longing for, loving still, his chosen land, 
 Finding no rest upon a foreign shore ; 
 The ban removed, with gladly hastening feet, 
 He trod the soil of Canada once more, — 
 
 •'And stood within her legislative halls, 
 
 Lifting his voice for truth and right again ; 
 In his innate integrity of soul. 
 Scorning the bribes of place and power and gain. 
 
 " But time and change had marked his exiled years, 
 And sufiering had quelled Ms spirit's fire; 
 Hopes, promises, and* plans of better days 
 
 Lay in the ashes of their funeral pyre. , 
 
 " And so be sadly laid his armor down. 
 
 Feeling, perchance, his course was almost run, 
 No worldly honors crowned his life of toil. 
 No laurel, when the weary race was won. 
 
 * Peace to his burning, patriotic heart. 
 
 Peace to his fearless and undaunted soul. 
 Peace to his spirit, tried and tempest-tossed— 
 In some fair haven, some calm, quiet goal ! 
 
 "Although among the great ones of the earth 
 His humble name may never find a place. 
 Posterity, this rarest epitaph 
 
 Upon the Patriot's tomb shall proudly place—
 
 THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 301 
 
 " ' Here lietli one who prized the public weal 
 Far above earthly honors, wealth, or fame, 
 "Whose life-long labors in his country's cause 
 Were pure from sordid end or selfish aim. 
 
 " Oppressed, wronged, exiled, spurned from the land 
 He would have given his life to bless and save, 
 His country, on whose shrine his all was laid, 
 Bestowed upon the Patriot — a grave.' "* 
 
 ♦ Mrs. Somerville in Toronto Globi.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Some or the Books read between 1806 and 1819 by William Ltom 
 
 Mackenzie. 
 
 Abebeviations — All the Countries named here are to he marked thus: If English authors, e ; 
 Scottish authors, s; Irish authors, i; French authors, f; German authors, g. The period when 
 read is set down thus : 1806,6; 1807,7; 1808, 8; 1809, 9; 1810, 10; 1811,11; 1812, 12; 1813, 13; 
 1814,14; 1815, 15; 1S16. 16; 1817, 17; 1818, 18; 1819, 19. The size is noted as follows: roljo, (2); 
 Quarto, 4to.; Octavo, 8vo.; Duodecimo, 12mo; Smaller sizes, p.; Pamphlets, pt. 
 
 DiTINITY, &C. 
 
 1. Brown's annotations on the Bible, s. 6 and 7. (2). (Also other of author's 
 notps). 2. fisher's explication of the Assembly's catechism, s. 6. 12mo. 8. My 
 grandfather's copy of Oliphant's catechism, s. 6. p. 4. Biographia Scoticani- 
 cola. The Scotch worthies, s. 6. 7. 8. 8vo. 5. The cloud of witnesses, s. 6. 
 7. 12mo. 6. Dyer's sermons, p. 7. 7. Kowe's letters from the dead to the 
 living, e. 8. 12mo. 8. Addison's evidences of the Christian religion, e. 15. 
 8vo. 9. John Newton's narrative, e. 5. pt. 10. Westminster confession of 
 faitn. e. s. 6 and 7. 8vo. 11. Dr. Blair's sermons ; 5 vols. s. 12 and 13, 8vo. 
 16. Kutherford's letters, s. 7. 12mo. 17. Crookshank's history of the state and 
 sufferings of the Church of Scotland, s. 8 and 10. 8vo. 19. The works of 
 Ihomas Boston of Ettrick, s., viz: The crook in the lot, Human nature in it* 
 fourfold state ; Sermons, &c. s. 7. 8. 9. 8vo. 22. Ebenezer and Ealph Erskine's 
 works, 3 vols., containing the Gospel Sonnets. 7. 8. 8vo. ; Sermons, &c. 7. 8. 9. 
 10. 25. Mr. Barclay of Urie's defence of the Quakers, (addressed to Charles 
 the Second). 26. The Kev. T. W. Willison's (of Dundee) works; containing 
 his sermons, tne catechism, the afflicted man's companion, &c. s. 6 — 8, (2). 
 27. Death of Abel, by Gessner. g. 8. 12mo. 28. Drellincourt on death, f. 11. 
 8vo. 29. Marshall on sanctification. e. 8. 9. 12mo. 30. MacEwen on the 
 types. B. 14. 12mo. 31. A dictionary of the Bible, s. 8vo. 33. Select 
 89 (803)
 
 304 APPENDIX. 
 
 remains of John Brown, minister of Haddington, s. read often. 12mo. 84. 
 Beattie on the immutability of moral truth, s. 14. 12mo. 35. The Messiah, 
 from the German of Klopstoclc, 2 vols. g. 15. 12mo. 37, Sturm's reflections ; li 
 vols. g. 15. 8vo. 39. Book of common prayer, e. 15. 40. Evidences of the 
 Christian religion, by the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, of Glasgow, s. 16. 12mo. 41 
 Sermons, by Vicesimus Knox, D. D., i. 18. Svo. Bunyan's pilgrim's progress, 
 e. 7 — 17. Svo. 43. Bunyan's holy war. e. 19. 44. Pike and Hayward's cases of 
 conscience. 11. Svo. 45. Secession act and testimony, s. S. 46. Hervey's medi- 
 tations, e. 10, 11. Svo. 47. Hervey's Theron and Aspasia. 2 vols. e. s. 10. 12mo. 
 49. Doddridge's rise and progress of religion in the soul. e. 14. 12mo. 50. 
 Baxter's saint's everlasting rest. e. 14. Svo. 51. Guthrie's trial of a saving in- 
 terest in Christ, s. 6. 12mo. 52. Reflections on incredulity, by Lord Presi- 
 dent Porbes, of Culloden. s. printed in 1752 ; read in December, 1S19. 12mo. 
 53. Glass' testimony of the King of Martyrs, s. 1820. 53. Case of William 
 Mills, executed at Edinburgh, in 1785. pt. pp. 80. 
 
 History and Biography. 
 
 1. Rollin's ancient history, f. 7. 8. 12mo. 13. Raynal'shistory of the settlement 
 «nd trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies ; 6 vols. f. S. 12mo. 
 19. Raynal's account of the revolution in America, f. 8. pt. 20. New annual 
 
 register from the commencement in 178- to ; (Stockdale). 16 vols. e. 1 — 16. 
 
 6vo. 36. Banks' life of Oliver Cromwell, e. 7. 12mo. 37. Life of John 
 Churchill, Duke of Marlboro, e. 8. 12mo. 48. Life of Stanislaus Leczinsky, 
 King of Poland, father-in-law of Louis XV. 8. 12mo. 39. Morrison of Perth's 
 edition of the British Plutarch ; S vols. s. 8. 9. 12mo. 47. Buchanan's his- 
 tory of Scotland ; 2 vols. s. 8. Svo. 49. The history of England, by David 
 Hume, with a continuation, by Dr. Smollett ; 16 vols. s. 15. 12mo. 65. Lifo 
 of Petrarch ; 2 vols. Italian. 9. 12mo. 67. Memoirs of the President Yon 
 Kotzebue, by himself; 3 vols. g. 18. 12rao. 70. Rapin's history of England ; 
 2 vols. f. 9. (2). 72. Plutarch's lives, containing Dryden's life of Plutarch, 
 Theseus, Romulus, Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Solon, Theniistocles, Cimon 
 and Pericles, Alcibiades, Coriolanus, Timoleon, Pelopidas, Cato, Philipnemen, 
 Pyrrhus, Caius Marius, Lysander, Sylla, Eumenes, Agesilaus, Pompey, Alex- 
 ander, Phocion, Julius Caesar, Agis, Claudius, Demosthenes, Cicero; 8 voia. 
 80. The works of William Robertson, d.d., principal of the University of Edin- 
 burgh, &c., &c.; the history of Scotland ; 3 vols. 10. 12mo. 83. History of 
 Charles V; 5 vols. s. 14. 12rao. 88. History of America; 2 vols. s. 15. Svo 
 90. Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully ; 5 vols. f. 11, 15. 12mo. 
 95. Life of Charles XIL, by Voltaire, f. 12. 96. History of Egypt ; 2 vols. e. 
 s. 12. Svo. 98. History of England, by Oliver Goldsmith, i. 12. 12mo, 99. 
 History of Rome, by Oliver Goldsmith, i. 12. 12mo. 100. History of Scotland, 
 by Robert Heron ; 6 vols. s. 13. 14. Svo. 106. Ascanij.i3, or the young adven- 
 turer. 12mo. 107. Dr. Douglass' history of the rebellion in 1745—6. s, 12. 13.
 
 APPENDIX. 305 
 
 12mo. 108. Livy's Rome, by Alexander Gordon, s. 14. 12mo. 100. Stark's 
 Scottish biography, s. 14. 12mo. 110. Works of Frederick the Great, King 
 of Prussia; seven years' war; correspondence with Voltaire, D'Alembert, &c.; 
 12 vols. g. 14. 15. 8vo. 122. Dr. Simson's history of Scotland, abridged; 1 
 vol. s. 15. 12mo. 123. Eobertson's life of Bonaparte ; 1 vol. s. 15. 8vo. 124. 
 Life of Sir John Moore, K. B., by W. V. Moore, s. 15. 8vo. 125. The works 
 ofFlavius Josephus; 6 vols. Jewish. 11. 12. 12mo. 131. Account of the plague 
 and fire in London, 1665—6 e. 12. 8vo. 132. Davis' life of Chatterten. e. 14. 
 12tno. 133. Life of Gustavus Vasa. 7. 12mo. 134. History of the war, by Ed. 
 Baines, Leeds. ; 2 vols. e. 17. 4to. 136. History of the war, by Hewson Clarke, 
 Esq.; 3 vols. e. 17. 4to. 139. Life of Madame DeMaintenon; 2 vols. f. 18. 121110. 
 141. Newgate calendar, by Baldwin and Knapp ; 4 vols. e. 18. 8vo. 145. Life of 
 John Buncle; 2 vols. e. 19. 8vo. 147. Life of Arthur, Duke of "Wellington, 
 by F. L. Clarke, Esq.; 2 vols. e. 19. 8vo. 149. Knox's history of the Re- 
 formation in Scotland; 2 vols. s. 15. 8vo. 151. Dr. M'Cric's life of John 
 Knox; 2 vols. s. 16. 8vo. 158. Life of Henry Home, Lord Karnes, of Ber- 
 wickshire; 2 vols. s. 19! 4to. (read the first volume only.) 155. Anecdotes of 
 the life of Richard "Watson, Lord Bishop of Llandaff, written by himself; 2 
 vols. e. 19. 8vo. 157. Lives of the British admirals ; I vol. e. 15. 12mo. 158. 
 Anecdotes of the life of "William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, (7th edition,) Long- 
 man & Co.; 8 vols. e. 19. 8vo. 161. Life of "William Hutton, of Birmingham, 
 by himself and Catharine Hutton ; 1 vol. e. 19. 8vo. 162. Historical memoirs 
 of my own time, by Sir N. W. "Wraxwall, Baronet; 2 vols. e. 19. 8vo. 164 
 Life of Frederick Baron Trenck ; 1 vol. Prussian. 9. Bvo. 165. History of Ca- 
 tharine II, Empress of Russia, by J. Castera; translated by H. Hunter, d.d.; 
 1 vol. f. 19. 8vo. 166. Life of Abraham Newland, Esq., Cashier of the Bank 
 of England, (Crosby, 1«08). e. 19. 8vo. 167. J. B. "Warden's history of the 
 United States of America; Edin. 1819. 3 vols. 19. 8vo. 168. William War- 
 den's (of the Northumberland) letters from St. Helena about Napoleon Bona- 
 parte. London, 1816. e. 19. 8vo. 
 
 Voyages and Travels. 
 
 1. Travels in Arabia and Egypt, by M. Niebuhr, of Denmark ; 2 vols. 7. 
 r 2mo. 8. Voyages of Columbus, Drake, Dampier, La Perouse ; Buccaneers 
 df America; To the Pelew Islands, &c. &c.; 3 vols. e. 8. 9. 8vo. 6. Commo- 
 dore Anson's voyage around the world ; 1 vol. e. 9. 8vo. 7. Commodore By- 
 ron's narrative; 1 vol. e. 7. 12nio. 9. Cook's voyages around the world; 2 
 vols. e. 9. (2). 11. Barrow's travels in Southern Afriea; 1 vol. e. 6. 20. 8vo 
 12. Sonnini's travels in Egypt; 1 vol. f. 10. 8vo. 13. Bruce's travels in Abys- 
 sinia; 7 vols. s. 11. 15. 8vo. 20. Park's travels in Africa; 1 vol. s. 4 — 8. 20. 
 21. Vaillant's travels in Africa ; 2 vols. f. 11. 12mo. 23. Macdonald"s travels 
 in Denmark, Norway, &:.; 2 vols. s. 15. 25. New and select voyages and
 
 306 APPENDIX. 
 
 travels, published by Sir Ki:liard Phillips, London ; 3 vols. e. 16. 8vo. 28. 
 Simpson's (of Edinburgh) visit to the field of Waterloo; 1 vol. s. 17. 12mo. 
 29. The travels of Cyrus, by Kamsay ; 2 small volumes, s. 10. 31. Dr. Moore's 
 travels in France and Italy ; 8 vols. s. 6. 12mo. N.B. This was one of the first 
 books I ever read, and I afterwards purchased it. 34. A tour through Sicily and 
 Malta, by Mr. Brydone; 2 vols. s. 12. 12mo. 36. Sketches of America, by 
 Henry Bradshaw Fearon, and remarks on Birbeck's notes, by the same ; [Long- 
 man & Co., second edition, 1818.] e. 19. Bvo. 37. The stranger in France, by 
 Sir John Carr. s. 16. 8vo. 38. Travels of Anachars s the yoanger in Greece, 
 during the middle of the fourth century, before the Christian era ; from the 
 French of Barthelemy; 3 vols. f. 14. 8vo. 41. Ashe's travels .n North Amer- 
 ica ; 1 vol. 16. 8vo. 42. Letters from a gentleman in the north of Scotland to 
 his friend in London [new edition] ; first edition printed in 1754 ; 2 vols. e. 
 19. 12mo. 44. Paris re-visited in 1815, by John Scott, editor of the Cham- 
 pion [third edition, 1816]; 1 vol. s. 19. 8vo. 45. Letters from Illinois, by 
 Morris Birbeck ; [second edition, printed in 1818.] e. 19. 8vo. 46. Notes on a 
 journey in America from Virginia to Illinois, by Morris Birbeck ; [third edi- 
 tion, Ptidgway, 1818]. e. 19. 8vo. 47. Paul's letters to his kinsfolk, being a 
 series of letters from the continent; [second edition, Constable & Co.] s. 17. 8vo. 
 48. Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, and Barbary, in 1806 and 1807, by 
 F. A. De Chateaubriand ; (translated by Shobert), [second edition, printed in 
 London, March, 1820 ; first edition, in 1812.] 2 vols. f. 8vo. 50. Maria Graham's 
 letters on India with etchings, s. 14. 8vo. 51. Travels in some parts of 
 North Amerirn. in 1804, 1805, 1806, by Robert Sutcliif, (a Quaker), an enter- 
 taining am espectable writer, pp. 309 ; [second edition, York, 1815]. e. 20. 
 12mo. 52. The emigrant's guide to the "Western States of North America, 
 with an entertaining journal of the voyage outward, by Mr. Amphlett; [1818^ 
 by Longman & Co.] ; e. 20. 12mo. 
 
 Geogkapht and Topography. 
 
 1. Cooke's Geographj' ; 3 vols. «. 8 9 4to. 4. Blooncf eld's Geography ; 2 
 vols. e. 8. (read the first volume only). 4to. 6. Ingram's introduction to geo- 
 graphy, s. 8, (at school). 12mo. 7. Playfair's geography; (read volume firsf) 
 s. 2—9. 8. Description of Scotland; [1809]. s. 10. 11. 8vo. 9. Pinkerton'* 
 modern geography, (abridged) ; 1 vol. e. 9. lO. Guthrie's geographical gram- 
 mar ; 1 vol s. 14. 8vo. 11. Sir John Sinclair's statistical account of Scotland, 
 21 vols. s. (read a part of this work in 1810 and 1811.) 8vo. 32. A picture of 
 Verdun; 2 vols. 14. 12mo. 34. Britton's beauties of Wiltshire; 1 vol. e. 19 
 8vo. 35. Brooke's Gazetteer ; 2 vols. e. (from time to time.) s. 8vo. 37. His 
 tory of Edinburgh, by Hugo Amot, Esq., advocate ; 1 vdI. s 4to. 38. Ne> 
 picture of London for 1803. e. 1 thick 18mo.
 
 APPEXDIX. 307 
 
 Poetry axd Plays. 
 
 1. Gentle Shepherd, by Alhin Ramsay, s. 6. 2. Douglas, a tragedy, by the 
 Eev. John Home. s. 6. 3. Life of Sir 'Williara "Wallace; Life of Eobert 
 Bruce, by J. Barbour, Aberdeen, s. 6. 12mo. 4. Caledonian, English, and 
 Irish musical repositories, s. e. i. 12mo. 7. Oliver and Boyd's comic songs ; 
 2 vols. s. 15. 12mo. 9. Warblers, Olios, and other song books, ad infinitum. 
 10. The works of Wm. Shakespeare ; 12 vols. e. 8. 12mo. 22. Gray's Poems, 
 e. 7. pt. 23. Morrison's poems, s. 10. 12mo. 24. The Grave, a poem, by 
 Eobert Blair, s. 10. pt. 25. The works of James Thomson, Eoxburghshira. 
 containing the Seasons, plays, miscellaneous poetry, &g. ; 3 vols. s. 8. 9. 12mo. 
 28. The poems of Ossian, translated by J. MacPherson, m.p.; 2 vols. s. 13. 
 12mo. 30. Seattle's Minstrel and other poems, s. 10. 12mo. 31. Pope's 
 works, containing Iliad, Oddysey, Dunciad, Essay on man, correspondence, 
 poems, &c. ; 4 vols. e. 10. 12mo. 35. Dryden's Virgil, e. 13. 36. Paradise 
 lost and regained, and other poems, by John Milton ; 2 vols, e. 8. 9. 12mo. 
 38. Provoked husband, by Gibber and Vanbrugh. e. 8. pt. 39. The dramatic 
 works of Sir George Etheridge. e. 10. 12mo. 40. West Indian, by Cumber- 
 land, e. 9. Butler's Hudibras. e. 12. 12mo. 42. Scotland's skaith, or the waes 
 of war, or Will and Jean, by Hector MacJS'eill, Esq. ; 1 vol. s. 9. 8vo. 43. 
 The works of Eobert Burns, Ayrshire, with the life of the author and his 
 miscellaneous correspondence, edited by Dr. Currie, of Liverpool ; 4 vols. s. e. 
 9. 8vo. (Eead the Montrose edition of Burns ; 4 vols. 19. 12mo.) 47. Allan 
 Eamsay's poems and Scotch proverbs; 1 vol. s. 13. 8vo. 48. Goldsmith's 
 plays and poems ; 1 vol. i. often. 12nio. 49. Moliere's plays ; 8 vols. f. 14. 
 12mo. 57. Watt's psalms and hymns, e. 18. 12mo. 58. Poems by Eobert 
 Ferguson, Aberdeenshire ; 1 vol. s. 15. 12mo. 59. Dr. Young's works, contain- 
 ing Night thoughts, plays, correspondence, &c. : 3 vols. e. 15. 12mo. 62. 
 Poems by John Duff, Dunkeld ; 1 vol. s. 16. 12mo. 63. The Shipwreck and 
 other poems, by Wm. Falconer, s. 14. ISmo. 65. Lord Eochester's poems; 
 (fine but obscene) ; 2 vols. e. 17. 12mo. Though not poetry, I add here: 67. 
 The Bishop Burnet's account of the death of Lord Eochester. (I don't believe 
 the bishop.) s. 68. Minstrelsy of the Scottish border ; 3 vols. s. 15. 8vo. 71. 
 Marmion, a tale of Flodden field ; 1 vol. s. 15. 8vo. 72. Lord of the isles, by 
 Walter Scott, Esq. ; 1 vol. s. 19. Svo. 73. The dramatic works of Wm. Con- 
 greve. 74. Johnson's poems, e. 9. pt. 75. School for scandal, by E. B. Sher- 
 idan, M.r. i. 10. pt. 76. Miss Baillie's tragedy of The family legend, e. 10. 
 77. The Hermit of Warkworth. e. 1807-8. 78. Eokeby, a poem by Walter 
 Scott; 1 vol. s. 19. Svo. 79. Sir Eobert Howard's play of "The committee." 
 e. 18. 80. Leonidas, by Glover, e. 9. 12mo. 81. Lady of the lake, by Wal- 
 ter Scott, s. 19. Svo. 81. Beaux' stratagem, Beggars' opera. Belle's stratagem, 
 Bold stroke for a wife, Busybody, Cato, Conscious lovers, Comus, Country girl, 
 Cymon, Double dealer, Double gillant, Earl of Essex. 83. Fair penitent,
 
 308 APPENDIX. 
 
 Gamester, Geo. Barnwell, Good naturedman, Guardiiin, High life belcw stairs, 
 Isabella, Jane Shore, Love for love, Love in a village, Mahomet. 84. Maid of 
 the mill. Mock doctor. Mourning bride, Oroonolio, Kivals, Provoked husband, 
 ilule a wife and have a wife, She stoops to conquer, Siege of Damascus, Tancred 
 and Sigismunda, Yenice preserved, Yara. N. B. Bead most of these plays 
 previous to 1812. 84. Careless husband. Castle spectre. 1808. 85. Childe Ha- 
 rold's pilgrimage, cantos 1st and 2d, and other poems, by Lord Byron ; 1 vol. 
 e. 10th ed. 19. 8vo. 86. Gertrude of Wyoming and other poems, by Thomas 
 Campbell, author of Pleasures of hope ; 1 vol. s. 19. thin 4to. 
 
 Books of Education, &c. 
 
 1. Gray's arithmetic, s. 6. 12nio. 2. Murray's introduction to English 
 grammar, s. 8. 12mo. 3. Johnson's dictionary in miniature, e. 9. 4. Chil- 
 dren's friend, by Charles Berquin ; 4 vols. f. 7. 8. 12mo. 8. Youth's maga- 
 zine, (several vols.) 12mo. 9. Swift's advice to servants, i. 7. 8. pt. 10. A 
 present for an apprentice, e. 7. pt. 11. Chesterfield's letters to his son ; 3 vols, 
 e. 15. 12mo. 14. Morrison's book-keeinng; 1 vol. s. 8. 4to. 15. Hamilton's 
 merchandize; 1 vol. s. 8. 8vo. 16. Hamilton's arithmetic, s, 8. 9. 12mo. 17. 
 Melrose's arithmetic, by Ingram; 1 vol. s. 16. p. 18. Morrison's (of Perth) 
 modern precepts ; 2 vols. s. 12. 13. 8vo. 20. Dr. Gregory's legacy to his 
 daughters, s. pt. 21. Telemachus, by Fenolon. i. 13. 12mo. 22. "Watts o:. 
 the improvement of the mind; 2 vols. e. 15. 12mo. 24. Watts' logic; 1 vol. 
 e. 14. 12mo. 25. Bonnycastle's geometry, e. 17. 12mo. 26. Crocker's land 
 surveying, e. 15. 12nio. 27. Fordyce's sermons to young men ; 1 vol. s. 16. 
 82. Fordyce's sermons to young women; 1 vol. e. 16. 29. Hutton's mensura- 
 tion, e. 15. 12mo. 30. Hutton's mathematics ; 2 vols. e. 17. Bvo. 32. Emer- 
 son's calculation, libration, and computation, &c. ; 1 vol. e. 18. 19. 8vo. 33. 
 Young man's companion, e. 17. 8vo. 34. Young woman's best companT'vn. 
 
 e. 17. 8vo. 35. Joyce's arithmetic ; 1 vol. e. 19. 36. Misses' magazine ; 2 
 vols. e. 8. 9. 12mo. 38. A description of three hundred animals, s. 8. 12mo. 
 39. Hannah More on female education ; 2 vols. e. 10. 12mo. 41. Lennie's 
 child 3 ladder, s. 20. 18mo. 
 
 Arts, Sciences, Agriculture, and Natural History. 
 
 1. Several volumes of the Farmer's magazine, s. 2. Several vols, of the 
 Repertory of arts. e. 3. Several vols, of Nicholson's philosophical journal, e. 
 4. Jamison's arts and sciences ; 3 vols. e. 12mo. 7. Buchan's domestic medi- 
 cine, s. 9. 8vo. 10. Buffon's natural history, with notes by Smellie ; 2 vols. 
 
 f. 9 thick 8vo. 12. Hill's herbal; 1 vol. 11. Bvo. 13. Culpepper's English 
 heroal ; 1 vol. e. 11. Bvo. 14. Sir John Sinclair's agricultural report for Scot- 
 land, s. 16. 8vo. 15. Willich's lectures on diet and regimen, e. 12. 8vo. 16. 
 Duncan's Edinburgh dispensatory, e. 1805 ed. 15. 8vo. 17. Hooper's medical
 
 APPEXDIS. 309 
 
 dictionary, e. 15. 8vo, 18. The Practice of pliysic, by Dr. Thomas, of Salis- 
 bury, e. 15. 8vo. 19. Clater's Every man his own farrier, a? cl Every man hia 
 own cattle doctor ; 2 vols. e. 15. 8vo. 21. MacDonald's cookery, s. 16. 12mo. 
 22. Frazer's cookery, s. 16. 12mo. 23. Kogers' agricultural report for Forfar- 
 shire, s. 16. 8vo. 24. The villa garden directory, by "Walter Nicoll, Edin- 
 burgh, s. 16. 25. Seven numbers of Dr. Keese's Gazette of health for 1818, 19, 
 &c. e. 19. 8vo. 26. Spectacle de la nature ; 8 vols. f. 18. 12mo. (read the first 
 six volumes.) 34. CuUen's practice of physic ; 3 vols. s. 15. 8vo. 37. Circle 
 of the mechaniial arts, by a civil engineer, e. 19. 4to. 38. Parkinson's che- 
 mical pocket-book, (printed 1807.) e. 20. 12mo. 39. A system of chemistry 
 by J. Murray, lecturer on chemistry, and on materia medica, and on phar- 
 macy, Edin., ed. 1807 ; 4 vols. s. 20. 8vo. (read the last three volumes only.) 
 43. The Chemical catechism, with notes, illustrations, and experiments, by 
 Samuel Parkes, London, e. 7th ed. 16. 20, pp. 562. 8vo. 44. Haigh's Dyer's 
 assistant, printed 1800, read 1820. e. new ed. 12mo. (very old and useless di 
 rections.) 45. Langley's Builder's jewel, sq. plates, ed. 1805. 13. 12mo. 46 
 The second volume of Conversations on chemistry, plates, Longman & Co. 20 
 12mo. 47. Dr. Willich's domestic encyclopedia, London, 1802 ; 4 vols. 8vc 
 51. Mather's Farmers' assistant. Dundee, 1819. 20. 4to. 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 1. Dundee repository ; 2 vols. s. 7. 8. 12mo. 3. Dundee magazine, 1799, 
 1800, &c. ; 3 vols. s. 12mo. 6. Dundee magazine, s. 15. 8vo. 7. History 
 of the Devil, e. 9. 12mo. 8. Athenian oracle, by Dean Swift ; 2 vols. i. 8. 
 12mo. 10. Hocus pocus or Legerdemain, s. 7. pt. 11. I am uncertain how 
 many: Volumes of the Edinburgh review, s. 8vo. 12. Volumes of the Analy- 
 tical review, e. 8vo. 13. Volumes of the Monthly review, e. 8vo. 14. Vo- 
 lumes of the Quarterly review, e. 8vo. 15. Volumes of the Edinburgh maga- 
 zine, s. 8vo. 16. Volumes of the Town and Country magazine, e. 8vo. 17. 
 Volumes of the Scots' magazine, s. 8vo. 18. Volumes of the Ladies' magazine. 
 e. 12mo. 19. Volumes of the Gentleman's magazine, e. 8vo. 20. Volumes of 
 the Monthly magazine, e. 8vo. 21. Volumes of the London magazine, e. 8vo, 
 22. Volumes of the European magazine, e. 8vo. 23. Universal museum, 
 1764, &c. ; 2 vols. e. 19. 8vo. 25. Literary journal ; 2 vols. e. 18. 19. 4to. 27. 
 Tegg's magazine of shipwrecks ; 2 vols. e. 17. 12mo. 29. Spectator, by Addi- 
 son and Steele ; 8 vols. e. i. 9. 10. 12mo. 37. Sterne's works, containing 
 Tristram Shandy, sermons. Sentimental journey, &c. ; 8 vols. 7. (pocket size.) 
 45. Dr. Blair's lectures; 2 vols. s. 10. 11. 4to. 47. Abelard and Heloise. f. 
 10. 12mo. 48. The life and essays of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, (etats unis.); 
 2 vols. 9. 12mo. (read very oft«n since.) 50'. Trial of Lord Melville, 1806. s. 
 10. 8vo. 51. Wonderful magazine; 6 vols. e. 8. 10. 8vo. 57. Lady Mary 
 Wortley Montague's letters; 2 vols. e. 10. 12mo. 59. Goldsmith's essays, i. 
 12. 12mo. 60. Montesquieu's Spirit of laws; 2 vols. f. 14. 12rao. G2. Zim-
 
 310 APPENDIX. 
 
 merman on solitude. (Swiss.) 14. 8to. 63. Memoirs of Ihe Prince 3f Wajfesit 
 3 vols. e. 14. 12mo. 66. The rising sun ; 3 vols. e. 14. 12mo. 69. Bell 
 on the bankrupt laws; 2 vols. s. 16. 4to. 71. The Persian letters, by 
 Lord Littleton ; 2 vols. e. 9. 12mo. 73. Lord Lauderdale's enquiry into the 
 nature and origin of public wealth, s. 15. 8vo. 74. Letters from the moun- 
 tains, by Mrs. Grant ; 4 vols. s. 17. 12mo. 77. Yolney's Ruins of empires, f. 
 10. 14. 12mo. 78. Mirabeaja's works, vol. 3d., being a defence of atheism, f 
 IB. 12mo. 79. Acts of . parliament for the Kennett and Avon canal, e. 19. 
 (2). 80. Eegulations of the quarter sessions of "Wiltshire, e. 19. pt. 81. Ta- 
 rantula or Dance of fools; 2 vols. e. 19. 12mo. 83. Miss — led General, e. 10. 
 12mo. 84. Miseries of human life, by Tim Testy and Sam Sensitive ; 2 vo!b. 
 e. 19. 12nio. (read only the first volume.) 86. Economy of human life. e. pt. 
 (often.) 87. Ovid's metamorphosis. 8. 12mo. 88. The Lounger, s. 89. The 
 Bee, edited by Dr. Anderson, in volumes, s. 7. 8. 9. 12mo. 90. Harvest home, 
 by Mr. Pratt, containing Gleanings, " Hail fellow ! well met !" poems, Love's 
 trials, Fire and frost. Sympathy, &c. ; 3 vols. e. 19. 8vo. 93. The French con- 
 vert. 8. 12mo. 94. Anecdotes of eminent persons; 2 vols. e. 19. 8vo. 95. 
 Mrs. Chapone's letters, e. 10. 12mo. 96. Gay's fables, e. 10. 12mo. 97. 
 >Esop's fables. (Greek.) 8. 12mo. 98 Junius's letters, e. s. i, 12. 12mo. 99. 
 " Jokeby," a burlesque on Kokeby. 16. ]2mo. 100. Court of requests, Birm- 
 ingham described, by Wm. Hutton, f.a.s.s. ; 1vol. e. 19. 8vo. 101. Lava- 
 ter's physiognomy. (Swiss.); 1 vol. read in. 1811 or 1812. 12mo. 102. 
 Arliss's pocket magazine for 1818, volume 2nd. e. 19. 12mo. 103. The Guar- 
 dian ; 2 vols. 14. 12mo. 105. Anecdotes of the manners and customs of Lon- 
 don from the Roman invasion to 1700, by James Peller Malcolm, f.a.s., 
 Longman & Co.; 3 vols. 2nd ed. 11. 8vo. (read first and second volumes in 
 <-)ct. 1819.) 107. Literary recreations, by Henry Card, A.M. ; 1 vol. e. 19. 
 8vo. 108. Encyclopedia of wit. (Phillips.) ; 1 vol. e. 19. 18mo. 109. Forbes 
 (President) on incredulity, 1757. s. 19. 18mo. 110. Abbot's Dundee directory. 
 s. 20. 12mo. 111. Cheap magazine, Haddington, 1813 ; 2 vols. s. 13. 14. 12mo. 
 113. Vicesimus Knox's essays; 3 vols. 16. 20. 12mo. 116. Blank-book, or 
 Corruption unmasked, (supposed by Wooler.) London, 1820. e. 20. 8vo. 
 
 Novels. 
 
 N. B. Novels are almost all 12mos. 1. Gil Bias, by Le Sage, translated 
 by Dr. Smollet; 4 vols. s. f. 7. 12mo. 5. Devil on two sticks, or Asmodeus, 
 Ijy Le Sage ; 2 vols. f. 8. 12mo. 7. The Fool of Quality, or history of Henry, 
 Earl :f Moreland, by Wm. Brookes; 5 vols. 8. 12. Anna St. Ives, by Mrs. 
 Bennet; 5 vols. e. 8. 17. The Beggar girl, by Mrs. Bennet; 4 vols. e. 17. 
 21. Henrietta, a novel. 7. 22. Gulliver's voyages, by Dean Swift, i. 7. 23.. 
 Tale of a tub and Battle of the books, by Dean Swift, i. 7. 8. 24. Captain 
 Singleton, e. 8. 25. Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel DeFoe. e. 6. 26. Philip 
 Quarll, or the English Hermit, e. 7 8. 27. Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding;
 
 APPENDIX. 311 
 
 8 vols. e. 8. 30. Amolia, by Henry Fielding ; 3 vols. e. 9. 33. Joseph An- 
 drews, by Henry Fielding; 2 vols. e. 11. 35. Castle of Otranto, by Horace 
 Walpole. e. 8. 36. Belisarius, by Marmontel. f. 7. 8. 37. Numa Pompilius, 
 by Florian. f. 16. 38. Heron's translation of the Arabian nights' entertain- 
 ments ; 4 vols. s. 7. 8. 9. 42. Continuation of Heron's translation cf the 
 Arabian nights' entertainments; 4 vols. s. 9. 10. 46. St. Clair of the Isles, or 
 the Outlaws of Barra, by Elizabeth Helme ; 4 vols. e. 9. 60. Thaddeus of 
 Warsaw, by Miss Jane Porter of Edinburgh; 4 vols. s. 9. 54. Don Se- 
 bastian, by Miss Porter, of Edinburgh; 5 vols. s. 15. 59. Hungarian Bro- 
 thers, by Miss Porter, of Edinburgh ; 3 vols. s. 16. 62. Eccluse of Nor- 
 way, by Miss Porter, of Edinburgh ; 3 vols. 3.16. 65. Scottish Chiefs, by 
 Jliss Jane Porter, of Edinburgh ; 5 vols ; s. 17. 70. Pastor's fireside ; by 
 Miss Porter, of Edinburgh ; 4 vols. s. 17. 74. Peregrine Pickle, by Tobias 
 Smollet, LL.D. ; 4 vols. s. 8. 19. 78. Koderick Kandom, by Tobias Smollet ; 
 LL.D. ; 2 vols. s. 9. 80. Sir Launcelot Greaves, by Tobias Smollet, ll.d. ; 
 1 vol. s. 19. 81. Count Fathom, by Tobias Smollet, ll.d. ; 2 vols. s. 8. 83. 
 Humphrey Clinker, by Tobias Smollet, ll.d. ; 2 vols. s. 10. 85. The Sorrows 
 of Werter. g. 10. 86. Tales of the Castle, by Madame de Genlis ; 4 vols. f. 
 8. 90. Paul and Virginia, f. 8. 91. Indian cottage, by Mons. Bernardin St. 
 Pierre, f. 8. 92. Woman, or Ida of Athens, by Miss Owenson, now Lady 
 Morgan ; 4 vols. i. 9. 96. Novice of St. Dominick, by Miss Owenson, now 
 Lady Morgan; 4 vols. i. 100. The wild Irish girl, by Miss Owenson, now 
 Lady Morgan ; 3 vols. i. 103. Memoirs of an Irish officer and his family, by 
 Mr. Edgeworth. i. 14. 106. Tales of fashionable life, by Miss Edgeworth ; 
 4 vols. i. 10. 110. Popular tales, by Miss Edgeworth ; 4 vols. i. 10. 114. 
 Patronage, by Miss Edgeworth ; 4 vols. i. 17. 19. 118. Harrington and Or. 
 mond, by Miss Edgeworth ; 3 vols. i. 19. 121. Travels of St. Leon, by Wm. 
 Godwin; 4 vols. e. 9. 125. Caleb Williams, by Wm. Godwin; 3 vols. e. 9. 
 128. Easselas, by Dr. Johnson, e. 9. 129. Henry, by Cumberland ; 4 vols. 
 e. 9. 133. Clarissa Harlowe, by Samuel Kichardson. e. 139. Pamela, by 
 Samuel Kichardson ; 2 vols. e. 12. 17. 8vo. 141. Sir Charles Grandison, l)y 
 Samuel Kichardson ; 8 vols. 11. 15. 149. Temper, by Mrs. Opie ; 3 vols. e. 
 17. 152. Simple tales, by Mrs. Opie; 4 vols. e. 11. 156. Adeline Mowbray, 
 by M:s. Opie ; 2 vols. e. 17. 158. Valentine's Eve, by Mrs. Opie; 3 vols. e. 
 
 17. 19. 161. The Scottish adventurers, by Hector M'Neil, Esq. s. 17. 163. 
 India voyage, by Mrs. Lefanu; 2 vols. .e. 12. 165. Strathallan, by Mrs. 
 Lefanu; 4 vols. e. 17. 169. Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Goldsmith, i. 18. 
 
 18. 170. Almoran and Hamet, by Dr. Hawksworth. e. 12. 171. Man of 
 /eeling, by Henry Mackenzie, Esq., Edinburgh, s. 9. 10. 11. &c. Man of the 
 world, by Henry Mackenzie, Esq., Edinburgh, s. 15. 173. Julia de Eoubigne, 
 by Henry Mackenzie, Esq., Edinburgh, s. 12. 174. Elizabeth, or the Exiles 
 of Siberia, by Madame Cottin. f. 15. 175. Adventures of Captain Robert 
 Boyle. 7. 176. A winter in Edinburgh, by Honoria Scott ; 3 vols. s. 14. 
 
 90
 
 312 APPENDIX. 
 
 179. Evelina, by Miss B-arney; 2 vols. e. 10. 14. 18. 181. Cicely Fitzowen ; 
 2 vols. e. 14. 183. Feiney Castle; 4 vols, e. 14. 187. Cicely and Kaby; 4 
 vols. e. 14. 191. Bryan Perdue, by Thos. Holcroft; 3 vols. e. 14. 194. Emily 
 Montague, by Mrs. Brookes ; 4 vols. e. 14. 198. Profligate Prince, e. 14. 
 199. Celia suited, or the Kival heiresses ; 2 vols. e. 14. 201. Cottagers of Glen- 
 burnie, by Elizabeth Hamilton, i. 7th ed. 14. 202. -Queen Hoo Hall and 
 ancient times, by Joseph Strutt; 4 vols. e. 14. 206. A Tale of the times, by 
 Mrs. West; 3 vols. e. 15. 209. The Loyalists, by Mrs. "West; 3 vols. e. 17. 
 212. Five volumes by J. Horsely Curties. e. 14. 217. The Swiss emigrants ; 
 2 vols. e. 15. 219. Moral tales, by Mrs. Fleury. e. 15. 220. Offspring of 
 Mortimer ; 4 vols. e. 15. 224. Fashionable infidelity ; 3 vols. e. 15. 227. 
 School for widows, by Clara Eeeve ; 3 vols. e. 15. 230. The young philoso- 
 pher, by Charlotte Smith ; 4 vols. e. 15. 234. Mysteries of Udolpho, by 
 Anno Kadcliffe ; 4 vols. s. 15. 238. Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, by Anna 
 Eadcliffe. s. 15. 239. The mysterious freebooter; 3 vols. 16. 242. Tales of 
 the Genii ; 2 vols. 8. 244. Discipline ; 2 vols. s. 16. 246. Self-control ; 2 
 vols. s. 16. 248. Smollet's translation of Don Quixote, by M. Cervantes, (Spain) ; 
 4 vols. s. 16. 252. Farmer of Inglewood forest, by Elizabeth Helme ; 4 vols, 
 e. 16. 256. The Wanderers, by Miss Burney ; 5 vols. e. 15. 261. Cselebs in search 
 of a mistress; 3 vols. e. 18. 264. Cselebs in search of a wife; 2 vols. e. 16. 
 266. Cselebs married; 1 vol. e. 17. 8vo. 267. The white cottage. (Blackwood.) 
 «5. 17. 268. The Widow's lodgings ; 2 vols. s. 17. 270. Clan Albin ; 4 vols. s. 
 17. 274. Marian, (Manners & Miller.); 3 vols. s. 17. 277. The Saxon and 
 the Gael ; 3 vols. s. 17. 280, Guelette's Tartarian tales; 2 vols. f. 19. 282. 
 Orphan of Tintern Abbey ; 4 vols. e. 18. 286. Good men of modern date, by 
 S. Green ; 3 vols, e, 18. 289. Waverly, by Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh ; 3 
 vols. s. 16. 12mo. 292. Antiquary, by Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh ; 3 vols. s. 
 17. 295. Guy Mannering, by Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh ; 3 vols. s. 17. 298. 
 Rob Roy, by Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh ; 3 vols. s. 19. 301. Tales of my 
 landlord, containing Black Dwarf, and Old Mortalil^^, by Walter Scott, Esq., 
 Edinburgh ; 4 vols. s. 1st. ser. 17. 305. Tales of my landlord, or the Heart 
 of Mid Lothian, by Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh ; 4 vols. s. 14. 309. Tell- 
 tale Sophas; 3 vols. e. 19, 312. Miss Greville ; 3 vols. e. 19. 315. Chrysal, 
 or the adventures of Alguinea ; 4 vols. e. 10. 12. 319. Antar, by Terrich 
 Hamilton, Esq. ; 1 vol. 19. 320. A Sicilian romance, by Anna Radcliffe ; 2 
 vols. e. (printed 1792.) 19. 12mo. 322. Cselebs deceived; 2 vols. e. 19. 12mo. 
 324. Tales of real life, by Mrs. Opie ; 3 vols. e. 19. 12mo. 327. Father and 
 daughter, by Mrs. Opie. e. 19. 12mo. 328. Jeannette, by the author of Mel- 
 bourne, &c. ; 4 vols, (printed 1800.) 19. 332. Tales of my landlord, contain- 
 ing Bride of Lammermoor, a Legend of Montrose, &c., by Walter Scott ; 
 4 vols. s. 3d ser. 19. 12mo. 336. " I says, says I," written by the author of 
 "Thinks I to myself," a clergyman of Litchfield and nephew of the Bishop ; 
 2 vols. e. 19. 338. Donald ; 3 vols. e. 15. l2mo. 341. De Valcourt; 2 vob.
 
 APPENDIX. 313 
 
 e. 14. 12mo. 343. Faro table, or Gambling mothers; 2 vols. e. 16. 12mo. 
 345. Ned Evans; 4 vols. e. 13. 14. 12mo. 34). Women, or Pour et Contre, 
 by the Kev. R. C. Maturin, Dublin ; 3 vols. 20. 12mo. (Highly praised by the 
 Edinburgh review.) 852. Campbell, or the Scots probationer, a novel, by a 
 native of Forfarshire. York, 1820 ; 2 vols. 20. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 When charged with publishing libels on the House, and a motion 
 had been made to expel the author and publisher, Mr. Mackenzie 
 made a long defence, of which the following are the material por- 
 tions : — 
 
 " The articles complained of," he said, " contain opinions unfa- 
 vorable to the political character of members who compose the 
 majority of this House, also opinions unfavorable to those persons 
 who compose the Executive Council of the Colony, The former 
 are changed with sycophancy, the latter with being as mean and 
 mercenary as any other Colonial administration. It is alleged 
 that to propagate such opinions is criminal and deserves punish- 
 ment. Undoubtedly, if there is a rule or law, it is wrong to 
 transgress it. But I know no law that is transgressed by propa- 
 gating these opinions. Let it even be supposed, for the sake of 
 argument, that the opinions complained of are false, though I 
 firmly believe that they are perfectly true. If all false quota- 
 tions and false opinions are improper, then all discussion either in 
 this House or through the press must be also improper, for one 
 feet of opinions must be wrong. And if none but true opinions 
 can be given or quoted by either party, then there can be no 
 argument. The newspaper press of this Colony takes different 
 sides on political questions. Four-fifths of the twenty-five jour- 
 nals published in this Colony are in raptures with the Lieutenant 
 Governor, the Councils, and House of Assembly ; they continu- 
 ally laud and extol them to the skies for the wonderful benefits 
 they are conferring, and (as they say) about to c mfer upon the
 
 314 APPFNDIX. 
 
 Province. The remaining journals, comparatively few in num- 
 ber, but of very extensive circulation, disapprove generally of 
 the manner m which public aifairs are conducted. Shall they not 
 possess the power to blame, if they think fit, that which the 
 others praise ? May not they who find fault be in the right, and 
 the others who praise in the wrong? How are the people to 
 know when to approve or to disapprove of the conduct of their 
 rulers, if the freedom of expressing all opinions concerning pub- 
 lic men be checked? In English Law, it is said that though dis- 
 cussion should be free it should be 'decent,' and that all inde- 
 cency should be punished as libelous. The law of libel leaves 
 the terms ' indecent discussion' undefined, and in old English 
 practice, as Bentham justly remarks, what is ' decent' and * what 
 the judge likes' have been pretty generally synonymous. Inde- 
 cency of discussion cannot mean the delivery either of true or 
 false opinions, because discussion implies both ; there is presumed 
 to be two parties, one who denies, and another who afiirms ; as 
 with us, where tweirty journals are in favor of the majority in 
 this House and only five generally opposed to them. Would you 
 wish all check from the press put a stop to ? Assuredly there is 
 no medium between allowing all opinions to be published, and of 
 prohibiting all. Where would you draw the line ? Those among 
 us who may wish to conceal the abuses of our defective govern- 
 ment will denounce the paragraphs complained of as libelous, 
 because it is a point of great importance with them to keep the peo- 
 ple in ignorance, that they may neither know nor think they have 
 any just cause of complaint, but allow the few to riot undisturbed 
 in the pleasures of misrule at their expense. They say. West India 
 negro law is admirable. The Solicitor and Attorney General 
 have already gratuitously denounced the paragraphs before the 
 House, as tending to bring the government into contempt, and 
 impede its operation. If the government is acting wrongly, it 
 ought to be checked. Censure of a government causes inquiry, 
 and produces discontent among the people, and this discontent is 
 the only means known to me of removing the defects of a vicious
 
 APPENDIX. 31o 
 
 government, and inducing the rulers to remedy abuses. Thus 
 the press, by its power of censure, is the best safeguard of the 
 interests of mankind ; and unless the practical freedom of the 
 press were guaranteed by the spirit and determination of the peo- 
 ple of Upper Canada, it is doubtful to me whether this House 
 itself, as an elective body, would be an advantage to the commu- 
 nity. I rather think it would not. It is by no means an impro- 
 bability that the electors of this House should sometimes make a 
 bad choice. That I think they have done so now is evident from 
 my votes upon most questions. It is by the liberty of the press, 
 and the freedom of expressing opinions, that a remedy can be had 
 for an unfortunate choice ; the more the country know of your 
 acts, the more severely editors on whom they depend animadvert 
 on your public conduct, the more will that conduct become a mat»- 
 ter of inquiry and discussion, and the country will look into your 
 actions and weigh your character thereby. If the people support 
 a press and expect independent opinions from the editor, would 
 you have that editor deceive them by praising the most notorious 
 selfishness and sycophancy, and dressing these vices in the garb 
 of virtue? 
 
 " If one man in a legislative assembly saw that he might pro- 
 mote misrule for his own advantage, so would another ; so would 
 they all ; and thus bad government be reared and upheld. Unless 
 there be a check in the people upon governors and legislators, 
 founded on a knowledge of their character, governments will in- 
 evitably become vicious. If the legislature shall (as these pro- 
 ceedings indicate in my case) assume the power of judging censures 
 on their own public conduct, and also assume the power to punish, 
 they will be striking a blow at the interests of the people and the 
 wholesome liberty of the press. Where, bad judges, hypocritical 
 governors, wicked magistrates, sycophantic representatives, can, 
 by the doctrine of contempts, exercise at will a censorship over 
 the press, and punish the journalist who strives to promote the 
 public interest by a fearless discharge of an unpleasant duty, 
 misrule and injustice will be the inevitable consequence. It is
 
 316 APPENDIX. 
 
 our duty to watch the judges ; but were they to assume the power 
 of punishing editors summarily for animadversions on their con- 
 duct on the bench, how would the people know what that con- 
 duct had been, or learn whether we did or did not do our duty in 
 striving to secure for them a perfect judicature? There is as- 
 suredly no security for good government, unless both favorable 
 and unfavorable opinions of public men are freely allowed to be 
 circulated. To have the greater benefit in the one case, you must 
 submit to the lesser evil in the other. But it will perhaps be said 
 that the language of these paragraphs is passionate, and that to 
 censure you in passionate language is libelous. Who shall de- 
 fine what is and what is not violent and passionate language? Is 
 not strong and powerful emotion excited in one man's mind by 
 expressions which in another man produces no such efi"ect? Will 
 you affirm that opinions ought to be put down if conveyed in 
 strong language, or what you may be pleased to consider strong 
 terms ? This doctrine would leave to the judges the power of in- 
 terpreting the law favorably or unfavorably in all cases. Libel 
 might thus mean one thing in York and another thing in Sand- 
 wich. The freedom of the press has been for many years practi- 
 cally recognized by all factions, sects, and parties in these Colo- 
 nies ; and each, in its turn, has had resort to that powerful lever 
 in attempting to direct public opinion. Opinions both favorable 
 and unfavorable, both true and false, have been safely promul- 
 gated, and truth and error advocated by opposite sides, of which 
 I will now refer to some examples. It cannot even be alleged by 
 my judges, the public agents for the Gore Mercury, (Messrs. 
 Mount, Burwell, Shade, Ingersoll, and Robinson,) owned by the 
 learned member opposite (Mr. McNab), that that newspaper has 
 changed and become more violent than at the onset. Mr. McNab 
 k)ld us in his first number that ' Believing decency and good 
 manners to compose some part of virtue, we shall endeavor to 
 exclude from our columns all selections or communications hav- 
 ing in the least a contrary tendency. All personal reflections, 
 private scandal, and vituperative attacks upon individual charac-
 
 APPENDIX. 317 
 
 ter, we openly declare we wish never to have even sent to us.' 
 And in the very same number, he gave several delectable verses 
 as his own definition of this 'virtue,' 'decency,' and 'good man- 
 ners.' I may as well give the House a specimen from his open- 
 ing number, where he speaks of the majority of the last House 
 of Assembly: — 
 
 " • Each post of profit in the Houso 
 To greedy sharks assigned, 
 And public records of the state 
 Clandestinely purloined. 
 
 " ' The Attorney from the Senate House 
 Endeavored to expel, 
 Whose Hall they made look like a room 
 Where raving drunkards dwell. 
 
 •' ' For months this ribald conclave 
 Eetailed their vulgar prate, 
 And charged two dollars each per day 
 For spouting billingsgate. 
 
 " ' Two years their saintships governed ns 
 With lawless, despot rule, 
 At length the sudden change broke up 
 The league of knave and fool.' 
 
 " After apportioning to your predecessor in that chair a due 
 share of this decent poetry, the learned gentleman opposite in- 
 formed the people of Wentworth that their late representatives, 
 of whom I was one, were so many 'juggling, illiterate boobies — 
 a tippling band — a mountebank rifi-raff — a saintly clan — a sad- 
 dle-bag divan — hacknied knaves ;' and that they possessed other 
 equally pleasant and agreeable qualities, which it appears his fine 
 sense of virtue, decency, and good manners did not allow him to 
 forget in his future productions, which my judges, his agents 
 (Messrs. Shade, Robinson, &c.), have taken such unequaled pains 
 to circulate among our worthy constituents. I declare I think it 
 a severe punishment to be obliged to seek for specimens of ' the 
 liberty of the press' as practiced by the majority of this House,
 
 31^ APPENDIX. 
 
 in such a veliicle as the Mercury^ but it nevertheless appears to 
 me the best and most effectual way of exhibiting to the country 
 the gross and shameful partiality of this proceeding. I will now 
 call the attention of the House to Mr. McNab's Mercury of the 
 9th June and 15th September last. Courtiers are seldom slow in 
 perceiving what pleases a government, and are always ready to 
 use the means, however improper. It has been found no difficult 
 road to the favor of His Excellency and his Council to cast oppro- 
 brium on Mr. Ryerson, the Methodists, Mr. Bidwell, and others 
 whom His Excellency had no friendship for ; accordingly we find 
 Mr. McNab and the agents of his Mercury stating that Mr. Ry- 
 erson is ' a man of profound hypocrisy and unblushing effrontery, 
 who sits blinking on his perch, like Satan Avhen he perched on 
 the tree of life, in the shape of a cormorant to meditate the ruin of 
 owr first parents in the garden of Eden,' and the ally of ' shame- 
 less reprobates.' My brother members go on, and civilly publish 
 in the Mercury^ that my soul was going with a certain potentate 
 of darkness to his abode; that I, 'the rascal,' had been guilty of 
 ' dark calumnies and falsehoods — false oaths, false acts — with 
 many other sins of blackest hue.' I will not read the production ; 
 it is too gross ; but those who wish to refer to the proofs of ' good 
 manners' afforded by those of my judges who circulate the 
 Mercury may have the perusal of the paper itself. In the 
 Mercury printed on the day this Session was convened, I find 
 that Mr. McNab and his agents circulated (from the Kingston 
 Chronicle) an opinion that I had been ' wickedly employed in ex- 
 citing' the people of Upper Canada ' to discord, dissension, and 
 rebellion.' I presume this was published as a fair specimen of 
 the degree of politeness due from one member to another ; for the 
 two honorable members for Wentworth used precisely similar lan- 
 guage at the great public meeting held last summer at Hamilton. 
 This brings me to notice the meeting of the inhabitants of York 
 last July, and the petitions to the King and this House, of which 
 Messrs. McNab and Gurnett, and their agents, give an account in 
 their journals as follows : —
 
 APPENDIX. 319 
 
 *''The wliole proceeding, however, is so superlatively ridicu- 
 lous, and so palpably fraudulent and deceptive, that we find the 
 utmost difficulty in taking the subject up at all as a serious mat- 
 ter, or in alluding to it with any other language than that of 
 ridicule and contempt. And as these are also the feelings and 
 the sentiments with which every man of common sense, of every 
 sect and party in the Province, look at, and laugh at, those ex- 
 travagant proceedings — always excepting the little knot of half % 
 dozen disappointed and revengeful political aspirants who consti- 
 tute the nucleus of the old central junto party, and of every 
 other disaffected body which has been organized under different ap- 
 pellations in this country within the last seven years ; always, we 
 say, excepting this knot of worthies, and those ever ready tools 
 of their dishonest purposes — the illiterate and mentally enslaved 
 adherents of Ryersonian Episcopal Methodism — with these ex- 
 ceptions we repeat, every man in Upper Canada thoroughly 
 penetrates the fraudulent proceedings by which the party in ques- 
 tion, through the agency of their hired tool, Mr. Mackenzie, are 
 now attempting to attain their selfish and dishonest object. 
 
 " ' But the question naturally presents itself, how, in de- 
 fiance of these incontrovertible facts, can so large a number of 
 the people of the Province be induced to give the sanction 
 of their signatures to the complaints contained in Mr. Macken- 
 zie's addresses ? This is a question, however, to which every in- 
 telligent man in the country is prepared to answer. " First, 
 through the influence, direct and insidious, which the crafty 
 Methodist Episcopal priesthood exercise over their illiterate, but 
 well organized and numerous adherents ; and secondly, through 
 the fraud, falsehood, or sheer humbug, which is resorted to by 
 Mr. Mackenzie at his pretended Township Meetings." ' 
 
 " There is language for us, Mr. Speaker, language calculated 
 to please the heads of the Government, and intended doubtless as 
 illustrative of the benefits we of the minority might derive from 
 the liberty of the press Let us now examine who are the ac- 
 credited partners, public supporters, or rather, as they are called, 
 91
 
 320 APPENDIX. . 
 
 agents or the Courier. Col. Ingersoll, M. P., Mr, Mount, M. P., 
 Col. Burwell, M. P., your Hon. colleague, the York Bank agent 
 at Dundas, the Hon. Counsellor Crooks, at Flambro', Mr. Jones 
 at Prescott, Mr. Berczy at Amherstburg, and a long list of offi- 
 cials. Will those gentlemen named who have places on this floor, 
 and who are all pressing forward this prosecution, be able to per- 
 suade the c )untry that thej are not parties to one of the most 
 partial and shameful schemes ever hatched against a fellow mor 
 tal ? "Well and truly does Mr. McNab tell his readers in one of 
 his numbers, that ' Hatred can survive all change, all time, all 
 circumstance, all other emotions ; nay, it can survive the accom- 
 plishment of revenge, and, like the vampire, prey on its dead 
 victim.' The majority of this House, whatever may be their 
 pra,ctice in regard to sycophancy, profess to dread and abhor the 
 very name of sycophants ; yet are they willing to use the free- 
 dom of the press to bestow remarkable titles on others. The 
 Mercury and the Courier.) and their agents, my brother' members 
 here present, in their account of the Hamilton Meeting, jointly 
 honor me with the appellations of a ' politico-religious juggler 
 — mock patriot — contemptible being — groveling slanderer — wan- 
 dering impostor,' whose 'censure is praise,' and whose 'shameless 
 falsehoods,' 'foul deeds,' 'envious malignity,' and ' impotent slan- 
 ders' point me out as 'the lowest of the vile.' All this it is ex- 
 pected I should quietly submit to, and so I do. Next, it appears 
 to be expected that I should patiently endure the most insulting 
 abuse on this floor from persons in authority under the Govern- 
 ment ; and that too I have been found equal to. Thirdly, I must 
 not call things by their right name in the newspaper called the 
 Advoeate ; but either praise the most undeserving of public men, 
 be silent as death, or go back to the freeholders of the country 
 with the brand of a 'false, atrocious, and malicious libeler' on 
 my forehead. If such shall be your measure of justice, I will not 
 shrink from the appeal to the country. Not one word, not one 
 syllable do I retract ; I ofi'er no apology ; for what you call libel 
 I believe to be sol ;mn truth, fit to be published from one end of
 
 •PT^ENDIX. 321 
 
 the Province to the other. I certainly should not have availed 
 myself of my privilege or made use of the language complained 
 of on this floor ; but since I am called to avow or disavow that 
 language, as an independent public journalist, I declare I think 
 it mild and gentle; for, be it remembered, Mr. Speaker, I see for 
 myself how matters are carried on here ; your proceedings are 
 not retailed out to me at second hand. When the petitions of 
 the people, numerous beyond all precedent since the days of 
 Chief Justice Robinson, Jonas Jones, and the Alien question 
 were brought into this House, praying for economy and retrench- 
 ment, for the regulation of wild lands sales by law, for the abo- 
 lition of crown and clergy reserves, and all reservations except 
 for education, for the means of education, for an abolition of 
 banking monopolies, for a reduction of law fees and a simplifica- 
 tion of law practice, for the equal distribution of intestate estates, 
 for the establishment of the mode of trying impeachments, for 
 assuring the control of the whole public revenue, for a revision 
 of the corrupt jury packing system, for the repeal of the ever- 
 lasting salary bill, for disqualifying priests and bishops from 
 holding seats in the two councils, for taking the freeholders' votes 
 at convenient places, for allowing the people the control over 
 their local taxes, for inquiring into the trade law of last April, 
 for the abolition of the tea monopoly, and for an equal repre- 
 sentation of the people in this House, how was I treated by those 
 who press on this infamous proceeding ? Contrary to all parlia- 
 mentary usage, the petitions Avere consigned to a select commit- 
 tee chiefly composed of the bitter enemies of the improvements 
 prayed for, and myself and the other members who introduced 
 them excluded by your vote. My motions for referring these pe- 
 titions to their known friends, in order that through them bills 
 agreeable to the wishes of the country might be brought before 
 you, were negatived at the request of a member who has openly 
 abandoned the principles which procured him a seat on this floor 
 and a silver cup elsewhere, and adopted a course which has ele- 
 vated him to the rank of a deputy crown clerk, a justice of the
 
 322 APPENDIX. 
 
 quorum, and a favorite in the circle of officials, at the west end 
 of this city ; in more vulgar language, ' he has turned his coat,' 
 and I might add, 'his waistcoat also.' [Cries of order,] The 
 hon. member for Frontenac (Mr. Thomson), who has made these 
 several somersaults for his convenience, ifc a public journalist, and 
 consequently like me a dealer in opinions. In his Kingston 
 Herald of the 26th October last, he calls the petitions of the 
 country, with the consideration of which this House has since 
 entrusted him, a 'humbug,' and tells his brother member (Mr. 
 Buell) that he 'must plead guilty, if it be "illiberal and unjust" 
 to expose the unprincipled conduct of an individual (mean- 
 ing myself) whom we (meaning himself) conceive to be an 
 enemy to our country, and a promoter of discord and disaf- 
 fection.' What a generous, just, unbiased, and impartial judge 
 lie will make in his own cause, Mr. Speaker, on the present oc- 
 
 casion 
 
 " Again, speaking of the Address to His Majesty which has al- 
 ready been signed by ten thousand freeholders and inhabitants 
 he uses the following terms in the Herald of July last : — 
 
 " 'We need not inform our readers that the uncalled-for, and, as 
 the Patriot justly designates it, " impertinent" address, is the pro- 
 duction of Mr. Mackenzie of The Colonial Advocate, whose object 
 is to excite discontent in the minds of the farmers within the 
 sphere of his influence, and at the same time to offer a deliberate 
 insult to the Legislature of which he happens to be a member.' 
 The honorable gentleman assumes to himself the right of denounc- 
 ing at will his brother representative as a traitor to his countrj, 
 a promoter of rebellion, .and for no other reason than that that 
 member (mj^self) had originated an address to our present most 
 excellent Sovereign King William, which ten thousand of our fel- 
 low subjects have since sanctioned by their signatures ! He. de- 
 clares by his votes on this question that he, as one of the majority 
 in this House, may brand me with every infamous epithet which 
 ill will may see fit to embody in a resolution, but that I, as a pub- 
 lic journalist, must be expelled and perhaps disqualified if I once
 
 APPENDIX. 323 
 
 venture to hint at the glaring political subservier cy of public men. 
 Our late Colonial minister, Sir George Murray, in a speech ad- 
 dressed to the Electors of Perthshire, is report-ed to have said, 
 that ' It would be well if the people would at all times bear in 
 mind that crowds have their courtiers as well as monarch?. Wher- 
 ever there is power there will be flatterers, and the peoj le do not 
 always sufficiently recollect that they are liable to be flattered 
 and misled as well as princes, and by flatterers not less mean, 
 cringing, and servile, and above all, not less false or less selfish 
 than the filthiest flatterer who ever frequented a palace, to serve 
 his own private ends by betraying the interests of his master.' 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, I never was so well convinced that crowds have 
 their sycophants in Upper Canada as well as courts, as since I 
 had the honor of a seat in this Assembly. In another of Mr. 
 Thompson's journals, published before he fell from a state of po- 
 litical ^race, when he was an adherent to the party who bestowed 
 on him the cup, I find he quotes from the late York Observer the 
 following curious passage, without passing an opinion concerning 
 its noxious or innoxious qualities : — ' Mr. Fothergill has com- 
 menced replying to Mr. Macaulay's letter ; we regret to perceive 
 that he is advancing doctrines so much tinged with arrogance and 
 tyranny, and so opposite to that glorious constitution which is the 
 boast of Englishmen, and the admiration of every lover of free- 
 dom, that no man, except a slavish dependent upon a "jacka- 
 napes," lawless, disgusting, and slanderous Commons weald main- 
 tain or countenance. — Observer, March 13.' It hence appears 
 that this honorable body, in its earlier stages, was not so tender 
 of its privileges and so fond of encroaching on the freedom of 
 the press as the legislators of the present day ; if it had, the Ob- 
 seiDers unfavorable opinion, thus plainly expressed, would have 
 left room for the exercise of its powers. But the flatterers of 
 that day, if any there were, seem to have been wise in their gene- 
 ration. In another number of the Kingston Herald, published 
 before its editor had received the new light of official patronage, 
 he complains that 'a grand jury consisting of his political oppo-
 
 324 APPENDIX. 
 
 nents' (now his dear friends) had indicted him for libel, because 
 he had made a ' fair, justifiable animadversion upon a public offi- 
 cial act of the late administration.' And then Mr. Thomson in 
 his journal proceeded to show that his brother justice, Mr. Mac- 
 Farlane, had scolded the House of Assembly as hard as he pleased, 
 and that while he (Mr. Thomson) was persecuted, his then oppo- 
 i..ent, now partner in the statute job, was pensioned, and paid, and 
 recompensed. As Mr. Thomson's paper shows the usages of the 
 administration presses in a very clear light, I will trouble the 
 House to listen to his description of the state and condition of 
 the liberty of the press, A. D., 1829. ' It (meaning the Kingston 
 Chronicle) stigmatized Messrs. John Rolph, W. W. Baldwin, Paul 
 Peterson, James Wilson, Lockwood, Mackenzie, Malcolm, Daltou, 
 Blacklock, Randal, Hornor, and Mathews' by name, and called 
 them 'besotted fools,' and added, 'It is evident they are actuated 
 by no other feeling than malice, to gratify which they pay no re- 
 gard to truth or decency. For instance, the report of the Com- 
 mittee on Collins' case contains absolute falsehoods, known to be 
 such to both Rolph and Baldwin, and yet they join in the report.' 
 ' Let me here ask a candid public what there is in the character 
 of John B. Robinson, acting in his capacity of Attorney General, 
 more sacred than in the character of John Rolph or W. W. Bald- 
 win, acting in their capacity of Members of the Provincial As- 
 sembly ? or upon what principle of law or justice Francis Collins 
 is prosecuted for libel, and James McFarlane exempted from pro- 
 secution for similar but more aggravated libels? In a communi- 
 cation published in the Chronicle, addressed to Louis J. Papineau, 
 Esq., Speaker of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada, there 
 are these among many other libelous expressions : ' Sir, my charge 
 against you is threefold — falsehood, defamation, and scurrility.' 
 ' I then convicted you, in the face of your country, of having gone 
 officially into the presence of the Representative of our most gra- 
 cious Sovereign, with a base and designing falsehood on your 
 lips.' 'I ought to have been assured that a career like yours, 
 commenced in iniquity, must inevitably terminate in crime and
 
 APPENDIX. 325 
 
 confusion.' 'There are no bounds to your malevolence.' 'No 
 character, however pure, is safe from your envy and falsehoods.' 
 ' The very air is tainted with the poison of your malignant dispo- 
 sition.' ' You seem to traffic in defamation ; you move in an orbit 
 of public slander, and have rallied round you, as satellites, all the 
 baser feelings of a rancorous and diabolical heart.' ' If you have 
 any other titles but those of a cowardly heart and a malevolent 
 disposition, produce them, I entreat of you, but conscience whis- 
 pers to you that you cannot. I declare, in the face of my 
 country, that the House of Assembly, as at present constituted^ 
 is corrupt, and an intolerable nuisance.' These disgusting ex- 
 tracts from the Clironicle, are not made to prejudice the editor of 
 that paper, but to show, in the light of a fair contrast, the true 
 character and bearing of the one-sided system of libel prosecu- 
 tions commenced under the late Administration. 
 
 " One more extract from Mr. Thomson's Herald^ and I have 
 done. It is where he speaks of the libel bill you tomahawked 
 last winter : ' We perceive that the attempt to get rid of onti of 
 the relics of barbarous and oppressive times has failed in our As- 
 sembly. " The greater the truth the greater the libel," is a» ex- 
 cellent doctrine to prevent deeds done in darkness coming to the 
 light, and an excellent instrument in the hands of the rich and influ- 
 ential to exercise a spirit of revenge upon such as offend them, pro- 
 viding they can disguise the matter so far as to induce a jury to give 
 a verdict in accordance to their feelings.' Surely, Mr. Spes-ker, 
 the scriptural advice offered to him that standeth, that he take 
 heed lest he fall, is deserving of deep consideration, when avp- see 
 the editor of the Kingston Herald ranged among the prosecutors 
 of the press \ (order, order ;) the parable, too, of the servant who 
 after being forgiven a heavy debt was ungrateful enough to send 
 his fellow servant to prison because the latter was unable to pay an 
 hundred pence, might be applied practically to the present proceed- 
 ing ; (order, order ;) but since the House desires it I will forbear." 
 
 After referring at some length to the case of Queen Caroline, 
 Mr. Mackenzie concluded, as follows : " As we have English Uw
 
 326 APPENDIX.' 
 
 here, I am determined to have English usage, and be assured, Mr. 
 Speaker, that were every representative on this fldor to join the 
 movers of these resolves in denouncing and condemning the arti- 
 cles you have selected as libelous, I would republish them verba- 
 tim the following Thursday, and test how far the people of Ca- 
 nada are disposed to protect the free discussion of the public 
 conduct and characters of public bodies and public men. Once 
 more, however, I would recommend to you to quasn these pvu- 
 ceedings, for you may depend upon it that although your dungeor^ 
 were ready, and your tipstaflf at my elbow, I would not yield an 
 inch." 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 THE SECOND RIDING OF YORK ELECTION IN 1836. 
 
 TO THE HONORABLE THE COMMONS 01" -UPPER CANADA IN PROVINCIAL PAR- 
 LIAMENT ASSEMBLED : 
 
 The humble Petition of William Lyon Mackenzie, of the City of 
 
 Toronto^ Printer, 
 
 Sheweth, — That at the last election for a member to repre- 
 sent the Second Riding of the County of York in the Legisla- 
 ture, William Hepburn, Esquire, acting Trustee to the Six 
 Nations Indians, was the Returning Officer ; and the candidates 
 proposed, and for whom a poll was demanded, and opened, were 
 Edward William Thomson,- Esquire, the sitting member, and your 
 petitioner. 
 
 That His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir F. B. 
 Head, unduly interfered with the election, and tampered with 
 the rights of the freeholders. 
 
 1st. By putting forth a variety of threatening, inflammatory 
 harangues, in violent language, under the form of replies to cer- 
 tain addresses, which were circulated in the shape of hand-bills, 
 evidently with the intention of biasing the minds of the ^^^eom xnry 
 previous to the then approaching election.
 
 APPENDIX. 327 
 
 2d. By issuing new .leeds after the prorogation and dissolu- 
 tion, and even after polling had commenced, with a view to pre- 
 vent the election of your petitioner, wlio had been six times suc- 
 cessively returned for the County, and once for the Riding, for 
 which he was, for the eighth time, a candidate. 
 
 3d. By allowing Magistrates, ' persons dependent on his will, 
 and others, who were to receive Crown deeds, on condition of 
 performing settlement duties, to obtain their deeds, such duties 
 not having been performed, and this to influence the election. 
 
 4tli. By inducing persons, with expectation of offices of honor 
 and emolument, to violate the law, in order to prevent your 
 petitioner's election — as, for instance, in the matter of Andrew 
 Shore and wife, committed to jail, on a charge of grand larceny, 
 by Alderman Denison ; and by him and Alderman Gurnett (the 
 latter a most indefatigable agent in spreading the Lieutenant 
 Governor's political replies through the Riding) admitting Shore 
 to bail, insufficient bail, contrary to the statute, which requires all 
 such cases to be brought before one of the Judges of the Court 
 of- King's Bench, and allowing Mrs. Shore to go free. Shore was 
 instantly hurried off, by Mr. Gurnett, and his constitutional 
 society connections, to Streetsville to vote for the government 
 candidate. For several months after he was at liberty. He was 
 convicted at the last assizes of the crime of stealing in a dwell- 
 ing-house, and is now an inmate of the penitentiary. Mr. Gur- 
 nett, the agent in this dishonorable affair, has, since the election, 
 been promote! to a Commissionership in the Court of Requests 
 in this city, in the place of JNIr. Small, removed. 
 
 5th. By issuing Crown deeds without a description of boun- 
 daries, under improper advice, in order to affect the election. 
 
 6th. By declining, or refusing, to discountenance Orange Lodges 
 and party proceedings, although in possession of the Royal plea- 
 sure and the decision of the Legislature respecting them. 
 
 7th. By issuing Crown deeds for lands at Port Credit, although 
 the conditions of the sale li ad not been fulfilled, and by issuing 
 such deeds, in some cases, to other persons than the original 
 92
 
 328 APPENDIX. 
 
 nominees or purchasers, although the practice has been not tc 
 sanction transfers by those who had no titles, except under the 
 Heir and Devisee Act. 
 
 8th. And, as your petitioner is advised, by contributing, with 
 his officers, to funds intended to affect the election ; by issuing 
 Crown deeds to individuals, upon the condition, express or im- 
 plied, that they would vote for Mr. Thomson, and this, in some 
 cases, without payment of the purchase money, or upon unusual 
 terms. 
 
 That the Returning Officer, William Hepburn, Esquire, in the 
 performance of the duties of his office at the said election, acted, 
 in many respects, partially, illegally, and ignorantly. Amongst 
 others — 
 
 He administered the oath required to be taken by freeholders, 
 under the Statute 4th William IV., chap. 14, for several days 
 after the commencement of the polling, invariably omitting the 
 description of the estate on which the elector voted, and substi- 
 tuting only the words " a freehold," notwithstand the remonstrances 
 of your petitioner against his doing so ; and your petitioner often 
 endeavored to convince him that any person who had a freehold 
 any where, even if it were in England, could take such an oath 
 as he had substituted. After several days, he began to swear the 
 voters to the freehold they voted on, as by law required. 
 
 He rejected the votes of many electors who offered their votes 
 f jr your petitioner, and refused to record their names or votes ; 
 and discouraged others from coming to the hustings, by deciding, 
 on an objection to a vote raised by Mr. Thomson, that freeholders 
 born in the United States, or in any foreign country, should not 
 vote, although they might have been resident in Canada half a 
 century, and duly taken the oath of allegiance, and although they 
 publicly offered to take the oaths prescribed by the statutes ; un- 
 less each voter, on presenting himself, could produce a paper, 
 purporting to be a Commissioner's certificate, that he had taken 
 the oath of allegiance ; such paper not being evidence even when 
 shown.
 
 AJTENDIX. 329 
 
 Early in tlie election lie permitted this class to go home, fetcli 
 the paper, and return and vote ; but afterwards he laid down a 
 rule, that if they had it not with them when asked they could not 
 return and vote. 
 
 There are many cases to be cited — your petitioner will refer 
 only to two at this time, by way of illustration. 
 
 Andrew Cook, father of Jacob Cook, of Cooksville, one of tho 
 oldest freeholders in the Province, and Avho had voted at many 
 elections, was turned from the hustings, because he had not a 
 certificate with him, although he offered to take the oaths re- 
 quired by the statute. 
 
 Wait Sweet, an old freeholder, who has been half a century in 
 Upper Canada, and voted five times for your petitioner, who took 
 the oath of allegiance, before Colonel Joel Stone, in 1801, and 
 served in the late war, ojQfered to vote, and asked to have the 
 oaths required or prescribed by statute to be administered to him. 
 He was turned from the hustings, because his certificate was not 
 in his pocket, his right to vote denied, and he was further told 
 not to come back. But he soon returned with the Colonel's cer- 
 tificate of 1801, and a certificate of his war services, and he was 
 turned from the hustings, and his vote rejected by the Returning 
 Officer, who even refused to enter your petitioner's objections on 
 the poll-book. 
 
 These and similar illegal decisions discouraged many voters, 
 who considered that to be turned away from the poll in presence 
 of their neighbors, as aliens, was an insult they could not well 
 brook. 
 
 The Returning Officer did not act uniformly on any rule — he. 
 tuimed away many who offered to take the oaths — he admitted 
 others. 
 
 Your petitioner had reason to believe that several brothers — 
 Messrs. M'Grath — sons to the church of England Clergyman in 
 Toronto, one of them a Postmaster, another a Court of Requests 
 Commissioner, captain of a troop of horse, had no title to the 
 property they voted on, the title being in the Crown, (of which
 
 330 APPENDIX. 
 
 the Returning Officer liad previously been apprized by tliem,) and 
 a mortgage also intervening. Two of them would not answer 
 any questions put to them, either by candidates or Returning 
 Officer, and the latter decided they might vote on taking the 
 oaths, which they did and voted for Mr. Thomson ; while those 
 of Messrs. Sweet, Cook, and many more, were refused, although 
 tendered hj -old and undoubted freeholders, who were also ready 
 to be sworn. • 
 
 After the Returning Officer had acted for days on his rule, that 
 no person born in a foreign country should vote without a cer- 
 tificate, a violent partisan of the Executive, Jacob D. Hagerman, 
 came forward, admitted he was born in Germany, produced no 
 certificate, and although it is understood that he and his brother, 
 who voted upon the same lot, came in after 1827, and have not 
 been naturalized, his vote for Mr. Thomson was recorded. 
 
 One Henry Miller, a drunken, disorderly character, who had 
 been disturbing the poll for some time, and who has been often 
 in the House of Correction here, was persuaded to tender his vote 
 for Mr. Thomson ; but although it was very doubtful whether he 
 was aware of the nature of the oaths he took, and there was lit- 
 tle reason to believe him a freeholder, his vote was at once re- 
 corded. 
 
 Postmasters and other dependent persons, excluded by the 
 laws of England (adopted here) from interfering at elections, 
 openly busied themselves, electioneered, and voted, although your 
 petitioner objected to these proceedings. 
 
 Other officers of the Government subscribed money, and ac- 
 tively busied themselves at the election. Funds were collected from 
 persons connected with the Executive and others, and employed 
 in collecting, bringing up, treating, and intoxicating voters against 
 your petitioner — in keeping taverns and pot-houses, the resort of 
 worthless and disorderly persons, open, free of cost to them — and 
 in collecting bullies and men of bad repute about the hustings, to 
 the terror of peaceable farmers. 
 
 Priests, pensioned and hired by money, paid them by His Ex-
 
 AI PENDIX. 331 
 
 cellency and Lis Government, busied tliemselves to prevent the 
 freedom of election, and to bias the minds of the electors. 
 
 William B. Jarvis, Esq., Sheriff of this District, interfered 
 openly at thf^ election, stood at the hustings with a whip in his 
 hand, and harangued those present, reminding them that the Re- 
 formers were their enemies, and must be put down. lie then 
 came forward as a voter, and made use of most violent and in- 
 temperate language, calculated to promote disturbance. This 
 conduct the Returning Officer did not check. 
 
 And your petitioner is advised, that the said Edward "William 
 Thomson was a party, in several instances, to the treating, bri- 
 bery, threats, promises, and other illegal steps, of which com- 
 plaint is herein made ; and he contends that the return of the 
 said Edward William Thomson, as a Member to serve in this 
 present Parliament, is illegal, void, and unconstitutional, because 
 he was not elected by the greatest number of qualified votes of 
 the said Riding, as there is a majority of the said votes in favor 
 of your petitioner ; because the election was not lawfully con- 
 ducted, but interfered with by the Lieutenant Governor and his 
 officers, by the Orange Lodges, by the treating, force, and" vio- 
 lence, and by the partiality and injustice of the Returning Of- 
 ficer. 
 
 Bribery, intimidation, and violence, as well as the unconstitu- 
 tional exercise of the Royal prerogative and the Executive influ- 
 ence, were means made use of to induce electors to vote against 
 your petitioner, or to prevent their voting for him — means utterly 
 subversive of the freedom and purity of election. 
 
 Your petitioner further represents that the freedom and purity 
 of the election and ihe rights of the electors were violated by 
 combinations of persons in illegal societies, known by the name 
 of Orange Lodges, formed for political purposes, secretl}", if not 
 openly, countenanced by His Excellency, the Lieutenant Gover- 
 nor, and usually headed and aided by magistrates and other 
 oflSceholders, and exercising, by means of these illegal associationSi 
 an unconstitutional power and influence in the said election.
 
 332 APPENDIX. 
 
 Your petitioner humbly prays that the election and return of 
 the said Edward William Thomson may be declared null and void, 
 by reason of the matters hereinbefore contained ; that a new elec- 
 tion may take place, so that the people may le truly and fairly 
 represented ; that the conduct of the Lieutenant Governor, his 
 officers, tbe Returning Officer, and others, as above referred to, 
 may be carefully inquired into, the result made known, and such 
 proceedings had, if found necessary, as shall secure to the elec- 
 tors, in all time to come, a frte and faithful representation in the 
 
 Legislature. 
 
 And your petit;' oner will ever pray. 
 
 "VYm. L. Mackenzie. 
 
 Toronto, 20tli December, 1836. 
 
 I append the following extract from Dr. Buncombe's letter to 
 Lord Glenelg, dated London, September 20, 1836 : — 
 
 " The following are some of the many instances of the uncon- 
 stitutional interference by Sir P. B. Head and his dependents 
 Avith the elective franchise. 
 
 "William Higgins, Bailiff to the Sheriff and Court of Re- 
 quests, Toronto city, voted against the Reform candidate upon a 
 deed signed by Sir F. B. Head, 27th June, 1836. 
 
 " George Walton, Bailiff, and Sub-Sheriff, after electioneering 
 for the Tory candidate, took the oaths and voted upon about half 
 an acre without buildings on it — patent dated the Monday pre- 
 vious. 
 
 " John Powell, Attorney, and grandson of the late Chief Jus- 
 tice, voted against the Reform candidate upon a quarter acre of 
 land upon which there were no buildings — grant by Sir F. B. 
 Head, 28th of June, 1836, during the progress of the election. 
 
 "Finlay Cameron voted against the Reform candidate — patent 
 signed by Sir F. B. Head, during the election, 20th June, 1836. 
 
 " John Crighton and Hugh McLellan voted against the Reform 
 candidate under a grant of Sir F. B. Head— patents dated 25th 
 June, 1836. 
 
 " Alderman Doctor John King, of the city of Toronto, voted
 
 APPENDIX. 333 
 
 against the Reform candulate in the Second Riding of York, under 
 a grant of Sir F. B. Head of about one quarter of an acre of 
 land Avithout a house, dated during the electi'>n, 28th June, 1886. 
 
 " Robert Ruston and Thomas Johnson voted against the Reform 
 candidate upon free grants from the Crown for one hundred acres 
 each — patents dated 25th June, 1836. Most of the above per- 
 sons resided out of the Second Riding of York where they voted. 
 
 "It is further alleged that many votes were created by giving 
 patents to persons who had commuted their pensions, and who, 
 •without having any special claim for land, had been allowed to 
 occupy small parcels under a license of occupation, without the 
 power to dispose of it, contrary to the original intent of the loca- 
 tion. 
 
 " That patents have been issued for parts of lots without a 
 description of the part, when only a part of the original purchase 
 money had been paid, contrary to the original order under which 
 the same was located. 
 
 " That in other instances patents have been issued to indivi- 
 duals for the whole of the lots they had contracted for, without 
 the payment of the whole of the purchase money originally de- 
 manded, contrary to the uniform practice which requires that the 
 whole of the money shall be paid before the patent shall be issued ; 
 in all these cases the persons thus favored voted for the Tory 
 candidate, and in no one instance did any of those persons vote 
 for the Reform candidate. 
 
 " These examples serve to show some of the many ways by 
 which votes were created by Sir F. B. Head, to support the Tory 
 candidates and overwhelm the Reformers in different parts of the 
 Province."
 
 334 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING DECLARATION WAS ADOPTED ON THE 31ST JULY, 
 AND PUBLISHED IN THE "CONSTITUTION" AUGUST 2, 1837. 
 
 The Declaration of the Reformers of the City of Toronto to theii 
 
 Fellow Reformers in Upper Canada. 
 
 The time has arrived, after nearly half a century's forbear- 
 ance under increasing and aggravated misrule, vrhen the duty we 
 owe our country and posterity requires from us the assertion of 
 our rights and the redress of our wrongs. 
 
 Government is founded on the authority, and is instituted for 
 the benefit, of a people ; when, therefore, any Government long 
 and systematically ceases to answer the great ends of its founda- 
 tion, the' people have a natural right given them by their Creator 
 to seek after and establish such institutions as will yield the 
 greatest quantity of happiness to the greatest number. 
 
 Our forbearance heretofore has only been rewarded with an 
 aggravation of our grievances ; and our past inattention to our 
 rights has been ungenerously and unjustly urged as evidence of 
 the surrender of them. We have now to choose on the one hand 
 between submission to the same blighting policy as has desolated 
 Ireland, and, on the other hand, the patriotic achievement of 
 cheap, honest, and responsible government. 
 
 The right was conceded to the present United States, at the 
 close of a successful revolution, to form a constitution for them- 
 selves ; and the loyalists with their descendants and others, now 
 peopling this portion of America, are entitled to the same liberty 
 without the shedding of blood — more they do not ask ; less they 
 ought not to have. But, while the revolution of the former has 
 been rewarded with a consecutive prosperity unexampled in the 
 history of the world, the loyal valor of the latter alone remains 
 amidst the blight of misgovernment to tell them what they might 
 have been as the not less valiant sons of American independence. 
 Sir Francis Head has too truly portrayed our country " as stand- 
 ing in the flourishing continent of North America like a girdled
 
 APPENDIX. 335 
 
 tree witli its drooping branches." But the laws of nature do not, 
 and those of men ought not, longer to doom this remnant of the 
 new world to exhibit this invidious and humiliating comparison. 
 
 The affairs of this country have been ever against the spirit of 
 the Constitutional Act, subjected in the most injurious manner to 
 the interferences and interdictions of a succession of Colonial 
 Ministers in England who have never visited the country, and 
 can never possibly become acquainted with the state of parlies, 
 or the conduct of public functionaries, except through official 
 channels in the Province, which are illy calculated to convey th^e 
 information necessary to disclose official delinquencies and correjt 
 public abuses. A painful experience has proved how impracti- 
 cable it is for such a succession of strangers beneficially to direct 
 and control the affairs of the people four thousand miles off ; and 
 being an impracticable system, felt to be intolerable by those for 
 whose good it was professedly intended, it ought to be abolished, 
 and the domestic institutions of the Province so improved and 
 administered by the local authorities as to render the people 
 happy and contented. This system of baneful domination has 
 been uniformly furthered by a Lieutenant Governor sent amongst 
 us as an uninformed, unsympathising stranger, who, like Sir 
 Francis, has not a single feeling in common with the people, 
 and whose hopes and responsibilities begin and end in Downing 
 Street. And this baneful domination is further cherished by a 
 Legislative Council not elected and therefore responsible to peo- 
 ple for whom they legislate, but appointed by the ever changing 
 Colonial Minister for life, from pensioners on the bounty of the 
 Crown, official dependents and needy expectants. 
 
 Under this mockery of human government we have been in- 
 sulted, injured, and reduced to the brink of ruin. The due in- 
 fluence and purity of all our institutions have been utterly destroyed. 
 Our Governors are mere instruments for effecting domination from 
 Downing Street ; Legislative Councillors have been intimidated 
 into executive compliance, as in the case of the late Chief Justice 
 
 Powell, Mr. Baby, and others ; the Executive Council has been 
 9S
 
 336 APPENDIX. 
 
 stript of every sliadjw of responsibility, and of every shade of 
 duty ; the freedom and purity of elections have lately received, 
 under Sir Francis Head, a final and irretrievable blow ; our re- 
 venue has been and still is decreasing to such an extent as to render 
 heavy additional -axation indispensable for the payment of the 
 interest of our public debt, incurred by a system of improvident 
 and profligate expenditure , our public lands, although a chief 
 source of wealth to a new country, have been sold at a low valua- 
 tion to speculating companies in London, and resold to the set- 
 tlers at very advanced rates, the excess being remitted to Eng- 
 land to the serious impoverishment of the country ; the ministers 
 of religion have been corrupted by the prostitution of the casual 
 and territorial revenue to salary and influence them ; our Clergy 
 Reserves, instead of being devoted to the purpose of general edu- 
 cation, though so much needed and loudly demanded, have been 
 in part sold to the amount of upwards of 300,000 dollars, paid 
 into the military chest and sent to England ; numerous rectories 
 have been established, against the almost unanimous wishes of 
 the people, with certain exclusive, ecclesiastical, and spiritual 
 rights and privileges, according to the Established Church of 
 England, to the destruction of equal religious rights ; public 
 salaries, pensions, and sinecures, have been augmented in num- 
 ber anl amount, notwithstanding the impoverishment of our 
 revenue and country ; and this parliament have, under the name 
 of arrearages, paid the retrenchments made in past years by 
 Reform parliaments ; our Judges have, in spite of our condition, 
 been doubled, and wholly selected from the most violent political 
 partisans against our equal civil and religious liberties, and a 
 Court of Chancery suddenly adopted by a subservient parliament, 
 against the long cherished expectations of the people against it, 
 and its operation fearfully extended into the past so as to jeop- 
 ardize every title and transaction from the beginning of the 
 Province to the present time. A law has' been passed enabling 
 Magistrates, appointed during pleasure, at the representation 
 of a Grand Jury selected by a Sheriff holding office during plea-
 
 APPEXDIX. 337 
 
 sure, to tax tlie people at pleasure, without tlieir previous know- 
 ledge or consent, upon all their rateable property to build and 
 support work-houses for the refuge of the paupers invited by 
 Sir Francis from the parishes in Great Britain ; thus unjustly 
 and wickedly laying the foundation of a system which must re- 
 sult in taxation, pestilence, and famine. Public loans have been 
 authorized by improvident legislation to nearly eight millions of 
 dollars, the surest way to make the people both poor and de- 
 pendent ; the parliament, subservient to Sir Francis Head's 
 blighting administration, have by an unconstitutional act sanc- 
 tioned by him, prolonged their duration after the demise of the 
 Crown, thereby evading their present responsibility to the people, 
 depriving them of the exercise of their elective franchise on the 
 present occasion, and extending the period of their unjust, un- 
 constitutional, and ruinous legislation with Sir Francis Head ; 
 our best and most worthy citizens have been dismissed from the 
 bench of justice, from the militia, and other stations of honor 
 and usefulness, for exercising their rights as freemen in attending 
 public meetings for the regeneration of our condition, as in- 
 stanced in the case of Dr. BaldAvin, Messrs. Scatchard, Johnson, 
 Small, Ridout, and others ; those of our fellow subjects who go 
 to England to represent our deplorable condition are denied a 
 hearing, by a partial, unjust, and oppressive government, while 
 the authors and promoters of our wrongs are cordially and gra- 
 ciously received, and enlisted in the cause of our further wrongs 
 and misgovernment ; our public revenues are plundered and mis- 
 applied without redress, and unavailable securities make up the 
 late defalcation of Mr. P. Robinson, the Commissioner of Public 
 Lands, to the amount of 80,000 dollars. Interdicts are continu- 
 ally sent by the Colonial Minister to the Governor, and by the 
 Governor to the Provincial Parliament, to restrain and render 
 futile their legislation, which ought to be free and unshackled ; 
 these instructions, if favorable to the views and policy of the 
 enemies of our country, are rigidly observed ; if favorable to 
 public liberty, they are, as in the case of Earl Ripon's despatch.
 
 33S \PPENDIX. 
 
 utterly contemned, even to the passing of the ever to be re- 
 membered and detestable Everlasting Salary Bill ; Lord Glenelg 
 has sanctioned, in the King's name, all the violations of truth 
 and of the constitution by Sir Francis Head, and both thanked 
 and titled him for conduct, which, under any civilized govern- 
 ment, would be the ground of impeachment. 
 
 The British Government, by themselves and through the Le- 
 gislative Council of their appointment, have refused their assent 
 to laws the most wnolesome and necessary for the public good, 
 among which we may enumerate the Intestate Estate equal dis- 
 tribution bill ; the bill to sell the Clergy Reserves for educational 
 purposes ; the bill to remove the corrupt influence of the Execu- 
 tive in the choosing of juries, and to secure a fair and free trial 
 by jury; the several bills to encourage emigration from foreign 
 parts ; the bills to secure the independence of the Assembly ; the 
 bill to amend the law of libel ; the bills to appoint commissioners 
 to meet others appointed by Lower Canada, to treat on matters 
 of trade and other matters of deep interest ; the bills to extend 
 the blessings of education to the humbler classes in every town- 
 ship, and to appropriate annually a sum of money for that pur- 
 pose ; the bill to dispose of the school lands in aid of education ; 
 several bills for the improvement of the highways ; the bill to se- 
 cure independence to voters by establishing the vote by ballot ; 
 the bill for the better regulation of the elections of members 
 of the Assembly, and to provide that they be held at places 
 convenient for the people ; the bills for the relief of Quakers, 
 JMennonists, and Tunkers ; the bill to amend the present obnox- 
 ious courts of requests laws, by allowing the people to choose the 
 commissioners, and to have a trial by jury if desired ; with other 
 bills to improve the administration of justice and diminish unne- 
 cessary costs ; the bills to amend the charter of King's College 
 University so as to remove its partial and arbitrary system of 
 government and education; and the bill to allow free competition 
 in banking. 
 
 The King of England has forbidden his governors to pass laws
 
 APPENDIX. 339 
 
 of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their 
 operation till his assent should be obtained ; and when so sus- 
 pended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has in- 
 terfered with the freedom of elections, and appointed elections to 
 be held at places dangerous, inconvenient, and unsafe for the 
 people to assemble at, for the purpose of fatiguing them into his 
 measures, through the agency of pretended representatives ; and 
 has, through his Legislative Council, prevented provision from be- 
 ing made for quiet and peaceable elections, as in the case of the 
 late returns at Beverley. 
 
 He has dissolved the late House of Assembly for opposing 
 with manly firmness Sir Francis Head's invasion of the right of 
 the people to a wholesome control over the revenue, and for in- 
 sisting that the persons conducting the government should be re- 
 sponsible for their official conduct to the country through its re- 
 presentatives. 
 
 He has endeavored to prevent the peopling of this Province 
 and its advancement in wealth ; for that purpose obstructing the 
 laws for the naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others 
 to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions 
 of new appropriations of the public lands, large tracts of which 
 he has bestowed upon unworthy persons his favorites, while deserv- 
 ing settlers from Germany and other countries have been used cruelly. 
 
 He has rendered the administration of justice liable to suspi- 
 cion and distrust, by obstructing laws for establishing a fair trial 
 by jury, by refusing to exclude the chief criminal Judge from in- 
 terfering in political business, and by selecting as the judiciary, 
 violent and notorious partisans of his arbitrary power. 
 
 He has sent a standing army into the sister Province to coerce 
 them to his unlawful and unconstitutional measures, in open vio- 
 lation of their rights and liberties, and has received with marks 
 of high approbation military officers who interfered with the citi- 
 zens of Montreal, in the midst of an election of their represen- 
 tatives, and brought the troops to coerce them, who shot several 
 persons dead wantonly in the public streets. 
 
 Considering the great number of lucrative appointments held
 
 340 APPENDIX. 
 
 bj strangers to the country, whose chief merit appears to be their 
 subservience to any and every administration, we may say with 
 our brother colonists of old — " He has sent hither swarms of 
 new officers to harass our people and eat out their substance." 
 
 The English Parliament have interfered with our internal af- 
 fairs and regulations, by the passage of grievous and tyrannical 
 enactments, for taxing us heavily without our consent, for pro- 
 hibiting us to purchase many articles of the first importance at 
 the cheapest European or American markets, and compelling us 
 to buy such goods and merchandise at an exorbitant price in mar- 
 kets of which EnglanC has a monopoly. 
 
 They have passed resolutions for our coercion, of a character 
 so cruel and arbitrary, that Lord Chancellor Brougham has re- 
 corded on the journals of the House of Peers, that " they set all 
 considerations of sound policy, of generosity, and of justice, at 
 defiance," are wholly subversive of " the fundamental principle 
 of the British constitution, that no part of the taxes levied on 
 the people shall be applied to any purpose whatever, without the 
 consent of the representatives in Parliament," and that the Ca- 
 nadian " precedent of 1837 will ever after be cited in the support 
 of such oppressive proceedings, as often as the Commons of any 
 colony may withhold supplies, how justifiable soever their refusal 
 may be ;" and (adds his lordship) " those proceedings, so closely 
 resembling the fatal measures that severed the United States 
 from Qreat Britain, have their origin in principles, and derive 
 their support from reasonings, which form a prodigious contrast 
 to the whole grounds, and the only defence, of the policy during 
 latter years, and so justly and so wisely sanctioned by the Im- 
 perial Parliament, in administering the afiuirs of the mother 
 country. Nor is it sasy to imagine that the inhabitants of either 
 the American or the European branches of the empire should 
 contemplate so strange a contrast, without drawing inferences 
 therefrom discreditable to the character of the Legislature, and 
 injurious to the future safety of the state, when they mark with 
 what different measures we mete to six hundred thousand in- 
 habitants of a remote province, unrepresented in Parliament, and
 
 APPENDIX. 341 
 
 to six millions of our fellow citizens nearer homo, and making 
 themselves heard by their representatives. The reflection will 
 assuredly arise in Canada, and may possibly find its way into 
 Ireland, that the sacred rules of justice, the most worthy feelings 
 of national generosity, and the soundest principles of enlightened 
 policy, may be appealed to in vain, if the demands of the suitor 
 be not also supported by personal interests, and party views, and 
 political fears, among those Avhose aid he seeks ; while all men 
 perceiving that many persons have found themselves at liberty 
 to hold a course towards an important but remote province, which 
 their constituents never would suffer to be pursued towards the 
 most inconsiderable burgh of the United Kingdom, an impression 
 will inevitably be propagated most dangerous to the maintenance 
 of colonial dominion, that the people can never safely intrust the 
 powers of government to any supreme authority not residing 
 among themselves." 
 
 In every stage of these proceedings we have petitioned for re- 
 dress in the most humble terms ; our repeated petitions have been 
 answered only by repeated injuries. 
 
 Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. 
 We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their Le- 
 gislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We 
 have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and 
 settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and 
 magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our com- 
 mon kindred to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably 
 interrupt our connection and correspondence. They too have 
 been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. 
 
 We, therefore, the Reformers of the City of Toi'onto, sympa- 
 pathizing with our fellow citizens here and throughout the North 
 American Colonies, who desire to obtain cheap, honest, and re- 
 sponsible government, the want of which has been the source of 
 all their past grievances, as its continuance would lead them to 
 their utter ruin and desolation, are of opinion, 1. That the warm- 
 est thanks and admiration are due from the Reformers of Upper 
 Canada to the Honorable Louis Joseph Papineau, Esq., Speaker
 
 a42 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada, and his compatriot3 
 in and out of the Legislature, for their past uniform, manly, and 
 noble independence, in favor of civil and religious liberty ; and 
 for their present devoted, honorable, and patriotic opposition to 
 the attempt of the British Government to violate their constitu- 
 tion without their consent, subvert the powers and privileges of 
 their local parliament, and overawe them by coercive measures 
 into a disgraceful abandonment of their just and reasonable wishes. 
 
 2. And that the Reformers of Upper Canada are called upon 
 by every tie of feeling, interest, and duty, to make common 
 cause Avith their fellow citizens of Lower Canada, whose success- 
 ful coercion would doubtless be in time visited upon us, and the 
 redress of whose grievances would be the best guarantee for the 
 redress of our own. 
 
 To render this co-operation the more effectual, we earnestly 
 recommend to our fellow citizens that they exert themselves to 
 organize political associations ; that public meetings be held 
 throughout the Province ; and that a convention of delegates be 
 elected, and assembled at Toronto, to take into consideration the 
 political condition of Upper Canada, with authority to its mem- 
 bers to appoint commissioners to meet others to be named oil be- 
 half of Lower Canada and any of the other colonies, armed with 
 suitable powers as a Ojngress, to seek an effectual remedy for the 
 srrievances of the colonists. 
 
 T. D. Morrison, Chairman of Oom. John Elliot, Secretary, 
 
 David Gibson. 
 John Mackintosh. 
 Wm. J. 0' Grady. 
 E. B. Gilbert. 
 John Montgomery. 
 John Edward Tims. 
 James H. Price. 
 John Doel. 
 M. Reynolds. 
 
 COMMITTEE. 
 
 Edward Wright. 
 Robert McKay. 
 Thomas Elliott. 
 James Armstrong. 
 James Hunter. 
 John Armstrong. 
 William Ketchum. 
 Wm. L. Mackenzie.
 
 APPENDIX. 343 
 
 Dr. Morrison addressed the meeting at great length, and»wa3 
 enthusiastically cheered. He then moved, seconded by Mr. E. 
 B. Gilbert, that the report of the special committee, just read as 
 above, be adopted as the sense of this meeting, and that the de- 
 claration of the Reformers of this city be countersigned by the 
 Secretary on behalf of this meeting. Which was agreed to by 
 acclamation. 
 
 Edward Wright, Esq., seconded by Mr. James Armstrong, 
 moves that it be 
 
 Resolved, That, reposing the greatest confidence in our fellow 
 citizens, John Rolph, M. P. P., Marshal S. Bidwell, T. D. Mor- 
 rison, M. P. P., James Lesslie, James H. Price, John Edward 
 Tims, and Robert McKay, Esquires, we do hereby nominate and 
 appoint them members of the Provincial Convention for the City 
 of Toronto. — Carried unanimously and by acclamation. 
 
 Moved by John Edward Tims, Esq., seconded by Mr. Robert 
 McKay, 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the Committee who have re- 
 ported the draft of a declaration of the Reformers of Toronto, 
 be a permanent Committee of Vigilance, for this city and liber- 
 ties, and to carry into immediate and practical effect the resolu- 
 tions of this meeting for the effectual organization of the Re- 
 formers of Upper Canada — that Mr. John Elliot be requested to 
 continue to officiate as the Secretary in ordinary — that W. L. Mac- 
 kenzie, Esq., he invited to perform the important duties of Agent 
 and Corresponding Secretary — and that when this meeting adjourns 
 it stand adjourned to the call of the said committee through its 
 chairman . — Carried unanimously. 
 
 Mr. John Doel, seconded by Mr. M. Reynolds, moves that it be 
 
 Resolved, That we will, in the pursuit of the objects of this 
 meeting, as far as possible, rigidly abstain, so long as our duty to 
 cur country requires it, from the consumption of articles coming^ 
 from beyond sea, or paying duties, in order that no revenues 
 raised from the people shall be made instrumental in the continu- 
 ance of their bad government, which will assuredly be perpetu- 
 94
 
 344 AP PENDIX. 
 
 ated' as long as our follj supplies the means. — Carried — ten to 
 one. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie, seconded by Mr. James Hunter, moves — Re- 
 solved, That the right of obtaining articles of luxury, or neces- 
 sity, in the cheapest market, is inherent in the people, who only 
 consent to the imposition of duties for the creation of revenues 
 with the express understanding that the revenues so raised from 
 them shall be devoted to the necessary expenses of government, 
 and apportioned by the people's representatives ; and therefore 
 when the contract is broken by an Executive or any foreign au- 
 thority, the people are released from their engagement, and are 
 no longer under any moral obligation to contribute to, or aid in 
 the collection of, such revenues. Mr. M. briefly addressed the 
 meeting in favor of the resolution, which was put and carried 
 without opposition. 
 
 (Signed) John Mackintosh, Chairman. 
 John Elliot, Secretary. 
 
 After which, D. Gibson, Esq., M. P. P., took the chair, the 
 meeting returned thanks to its officers, for their services, and ad- 
 journed to the call of the Chairman of the Committee of Vigi- 
 lance. 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 The following draft of Constitution was prepared by Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie, to be submitted to the proposed convention for adoption, 
 after a Provisional Government should have been established in 
 Upper Canada. It was actually published by Mr. Mackenzie in 
 The Constitution, on the 15th of November, 1837, a few days 
 .befoi-e the 7th of December was fixed upon for a descent upon 
 Toronto. When he left Toronto for the country, thirteen days 
 before the intended outbreak, he took a small press and a printer 
 with him, for the purpose of striking off copies of this document.
 
 APPENDIX. 345 
 
 The Constitution of the United States was the model on which 
 this was formed ; the variations being chiefly the result of dif- 
 ferent circumstances : — 
 
 Whereas the solemn covenant made with the people of Upper 
 and Lower Canada, and recorded in the statute book of tho 
 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as the thirty-first 
 chapter of the Acts passed in the thirty-first year of the reign 
 of King George III., hath been continually violated by tho 
 British Government, and our rights usurped ; And Whereas our 
 humble petitions, addresses, protests, and remonstrances against 
 this injurious interference have been made in vain — We, the peo- 
 ple of the State of Upper Canada, acknowledging with gratitude 
 the grace and beneficence of God, in permitting us to make choice 
 of our form of Government, and in order to establish justice, 
 ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
 promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of civil and 
 religious liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do establish this 
 Constitution. 
 
 1. Matters of religion and the ways of God's worship are not 
 at all intrusted by the people of this State to any human power, 
 because therein they cannot remit or exceed a tittle of what their 
 consciences dictate to be the mind of God, without willful sin. 
 Therefore the Legislature shall make no law respecting the esta- 
 blishment of religion, or for the encouragement or the prohibition 
 of any religious denomination. 
 
 2. It is ordained and declared that the free exercise and en- 
 joyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimina- 
 tion or preference, shall forever hereafter be allowed within this 
 State to all mankind. 
 
 3. The whole of the public lands within the limits of this State, 
 including the lands attempted, by a pretended sale, to be vested 
 in certain adventurers called the Canada Company (except so 
 much of them as may have been disposed of to actual settlers 
 now resident in the State), and all the land called Crown Re- 
 serves, Clergy Reserves, and rectories and also the school lands,
 
 346 APPENDIX. 
 
 and the lands pretended to be appropriated to the uses of the 
 University of King's College, are declared to be the property of 
 the State, and at the disposal of the Legislature, for the public 
 service thereof.* The proceeds of one million of acres of the 
 most valuable public lands shall be specially appropriated to the 
 support of Common or Township schools. 
 
 4. No Minister of the Gospel, clergyman, ecclesiastic, bishop 
 cr priest of any religious denomination Avhatsoever, shall, at any 
 time hereafter, under any pretence or description whatever, be 
 eligible to, or capable of holding a seat in the Senate or House 
 of Assembly, or any civil or military oflSce within this State. 
 
 5. In all laws made, or to be made, every person shall be 
 bound alike — neither shall any tenure, estate, charter, degree, 
 birth, or place, confer any exemption from the ordinary course 
 of legal proceedings and responsibilities whereunto others are 
 subjected. 
 
 6. No hereditary emoluments, privileges, or honors, shall ever 
 be granted by the people of this State. 
 
 7. There shall neither be slavery nor involuntary servitude in 
 this State, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes Avhereof 
 the party shall have been duly convicted. People of color, who 
 have come into this State, with the design of becoming permanent 
 inhabitants thereof, and are now resident therein, shall be entitled 
 to all the rights of native Canadians, upon taking an oath or 
 affirmation to support the constitution. 
 
 * Withcti"; 3zplanation this would look like a proposal to confiscate the lands 
 of the Canada Company ; but the question of their reverting to the Crowu 
 had been raised by the company itself several years before. The coTnpany 
 complained that, in continuing tc d.'^pose of Crown Lands, the government 
 was forcing upon it an impossible competition, and they threatened to resign 
 their charter. The Lieutenant Governor of the day, Sir John Colborne, gave 
 as a reason for not acting upon the threat, and receiving the lands back, that 
 it was impossible to do without the revenue. Mr. Mackenzie doubtless argued 
 that if the company was at liberty to give up its charter, if it suited its owQ 
 interest to do so, it might be forfeited, upon re-payment of the purchase mcney, 
 in the interest of the public.
 
 APPENDIX. 347 
 
 8. The people have a right to bear irms for the defence of 
 . themselves and the State. 
 
 9. No man shall be impressed or forcibly constrained to serve 
 in time of Avar ; because money, the sinews of war, being always 
 at the disposal of the Legislature, they can never want numbers 
 of men apt enough to engage in any just cause. 
 
 10. The military shall be kept under strict subordination to 
 the civil power. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered 
 in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of 
 war but in a manner to be prescribed by law. 
 
 11. The Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
 shall choose all militia officers above the rank of Captain. The 
 people shall elect their own officers of the rank of Captain, and 
 under it. 
 
 12. The people have a right to assemble together in a peace- 
 ful manner, to consult for their common good, to instruct their 
 representatives in the Legislature, and to apply to the Legislature 
 for redress of grievances. 
 
 13. The printing presses shall be open and free to those who 
 may wish to examine the proceedings of any branch of the gov- 
 ernment, or the conduct of any public officer ; and no law shall 
 ever restrain the right thereof. 
 
 14. The trial by jury shall remain for ever inviolate. 
 
 15. Treason against this State shall consist only in levying 
 war against it, or adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and 
 comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the 
 testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession 
 in open court. 
 
 15a. No ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the validity 
 of legal compacts, grants, or contracts, shall ever be made ; and 
 no conviction shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture of 
 estate. 
 
 16. The real estate of persons dying without making a will 
 shall not descend to the eldest son to the exclusion of his brethren, 
 but be equally divided among the children, male and female.
 
 348 APPENDIX. 
 
 17. The laws of Entail shall be forever abrogated. 
 
 17a. There shall be no lotteries in this State. Lottery tickets 
 shall not be sold therein, whether foreign or domestic. 
 
 18. No power of suspending the operation of the laws shall 
 be exercised except by the authority of the Legislature. 
 
 19. The people shall be secure in their persons, papers, and 
 possessions, from all unwarrantable searches and seizures ; general 
 warrants, whereby an officer may be commanded to search sus- 
 pected places, without probable evidence of the fact committed, 
 or to seize any person or persons not named, whose offences are 
 not particularly described, and without oath or affirmation, are 
 dangerous to liberty, and shall not be granted. 
 
 20. Private property ought, and will ever be held inviolate, 
 but always subservient to the public welfare, provided a compen- 
 sation in money be first made to the owner. Such compensation 
 shall never be less in amount than the actual value of the property. 
 
 21. Arid Whereas frauds have been often practiced towards the 
 Indians within the limits of this State, it is hereby ordained, 
 that no purchases or contracts for the sale of lands made since 
 
 the day of in the year , or which may hereafter be 
 
 made with the Indians, within the limits of this State, shall be 
 binding on the Indians and valid, unless made under the authority 
 of the Legislature. 
 
 22. The Legislative authority of this State shall be vested in a 
 General Assembly, which shall consist of a Senate and House of 
 Assembly, both to be elected by the people. 
 
 23. The Legislative year shall begin on the day of , 
 
 and the Legislature shall every year assemble on the second 
 Tuesday in January, unless a diflferent day be appointed by law. 
 
 24. The Senate shall consist of twenty-four members. The 
 Senators shall be freeholders and be chosen for four years. The 
 House of Assembly shall consist of seventy-two members, who 
 shall be elected for two years. 
 
 25. The State shall be divided into six senate districts, each 
 of which shall choose four Senators.
 
 APPENDIX. 349 
 
 The first district shall consist of, &c. 
 
 The second district shall, &c. — (and so oi;, as a convention 
 may decide.) 
 
 26. An enumeration of the inhabitants of the State shall be 
 taken, under the direction of the Legislature, within one year 
 after the first meeting of the General Assembly, and at the end 
 of every four years thereafter ; and the senate districts shall be 
 so altered by the Legislature after the return of every convention, 
 that each senate district shall contain, as nearly as may be, an 
 equal number of inhabitants, and at all times consist of contiguous 
 territory; and no county shall be divided in the formation of a 
 senate district. 
 
 27. The Members of the House of Asscmblj^ shall be chosen 
 by counties, and be apportioned among the several counties of 
 the State, as nearly as may be, according to the numbers of their 
 respective inhabitants. An apportionment of Members of As- 
 sembly shall be made by the Legislature, at its first session after 
 the return of every enumeration. 
 
 28. In all elections of Senators and Members of the House of 
 Assembly, the person or persons having the highest number of 
 votes shall be elected. In cases in which two or more persons 
 have an equal number of votes, where only one is required to be 
 elected, there shall be a new election. 
 
 29. All elections shall be held at those places which may be 
 considered by the electors to be the most central and convenient 
 for them to assemble at. No county, district, or township election 
 shall continue for a longer period than two days. 
 
 30. In order to promote the freedom, peace, and quiet of elec- 
 t. ons, and to secure, in the most ample manner possible, the in- 
 dependence of the poorer classes of the electors, it is declared 
 that all elections by the people, which shall take place after the 
 first session of the Legislature of this State, shall be by ballot, 
 except for such town officers as may by law be directed to be 
 otherwise chosen. 
 
 31. Electors shall in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach
 
 350 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance 
 at elections, and in going to and returning from them. 
 
 32. The next election for Governor, Senators, and Members of 
 
 Assembly, shall commence on the first Monday of next ; and 
 
 all subsequent elections shall be held at such time in the month 
 of or , as the Legislature shall by law provide. 
 
 33. The Governor, Senators, and Members of Assembly shall 
 enter on the duties of their respective offices on the first day 
 of next. 
 
 34. And as soon as the Senate shall meet, after the first elec- 
 tion to be held in pursuance of this Constitution, they shall cause 
 the Senators to be divided by lot, into four classes, of six in each, 
 so that every district shall have one Senator of each class ; the 
 classes to be numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4. And the seats of the first 
 class shall be vacated at the end of the first year ; of the second 
 class, at the end of the second year ; of the third class, at the 
 end of the third year ; of the fourth class, at the end of the 
 fourth year ; in order that one Senator may be annually elected 
 in each senate district. 
 
 35. A majority of each House shall constitute a quorum to do 
 business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day and 
 compel the attendance of absent members. Neither House shall, 
 without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days. 
 
 36. Each House shall choose its Speaker, Clerk, and other 
 officers. 
 
 37. In each House the votes shall, in all cases when taken, be 
 taken openly, and not by ballot, so that the electors may be en- 
 abled to judge of the conduct of their representatives. 
 
 38. Each House shall keep a Journal of its proceedings, and 
 publish the same except such parts as may require secrecy. 
 
 39. Each House may determine the rules of its own proceed- 
 ings, judge of the qualifications of its members, punish its mem- 
 bers for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two- 
 thirds expel a member, but not a second time for the same cause. 
 
 40. Any bill may originate in either House of the Legislature;
 
 APPENDIX. 351 
 
 and all bills passed by one House may be amended or rejected 
 by the other. 
 
 41. Every bill shall be read on three different days in each 
 House — unless, in case of urgency, three-fourths of the whole 
 members of the House where such bill is so depending shall deem 
 it expedient to dispense with this rule ; in which case the names 
 of the majority or members present and consenting to dispense 
 with this rule shall be entered on the Journals. 
 
 42. Every bill, which shall have passed the Senate and As- 
 sembly, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the Gov- 
 ernor. If he approve, he shall sign it ; but if not, he should re- 
 turn it with his objections to that House in which it shall have 
 originated, which shall enter the objections on its Journal, and 
 proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two- 
 thirds of the members present shall agree to pass the bill, it 
 shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, 
 by which it shall likewise be reconsidered ; and if approved by 
 two-thirds of the members present it shall become a law. In all 
 such cases, the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas 
 and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against 
 the bill shall be entered on the Journals of each House respec- 
 tively. If any bill shall not.be returned by the Governor within 
 ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to 
 him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed 
 it, unless the Legislature shall, by its adjournment, prevent its 
 return, in which case it shall not be a law. 
 
 43. No member of the Legislature, who has taken his seat as 
 such, shall receive any civil appointment from the Governor and 
 Senate, or from the Legislature, during the term for which he 
 shall have been elected. 
 
 44. The assent of the Governor, and of three-fourths of the 
 members elected to each branch of the Legislature, shall be re- 
 quisite to authorize the passage of every bill appropriating the 
 public moneys or property for local or private purposes, or for 
 
 creating, continuing, altering, or renewing any body politic or 
 95
 
 352 APPENDIX. 
 
 corporate , and the yeas and nays shall be entered on the Journals 
 at the time of taking the vote on the final passage of any sucli 
 bill. 
 
 45. The Members of the Legislature shall receive for their 
 services a compensation to be ascertained by law and paid out 
 of the public treasury. 
 
 46. Members of the General Assembly shall, in all- cases, ex- 
 cept treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged fiom 
 arrest during their continuance as such members ; and for any 
 speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in 
 any other place. 
 
 46a. No person shall be a Senator or Member of the House of 
 
 Assembly who shall not have attained the age of years, and 
 
 \ieen years a citizen of the State, and who shall not, when 
 
 elected, be an inhabitant of the State. 
 
 47. No Judge of any Court of Law or Equity, Secretary of 
 State, Attorney General, Register of Deeds, Clerk of any Court 
 of Record, Collector of Customs or Excise Revenue, Postmaster 
 or SheriiF, shall be eligible as a candidate for, or have a seat in, 
 the .General Assembly. 
 
 48. No person who hereafter may be a collector or holder of 
 the public moneys, shall have a seat in the General Assembly, 
 until such person shall have accounted for and paid into the 
 treasury all sums for which he may be accountable or liable. 
 
 49. All officers holding their offices during good behavior, or 
 for a term of years, may be removed by joint resolution of the 
 two Houses of the Legislature, if two-thirds of all the member!* 
 elected to the Assembly, and a majority of all the members elected 
 to the Senate, concur therein. 
 
 50. The House of Assembly shall have the sole power of im- 
 peaching, but a majority of all its members must concur in an 
 impeachment. 
 
 51. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate, and when 
 sitting for that purpose, its members shall be on oath or affirma- 
 tion to do justice according to law or evidence ; no person shall
 
 APPENDIX. 353 
 
 be convicted without the concurrence of two-tliirds of all the 
 Senators. 
 
 51. The Legislature shall have povrcr to pass laws for the 
 peace, welfare, and good government of this State, not inconsist- 
 ent with the spirit of this Constitution — To coin money, regulate 
 the value thereof, and provide for the punishment of those who 
 may counterfeit the securities and coin of this State. 
 
 I. To fix the standard of Weights and Measures. 
 
 II. To establish a uniform rule of Naturalization. 
 
 III. To establish uniform laws on the subject of Bankruptcies. 
 
 IV. To regulate Commerce. 
 
 V. To lay and collect Taxes. 
 
 VI. To borrow money on the credit of the State, not, how- 
 ever, without providing at the same time the means, by additional 
 taxation or otherwise, of paying the interest, and of liquidating 
 the principal within twenty years. 
 
 VII. To establish Post Offices and Post Roads. 
 
 52. Gold and Silver shall be the only lawful tender in pay- 
 ment of debts. 
 
 53. No new County shall be established by the General As- 
 sembly, which shall reduce the County or Counties, or cither of 
 them, from which it shall be taken, to less contents than four 
 hundred square miles, nor shall any County be laid off of less 
 contents. 
 
 54. There shall be no sinecure offices. Pensions shall be 
 granted only by authority of the Legislature. 
 
 55. The whole public revenue of this State, that is, all money 
 received from the public, shall be paid into the treasury, without 
 any deduction whatever, and be accounted for without deduction 
 to the Legislature, whose authority shall be necessary for tha 
 appropriation of the whole. A regular statement and account 
 of the receipt and expenditures of all public money shall be 
 published once a year or oftener. No fees of office shall be re« 
 ceived in any department which are not sanctioned by Legislativi 
 authority.
 
 354 APPENDIX. 
 
 56. There s/iall never be created within this State any incor- 
 porated trading companies, or incorporated companies with bank- 
 ing powers. Labor is the only means of creating wealth. 
 
 57. Bank Notes of a lesser nominal value than shall not 
 
 be allowed to circulate as money, or in lieu thereof. 
 
 58. The Executive power shall be vested in a Governor. He 
 shall hold his office for three years. No person shall be eligible 
 to that office who shall not have attained the age of thirty years. 
 
 59. The Governor shall be elected by the people at the times 
 and places of choosing Members of the Legislature. The person 
 having the highest number of rotes shall be elected ; but in case 
 two or more persons shall have an equal, and the highest number 
 of votes, the two Houses of the Legislature shall, by joint vote, 
 (not by ballot,) choose one of the said persons for Governor. 
 
 60. The Governor shall have power to convene the Legislature, 
 or the Senate only, on extraordinary occasions. He shall com- 
 municate by message to the Legislature at every session, the con- 
 dition of the State, and recommend such matters to them as he 
 shall judge expedient. He shall transact all necessary business 
 with the officers of government ; expedite all such measures as 
 may be resolved upon by the Legislature ; and take care that the 
 laws are faithfully executed. He shall, at stated times, receive 
 a compensation for his services, which shall neither be increased 
 nor diminished during the term for which he shall have been 
 elected. 
 
 61. The Governor shall have power to grant reprieves and 
 pardon, after conviction, for all offences, except in cases of im- 
 peachment. A notice of all such pardons or reprieves shall be 
 published, at the time, in some newspaper published at the seat 
 of government. 
 
 62. The Governor shall nominate by message, in writing, and, 
 with the consent of the Senate, shall appoint the Secretary of 
 State, Comptroller, Receiver General, Auditor General, Attorney 
 General, Surveyor General, Postmaster General, and also all
 
 APPENDIX. 355 
 
 Judicial Officers, except Justices of the Peace and Commissionera 
 of the Courts of Request, or Local Courts. 
 
 63. In case of the death, impeachment, resignation, or re- 
 moval of the Governor from office, the Speaker of the Senate shall 
 perform all the duties of Governor, until another Governor shall 
 be elected and qualified, or until the Governor so impeached shall 
 le acquitted, as the case may be. 
 
 64. The Executive authority shall issue writs of election to fill 
 up vacancies in the representation of any part of the Province in 
 the General Assembly. 
 
 Q5. The Judicial power of the State, both as to matters of law 
 and equity, shall be vested in a Supreme Court, the members of 
 which shall hold office during good behavior, in District or 
 County Courts, in Justices of the Peace, in Courts of Ptequest, 
 and in such other Courts as the Legislature may from time to 
 time establish. 
 
 66. A competent number of Justices of the Peace and Com- 
 missioners of the Courts of 'Request shall be elected by the peo- 
 ple, for a period of three years, within their respective cities and 
 townships. 
 
 67. All courts shall be open, and every person for any injury- 
 done him in his lands, goods, person, or reputation, shall have 
 remedy by the due course of law ; and right and justice shall be 
 administered without delay or denial. 
 
 68. Excessive bail shall not be required ; excessive fines shall 
 not be imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 
 
 69. All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, unless 
 for capital ofi'ences, where the proof is evident or the presump- 
 tion great ; and the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall 
 not be suspended by any act of the Legislature, unless, when in 
 cases of actual rebellion or invasion, the public safety may re- 
 quire it. 
 
 70. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath a right to be 
 heard by himself and his Counsel, to demand the nature and 
 cause of the accusation against him, and to have a copy thereof ;
 
 356 APrEXDix. 
 
 to meet the Tiiitnesses face to face ; to have compulsory process 
 for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and in prosecutions by in- 
 dictment or presentment a speedy public trial, by an impartial 
 and fairly selected jury of the County, District, or Division in 
 which the oifence shall be stated to have been committed ; and 
 shall not be compelled to give evidence against himself — nor shall 
 he be twice put in jeopardy for the same offence. 
 
 71 In prosecutions for any publication respecting the official 
 conduct of men in a public capacity, or when the matter pub- 
 lished is proper for public information, the truth thereof may 
 ahvays be given in evidence, and in all indictments for libel, the 
 jury shall have a right to determine the law and the fact. 
 
 72. No person arrested or confined in jail shall be treated 
 with unnecessary rigor, or be put to answer any criminal charge 
 except by presentment, indictment, or impeachment. 
 
 73. It shall be the duty of the Legislature so to regulate the 
 proceedings of Courts of Civil Jurisdiction, that unnecessary 
 delays and extravagant costs in legal proceedings may not be a 
 cause of complaint. 
 
 74. Sheriffs, Coroners, Clerks of the Peace, and Registers of 
 Counties or Districts, shall be chosen by the electors of the re- 
 spective Counties or Districts, once in four years, and as often as 
 vacancies happen. Sheriffs shall hold no other office, and be 
 ineligible for the office of Sheriff for the next two years after 
 the termination of their offices. 
 
 75. The Governor and all other Civil Officers under this State, 
 shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office ; 
 but judgment in such cases shall not extend farther than removal 
 from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honor, profit, 
 or trust, under this State. The party, whether convicted or ac- 
 quitted, shall nevertheless be liable to indictment, trial, judg- 
 ment, and punishment according to law. 
 
 76. After this Constitution shall have gone into effect, no 
 person shall be questioned for any thing said or done in reference 
 to the public differences which have prevailed for «ome time past,
 
 APPENDIX. 357 
 
 it being f :r the public welfare and the happiness and peace of 
 families and individuals that no door should be left open for a 
 continued visitation of the effects of past years of misgovern- 
 ment after the causes shall have passed away. 
 
 76a. For the encouragement of emigration, the Legislature 
 may enable aliens to hold and convey real estate, under such 
 regulations as may be found advantageous to the people of this 
 State. 
 
 77. The River St. Lawrence of right ought to be a free and 
 common highway to and from the ocean ; to be so used, on equal 
 terms, by all the nations of the earth, and not monopolized to 
 serve the interests of any one nation, to the injury of others. 
 
 78. All powers not delegated by this Constitution remain with 
 the people. 
 
 79. Such parts of the common law, and of the acts of the 
 Legislature of the Colony of Upper Canada, as together did form 
 
 the law of the said colony on the day of shall 
 
 be and continue the law of this State, subject to such alterations 
 as the Legislature shall make concerning the same. But all laws, 
 or part of laws, repugnant to this Constitution are hereby abro- 
 gated. 
 
 80. The Senators and Members of the House of Assembly, 
 before mentioned, and all Executive and Judicial Officers within 
 this State, shall, before entering upon the duties of their re- 
 spective offices or functions be bound, by an oath or solemn affir- 
 mation, to support the Constitution ; but no religious test shall 
 ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust 
 under this State. 
 
 81. This Constitution, and the laws of this State, which shall 
 be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties, made, or which 
 shall be made under the authority of this State, shall be the 
 supreme law of the land, and the judges shall be bound thereby. 
 
 Several clauses for the carrying a Constitution like the above 
 into practice are omitted, the whole being only given in illustra- 
 tion of, and for the benefit of a comparison in detail, with other 
 systems.
 
 358 APPENDIX. 
 
 We have not entered upon the questions, whether any, and if 
 so, what restrictions ought to be laid upon the right of voting, or 
 as to residence in the State, taxation, performance of militia 
 duty, &c. These matters, however, might be advantageously dis- 
 cussed by the public press. 
 
 Cpmmiitee Room, Nov. 13, 1837. 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 The following document was printed in handbill form, and dis- 
 tributed among Mackenzie's friends about ten days before the 
 outbreak was to have taken pla.ce. Sir F. B. Head is in error 
 in saying {Emigrant) that it was published in Mackenzie's news- 
 paper ; and that the Attorney General advised His Excellency that 
 this was the first time Mackenzie had overstepped the limits of the 
 law. This is given as an excuse for the government not interfering 
 sooner. The truth is, however, that this document was not printed 
 in the newspaper at all; but secretly and anonymously, in the 
 country ; and as to the power of interfering sooner with the prepa- 
 rations for revolt, there could have been no difficulty about it. Aa 
 early as August Mr. Mackenzie had published in his newspaper an 
 appeal to arms, which, along with the words " Liberty or death," 
 had been paraded on a flag at Lloydtown. 
 
 INDEPENDENCE! 
 
 There have been Nineteen Strikes for Independence from Eii- 
 
 ropean Tyranny, on the Continent of America. They tvere all 
 
 successful! The Tories, therefore^ by helping us will help 
 
 themselves. 
 
 The nations are fallen, and thou still art young, 
 
 The sun is but rising when others have set ; 
 
 And though Slavery's cloud o'er thy morning hath hung, 
 
 The full tide of Freedom shall beam round thee yet. 
 
 Brave Canadians ! God has put into the bold and honest hearts
 
 APPENDIX. ' Sod 
 
 of our brethren in Lower Canada to revolt — not against "lawful" 
 but against " unlawful authority." The law says we shall not 
 be taxed without our consent by the voices of the men of our 
 choice ; but a wicked and tyrannical government has trampled 
 upon that law, robbed the exchequer, divided the plunder, and 
 declared, that, regardless of justice, they will continue to roll 
 their splendid carriages, and riot in their palaces, at our expense ; 
 that we are poor, spiritless, ignorant peasants, who were born to 
 toil for our betters. But the peasants are beginning to open 
 their eyes and to feel their strength ; too long have they been 
 hoodwinked by Baal's priests — by hired and tampered-with 
 preachers, wolves in sheep's clothing, who take the wages of sin, 
 and do the work of iniquity, " each one looking to his gain in 
 his quarter." 
 
 Canadians ! Do you love freedom ? I know you do. Do you 
 hate oppression ? Who dare deny it ? Do you wish perpetual 
 peace, and a government founded upon the eternal heaven-born 
 principle of the Lord Jesus Christ — a government bound to en- 
 force the law to do to each other as you wish to be done by ? 
 Then buckle on your armor, and put down the villains who 
 oppress and enslave our country — put them down in the name of 
 that God who goes forth with the armies of his people, and whose 
 Bible shows that it is by the same human means whereby you 
 put to death thieves and murderers, and imprison and banish 
 wicked individuals, that you must put down, in the strength of 
 the Almighty, those governments which, like these bad individu- 
 als, trample on the law, and destroy its usefulness. You give a 
 bounty for wolves' scalps. Why ? Because wolves harass you. 
 The bounty you must pay for freedom (blessed word !) is to give 
 the strength of your arms to put down tyranny at Toronto. One 
 short hour will deliver our country from the oppressor ; and 
 freedom in religion, peace, and tranquillity, equal laws, and an 
 improved country will be the prize. We contend, that in all laws 
 made, or to be made, every person shall be bound alike — neither 
 
 should any tenure, estate, charter, degree, birth, or place, confer 
 96
 
 360 APPENDIX. 
 
 any exemption from tlie ordinary course of legal proceedings and 
 responsibilities whereunto others are subjected. 
 
 Canadians ! God has shown that he is -R^ith our brethren, for 
 he has given them the encouragement of success. Captains, 
 Colonels, Volunteers, Artillerymen, Privates, the base, the vile 
 hirelings of our unlawful oppressors, have already bit the dust in 
 hundreds in Lower Canada; and although the Roman Catholic 
 and Episcopal Bishops and Archdeacons are bribed by large 
 sums of money to instruct their flocks that they should be obedi- 
 ent to a government which defies the law, and is therefore unlaw- 
 ful, and ought to be put down ; yet God has opened the eyes of 
 the people to the wickedness of these reverend sinners, so that 
 they hold them in derision, just as God's prophet Elijah did the 
 priests of Baal of old and their sacrifices. Is there any one 
 afraid to go to fight for freedom, let him remember, that 
 
 God sees with equal eye, as Lord of all, 
 A hero perish, or a sparrow fall : 
 
 That the power that protected ourselves and our forefathers in 
 the deserts of Canada — that preserved from the cholera those 
 whom he would — that brought us safely to this continent through 
 the dangers of the Atlantic waves — aye, and who has watched 
 over us from infancy to manhood, will be in the midst of us in 
 the day of our struggle for our liberties, and for governors of 
 our free choice, who would not dare to trample on the laws they 
 had sworn to maintain. In the present struggle, we may be sure, 
 that if we do not rise and put down Head and his lawless myr- 
 midons, they will gather all the rogues and villains in the country 
 together — arm them — and then deliver our farms, our families, 
 and our country to their brutality. To that it has come, we must 
 put them down, or they will utterly destroy this country. If we 
 move now, as one man, to crush the tyrant's power, to establish 
 free institutions founded on God's law, we will prosper, for He 
 who commands the winds and waves will be with us ; but if wo 
 are cowardly and mean-spirited, a woeful and a dark day is ?urely 
 before us.
 
 APPENDIX. 3G1 
 
 Canadians ! The struggle "will be of short duration in Lower 
 Canada, for the people are united as one man. Out of Montreal 
 and Quebec, they are as one hundred to one — here we Reformers 
 are as ten to one ; and if we rise with one consent to overthrow 
 despotism, we will make quick work of it. 
 
 Mark all those who join our enemies, act as spies for them, 
 fight for them, or aid them ; these men's properties shall pay the 
 expense of the struggle ;* they are traitors to Canadian freedom, 
 and as such we will deal with them. 
 
 Canadians ! It is the design of the friends of liberty to give 
 several hundred acres to every volunteer — to root up the unlaw- 
 ful Canada Company, and give free deeds to all settlers who live 
 on their lands ; to give free gifts of the Clergy Reserve lots, to 
 good citizens who have settled on them ; and the like to settlers 
 on Church of England Glebe lots, so that the yeomanry may feel 
 independent, and be able to improve the country, instead of send- 
 ing the fruit of their labor to foreign lands. The fifty-seven 
 Rectories will be at once given to the people, and all public lands 
 used for education, internal improvements, and the public good. 
 £100,000, drawn from us in payment of the salaries of bad men 
 in office, Avill be reduced to one quarter, or much less, and the 
 remainder will go to improve bad roads and to " make crooked 
 paths straight;" law will be ten times more cheap and easy — the 
 bickerings of priests will cease with the funds that keep them up 
 — and men of wealth and property from other lands will soon 
 raise our farms to four times their present value. We have given 
 Head and his employers a trial of forty-five years — five years 
 longer than the Israelites were detained in the wilderness. The 
 promised land is now before us — up then and take it — but set not 
 the torch to one house in Toronto, unless we are fired at from the 
 houses, in which case self-preservation will teach us to put down 
 
 • At the close of the Eevolutionary "War of the United States, the property 
 of many of the United Empire Loyalists, who took refuge in the remaining 
 British Colonies, had their property confiscated. There was therefore a pre- 
 cedent for the hard terms threa'^ened in this manifesto.
 
 382 APPENDIX. 
 
 those who would murder us when up in the defence of the laws. 
 There are some rich men now, as there W3re in Christ's time, who 
 would go with us in prosperity, but who will skulk in the rear, 
 because of their large possessions — mark them ! They are those 
 who in after years will seek to corrupt our people, and change 
 free institutions into an aristocracy of wealth, to grind the poor, 
 and make laws to fetter their energies, 
 
 Mark my words, Canadians ! The struggle is begun — it might 
 end in freedom ; but timidity, cowardice, or tampering on our 
 part, will only delay its close. We cannot be reconciled to 
 Britain — we have humbled ourselves to the Pharaoh of England, 
 to the Ministers and great people, and they will neither rule us 
 justly nor let us go ; we are determined never to rest until in- 
 dependence is ours — the prize is a splendid one. A country 
 larger than France or England, natural resources equal to our 
 most boundless wishes ; a government of equal laws ; religion pure 
 and undefiled ; perpetual peace ; education to all ; millions of 
 acres of lands for revenue ; freedom from British tribute ; free 
 trade with all the world — but stop — I never could enumerate all 
 the blessings attendant on independence ! . 
 
 Up then, brave Canadians ! Get ready your rifles, and make 
 short work of it ; a connection with England would involve us in 
 all her wars, undertaken for her own advantage, never for ours ; 
 with governors from England, we will have bribery at elections, 
 corruption, villainy, and perpetual discord in every township, but 
 independence would give us the means of enjoying many bless- 
 ings. Our enemies in Toronto are in terror and dismay ; they 
 know their wickedness and dread our vengeance. Fourteen 
 armed men were sent out at the dead hour of night, by the traitor 
 Gurnett, to drag to a felon's cell the sons of our worthy and 
 noble-minded brother departed, Joseph Sheppard, on a simple 
 and frivolous charge of trespass, brought by a Tory fool ; and 
 though it ended in smoke, it showed too evidently Head's feel- 
 ings. Is there to be an end of these things? -Aye, and now's 
 the day and the hour ! Woe be to those who oppose us, for " In 
 God is our trust."
 
 APPENDIX. 363 
 
 APPENDIX G 
 
 Proclamation ly William Lyon Mackenzie, Chairman i^^'O- tern, 
 of the Provincial Government of the State of U-pyer Canada. 
 
 Inhabitants of Upper Canada ! 
 
 For nearly fifty years has our country languished under the 
 blighting influence of military despots, strangers from Eur .pe, 
 ruling us, not according to laws of our choice, but by the capri- 
 cious dictates of theii arbitrary power. 
 
 They have taxed us at their pleasure, robbed our exchequer, 
 and carried off the proceeds to other lands — they have bribed and 
 corrupted Ministers of the Gospel, with the wealth raised by our 
 industry — they have, in place of religious liberty, given Rectories 
 and Clergy Reserves to a foreign priesthood, with spiritual power 
 dangerous to our peace as a people — they have bestowed millions 
 of our lands on a company of Europeans for a nominal consider- 
 ation, and left them to fleece and impoverish our country — they 
 have spurned our petitions, involved us in their wars, excited 
 feelings 'of national and sectional animosity in counties, townships, 
 and neighborhoods, and ruled us, as Ireland has been ruled, to 
 the advantage of persons in other lands, and to the prostration 
 of our energies as a people. 
 
 We are wearied of these oppressions, and resolved to throw 
 off the yoke. Rise, Canadians ! Rise as one man, and the glorious 
 object of our wishes is accomplished. 
 
 Our intentions have been clearly stated to the world in the 
 Declaration of Independence, adopted at Toronto on the 31st ot 
 July last, printed in the Constitution, CoiTespondent and Advo- 
 cate, anc the Libera'', which important paper was drawn up by 
 Dr. John Rolph and myself, signed by the Central Committee, 
 received the sanction of a large majority of the people of the 
 Province, west of Port Hope and Cobourg, and is well known to 
 be in accordance with the feelings and sentiments of nine-tenths 
 of the people of this State.
 
 364 APPENDIX. 
 
 We have planted the Standard of Liberty in Canada, for the 
 attainment of the following objects : 
 
 Perpetual Peace, founded on a government of equal rights to 
 all, secured by a written constitution, sanctioned by yourselves 
 in a convention to be called as early as circumstances will permit. 
 
 Civil and Religious Liberty, in its fullest extent, that in all 
 laws made, or to be made, every person be bound alike — neither 
 shall any tenure, estate, charter, birth, or place, confer any ex- 
 emption from the ordinary course of legal proceedings and re- 
 sponsibilities whereunto others are subjected. 
 
 The Abolition of Hereditary Honors, of the laws of Entail and 
 Primogeniture, and of hosts of pensioners who devour our sub- 
 stance. 
 
 A Legislature, composed of a Senate and Assembly chosen by 
 the people. 
 
 An Executive, to be composed of a Governor and other officers 
 elected by the public voice. 
 
 A Judiciary, to be chosen by the Governor and Senate, and 
 composed of the most learned, honorable, and trustworthy, of our 
 citizens. The laws to be rendered cheap and expeditious. 
 
 A Free Trial by Jury — Sheriffs chosen by you, and not to hold 
 office, as now, at the pleasure of our tyrants. The freedom of 
 the press. Alas for it, now ! The free presses in the Canadas 
 are trampled down by the hand of arbitrary power. 
 
 The Vote by Ballot — free and peaceful township elections. 
 
 The people to elect their Court of Request Commissioners and 
 Justices of the Peace — and also their Militia Officers, in all cases 
 whatsoever. 
 
 Freedom of Trade — every man to be allowed to buy at the 
 cheapest market, and sell at the dearest. 
 
 No man to be compelled to give military service, unless it be 
 his choice. 
 
 Ample funds to be reserved from the vast natural resources of 
 our country to secure the blessings of education to every citi- 
 zen.
 
 APPENDIX. 365 
 
 A frugal and economical Government, in order that the people 
 may be prosperous and free from difficulty. 
 
 An end forever to the wearisome prayers, supplications, and 
 mockeries attendant upon our connection with the lordlings of 
 the Colonial Office, Downing Street, London. 
 
 The opening of the St. Lawrence to the trade of the world, so 
 that the largest ships might pass up to Lake Superior, and the 
 distribution of the wild lands of the country to the industry, 
 capital, skill, and enterprise of worthy men of all nations. 
 
 For the attainment of these important objects, the j)atriot3 
 now in arms under the Standard of Liberty, on Navy Island, 
 U. C, have established a Provisional Government of which the 
 members are as follows, (with two other distinguished gentlemen, 
 whose names there are powerful reasons for withholding from 
 public view,) viz : 
 
 William L. Mackenzie, Chairman, fro. tern. 
 
 Nelson Gorham, 
 Samuel Lount, 
 Silas Fletcher, 
 Jesse Lloyd, 
 Thomas Darling,* 
 Adam Graham, 
 
 John Hawk, 
 
 Jacob Rymall, 
 
 William H. Doyle, 
 
 A. G. W. G. Van Egmond, 
 
 Charles Duncombe. 
 
 We have procured the important aid of General Van Rens- 
 selaer of Albany, of Colonel Sutherland, Colonel Van Egmond, 
 and other military men of experience ; and the citizens of Buf- 
 falo, to their eternal honor be it ever remembered, have proved 
 to us the enduring principles of the Revolution of 1776, by sup- 
 plying us with provisions, money, arms, ammunition, aitillery, 
 and volunteers ; and vast numbers are floating to the standard 
 under which, heaven willing, emancipation will be speedily won 
 for a new and gallant nation, hitherto held in Egyptian thraldom 
 by the aristocracy of England. 
 
 * Mr. Darling refused to accept his appointment, and complained that hia 
 name had been published in the Proclamation.
 
 366 APPENDIX. 
 
 Brave Canadians ! Hasten to join that standard, and to 
 make common cause with your fellow citizens now in arms in the 
 Home, London, and Western Districts. The opportunity of the 
 absence of the hired red coats of Europe is favorable to our 
 emancipation. And short sighted is that man who does not now 
 Ree that, although his apathy may protract the contest, it must 
 end in Indepeyidenee — freedom from European thraldom for 
 ever ! 
 
 Until Independence is won, trade and industry will be dor- 
 mant, houses and lands will be unsaleable, merchants will be em- 
 barrassed, and farmers and mechanics harassed and troubled ; 
 that point once gained, the prospect is fair and cheering, a long 
 day of prosperity may be ours. 
 
 The reverses in the Home District were owing. First, to acci- 
 dent, which revealed our design to our tyrants, and prevented a 
 surprise; and Second, to the want of artillery. Three thousand 
 five hundred men came and went, but we had no arms for one in 
 twelve of them, nor could we procure them in the country. 
 
 Three hundred acres of the best of the public lands will be 
 freely bestowed upon any volunteer, who shall assist personally 
 in bringing to a conclusion the glorious struggle in which our 
 youthful country is now engaged against the enemies of freedom 
 all the world over. 
 
 Ten millions of these lands, fair and fertile, will, I trust, be 
 speedily at our disposal, with the other vast resources of a coun- 
 try more extensive and rich in natural treasures than the United 
 Kingdom or Old France. ' 
 
 Citizens ! Soldiers of Liberty ! Friends of Equal Rights ! Let 
 no man suffer in his property, person, or estate — let us pass 
 through Canada, not to retaliate on others for our estates rav- 
 aged, our friends in dungeons, our homes burnt, our wheat and 
 barns burnt, and our horses and cattle carried off; but let us 
 show the praiseworthy example of protecting the houses, the 
 homes, and the families of those who are in arms against their 
 country and against the liberties of this crntinent. We will dis-
 
 APPENDIX. 367 
 
 claim and severely punish all aggressions upon private property, 
 and consider those as our enemies who may burn or destroy the 
 smallest hut in Canada, unless necessity compel any one to do so 
 in any cause for self-defence. 
 
 Whereas^ at a time when the King and Parliament of Great 
 Britain had solemnly agreed to redress the grievances of the 
 people, Sir Francis Bond Head was sent out to this country with 
 promises of conciliation and justice — and wliereas, the said Head 
 hath violated his oath of office as a Governor, trampled upon 
 every vestige of our rights and privileges, bribed and corrupted 
 the local Legislature, interfered with the freedom of elections, 
 intimidated the freeholders, declared our country not entitled to 
 the blessings of British freedom, prostrated openly the right of 
 trial by jury, placed in office the most obsequious, treacherous, 
 and unworthy of our population — and sought to rule Upper 
 Canada by the mere force of his arbitrary power ; imprisoned Dr. 
 Morrison, Mr. Parker, and many others of our most respected 
 citizens ; banishing in the most cruel manner the highly respected 
 Speaker of our late House of Assembly, the Honorable Mr. Bid- 
 well, and causing the expatriation of that universally beloved 
 and well tried eminent patriot, Dr. John Rolph, because they had 
 made common cause with our injured people, and setting a vast 
 price on the heads of several, as if they were guilty persons — 
 for which crimes and misdemeanors he is deserving of being put 
 upon his trial before the country — I do therefore hereby offer a 
 reward of ,£500 for his apprehension, so that he may be dealt 
 with as may appertain to justice. 
 
 In Lower Canada, divine providence has blessed the arms of 
 the Sons of Liberty — a whole people are there manfully strug- 
 gling for that freedom without which property is but a phantom, 
 and life scarce worth having a gift of. General Girard is at the 
 head of fifteen thousand determined democrats. 
 
 The friends of freedom in Upper Canada have continued to 
 act in strong and regular concert with Mr. Papineau and the 
 Lower Canada Patriots — and it is a pleasing reflection that be- 
 97
 
 368 APrEXDix 
 
 tween us and the ocean a population of six hundred thousand 
 «ouls are now in arms, resolved to be free. 
 
 The tidings that worthy patriots are in arms is spreading 
 through the Union, and the men who were oppressed in England, 
 Ireland, Scotland, and the continent, are flocking to our standard. 
 
 We must be successful ! 
 
 I had the honor to address nearly three thousand of the citi- 
 zens of Buffalo, two days ago, in the theatre. The friendship 
 and sympathy they expressed is honorable to the great and flou- 
 rishing Republic. 
 
 I am personally authorized to make known to you that from 
 the moment that Sir Francis Bond Head declined to state in 
 writing the objects he had in view, in sending a flag of truce to 
 our camp in Toronto, the message once declined, our esteemed 
 fellow citizen. Dr. John Rolph, openly announced his concurrence 
 in our measures, and now decidedly approves of the stand we are 
 taking in behalf of our beloved country, which will never more 
 be his until it be free and independent. 
 
 Canadians ! My confidence in you is as strong and powerful, 
 in this our day of trial and difficulty, as when, many years ago, 
 in the zeal and ardor of youth, I appeared among you, the hum- 
 ble advocate of your rights and liberties. I need not remind 
 you of the sufferings anft persecutions I have endured for your 
 sakes — the losses I have sustained — the risks I have run. Had 
 I ten lives I would cheerfully give them up to procure freedom 
 to the country of my children, of my early and disinterested 
 choice. Let us act together ; and warmed by the hope of suc- 
 cess in a patriotic course, be able to repeat in the language so 
 often happily quoted by Ireland's champion, 
 
 The nations are fallen and thou still art young, 
 
 Thy sun is but rising when others have set ; 
 And though Slavery's cloud o'er thy morning hath hung, 
 
 The full tide of Freedom shall beam round thee yet. 
 
 Militia men of 1812 ! Will ye again rally round the standard 
 Df our tyrants ! I can scarce believe it possible. Upper Canada
 
 APPENDIX. 369 
 
 Loyalists, wliat has been the recompense of your long tried and 
 devoted attachment to England's Aristocracy ? Obloquy and 
 contempt. 
 
 Verily we have learnt in the school of experience, and are 
 prepared to profit by the lessons of the past. Compare the great 
 and flourishing nation of the United States with our divided and 
 distracted land, and think what we also might have been, as brave, 
 independent lords of the soil. Leave then Sir Francis Bond 
 Head's defence to the miserable serfs dependent on his bounty, 
 and to the last hour of your lives the proud remembrance will be 
 yours — "We also were among the deliverers of our country." 
 
 Navy Island, December 13, 1837. 
 
 APPENDIX H. 
 
 The following is Mr. John Montgomery's account of the es- 
 cape of himself and several other political prisoners from Fort 
 Henry, Kingston, C. W., to Watertown, State of New York : 
 
 " We were taken from town to Fort Henry in the Sir Robert 
 Peel, in charge of Sheriff Jarvis and a guard of negroes. Seven 
 of us were allowed to occupy the cabin, the rest were placed on 
 deck under guard. Several of us proposed to seize the vessel, 
 and Anderson and myself, being chained together, were deputed 
 to go on deck and watch the signal when we were to seize the 
 man at the helm. We watched until in sight of the harbor, when, 
 no signal being given, we went below, and found that the idea 
 had been abandoned. On landing, we were immediately sent to 
 Fort Henry,- where our irons were knocked off. Next morning 
 Dr. Shellen, Mr. Hodge, and the American prisoners, were 
 marched off to Quebec. Having managed to secrete my money, 
 to the amount of $75 in bills, and my watch, in my boots, we were 
 enabled to make up a purse of $30 for those about to leave us, 
 as otherwise they would have been destitute.
 
 370 APPENDIX. 
 
 "We had jeen but a small time in the fort, when, through infor- 
 mation given by a person kindlj affected towards me, we ^'^arned 
 that there was a possibility of our being enabled to effect our 
 escape. This information we did not at first pay much attention 
 to; but after Lord Durham had, on his arrival from Quebec, 
 twice visited the fort, each time refusing our prayer for an inter- 
 view, and when we had been tohl that any complaint should be in 
 the form of a petition, we sent one down to Quebec and received 
 for answer a simple acknowledgment of its receipt, by Lord 
 Durham, accompanied with an assurance that it would be for- 
 warded to Sir George Arthur, in whom Lord Durham had the 
 greatest confidence. We felt that it was useless to look for mercy, 
 and that we might at least make a venture. Accordingly we or- 
 ganized a committee to investigate into the correctness of the in- 
 formation received, and, hearing the former account substantiated, 
 we began to make our arrangements. 
 
 " We had learned that a portion of the wall in our room, al- 
 though four and a half feet thick, had been completed only a short 
 time, and the mortar was not yet dry. Behind this wall was an 
 oak door, leading to a subterranean passage which opened into a 
 gun room ; and as the shutters which covered the port holes hung 
 on chains, we could easily let ourselves down by means of ropes 
 made of our sheets into the sally port of a depth of ten feet ; 
 and by the same means were enabled to get on level ground. 
 Our sole implements of labor consisted of a piece of iron ten 
 inches in length, and a disk nail. Having obtained half a cord 
 of wood, we piled it up in the middle of the floor, as if for the 
 purpose of airing our bed clothes, but in reality to hide the stone 
 and mortar which we took from the hole. The jailer, mistrusting, 
 caused the wood all to be pulled down ; but finding nothing he 
 allowed us to rearrange it. We had prayers daily by Mr, Par- 
 ker previous to our airing in the yard of the fort. We, at length, 
 went boldly to work ; the unusual noise at first attracted the at- 
 tention of the sentry, who came up to the window where I was 
 reading the Bible, and asked the cause of it. I answered by
 
 APPENDIX. 371 
 
 pointing to two men who, apparently for tlieir amusement, but in 
 reality to deaden the strokes on the wall, were, with shovel and 
 tongs, beating the stove with all their might, and eliciting thereby 
 roars of laughter from their companions ; while I earnestly re- 
 quested them to stop such trifling, and think of their apparently 
 serious position. We were not again interrupted. We com- 
 menced on Tuesday and it was Sunday ere we had made a hole 
 sufficiently large to enable us to get through. As the keeper 
 had been married the Thursday before, we begged him to take 
 his wife to church, and allow us to refrain from our usual airing. 
 This he was very glad to do. We then requested fourteen or 
 fifteen pounds of biscuit, as we did not like the meat, and they 
 kept better than bread ; he sent four and a half pounds, all they 
 had at the canteen. We had hung up blankets, by permission 
 of the keeper, to keep out the musquitoes, and were thus enabled 
 to complete our preparations without interruption. 
 
 " When the guard beat the evening tattoo and descended from 
 the ramparts, we commenced our escape. We reached the sally 
 port in safety ; but here I had the misfortune to fall into the pit 
 and break my leg. One of my companions descended and took 
 my hand, and we were pulled up by the rest. We had decided 
 to he called by numbers, and when we had succeeded in scaling 
 the wall, which we did during a fearful storm, we found No. 10, 
 J. G. Parker, missing. Thinking he had fallen into the pit, 
 Brophy and Morden volunteered to put over the scaling ladder 
 and search the sally port, which they did, but in vain. In fact, 
 Parker had deserted us; and we afterwards learned that he hai 
 been retaken on Monday, and sent to England. This was a 
 serious defection. Parker was the only man amongst us wlio 
 knew anything of Kingston, and to his knowledge we had trusted 
 for guidance after leaving the fort. It was a fearful night of 
 storm and lightning, but we decided to take down towards the 
 river, and when daylight came to take to the woods. We had 
 resolved to divide into parties for greater safety. We therefore 
 divided our biscuits equally among fourteen men, Brophy, Mor-
 
 372 APPENDIX. 
 
 den, Chase, and myself decided to make for Cape Vincent, 
 agreeing to meet the others at Watertown, should we not be 
 retaken. 
 
 " We traveled a considerable distance on Monday, and in the 
 evening tried to get a boat. My leg having become greatly in- 
 flamed, and as I found it impossible to proceed, it was decided 
 that we should rest in the woods and try, by application of cold 
 water, to reduce the inflammation. This was done ; we remained 
 for some time ; at length, having got a boat, I was helped down 
 to it, and about midnight we started in the direction of Kingston, 
 and then crossed to Long Island, in order to escape a govern- 
 ment vessel sent in search of us. 
 
 " We landed on Long Island, and pulled our boat up into the 
 woods, but finding ourselves near people known to be unfriendly, 
 we decided to cross the island and ascertain our chances of escape 
 from the other side. We were obliged to carry our boat ; which 
 was very difficult to do with my broken leg, but I carried paddlea 
 and other articles. With great pain, and in a state of exhaus- 
 tion, we. at length succeeded in launching our boat and proceeded 
 to what we felt sure was the mainland. On arriving here we 
 knelt down and thanked God for our safety, and earnestly prayed 
 for that of our companions. ■*. 
 
 " We soon found, however, that we were again on an island. 
 Re-entering our boat almost famished, our slender provisions, 
 two biscuits a day since leaving the fort, exhausted, we started 
 for Vincent, but were obliged to put ashore, being unable to 
 manage the boat. We pulled her up and went to a house near 
 the shore, and there learned that we were on American ground. 
 We asked a woman whom we saw there to get us a carriage to 
 take us to Cape Vincent ; but she refused, and sent to the field 
 for her husband, who consented for $1.50 to take us in the boat. 
 We a^ked him if he had heard of the escape from the fort ; he 
 said 'Yes, that day at noon,' adding, 'I wish I knew where the 
 poor fellows are, I would tell Bill Johnson and have them safe ofl" 
 before I sleep.' When we told who we were, he earnestly re-
 
 APPENDIX. 373 
 
 quested us to take tl e money back ; aiul on landing threw up his 
 hat and gave three cheers for the Patriots. 
 
 " A crowd was soon collected, and I was relieved from the neces- 
 sity of walking. Great sympathy and attention were shown us. 
 A public dinner, largely attended, was given in our honor. On 
 our arrival at Watertown, we were met' by Anderson and his 
 party, and at length all joined us, save Watson and Parker, who 
 were retaken and put in heavy irons. 
 
 " Being demanded by the British authorities, we were secreted 
 until the opinion of the Governor of New York could be known. 
 He decided that we should not be given up. While still suffering 
 severely from the pain of my leg, I, a short time after arriving in 
 Rochester, was knocked down by a large team and my skull frac- 
 tured. I was for- weeks unconscious, and it was a long time ere 
 T recovered my usual health." 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 The following are the names and persons arrested In Upper 
 Canada, and placed in confinement in the prisons of Toronto, 
 and other places in the Province, on a charge of insurrection or 
 treason ; the dates of their arrest and discharge ; and, if tried, 
 whether by court-martial or civil courts, with the result of such 
 trials severally, from the 5th December, 1837, to the 1st Novem- 
 ber, 1838. At that time twenty-seven were still in custody. 
 
 Eastern, Ottawa, akd Bathurst Districts. — No prisoners confined in 
 tlie above districts on a charge of insurrection or treason, 
 
 Johnstown District: 
 
 Ttios. Wilson, Methodist preacher, Dec. 13, 1837, Dec. 15, 1837, n. t., dis. by m.*" 
 
 • Explanations a>1) Abbreviations. — The first of the two data given indicates, in each case, th- 
 time of arrest ; the second the time of discharge. Abbreviations — Dis. by m., for dischartred by 
 magistrates; n. e., no evidence; n. t., for not tried; lib on V). hy Q. C., for liberated on bail by Queen's 
 Counsel ; ad. to b. by A. G., admitted to bail by Attorney General ; Lieut. Gov., for Lieutenant Gi>- 
 veruor; dis. by com. after ex., discharged by commission after examination ; p. on s., pardoned on 
 giving security to keep the peace; ban., biuished from the Province; pet., for petitiuued uuUer 
 I Vic. c. 10; dis. on s. for g. b., disch;iri;ed on securi'3- for good behavior.
 
 374 APPENDIX. 
 
 "Wm. H. Sherman, slioemaker, Dec. 18, 1837, Eeb. 16, 1838, n. t., dis. by m. 
 Wellesley Pike, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, Dec. 18, 1837, n. t., dis. by m., n. e. 
 Charles Swift, saddler, "Dec. 27, 1837, Jan. 23, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 George E. Brian, baker, Jan. 2, 1838, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., discharged by mag. 
 John Thomas, yeoman, Feb. 6, 1838, Feb. 10, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag., n. e. 
 James Malone, tailor, July 2-5, 1888, July 26, 1838. n. t., dis. by ra., no ev. 
 William Parrot, laborer, Aug. 3, 1838, Aug. 3, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag., n. e. 
 
 Pkince Edward District. — No prisoner confined in this district on a 
 charge of insurrection or treason. 
 
 Midland District: 
 
 George E. jffuffman, tanner, Dec. 12, 1837, Jan. 4, 1838. n. t., lib. on b. by Q. C. 
 Francis M. Weafer, teacher, Dec. 12, 1837, Jan. 10, 1838, n. t., lib. on b. by Q. C. 
 Augustus Thibodo, yeoman, Dec. 12, 1837, Dec. 13, 1837, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 John Burley, gentleman, Dec. 12, 1837, Dec. 13, 1837, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 AVilliam Cunningham, artist, Dec. 14, 1837, Dec. 16, 1837, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 Eeuben White, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., ad. to bail by At. G. 
 Joseph CannifF, miller, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., ad. to bail by A. G. 
 Joseph Lockwood, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., ad. to b. by A. G. 
 Norr. H. Herns, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., ad. to b. by A. G. 
 Joseph P. Cavalar, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., ad. to b. by A. G. 
 Gideon Turner, township clerk, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan 2, 1838,n. t., ad. to b. by A.G. 
 I'eter Davidson, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., ad. to b. by A. G. 
 C. H. McCollum, merchant, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 20, 1837, n. t., lib. by L. Gov. 
 Thomas Anderson, yeoman, Dec. 19, 1837, May 2, 1838, n. t. ind. but bill ig. 
 Oliver Eobinson, yeoman, Dec. 19, 1837, May 20, 1828, n. t., ind. but bill ig. 
 Eichard Tucker, yeoman, Dec. 19, 1837, May 20, 1838, n. t., ind. but bill ig. 
 Anson M. Day, yeoman, Dec. 19, 1837, July 7, 1838, oyer and ter., acquitted. 
 Anson Hayden, doctor, Dec. 19, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., ad. to bail by A, G. 
 Cornelius Parks, innkeeper, Dec. 19, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., ad. to b. by A. G. 
 John Jacobs, shoemaker, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 29, 1838, n. t., ad. to b. by A. G. 
 James O. Hare, yeoman, Dec. 22, 1837, Jan. 5, 1838, n. t., ad. to b. by A. G. 
 James McCann, teacher, Dec. 22, 1837, Jan. 12, 1838. n. t., ad. to b. by A. G. 
 Uiram Banazar, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 5, 1838, n. t., ad. to b. by A. G. 
 Nel. C. Eeynolds, merchant, Dec. 26, 1837, July 6, 1838, oy. and ter.. acquitted. 
 John Belby, butcher, Dec. 26, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. upon sec. for g. b. 
 John B. Wheeler, yeoman, Dec. 31, 1837, Jan. 12, 1838, n. t., dis. upon s. for g. b. 
 Charles N. Phillips, shoemaker, Jan. 1, 1838, Feb. 9, 1838, n. t., dis. up. s. g. b. 
 Thomas Mullins, yeoman, Jan. 2, 1838, Jan. 5, 1838, n. t., dis. upons. for g. b. 
 Sam'l. Parkeymore, yeoman, Jan. 5, 1838, Jan. 9, 1838, n. t., dis. upon s. for g. b 
 Christ. Lafontaine, yeoman, Feb. 22, 1838, July 8, 1838, oy. and ter., acquitted. 
 Samuel Marsh, yeoman, Feb. 22, 1838, July 8, 1838, oyer and ter., acquitted. 
 Asa Lewis, yeoman, Feb. 22, 1838, July 8, 1838, oyer and terminer acouitted.
 
 APPENDIX. 375 
 
 Peter Orr, yooniiin, Feb. 22, 1838, July 8, 1838, oyer and terminer, aoquittfd. 
 
 Charles Marsh, yeoman, Feb. 22, 1838, July 8, 1838, oyer and ter., acquitted. 
 
 Wm. A. Forward, attorney, Feb. 22, 1838, March 13, 1838, n.t., ad. to b. by Q.C. 
 
 Hiram Mott, yeoman, Feb. 23, 1838, May 11, 1838, n. t., ind., but b. ignored. 
 
 Stephen Mott, yeoman, Feb. 23, 1838, May 11, 1838, n. t., indicted, but bill ig. 
 
 Wm. Anderson, yeoman, Feb. 28, 1838, March 29, 1838, n. t., ind., but b. ig. 
 
 Abram Collard, yeoman, Feb. 28, 1838, April 22, 1838, n. t., ndmitted to bail. 
 
 Bumuel Babcock, yeoman, Feb. 28, 1838, March 26, 1838, n. t., ad. to bail, 
 
 Bobert Bird, miller, Feb. 27, 1838, March 8, 1838, n. t., dis. by m. on giv. b. 
 
 Peter Pvobertson, merchant, Feb. 27, 1838, May 10, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. j. 
 
 Joshua Smith, merchant, Feb. 27, 1838, May 9, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. jury. 
 
 Pvobert Pvobertson, merchant, Feb. 27, 1838, May 16, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. j. 
 
 Amos Proctor, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, May 16, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by grand j. 
 
 Blecker W. Myers, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, May 16, 1838, n.t., billig. by g. j. 
 
 Peter Lott, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, May 16, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. jury. 
 
 John W. Sticklesr yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, May 16, 1888, n. t., bill ig. by g. j. 
 
 Nicholas O. Cave, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, May 16, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. j. 
 
 James Getty, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, May 16, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. jury. 
 
 Ivy K. Eoblin, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, May 16, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. jury. 
 
 Samuel Stephen, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, March 23, 1838, n. t., ad. to bail. 
 
 Elijah Ockerman, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, May 13, 1838, n. t., bill ig. byg. j. 
 
 Edward Hickey, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, May 13, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. jury. 
 
 Tobias Myers, yeoman, Feb. 27, 1838, July 8, 1838, n. t., a true bill found, but 
 counsel declined prosecuting, as others charged with same crime had been acq. 
 
 John C. Pennock, cooper, Feb. 27, 1838, May 14, 1838, n. t.. bill ig. by g. j. 
 
 John Pockard, yeoman, Feb. 29, 1838, Aug. 16, 1838, n. t., lib. by Lieut. G. 
 
 George Holsenburgh, yeoman, Feb. 29, 1838, Aug. 16, 1838, n. t., lib. by L. G. 
 
 John Martin, yeoman, Feb. 29, 1838, Aug. 16, 1838, n. t., lib. by Lieut. Gov 
 
 Ebenezer B. Stores, yeoman, Feb. 29, 1838, Aug. 16, 1838, n. t., lib. by L. G 
 
 John Herman, yeoman, Feb. 29, 1838, Aug. 16, 1838, n. t., lib. by Lieut. G. 
 
 Daniel Davidson, yeoman, March 2, 1838, May 12, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. j. 
 
 Nelson Long, carpenter, March 2, 1838, May 12, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. j. 
 
 Jacob Lott, yeoman, March 2, 1838, May 16, 1838, n. t., bill ig. hj g. jury. 
 
 William Leslie, merchant, March 2, 1838, May 14, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 
 James L. Chatsey, yeoman, March 3, 1838, March 7, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 
 Absalom Day, yeoman, March 3, 1838, April 22, 1838, n. t., charged with aid- 
 ing the escape of a traitor. Case not proceeded with, the principal being acq. 
 
 Christopher Greniser, yeoman, March 3, 1838, April 2, 1838, n.t., ditto, ditto. 
 
 Harvey Stratton, yeoman, March 3, 1838, April 18, 1838, n. t., ad. to bail. 
 
 James Ketchipaw, yeoman, March 3, 1838, March 7, 1838, n. t., ad. to bail. 
 
 Vanranslaei Robins, laborer, March 12, 1838, March 13, 1838, n. t., dis. by m. 
 
 Philo Smith, laborer, March 14, 1838, May 15, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. jury. 
 
 Samuel Star, shoemaker, March 14, 1838, May 11, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. jury 
 98
 
 376 APPENDIX. 
 
 Benjamin Proctor, tinsmith, April 24, 1838, May 12, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. j. 
 Pierre Lassage, carter. May 9, 1838, July 7, 1838, n. t., true bill found. Case 
 not proceeded with, the witnesses having absconded. 
 
 Newcastle District: 
 
 "William Purdy, miller, Dec. 13, 1837, Jan. 3, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrates. 
 William Eichardson, farmer, Dec. 16, 1837, Jan. 3, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 Joseph Pearson, farmer, Dec. 16, 1837, Jan. 3, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrates. 
 Jacob Kellar, laborer, Dec. 31, 1837, Feb. 17, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrates. 
 J jhn Davis, laborer, Jan. 27, 1838, Feb. 22, 1838, n. t., dis, by magistrates. 
 S. V. Wicklin, blacksmith, Feb. 6, 1838, March 19, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 Francis Ferguson, laborer, Feb. 24, 1838, March 10, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 Peter Nix, farmer, Jan. 11, 1838, April 16, 1838, n. t., dis. at the assizes. 
 Charles Powers, iron founder, Dec, 1817, n. t., arrested on suspicion of sedi- 
 tious practices, but discharged by the magistrates, without imprisonment. 
 John Gilchrist, physician, Dec, 1837, n. t. ditto. ditto. ditto. 
 
 Munro Merriman, laborer, Dec, 1837, n. t. ditto. ditto. ditto. 
 Robert Waller, merchant, Dec, 1837, n. t. ditto. ditto. ditto. 
 
 Home District: 
 
 James Foster, laborer, Dec. 4, 1837, Dec 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ei. 
 Jay Cody, farmer, Dec 4, 1837, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict, c 10, pardoned, 
 
 on giving security to keep the peace, and be of good behavior for three years. 
 Daniel Winstow, laborer, Dec. 6, 1837, Dec. 11, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Louis Brine, laborer, Dec. 6, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 James Eaggat, laborer, Dec 6, 1837, Dec. 11, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Patrick Casey, laborer, Dec 7, 1837, Dec. 11, 18.37, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 H. Carlton, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Arthur Laidlaw, laborer, Dec 7, 1837, Dec. 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 J. McGilles, laborer, Dec 6, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 W. Young, laborer, Dec. 7, 1838, Dec. 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 t'ohn Anderson, innkeeper, Dec 11,- 1857, special oy. and ter., guilty, sentenced 
 
 to death ; commuted to transportation. Escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston. 
 Ira Anderson, innkeeper, Dec 11, 1837. ditto. ditto. ditto. 
 
 James Smith, laborer, Dec. 6, 1837, Doc 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Peter Deguire, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Cornelius Duncan, laborer, Dec 7, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Wm, Kendrick, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after, ex. 
 George Ireland, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Joseph Home, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 17, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Maurice Fitzgerald, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 George Carrol, laborer, Dec. 6, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Samuel Carpenter, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex.
 
 APPENDIX. 377 
 
 Thomas Burrill, laborer, Dec. 5, 1837, December 8, 1837, n. t., dip. com. af. ex. 
 
 Thomas Eerdon, tinsmith, Dec. 5, 1837, Dec. 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 John Kennedy, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Joha Kennedy (2), carpenter, Dec. 8, 1837, Dec. 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Pat. McChrystal, laborer, Dec. 8, 1837, Dec. 11, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 W. T. Kennedy, clerk, Dec. 6, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com, after ex 
 
 W. llilney, yeoman, Dec. 4, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 P. Wardrope, yeoman, Dec. 4, 1837, Dec. 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ox. 
 
 Geoi'ge Farley, yeoman, Dec. 4, 1837, Dec. 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Henry Hall, j^eoman, Dec. 4, 1837, Dec. 13, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 John Dunn, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com after ex. 
 
 "William Pearson, yeoman, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex, 
 
 Andrew Dragoon, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t. dis. by com. af. ex, 
 
 Pred. Anderson, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 James Bergin, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 15, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Henry Cowen, blacksmith, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex 
 
 Cristin Ninny, laborer-, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Wm. Alderney, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Francis Lyons, laborer, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 9, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Daniel Gamble, laborer, Dec. 8, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Wm. Eobertson, laborer, Dec. 8, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Kobert Stibbert, laborer, Dec. 8, 1887, April 10, 1838, special oy. and ter., acq 
 
 James Johnson, laborer, Dec. 9, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Gordon Burgess, laborer, Dec. 9, 1837, Dec. 17, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex 
 
 John Burgess, laborer Dec. 9, 1837, Dec. 17, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 John Pearson, laborer, Dec. 9, 1837, Dec. 11, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Jas. Hutchinson, laborer, Dec. 9, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Pachard Taylor, laborer, Dec. 9, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Pvobert Baillie, laborer, Dec. 9, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex, 
 
 Seymour H. W. Stogdill, laborer, Dec. 9, 1837, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict, 
 c. 10, pardoned, on giv. security to keep the peace and be of g. b. for 3 years. 
 
 Col. Van Egmond, yeoman, Dec. 7, 1837, Dec. 30, 1837, n. t., died in hospital. 
 
 James Hunter, physician, Dec. 10, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by corn. af. ex. 
 
 Wm. Watson, laborer, Dec. 10, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Leonard Watson, laborer, Dec. 10, 1837, petitioned under 1 Vict. c. 10, trans- 
 portation to Van Diemen's Land for life, 
 
 Eli Bateman, laborer, Dec, 10, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex 
 
 Joseph Sbeppard, yeoman, Dec. 11, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vic. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on giving security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Jacob Sheppard, yeoman, Dec. 11, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto, ditto, ditto. 
 
 John Brown, yeoman, Dec. 10, 1837, Dec. 11, 1837, n t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 James Latimer, printer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 14, 18?"'', n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Wm. Alves, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, trans, for 14 years.
 
 378 APPENDIX. 
 
 Edward Hilton, laljrer, Dec 11, 1837, Dec. 23, 1887, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 George Nelson, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 14, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 John Montgomery, innkeeper, Dec. 11, 1887, spe. oy. and ter., guilty, sentenced 
 
 to death ; commuted to transportation . Escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston. 
 Henry Brock, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex, 
 Edward Brock, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Kobert Brock, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, July 13, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on giving security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Michael Vincent, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by cum. af. ex. 
 John Whiting, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 20, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Will am Clay, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 30, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 James Egar, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 17, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Kobt. Middleton, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Wm. Bullard, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 27, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Samuel Read, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 17, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 John Paissel, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 17, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 AVm. M. Plasted, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837. Dec. 13, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Godlip Eickart, yeoman, Dec. 11, 1837, May 12, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on giving security to keep tbe peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Gregory Innis, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 George Eickart, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 George Chewett, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 23, 1887, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 John Steeple, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Wm. Jackson, laborer, Dec. 11, 1887, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Andrew Eickart, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com, af. ex 
 David Cu^h, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 20, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Pvobert Stiver, laborer, Dec. 11, 1838, Dec. 14, 1837, n. t., dis. by com af. ex. 
 Daniel Hibner, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t, dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Daniel Sheppard, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 31, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Fred. Eickart, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n, t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 William Pool, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, July 13, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on giving security to keep the peacg, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Juhn Brett, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837. Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., lis. by com. after ex. 
 Francis Way, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Peter Storey, laborer. Doc. 11, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 John McMillan, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Henry Earl, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Edward Snider, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 15, 1837, n I., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Henry Shaver, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 15, 1837, n. t., dis, by com, af. ex. 
 Eman. Tomlinson, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n, t., dis. by com, af. ex. 
 Wm. Ftogers, laborer, Dec. 11, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Samuel Brock, laborer, Dec, 11, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Philip Bussom, kborer, Dec. 12, 1887, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com, af. ex.
 
 APPENDIX. 379 
 
 George Garbut, laborer, Deo. 12, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t , dis. by com. af. ox. 
 John Brammer, laborer, Dec. 12, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vicl. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on giving security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Philo Belfry, yeoman, Dec. 12, 1837, May 11, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 Alex. Bead, yeoman, Dec. 12, 1837, Jan. 11, 1838, ditto ditto d\lU>. 
 
 Wm. Nelson, yeoman, Dec. 12, 1837, July 13, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 John Cuyler, laborer, Dec. 12, 1837, March 23, 1838, n. t., escaped from hospitaL 
 Joshua Stevens, laborer, Dec. 12, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex 
 W. K. Lount, laborer, Dec. 12, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Philip Wideman, yeoman, Dec. 12, 1837, May 10, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. e. 10, 
 
 pardoned on giving security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Charles Burling, yeoman, Dec. 12, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Pwichard Watson, yeoman, Dec. 13, 1837, May 12, 1888, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on giving security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Peter Kogers, yeoman, Dec. 13, 1837, July 13, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 VTilliam King, yeoman, Dec. 13, 1837, Dec. 2.3, 1837, n. t., dis. by corn. af. ex. 
 Wm. Rogers, yeoman, -Dec. 13, 1837, April 18, 1838, spe. oy. and ter., acquitted. 
 J. W. Kendrick, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex- 
 George Hill, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, Dec. 16, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Joseph Gould, yeoman, Dec. 13, 1837, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. par 
 
 doned, on giving security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Abraham Haling, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ban. from Pro 
 Joseph Newlove, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, Dec. 15, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. a€. ex. 
 George Wilson, laborer, Dec, 13, 1837, Dec. 15, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 William Asher, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, Dec. 15, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 John Beilby, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, Dec. 15, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 .Joseph Wilson, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, Dec. 15, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Periphen Hawke. laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 admitted to bail and pardoned, on giving security to keep the peace, &c. 
 Gideon Vernon, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, Peb. 23, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 Isaac Masterson, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, May 18, 1838, ditto 
 Weldon Hughes, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto 
 Abraham Musselman, yeoman, Dec. 13, 1837, Feb. 27, 1838, 
 Peter Pence, yeoman, Dec. 13, 1837, Jan. 8, 1838, ditto 
 
 Henry Johnson, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto 
 James Johnson, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto 
 Joseph Johnson, yeoman-, Dec. 14, 1837, April 20, 1838, ditto 
 John Clarke, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 John Browne, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ban. fmm Prov. 
 Hugh D. Wilson, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10", 
 pardoned, on giving security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 John D. Wilson, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 discharged by commission after examination. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditio.
 
 380 APPENDIX. 
 
 "Wm. Brougham, yooman, Dec. 14, 1837, Dpc. 21, 1837, n. t., di?. liy com. af. ex. 
 
 Peter Grant, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Joseph Millburn, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years, 
 
 David i)ean, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Peter Munro, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Samuel Munro, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, Dec. 27, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 John McKay, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Peter Matthews, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, s. oy. andter., guilty, exe. April 12, 1888. 
 
 John Stewart, yeoman, Dec. 14, 1837, pet. under 1 Yict. c. 10, sentenced to 
 transportation, but escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston. 
 
 John Wilkie, laborer, Dec. 14, 1837, Oct. 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. par- 
 doned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Reuben Lundy, laborer, Dec. 14, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto, ditto, ditto. 
 
 Emanuel Doner, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Joseph Doner, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 John Sheppard, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Jacob Troyer, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex 
 
 David Blair, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 21. 1837, n. t. dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 L. S. W. Richardson, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Jan. 21, 1838, n t., dis. bye. af. ex. 
 
 Geo, Robinson, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com af. ex. 
 
 Benj. Winhup, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Thomas Wilson, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 David Porter, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 W. G. Edmonstone, teacher, Dec. 15, 1837, July 12, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 George Holborn, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Geo. Lamb, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sent to penitentiary, 
 at Kingston, for three years, and then to be banished from the Prov. for life. 
 
 Townsend Wixon, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, May 20, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Sihis Bardwell, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ban. from Prov. 
 
 Colin Scott, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sent to penitentiary, 
 at Kingston, for three years, and then banished from the Province for life. 
 
 John Gibson, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, July 31, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Ilasel H. Scott, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, July 13, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Hiram Matthews, Dec. 15, 1837, May 16, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Russel Baker, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, May 22, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 John Prout, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Charles Crocker, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Gilbert P. Morden, shoemaker, Dec. 15, 1837, special oy. and ter., guilty, sen- 
 tenced to transportation, but escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston.
 
 APPENDIX. 381 
 
 Jaraes McQueen, laboror, Doc. 15, 1837, Dec. 17, 1807. n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Michael Sheppard, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1887, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sentenced 
 to transportation, but escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston. 
 
 Thomas Sheppard, Dec. 15, 1837, ditto ditto ditio. 
 
 Bobert Walker, bhicksmith, Dec. 15, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict c. 10, transporta- 
 tion for life to Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 Joseph Clarkson, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 23, _887, n. t., dis. zj com. af. ex. 
 
 Arthur Squires, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 John JVIcDougall, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Apr. 17, 1838, sp. oyer and term., ac 
 
 I'eter Eush, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 "Wm. Wilson, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af ex. 
 
 Jacob Xirty, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Adam Kupert, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Adam Scott, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, Jan. 10, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 William Stockdale, laborer, Dec. 10, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. sentenced to 
 transportation ; escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston, but retaken, and not 
 yet removed out of the country. 
 
 George Bolton, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 John Mitchell, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 James Harman, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 John G. Parker, laborer, Dec. 5, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. transportation for 
 life to Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 Samuel Waford, laborer, Dec. 13, 1837, Dec. 17, 1837, n. t., dis. by com.af. ex. 
 
 Adam Baird, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Asa Wixon, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, banished from 
 the Province. 
 
 Charles Low, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, July 13, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 year?. 
 
 Solomon Sly, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, ditto -iitto ditto. 
 
 Joel Wixon, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ban. from the Prov. 
 
 John Hill, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, ditto ditto ditto, 
 
 Andrew Hill, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. 
 pardoned on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 William Wilson, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, April 12, 1888, pet. under 1 Vict, c 
 10., pardoned on security to keep the peace and be of good behavior for 3 
 years. William Wilson died in the hospital. 
 
 Abraham Wilson, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, May 16, 1838, pet., under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3, years. 
 
 Sampson Harris, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, July 27, 1838, n. t, ad. to b. on his roc. 
 
 Patrick Garry, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 John Marr, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. ordered for transpor- 
 tation, but escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston. 
 
 Thos. Wilson, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 17, 1837, n, t., dis. by com. af. ex.
 
 382 APPENDIX. 
 
 Kobert Berrie, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under I Yict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Joseph Elthorp, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex, 
 
 John Graham, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1838, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 William Bently, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Geo. S. Yeomens, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Wra. Graham, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Nelson Flanagai!, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 26, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex, 
 
 J. Matthews, laborer, Dec. 27, 1837, May 16, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10., 
 pardoned on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Henry Weaver, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, May 20, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 George Barclay, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10., to be con- 
 fined in penitentiary, Kingston, for three years, and then banished from the 
 Province for life. 
 
 Thomas Gray, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis by com. af. ex. 
 
 Wilson Eead, tanner, Dec. 17, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ordered for trans- 
 portation, but escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston. 
 
 John Bead, tanner, Dec. 17, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, pardoned, on find- 
 ing security to keep the peace, and be of good behaviour for 3 years. 
 
 Wesley Duncan, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec 21, 1837, n. t,, dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 John McLafferty, artist, Dec. 17, 1837, May 22, 1838, n. t. ad. to b. on his rec. 
 
 John Devins, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10., pardoned on 
 finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Thomas Watts, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Wm. Bead, Jr., yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto ditto ditto 
 
 Thomas Wilson, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 George Fletcher, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 William Carney, laborer, Dec. 18, 1837, Dec. 23, 1837, n. t.,dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Nelson Carver, laborer, Dec. 18, 1837, May 18, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 8 years. 
 
 Joseph Noble, laborer, Dec. 18, 1837. Dec. 26, 1737, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex- 
 Charles Doan, laborer, Dec. 18, 1837, May 10, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 8 years. 
 
 Eandal Wixon, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10., transportation 
 to Van Diemen's Land for fourteen years. 
 
 William Hill, tanner, Dec. 19, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Eli Irwin, yeoman, Dec. 19, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Francis Bobbins, yeoman, Dec. 19, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. to be confined 
 in the penitentiary for three years, and then banished from the Prov. for life. 
 
 Jesse Doan, yeoman, Dec. 19, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, pardoned, on find- 
 ing security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years.
 
 APPENDIX. 383 
 
 Dougal Campbell, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t.,di3. by com. af. ex. 
 Donald Campbell, yeoman, Deo. 17, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 John Campbell, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Adam Graham, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, May 12, 1836, pet. under 1 Vict, c 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years 
 Luther Elton, tailor, Dec. 20, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sent to the peni 
 
 tentiary for three years, and then banished from the Province for life. 
 Joseph Watson, carpenter, Dec. 20, 1837, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Andrew Rowaiid, laborer, Dec. 20, 1837, July 13, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Joseph Brammer, laborer, Dec. 20, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 Frs. McDonald, laborer, Dec. 21, 1837, Dec. 24, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 W. J. Comfort, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, April 4, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. 
 
 discharged on his own recognizances. 
 Jacob Lane, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, Dec. 27, 1837, n. t., dis by com. af. ex, 
 M. P. Empey, merchant. Dec. 22, 1837, Feb. 17, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 
 
 10, discharged on his own recognizances. 
 Gerard Irwin, shoemaker, Dec. 22, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 
 
 10, par. on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 William Doan, laborer, Dee. 22, 1837, May 11, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 Thos. Thompson, laborer, Dec. 22, 1337, Dec. 27, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex, 
 Henry Styles, laborer, Dec. 22, 1837, Dec, 29, 1837, n. t,, dis. by com. after ex. 
 Elisha Mitchell, laborer, Dec. 22, 1837, Dec. 27, 1837, ditto ditto. 
 
 Ebenezer Moore, laborer, Dec. 22, 1837, Dec. 27, 1837, ditto ditto. 
 
 Webster Stevens, laborer, Dec. 23, 1837, Dec. 29, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 John Gillingham, laborer, Dec. 23, 1837, Aug. 1838, pet., under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 John McCormack, physician, Dec. 23, 1837, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Ira Anderson, blacksmith, Dec. 6, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, transporta- 
 tion to Van Diemen's Land for seven years. 
 Jacob Lamoureaux, laborer, Dec. 21, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. 
 
 c. 10, par. on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years, 
 G. G. Parker, laborer, Dec. 18, 1837, Dec. 21, 1837, n, t., dis, by com. after ex. 
 
 Parker again arrested on Dec. 20, and discharged on the 14th of April, 1838^ 
 
 and the bill ignored by grand jury. 
 James Long, laborer, Dec. 23, 1837, Dec. 27, 1837, ditto ditto ditto. 
 William Curtis, laborer, Dec. 23, 1837, July 29, 1838, n. t., dis. on his own rec. 
 Arch. Molloy, laborer, Dec, 24, 1837, Dec. 29, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Arthur Kelly, laborer, Dec. 25, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 James Keene, laborer, Dec. 25, 1837, July 13, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Joseph McGrath, laborer, Dec. 25, 1837, May 12, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Thomas Sly, laborer, Dec. 25, 1837, May 16, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 99
 
 384 APPENDIX. 
 
 Thos. D. Morrison, physician, Dec. 16, 1837, June, 1838, spe. oy. and ter., acq. 
 
 Charles Durand, attorney, Dec. 19, 1837, special oy. and ter., guilty, sentence 
 of death commuted to banishment from the Province. 
 
 James Lesslie, bookseller, Dec. 19, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, i.. t., dis.by com. af. ex. 
 
 Lesslie, bookseller Dec. 19, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 John Doel, brewer, Dec. 19, 1837, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t, dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Kobert Johnson, laborer, Dec. 26, 1837, Feb. 9, 1838, n. t., dis, by com. af. ex. 
 
 James Brown, laborer, Dec. 26, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, transporta-tion 
 for seven years to Yan Diemen's Land. 
 
 Asher Wilson, laborer, Dec. 26, 1837, April 20, 1838, n. t., discharged by spe- 
 cial commission of oyer and terminer. 
 
 Louis Terry, laborer, Dec. 27, 1837, Dec. 31, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Robert Taylor, laborer, Dec. 27, 1837, May, 12. 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Ihos. Hill, laborer, Dec. 27, 1837, Feb. 27, 1838, n. t., sent to hospital and died. 
 
 John Rummerfeldt, laborer, Dec. 28, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sent to peni- 
 tentiary, at Kingston, for 8 years, and then to be ban. from the Prov. for life. 
 
 John P. Plank, laborer, Dec. 23, 1837, Dec. 29, 1837, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 William Kilburn, laborer, Dec. 29, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 8 years. 
 
 George Wright, laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 C. C. Scott, laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sent to penitentiary, 
 at Kingston, for three years, and then banished from the Province for life. 
 
 Abraham Faulkner, laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by c. af. ex. 
 
 Thos. Sherrard, laborer, Dec. 80, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Joshua Haskill, laborer, Dec. 80, 1837, July 28, 1838, n. t. dis. by on his recog. 
 
 Joseph Martin, laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, Jan. 25, 1838, n. t., dis.by com. af. ex. 
 
 Charles Eayner, laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, Jan. 3, 1838, n. t., dis. by com af. ex. 
 
 Abraham Anderson, laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by c. af. ex. 
 
 Joshua Wixon, laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, Jan 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 James Kane, laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, par- 
 doned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 James Barry, laborer, Dec. 80, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 John Wilkie, (2d), blacksmith, Dec. 30, 1837, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. 
 c. 10, par., on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 8 years. 
 
 Peter Grant, (2d), laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, Jan. 30, 1838, n. t., sent to hos.and died. 
 
 Burton Attwell, laborer, Dec. 30, 1837, Jan. 4, 1888, n. t., dis. by com af. ex. 
 
 John P. Cherry teacher, Dec. 30, 1837, April 14, 1838, bill ig., dis. by court. 
 
 John Plank, laborer, Dec. 29, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 E. S. Smith, laborer, Dec. 10, 1887, Jan. 2, 1888, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Lazarus Ellis, laborer, Dec. 18, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after, tx. 
 
 Jonathan Doan, laborer, Dec. 22, 1837, Jan. 28, 1838, n. t., dis. on his recog. 
 
 Lucius C. Thomas, laborer, Jan. 2, 1838, Jan. 4, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex
 
 APPENDIX. 385 
 
 Eber Thomas, laborer, Jan. 2, 1838, Jan. 4, 1838, n. t , dis. by com. after, ex. 
 Elias Crery, laborer, Jan. 2, 1838, Jan. 4, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 lloyal Hopkins, laborer, Jan. 2, 1838, Jan. 4, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Timothy Doyle, laborer, Jan. 5, 1838, Jan. 11, 1838, n. t., dis. by corn, after ex. 
 Alex. Cluny, laborer, Jan. 5, 1838, Jan. 7, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 D. Hutchinson, laborer, Jan. G, 1838, Feb. 3, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Michael Corrigan, laborer, Jan. 6, 1838, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 yeais. 
 John Haling, laborer, Jan. 6, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ban. from the Prov. 
 John Di>yle, laborer, Jan. 6, 1838, Jan. 11, 1838, n. t., dis. by com, after ex. 
 John McAnany, laborer, Jan. 6, 1838, Jan. 11, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 James McGuire, laborer, Jan. 6, 1838, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 James Parker, laborer, Jan. 6, 1838, Feb. 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Donald Cameron, laborer, Jan. 11, 1838, May 10, 1838, spe. oy. and ter., acq. 
 Ewen Cameron, laborer, Jan. 11, 1838, Jan. 12, 1838, n. t, dis. by com. af. ex. 
 John Cameron, laborer, Jan. 11, 1838, Jan. 12, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Dnncan McNab, laborer, Jan. 11, 1838, Jan. 14, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Charles Axtell, laborer, Jan. 11, 1838, Jan. 14, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 J. F. Farley, laborer, Jan. 13, 1838, Jan. 16, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Gilbert Decker, laborer, Jan. 13, 1838, Jan. 30, 1838, n. t., admitted to bail. 
 Thomas Elliott, innkeeper, Jan. 7, 1838, Jan. 15, 1838, n. t., admitted to bail; 
 
 first confined in Hamilton, Gore District, December 23, 1837. 
 ■William Carroll, yeoman, Jan. 7, 1838, Jan. 15, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 Jas. McDonald, laborer, Jan. 13, 1838, Jan. 16, 1838, n. t , dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Isaac Moins, laborer, Jan. 13, 1838, Jan. 16, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 John Houck, laborer, Jan. 13, 1838, Jan. 16, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 Matthew Hayes, laborer, Jan. 18, 1838, July 25, 1838, n. t., dis. on his recog. 
 Samuel Lount, blacksmith, Jan. 18, 1838, spe. oy. and ter., guiltj-, executed 
 
 April 12, 1838. 
 James Murray, laborer, Jan. 15, 1838, May 18, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex 
 Martin Smith, laborer, Jan. 16, 1838, Feb. 27, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex 
 Henry McGarry, laborer, Jan. 18, 1838, April 20, 1838, spe. oy. and tor., acq 
 Jas. Edmonstone, laborer, Jan. 21, 1838, Jan. 24, 1838, n. t., dis. on his recog. 
 W. Brewer, laborer, Jan 21, 1838, Jan. 22, 1838, n. t., dis. by Mayor of Toronto. 
 Terence Fergusson, labore-, Jan. 21, 1838, Jan. 22, 1838, n. t., ditto ditto. 
 Peter McConvilh;, laborer, Jan. 23, 1838, Jan. 26, 1838, n. t., ditto ditto. 
 John Hawkes, laborer, Jan. 23, 1838, Jan. 26, 1838, n. t., ditto ditto. 
 
 John Kline, laborer, Jan. 24, 1838, March 29, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Michael Floocl, laborer, Ja». 24, 1838, Jan. 27, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 "Wm. Irwin, laborer, Jan. 24, 1838, Jan. 27, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 James Mclsaac, laborer, Jan. 24, 1838, Jan. 30, 1838, n. t.. dis. by com. af. ex. 
 Dennis Leahy, laborer, Jan. 24, 1838, Jan. 30, 1838, n. t., dis by com. af. ex.
 
 3815 APPENDIX. 
 
 Dennu- O'Connor, laborer, Jan. 24, 1838, Jan. 28, 1838, n. t., dis. by cot .af. ex. 
 
 John Condon, laborer, Jan. 21, 1838, Jan. 30, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 John Keane, laborer, Jan. 21, 1838, Jan. 30, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Patrick Condon, laborer, Jan. 21, 1838, Jan. 27, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 John O'Brien, laborer, Jan. 24, 1838, Jan. 30, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex 
 
 James Keane, laborer, Jan. 24, 1838, Jan. 30, 1830, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Jeremiah C. Chapin, laborer, Jan. 25, 1838, April 20, 1838, nob., dis. by court. 
 
 William Shaw, laborer, Jan. 26, 1838, Jan. 30, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Ewen Cameron, laborer, Jan 29, 1838, May 10, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Edward A. Theller, surgeon, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan. 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh, spe. oy. and ter., guilty, sentenced to death. Commuted to trans- 
 portation for life. Escaped from Cape Diamond, Quebec. 
 
 Stephen P. Brophy, civil engineer, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1888, 
 at Amherstburgh., pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ordered for transportation, but 
 escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston. 
 
 Claude Campeau, yeoman, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh, May 80, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, pardoned by Lieutenant 
 Governor, and sent back to the United States. 
 
 Augustus D. Berdeneau, mariner, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1838, 
 at Amherstburgh, May 30, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, pardoned by the 
 Lieutenant Governor, and sent back to the United States. 
 
 Francis St. Augustin, laborer, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1838, at 
 Amherstburgh, May 30, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, pardoned by the Lieu- 
 tenant Governor, and sent back to the United States. 
 
 Henry Johnston, laborer, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh, May 30, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, pardoned by the Lieu- 
 tenant Governor, and sent back to the United States. 
 
 Abram W.Partridge, laborer, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sent to Kingston, and still in custody. 
 
 Theron Culver, painter, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sent to Kingston, and still in custody. 
 
 Louis Lenoux, laborer, taken in the schooner Anno, in Jan., 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh, May 30, 1838, n. t., par. by Lent. Gov. and sent back to U. S. 
 
 Francis Clutier, laborer, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh, May 80, 1838, n. t., par. by Lieut. Gov., and sent back to U.S. 
 
 Benjamin F. Pew, laborer, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh, May 30, 1838, n. t., sent to Quebec, and still in custody. 
 
 Henry L. Hull, laborer, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan., 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh. n. t., par. Lieut. Gov., and sent back to the United States. 
 
 George Davis, laborer, taken in the schooner A.nne, in Jan., 1838, at Am- 
 herstburgh, May 30, 1838, n. t., par. by Lieut. Gov., and sent back to the U. S. 
 
 "Walter Chase, laborer, taken in the sch. Anne, in Jan. 1838, at Amherstburgh, 
 pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. ord. for transj , but es. from Ft. Henry, Kingston.
 
 APPENDIX. 387 
 
 Squire Thayer, aborer, taken in the schooner Anne, in Jan. 1838, at Amhcrst- 
 burgh, n. t., sent to Quebec, and still in custody. 
 
 Nathaniel Smith, laborer, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 W. "W. Dodge, merchant, taken in the schooner Anne, Jan., 1838, at Amherst- 
 burgh, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sent to Quebec, and escaped from thence. 
 
 Chancey Parker, laborer, Jan. 30, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, sent to Que- 
 bec, and still in custody. 
 
 ■William Ketchum, tanner, Feb. 7, 1838, Feb. 8, 1838, n. t., admitted to bail. 
 Absconded, but subsequently pardoned. 
 
 Aaron Freele, laborer, Feb. 2, 1838, May 16, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. 
 discharged on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 I'hos. Tracy, laborer, Feb. 4, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ordered for trans- 
 portation, but escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston. 
 
 Chancey Hawley, laborer, Feb. 10, 1838, Feb. 15, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 
 John Robinson, laborer, Feb. 21, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. to be confined 
 in the penitentiary, Kingston, for three years, and then banished from the 
 Province for life. 
 
 Edward Keays, laborer, Jan. 24, 1838, May 22, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 
 Simon Servos, laborer, Jan. 24, 1838, July 27, 1838, n. t., dis. on his own rec. 
 
 Joseph Wixon, laborer, Feb. 27, 1838, May 12, 1838, n. t., bill ignored by the 
 grand jury. 
 
 K. A. Parker, merchant, Feb. 24, 1830, April 24, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 
 Joseph Earl, laborer, Feb. 28, 1838, Apr. 5, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, dis- 
 charged on bail. 
 
 Francis Clarkson, laborer, March 1,1838, May 14, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. 
 discharged on bail. 
 
 Hugh Carmichael, merchant, Mar. 4, 1838, April 24, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. 
 on bail after examination, 
 
 Jesse Cleaver, laborer. Mar. 5, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ban. from Prov. 
 
 Wm. Delaney, laborer. Mar. 5, 1838, Mar. 5, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years 
 
 Titus Ro9t, laborer, March 8, 1838, May 8, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Daniel Schell, laborer, Mar. 8, 1838, Oct., 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 John D. Staples, laborer. Mar. 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, to be con- 
 fined in penitentiary, for three years, and then ban from the Prov. for life 
 
 Jjhn Cane, laborer, Mar. 15, 1838, Mar. 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Jas. Cane, laborer. Mar. 15, 1838, Mar. 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Eobt. Wilson, laborer. Mar. 15, 1838, Mar. 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Jas. Squires, laborer. Mar. 15, 1838, Mar. 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Timothy Munro, laborer. Mar. 15, 1838, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 
 10, pardoned on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good behavior 
 for three years. 
 
 Wm. Heron, laborer, Mar. 17, 1838, April 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by court, bill ig.
 
 388 APPENDIX. 
 
 "Wm Carney, laborer, Mar. 19, 1838, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Yiet. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years 
 
 Peter Milne, yeoman, March 21, 1838, Oct.. 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Edward Kennedy, laborer, Mar. 23, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, ordered 
 for transportation, but escaped from Fort Henry, Kingston ; first confined 
 , in Gore District, January 25. 
 
 Jno. Hill, (2) laborer, Mar. 23, 1838, April 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by court, bill ig. 
 
 Barthol. Plank, laborer, Mar. 24, 1833, May 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years 
 
 "William Wilson, laborer. Peb. 24, 1838, May 12, 1838, n. t., pardoned on find- 
 ing security to keep the peace, and be of good behavior for three years. 
 
 James Yule, laborer, Feb. 25, 1838, May 18, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Ira White, laborer, April 2, 1838, May 3, 1888, n. t., dis. by com. after ex. 
 
 Zachariah Dent, tailor, Dec. 20, 1837, May 16, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 James Leland, laborer, April 14, 1838, May 18, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 
 John Pvandal, laborer, April 14, 1838, May 4, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Michael McFarlane, laborer, April 14, 1838, May 17, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 
 James Howie, laborer, April 14, 1838. May 18, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 
 Sylvanus Spencer, laborer, taken by Colonel Price on the ice, in the Western 
 District, in Feb., 1838, May 30, 1838, n. t., pardoned by Lieut. Governor, 
 and sent back to the United States. 
 
 Thos. J. Sutherland, (Gen'l) attorney, taken by Colonel Price on the ice, in the 
 Western District, in Feb. 1838 ; court-martial, guilty ; transportation for life, 
 free pardon afterwards granted, on condition of finding security, &c., which 
 not being forthcoming, he is in custody at Quebec. 
 
 Edward Carmon, yeoman, first arrested in Dec, 1837, in the London District, 
 and sent down to, the Home District gaol for trial, in June, 1838, pet. under 
 1 Vict. c. 10, to be confined in the penitentiary for three years, and then 
 banished from the Province for life. 
 
 Horatio Fowler, yeoman, first arrested in Dec, 1837, in the London District, 
 and sent down to the Home District gaol for trial, in June 1838, Oct., 1838, 
 pot. unde" 1 Vict. c. 10., pardoned on security to keep the peace and be of 
 good behavior for three years, 
 ^inlay Malcolm, yeoman, first arrested iR Dec, 1837, in the London District 
 and sent down to the Home District gaol for trial, in June, 1838, pet. under 
 1 Vict, c 10., transportation to Van Diemen's Land for fourteen years. 
 Joseph Hart, yeoman, first arrested in Dec, 1837, in the London District, and 
 sent down to the Home District gaol for trial, in June, 1838, Oct, 1838, pet. 
 under 1 Vict. c. 10, pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be 
 of good behavior for three years. 
 James Bell, yeoman, ditto ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 John Arthur Tidy, yeoman, ditto ditto ditto ditto.
 
 i^ppENDix. 389 
 
 John Kelly, yeoman, first arrested in Dec, 1837, in tlie London District, and 
 sent to the Home District gaol for trial, in June, 1838, July 25, 1838, pet. 
 under 1 Vict. c. 10, pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be 
 of good behavior for three years. 
 
 Paul Bedford, yeoman, first arrested in Dec, 1837, in the London District, and 
 sent down to the Home District gaol for trial, in June, 1838, pet. under 1 
 Vict c 10, transportation fo.' life to Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 Harvey Bryant, yeoman first arrested in Dec. 1837 in the London District, 
 and sent down to the Home District jail for trial, in June, 1838, Oct., 1838, 
 special oyer and terminer, guilty, sentenced to death, but pardoned, on find- 
 ing security to keep the peace, and be of good behavior for three years. 
 
 Enoch Moore, yeoman, ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Philip Jackson, laborer, taken prisoners at Point au Pelfee, in the Western Dis- 
 trict, in Feb, 1838, still in custody. 
 
 Diogenes McKenzie, laborer, not tried, dittto 
 
 Benjamin Warner, laborer, ditto 
 
 Philip Brady, laborer, ditto 
 
 Isaac Myers, laborer, ditto 
 
 William McCarrick, laborer, ditto 
 
 Samuel Woods, laborer, ditto 
 
 James Mace, laborer, ditto 
 
 John Mclntyre, laborer, ditto 
 
 William Bell, laborer, June 28, 1838, July 10, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Joan McLeod, laborer, June 28, 1838, Aug. 7, 1838, n. t., dis. by com. af. ex. 
 
 Ebenezer Wilcox, laborer, first arrested in London District, in 1837, Oct, 1838, 
 special oyer and terminer, guilty, pardoned, on finding security to keep the 
 peace, and be of good behavior for three years. 
 
 Eobert Cook, yeoman, ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Alvaro Ladd, yeoman, ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Niagara District. 
 
 In Smith, gunsmith, Dec 18, 1837, Jan. 1, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail for good b. 
 
 Thos. Higgins, wheelwright, Dec. 18, 1837, Jan. 10, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 Fislier Hanagan, laborer, Dec. 19, 1837, Jan. 10, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 William Law, printer, Dec 26, 1837, Feb. 2, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 Samuel Chandler, wagon maker, June 25, 1838, civil court, guilty, prisoners 
 taken at the Short Hills, having invaded the Province from the United 
 States ; sentence of death commuted to transportation for life. 
 
 Norman Mallory, laborer, June 25, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 James Waggoner, farmer, June 25, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Benjamin Waite, clerk, June 25, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Solomon Camp, shoemaker, June 25, 1838, Aug., 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto. 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto.
 
 390 APPENDIX. 
 
 John Grant, wheelwright, June 25, 1838, civil court, guilty, Short Hill pri- 
 soner ; sentence of death commuted to transportation for life. 
 
 Edward Seymour, laborer, June 25, 1838, Aug., 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 John J. McXulty, carpenter, June 25, 1838, civil court, guilty. Short Hill pri- 
 soner ; sentence of death commuted to transportation for life. 
 
 Garret Van Camp, laborer, June 25, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 James Gammell, laborer, June 26, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Murdoch ATcFadden, laborer, June 26, 1838, civil court, guilty. Short Hill 
 prisoner ; to be confined in the penitentiary, Kingston, for three years. 
 
 Ii<:)bert Kelly, blacksmith, June 26, 1838, July 23, 1838, n. t., bill ignored by 
 the grand jury, discharged on bail. 
 
 Freeman Brady, farmer, June 26, 1838, Aug., 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 Loran Hedger, blacksmith, June 26, 1838, July 23, 1838, n. t., bill ignored by 
 the grand jury ; discharged on bail. 
 
 Street Chase, wagon maker, June 26, 1838, Aug., 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 Abraham Clarke, blacksmith, June 27, 1838, July 23, 1838, n. t., bill ignored 
 by grand jury; discharged on bail. 
 
 Eber Eice, innkeeper, June 27, 1838, Aug., 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 James ilorrow, tanner, June 27, 1838, civil court, guilty, executed, July 30, 
 1838. 
 
 David Taylor, farmer, June 27, 1838, civil court, guilty, prisoners taken at the 
 Short Hills, having invaded the Province from the United States. Sen- 
 tence of death commuted to transportation for life. (Taylor dead.) 
 
 George Cooley, farmer, June 27, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 "William Eeynolds, saddler, June 27, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Greorge Buck, farmer, June, 1838, civil court, guilty. Short Hill prisoner, as 
 above. Sentence of death commuted to confinement in the penitentiary 
 for three years. 
 
 Louis Wilson ililler, law student, June 27, 1838, civil court, guilty. Short Hill 
 prisoner, as above. Sentence commuted to transportation for life. 
 
 Alexander McLeod, farmer, June 28, 1838, ditto. ditto ditto. 
 
 Alexander Brady, farmer, June 30, 1838, Aug., 1838, civil court, acquitted 
 
 Erastus Warner, farmer, July 7, 1838, civil court, guilty, transportation to 
 Van Diemen's Land for fourteen years. 
 
 Stephen Hart, laborer, July 7, 1838, Aug. 1838, n. t., bill ig. by grand jury. 
 
 James D)an, miller, July 17, 1838, n. t., bill ignored by grand jury. 
 
 William Writson, tailor, July 17, 1838, Aug. 4, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 John W. Brown, laborer, July 17, 1838, civil court, guilty, to be confined in 
 the penitentiary, at Kingston, for three years. 
 
 John Vernon, carpenter, July 17, 1838, civil court, guilty, Short Hill prisoner. 
 
 Sentence of death commuted to transportation for life. 
 William Yerks, carpenter, July 17, 1838, Aug. 3, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 Samuel D. Haslip, shoemaker, July 17, 1838, Aug. 3, 1838, civil court, acquitted.
 
 APPEXDIX. 391 
 
 Clias. MalcoTm, laborer, Julv 17, 1838, July 21, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail for g. b. 
 Geo. Malcolm, laborer, July 17, 1838, July 21, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail for g. b. 
 Neal Brown, laborer, July 17, 1838, July 21, 1838, n. t, dis. on bail for good b. 
 Clarke Bowers, blacksmith, July 17, 1838, Aug., 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 Duncan Willson, laborer, July 20, 1838, n.t., dis. on bail for good behavior. 
 Jacob E. Beamer, carpenter, July 28, 1838, civil court, guilty, Short Hill pri- 
 soner. Sentence of death commuted to transportation for life. 
 
 Gore Distbict: 
 
 Kobt. Armstrong, blacksmith, Dec. 12, 1837, March, 1838, n. t., bill ig. by g. j, 
 
 Philip Henry, yeoman, Dec. 13, 1837, Oct. 1838, pet. under 1 Yict. c. 10, par- 
 doned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Henry Winegarden, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, June 6, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 Robert Elliott, tanner, Dec. 15, 1887, March 15, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 "William Stants, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 Abra. Yanduzen, medical quack, Dec. 15, 1837, March 20, 1838, n. t., no bill f. 
 
 John Tulford, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, Oct., 1838, civil court, guilty, sentenced 
 to death ; pardoned on finding security to keep the peace, &c., for 3 years. 
 
 Joseph Smith, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, March 21, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 Peter Coon, blacksmith, Dec. 15, 1837, March 21, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 John TThalen, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, March 20, 1638, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 Alonzo Foster, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, March 20, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 John Heap, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, March 20, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 John L. Uline, tanner, Dec. 15, 1837, March 21, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 Charles P. Walrath, laborer, Dec. 15, 1837, civil court, guilty, sentence of 
 death commuted to transportation for life. Escaped from jail. 
 
 Isaac Edmunds, miner, Dec. 16, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 Peter Ladon, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 John Jacklin, cordwainer, Dec. 16, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 James Johnson, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 John Johnson, cordwainer, Dec. 16, 1837, April 2, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 Albus Connor, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 Charles Mcintosh, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t., no bill found 
 
 Oliver Edmonds, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 Joseph Beemer, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, March 20, 1838, n. t., admitted to bail 
 to keep the peace for one year. 
 
 Henry GoflF, teacher, Dec. 16, 1837, March 20, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 Jonathan Bishop, laborer, Dec. 16, 1837, Feb. 17, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 
 James Benham. yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, March 28, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 James Peters, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, March 28, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 James Butchart, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, March 28, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 Lyman Chapin, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, June 6, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 100
 
 392 APPENDIX. 
 
 Dudley ISTewton, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t, no lill found. 
 Malcolm Brown, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, June 6, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Thomas Balls, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, March 15, 1838, n. t., no bill found. 
 Adam Winegarden, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, June 6, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. 
 
 c. 10, par. on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Horatio A. Hills, laborer, Dec. 17, 1837, civil court, guilty, sentence of death, 
 
 commuted to transportation for life, but died in jail. 
 William Webb, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Oct., 1838, civil court, guilty, pai- 
 
 doned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Willard Sherman, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, March 28, 1838, civil court, acquitted 
 John Sherman, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 18, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Asahel Davis, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 24, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Gilbert Davis, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec. 24, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 W^illiam Lj-ons,* yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, March 30, 1838, civil court, acquitted, 
 William Winegarden, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, June 6, 1838, n. t., pardoned, 
 
 on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good behavior for 3 years 
 Jjord Wellington Winegarden, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, June 6, 1838, n. t., par^ 
 
 doned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Wm. Thompson,® blacksmith, Dec. 21, 1837, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Charles Chapin,* yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 John Austin,* yeoman, Dec. 23, 1837, Jan. 21, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Oliver Smith, medical quack, Dec. 23, 1837, March 30, 1838, civil court, acq. 
 John Van Norman, innkeeper, Dec. 23, 1837, Feb. 20, 1838, n. t., discharged 
 
 on bail, and absconded. 
 John Malcolm,® yeoman, Dec. 23, 1837, March 10, 1838, n. t., bill ignored. 
 Isaac B. Malcolm, yeoman, Dec. 23, 1837, June 6, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years, 
 rinlay Malcolm,* late member of the Provincial Parliament, Dec. 23, 1837, 
 
 March 31, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 Norman Malcolm,* son to above, Dec. 23, 1837, March 31, 1838, civil court, acq. 
 Solomon Lossing, magistrate, Dec. 23, 1837, April 3, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 Ephraim Cook, physician, Dec. 23, 1837, civil court, guilty, banished from th« 
 
 Province for life. 
 Elias Snider,* yeoman, Dec. 23, 1837, Oct., 1838, civil court, guilty, pardoned, 
 
 on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good behavior for 3 years. 
 Garry V. D.'long, yooman, Dec. 23, 1837, Feb. 4, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail, and ab. 
 Adam Teigh,* yeoman, Jan. 23, 1837, March 31, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 Nathan Town, unlicensed doctor, Dec. 24, 1837, Oct., 1838, civil court, acq., 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Robert Alway, M. P. P., Dec. 25, 1837, March 28, 1838, n. t, dis. on bail. 
 Michael Showers,* yeoman, Jan. 2, 1838, March 17, 1838, n. t., bill ignored.
 
 APPENDIX. 393 
 
 George Rouse, laborer, Jan. 2, 1838, March 31, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 Samuel Marlatt, yeoman, Jan. 2, 1838, March 31, 1838, civil court, acquitted, 
 
 David Ghent,* yeoman, Jan. 3, 1838, Jan. 3, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 
 John Tyler, hatter, Jan. 3, 1838, Jan. 5, 1838, n. t., dis. by the magistrate. 
 
 Thomas Sirpell, laborer, Jan. 3, 1838, Feb. 6, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 
 George Roberts, laborer, Jan. 3, 1838, Feb. 6, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Andrew Miller, land surveyor, Jan. 3, 1838, March 8, 1838, n. t., bill ignored. 
 
 Joshua Lind, land surveyor, Jan. 3, 1838, March 8, 1838, n. t., bill ignored. 
 
 Jacob Emery, laborer, Jan. 3, 1838, March 15, 1838, n. t., bill ignored. 
 
 Charles Hammond, laborer, Jan. 3, 1838, March 15, 1838, n. t., bill ignored. 
 
 Bilvanus F. Wrigley, laborer, Jan. 25, 1838, March 31, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 
 James Dace, laborer, Jan. 25, 1838, Feb. 15, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 
 Aaron Glover,* yeoman, Jan. 25, 1838, Feb. 3, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 
 John Hammill, carpenter, March 9, 1838, Oct., 1838, civil court, guilty, par- 
 doned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Duncan McPhederain, yeoman, March 9, 1838, June 6, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict, 
 c. 10, par. on finding security to keep the peace, and be of g. b. for 3 years. 
 
 Robert Laing, yeoman, March 9, 1838, June 6, 1838, ditto ditto 
 
 Collins Skelly, yeoman, March 14, 1838, March 19, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 
 Wm. Armstrong, yeoman. Mar. 16, 1838, March 27, 1838, civil court, ac. 
 
 Calvin Lyman, yeoman. Mar. 16, 1838, March 27, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 James Parkinson, yeoman. Mar. 16, 1838, March 27, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 Hiram Dowling, yeoman. Mar. 16, 1838, March 27, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 
 Nathaniel Deo, yeoman, June 11, 1838, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 Peter Malcolm,* yeoman, Jan. 3, 1838, Oct., 1838, civil court, guilty, par- 
 doned on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 
 John Moore,* yeoman, June 11, 1838, Oct., 1838, civil court, guilty, pardoned, 
 on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years ; first ar- 
 rested in London District, Dec. 22, 1837. 
 
 "William Sheppard, yeoman, June 25, 1838, July 17, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 
 Horace Lossing, magistrate's son, July 8, 1838, n. t., imprisoned subsequent tc 
 special assizes, and still in custody awaiting trial. 
 
 Calvin Austin, watchmaker, July 8, 1838, n. t., ditto ditto 
 
 John Fish, yeoman, July 8, 1838, ditto ditto ditto 
 
 Jesse Matthews, milwright, July 8, 1838, ditto ditto dittc. 
 
 Edy Malcolm, laborer, July 23, 1838, July 81, 1838, n t., dis. by the mag, 
 
 Stephen Smith, yeoman, Dec. 23, 1837, Oct., 1838, civil court, guilty, pardoned 
 on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for three years. 
 
 Talbot District. 
 No prisoner confined in this district on a charge of insurrection or treason.
 
 394 APPENDIX. 
 
 London District, 
 
 Cyrus McCartney, yeoman, Dec. 15,1837, Feb. 6, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 James Canfield yeoman, Dec. 15, 1887, Jan. 4, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Andrew Martin, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, Jan. 4, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 James Woods, Yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, Oct., 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Alexander Sumner, yeoman, Dec, 15, 1837, Feb. 20, 1838, n, t., dis. by the m. 
 Thomas Hewman, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, Feb. 20, 1838, n. t., dis by the m, 
 Judson Sweat, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, Feb. 20, 1838, n. t., dis by tne mag. 
 John O'Gorman, yeomon, Dec. 16, 1837, Dec. 30, 1837, n. t., dis. ty the mag. 
 Joseph Alway, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, Jan. 13, 1838, n. t., dis by the mag. 
 Eobert Cavanaugh, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 yeara 
 Cornelius McCarty, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, Oct. 14, 1838, n. t., dis. by the m. 
 Levi Heaton, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, Oct. 12, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag 
 James "Waterman, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, Oct. 16, 1838, n. t., dis. by the m 
 James Coleman, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, June 7, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Benjamin Page, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, June 9, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 George Lester, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, Jan. 30, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Charles Pteeves, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Jacob Esmond, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 James McClees, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 26, 1838, n, t., dis. by the mag. 
 Simon B. Moses, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 26, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag 
 John B. Nichols, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t, dis. by the mag. 
 Peter Philip, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 4, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 James Defields, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 "William Loup, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 23, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Robert Larraway, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 16, 1838, n. t., dis. by the m. 
 Tracey Congdon, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Dec 29, 1837, n. t., dis. by the mag 
 Thomas Pool, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 12, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Isaac Moore, yeoman, Dec. IT, 1837, May 1, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 Caleb Kipp, yeoman, Dec. 1 *, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, banished frooi 
 
 the Province for life. 
 George Kibble, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 11, 1838, n. t. dis. Dy the mag. 
 Eobert Traney, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, June 7, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Henry Emigh, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, Dec. 29, 1837, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Truman Sinclair, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 26, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Eobert Farr, yeoman, Dec, 17, 1887, Dec. 19, 1837, n. t., dis. by the magistrate. 
 Dennis Cavanaugh, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, June 7, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 
 
 10, pardoned on finding security to keep tba peace, and be of good behavior 
 
 4)r three years.
 
 APPENDIX. 395 
 
 John H. Carr, yeomar Jan. 1, 1838, Jan. 17, 1838, n. t , dis. by the mag. 
 Sheldon Sweet, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n. t. dis. by the mag. 
 Mark Hogle, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Charles Christie, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 James Oswould, yeoman, IVic. 17, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n.t., dis. by tha mag. 
 Thomas Headman, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n. t., dis by the m. 
 Charles Coonrod, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n. t, dis. by the mag. 
 John James Jolly, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 12, 1838, n. t, dis. by the m. 
 John McCarren, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 17, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Egbert Hellaker, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Luke Hogle, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 13, 1838, n. t., dis. cy the mag. 
 Moses Cook, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, June 7, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 par., on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good behavior for 3 yrs. 
 "William Norton, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, Jan. 26, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 John Medcalf, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, June 9, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 8 yrs. 
 Josiah "VVoodhuU, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, Dec. 25, 1837, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Matthew Berry, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, Jan. 6, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 William Cheeseman, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, June 9, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. 
 
 c. 10, par on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 yrs. 
 John Legg, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, Jan. 24, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Moore Stephens, yeoman, Dec. 19, 1837, May 7,1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 William Lymburner, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Feb. 14, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 Wm. Watterworth, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan 22, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Joseph J. Lancaster, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 6, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail to 
 
 appear as a witness. 
 David Curtis, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 26, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Andrew McLean, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 1, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Alfred Adkins, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 15, 1838, n. t, dis. on bail. 
 Lyman Davis, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 15, 1838, n. t., absconded. 
 Solomon Sherrick, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 Nelson Leach, yeoman, Dec, 20, 1837, Jan. 17, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 par. on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good behavior for 3 years. 
 Sobeisca Brown, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 5, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 "William Storey, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838 n. t. dis. by the mag. 
 Jonathan Steel, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Oct., 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10. par- 
 doned on finding security to keep the peace and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Losee Denton, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, June. 9, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 Joseph Moore, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 20, 1838, n, t., dis. by the mag. 
 Isaac Phillips, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 4, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Andrew Connors, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, June 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, en finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Lymanteus ( hapel, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 9, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag.
 
 396 APPENDIX. 
 
 Thomas Hall, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 12, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 John Kenny, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Dec. 23, 1838, n. t., dis. bj the mag 
 Enoch D. Doxie, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Oct., 1838, n. t., discharged on bail 
 
 to l^eep the peace, and be of good behavior for three years. 
 John Parker, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, Feb. 6, 1838, n. t., dis. by the magistiate 
 Josiah "Wood, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, Jan. 3, 1838, n. t., dis by the mag. 
 S. Smith, yeoman, Dec, 21, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n, t., dis. by the magistrate. 
 Archibald Olds, yeoman, Dec 21, 1837, Jan. 2, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 George Phillips yeoman, Dec 21, 1837, Feb. 1, 1838, n. t., dis by the mag 
 James Nixon, yeomon, Dec. 21, 1837, Jan. 4, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 AWx CuOper, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, Jan. 18, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 David Willson, yeoman, Dec. 26, 1837, Feb. 26, 1838, n. t., dis. by the m. 
 Duncan Willson, yeoman, Dec. 30, 1837, Apr. 7, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Elias Moore, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, Apr. 9, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Luther Hoskins, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, October, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Nathan Doan, yeoman, Feb. 17, 1838, Feb. 24, 1838, n. t., dis. by the mag. 
 Alonzo Hall, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, Jan. 12, 1838, n. t, dis. by the mag. 
 William Hall, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, May 2, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 Gideon Tiffany, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, May 7, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 William Putnam, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, May 2, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 John Stephens, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, May 7, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 James Nash, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, April 26, 1838, n. t. discharged on bail. 
 Thomas Arker, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, June 19, 1838, n. t., discharged by order 
 
 of the Lieutenant Governor. 
 Morey Whithey, yeoman, Dec. 15, 1837, June 1, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 Charles Travers, yeoman, Dec. 16, 1837, June 1, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 John Grieve, yeoman, Dec. 20, 1837, April 10, 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Descom Simons, yeoman, Dec. 22, 1837, April 26, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 Chas. Lawrence, yeoman, Dec. 19, 1837, June 11, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Anson Gould, yeoman, Dec. 24, 1837, April 26, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 Stephen Bronger, yeoman, Dec. 26, 1837, May 8, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 j-iarfi mal, on finding security to keep the peace and be of good b. for 3 yeai s. 
 Joshua B. Moore, yeoman, Dec. 25, 1837, Apr. 18, 1838, n. t., discharged by 
 
 proclamation ; no bill. 
 John Riley, yeoman, Dec. 30, 1837, May 9, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 William Watts, yeoman, Dec. 30, 1837, May 9, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 died May 5, 1838. 
 Lewis Norton, yeoman, Dec. 30, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, banished from 
 
 the Province for life. 
 James Coville, yeoman, Dec. 30, 1837, ditto ditto dittou 
 
 Chanes Latimer, yeoman, Dec. 17, 1837, May 2, 1838, civil court, acquitted.
 
 APPENDIX. 397 
 
 David Hagerman, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, April 30, 1838, civil court, acquitted, 
 Daniel Bedford, yeoman, Dec. 18, 1837, June 9, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Alexander Neilly, yeoman, J)ec. 19, 1837, June 11, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 Samuel Sands, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, June 11, 1838, ditto ditto. 
 
 Uriah Emmons, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, banished from 
 
 the Province for ITe. 
 Ezekiel Manns, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, June 12, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and he of good b. for 3 years. 
 William Childs, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, April 18, 1838, n. t., discharged Dy 
 
 proclamation ; no bill. 
 Abraham Sackrider, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, April 1, 1838, n. t., dis. by court. 
 John D. Brown, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, May 8, 1838, civil court, acquitted. 
 •Stephen H. Secord, yeoman, Dec. 21, 1837, April 16, 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 Orlando Inglis, yeoman, Jan. 1, 1838, April 16, 1838, n. t., dis. by pro. ; no bill. 
 Patrick Malada, yeoman, Jan. 1, 1838, June 7, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, 
 
 pardoned, on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 George Blake, yeoman, Jan. 1, 1838, April 16, 1838, n. t., dis. by pro. ; no bill. 
 Amos Bradshaw, yeoman, Jan. 1, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. c. 10, banished from 
 
 the Province for life. 
 George Hill, yeoman, Jan. 3, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Joseph Bowes, yeomon, Feb. 2, 1838, ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 Charles Tilden, yeoman, Feb. 15, 1838, May 10, 1838, n. t., dis. on his recog. 
 Andrew McLure, yeoman, April 12, 1838, June 6, 1838, pet. under 1 Vict. 
 
 c. 10, par. on finding security to keep the peace, and be of good b. for 3 years. 
 Amos B. Thomas, yeoman, June 30, 1838, July 27, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 Jacob Lester, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 15, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate 
 Samuel Forbes, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 15, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Amos Shaw, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Alex. Leadbeater, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 Absalom Shaw, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Wm. A. Everitt, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Albert Stephens, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 25, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 James G. Shaw, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Uriah Shaw, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Robert Taylor, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 James Tucker, yeoman, July 1, 1837, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Francis Jones, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Abraham Kilburn, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 David Sherman, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 William Day, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Wm. Jackman, yeoman, July 1, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate 
 Jacob B. Allen, yeoman, July 4, 1838, July 5, 18i38, n. t., dis. by magistrate.
 
 398 APPENDIX. 
 
 Abraham Graves, yeoman, July 5, 1838, July 28, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 Jacob Deo, yeoman, July 6, 1838, July 11, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Sylvanus Shaw, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 John Day, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Samuel Day, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 John G. Wells, yeoman, July 18, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Otis Inglis, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Jacob Aubery, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 William Gibson, yeoman, July 5, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 Benjamin Hillaker, yeoman, July 7, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 William Hallaker, yeoman, July 7, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 John Dennis, yeoman, July 7, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 Benjamin Smith, yeoman, July 13, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 Pety Sullivan, yeoman, July 13, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 Benjamin West, yeoman, July 13, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 Henry Spencer, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Isaac L. Smith, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 David Williams, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate 
 John Long, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by magistrate. 
 James Lyons, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n, t., dis. by magistrate. 
 Christ. Hendershot, yeoman, July 13, 1838, July 20, 1838, n. t., dis. by mag. 
 
 Western Distbict: 
 
 Horace Cooley, farmer, June 28, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 Charles Bourman, farmer, June 28, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 Louis Burnham, farmer, June 28, 1838, Sept., 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Orlando Boyington, farmer, June 28, 1838, Sept., 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 Henry B. Nugent, farmer, June 30, 1838, Sept. 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Keuben Markham, farmer, Aug. 10, 1838, Sept., 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Lambert Beaubien, wheelwright, July 2, 1838, Sept., 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 Malcolm Burnham, farmer, June 30, 1838, Sept., 1838, n. t., dis. on bail. 
 James Coll, farmer, July 10, 1838, Sept., 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 Isaac Phillips, farmer, July 10, 1838, Sept., 1838, n. t., discharged on bail. 
 William Herrington tailor, July 10, 1838, n. t., still in custody. 
 
 Besides the above, there were sixty-one persons against whom 
 indictments were found for High Treason, but who left the Pro- 
 vince : — 
 
 1. John Eolph, physician. Home District, Member of Provincial PaAiament. 
 
 2. William Lyon Mackenzie, printer, Home District. 
 
 3. Silas Pletcher, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 4. Jacob Kymal, yeoman. Home District.
 
 APPENDIX. 399 
 
 5. Richard Graham, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 6. Jeremiah Graham, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 7. John Mantack, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 8. Joseph Borden, yeomau. Home District. 
 
 9. Joshua Winn, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 10. David Gibson, surveyor. Home District, Member of Provincial Parliament 
 
 11. Landon Wurtz, laborer, Home District. 
 
 12. James Marshall, storekeeper. Home District. 
 
 13. Alem Marr, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 14. Joseph Clarkson, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 15. Dudley Wilcox, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 16. Edmond Quirk, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 17. Thomas Brown, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 18. Levi Parsons, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 19. Jesse Loyd, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 20. Aaron Munshaw, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 21. Henry Stiles, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 a2. William Fletcher, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 23. Daniel Fletcher, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 24. David McCarty, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 25. Seth McCarty, yoeman. Home District. 
 
 26. Nelson Gorham, yeoman. Home District. 
 
 27. Alexander McLeod, yeoman, Home District. Since taken at the Short 
 
 Hills, sentenced to transportation for life. (See Niagara Dt., No. 28.) 
 
 28. Cornelius Willis, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 29. Erastus Clark, yeoman, Home District. 
 
 30. Charles Duncombe, M. P. P., London District, Mem. of Prov. Parliament. 
 
 31. James Dennis, yeoman, London District. 
 
 32. Eliakim Malcolm, yeoman, London District. 
 
 33. Peter Delong, yeoman, London District. 
 
 84, Orsimus B. Clark, merchant, London DistricL 
 35 Lyman Davis, Laborer, London District. 
 
 36. Henry Fisher, yeoman, London District. 
 
 37. James Malcolm, yeoman, London District. 
 88. Pelham C. Teeple, yeoman, London District. 
 
 39. Norris Humphrey, merchant, Lonion District. 
 
 40. Jesse Paulding, innkeeper, London District. 
 
 41. Joel P. Doan, tanner, London District. 
 
 42. Joshua G. Doan, tanner, London District. Since taken, at Sandwich, in arms. 
 
 43. John Talbot, gentleman, London District. 
 
 44. Samuel Edison, jr., innkeeper, London District. 
 
 45. Abraham Sutton, yeoman, London District. 
 
 4G. Moses Chapman Nickerson, yeoman, London District. 
 101 •
 
 400 APPENDIX. 
 
 47. George Lawton, yeoman, London District. 
 
 48. John Massacre, yeoman, London District. 
 
 49. Elisha Hall, yeoman, London District. 
 
 [)0. Solomo- Hawes, yeoman, London District. 
 
 5L George Alexander Clark, merchant, Gore District. 
 
 52. John Vanarnam, innkeeper, Gore District. 
 
 53- Michael Marcellus Mills, merchant. Gore District. 
 
 54. George Washington Case, gentleman. Gore District. 
 
 65. Joseph Fletcher, yeoman. Gore District. 
 
 56. Angus McKenzie, yeoman. Gore District. 
 
 57. Alonzo Merriman, merchant, Niagara District. 
 
 58. Aaron Winchester, yeoman, Niagara District. 
 
 59. David Jennings, laborer, Niagara District. 
 
 60. Chester Jillet, laborer, Niagara District. 
 
 61 . Thomas Lambert, laborer, Niagara District. 
 
 NUMERICAL ABSTRACT OF THE FOREGOING TABLE. 
 Eastern District, ......... — 
 
 Ottawa District, . — 
 
 Johnstown District, S 
 
 Bathurst District, — 
 
 Prince Edward District, .......», — 
 
 Midland District, 75 
 
 Newcastle District, ........ .12 
 
 Home District, 422 
 
 Niagara District, 43 
 
 Gore District, 90 
 
 Talbot District, . — 
 
 London District, 163 
 
 Western District, ........ .11 
 
 P«r.-^ons who have absconded . 61 
 
 Orand Total, . . 885
 
 BOOK AND STATIONERY TRADE. 
 
 17 KING STREET WEST. 
 TORONTO, C. W. 
 
 (formerly MESSRS, ARMOUR & CO.) 
 
 THOMAS MACLEAR, 
 
 Hating bought the Stock and Goodwill of the above prernisos of Mr. MANSON, 
 who will remain as an active co-operator in the business, would respectfully solicit a 
 renewal of the patronage so generously extended to him iri former years, confident 
 that the matured experience of himself and Mr. Manson, gained both in Great Britain 
 and Canada, will not fail to give satisfaction to those who may honor the establishment 
 wich their support. 
 
 THE STATIONERY DEPARTMENT 
 
 IS GOT UP WITH A VIEW TO DOING AN EXTENSIVE WHOLESALE AND RETAIL BUSINESS. 
 
 ALL NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS 
 
 Of value, will be kept on hand, or obtained to order. 
 PRINTINQ, BINDING AND LITHOGRAPHY, 
 
 Executed in the most approved styles. 
 
 A PICTURE GALLERY, 
 
 On a moderate scale, including the best Works of Art, Ancient and Modern, in varioui 
 
 forms, suited to the Drawing Room, the Portfolio, or the Photographic 
 
 Album, forms a prominent feature in the establishment. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 P^IOTURE FR^iyilNa, 
 
 WITH 
 
 The Washable Gilt Mouldings, 
 
 in VARIOUS PATTERNS— OR THE MOULDINGS SOLD IN ANY QUANTITY. 
 
 To meet the exigencies of the times the lowest possible Scale of Prices has been 
 6xed, and that this may be more efifectually carried out the rule of the business will be 
 CASH. 
 
 The style of the Firm will be 
 
 MACLEAR & CO. 
 
 j8®" Please observe the situation— 17 King Street "West, corner of Jordaa 
 Street, frrmerly Messrs. Armour & Co.'s, lately Mr. Manson's.
 
 WILLIAM HEWITT, 
 
 G[II[EU HiRDWIieE lfl[llCHIlNT, 
 
 CORNER OF 
 
 YONGE AND ADELAIDE STREETS, 
 TORONTO, C. W. 
 
 I 
 
 Building Materials. 
 
 KAILS. 
 
 LOCKS. 
 
 HINGES. 
 
 GLASS. 
 
 PAINTS. 
 
 OILS. 
 
 BRUSHES. 
 
 PUMPS. 
 
 CORDAGE. 
 
 HOBTM EAST CORNER OF , 
 
 YONGE & ADELAIDE STS. 
 
 TORONTO. C.W. 
 
 N5 
 
 Farming Implements. 
 
 SPADES 
 
 AND 
 SHOVELS. 
 HOES. 
 RAKES. 
 SCYTHES. 
 SNATHES. 
 CRADLES. 
 FORKS. 
 Hay & Stra^ 
 
 KNIVES. 
 CHAINS. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Simmons', Hastings', and other Chopping Axes. 
 Carpenters' Carriage Makers' and Cooper's Tools. 
 Wallace Planes, Sorby's and Barton's Tools. 
 
 HOUSE FURNISHINGS. 
 
 Joseph Rodgers & Sons Table Knives, Pocket Knives 
 
 and Scissors. 
 English Electro Plate and Nickel Silver Goods. 
 Brass Cornices, Curtain Bands, Pins, &o.
 
 <3;- X=l. SB j^i. 'GC 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION 
 
 fci 
 
 S 
 
 n 
 
 im 
 
 OF 
 
 C^]Nr A.D A.. 
 
 Book Agents can always find employment by 
 applying at this house, either by letter or in 
 l^ersOn. It is the business of this house to supply 
 Agents with the most popular 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION BOOKS, 
 
 On the Best Terms of any House in Canada. 
 
 SA6BAT1-SCH00L BOOKS, 
 
 OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, AT NEW YORK PRICES. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 3^ISaEIjL-A.lSrEOTJS BOOKIS^ 
 WILL BE FOUND IN GREAT VARIETY, 
 
 At No. 12 Toronto St., Toronto, C W. 
 SAMUEL PIKE.
 
 ROLLO & ADAM, 
 
 (LATE J. C. GEIKEL.,) 
 
 LAW, CHURCH MEDICAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND GENERAL 
 BOOKSELLERS AND IMPORTERS, 
 
 61 KING STREET EAST, 
 TORONTO, C. W. 
 
 Eespectfully thanking the Clergy, the members of the va- 
 rious professions, and the reading community for their encou- 
 raging support of their 
 
 BOOK ESTABLISHMENT, 
 
 in the first two years, would further draw their attention to the 
 extended purchases they have been making in the various 
 
 DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE, 
 
 TP.EIK STOCK WILL BE FOUND VERY COMPLETE IN THE DISTINCTIVE CLASSES OF 
 
 LAW, MEDICINE, THEOLOGY AND EDUCATION, 
 
 pvh.ile in General Literature they have constantly for sale the 
 best Editions of Standard Authors, and the recent important 
 publications as issued from the British and American press. 
 
 To Committees of Libraries the subscribers offer special in- 
 ducements on any amount purchased, while in their large and 
 varied stock they will find the best selection. Of the common 
 Grammar and higher School Books, and Stationery of all de- 
 scriptions, teachers and the country trade will find our Stock 
 complete. 
 
 Agency in Canada for "GOOD WORDS," a magazine for all 
 the week, edited by the Eev. Norman Macleod, D. D., assisted by 
 many familiar names. Subscription, per year, in monthly num- 
 bers, $1.50 ; or in yearly volumes, elegantly bound, $1.75. 
 
 Also, for the clieap issue of "Walter Scott's Waverly Novels, 
 with all the Notes and Additions, to be completed in 25 vol- 
 umes. Published monthly at 50 cents each, in paper cover. 
 
 Publishers of the new issue of the U. C. Queen's Bench Ee- 
 ports. Price $4 per vol. Also, the Osgoode Hall Examination 
 Questions and Answers in the Legal Text Books. Price $2.
 
 W. C. CHEWETT & CO., 
 
 (rOBMERLY MACIiEAR & CO..) 
 
 17 & 19 KlTsra STI^JEILT E^ST, 
 TORONTO, C. W. 
 
 IMPORTERS OF STATIONERY, 
 
 Direct from the Manufacturers in Great Britain and in the United 
 States, by which they are able to supply the public at Wholesale 
 Prices. Foolscap and Writing Papers, Envelopes, &e., &c. 
 
 MANUFACTUHERS OF BLANK BOOKS, 
 
 Suited for every profession and trade. Remember — the best Mate- 
 rial. The best workmanship, and moderate charges. 
 
 BOOKSELLING 
 
 In all its branches. An immense stock always on hand, and every 
 new book of worth immediately it is published. 
 
 W. C. Chewett & Co. send home orders for English Books by 
 every Canadian Steamer, so that no time is lost in procuring what- 
 ever is wished. They are THE English Booksellers in Upper 
 Canada. The right place for Medical, Law and School Books. 
 Every description of 
 
 EXECUTED BY STEAM POWER IN FIRST-RATE STYLE. 
 
 See the Canadian Almanac, Mitchell's Directories, Law Journal, &c., 
 all printed by W. C. C. & Co. 
 
 If you want to sell any lots get a Plan printed in 
 
 Ij I T H O <3- 3FI -A. I> H "ST. 
 
 For Maps, Cheques, Debentures, Show Cards, Bill Heads, &c., it is 
 equal to Copper Plate, at a fraction the price. Send to the above 
 address for estimates. 
 
 BOOKBINDING 
 
 In every style, executed on the premises by first-class workmen. 
 
 BLANKS OF EVERY DESCRIPTIOX, Municipal, Legal and 
 Conveyancing, Deeds, Mortgages, Bonds, &c. 
 At the Old Stand, 
 
 W. C. CHEWETT & CO. 
 
 (formerly MACLEAR & CO.,) 
 17 & 19 King Street East, Toronto.