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N submitting the following pages to the judgment of subscribers the Publisher has to apologize for a slight delay in their production—a delay, however, which has been rendered necessary by the difficulty encountered in obtaining certain minute topographical and biographical information which it was highly desirable to obtain, and which have materially enhanced the value of the work as a local record. It is believed that these volumes will be found to supply a long-felt want, and that all the various promises embodied in the Prospectus will be admitted to have been faithfully kept.

The first portion of the work, entitled “A Brief History of Canada and the Canadian People,” gives, in an abridged form, most of the material facts in the annals of our country, and will doubtless be found useful by those who have neither time nor inclination for the perusal of larger and more elaborate histories. It was written by Dr. C. P. Mulvany, of Toronto. The portion relating to the early history of Toronto is the work of Mr. G. M. Adam, also of Toronto; while the remaining portion, embracing the History of the County of York and of the various townships of which it is composed, together with the strictly topographical and biographical portions, have been written by persons having a special knowledge of the respective subjects treated of. The greater portion of the matter will be found to possess more than a merely local interest, and may be read with pleasure, even by persons who have no special knowledge of, or interest in, the respective localities described.

In a work of such extent, dealing entirely with matters of fact, and involving the verification of innumerable minute details, it is perhaps too much to expect that perfect accuracy has in every instance been secured. It is confidently believed, however, that the errors, if any, are few in number; that the wealth of information is great, and, upon the whole, accurate; and that these volumes will in all essential respects compare most favourably with other works of the same character, whether issued in this country or the United States.

With which expression of confidence the volumes are respectfully submitted for the approval of their patrons.

THE PUBLISHER.

Toronto, 1885.

Chapter I.

PRE-HISTORIC CANADA.

HE history of Canada is the history of three races,—the Indian, the Frenchman, and the English-speaking immigrant from the British isles or the neighbouring Republic.

The Indian tribes had roamed over the unbroken forest that is now the Dominion of Canada, through ages that we can only approximately estimate by the guesses of experts in our pre-historic annals. Like the other inferior races of man, they have no annals, no record of their own past; but the record of race, stamped on skin and skeleton, would seem to indicate an Asiatic origin. In the part of North America south of what is now New York State, the present race of Indians appear to have superseded a far more civilized race, the builders of fortified towns and permanent temples, who were well acquainted with the use of metals. But when, in the sixteenth century of Christian civilization, French and English maritime enterprise, born of the new birth of classical literature, discovered or re-discovered this country, the Indian race in Canada had not advanced beyond the civilization of the Stone Age. They were in some respects behind, they were in no respect in advance of, the human wild beast who was the contemporary of the mammoth and the cave-bear. Their spears and arrows were pointed with carefully-chipped flint, their knives were of clam-shells; of the use of metal they knew nothing; their dress was that of the earlier savages described in the legends of Hebrew and other primitive races, paint and the skins of wild beasts. They had no domesticated animals except a breed of dogs useless for the chase, which they kept for the purpose of religious sacrifice and of food. They had lived for unknown centuries with no home but the forest, which they shared with the wolf, the bear, and the lynx. In architecture they were inferior to the brute instinct which had shaped the lake cities of the beaver, the cave-shaped nests of the mole, the wax hexagon of the bee.

The Indians of Canada represent its pre-historic age. It is impossible to estimate the date of their sparse and nomadic occupation of a country that, now civilized into farms, towns, and cities, supports an increasing population which to their feeble and shifting number is as a thousand to one. No doubt these inferior races fulfilled a useful purpose. They were of some service to the first white immigrants into Canada. They guided Champlain up the tortuous courses of the Ottawa; their conversion from Fetichism to Roman Catholicism elicited the noblest missionary effort which the Christian Church has seen since its first century of miracles and martyrdoms. But they surpassed all other savage races known to history in cruelty, treachery, and revenge; and whenever, after a fashion, they have become civilized, they seem to have lost many of the virtues of savage life. It may be doubted whether the heroism of the French Jesuits does not count among the wasted efforts of man’s noblest powers. The Christianized Indian is no permanent or prosperous element in the population of this country; his civilization is second-hand; disease and vice decimate his ranks; alcoholism fastens its fangs into his strength. An intelligent officer of the Hudson’s Bay Company, employed at the Pacific Railway station of Mattawa, in 1882, not long since expressed the opinion that the Indian tribes in the northern part of Canada will most likely be extinct before the end of another hundred years.

When the continent of America was first discovered, what is now the Dominion of Canada was inhabited by a number of savage tribes who, in their approach to civilization, were on a level with the negroid races of Africa or Australia, although to some degree surpassing them in courage and physical vigour. Of these, there were two principal divisions: the tribes of the Algonquin race, and those of the Iroquois, since known as the Six Nation Indians. The Algonquins, as a rule, did not live in fortified villages; the solitary hunter wandered through the woods, or with wife and children erected the birch-bark wigwam by the banks of some stream, whose plentiful supply of fish would supplement the more precarious venison. In the tropical Canadian summer, life passed in Arcadian content. With the Arctic winter came the severer struggle for existence against the wild beasts and the weather. When the long-hoarded supply of food, often little better than putrid carrion, became nearly exhausted, old people and women were knocked on the head, and cannibalism became a necessity; the scanty supply of fuel, hewn with long-continued labour of flint knife and stone hatchet, gave little protection against the terrible winter wind which entered every crevice of the wretched dwelling. Deaths from exposure thinned the ranks of the hunters; wolf and wildcat vainly strove to tear the marble-stiffened form frozen in the snow. And still, with the conservatism of savage life, no advance was made, no protection sought against cold and hunger; the warrior in the brief hour of feasting forgot the sure approach of famine, and the terrors of winter descended upon his defenceless home, without any provision having been made against its approach.

A nearer approach to civilization was made by those tribes that, as a rule, lived in settled communities. Of these, by far the most remarkable were the Iroquois, whose organization, once that of the terrible Iroquois League, continues to this day in the Reserve on the Grand River, which the British Government granted as an asylum for their race. They formed a Confederacy originally seated in what is now New York State, but whose hunting grounds extended, and whose villages were built, over the entire lake region and valley of the St. Lawrence. Their settlements were made up of a number of large houses, surrounded by a wooden rampart. Each house was solidly built of wood, and well protected against wind and rain. It was generally from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet long, and contained many fire-places, and a number of bunks, a few feet from the ground, on which the various families—men, women, children, old and young—slept promiscuously together. Provision for privacy or decency there was none. Their only drink was the water of the stream; their food, meat or fish, often kept till it was putrid; their sole luxury, tobacco, that great gift of the New World to the Old, in return for which she had not yet received the more questionable gift of fire-water.

The Iroquois have been aptly termed “the Romans of the Western World.” Their political organization, with its extensive settlements of allied tribes and towns, enabled them to conquer the other Indian races in every part of Canada, to exterminate the two great tribes of the Hurons and the Eries, and to become an important ally to England in the wars of the French and English colonists previous to the conquest, and in the two wars with the United States which followed it. Enthusiastic writers on the romantic aspects of savage life have drawn rose-coloured pictures of the courage, the simplicity, the eloquence of the noble red man. But, looked at in the light of careful and patient investigation, the ways of the dwellers in wigwams lose much of this ideal colouring. The Indian Chief was not, as writers like the poet Campbell have represented him, a hero king, like those of the Grecian army before Troy. He was simply a warrior raised above others by superior strength or cunning; with no authority of life or death; no power as a ruler, beyond what the influence he could exert in the interminable wrangling of war-council might give him for the time. He was in no respect a member of an aristocratic caste; he fished and hunted just as did every other member of his tribe; had no privilege of class, such as those of the chief of a Highland clan, or an Irish sept. The most noted chiefs of even the most recent, and therefore the best, phase of Indian warfare, such as Pontiac or Tecumseh, were in many respects mere painted savages among their fellow-savages.

The courage of the Indian warrior differed from that which in all civilized ages has been regarded as the essential attribute of manhood. He could die a death of horrible and prolonged torture without a complaining cry, but on the battle-field the Indian would rarely risk his life before an equal foe. A handful of Europeans, as in the case of the Carillon massacre, could hold hundreds of these wolves of the wilderness at bay. The Indian on the war-path resorted to every treachery, every coward’s subterfuge of ambush and surprise. On children, women, and captives, he gloried in exercising cruelties of which there is no trace in the record of any other savage race, even the most degraded known to history. Of endurance of inevitable pain, these Stoics of the forest gave abundant proof; of pity, placability, chivalry, none. It is true that the annals of Iroquois warfare show no instance of treachery to allies resulting from mere abject cowardice like that shown by the Huron allies of Daulac des Ormeaux at the critical turning point of the disasters of Carillon. But, in many respects besides this, the Iroquois stand alone among the Indian races. West of the St. Lawrence Valley were two great tribes, the Huron and the Erie. Like the Iroquois and the more civilized of the Algonquin tribes, the Hurons lived in towns. When Champlain visited their settlements in the West, he was surprised at the superiority of their villages, and at the cultivated ground covered with corn and vegetables. The religious chivalry of the French Jesuit missionaries converted, and might have civilized, the Hurons. But the torch and tomahawk of Iroquois warfare exterminated the race as utterly as the Canaanites were destroyed from the face of earth by the pious zeal of the children of Israel. Nothing remains of them but the name given to the lake by which they dwelt, the record of their slow and doubtful conversion by the Jesuits, and the mocking but brilliant romance written in ridicule of the Jesuit Relations by Voltaire.^[1]

It is true that there are other remains in the huge bone pits found in the country once occupied by the Huron race, immense receptacles of human skeletons containing hundreds in one vast sepulchre. The existence of these places of sepulture is well explained by the account given by the early Jesuit missionaries, who witnessed the process of the formation at the loathsome Feast of the Dead. Every few years it was the Huron custom to exhume the bodies of all those who had been buried during that period. The bodies were wrapped in robes of honour, and carried into the houses where they had dwelt during life; there the festering remains were treasured for several days, then brought all together and thrown into a deep pit, as soon as the skeleton could be denuded of the last particle of flesh. Then, with endless oratory from a high platform, and a feast as of ghouls in presence of this foul spectacle, the “Feast of the Dead” came to an end. There were other feasts common to the Indian race, of all of which unlimited gluttony was the main feature. For drunkenness they had no opportunity till civilization came with the rum-bottle, which is so rapidly helping to exterminate their race. At some of the public dances and festivals, girls and the younger women danced robeless, as the witches at Faust’s Walpurgis Night.

When preparing for war, the usual council was held and the usual interminable speechification, characteristic of these grown-up children, was continued for days. Then, the warriors, smeared with paint so as to ensure disguise, issued forth, armed with flint-pointed spear, arrows, and tomahawk, to tread the war-path. Of all savage races, these alone practised the cruel and disgusting custom of scalping; a custom practised by Pontiac, Tecumseh, and Captain Brant, as ruthlessly as by the earliest and least civilized braves of Indian warfare.

As to religion, much has been said of the pure monotheism of the Indian race: of their hope in a future life, and worship of the Great Spirit. Unscientific writers have found it easy to exalt this crude and shocking Manitou worship to a level with the monotheism of Socrates and the New Testament. But those who have studied the abundant early records of Indian superstition know well that this, like every other savage race, never emerged from the stage of intermingled animism and fetichism. Animism is the superstition of children when they beat the ground against which they have fallen and hurt themselves. It is the superstition of savages when they attribute a conscious life to the phenomena of nature. A more advanced step in animism, the worship of deceased ancestors, the Indians never seem to have reached. Till they learned some vague monotheistic notions from the white man, their idea of a Great Spirit seems to have been extremely vague, and to have consisted in the worship of a number of “Manitous,” good or malignant, who dwelt in forest, lake, or cataract, and whom it was well to propitiate with offerings of tobacco.

Of a future state their notions were equally vague. It was a shadowy reproduction of the present life; a hunting-ground where good and bad fared alike, and where the ghost of the hunter flitted in pursuit of the ghost of the wild beast, accompanied by the ghost of the tomahawk, his spear, bow and arrows, and tobacco pipe. Poets, moralists, and romance writers, from Voltaire downward, have delighted to pourtray the noble red man, the chivalrous and undaunted Indian chief, the lovely and faithful daughter of the forest. In all this there is little reality. A sterner and coarser picture is drawn by the impartial hand of history, and by those travellers who have visited the less civilized Indian settlements of the present day in remote parts of Canada. It may be added that, unlike even the negroid race of Africa, the Indian has invented no art beyond the civilization of the Stone Age. One thing, among the most graceful although the simplest products of human skill, he has invented—the birch canoe; exquisitely proportioned, buoyant, yet so frail, and so unsafe in all but the most practised hands, that it will in all probability pass away with the decaying race to whom it belongs, and who appear doomed to fade in obedience to that inexorable law of the non-survival of the unfit, leaving as their memorial only the strange music of their names for the rivers, lakes, and hills of a country which has become the Dominion of a higher race.

Chapter II.

JACQUES CARTIER.

S the delusions of astrology and alchemy were the motive power of the researches which have given us the true sciences of astronomy and chemistry, so the favourite delusions of the last century of the Middle Ages gave to the world the boon which ranks with the invention of printing and the European Revolution—the discovery of America. Men like Cartier, Columbus, the two Cabots, even Champlain a century later, dreamed of a passage across the Western Ocean to India and China. And kings, like those who sent out these and other discoverers, had, as their chief object, the finding of a treasure-trove of gold and gems. But an impulse had been given to European thought which stimulated maritime discovery as well as every other art, by the new birth of learning resulting from the taking of Constantinople, and the consequent dispersion over Italy and France of the band of Greek scholars who held the key of ancient Greek letters.

Among other arts, ship-building and navigation had now improved, the use of the bowline enabling mariners to sail on a wind, the discovery of the compass and of the method, as yet but imperfect, of taking observations, made long voyages through unknown seas possible. The trade with the Orient, hitherto monopolized by the Turk, was thrown open to Christendom by Vasco da Gama’s success in doubling the Cape of Storms. This last also led to all the maritime nations giving their attention to new methods of constructing ships large enough to undertake long voyages to distant seas. It was such ships, the first of modern naval art, that carried the discoverers of America and Canada.

There seems good reason to suppose that the hardy Norman fishermen had, with the Bretons and Basques, visited the Newfoundland fisheries for centuries before the voyage of Cabot. There is also a tradition of a sea captain from Dieppe, voyaging on the African coast, being carried by a storm across the Western Ocean, and seeing an unknown land and river’s mouth. This may have been heard of by Columbus, who, four years later, made his voyage of discovery. The alleged discoveries of Verrazzano are probably mythical, but they found a place in the compilation of Ramusio, and have ever since been commonly accepted as veracious history, until within the last few years, during which the investigations of distinguished American savants have caused them to be pretty thoroughly discredited. Suffice it to say that in process of time Canada was claimed by three European powers: by Spain, as part of her province of Florida, in consequence of the preposterous gift of the whole continent to the Spanish king by Pope Alexander the Sixth: by France, in consequence of the discoveries claimed to have been made by several navigators under the auspices of Francis I.; and by England, in consequence of the undoubted discoveries of Sebastian Cabot.

After the Treaty of Cambray, France began, in some degree, to recover from the exhaustion of the disastrous war into which she had been plunged by the ambition of Francis. The plans for Canadian exploration were revived by a young noble in favour with the volatile king, in whose schemes of gallantry and war he had shared. The king had appointed his young comrade Admiral of France, and a fitting choice was made of one worthy to be entrusted with the task of exploration. Jacques Cartier, afterwards ennobled by Francis for his discovery of Canada, was a bold and experienced sea captain, a God-fearing seaman, fearless of tempest or battle. No part of France has produced a more fearless race of mariners than the rugged old town of St. Malo, where Cartier was born. His portrait is still preserved there, and we can judge, to some extent, of its expression by the familiar copies in this country. A face firm, yet kindly; the rough sailor’s beard pointed after the fashion of the time. On an April morning in 1534, Jacques Cartier, being then in his fortieth year, sailed from his native town with two small ships, neither of them over sixty tons, and a crew of a hundred and twenty-two men. It was usual in those days to send out ships of war two at a time, for the ships were so built as not to carry anything but the munitions of war and the crew. An attendant ship held provisions and a cooking-room. Much space was taken up by the amount of ballast required to steady the ship. A voyage of twenty days brought them to Newfoundland. Thence sailing to the south of that island, Cartier passed the Magdalen Islands, and entered a bay, which, from the heat of a Canadian summer’s day, he named Baie des Chaleurs. Having erected a large wooden cross as a sign of the claim of the French king to the whole country, a proceeding watched with dismay by an Indian chief, who regarded it as an act of sorcery, Cartier advanced up the St. Lawrence till in sight of the Island of Anticosti, when, dreading the storms already threatening, as autumn approached, he set sail for France. He first carried away two Indian boys, a more justifiable act of kidnapping than those of which he and others were afterwards guilty, since it was needful to procure Indian guides who could understand the white man’s speech, so as to serve as interpreters in future expeditions. The news of his discovery was received with enthusiasm. Here was a chance for the French king to obtain new dominions in that lately discovered world, which was regarded as containing new El Dorados and Empire Cities like those conquered by Spain. Then, the Catholic reaction, already gathering its powerful forces to repair the damage done by the storm of the Reformation, seized on the idea of converting the heathen. A new expedition was resolved on, with Cartier in charge, several of the young noblesse of France being under his command—in all a hundred and ten souls. There were three ships, the largest bearing the memorable name of La Grande Hermine, 110 tons burden; the second, La Petite Hermine, and the third of lesser size. All confessed and heard mass in the Cathedral of St. Malo, and on the nineteenth of May, 1635, set sail from the rugged stone harbour of the Breton port. After a stormy voyage, they all met at the Straits of Belleisle, and entered a bay close to Anticosti, which, it being the Feast of Saint Lawrence, Cartier named after the Roman martyr, St. Lawrence. From that day the saint became sponsor to the mightiest river of Canada.

Cartier’s conduct in kidnapping the two Indian boys has been severely blamed by the historian Parkman and other writers; but had he not done so, it is inconceivable that he could have guided his squadron through the dangers of the first river voyage. Day after day they sailed up the gloomy stream, to the giant cliff of Cape Tourmente, and anchored beside an island, which, from its profusion of grape-vines, Cartier named after the god Bacchus. At last the squadron anchored in the River St. Charles, close to the site of Quebec, where then, under the shadow of the historic hill, an Indian town or village, called Stadacona, clustered its bark-built wigwams. The Indians received the Frenchmen with all kindness. The two Indian boys, fresh from the wonders of court, camp and city, told a tale of marvellous experiences in the land of the white man. Donnacona, the chief, was received and feasted on board Cartier’s ship. The Indians told Cartier that the entire region through which he was proceeding was called Canada, but that the chief town was some distance up the river. After no slight difficulty in obtaining the necessary guidance from the Indians, whose sorcerers, disguised as demons, with hideous paint and long horns, endeavoured to terrify the pale-faces, Cartier, with the smallest of his ships, a galleon of forty tons and sixty men, began to ascend the river. It was autumn: the unbroken forest on either bank lay reflected in the water; boughs where the ripe grape clusters hung from tree to tree; masses of foliage, lit with the colours which no other forest can emulate—the gold of larch or maple, the flame-red of the soft maple, the garnet of the sumach. Amid the woods everywhere the song-birds thrilled the air. As the galleon sailed on, countless wild-fowl flew, hoarse-screaming, before their approach. At length the Indian guides signalled to beach the galleon. An Indian trail led them through the oak groves which covered what is now the site of Montreal to the Indian town of Hochelaga, surrounded with ripe fields of gold-coloured maize. Here the entire population turned out to receive the strangers with tumultuous welcome; men, women and children yelling and leaping in the wildest excitement at the arrival of those whom they looked on as beings gifted with a supernatural superiority. The town consisted of some fifty oblong dwellings, each housing a number of families. These houses were constructed of birch bark twisted around a number of poles. In the centre of the town was a large open space. Here Cartier and his friends were seated on mats upon the ground. Around them, row behind row, the warriors squatted, the women and children thronging, the outer area. There the chief, a palsied and repulsive-looking old man, was carried for Cartier to lay his hands on him and heal him. Cartier did not refuse to touch the aged and helpless limbs, and read a passage from the Gospels over a crowd of bed-ridden savages, who crawled out of their huts to be cured. This done, he distributed a lavish present of beads, knives and hatchets, to squaws and braves. The Frenchmen were offered profuse supplies of food, maize and deer-flesh, which, however they did not accept. Cartier then was guided to the summit of the beautiful mountain, to which, in honour of Francis I., he gave the name of Mount Royal. From that stately hill where now the traveller looks down upon a scene in which human art in its noblest forms mingles with and ministers to natural beauty; where the river, magnificent now as then, bears on its bosom the navies of the merchant princes of Canada, and where its waters are spanned by the vast granite arches of a bridge which is one of the wonders of the world; where one of Canada’s noblest cities covers the site of the vanished Indian town—the illustrious discoverer gazed far and wide upon an unbroken mass of forest, stretching to either horizon and beyond, from the Arctic North to the savannah of Florida.

After a stay of several days at Hochelaga, Cartier returned as he came, to Stadacona. There a rude fort of earth-works and palisades had been built, in front of which ships lay moored in the St. Charles River for the winter. Cartier and his company passed that gloomy season amid hardships innumerable, and suffered the loss of some of their best men. The Indians, at first so ready to welcome them, were no longer to be propitiated with wine and presents; the fickle savages became dreaded foes, and were excluded from the fort. At length the terrible blood-poisoning disease that comes with cold and famine broke out among them. An Indian, who observed the scurvy symptoms in Cartier, told him of the remedy, a decoction of the evergreen spruce leaves. A large spruce was cut down, and through six days the sick Frenchmen drank abundantly; the salts of potash contained in the leaves effecting a speedy cure. At length the long expected spring, dissolving the ice that bound their ships, set the prisoners free. Just before leaving, Cartier managed to seize Donnacona and several leading chiefs, and, conveying them on board his ship, sailed for France. This seems to us a treacherous act, though we must remember how strongly the Jesuit teaching pervaded the Catholic reaction. The maxim that it is lawful to do evil that good may come had been early impressed on minds like Cartier’s. It was unfortunate for poor old Donnacona that he told Cartier all sorts of Indian legends of wonder-land of gold and jewels in the far West. He must be taught to recount these marvels to the Most Christian King. After all, the old chief was probably much better off than he would have been in his own wigwam, cared for kindly in a country where he was looked on with some sort of respect as an Indian “king,” for the early French discoverers of Canada, with their feudal notions, regarded the chiefs as possessing a dignity and authority belonging to European kings and lords. The chiefs were baptised with great pomp in Rouen Cathedral, but all died shortly afterwards.

After an interval of six years, another expedition sailed from St. Malo for Canada. A renewal of war between the Emperor Charles the Fifth and Francis had much abated the interest of the French in American colonization. The inducements already tried were not attractive. But a new court favourite, a nobleman whose title was the Sieur de Roberval, in Picardy, was appointed the first Viceroy of Canada, and managed to secure a grant from the king of sufficient money to equip five ships for the voyage. The squadron was manned, in a great degree, by all manner of thieves and useless vagabonds, whom De Roberval had authority to impress from the public prisons. Kept waiting for promised supplies, Roberval remained to obtain them, Cartier sailing at once for Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence. Once more he anchored at the familiar mooring-place; but when the Indian warriors swarmed, as they had been wont, in their birch canoes around his ship to ask news of Donnacona, and were told by Cartier of his death, they withdrew in sullen discontent. Thus, Cartier’s requital of the Indian chief’s hospitality proved not only a crime but a mistake.

Two forts were built: one on the height, one on the river bank. A little land was cleared, and seed sown. While this was being done, Cartier withdrew, with two boats, to explore the river. He did not succeed in getting beyond Hochelaga, and on returning found that the expected supplies had not yet appeared, and the terrors of a Canadian winter must again be undergone, with deficient supplies, a thoroughly discontented crew, and the Indians alienated. Roberval did not arrive with the supplies till June of the next year, 1542, by which time Cartier had already quitted the colony, fearing to pass another winter such as the two that he had lived through. The vessels of the two commanders encountered each other in the harbour of St. John, Newfoundland. In vain De Roberval commanded Cartier’s return; that night his ships set sail for France. The sole result of this expedition was a few glittering scales of common iron pyrites which Cartier took for gold, and several quartz crystals, which he supposed to be diamonds. Hence its name was given to Cape Diamond, where he found them. It is pleasant to know that the discoverer of Canada met with no cold receptions on account of the scanty success of this expedition. He was created a noble by the king, and lived long to enjoy his dignity in the neighbourhood of his native St. Malo.

De Roberval did not meet with better success. The expedition was ill provided with provisions and other necessaries. They built a fort or barrack on the site of the former entrenchment of Cartier. Again the rigours of a Canadian winter came upon a French colony totally unprepared to meet them. They had to subsist on such fish as could be procured from the Indians, and on roots fried in whale oil. Added to this, the company quarrelled incessantly among themselves. To maintain discipline, De Roberval resorted to lash and cord for the slightest offence. Theft was checked by hanging the first offender. Several men and women were shot. The colony was a hopeless failure. De Roberval returned to France, leaving a small garrison behind him. Sometime afterwards he again sailed for Canada with a ship-load of colonists, but he never reached his destination, and is supposed to have perished by shipwreck. Meanwhile the garrison he had left on the shore of the St. Lawrence joined the Indians, and degenerated into barbarism. Thus ends the first chapter of the French settlement. It is but the prelude to a nobler record.

Chapter III.

CARTIER’S SUCCESSORS.

URING the next half century, the French Government and noblesse, occupied in the disastrous civil wars, had no thought whatever of Canada. The generation which knew Cartier had passed away; that of Champlain had not come. Yet, through all these evil years the barques of the Breton and Norman fisher-folk swarmed upon the Banks of Newfoundland, and returned to France full-freighted with the harvest of the sea. The still more profitable trade in furs, too, became more and more an established branch of commerce between the Indians and the Frenchmen, who, building their huts on the margin of the St. Lawrence Gulf, found that, for a few trinkets, they could procure supplies of beaver and bear skins, walrus tusks, and the valuable furs of the smaller animals, such as the mink, ermine, and silver fox, then held in so much value in France. Many of these married Indian girls, acquired the Indian language and habits, and made voyages in the canoes which traded to some distance up the St. Lawrence. But the noblesse had not lost sight of the advantage of acquiring new territories and new titles by enterprises of Canadian colonization. A very abortive effort in this direction was made by the Marquis de la Roche, a Breton noble, who obtained from the king permission to found a colony in Canada. He repeated the mistake which had ruined the enterprise of Roberval. He ransacked the prisons, and brought together a company of thieves and cut-throats who were forced to embark in a small vessel, so deep-freighted with its cargo of convicts that the wretched men, leaning over the ship’s side, could dip their hands in the water. By good seamanship, or good luck, they crossed the Atlantic, and reached a low stretch of sand-bank with breakers surging unceasingly over the skeleton of a wrecked ship. This was Sable Island, eighty miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. In accordance with the cruel custom of the time, La Roche landed his convict colonists on this dismal islet, while he and his sailors went in search of a suitable spot for settlement. But a storm from the west came on, and the tiny craft could do nothing else than run before the tempest, which speedily carried her to France. There La Roche was imprisoned by one of the rival leaders in the civil war, and, though oppressed by remorse for the fate of the unfortunates he had abandoned to almost certain starvation, could do nothing until five years later, when he was able to bring the circumstances under the notice of the king. Meanwhile, the convicts having learned to despair of La Roche’s return, faced their miserable fate. The island, about three miles long, contained in its centre a small lake fed by a clear spring of fresh water. There were a number of wild cattle, the progeny either of some that had escaped from the wreck of a Spanish ship, or of some left there eighty years before by the explorer De Lèry. Not a tree or shrub was to be found, but the sand-hills were covered with a coarse grass on which the wild cattle fed. Black foxes burrowed in the sand-hills; seals basked on the beach. On these they managed to subsist, eating the flesh, and clothing themselves with the skins. They contrived to construct huts with the timbers of wrecked ships, wherein, huddled together without a fire, these miserable outcasts learned to regret the warmth and shelter of the dungeons whence they had been taken. Thus they lived for five years, when a ship passing near sent a boat to the island and carried the survivors of the strange exile back to France. The king sent for them. They stood in his presence like wild men, with hair unkempt and long shaggy beards,—their only clothing the skins of beasts. They had hoarded up a quantity of valuable furs, which had been taken from them, but were returned by the king’s order, who also pardoned them and bestowed on them pensions.

Once more a seaman from St. Malo undertook the attempt at settlement. Pontgravé of St. Malo, with the aid of Chauvin, a captain in the royal navy, obtained a monopoly of the fur trade on condition that they should found a colony. Their only thought was of the trade; as to the colony, they brought out some sixteen persons in 1599, for whom they built a dépôt under the shadow of the gloomy, inaccessible hill-sides at the outlet of the Saguenay. Here a stone house was built, the first erected in Canada. But the colonists were utterly deficient in self-help and energy. Unable to face the horrors of winter in that dismal region, several of them died of cold and exposure; the rest, preserved by the charity of the Indians, were afterwards carried back to France.

In 1603, Aymer de Chastes, a veteran soldier and commander of the Order of St. John, had saved the cause of Henry the Fourth at the most critical period of the civil war which ended with the triumph of Ivry. A devout Catholic, De Chastes longed to devote the last years of his life to the cause of his God and his King. He could think of no nobler achievement than to win the wilds of Canada for the Cross of Christ and the Crown of France. King Henry readily granted to his devoted follower the title of Viceroy of Canada. De Chastes very wisely formed a company, thus sharing with others the profits to be derived from his monopoly of the fur trade. Of his party were Pontgravé and a young soldier and sea-captain, named Champlain, of whose character and career we shall speak hereafter, as his is, beyond question, the central figure in early Canadian history.

From Honfleur, Champlain and his companion sailed with two small ships over the ocean, through the gloomy St. Lawrence, past the majestic promontory of Quebec, from beneath whose shadow the Indian town of Stadacona had vanished; on, past lake and island, to Montreal. Here, too, the town of Cartier’s day had disappeared, leaving no trace behind. The explorers vainly endeavoured to make their way in a canoe farther up the St. Lawrence; they were stopped by the whirling eddies and miniature cataracts of the rapids of St. Louis, against which these bold adventurers strove in vain to make way. Baffled for the time, they returned to France, only to learn that the death of the good De Chastes had probably put an end to their enterprise. Colonization, however, was once more taken up by a nobleman of high character for energy and valour, the Sieur de Monts, who obtained from the king a commission as Viceroy of Canada, or rather of La Cadie or Acadia. The name of Acadia was soon afterwards restricted to Nova Scotia. The name itself is derived from a less poetical source, being the Indian for a species of small cod, called by the English the pollock. In De Mont’s commission Acadia included all Canada, with the entire country from Philadelphia northwards. As usual, the new Viceroy received a monopoly of the fur trade. Also as usual, he received and made use of the refuse of French society to be swept into the holds of his vessels. But he was fortunate enough to carry with him several associates of high rank and character, foremost among whom was the young Baron de Poutrincourt. Their adventure, now to be recorded, brilliant and memorable as it undoubtedly was, is but a prelude, and that a tentative and unsuccessful one, to the real history of Canada.

Chapter IV.

ACADIA.

HE strangely-freighted ship in which De Monts sailed with some three-score soldiers to subdue a continent, supported as he was by a company of thieves and murderers, in order to win the heathen to Christianity, held other strange and incongruous elements of discord. De Monts was a rigid Calvinist, but at the French court, even in the time of Henry the Fourth, nothing could be done without consulting the interest of Mother Church. De Monts had agreed that the converted Indian should belong to the Catholic fold. But, for the welfare of his own soul and those of his fellow Protestants on board, Calvinist ministers also formed part of the ship’s company. During the voyage, priests and ministers engaged in perpetual wrangling on theological points; from arguments they sometimes fell to blows; which, as Champlain quaintly says, “was their way of settling controversy.” Mr. Parkman quotes a story, given in Sagard’s Histoire du Canada, to the effect that when they reached land, the dead bodies of a priest and a minister were laid in the same grave by the crew, who wished to see if even there they could lie peaceably together. At length the ship reached the southern coast of Nova Scotia. There they waited in a land-locked bay for the arrival of Pontgravé’s store-ship. After a month, she brought their supplies, and De Monts passed on to the Bay of Fundy, and, sailing through its broad southern expanse, entered a small inlet to the north-east, which opened into a wide reach of calm water, surrounded by forest-mantled, undulating hills. This was the harbour of Annapolis. Poutrincourt foresaw the importance of this place as a site for a settlement, and obtained a grant of it from De Monts. He named it Port Royal. They then coasted along the tortuous windings of the bay, and, returning, discovered the St. John River and Passamaquoddy Bay. At the mouth of the River St. Croix they formed their first settlement. They built houses, workshops, and a magazine. Champlain tried to lay out a garden, but the soil was too sterile. Poutrincourt then set sail for France, in order to procure supplies for his new domain at Port Royal.

De Monts was left behind on the rocky and barren islet which represented his vice-royalty. The only civilized men in that vast region were the seventy-nine French exiles under his command. The brief summer had gone; soon autumn had passed as surely as summer. The perpetually eddying snow now covered all things: the impenetrable wall of woodland, the marble-frozen stream, the pine-covered hills. The cold became intense, wine was frozen and served in solid lumps to the men. Scurvy broke out; they tried, but with no effect, to cure it by the decoction of spruce employed by Cartier. Thirty-five died before that dismal winter had ended. Disgusted with St. Croix, De Monts and his followers moved to Annapolis basin. Thither their vessels transferred the stores and furniture. A portion of the forest was soon cleared, and the dwellings of the colonists were built. De Monts had been warned by letters from France that his enemies in that country were busy undermining his good name in the fickle favour of the court, in order to deprive him of the valuable fur monopoly. He therefore sailed for France, Pontgravé taking his place at Port Royal. He was coldly looked upon at Paris. Something had been heard of the snow-clad wilderness, the impenetrable fogs, the famine, and the death-list of the previous winter. Not even a priest would undertake the Acadian mission vacant by the deaths of those who had gone there at the outset. But Poutrincourt’s zeal secured several followers who were destined to afford him admirable aid. Of these was Lescarbot, a lawyer and a good writer, who has left a history of this ill-fated settlement. In July, 1606, they arrived at the clearing in the forest, and saw the wooden fort and buildings of Port Royal. They found there two Frenchmen only, and an Indian named Membertou. Anxious at the advance of summer, and fearing that De Monts might not return with supplies, the settlers had built two small barques and gone in quest of some friendly ships that might give help. A boat was sent in quest of Poutrincourt, who joyfully returned. Their friends met them at the vessel with arquebuse discharges, shouts, and trumpetings; Membertou’s Indian warriors, whose wigwam was at hand, crowded to the fort, where they were feasted, and Poutrincourt broached a cask of wine in the court-yard. Soon after this supplies were again procured on a more liberal scale from France. The settlers took heart; Lescarbot made larger clearings in the forest, and sowed grain in the virgin soil. Near the fort gardens were laid out. The settlement seemed to prosper. The bill of fare at the dinner-tables of Port Royal included trout, salmon, and sturgeon, speared through the river ice, and sea fish caught in the waters of the bay. There was abundance of game: the venison of the moose and caribou, the hare, the otter, the bear, furnished a list of good things not known to Parisian epicures. The winter of 1600 was a mild one. Abundance of food, a generous supply of good wine, of which the allowance to each man was three pints a day, warded off danger of scurvy. The firm rule of the noble Baron de Poutrincourt, and the buoyant energy of the not less noble Champlain, had turned into Christian order the outcasts whom he had gathered from the French prisons. There being no priest, the good Lescarbot read the Bible to the assembled colonists every Sunday evening. The accounts given by this good man in his History of New France read like an idyl. “On the fourteenth of January,” he tells us, “on a Sunday afternoon, we amused ourselves with singing and music on the River Equille, and in the same month we went to see the wheat-fields, two leagues from the fort, and merrily dined in the sunshine.” All seemed bright with hope, but all depended on the favour of a monarch too easily influenced by fair women and courtly priests. As Lescarbot and his associates were at breakfast, their faithful Indian chief, Membertou, came with news of a strange sail out of view of any vision but his own, although he had passed his hundredth year. The vessel bore news fatal to the colony. Their monopoly of the fur trade had been withdrawn by the king. De Monts and his associates had spent enormous sums on the colony; the king’s breach of faith had ruined them. Lescarbot and Champlain sailed for France, and reached St. Malo in October, 1607.

But De Poutrincourt would not even then despair of his little republic. He obtained from King Henry IV. a new and more definite grant of the ownership of Port Royal; he sold property of his own; and associated with himself several men of good means and reputation. Abundant supplies were obtained, and a ship’s company of intending settlers awaited him at the port of Dieppe.

A Jesuit confessor, a profligate queen, and a virtuous but fanatical lady of rank, combined to induce King Henry IV. to consent to the Jesuits having religious charge of the new colony. Now, Poutrincourt, although a fervent Catholic, disliked the Spanish Order of Ignatius, and objected to priests who intermeddled, as the Jesuits were forever intermeddling, no doubt having religious ends in view, with everything secular. The authorities of the Order named Father Biard, Professor of Theology at Lyons, as Chaplain to Port Royal; but De Poutrincourt eluded the indignant Jesuit by a hasty departure for Acadia. He had with him a priest who was not a Jesuit. They both set hard to work, so as to gain such success in converting the Indians that King Henry might see no necessity for sending Jesuits to undertake the mission. Poutrincourt in this seems to have made a mistake; one that resulted in the ruin of his colony and himself, by forfeiting the magnificent reinforcement which that Republic of the Black Robe might have brought to his aid.

To the student of human nature there is a melancholy satisfaction in considering how this hater of Jesuitism sought to fight the Jesuits with their own weapons, by pushing with indecent haste the solemn work of conversion, merely in order to send, for political purposes, a long baptismal list of his converts to the king. The centenarian chief, Membertou, was the first baptised; after renouncing “the Devil,” whom he had served, and “all his works” which he had practised with conscientious thoroughness all the days of his life of a hundred years. His example was followed by the Indians of his village of four hundred braves. An epidemic of conversion set in. The water of the fort was supplemented by fire-water and good fare. One aged warrior, newly baptised, when about to die, asked, with anxiety which was evidently sincere, whether in heaven pies could be had as good as those he had eaten at Port Royal.

In a short time, Poutrincourt was able to send a baptismal list of portentous length to France. He despatched it by the hand of his son, a noble and gifted boy of eighteen named Biencourt. But Biencourt, when he reached Newfoundland, heard news which might have taught him that his mission was useless. The king who had given peace, order and plenty to France, the Victor of Ivry, De Poutrincourt’s friend, was dead. On May 14th, 1610, Henry the Fourth was stabbed to the heart by one of those political pests of whose execrable breed our own age has not as yet rid itself.

Young Biencourt went to the Court and had an audience of the queen, the infamous Marie de Medicis. He found her altogether in the hands of the Jesuits. Two other ladies, then all-powerful in the Court, threw their influence into the same scale. Many other wealthy women were persuaded by their Jesuit confessors to raise an immense fund for the Acadian Mission. With this at their command, the wily Order of Jesus completely out-flanked their enemy, De Poutrincourt. He imagined himself secure in the possession of Port Royal, which had been deeded to him by the late king; a donation which, according to French law, could not be reversed. But the Jesuits obtained from the imbecile young king, Louis the Thirteenth, a grant of all Acadia, a term which, be it remembered, then included all Canada. They had, in their own words, hemmed in De Poutrincourt in his own narrow domain of Port Royal, as in a prison. And even in Port Royal they obtained a controlling voice, by purchasing, with money obtained from the ladies to whose profligacy they gave such easy absolution, a preponderating number of shares in the company which managed Port Royal, and of which Poutrincourt was but a single member. And, as if that was not enough, they contrived to involve the foolish noble who had set himself against their powerful Order in a mesh of lawsuits, and even to throw him into prison. He was released, however, and returned to Port Royal.

Young Biencourt could do nothing. He came back with the Jesuit Biard on board his ship. Their arrival was the signal for discord of all kinds, the death-knell of the prosperity which Poutrincourt had so fondly hoped, by his noble self-sacrifice, to retain. The son of Pontgravé had outraged or seduced an Indian girl, and Poutrincourt was resolved to punish an act so likely to cause ill-feeling between the Indians and the French. But the Jesuits sought out the youth, heard his confession, and gave their usual easy absolution. They insisted on protecting him. Poutrincourt, indignant at their interference, sailed for France.

Meanwhile, the colonists at Port Royal fell into a state of indigence and misery, aggravated by constant quarrels between young Biencourt, whom his father had left in command, and the Jesuits Biard and Masse. The latter tried to live as a missionary in an Indian town. He failed; the filthy food, the filth, indescribable, of every kind; the incessant jabber of scolding women, the fleas, the smoke, were too much for the good man. He returned to Port Royal almost in a dying condition.

The old chief, Membertou, had now come to the end of his long career. The Jesuits tended him most kindly. Father Biard placed him in his own bed. He made a most edifying end; the only sign of relapse being a wish to be buried with his heathen forefathers, which however he allowed the Jesuits to overrule.

In the hour of utmost need a vessel came from France with supplies. It was sent by the fair penitents of the Jesuits, one of whose order, Father Du Thet, was on board. This chafed Biencourt more and more. Meanwhile, in Paris, De Poutrincourt being utterly powerless, the Jesuits and the frail court beauties—beauties of whose consciences they held the key—resolved to take possession of Acadia, and found a spiritual empire of Indian slaves bound body and soul to their sway, as they had already done with such unexampled success in Paraguay. Canada was to become a second Paraguay. A ship was freighted with all things needful for the establishment of a new settlement in Acadia, which should throw Port Royal into the shade. All kinds of necessary and comfortable things were put on board: horses, goats, agricultural tools, barrels of wine. She set sail in an atmosphere of religious incense and courtly perfume. Her commander was a brave and pious noble, named Saussaye. Arrived at Port Royal, they found their Jesuit colleagues and the Port Royal followers of Biencourt in the most miserable condition, digging for roots and living on what fish might be caught in the river. Without caring for the Port Royal colonists, they took the Jesuits on board, and steered for the Penobscot. Wrapped in the fogs of that dreary bay, they prayed earnestly for sunshine, and lo! the curtain of mist was swept away suddenly, and they could see the precipitous cliffs of Mount Desert, rising like a castle, defiant of the army of breakers that stormed so fiercely at its fore. With a fair wind they entered Frenchman’s Bay, and came to anchor in a haven east of Mount Desert. They landed, and raised a cross, when, amid a throng of friendly Indians, mass was sung, and incense mingled with the odours of the summer woods. The mission was soon settled, with every prospect of thriving, when an English ship from the colony at Virginia, carrying thirteen guns, swooped down on the startled French. The land they had seized was a part of the dominions of His Majesty of Britain. The thirteen guns opened fire on the feebly armed French vessel, which made a brave resistance, led by the Jesuit Du Thet, who died on her deck, sword in hand. The English destroyed every vestige of a building in St. Croix and Port Royal. Such was the ruin of Acadia; the beginning of a struggle which was to end on the heights of Quebec.

Chapter V.

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN.

HE story of the rise and ruin of Acadia, told in the last chapter, is indeed but an episode in the history of Canada, which we now resume at one of its most interesting points—the exploration of the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the great inland seas of our country; and the story of the foundation of Quebec. This was all the work of one man, who may well be called the Father of New France. All that had been done before his time amounted to nothing more than a mere reconnaissance. Samuel de Champlain was born in 1567, at Brouage, a small town on the Bay of Biscay. He was a captain in the navy, and a soldier of no little military skill. During the wars of the League he had done good service for King Henry the Fourth in Brittany, and his prowess had contributed to the triumph of the royal cause at Ivry. After the war he travelled all through the Spanish settlements in the West Indies and South America; an adventure of no slight risk, as the Spaniards, always averse to their South American possessions being visited by foreigners, were especially jealous of the French. Champlain’s manuscript journal of his travels is still preserved, in clear, well-marked characters, and illustrated by a number of coloured drawings, which, with a childlike disregard of proportion and perspective, yet give a sufficiently distinct idea of the objects represented.

As has been said, Champlain accompanied De Monts on his Acadian enterprise. When that had utterly failed, the latter was easily induced by Champlain to explore the St. Lawrence, and, by founding a French colony in Canada, deliver the heathen of that land from eternal punishment, so that they might become loyal subjects to His Majesty of France and His Holiness of Rome. De Monts eagerly adopted a project so full of piety and patriotism. He fitted out two ships, one in charge of Pontgravé, the other in charge of Champlain. Pontgravé, with a cargo of wares for barter among the Indians, sailed for Canada on the 5th of April, 1608; Champlain left on the 13th. As he rounded the cliff which to the south-east of the St. Lawrence projects like a buttress into the turbulent waters, he found Pontgravé’s ship at anchor, and beside her a Basque vessel which, on some difficulty arising between the two captains, had fired upon Pontgravé, wounded him, and killed one of his crew. With some difficulty, Champlain compromised the question at issue, and the Basques departed in peace to the neighbouring whale-fishery. Amid the desolation of sombre woods and hills, sombre even at this day, where after three centuries of civilization, the Saguenay rolls its sullen waters, ink-black, in the shadow of the green rocks that guard its channel, Champlain encountered an Indian tribe, his alliance with whom was destined to exercise no slight influence upon his future. They belonged to the great race of the Algonquins, who were the hereditary foes of the Iroquois. The lodges of their village, wretched huts of birch bark, feebly supported on poles, were far inferior in comfort and appearance to the fortified towns visited by Cartier at Stadacona and Hochelaga. These Indians called themselves Montagnais. They traversed the gloom of the surrounding wilderness, armed with their flint-pointed arrows and spears, in patient quest of the only wealth the land yielded—the fur of the fox, lynx, otter; the skins of the bear, wolf, wild-cat, and the various species of deer. These men circled round the French ships in their frail but exquisitely graceful canoes; and several of their chiefs were taken on board and feasted to the utmost contentment of their gluttonous appetites. They promised to furnish guides. Pontgravé had now left for France, his vessel full-freighted with costly furs obtained by barter from the Indians. Champlain held his course, for the second time, up the St. Lawrence, through scenes which in some respects civilization has done nothing to change; where, now as then, the dark green wall of forest fringes the utmost marge of the precipice, and the towers and buttresses that guard the river are reflected in the sunless depths below. He passed where now a long-settled farm country, varied at every few miles by a bright, picturesque-looking village, meets the eye of the tourist; where then the wilderness held unbroken sway. Soon he beheld once more the huge promontory of Quebec, towering like a fortress built by some god or giant to bar the rash explorers’ onward way. At this point the lake-like expanse of the St. Lawrence suddenly narrows to a strait, whence the Indians named the place “Kebec,” or “Strait.” Champlain anchored his ship at the old mooring-place where the River St. Charles enters the St. Lawrence.

The stone hatchets of the aborigines were scarce capable of felling a single tree without the labour of several days; very different was the effect of the steel axes with which civilization had armed the white man. Wielded by the strong arms of these resolute and hopeful men, inspirited by the presence and example of one who himself was a practised woodman, the gleaming axe-blades were smiting hard and fast all through the summer day; and ever as they smote, the huge pines, that were the advanced guard of the wilderness, fell before them. Soon several acres were cleared. On the site of the market-place of the Lower Town of Quebec was erected a rude but sufficiently strong fortress, consisting of a thick wall of logs, defended on the outside by a double line of palisades, and having at its summit a gallery with loop-holes for arquebuses. On platforms raised to a level with the summit of the wall were three small cannon, commanding the approaches from the river. There were barracks for the men, and a strongly-built magazine. The outer wall was surrounded by a moat. Grain, maize, and turnip seed were sown on part of the land which had been cleared; and Champlain, practical man as he was in all things, cultivated part of the land close to the fort as a garden.

Early in September Pontgravé sailed for France to report progress and bring back supplies. Champlain was left in charge of the newly-erected fort, to which its founder had given the name of Quebec. The mother city of Canadian civilization, the centre and shield of resistance to bloody Indian warfare, through a long and chequered history of nearly three centuries, Quebec has held the place of honour in the annals of each of the great races that now compose the Canadian People.

The hero who was its founder had, like all heroes from Hercules downwards, not only labour and pain to contend with; not only the hydra to smite down; he had to crush the serpents that attacked his work in its cradle. One Duval, a locksmith, had formed a plot to seize Champlain when sleeping, and, having murdered him, to deliver up the ship to their late enemies the Basques, and to the commander of a Spanish ship then at Tadoussac. Aided by three other ringleaders, Duval had gained over nearly the whole of Champlain’s garrison of twenty-eight. Prompt measures were taken. A shallop had lately arrived from Tadoussac, and was anchored close to the fort. Among the crew was one on whose loyalty Champlain knew he could depend. Champlain sent for him, and giving him two bottles of wine, directed him to invite Duval and his three accomplices to drink with him on board the shallop, and while drinking, to overpower them. This was done that evening. At ten, most of the men in the fort were in bed. Champlain gave orders that the trumpet should be sounded, and the men summoned to quarters; they were told that the plot had been discovered, that its author would be hanged at dawn, and the three who had aided him in plotting mutiny be sent in irons to France to expiate their crime as galley slaves for life; the rest he would pardon, as he believed they had been misled. Trembling, they returned to their beds; and the next day’s dawn saw the carcase of their ringleader dangling from a gallows, food for the wild-cat, and warning against mutiny. It was an act of prompt decision that reminds one of Cromwell. Thenceforth Champlain had no difficulty in securing discipline.

And now the gold and scarlet livery with which autumn arrays the Canadian forests was being rudely stripped away by November’s blasts. A cold winter followed. The first garrison of Quebec amused themselves with trapping and fishing; Champlain on one occasion hung a dead dog from a tree in order to watch the hungry martens striving vainly to reach it.

A band of the wandering Algonquins, the feeblest and most improvident of Indians, set up their wretched wigwams close to the fort, round which they prowled and begged. Although they took no precaution whatever against their dreaded Iroquis enemies, every now and then they were seized by a panic, and man, woman, and child, would run half-naked to the gate of the fort, imploring its shelter. On such occasions Champlain would admit the women and children to the courtyard within. These Montagnais were, even for Indians, unusually degraded. They would eat any carrion. Once Champlain saw a band of these wretches, hunger-driven from the region beyond the river, seek help from their kindred. Gaunt and spectral shapes, they were crossing the river in their canoes. It was now the beginning of spring; the St. Lawrence was full of drifting masses of ice which had floated from the far wildernesses of the west. The canoes got jammed between these miniature icebergs, and were at once shivered like eggshells. The famine-striken Indians sprang on one of the largest of the ice-drifts. Certain of death, they raised a terrible yell of fear and lamentation. A sudden jam in the ice-pack saved their lives. Champlain humanely directed that they should be supplied with food; before this could be brought, they found the carcase of a dead dog; on this they seized, and, ravenous as wolf or wild-cat, tore and devoured the putrid flesh.

Whatever may have been the cause, towards the close of winter scurvy appeared among them; and when the spring sunshine came to their relief only eight out of a band of nearly thirty were living. In May a sail-boat arrived from Tadoussac, bringing a son-in-law of Pontgravé with news that his father-in-law had arrived there. There Champlain met his colleague, and it was arranged that while Pontgravé took charge of Quebec, Champlain should carry out the plan of a complete exploration of Canada.

The year before, a young war-chief from the distant tribes of the Ottawa had visited the fort; had seen with amazed admiration the warriors clad in glittering steel; had heard the roar of arquebuses and cannon. Eagerly and earnestly he sought an alliance with the great war-chief. He told how his tribe, one of the superior branches of the Algonquin race, were in alliance with their kinsmen the Hurons against their common enemy the Iroquois. On being questioned by Champlain, he told how a mighty river as vast as the St. Lawrence flowed from unknown regions where the Thunder-bird dwelt, and the Manitous of mighty cataracts abode. This aroused Champlain’s most eager interest. To explore that river would be to obtain a knowledge of the whole country, otherwise beyond his reach; perhaps it might even prove to be the long-coveted highway to China and the East. Without the help of the Indians it was clearly impossible for Champlain to pursue his explorations. It was agreed that, next spring, the Ottawa chief with a party of his warriors should visit the fort. But, as after waiting late in the spring, Champlain found that the Ottawa warriors did not appear at the fort, he set forth with eleven of his men and a party of Montagnais as guides. On his route up the river, he saw, through an opening in the forest, the wigwams of an unusually large Indian encampment. Grounding his shallop on the beach, he made his way to the camp, and found a gathering of Hurons and Algonquins. Their chief received him with all the profuse and demonstrative welcome of savage life; his companions and Indian followers were summoned to the chiefs lodge. The dwellers on the far-off shores of Huron had never seen a white man. They gazed in wondering awe on the brilliant armour and strange weapons of Champlain and his followers. A feast and the usual prolonged speech-making followed, as a matter of course. Champlain invited all the chiefs to Quebec. Arrived there, they were feasted in return. At night they lighted huge fires, and painted and decked themselves for the war-dance.

All through the night half-naked warriors, hideous with paint and feathered head-dress, danced and leaped, brandishing stone clubs and flint-pointed spears, as the fierce light of the fire fell on the fiend-like faces and frenzied gestures of hate. All through the night the sinister sound of the war-drum accompanied the yells of the dancers, till the wolves were scared at Point Levis, and wild-cat and lynx retreated deeper into the forest. Next day, Champlain, with eleven of his followers, set forth in a shallop. Accompanied by the canoes, they passed through Lake St. Peter, amid the tortuous windings which separate its numberless islets. Champlain looked with a delight inconceivable to his savage allies on that peculiar feature of Canadian scenery, the cluster of small islands which varies the monotonous expanse of the Canadian lake or lakelet; each of them low-lying in the water as a coral-reef; in its centre a miniature grove of birch and cedar in which the birds are singing; all round it, to where the emerald garment of the islands meets the water, a dense growth of shrubs and flowers fresh with the life of June. The force of the current being against them, Champlain’s sail-boat made way far in advance of the canoes: as he cautiously steered his course, his eye was caught by the gleam, close at hand, of foam, and the roar of hurrying waters. They were dangerously near the rapids. By this time the Indian canoes had joined the shallop. Champlain, with two of his men, determined to accompany the Hurons in their canoes, it being evidently impracticable to prosecute the voyage in a boat which could not be carried past the rapids of the river, now called the Richelieu. The rest of his men were sent back to Quebec.

Presently they reached the beautiful lake which bears the name of the hero of that day’s adventure. They arrived at the country of their dreaded foes the Iroquois. They then took greater precaution in their advance. A small party of Indians explored the way. In the rear of the main body another small party guarded against surprise. On either flank a band of Indians scoured the woods to watch for indications of an enemy’s approach, and to hunt what game might be met with for the common benefit.

One night, about ten o’clock, they saw dark objects moving on the lake. The keen perception of the Indians at once decided that these were the war-canoes of the Iroquois. They landed and intrenched themselves. The Hurons did the same. It was agreed on both sides that the battle was not to take place till the morning. But both by Huron and Iroquois the war-dance was kept up all night, accompanied by the hideous thumping of the war-drum, and by the cries and yells imitated from the wild beasts of the wilderness, but far surpassing in horror of discordant shrillness the shriek of the horned-owl, the howling of the wolf, the wailing of the starved wild-cat in the winter woods. With morning’s dawn, the Hurons were drawn up in irregular skirmishing order. Champlain and his two companions waited in reserve. Presently the Iroquois defiled through the forest. Their steady advance and manly bearing excited the admiration of Champlain. At their head were several chiefs, conspicuous by their waving plumes of eagle-feathers. When the two hostile lines confronted one another, Champlain stepped out in front of the Hurons, levelled his arquebuse, and fired. The two leading chiefs of the Iroquois fell dead. With a yell that resounded through the wilderness, the Hurons showered their arrows upon their adversaries. The Iroquois still stood firm, and replied with arrows from two hundred bows. But when Champlain’s two companions, each with his arquebuse, poured a volley of fire into their ranks, the Iroquois, utterly terrified, turned and fled. Like a tempest, the Hurons tore after them into the woods. Most of the Iroquois were killed and scalped, or rather scalped and killed, on the spot; but several were reserved for torture. That night, by the blazing watchfire, Champlain saw a captive tied to a tree; around him, with torches and knives in their hands, yelled and leaped his captors. They gashed his flesh; they applied the burning pine-torch to the wound. Champlain begged to be allowed to put a bullet through the poor wretch’s heart. They refused. Champlain turned away in horror and disgust, as he saw them tear the scalp from the yet living head. Several of the captives were given to Champlain’s Algonquins to be tortured. These they reserved till they reached their own camp, near Quebec, in order that the women might share in the torturing process, in the ingenious application of which they justly considered that the weaker sex excelled their own.

On their arrival at the Algonquin camp, the girls and women rushed out to meet them, yelling and screaming with delight at the thought of chewing the fingers and cutting out the heart of one of their dreaded enemies. When the prisoners were scalped and slain, each of the women wore one of the ghastly heads strung round her neck as an ornament. To Champlain, as the reward of his prowess, one head and two arms were given, which he was enjoined to present to their great White Father, the French King. Soon after this Champlain revisited France to report the progress of Quebec, to procure further supplies, and to promote the emigration of artisans and other desirable colonists.

Champlain’s conduct in thus engaging in Indian warfare has been almost universally condemned by historical critics. We have been told, what no one who knows anything of the subject can question, that Indian warfare is beyond that of any other race savage, bloody, cruel, cowardly and treacherous; and that for a superior and civilized people to engage in it was to lower themselves to the level of the wolves of the wilderness, by whose side they fought. It has been shown, and with sufficient truth, that the blood of the Iroquois, slain by the arquebuse of Champlain, was the beginning of a ceaseless guerilla warfare between that race and the French colonists, the results of which were the massacres of Lachine, Carillon and Montreal; the desolation of many a farm by the Indian tomahawk and torch. But it may be said in reply that Champlain could hardly have done otherwise. He could not, without the alliance of friendly Indians, have carried out his projects of exploration. It would have been next to impossible for him, even if unmolested, to penetrate that labyrinth of wilderness and river without a guide. Even could he have done so, his scalp would certainly have been forfeited. On no other terms could he have secured the Algonquins, as trustworthy allies, than by his willingness to give them an aid that seemed all-powerful against their hereditary enemies the Iroquois. As to war on the part of the French with the Iroquois, that was an inevitable result of the French occupation of Canada. It was the policy of that powerful confederation, the Iroquois League, to subjugate or exterminate every other race in Canada. Collision between them and the French settlements was only a question of time, and it could not have been initiated in a manner more favourable to French interests than by securing, as Champlain did, an alliance with the two great Indian tribes of Canada, which in power and prowess ranked next to the Iroquois. In the duel of two centuries between the Iroquois and New France, the Indian allies were of the greatest possible use to the countrymen of Champlain; they not only acted as guides, scouts and spies, but in actual fighting they rendered invaluable assistance. It may well be doubted whether, had not Champlain’s policy been carried out, the thin line of French settlement might not have been swept away before the storm of Iroquois invasion.

Champlain has been blamed for choosing as his allies the weaker tribe of Algonquins, instead of their more warlike rivals. Again, we say, he could hardly have done otherwise. The Iroquois territory lay on the other side of the great lakes. The Algonquins held all the region for miles around Quebec, on the banks of the St. Lawrence and its Gulf; their kinsmen, the Ottawas, had the lordship of the river which bears their name; their allies, the Hurons, held the key to the entire lake country. The Iroquois, like the Romans to whom they have been compared, could never have been faithful allies. Their organization as a confederacy would never have allowed them to rest content with the second place, the inferior rank, which savagery must always take when allied with civilization. But the Algonquins had no such unity. They were, therefore, all the more willing to cling to the centre of organization which New France presented. Champlain also foresaw another means of centralizing the influence of New France over her Indian allies. The Catholic Church would send forth her unpaid ambassadors, her sexless and ascetic missionaries, her black-robed army of martyrs; the converted Algonquins would be swayed by a power mightier and more authoritative than any earthly confederacy. And events have proved that the policy by which New France won her hold on Canada was the wisest, and therefore the best. It began with the first shot fired in battle by the arquebuse of Champlain.

Returning to France, Champlain visited King Henry the Fourth a short time before his assassination. He told him of his adventures in Canada, and of the growing prosperity of Quebec. The adventure-loving king was much interested and amused. Soon after this, Champlain and Pontgravé sailed for Canada. Pontgravé took charge of Quebec, while Champlain went to meet his Huron allies at the mouth of the Richelieu. They had promised, if he would once more help them in warfare against the Iroquois foe, they would guide him through the region of the great lakes, would show him the mines where the huge masses of copper sparkled, unmingled with ore. Although aware of the little value of a promise from this fickle and unreliable race, Champlain thought it best to try his chance; accordingly, with a small party of Frenchmen, he left for the rendezvous, a small island at the mouth of the Richelieu River. On his arrival, he found the place a Pandemonium of dancing and yelling warriors; trees were being hewed down in preparation for a great feast to be given to their Algonquin allies, whose arrival they were now waiting. On a sudden, news came that the Algonquins were in the forest several miles away, fighting a large force of the Iroquois. Every Indian present seized club, spear, tomahawk, or whatever other weapon he could possess himself of, and paddled to the shore. Champlain and his Frenchmen followed, and had to make their way as best they could over three miles of marsh, impeded by fallen trees; water, in which they sank knee-deep; entanglement of brushwood, through which it was hard to struggle. At last they came to a clearing, and saw some hundred Iroquois warriors at bay, within a breastwork of felled trees; a multitude of their Algonquin enemies brandishing spear and tomahawk around the easily scaled entrenchment. This they had attacked already and been hurled back from the rampart of trees with bloody repulse. They did not dare to renew the effort to storm the Iroquois fortification, but contented themselves with shouting curses, insults, threats of the tortures which their foes, when captured, should suffer. At length Champlain and his followers came up, tired with his three miles effort to get through the cedar-swamp, encumbered with his heavy arms and weapons. But at once he came to the front, and assumed command. He ordered a large body of the Algonquins to be stationed in the forest, so as to intercept fugitives. He and his companions marched up to the breast-work, and resting their short-barrelled arquebuses on the logs of the breast-work, fired with deadly aim. The Iroquois, in terror, threw themselves on the ground. Then, and then only, did the Algonquins muster courage to scale the breast-work. Most of the Iroquois were scalped and slain. Some fifteen were reserved for the usual slow death by fire. Champlain succeeded in saving one prisoner after the battle. No human power could have saved the others. All through that night the fires of death and torture burned.

On his return to Quebec, Champlain heard, with dismay, of the assassination of his friend and patron, Henry the Fourth. He also learned the revocation of the fur trade monopoly, which had been the life of the enterprise of De Monts and Pontgravé.

Once more Champlain left his cherished home in the little fort under the shadow of Cape Diamond, his gardens and vineyard already yielding maize, wheat, barley, and every kind of vegetables, with grapes enough to make a tolerably good claret. He left a M. De Parc as his lieutenant at Quebec, with a few men, and in due course arrived at Honfleur. No success attended his efforts to secure a renewal of the monopoly. In fact, the corrupt and imbecile French Court had not the power to do this, even if it had the will. For the fur trade of the St. Lawrence was now open to all nations. It was impossible to exclude the Basque, Dutch, English, and Spanish traders, whose vessels now began to swarm up the St. Lawrence Gulf. But, failing to secure the mastery of the fur trade at its European source, Champlain conceived the idea of arranging a practical monopoly of the Indian traffic with the Indians themselves. He returned to Quebec in May, 1611. A fleet of greedy trading boats followed his course. He resolved to elude them, and establish a new trading post at the confluence of the great rivers by which the Indian canoes brought down their yearly harvest of skins and furs. He built a small wooden dépôt on the spot where, in the Montreal of to-day, is the Hospital of the Grey Nuns. He named it Place Royale. Soon after this he again visited France. Meeting De Monts at a place called Pans, of which De Monts was governor, all charge of the Quebec colony was formally surrendered into the hands of Champlain. But Champlain was more anxious for the success of the colony, for the conversion of the heathen, and for the discovery, if it might be, of a route through Canada to India and China, than for mere fur trade gains. Dismissing all selfish thoughts, he succeeded in forming a company of merchants, into whose hands the gains of the commercial traffic would mainly fall, Champlain contenting himself with their undertaking to aid and increase the colony. At St. Malo and Rouen his proposal was eagerly accepted, and a company was formed, backed by considerable capital; but this was not all that was necessary. In that seventeenth century, wherein were gathering themselves the forces which produced the great Revolution of a later period, no work of public beneficence could be undertaken without the patronage of one of the royal house. Such patronage was sought and found by Champlain’s company in two princes of the Bourbon blood, with whose names Canadian history need not concern itself. The two Bourbon princes were the sinecurists of a sensual and indolent Court, men equally greedy, equally worthless; neither of them, though invested with all sorts of high-sounding titles connected with the colony they were supposed to rule, took the slightest interest in Canada. Large sums of money had to be paid to these illustrious noblemen by Champlain and his company of merchants. The Bourbon princes took every bribe they could get, and in return did one good thing for this country—they kept away from it.

Chapter VI.

CHAMPLAIN AND THE OTTAWA.

N 1609 two young men among Champlain’s French followers had volunteered to ascend the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers with the Indians on their homeward journey, to perfect themselves in their language, and to learn what could be learnt of the mysterious country beyond. In 1612 one of these young men, named Nicholas Vignan, appeared in Paris, and related a history of his adventures, which, marvellous as it was, seemed so consistent that Champlain believed it to be true. Vignan’s story was so framed as to meet the beliefs and flatter the hopes of those who held the theory that a passage could yet be discovered through North America to the Polar Seas. He stated that he had ascended the Upper Ottawa to its source, which was from a lake of considerable size. He had crossed this lake, and in the country beyond it had found a river, following whose course he had reached the sea. He said that this sea was the Pacific Ocean, and was distant from Quebec only seventeen days’ journey. This lie—and Champlain afterwards said that Vignan was the most impudent liar he had ever known—had the good effect of interesting the selfish nobles of the court in Champlain’s enterprise. They saw visions of a direct passage to India and China, which would give France, or rather the privileged class who regarded France as their footstool, a monopoly of trade with the Orient: gold and silk, ivory and spices, pearls and amber, all the most coveted treasures of the most gainful trade in the world, would be poured at the feet of great lords and ladies, to replenish whose purses the plunder of France alone was insufficient. They urged Champlain by all means to prosecute his discoveries. In April, 1613, Champlain once more sailed for the St. Lawrence. In May he left St. Helen’s Island, near Montreal, with four Frenchmen, Nicholas Vignan being of the number, and began to ascend the Lower Ottawa. Swiftly they passed up the gentle current of the mighty stream, with no sign of life but the cry of the fish-eagle as it swooped upon the water for its prey, or the song of the wild birds from the bank’s unbroken wall of verdure. At length their course was stopped by the rapids of Carillon and Long Sault, past which they were obliged to carry their canoes. This they had to do for the most part over the bed of the river; the forest, with its entanglement of underwood and interlacing vines, presenting a barrier that was absolutely impenetrable. They had to drag their canoes over rocks, like reluctant horses; they had to push them against currents which threatened every moment to sweep men and canoe to certain death. Champlain had once a narrow escape from death; he fell where the whole force of the current was sweeping him irresistibly down the rapids; he saved himself by clutching a rock, but his wrist was severely injured by the cord of his canoe. At length they reached the cataract whose silver columns of spray even now ascend high above the smoke of a great city; whose grandeur remains at this day unvulgarized by its vulgar surroundings; which, though bound and shackled to turn-mills and drive-machinery, is still the Chaudière. Here, his Indian guides threw in offerings of tobacco, in order to appease the Manitou, or guardian spirit of the cataract. Having dragged their canoes over what is now the most densely peopled part of the city of Ottawa, and having passed above the Chaudière, they launched them on the placid bosom of a broad, lake-like stream. On they glided, those two egg-shell ships, freighted with the future of Canada, past where now on either side villages and churches, school-houses and farm homesteads diversify the richly-cultivated farm-land, interspersed with here and there a grove of oak or maple, the survival of what was then primeval forest. Nine miles from the Chaudière they heard again the rush of falling water, and saw the white spray-column, like smoke from a bush fire, ascending from the largest of the sixteen cataracts of the Chats. Here a wall of granite, broken by interspaces of cataract, crosses the river, which thunders with the whole force of its volume of water through every crevice and opening. Past this, once more they dragged their canoes by land. Again they embarked on the Lake of the Chats, and proceeded without further hindrance till they reached the rapids which extend from the Devil’s Elbow at Portage du Fort. Thence they enjoyed a calm passage till they reached Allumette, where an Indian chief named Tessouat received them with much kindness. He gave a solemn feast in Champlain’s honour, runners being sent in all directions to summon the neighbouring chiefs to the feast. Early on the next day, the women and girls, who were Tessouat’s slaves, swept the floor of his hut to prepare for the festival. At noon the naked warriors appeared from every direction, each furnished with his own wooden spoon and platter. The large hut which did duty as Tessouat’s palace was as full as it could hold of warriors, row within row, squatting on the ground like apes, and expectant of the feast. First came a compound, not unsavoury, so Champlain writes, of pounded maize boiled with scraps of meat and fish; next venison, and fish broiled on the burnt-out logs. Water was the only drink, and when the feast was over the pipes were lighted, and the council began. The pipe having first been passed to Champlain, the council smoked for half an hour in silence; Champlain then made a speech in which he desired them to send four canoes and eight men to guide him to the country of the Nipissings, a tribe to the north of the lake of the same name. To this the Indians demurred, as they were not on friendly terms with the Nipissings. Tessouat gave expression to their feelings: “We always knew you for our best friend amongst the Frenchmen. We love you like our own children. But why did you break your word with us last year when we all went down to Montreal to give you presents and go with you to war? You were not there, but other Frenchmen were there who cheated us. We will never go again. As to the four canoes, you shall have them if you insist upon it. But it grieves us to think of the hardships you will endure. The Nipissings have weak hearts. They are good for nothing in war, but they kill us with sorcery, and they poison us. They will kill you.” At length, however, on Champlain assuring them he was proof against sorcery, he extorted a promise to give him the canoes; but he had no sooner left the reeking and smoking hut than they re-considered their promise and gave him a direct refusal. Champlain returned to the council and expostulated with them. “This young man,” said Champlain, pointing to Vignan, “says he has been in their country, and that they are not so bad as you describe them.” The chief looked sternly on the young Frenchman: “Nicholas!” he cried, “Did you say you had been in the country of the Nipissings?” “Yes, I have been there,” said the impostor. All the Indians gravely fixed their eyes upon him. At length Tessouat spoke: “You are a liar; you spent the whole winter sleeping in the house with my children. If you have been to the land of the Nipissings, it must have been in your sleep. You are trying to deceive your chief, and induce him to risk his life. He ought to put you to death, with tortures worse than those with which we kill our enemies.” Champlain led the young man from the council house; after much equivocation Vignan finally confessed that the whole story was an invention of his own, fabricated, it is hard to say from what motive; perhaps from the morbid love of notoriety, which is sometimes found among travellers of a later day.

The Indians rejoiced over Champlain’s discomfiture. “Why,” they said, “did you not listen to chiefs and warriors instead of believing that liar?” They earnestly advised Champlain to permit them to put Vignan to death by torture. His generous chief preferred to forgive him freely.

Champlain returned to Montreal, or, as he called it, the Sault, where he met his lieutenant, Du Parc, who, having been most successful in hunting, was able to give a plentiful repast to his half-famished chief. Having seen that all went well at Quebec, Champlain sailed for France, promising to return the next year.

The French merchants who had taken interest in the Canadian enterprise gave it but a half-hearted support. They never looked beyond the beaver skins and furs; with Champlain’s higher projects of colonizing and Christianizing Canada they had but scant sympathy. And yet, reflection might have taught them that to win the Indians from their heathenism into the fold of the Catholic Church was to extend the political influence of France, and with that influence, to extend its trade. They did not see that men like Samuel de Champlain, the knight-errant of exploration, men like the Recollet and Jesuit missionaries, in all their efforts, in every conquest made by sword or breviary, were advancing the best interests of French commerce by giving to its operations a continually widening area. But, though Champlain realized this, his motive was a higher one. He belonged to a class of explorers peculiar to the great days of discovery in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; men of a temperament grave, valiant, adventurous, whose faculty for threading the mazes of unknown seas and impenetrable forests amounted to an instinct; men who did nothing for the praise of men, but all for the glory of God. Such were Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Sir Humphrey Gilbert; such, at a later day, was David Livingstone. To this noble and heroic type, in a special degree, belonged Samuel de Champlain. With him the saving of souls by the conversion of the heathen, was an actual, living, motive force in all that he did, as shown by a saying of his, characteristic of the man and his age in its exaggerated piety: “The saving of one soul is worth an empire.” But he found few, even among the clergy, to sympathize with him. The French Church of those days was, as Carlyle says of it at a later and still baser day, “a stalled ox, thinking chiefly of provender.” But Champlain found help in time of need from a friend, one Houël, of Brouage, who introduced him to the brethren of a convent near that town, and belonging to an order whose name will be ever memorable in Canadian history—the Recollet.

Early in the thirteenth century appeared that extraordinary man, St. Francis of Assissi, in whom met all that was most fanatical, most ascetic, most lovable in the faith of the Dark Ages. Called by dreams and visions in early youth, he chose poverty for his bride, robbed his wealthy father in order to build a church, stripped himself naked in presence of the Bishop of Assissi, begging of him in charity a peasant’s dress. He kissed and consorted with lepers, he travelled to Africa and Syria, and went to preach conversion to the ferocious Caliph, at the head of his army. Strange to say, the Caliph sent him back with marks of honour, probably from the reverence eastern natives entertain for those madmen whom they consider inspired. Wherever he went through Europe, his fervent and passionate oratory attracted the multitude and made converts. His Order waxed strong in every European land. It furnished to the Church’s Calendar no fewer than forty-six saints, who suffered martyrdom for the faith; besides four popes, and forty-five cardinals. But in process of time discipline was relaxed, and abuses crept in. A reformation took place in one branch of the Great Franciscan Order, and the “Recollati” or Recollet Fathers were known as the Franciscans of the Strict Observance. Such were the men to whom Champlain now applied for help. Several of the Order, “inflamed with pious zeal,” undertook the Canadian Mission, which no other priest would touch.

Chapter VII.

THE RECOLLET MISSION OF CANADA.

HE Recollet Order was a mendicant one, and as it strictly observed the vow of poverty in the spirit of St. Francis himself, it had no funds to contribute to the new mission. However, the exertions of Champlain’s friend Houël, who held the post of Comptroller-General of the salt mines of Brouage, and of some others interested in the mission, procured enough money to enable the Fathers dedicated to it to proceed to the scene of their pious work. Those of the Recollets who had a vocation for the mission to Canada were four, Denis Jamet, Jean Dolbeau, Joseph Le Caron, and Pacifique du Plessis. All confessed their sins, received plenary absolution, and set sail with Champlain from Harfleur. They reached Quebec in the last week of May, 1615. According to the custom of their Order in undertaking a mission in a strange place, their first proceeding was to choose a site for their convent. They selected a position close to the wooden rampart surrounding the fort and barracks erected by Champlain. They next set up an altar, decorated it with a crucifix and the mystic seven candlesticks, and intoned a mass beneath the blue vault of heaven, a fitting temple for the first mass ever celebrated in Canada. Dolbeau was the celebrant. The entire colony of New France knelt on the bare earth before him, the naked savages from forest and river looked on in amazed perplexity, and as the host was held on high by the officiating priest, cannon after cannon sent forth its salute from ship and ramparts. After this the friars took counsel together in order to allot to each his sphere of labour in this vast harvest field of souls.

To Father Dolbeau the Montagnais were assigned as his peculiar care; to Le Caron, the distant tribes west and north-west of Lake Huron; Fathers Jamet and Du Plessis were for the present to remain in the convent at Quebec. Dolbeau, fired with missionary enterprise, accompanied one of the roving lodges of the Montagnais hunters to their winter hunting grounds. Of these it has been said by a missionary priest who knew them well, that whereas the Iroquois were nobles of the Indian race, and the Algonquins the burghers, the Montagnais were the peasants and paupers. Dolbeau was not of strong constitution, and was subject to a weakness of the eyes. The Indian hunters treated him kindly, and shared with him such food as they used themselves: boiled maize, fish speared through the ice, and the flesh now and then of deer, bear, wild-cat, porcupine, and a multitude of other such animals with which the forest swarmed. But Dolbeau was expected, when the camp moved, to carry his share of the poles and birch bark of which their frail hut consisted; a task too heavy for his strength. Day and night the icy wind swept through every crevice in the scanty walls. Day and night the pungent smoke from the wood-fire tortured the eye-sore missionary. The dogs, the intolerable stench, the filthy cooking, the innumerable fleas, the scolding, the incessant chatter of women and children, made the good father’s life a burden too heavy to be borne. At last he debated in the court of conscience and casuistry the question whether God required of him the sacrifice of losing his eyesight, and having most sensibly decided that this was not the case, he returned to his convent at Quebec. But in the spring of 1616, undaunted by his experiences, a worthy disciple of the saint who embraced lepers, he went once more with a Montagnais hunting lodge on a tour through the vast sea of forest that extends to the regions of perpetual ice. He penetrated so far north as to meet wandering bands of Esquimaux.

While the Recollet convent was being rapidly brought to completion by the willing hands of the brothers set apart for the duty, Le Caron had gone in a canoe to the trade rendezvous at “the Sault” (Montreal), where were assembled countless canoes laden with furs, and a number of eager, chattering, gesticulating Indians, of the Huron and Algonquin tribes. Here Le Caron stayed for some time, picking up what he could learn of the Huron language, and observing their manners. He succeeded in winning the friendship of several of the Huron chiefs, who invited him to accompany them in their canoes on their return voyage, and promised that they would convey him to the chief town of their nation, Carhagouha, and there build him a house and listen to his teachings. When Champlain and Pontgravé arrived, they tried to dissuade Father Le Caron from his project of spending the winter among these far-off savages. But in vain. The disciple of St. Francis had devoted his life to perpetual poverty; he knew no ambition but to serve his God; what to him were privations?

On the festival of Dominion Day in our modern Canada, July 1st, 1615, Father Le Caron bade adieu to the scanty comforts of such civilization as then was in New France, and embarked on board one of the large Huron canoes. Twelve French soldiers, devout Catholics, attended the expedition. Day after day the fleet of frail but exquisitely graceful craft shot over the expanse of the unrippled stream; day after day the wondering eyes of the missionary must have rested on scenes of nature’s beauty on which, scarcely changed since then, the tourist of the Upper Ottawa looks with such pleasure at this day. There, on either bank of such a river as the simple French monk had never seen before, was an everchanging Eden of maple, oak and beech; while, over all, the giant pines lifted heads defiant of the storm. Then, on countless islets of emerald green, summer had spread her honey feast for humming-bird and bee. The strange beauty of the forest, fresh with the life of summer, the colours and scents of unknown flowers, the ever-changing panorama of river, lake, and island archipelago, must have awakened new sensations of pious happiness and gratitude in the breast of the Franciscan missionary. The voyage proceeded. As with slow steps the voyageurs carried their canoes by the portage, long and difficult, that leads past the Falls of the Calumet, the pious Catholics must have felt scandalized to see their heathen guides cast in their tobacco offerings to the guardian Manitou, the water-fiend, as it seemed to Le Caron, who had his lair in the recesses of those dark precipices crowned with sombre pines, or beneath the arches of those masses of descending water lashed into a sea of foam. The missionary tried to dissuade them from this act of devil-worship so abhorrent to his soul. But the Indians persisted in their act of unmeaning superstition, saying to Le Caron that it was the custom of their fathers. On from thence the canoes held their way without interruption, past the mouth of the river which the town of Pembroke had not yet poisoned with the saw-dust of its lumber mills; on, where for seven miles the river became a lovely lake, beneath the ink-black shadows and sheer precipice of the Eagle rock (Cape Oiseau) till the roar of rapids and the death-dance of breakers fatal to many a gallant lumberman’s boat warned them to the portage of De Joachim. Thence, for twenty miles, straight as bird can fly, the Ottawa lay pent between its deep and dark mountain shores. Thence past the Rocher Capitain, where the imprisoned river struggles like a huge serpent between its rocky barriers; past the Deux Rivières, where it escapes into a wider channel; at length they reach the junction of the tributary river Mattawa. That scene is little changed since the seventeenth century. There the congregated hills, covered with gloomy frondage, still harbour the beasts of prey which have become extinct elsewhere in Upper Canada; there still the scream of the eagle is not yet silenced by the whistle of the newly arrived locomotive. Ascending the Mattawa some forty miles the voyagers launched their canoes and men on the marge of a limpid lake, bearing the name, as it does still, of the Nipissing Indians. All day long they saw leafy shores, and verdure-covered islands seemed to float by them in the depth of blue. Avoiding the villages of the Nipissings, a nation who, as the Huron chief told the much-believing Franciscan, were a nation of sorcerers, and whose country, fair as it seemed to the eye, was the abode of demons and familiar spirits, they passed down the stream now called French River, and reached the country (near Lake Huron) of the Indian tribe afterwards known as the Cheveux Relevés. These bestowed the most elaborate care in plaiting and dressing their long black hair. They next reached the principal Indian town of Carhagonha, which Le Caron found to present a seeming approach to civilization such as he had seen in no other Indian community. It contained a multitude of large-sized houses, each with the household fires of many families, and was defended by a triple rampart of palisades, thirty-five feet high, supporting a gallery with a breastwork, whence stones and missiles could be hurled against a foe. Here, on their arrival, the Hurons built a house of suitable size for the missionary, who at once began his labours to teach and convert them. A few days after his arrival he beheld, with the joy of one who sees a brother from whom he has long been parted, Champlain and his ten French soldiers. The true-hearted priest pressed the illustrious soldier to his heart.

Then mass was celebrated—the first mass in the country of the Hurons. The forest was Le Caron’s sanctuary, the song-birds of midsummer were assistant choristers, the odour of a thousand blossoms blended their perfume with the incense. Multitudes of the heathen beheld with awe what seemed to them the Medicines of the White Man, the monotoned prayer, the gorgeous vestments, the strange, sweet chanting of the psalms, the altar with its mystic lights, the figure which looked on them from the crucifix with agonized face and tortured limbs. Thus did this brave Franciscan, armed with cross and breviary, carry the Cross into the very stronghold of savage paganism, and, by offering the holy sacrifice of the mass at his mystic altar, bid defiance to its lords.

But our thoughts must turn from these wielders of the spiritual weapons to that great man whose influence with the Indian heathen was far greater than that of any “Chief of the Black Robe.” These benighted pagans were much more anxious for Champlain’s aid with the carnal weapon. Again and again they prayed him to come once more to their aid against the common enemy. After mature deliberation, Champlain and Pontgravé agreed that the wisest course for the good of New France would be to throw in their lot with the Hurons and Algonquins, to strike a blow at the Iroquois ascendency, and endeavour to form out of the shifting and disunited tribes of Canada a confederacy capable of resisting the formidable league south of Lake Ontario. Of such a confederacy it was intended that the French colony should be the centre, that its armies should be led and officered by Frenchmen, and that its bond of union should be allegiance to the faith taught by French missionaries. Thus the Indian race, indifferent to dangers from its numbers, and its skill in the tactics of the wilderness, would be ruled by being divided. It was a plausible scheme, and to the last continued to be the policy of the French colony of Canada. To a certain extent it was successful; the Algonquins were made the faithful allies of New France, the Hurons were exterminated in the course of the struggle. The French power stood in the path of the Iroquois power to the complete ascendency over all tribes north of the lakes, which they would, no doubt, otherwise have obtained; but the Iroquois threw in their weight against New France in the English war of conquest, as they did against American Independence in 1778, and American aggression in 1812. For New France to side with the Indian tribes of Canada against those south of the lakes was inevitable, but she thereby incurred the hostility of the boldest, best organized and most terrible enemies that the savagery of the wilderness could match against civilization.

A war council was held (June, 1615) at “the Sault,” of the chiefs of the Ottawa Algonquins and of the Hurons. It was stipulated by Champlain that they should raise a force of twenty-five hundred warriors, to be in immediate readiness for invading the Iroquois territory. He himself would join them with all his available force of French soldiers. To this the Indian chiefs, after much discussion and many speeches, agreed. Champlain went back to Quebec to muster his force and prepare what was necessary for the expedition; but when he returned to the place of meeting he found that the volatile and impatient Indians had set fire to their camp and departed, taking with them, as has been already related, the missionary Le Caron. But Champlain was determined not to be baffled by the fickleness of his allies. Taking with him only his French soldiers, one of whom was the trusty and intrepid Etienne Brulé, his interpreter, and ten Indians, with two large canoes, he made his way over the track of his former expedition up the Ottawa as far as Allumette. Beyond this he followed the course of the Ottawa, till among the sombre hills of Mattawa he reached its junction with the river of that name. Following the course of that stream, and crossing Lake Nipissing, he reached the Huron country, not without having undergone severe suffering from hunger, for the ten Indians, with the usual improvident glutting of their race, had gorged themselves with the entire commissariat supply for the voyage, and they were glad to gather blueberries and wild raspberries for sustenance. Encountering some of the Chéveux Relevéss Indians, of whom mention has been made, they found that they were within a day’s journey of the great inland sea of the Hurons. Soon launched upon the broad bosom of the “Mer Douce,” the Sweet-Water Sea of the West, he held his course for over a hundred miles along its shores, and through the mazes of its multitudinous islands. Crossing Byng Inlet, Parry Sound and Matchedash Bay, he reached, as the terminal point of his voyage, the inlet of the bay near the present village of Penetanguishene. Then they left their canoes hidden in the woods, and struck inland for the Huron town Otouacha. Champlain found this to be one of the better class of Indian towns. It was of long, bark dwellings, surrounded by a triple line of palisades, and stretching far into the distance were fields of maize, the ripe yellow spears of grain sparkling in the sunshine, and the great yellow pumpkins lolling over the ground. At Otouacha Champlain met with enthusiastic welcome. “The man with the breast of iron” was feasted again and again, amid rows of stolid warriors squatting on their haunches around him, while the younger squaws handed round the huge platter containing boiled maize, fried salmon, venison, and the flesh of various other animals, not to be too curiously enquired into.

Pending the complete muster of his Indian allies, Champlain made an extensive tour of observation through the Huron country. At Carhagouha, as has been mentioned, he met the Recollet missionary, Le Caron. He visited a number of the Huron villages and towns, the largest of which was Cahiague, in the modern township of Orillia. This contained some two hundred of the usual, long, bark dwellings. The entire number of those towns in the Huron territory of sixty or seventy square miles was eighteen, according to Champlain’s estimate. Cahiague was now swarming with hosts of warriors in readiness for the march. It was known that a neighbouring tribe had promised to send into the Iroquois territory a reinforcement of five hundred warriors. Of course, the inevitable feasting and speech-making went on for several days. At length the muster was complete, and, laden with their canoes and stock of maize for commissariat, they began their march. They crossed the portage to Balsam Lake, and passed across the chain of lakes of which the River Trent is one of the outlets. Those lakes are at the present day among the most desolate features of Canadian scenery. Nothing varies the monotonous wall of woodland which fringes the horizon. The canoe of the traveller moves along forests of reeds, hundreds of acres of extinct forest growth—cemeteries of dead trees, with not a sign of life or movement, except when the cry of the startled crane or heron breaks the silence of the solitary mere.

At length they reached, after many portages at the various rapids, the mouth of the Trent. Where now the pleasant streets of the picturesque town of Trenton nestle amid the villas and gardens which fringe the Bay of Quinté, Champlain crossed the Bay close to the present village of Carrying Place to the township of Ameliasburgh, in Prince Edward county, and, crossing the two-mile-wide creek which leads to the village of Milford, passed through the township of North Marysburgh to the lake shore beyond. Their voyage was prosperous; they landed on the New York coast, and, leaving their canoes carefully concealed in the wood, they marched, silent and vigilant as hyena or panther, through the forest to the south. After four days they reached a forest clearing, and saw the fields of maize and pumpkin, which showed an Iroquois town to be close at hand. Presently, they saw a large number of the Iroquois at work gathering in their harvest. With their usual incapacity for a moment’s self-restraint, and contrary to Champlain’s orders, they yelled their war cry and ran to capture their foes. But the Iroquois warriors were armed, and offered a prompt resistance, fighting with such resolution as to turn the war against the Hurons, who were retreating in disorder, when a shot from Champlain’s arquebuse drove back the pursuers. The Iroquois town was of considerable size, and Champlain describes it as more strongly fortified than those of the Hurons. The rampart of palisades, crossed and intersecting, was four feet deep. They gave support to a gallery defended by a breastwork of shot-proof timber, well furnished with piles of stones for defence; while, as a precaution against an attempt by an enemy to fire the wood-work below, a wooden gutter ran round the walls, capable of being amply supplied with water from a small lake on one side of the defences.

The Huron chiefs and warriors seemed to have no plan and very little heart for attacking the town. Their idea of a siege seemed to be to leap and dance round the palisades, screaming out epithets of abuse, and shooting their arrows at the strong, wooden buildings which they could not penetrate. At length Champlain called them together, and upbraiding them in no measured terms for their inaction and want of courage, proposed a plan by which the town might be assailed with more effect. Borrowing his tactics from the moveable towers of mediæval warfare, Champlain, aided by his few Frenchmen and the Hurons, constructed a huge wooden tower capable of commanding the wall, and with a platform sufficiently spacious to support a body of Frenchmen armed with the arquebuse. Two hundred Hurons dragged the tower, to which ropes had been fastened, close to the palisades, and the French arquebusiers at the top began their fire on the naked savages densely crowded on the rampart below them. The Iroquois stood their ground with rare courage, even when exposed to the terrors of a mode of attack to which they could offer no effectual resistance. But the excitable Hurons lost all self-control. Instead of making a united effort to storm the palisade under Champlain’s leadership, they yelled, danced, gesticulated, and showered aimless arrows at the defences of the Iroquois. Champlain’s voice was drowned in the tumult. The attack was discontinued after three hours; the Hurons falling back to their camp, which they had taken the precaution of fortifying. Champlain was wounded in the leg and knee by arrows. Losing all heart from their repulse, the Hurons resolved to remain where they were for a few days, in order to see if the five hundred promised allies would come; if not, to withdraw homewards. After five days waiting, they left their camp, retiring in what order they could maintain, and carrying in the centre of the main body their wounded, of whom Champlain was one. He was packed in a basket and carried on the back of an able-bodied Huron brave. Meanwhile the Iroquois hovered on their flanks. At last the miserable retreat was ended. They launched their canoes and crossed the lake in safety, paddling over the sheet of water between the eastern mouth of Bay Quinté and Wolf Island. Having landed, Champlain learned conclusively the value of an Indian’s promise. The Huron chiefs, in return for Champlain’s promised aid in war, had undertaken that at the close of their expedition they would furnish him with a guide to Quebec. They now very coolly declared that it was impossible; he must winter with them, and return in the spring with their trade canoes down the St. Lawrence. And so the irregular army disbanded, each eager to return home, and all quite indifferent as to what might become of their late ally. Fortunately a chief named Durantal, an Algonquin, whose abode was on the shore of a small lake north of Kingston, most probably Lake Sharbot, offered Champlain his hospitality. With him the French leader stayed during the first part of the winter. Durantal’s dwelling seems to have been much more comfortable and better provided than most Indian houses. It was necessary to wait till the setting-in of the coldest season of the winter should freeze the marshes and rivers that lay in their path before they could make the journey to the Huron towns. Meantime Champlain amused himself by sending the shot from his arquebuse among the multitudinous wild fowl that flocked and flew around the lake shore. On one occasion he had a narrow escape from being lost in the woods. A deer-hunt was being prepared for, on the banks of a small river which had its outlet into the lake. They constructed two walls of forts connected by interlaced boughs and saplings, which, standing apart at a wide distance, converged and met. At the angle where they met, the walls were strengthened with timber on each side, so as to form an enclosure from which there was no escape. The hunters then dispersed through the forest and drove the deer into the enclosure, where they were easily slaughtered. It happened that Champlain was posted deeper in the forest than the rest, and he was attracted by the appearance of a strange red-headed bird, unlike any that he had seen before. It flew before him from tree to tree; he followed, so absorbed in watching it that when on a sudden it took flight and disappeared from view, he had lost all trace of the direction whence he had come. He had no pocket compass. All round him was the mountainous maze of forest, no one tree to be distinguished from another. The night closed on him wandering and perplexed, and he lay down to sleep at the foot of a tree. The next day he wandered on once more and came to a dark pool, deep in the shadows of the pine woods. Here he shot some wild fowl with his arquebuse, and flashing some powder among the dry leaves, managed to light a fire and cook it. Then, drenched by rain, he lay down once more on the bare ground to sleep. Another day and another night he passed in the same way. At length he came to a brook, and following its course he reached the river just at the spot where his friends were encamped. They received him joyfully, having searched everywhere for him in vain.

December, at last, brought the true, hard frost of winter; and after nineteen days’ journey they reached the Huron town of Cahiague. There they rested for a few days, then proceeded to Carhagouha, where Champlain found the missionary, Le Caron, in good health, and still actively engaged in the good work of conversion. Le Caron had by this time made some progress in the mysteries of the Huron tongue. Champlain and he visited the Tobacco Nation, a tribe south-west of the Huron, and of kindred origin. They also visited the Cheveux Relevés, to whose custom of cleanliness and neatness he pays a tribute of admiration, but justly condemns their total abstinence from wearing apparel. Champlain was about to proceed homeward when he was delayed by having to act as umpire in a quarrel between a tribe of the Allumette Algonquins and the Hurons of Cahiague. The latter had given the Algonquins an Iroquois, with the kind design that the Algonquins should amuse themselves by torturing him to death. The ungrateful Algonquins on the other hand adopted the man, and gave him food as one of themselves. Therefore a Huron warrior stabbed the Iroquois, whereupon he was forthwith slain. War would have been the result, but that fortunately they asked Champlain to decide between them. He pointed out to them the exceeding folly of quarrelling among themselves when the Iroquois were waiting to destroy them both, and certainly would destroy them, if they became disunited. He then pointed out the great advantages both sides would gain from the trade with the French, and urged them to shake hands like brothers, and be at peace. This good advice was taken, fortunately both for the Indians and for New France. At last Champlain went homewards by the circuitous route of the Upper Ottawa, while the frequent presence of roving Iroquois bands in the St. Lawrence region rendered it the only secure one. He took with him his Huron friend and entertainer, Durantal. At Quebec it had been rumoured by the Indians that Champlain was dead; great therefore was the joy of all the dwellers in Quebec, when it was seen that the Founder had returned safe and well.

Chapter VIII.

CHAMPLAIN’S DIFFICULTIES AT QUEBEC.

HAMPLAIN found the future metropolis of New France in an unsatisfactory condition. The merchants of his own company obstructed the practical working of the schemes of colonization for the forwarding of which their charter had been granted. Whatever colonists came to Quebec were hampered and discouraged in every way, were not allowed to trade with the Indians, and compelled to sell their produce to the company’s agents, receiving pay, not in money, but in barter, on the company’s own terms. The merchants, not Champlain, were the real rulers. But few buildings had been added. Champlain erected a fort on the verge of the rock over-hanging what is now the Lower Town, and where still may be seen the ruined buttresses of the dismantled Castle of St. Louis. A few years afterwards the Recollet friars built a stone convent on the site of the present General Hospital. The number of inhabitants at this time did not exceed fifty or sixty persons. These consisted of three classes, the merchants, the Recollet friars, and one or two unhappy pauper householders who had neither opportunity nor wish for work. Small as was the community, it was full of jealousies, and split up into a number of cliques. To other evils was added the pest of religious controversy. Most of the merchants were good Catholics, to whom any discussion or doubt of the Faith was a sin. But some were Huguenots, belonging to the most ignoble form of Protestantism, because the narrowest and most exasperatingly disputatious. The Huguenots would not leave the Catholics alone; they persecuted them with dragonnades of controversy. Forbidden to hold religious services on land or water in New France, they roared out their heretical psalms, doggerel that, like the English “Tate and Brady,” degraded and vulgarized the finest and oldest religious poetry in the world. Added to this, the Huguenot traders of Rochelle carried on a secret traffic with the Indians, to the great loss of Champlain’s company of monopolists.

Champlain was not discouraged. Again and again he visited France in order to revive the interest, always flagging, of the merchants of St. Malo and Rouen in the colony. Repeatedly the post, which the opportunity of receiving bribes made a lucrative one, changed hands by purchase or intrigue among noblemen, the worthless bearers of great historic names. At last, with some hope that the merchants of the company would fulfil the promises they had made to him in 1620, Champlain returned to Quebec, bringing with him his beautiful young wife. As the boat that bore Madame de Champlain neared the shore, the cannon from the fort welcomed her to the colony founded by her husband. The story of their marriage is a curious one, illustrative as it is of religion a la mode of the Catholic France of 1620. The lady was daughter of Nicholas Boulé, a Huguenot, who held the post of Secretary of the Royal Household, at Paris, under Henry the Fourth. The marriage contract was signed in 1610, but the bride being then but twelve years old, it did not take effect till her fourteenth year, although 4,500 livres out of a 6,000 livres dowry were, it seems, paid over to Champlain. He, in return, bequeathed all his fortune to his wife, “in case he should die while employed on sea or land in the service of the King.” The young Madame de Champlain was a Huguenot, but Champlain exerted himself to such good effect for her conversion that she became a most devout Catholic, and only consented to live with her husband on the understanding that they lived together as if unmarried, in a sort of celibate matrimony, familiar in the legends of monasticism. But at Quebec the monopoly continued to palsy all improvement. The few colonists outside the circle of merchants belonging to the company fell into the lazy, loafing ways of people to whom honest labour was forbidden, and even the Montagnais Indians began to plot against the settlement. They and other tribes of cognate origin actually met, to the number, it is said, of eight hundred men, with the design of overpowering and destroying the colony for the sake of what plunder they could gain. But Champlain found out the treason they were plotting, and the wretched cowards and ingrates soon afterwards, being threatened with starvation, were fain to crawl to him for a morsel of food. When we consider the benefits which Champlain and the French colony under him had so freely bestowed on these contemptible savages—their battles fought against a nobler race of savages, their women and children fed, clothed and taught by ladies like Madame de Champlain—one is tempted to thank with some brief thanksgiving the beneficent law of the Unsurvival of the Unfittest. Their tribe and its kindred tribes have long vanished from our Canadian Province of Quebec, but the taint of their blood, no doubt, still lurks in the veins of some of the habitants.

But in the summer of 1622 a more dangerous foe descended on the colony of New France. A formidable band of the Iroquois came to attack Quebec, but the dread of the White Man’s thunder, and former experience of the arquebuse fire, kept them from venturing too near the walls of the fort. The Recollet convent was close by, but it was built after the fashion of the block houses of a later period, and the upper windows commanded all the approaches. The good Franciscans were equal to the occasion, and while some addressed their prayers to the saints in the chapel below, the others, lighted match and arquebuse in hand, stood on the walls, ready to pick off the approaching foe. So the Iroquois withdrew, merely burning the Huron captives in sight of Quebec, as a hint of their intentions towards the garrison.

So great were the dissensions with regard to the fur trade monopoly, and so bitter the wrangling between the merchants of St. Malo and Rouen on the one side, and that of Rochelle on the other, that the great noble who held the post of Governor of Canada suppressed the company formed by Champlain, and gave the fur monopoly into the hands of the Huguenot merchants, William and Emery de Caen. It must be remembered that the Huguenots of Rochelle had not yet broken out into open rebellion, and that their irrepressible self-assertion was backed by this influence of powerful robbers. The brothers De Caen undertook all sorts of pledges to support the Catholic missions, and to promote the interests of colonization, which pledges they respected as little as the company they superseded had respected theirs. Such confusion and ill-feeling resulted from their rule at Quebec that Champlain addressed a petition to the king. But a new influence had come into operation at Paris, which was destined not only to set aside the ascendency of fanatical interlopers like the De Caens, but to influence powerfully the whole future of New France. The worthless historic-named noble who held the post of Viceroy of Canada, becoming weary of the correspondence and worry it caused him, sold it, such being the political morality of France in those days, to another noble, his nephew. The noblesse of those days, not yet ripe for the guillotine, were either profligates or fanatics. The new Governor of Canada was an amateur in the conversion of souls. He had left his place at Versailles, and had entered into holy orders. His mind, such as it was, a Jesuit confessor directed. It was suggested to him that the strength of that mighty order which had been in part put forth at the ill-fated Acadian settlement might be exerted with happier results in converting the heathen in Canada. But the Jesuit enterprise in New France and in the Huron country deserves a chapter to itself. In the meantime the influence of the elder De Caen was being attended with the worst scandals in Quebec. He not only insisted on holding his interminable Huguenot services, but forced Catholics to join them. He was continually devising new insults against the Jesuit Fathers who had now undertaken the mission of Canada. And more than any preceding monopolists, he forced all trade with the Indians into his own hands, in one year exporting, in place of the ordinary number of beaver skins, which did not exceed twelve thousand, as many as twenty-two thousand. In spite of the greed and the sinister bigotry of De Caen, the colony showed signs of improvement. The inhabitants of Quebec now numbered 105. Several families were self-supporting, subsisting on the grain and vegetables yielded by their farms. Although De Caen, in direct violation of his solemn promise, long delayed furnishing the men and funds needed to rebuild the fort which was by this time untenable against an enemy, Champlain’s complaints at length had their effect, and a new fort was begun.

Happily for New France, there came into power at this time a ruler whose masterly intellect could appreciate the value to France and to Catholicity of the policy which Champlain had so long been labouring to carry out against every hostile influence. Cardinal Richelieu, the Bismarck of the seventeenth century, ruled France in the name of the despicable imbecile who was nominally King, Louis the Thirteenth. He soon perceived the advantages of French supremacy in at least a portion of the New World. To the abuses connected with the De Caen régime, he applied the efficacious remedy of annulling all their privileges by a decree from that King who was a mere tool in his powerful hands. He then formed an altogether new company, that of the Hundred Associates, of which he constituted himself president. The investment at once became a fashionable one. Several of the great nobles took shares; merchants and rich citizens followed in their wake. They were granted ample privileges, no less than sovereign power over all the territory claimed by France in the New World, a claim which, nominally, covered the entire continent from the North Pole to Florida. They were granted, for ever, a monopoly of the coveted fur trade, and of all other commerce whatever for a term of fifteen years. All duties on imports were remitted. A free gift from the King conferred on the company two ships of war, fully equipped for active service.

This was in 1627. In 1628 the company were pledged to transport to Quebec several hundred artisans, and before 1643 to import at least four thousand immigrants, men and women; to provide for their maintenance for three years after their arrival in the colony, and to give them farms already cleared. None but Catholics were to be admitted as settlers. Historians like Parkman, to whom the commonplaces of nineteenth century toleration seem applicable to all times and conditions of human society, have exclaimed against this exclusion of the Huguenots, and have speculated on the benefit to Canada of a large immigration of French colonists during the persecution, which forced them from the country against which they had so persistently plotted and rebelled during the seventeenth century. But New France’s experience of Huguenot rule under De Caen does not support the conclusion that what is called Richelieu’s bigotry was anything else than political common sense. Unity was above all else needful in a community which, among the multitudinous savage nations around it, had countless foes and not a single friend. The Huguenots had ever shown themselves intolerant, tyrannical, and impracticable. A considerable number of them settled in Ireland about the close of the seventeenth century. The Protestant oligarchy opened its ranks to persecuted Protestants, many of whom bore the noblest French names. As a consequence the new importation strengthened the hands of the oppressors of the Celtic and Catholic proletariat, and intensified religious bitterness. The Huguenot immigration to Ireland is perhaps no slight factor in the anarchic deadlock of the Ireland of to-day.

Quebec was now in the utmost need of supplies of food, a famine being threatened. The new company showed its vigour by taking prompt measures to avert this calamity. A number of transports laden with immigrants and abundant stores of provisions, seeds, and agricultural tools, left Quebec in April, 1628. They were destined never to arrive, though watched for week after week by the starving garrison. For, in the meantime, war had broken out between England and France, or rather between France and the worthless favourite who controlled the weak mind and weaker principles of the first Charles Stuart. The Duke of Buckingham had received a slight from the French Government. He forced on his country an abortive war in aid of the Huguenots of Rochelle, now in open rebellion against France. When war was declared, a favourable opportunity presented itself for taking possession of the French colony in Canada. The “cruel eyes that bore to look on torture, but dared not look on war” were turned greedily toward New France. And a Huguenot renegade was not wanting to be his tool in ruining Quebec. David Kirk, though on the father’s side of Scotch extraction, was to all intents and purposes a French citizen of Dieppe. He was a zealous Huguenot, and with his brothers, Louis and Thomas, Kirk had been among the loudest singers of psalms, and wranglers in controversy, who had so troubled the peace of Quebec. For this he had been expelled by Champlain as soon as Richelieu’s new company was established. He now saw his way to revenge. With true Huguenot hatred against the country of his birth and the colony out of whose monopolised trade he had made a fortune, De Caen, through a creature of his, one Michel, whom Charlevoix describes as “a fierce Calvinist,” “Calviniste furieux,” suggested a descent by a sufficient naval force on Quebec. The suggestion was at once carried out. David Kirk, who, as a mariner, had considerable experience, and knew especially well the navigation of the St. Lawrence, was appointed Admiral, many Huguenot refugees being under his command. But at Quebec the colonists were confidently awaiting the arrival of the promised fleet laden with provisions from France. On July 9th, 1628, two men from the outpost at Cape Tourmente made their way to Quebec, and announced that they had seen six large ships anchored at Tadousac. Father Le Caron and another Recollet friar volunteered to go in a canoe to ascertain the truth. They had not passed the Isle of Orleans when they met a canoe whose Indian crew warned them to return to Quebec, and shewed them a wounded man at the bottom of the canoe. It was the French commandant at Cape Tourmente. The six ships were English men-of-war, and their destination was to capture Quebec. Champlain had but scant means of resistance. The fort was little better than a ruin, two of the main towers had fallen, the magazine contained but fifty pounds of powder. For this, Quebec had to thank the malicious neglect of duty of the Huguenot De Caen. Yet, Champlain resolved on resistance to the last; even with starving garrison and ruined fort he assigned to every man his post, and when some Basque fishermen brought a summons to surrender from the Huguenot renegade Kirk, he refused. Meantime, the disastrous news had arrived that a battle had taken place between the four French ships of war and the squadron of six ships under Kirk. The French had been worsted, and all the fleet of transports, laden with the supplies so long expected, had been captured by the English and their Huguenot captains. Within the walls of Quebec the handful of defenders were now brought to the last extremity. Yet so boldly defiant was Champlain’s bearing, and such his character for determined courage, that the Huguenot feared to attack him, and cruised about the St. Lawrence gulf, doing what mischief he could by destroying fishing boats. In Quebec the population subsisted on roots, acorns, and a daily diminishing pittance of pounded peas. Champlain had even conceived a plan to leave the women and children whatever food remained, and himself, with the garrison, invade the Iroquois country to the south, seize on one of their villages, entrench himself therein, and subsist on the stores of buried maize invariably to be found in Iroquois towns. Meanwhile Kirk’s squadron returned to England, and Quebec, left without supplies, was almost perishing. But in July, 1628, the English fleet came once more in sight, and though Champlain ordered his garrison, now reduced to sixteen, to man the ramparts, when a boat with a white flag arrived with a proposal to surrender, he accepted it, the conditions being that the French were to be conveyed to their own country, each soldier being allowed to take with him furs to the value of twenty crowns. The fort and the town were given up to the English, who made no harsh or unfair use of their conquest. The few farmers were encouraged to remain. The Recollet and Jesuit Missions were not interfered with. And so, for a short space the Red Cross flag waved over the rock of Quebec, whence, a century later, it was to float permanently, or until succeeded by the ensign of a new Canadian nationality.

Kirk’s enterprise was piracy, pure and simple. He held no commission from the English Crown, but so lax were the laws of maritime war at the time that a privateer who succeeded, at his own risk, in inflicting a blow on the enemy, was sure of countenance, if not of reward. Kirk’s piratical proceedings were more flagrant, inasmuch as he well knew that before he began his descent on Quebec, peace had been ratified between the two Governments. When his squadron had reached the English port of Plymouth, Champlain at once repaired to London, where he induced the French ambassador to insist on the restoration to France of her colony, in accordance with the terms of the treaty. Neither the French nor the English Government set much store on the feeble trading post beneath the rock of Quebec. Kirk was commanded by the English King to surrender Quebec to Emery De Caen, who was commissioned by the French Government to occupy the fort and hold a monopoly of trade for one year, as compensation for great losses sustained by him during the war. Why the renegade was thus favoured it is hard to say. Doubtless the great Cardinal’s subtle policy had good reason.

Chapter IX.

CHAMPLAIN GOVERNOR OF CANADA.

HE last years of the heroic founder of New France closed with a picture of dignity and happiness pleasant to contemplate. Cardinal Richelieu saw further into the future than the short-sighted sneerers at the arpents of snow and the handful of half-frozen settlers on the rock of Quebec. He saw that France should not be without a share in the vast inheritance which the other maritime powers of Christendom were portioning out for themselves in the New World. Intercourse with Canada would prove an invaluable school for the French marine. And the fact that he, the Cardinal Duke de Richelieu, was at the head of the company whose possessions had been seized by foreign pirates, gave the ruler of France the strongest personal motive for dispossessing the intruders. He knew of one man only who deserved the trust of ruling the new colony. By order of the King, Champlain was commissioned as Viceroy and Governor-General of New France. Amid the pealing of the cannon from the fort, and the salutes of pikemen and musketeers, Champlain received the keys of the citadel from the crest-fallen De Caen.

For two peaceful years his rule continued. It will have been seen that Champlain’s nature had always a strong tinge of asceticism. In his last days the fires of military ardour and of adventurous exploration seem to have died out. The stern, practical soldier spirit was purified and calmed. His main care henceforward was for the religious and moral interests of his colony. In this he was well seconded by the Fathers of the Jesuit missions whose history will be given in another chapter. Under Champlain’s rule Quebec became like a convent. Religious services were held at each one of the nine canonical hours from prime to compline. The traffic with the Indians for fire water was no longer permitted. Indeed it is a noteworthy fact to the credit of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada that they have from the first done all they could to suppress this iniquity. But the Indians were encouraged to visit the fort, and when they did so they were kindly received, and encouraged by every means to enter the Christian fold. As the bells of the church which the Governor had built were ringing for mass on Christmas Day, 1635, the spirit of Samuel de Champlain passed quietly away. So, after many hardships, battles and wanderings, the life of one of the greatest men of his generation closed in peace and honour, and with every consolation of the faith he loved. The entire colony of New France attended his funeral. The funeral oration, in adequate terms of affection and respect, was pronounced over his remains by the Jesuit Father Le Jeune; and over the spot where he was buried a fitting monument was raised. So passed away from French history the type of soldier, half hero, half saint—a type which another ten years was to display in Puritan England.

NOTE TO CHAPTER IX.

Chapter X.

THE JESUIT MISSIONS.

E have described the apostolic labours of the Recollet Fathers for the conversion of the Indians. But the field was too vast, and the resources at command of a poor community too slender, to support an enterprise so great. The Recollet Fathers suggested that the mighty Jesuit order might attempt the work of Indian Missions with better chance of success. The Jesuits came, saw and conquered. Their Canadian missions include a record of martyrdom and apostolic labour without parallel since the first century of Christianity. The history of Canada cannot be complete without some account of these men and their work.

The first superior of the Jesuit residence at Quebec was Father Le Jeune, who came to Canada when the piratical seizure of Quebec by the Huguenot Kirk had been annulled by order of the English King, to whose service Kirk professed to belong. Le Jeune arrived at Quebec on July 5th, 1632. He found the Jesuit residence a heap of ruins, the Huguenots having entertained a special hatred of that order. The earliest settler in New France had been a man named Hébert, who had by thrift and industry made the ground around his house for some acres a tolerably thriving farm, and had built an unusually commodious house. To that house Father Le Jeune now repaired in order to celebrate his first mass in the new country. He was received with tears of joy by the widow Hébert and her pious family. That first of duties performed, Le Jeune and his companions set themselves at once to rebuild their residence, with such skill and materials as they could command, and to cultivate anew the fields left waste so long. The residence was on the eastern side of the little river St. Charles, probably on the very spot where Cartier spent the winter of 1535. It was fortified by a square enclosure of palisades, no unnecessary precaution. Within this were two buildings, one of which was store-room, workshop, and bakery; the other a rude frame building, thickly plastered with mud, and thatched with the long dry grass from the river banks. It had four principal rooms, one used as refectory, a second as kitchen, a third as a sleeping place for workmen. The remaining or largest room was the chapel. All were furnished in the most primitive manner possible. The chapel had at first no other ornament than two richly executed engravings, but the Father had now obtained an image of a dove, which was placed over the altar, seeing which, an Indian asked if that was the bird that caused the thunder. They had also images of the Jesuit Saints, Loyola and Xavier, and three statues of the Virgin. Four cells which opened from the refectory gave lodging to six priests. First, Jean de Brebœuf, a noble of ancient family in Normandy, a man stalwart and tall, with the figure and mien of a soldier. Next was Masse, who had been the associate of Father Biard in the Acadian mission of whose failure we have made mention. There were also Daniel, Davost, De Noué, and Father Le Jeune. Their first object was to learn the Algonquin language. The traders, who did not love Jesuitism, refused to help them. At last, Le Jeune sighted a hunter who had lived in France some time, and consequently could speak French or Algonquin equally well. This man, Pierre, was one of those outcasts who had learned only the vices of civilization, but whose want of practice in the woodcraft of savage life unfitted him to support himself as other savages do. By a present now and then of a little tobacco, Le Jeune prevailed on Pierre to become his private tutor, and speedily gained a working knowledge of the Indian dialect. To improve this, he resolved to accept an invitation from Pierre and his brothers to join their winter hunting party. Many were the hardships that befel Le Jeune in that expedition. His friends, with ill-judged zeal, had persuaded him to take with his provisions a small keg of wine. The provisions were soon devoured by the gluttonous savages, and the first night that he spent with them, Pierre tapped the wine cask, got drunk, and would have killed Le Jeune had he not sought refuge in the forest, where he passed the night under a tree. By day he accompanied their march, carrying his share of the baggage. Towards evening the squaws set up the poles which supported the birch-bark covering which was their sole defence against an unusually severe winter. The men shovelled the snow with their snow-shoes till it made a wall three or four feet high, enclosing the space occupied by the wigwam. On the earth thus bared they strewed cedar or spruce boughs for a bed. A bear skin served as a door at the opening by which they entered; in the centre a huge fire of pine logs blazed fiercely through the night. At the top of the wigwam was an opening so large that Le Jeune, as he lay on his spruce bough bed at night, could watch the stars through it. In this narrow space, men, women, children and dogs were huddled together. Attempt at decency there was none. Le Jeune classes the sufferings he went through in this expedition under four chief heads: cold, heat, dogs and smoke. Through crevice after crevice the icy blast crept in, threatening to freeze him on one side, while on the other the intense heat of the pine fire nearly roasted him. The smoke that filled the wigwam was an intolerable nuisance; when a snowstorm took place, it was often necessary for all of them to lie with their faces to the ground, in order to avoid its penetrating acrid fumes. The dogs were of some use, for by sleeping around where he lay they kept him warm, but they were in intimate alliance with another pest, the fleas, innumerable as voracious, which often rendered sleep impossible. At length he became so ill and worn that one of the better-natured Indians offered to carry him back to Quebec. Their frail canoe narrowly escaped being crushed by the floating ice-masses, it being the beginning of April, when the ice fields break up. They were obliged to camp as best they might on the Island of Orleans. Le Jeune narrowly escaped drowning, but his companion had sufficient strength to draw him up to the fixed ice, and at three o’clock in the morning the long absent Superior knocked at the door of the residence of Notre Dame des Anges, Our Lady of the Angels.

It became evident to the Jesuit Fathers that their efforts would be wasted on the scattered and wandering Algonquin hunters, and that in order to produce a permanent effect, it would be necessary to attempt the conversion of some settled race, the dwellers in villages and towns. Such a race was that to which the Recollet, Le Caron, had made a mission journey which produced no converts owing to the brief period of his stay; the Huron tribes whose seventeen or eighteen towns had, most of them, been visited by Le Caron and Champlain. A description has been given in a former chapter of the superior agriculture and social organization of this race of Indians. They were akin to other powerful and settled communities; to the Tobacco Nation whose territory was south-west of the Georgian Bay; and to the Neutral Nation which extended south towards Niagara, between the Iroquois and the Canadian Indians. The Jesuits had ever before their eyes the great things accomplished by their order among a people akin to these Indians in Paraguay. Could the history of that success be made to repeat itself in Canada, what mattered the long and terrible journey through a wilderness haunted by savage beasts and more savage men, amid the gloom of pathless forests, by rock and cataract, till the dismal travel led to a drearier termination? What mattered a life passed remote from every pleasure and every prize, amid the filth and squalor of naked savages; day after day attempting conversion that seemed hopeless, rolling the stone of Sisyphus up an interminable hill? If the Church of God and the Order of Saint Ignatius Loyola could but gain thereby, what mattered the life of martyrdom, the death of fire?

In July, 1633, the three priests chosen by their superior La Jeune for the Huron Mission were introduced by Champlain to the assembled Hurons who had come down to the Sault (Montreal), as was their annual custom, to trade the furs which they had collected during the winter. The three Jesuit missionaries were Brebœuf, Daniel, and Davost. Champlain earnestly commended them to the reverence and good offices of the Hurons, who made every promise of charity and friendship, as is invariably the custom of their race. But Champlain refusing to set at liberty an Algonquin who had murdered one of his French soldiers so angered them that they refused to take with them “the three Black robes.” The Jesuits gave a year to quiet study of the Huron language at their convent. Next year the unstable savages changed their minds, and consented to carry back the missionaries. Terror of the Iroquois made it necessary, as usual, to take the long and circuitous route by the Upper Ottawa. The distance was at least nine hundred miles. The toil was severe, all day toiling with unaccustomed heat, and faring far worse than the galley slaves in their own country, since the only food given to them was a little maize pounded between two stones and mixed with water. There were thirty-five portages, where they had to carry the canoes, often by tortuous and difficult paths, round rapids or cataracts. More than fifty times they had to wade through the water, pushing their canoes before them by main force. Add to this, that the fickle savages soon lost their first good-humour, and treated the priests as prisoners, whose work they exacted to the uttermost. Davost’s baggage they threw into the river, and it was with the greatest difficulty, even when the party reached the Huron country, that the three priests made their way to the town of Ihonatiria. Here, at first, they were welcomed, the whole town turning out to assist in building them a house, which was erected on the usual Huron pattern, but which they divided in the interior by a partition, into dwelling place and chapel. As long as the novelty of their visit lasted, “the Black-robes” were caressed and petted. The savages were never tired of looking at several wonderful things which the Jesuits brought with them, especially a magnifying glass, a coffee mill, and above all a ticking and striking clock. The Jesuits, as usual, neglected no means to impress and attach the Indians among whom they had cast their lot for life. They visited and tended the sick, baptizing any child that seemed likely to die. They gathered the children to their chapel, and after each lesson gave presents of a few beads or sweetmeats. The children learned prayers in the Huron tongue; the ave, credo, and the commandments in Latin; and were proficients in the art of crossing themselves. The Jesuits also taught the Hurons to build fortifications with flanking towers wherefrom the arquebusiers could harass an attacking foe.

All seemed to go smoothly for a time. Then came a drought, want of water, and fear of famine in the maize fields. The Black robes were sorcerers; the huge cross, painted red, which stood before their chapel, had frightened the bird that brings the thunder. Worse still, a terrible pestilence broke out; all the chief medicine men of the tribe declared that it was the witchcrafts of the Black robes, their baptisms and crucifixes and other White Medicine which had brought the sickness. The lives of the Jesuits were at this time frequently in danger. They faced it with courage as unflinching as that of any Iroquois prisoner whom the Hurons had tortured at the stake. In vain they toiled through the snowdrifts from one plague-stricken town to another, bending over the victims of pestilence to catch the slightest confession of faith uttered by that tainted breath, risking instant death from the parents who looked on baptism as a dangerous act of sorcery, and by stealth giving the indispensable sacrament to some dying infant with a touch of a wet finger and formula noiselessly uttered. They met with no immediate success, but when the panic of the pestilence had passed off, the savages, ungrateful as they were, began dimly to recognize in the Black robes the goodness of superior beings.

But the Black robes were no longer at their town. They thought it better to choose a more central position for a mission settlement, and chose a spot where the river Wye, about a mile from its debouchement into Matchedash Bay, flows through a small lake. The new station was named Sainte Marie. It had a central position with regard to every part of the Huron country, and an easy water communication with Lake Huron. From thence Fathers Garnier and Jogues were sent on a mission to the Tobacco Nation. Though they escaped torture and death, their preaching produced no effect whatever on these obdurate savages. When they entered the first Tobacco town, a squalid group of birch-bark huts, the Indian children, as they saw the Black robes approach, ran away, screaming “Here come Famine and Pestilence.” They found themselves everywhere regarded as sorcerers, sent thither by the white man to compass the destruction of the Indians. In other towns no one would admit them into his house, and from within they could hear the women calling on the young men to split their heads with hatchets. Only the darkness of night and of the forest enabled them to escape.

On November 2nd, 1640, Fathers Brebœuf and Chaumonot left Sainte Marie for a mission to the Neutral Nation. Their mission produced no other results than the curses and outrages of the heathen. But in the Huron country the Jesuit mission had begun to bear fruit. Each considerable Huron town had now its church, whose bell was generally hung in a tree hard by, whence every morning was heard the summons to mass. The Christian converts were already a considerable power in the councils of the tribes, and exercised a most salutary influence in humanizing to some degree even their still heathen kinsmen. The Christian Hurons refused to take part in the burning and torturing of prisoners. In March, 1649, there were engaged in missionary work in the Huron country eighteen Jesuit priests, four lay brothers, twenty-three devout Frenchmen who served the mission without pay, and by their success in fur-trading—not for their own profit but that of the order—made the mission self-supporting. Fifteen of these priests were stationed at various towns throughout the Huron country; the rest at Sainte Marie. Every Sunday the converts resorted to Sainte Marie from all the surrounding country, and were received with the most hospitable welcome. The august rites of the Catholic Church were celebrated with unwonted pomp. Eleven successful mission stations had now been established among the Hurons, and two among the Tobacco Nation. The priests who served these stations endured hardships through which it seems incredible that men could live. To toil all day paddling a canoe against the current of some unknown river; to carry a heavy load of luggage under the blaze of a tropical sun; to sleep on the bare earth; in winter to be exposed to storm and famine; the filth and indecencies of an Indian hut: these were held as nothing, if only it was “ad majorem gloriam Dei”—“to the greater glory of God.” The first death among their ranks was that of De Noué, a Jesuit Father who was found in the snowdrift kneeling, his arms crossed on his heart, his eyes raised heavenwards, frozen while he prayed. The efforts of the Jesuit priests at last were being crowned with success, and the Huron country might have become a second Paraguay but for the annihilation of the Huron tribes, whom it had taken such heroic efforts to convert. The fair prospects of the mission were overshadowed by a dark cloud of war as early as 1648. Had the Hurons been united and on their guard they might have been a match for the Iroquois, to whom they were not so much inferior in courage as in organization and subtlety.

Father Daniel had just returned from one of those brief visits to Sainte Marie, which converse with his brethren, and some approach to stateliness of religious ceremonial, made the one pleasant event in missionary life. He was engaged in celebrating mass at the church of his mission station of St. Joseph, when from the town without was raised the cry, “The Iroquois are coming!” A crowd of painted savages screaming their war-whoop were advancing on the defenceless town. Daniel hurried from house to house calling on the unconverted to repent and be baptised, and so escape hell. The people gathered round him imploring baptism; he dipped his handkerchief in water and baptised them by aspersion. The Iroquois had already set the town in a blaze. “Fly,” he said to his congregation—“I will remain to stop them from pursuit. We shall meet in Heaven!” Robed in his priestly vestments, he went forth to meet the Iroquois, confronting them with a face lit up with unearthly enthusiasm. For a moment they recoiled, then pierced his body with a shower of arrows. Then a ball from an arquebuse pierced his heart, and he fell gasping the name of Jesus. They flung his mutilated corpse into the flames of his church, a fit funeral pyre for such a man.

This was the beginning of the end of the Huron Nation. Next year (1649) the Huron village which the Jesuits had named after St. Louis was taken by surprise. The priests of this mission station were Brebœuf and Lalemant. They were urged by their converts to fly with them into the forest, but reflecting that they might be able to cheer some of the congregation in the hour of torture, as by baptizing a repentant heathen to snatch his soul from perdition, they refused to escape. Brebœuf and Lalemant, with a large train of Huron captives, were led away to be tortured. The Iroquois then attacked Sainte Marie, but the French laymen, with their hundred Christian Hurons, assailed them with such impetuous valour that they were glad to retreat to the ruined palisade of St. Louis. But before they left for their own country, on March 16th, 1649, the Iroquois bound Father Brebœuf to a stake. He continued to exhort his fellow-captives, bidding them suffer patiently pangs that would soon be over, and telling them how soon they would be in the Heaven that would never end. The Iroquois burned him with pine wood torches all over his body to silence him. When he still continued to pray aloud, they cut away his under lip, and thrust a red hot iron into his mouth. But the descendant of the ancient Norman nobles stood defiant and undaunted. Next they led in Lalemant, round whose body they fastened strips of bark smeared with pitch. Lalemant threw himself at Brebœufs feet. “We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men!” he cried, in the words of St. Paul. They then fastened round Brebœuf’s neck a collar of red-hot hatchet-blades, but still the courage of the Christian martyr would not yield. A renegade Christian poured boiling water on his head in mockery of baptism; still he would give no signs of giving way. This, to an Indian, is the most provoking rebuff. If he fails by his tortures to wring out a cry of pain from a prisoner, it is held a disgrace and evil omen to himself. Enraged, they cut pieces of flesh from his limbs before his eyes. They then scalped him, and when he was nearly dead cut open his breast and drank his blood, thinking it would make them brave. An Iroquois chief then cut out his heart and devoured it, in the hope that then he could endue himself with the courage of so valiant an enemy. Next day the defenders of Sainte Marie found the blackened and mutilated bodies of the two priests amid the ruins of the St. Louis mission. The skull of Brebœuf, preserved in the base of a silver bust of the martyr, which his family sent from France, is preserved at the nunnery of the Hotel Dieu at Quebec.

Other Iroquois armies invaded the Huron country, and carried all before them. Fifteen Huron towns were burned or abandoned. The Jesuit Fathers resolved to abandon Sainte Marie, and with a number of Huron converts which gradually swelled to over three thousand, sought refuge on an island in the Georgian Bay which they called St. Joseph. There they built a fort, and managed to sustain the wretched remains of the Huron nation through the winter, eking out what scanty supplies of food they possessed with acorns and fish purchased from the northern Algonquins. With the spring it was known that a large band of the Iroquois meditated a descent on their last place of refuge. The Huron chiefs implored the Jesuits to allow them to remove to Quebec, where, under the shelter of the fort, they might enjoy their religion in peace. To this the Superior agreed. With sorrow and many tears the Jesuit missionaries left the land which had been the scene of their apostolic labours, and where the blood of their martyr brethren had been the seed of a church which would have proved a centre of Christian civilization, “had it not pleased Christ, since they ceased to be Pagans and became Christians, to give them a heavy share in His Cross, and make them a prey to misery, torture and a cruel death.” The Superior added, truly enough, “They are a people swept away from the face of the earth.”

Thus ended the Jesuit mission to the Hurons. It cannot be called a failure, for it succeeded in converting the heathen, and only collapsed by the extermination of its converts.

Chapter XI.

THE BEGINNING OF MONTREAL.

O Champlain succeeded a Governor of very similar temperament, Charles Herault de Montmagny, with his lieutenant, De Lisle, and a brilliant train of French gentlemen. Both Montmagny and De Lisle were members of the semi-military, semi-ecclesiastical order of the Knights of St. John, of Malta. Both were therefore in thorough accord with the Jesuits in favouring that system of paternal government by the priesthood which, fostered by them, has more or less prevailed in New France ever since, and of which many survivals exist in French Canada at the present day. Montmagny was the bearer of letters from some of the most illustrious nobles and the greatest ladies of France, expressing their interest in the Canadian mission. The Relations of the Canadian Jesuits, especially those of Le Jeune, had been read throughout all France. The apostolic lives of these most self-denying of missionaries had awakened a general enthusiasm, of which the Jesuits throughout France took full advantage to stir up the susceptible minds of female devotees to aid, with prayers and money, the good work in Canada. Some person unknown to men, but blessed of God, was about to found a school for Huron children at Quebec. In one convent thirteen of the sisters had bound themselves by a vow to the work of converting the Indian women and children. In the church of Montmartre a nun lay prostrate day and night before the altar, praying for the Canadian mission. Accordingly, in 1637, the Jesuits succeeded in building at Quebec a college for French boys and a seminary for Huron children. The commencement of the work with the latter was not hopeful for the few original pupils. One was taken away by his father, four ran away, and two killed themselves by over-eating. The Jesuits were enabled to complete both buildings by a generous donation of six thousand crowns by a French nobleman. An appeal was made by Le Jeune, in his Relations, to the effect that he prayed God might put it into the heart of some virtuous and charitable lady to come out and undertake the training of the female children of the Indians. A young lady of rank whose name is one of the most remarkable in the early history of New France, Marie Madeleine de la Peltrie, when a girl of seventeen, had a romantic longing to enter a convent. This her father strongly opposed, being exceedingly fond of his only child. He insisted on taking her into the gaieties of fashionable society, and induced her to accept the hand of M. de la Peltrie, a young nobleman of excellent disposition. The marriage was a happy one, but Madame de la Peltrie was left a childless widow at twenty-two. She read Le Jeune’s appeal to the women of France; her old religious fervour returned; and she resolved to devote all her wealth and the rest of her life to founding a sisterhood for teaching the Indian girls at Quebec. But her father, dismayed at the prospect of losing his only child, threatened to disinherit her if she went to Canada. He pressed her to marry again; but her Jesuit confessor suggested a means of escape. She was to pretend to marry a nobleman of great wealth and thorough devotion to the Church. The marriage took place. Her father fell ill and died before he could discover the deception. Madame de la Peltrie was caressed and honoured by some of the greatest ladies in France. The Queen herself sent for her. At Tours the Superior of the Ursuline Convent, with all the nuns, led her to the altar and sang Te Deum. They threw themselves at her feet, each weeping as she entreated to be allowed to go with her to Canada. That privilege was accorded to two; a young nun of noble family, whose pure and earnest religious temperament was united with strong common sense and a natural gaiety which in after years shed brightness on the Ursuline Convent at Quebec. The second was the celebrated Marie de l’Incarnation. In the history of these times we find ourselves in an atmosphere of miracle. Jesuitism had brought back to Europe the faith of the Middle Ages. With the age of faith came back the age of miracles, of dreams, voices, and visions; the relation of which, by witnesses whose honesty of purpose is above suspicion, make them to the true believer additional proofs of supernatural religion, while the heretic only sees in them phenomena of constant recurrence in the history of religious enthusiasm, and capable of easy psychological explanation. Marie de l’Incarnation beheld in a dream an unknown lady who took her by the hand; and then they walked towards the sea. They entered a magnificent temple where the Virgin Mother of God sat on a throne. Her head was turned aside, and she was looking on a distant scene of wild mountain and valley. Three times the Virgin kissed her, whereon in the excess of her joy she awoke. Her Jesuit confessor interpreted the dream: the wild land to which the Virgin was looking was Canada, and when for the first time she saw Madame de la Peltrie she recognized in her the lady seen in her dream. The Ursuline nuns, with Madame de la Peltrie, arrived at Quebec on August 1st, 1659. They were received with every honour by Montmagny, and soon were established in a massive stone convent on the site of their present building. Their romantic garden where Marie de St. Bernard and Marie de l’Incarnation used to gather roses is as beautiful as ever; and an ash tree beneath whose shade the latter used to catechise the Indian girls is flourishing still. The good nuns devoted themselves with much ardour to their task, and taught their pupils such a righteous horror of the opposite sex, that a little girl whom a man had sportively taken by the hand, ran off crying for a bowl of water to wash away the polluting touch of such an unhallowed creature. A nobleman named Dauversière one day while at his devotions heard a voice commanding him to establish a hospital on an island called Montreal, in Canada. At Paris a young priest named Jean Jacques Olier was praying in church, when he heard a voice from Heaven telling him that he was to be a light to the Gentiles, and to form a society of priests on an island called Montreal, in Canada. Soon after this, Dauversière and Olier, who were utter strangers to each other, met at the old castle of Meudon. By a miracle, as we need scarcely say, they knew and greeted each other by name at once; they even could divine each other’s thoughts. Together they undertook the task of raising funds, and soon succeeded in obtaining a large sum of money and a grant from the king of the Island of Montreal. They chose as military leader of the soldiers whom it would be necessary to take with them for defence, a gallant and devoted young nobleman, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, one in whom the spirit of the ancient crusaders seemed to have returned to life, and who had long eagerly wished to dedicate his sword to the service of God. The little body of colonists, who had taken the name of the Society de Notre Dame de Montreal, received a valuable addition in an unmarried lady of noble family named Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance, who at the tender age of seven had bound herself by a vow of celibacy; also a little later by the unobtrusive goodness, sweet charity, and practical common sense of Marguerite Bourgeoys. In 1653, having given all her possessions to the poor, the latter embarked for Quebec. She brought from France a miracle-working image of the Virgin, which at this day stands in a niche in the old seventeenth century Church beside the harbour at Montreal; and still many a bold mariner, many an anxious wife, invokes the aid of “Our Lady of the Gracious Help.” Before the ship set sail, Maisonneuve, with Madamoiselle Mance and the other members of the expedition, knelt before the altar of the Virgin in the ancient cathedral church of Notre Dame at Paris. With the priest, Olier, at their head, they solemnly dedicated Montreal to the Virgin. The town they were about to build was to be called Ville Marie de Montreal. They arrived at Quebec too late in the fall to make the journey to Montreal till the spring of 1642. The Governor, Montmagny, seems to have felt some jealousy of Maisonneuve as a possible rival in governing the colony. Maisonneuve seems to have yielded to the temptation of encouraging his men in small acts of insubordination. The new colonists were sheltered by the hospitality of M. Pruseaux, close to the mission, established four miles from Quebec by the generosity of a French noble, Brulart de Sillery, which still bears his honourable name. Maisonneuve and his men spent the winter in building large flat-bottomed boats for the voyage to Montreal. On the 8th of May they embarked, and as their boats with soldiers, arms and supplies, moved slowly up the St. Lawrence, the forest, springing into verdure on either side, screened no lurking ambush to interrupt their way. This of course was due to no less a personage than the Virgin Mary herself, who chilled the courage and dulled the subtility of the Iroquois, so that they neglected this signal opportunity of crushing the new colony at its inception. For the Iroquois had now mastered the use of the fire-arms they had purchased from the Dutch traders on the Hudson. These arms were short arquebuse muskets; so that the savages were on equal terms with the white men. On the 17th of May, 1642, the boats approached Montreal, and all on board with one voice intoned the Te Deum. Maisonneuve was the first to spring on shore. He fell on his knees to ask a blessing on their work. His followers did the same. Their tents and stores were landed without delay. An altar was prepared for mass. It was decorated with admirable taste by Mademoiselle Mance, aided by Madame de la Peltrie, who, with the capricousness which distinguishes even the saintliest of her sex, had taken a sudden fancy to abandon the Ursulines in favour of the new settlement at Ville Marie. Then mass was celebrated, a strange and brilliant picture, with colour and music, as if the rite of the middle ages had been brought suddenly into the heart of the primeval forest. The altar, with its lights and glittering crucifix; before it the priest in vestments, stiff with gold; the two fair girls of delicate nurture, attended by their servants, erect and tall; above the soldiers kneeling around him, Maisonneuve in panoply of steel; further off, artisans and labourers, the rank and file of the colony: such was the brilliant picture whose background was the dark aisles of columned woods. When mass was said, the Jesuit Father, Vimont, Superior of the mission, addressed to those assembled a few remarkable words to which subsequent events have given the force of prophecy. “You are but a grain of mustard seed, that shall rise and grow till its branches overshadow the earth. You are few, but your work is the work of God. His smile is on you, and your children shall fill the land.”

Chapter XII.

THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTMAGNY.

OR a year the new settlement of Ville Marie escaped the notice of the Iroquois. The settlers were therefore left unmolested till they had entrenched themselves with a strong palisade. A birch-bark chapel was raised above their altar. At first the whole community lived in tents, but soon strongly-built wooden houses were erected, and the first feeble beginnings of what should be a great city in the future began to shape themselves. The whole community lived together in one large house, with the Jesuit Superior, Vimont, and his brother priest. The life of the settlement was a simple and happy one, regulated in all things by the religious enthusiasm which was the life of the colony. The great event of each month was a festival, a procession, a high mass, in honour of some saint’s day. Then the soldiers were marshalled under arms by Maisonneuve. The altar was decked with a taste which showed culture as well as piety, by Mademoiselle Mance and Madame de la Peltrie. For this purpose they loved to resort to the neighbouring wood, and gather the May-flowers and the lilies among the fresh green grass. They were unmolested by human enemies, but with December came a rise of the St. Lawrence which well nigh swept away the entire village. In this their strait the pious Maisonneuve placed a large wooden cross on the margin of the rising tide, and at the same time he vowed a vow to the Mother of God that if it so might be that the advance of the waters were stayed, he would carry another cross, equally large, to the summit of the mountain. Our Lady of Gracious Help hearkened to his prayer, and the rising tide was stayed. Therefore, Maisonneuve, bearing a heavy cross which the good Fathers had consecrated, carried it to the topmost brow of the hill. With him followed the ladies, the soldiers, and the other colonists. Long did that cross stand there, a sign of hope to the beleaguered inhabitants of Ville Marie in many a bitter day.

Ville Marie received an important addition to its strength in the autumn of 1643, when Louis d’Ailleboust de Coulonges, a valiant and devout nobleman of Champagne, accompanied by his young and beautiful wife, arrived. She, too, was noble. When she was asked in marriage by d’Ailleboust, she refused him, having at the age of five made a vow of perpetual chastity. To this refusal her Jesuit confessor objected, since her proposed husband was about to proceed to Canada, to devote his sword and his life to the service of the church in that distant land. It was most important that she should go with him to help in the good work. But how could her conscience be relieved of the vow she had taken? Her confessor suggested a means of escape. Let the marriage ceremony be performed, but let husband and wife live together as if unmarried. A year after its foundation the Iroquois discovered Ville Marie. Fortunately, very soon afterwards, d’Ailleboust, who was a skillful engineer, had surrounded the town with ramparts and bastions of earth, that proved a far more secure defence than mere palisades. One day ten Algonquins, flying from a band of Iroquois, sought shelter in Ville Marie. For the first time, the Iroquois beheld the new fortifications. They examined the place carefully, and carried the important news home to their nation. In the summer of 1643, a party of sixty Hurons descended the St. Lawrence, laden with furs for the Ville Marie market. When they came to the rapids of Lachine they had to land and carry their canoes by the portage. Quite unexpectedly, they came on a large war-party of Iroquois. The Hurons, panic-stricken, sought to gain favour with their enemies by betraying all they knew of the defences of their French benefactors. The Iroquois sent a party of forty warriors, who surprised six Frenchmen within shot of the fort, and having killed three of them, carried off the others for torture and the stake. It is satisfactory to know that the Huron traitors were, most of them, put to death that night by the Iroquois. Of the French captives, one escaped to Ville Marie, the others were burned alive with the usual tortures. It now became unsafe to pass beyond the gates of the fort without a vigilant and well-armed escort. From this time forth the Iroquois were in perpetual ambuscade, not only at Ville Marie, but near a fort lately built at the central point of Three Rivers, and at another fort which Montmagny had erected at the mouth of the Richelieu, to check the advance of the Mohawk Iroquois, who usually made their descents on the settlements by this river. At Ville Marie, especially, the Mohawk spies lay in wait; concealed in a wood, or coiled up, bear-like, in a hollow tree, a single warrior would watch for days, almost without food, for the opportunity of taking the scalp of whoever ventured unarmed outside the gate. But this danger was much lessened by the arrival from France of a number of strong mastiffs which proved to be most efficient in instantly indicating the presence of the Iroquois, so that it was no longer possible for the savages to lurk in the woods undetected. Among these dogs the most remarkable was one named Pilot, which every morning, followed by a strong detachment of her progeny, explored the outskirts of the fort. If any one of them was lazy, or returned unauthorized to the fort, she bit the delinquent severely. She could detect the presence of the Iroquois, even at a distance, by the scent, on which she would run back with loud barking to the fort. In 1644, a considerable detachment of Iroquois camped near Ville Marie, intending, if possible, to surprise the garrison. But Pilot gave warning of their movements every day, and Maisonneuve—although no braver soldier ever drew sword beneath the flag of France—thought it his duty to observe extreme caution in exposing his men to a fight with an enemy of far superior force. But his soldiers grew discontented at this forced inaction. They even so far forgot themselves as to accuse Maisonneuve of want of courage. Hearing of this, Maisonneuve resolved on decisive action. One morning in March, while the snow still lay deep around Ville Marie, Pilot ran into the fort barking furiously. The soldiers begged their leader to allow them to confront the foe. “Yes,” said Maisonneuve, “get ready at once, and take care that you are as brave as you profess to be. I will lead you myself.” All was made ready, and with guns well loaded, a body of thirty French soldiers sallied forth, Maisonneuve at their head. They marched into the forest east of the fort, whence the barking of the dogs had first been heard. Suddenly from behind the trees started forth some eighty Iroquois warriors, who greeted them with a volley of bullets and arrows. Steadily the Frenchmen returned the fire, and several of the savages fell dead in the snow. The French had the advantage of being armed with the newly-invented flint-lock musket, while the Indians had only the match-lock arquebuse. Maisonneuve, with wise precaution, ordered his men to imitate the tactics of the foe by taking shelter behind trees. But, being outnumbered, the fight was an unequal one, and it was necessary to retreat to the fort. From time to time, the French turned round and fired on their pursuers; but as they got closer to the fort, the retreat became a panic, and Maisonneuve was left alone. The Iroquois pressed close upon him, and might have surrounded him, but that they wished to leave the honour of his capture to their chief. Maisonneuve shot him dead with a pistol, and while the savages busied themselves with securing the body of their chief, the French leader made his way in safety to the fort.

In 1645, Montmagny endeavoured to secure a treaty of peace with the Iroquois. He had succeeded in saving from the stake several Iroquois who had been captured by the Algonquins. These he sent back to their own country unharmed. The result was an embassy from the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois. The Iroquois, it will be remembered, consisted at that time of five nations, of which the Senecas and other western tribes were engaged in exterminating the Hurons, while the Mohawks alone carried on the war against New France. The Mohawk ambassadors were received by Montmagny with much pomp at the fort at Three Rivers. Endless speeches were made, endless belts of wampum were presented; one belt to unite the French and the Mohawks as brothers; one belt to scatter the clouds; one belt to cover the blood of the slain Iroquois; one belt to break the kettle in which the Mohawks boiled their enemies; and so on, through the endless maze of metaphors which constituted the oratory of these grown-up children. Peace was concluded, but Montmagny overlooked the fact that it was only ratified by two out of the three tribes of the Mohawk Nation. The clans of the Wolf and the Turtle seemed to have been sincere in their desire for peace; that of the Bear was unappeased. Father Jogues, a Jesuit missionary, was sent to the Mohawk country by Montmagny as a political emissary. The story of this man’s life is a remarkable one. His portrait, as given by Charlevoix, presents a delicate, refined, almost feminine type of face; not by any means one that would typify the stoical endurance of Brebœuf, or the placid courage of the martyred Daniel. But, as has been well said, when inspired with the same holy enthusiasm, the lamb has proved as brave as the lion. Several years before, when on the Huron mission, Jogues had been captured by the Iroquois, from whom he suffered incredible tortures, but one finger being left on his hands. By the kindness of a Dutch trader, he was able to escape to France, where he was received with the greatest enthusiasm. Numerous honours and preferments were offered him. Anne of Austria, the Queen of Louis the Thirteenth, kissed his mutilated hand. As Charlevoix says, he had all the more temptation to enjoy repose at home, because he must have felt that it was deserved. But he would not be unfaithful to his vocation, and returned to Canada. His embassy to the Mohawks soon came to an end. The minority of the Bear tribe, being eager for war, desired to implicate the other Mohawks by taking the life of the French emissary. A sickness fell on the town in which he lived. The old cry was raised that the Jesuit was a sorcerer whose presence brought famine and the pest. Jogues was murdered, happily without torture, by a blow on the head. So the peace of a few months was broken, and the Iroquois terror once more haunted forest and stream.

As the French King had decreed that the term of office for colonial governors should not exceed three years, Montmagny resigned in 1648. The government of this nobleman was made illustrious by the foundation of Montreal and of the Ursuline Convent at Quebec, and by his wise erection of the Richelieu fort. He was succeeded in the same year by M. d’Ailleboust, who had taken a leading part in the settlement at Ville Marie, and had afterwards been commandant at the important fort at Three Rivers. During the two years of his term of government took place the extirpation of the Hurons, a small remnant of whom sought shelter in Quebec. At Lorette, a few miles from thence, their descendants are still to be found, though with ever-dwindling numbers. In 1648 an envoy arrived at Quebec from the British colonies in New England. This was the first direct communication between the colonies of France and England. The New England envoy proposed a treaty for reciprocity of commerce, and an alliance between the colonies. The proposal was very acceptable to the government of New France. They sent to Boston, as their representative, a Jesuit priest named Druillettes. Only three years before, a law had been passed by the New England Legislature that any Jesuit entering New England should be put to death. It has been truly said that the men of Boston hated a Jesuit next to the devil or a Church of England minister. However, owing to his character of envoy, Druillettes reached the Puritan mother city in safety, and was hospitably entertained. He visited Boston again in 1651, in order to press on the New England government d’Ailleboust’s wish for an alliance between New France and New England against the Iroquois. But then, as now, the New Englander was disinclined to fight for any interests but his own. And as to the plea which Druillettes urged, that it was the duty of the English colonists to protect his Huron converts against their heathen fellow-countrymen, the Puritans probably thought that there was little to choose between the heathenism of the Iroquois and the idolatries of the popery to which the Hurons had been converted. So the negotiation came to nothing.

In the year 1650, that of the final destruction of the Hurons, M. d’Ailleboust resigned office, but settled in the colony where he died. He was succeeded by M. de Lauzon, who had been one of the leading men in Richelieu’s company. The prospects of new France were dark when he entered on its government. The Iroquois, flushed with their success over the Hurons, directed all their energies against the unhappy colonists, and their yet more unhappy Indian allies. None, without being armed, dared to plough a field or bind up a sheaf of grain. The dwellers on outlying farms had either to entrench themselves with strong defences, or to abandon their dwellings. As an illustration of the straits to which the colony was reduced, the following from the Relations for 1653 may be quoted: “The war of the Iroquois has dried up all the sources of prosperity. The beavers are allowed to build their dams in peace, none being able or willing to molest them. Crowds of Hurons no longer descend from their country with furs for trading. The Algonquin country is dispeopled; and the nations beyond are retiring further away still, fearing the musketry of the Iroquois. The keeper of the company’s store here in Montreal has not bought a single beaver skin for a year past. At Three Rivers, the small means at hand have been used in fortifying the place from fear of an inroad upon it. In the Quebec store-house, all is emptiness. And thus everybody has reason to be malcontent, and there is not wherewithal in the treasury to meet the claims made upon it, or to supply public wants.” An Iroquois band attacked Three Rivers, and killed the commandant, with several men, in a sortie from the fort. So critical was the condition of Ville Marie in the year 1651 that Maisonneuve went to France to represent the state of the colony. He obtained, chiefly from Maine and Brittany, a body of a hundred and five colonists, all well trained both in war and agriculture, whose arrival checked the Iroquois advance, and greatly served to build up the fortunes of Ville Marie. By this time the fickle Iroquois seemed inclined for peace, which was accordingly concluded in 1655, and though the war broke out again in a few months, even this short interval of tranquillity was of great use to the colony. A number of Jesuit missionaries took advantage of the peace, precarious as it was, to venture their lives in preaching the gospel among the Iroquois. The Onondaga Nation had requested of M. de Lauzon that a settlement might be formed in their country, in consequence of which Captain Dupuis, a French officer of noble birth, was sent into the Iroquois country with fifty soldiers and four missionaries. When they left Quebec their friends bade them a last solemn farewell, not expecting to see them return alive from the land of those ruthless savages. The French force began to form a settlement in the Onondaga country, but the sleepless jealousy of the savage tribe was soon aroused against them. Jealousy soon became hatred. A dying Indian who had been converted warned one of the priests that the Iroquois had resolved on surprising and slaughtering their French guests. Dupuis resolved on a stratagem, pardonable under the circumstances: he invited the Iroquois to a feast, gave them plenty of brandy, and when every man, woman and child, was perfectly drunk, he and his soldiers embarked in canoes which had been secretly prepared, and made their escape.

In 1658, Viscount d’Argenson became governor. He ascended the river Richelieu with two hundred men, and drove back the Iroquois for a considerable distance. In 1659 the celebrated De Laval came to Quebec as Vicar Apostolic, a step by which the Pope made Canada independent of the French episcopate. He was afterwards bishop, and by his arbitrary assumptions of authority was engaged in constant bickering with the civil government. In 1660 it became known to the colonists of Ville Marie and Quebec that a united effort for the destruction of those towns and of Three Rivers, and the consequent extermination of the entire French race, was meditated by the Iroquois. The danger was averted by an act of heroic self-sacrifice not unworthy to be compared with the achievements of a Decius or a Leonidas. A young French nobleman, named Daulac des Ormeaux, with sixteen companions, resolved to strike a blow which, at the sacrifice of their own lives, might check the savage enemy’s advance, at least for the present. They confessed their sins, received absolution, and, armed to the teeth, took up their position in an old palisade fort situated where, then as now, the roar of the Long Sault Rapids on the Ottawa blend with the sigh of the wind through the forest. With them were some fifty Huron allies, who, however, basely deserted them in the hour of danger. While they were engaged in strengthening their fortifications the Iroquois fell upon them. For ten days, and through incessant attacks, this handful of Europeans held at bay the five hundred painted savages who swarmed, screeching their war-whoops and brandishing their tomahawks, up to the very loop-holes of the fort, but only to be driven back by the resolute fire of its defenders. The savages left their chief among the heaps of slain. Repulsed again and again, the Iroquois put off their main attack till the arrival of reinforcements, the chief body of their forces which was moving on Ville Marie. To the last, Daulac des Ormeaux and his handful of gallant followers held their own against the swarming hordes. The base Hurons deserted, and, it is satisfactory to know, were nearly all put to death by the Iroquois. At length Daulac and his men, exhausted by their almost super-human efforts, as well as by hunger, thirst, and sleeplessness, fell, fighting to the last. Four only survived, of whom three, being mortally wounded, were burned at once. The fourth was reserved for torture. The Iroquois had paid very dearly for their victory over a handful of men, whose valour so daunted the spirit of the savages that they gave up their designs on the French colony. There was great joy in Quebec at this deliverance, and a solemn Te Deum was sung in the churches.

In 1661 the Baron d’Avaugour was appointed governor. He was a skilful soldier, and had seen service in the wars in Hungary. His term of office was embarrassed, like that of his predecessor, by constant disputes with Laval, chiefly on the subject of selling liquor to the Indians, to which Laval, like all the rest of the clergy, was, on principle, opposed. D’Avaugour at this time induced the French king to give up a project which many of the French court advocated—the abandonment of Canada. He also obtained for the garrison of New France a reinforcement of four hundred men.

In February, 1663, a terrible earthquake affected the whole of Canada, the shocks being felt two or three times a day over a period of half a year. No damage, however, was done to life, and very little to property. The Indians believed that the earthquake was caused by the souls of their ancestors, who wished to return to the world. D’Avaugour induced King Louis XIV. to abolish the Richelieu company, and to take the government of Canada into his own hands. Under the King, Canada was to be governed by a Sovereign Council, consisting of the Governor, the Bishop, the Intendant, or Minister of Justice and Finance, and five leading colonists. Acadia, where the English, or rather the Huguenot Kirk under English colours, had destroyed every vestige of the French settlements, had been ceded again to France at the request of Cardinal Richelieu. It was divided into three provinces, under three governors, one of whom, a Huguenot adventurer named La Tour, intrigued and finally rebelled against the governor in chief, Charnissey, in 1647. With the usual Huguenot tactics, La Tour asked for and obtained aid from the English colony at Boston against his own countrymen, although England and France were then at peace. Charnissey remonstrated with the English, who proposed an alliance between his government of Acadia and New England. Having learned that La Tour was absent from fort St. John, Charnissey attempted to take it by surprise. It was gallantly defended by Madame de La Tour, a French lady of noble birth and of great beauty and accomplishments. Charnissey was forced to withdraw, after a loss of thirty-three of his men. He perceived during the siege that English soldiers from Boston, contrary to the treaty, were among the garrison. Enraged at this breach of faith, Charnissey seized and destroyed a ship belonging to New England. Alarmed at the danger to their commerce, the practical-minded Bostonian merchants sent no more aid to their unfortunate co-religionists. Again, and with a stronger force, Charnissey besieged fort St. John. Again, the Lady of the Castle, with a few faithful followers, beat back his thrice-repeated attack. The treason of one of the garrison enabled him to make his way, at an unguarded entrance, into the main body of the fort. But Madame de La Tour and her soldiers stood at bay in an outlying part of the castle, and Charnissey agreed to terms of surrender which he basely violated. He had the unspeakable wickedness to hang every one of these faithful soldiers, and to force the noble lady whom they had served so well to witness the execution with a halter round her neck. The shock affected her reason, and she died soon after. Her husband had better fortune. When Puritanism, under Cromwell, became the arbiter of Europe, La Tour was appointed one of the three governors of Acadia. By the treaty of Breda, Acadia was once more transferred to France. Its history at this time contains little worthy of record. With a meagre soil and a sea-board ever exposed to invasion it was held of little consequence, either by England or France.

Chapter XIII.

CANADA UNDER ROYAL GOVERNMENT.

ARON D’AVAUGOUR was succeeded by the Chevalier de Mézy. In consequence of the continual quarrels between the late Governor and Bishop Laval, De Mézy had been chosen because, from his ostentatious professions of piety, it was thought that he would be certain to act in harmony with the priesthood, so powerful in New France. This proved to be a mistake. Of De Mézy’s government there is nothing left worthy of record. He quarrelled with two members of the Council, and, in utter contempt of law, dismissed them from office. This was trenching on the royal prerogative, of which his master, Louis XIV., was so jealous. Worse still, knowing that Bishop Laval and the Jesuits were most unpopular in the colony, on account of the tithes exacted by the Bishop, and the constant interference of the Jesuits in secular matters, he actually made an appeal to the people by calling a public meeting to discuss the conduct of the officials he had displaced. This was the worst of all sins in the opinion of the Grand Monarque. Louis resolved to make an example of De Mézy. He was superseded, and death only saved him from being impeached in the Quebec court. Alexander de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy, was appointed by King Louis as Viceroy. He reached Quebec in 1665, bringing with him one who was destined to succeed him as Governor, Daniel de Rémi, Sieur de Courcelles, and M. Talon, who was to fill the new office of Intendant, and prove one of the wisest and most successful fosterers of industry and colonization that New France has ever known. In the same year with De Tracy, arrived almost the entire regiment of Carignan, veteran soldiers of the war against the Turks in Hungary. With them came their Colonel, M. de Salières. The transport which conveyed them brought a considerable number of new colonists, and of sheep, cattle, and horses; the latter never before seen in Canada, although the Jesuits had imported some to their short-lived Acadian settlement. De Tracy’s first care was to check the Iroquois. For this purpose he built three new forts on the Richelieu River, two of them called after his officers MM. Sorel and Chambly, who were the first commandants. Meanwhile, three out of the five nations of the Iroquois had made peace. De Tracy and Sorel marched into the country of the other two Iroquois nations, who sued for peace, but who, with their usual perfidy, could not resist the opportunity to massacre a party of Frenchmen who fell in their way. Among those murdered was a nephew of Marquis de Tracy.

It so happened that several envoys from the Iroquois had waited on De Tracy, and were being entertained by him at dinner. One of the savages, flushed with wine, boasted that it was his hand that had taken the scalp of De Tracy’s nephew. All present were horrified, and the Marquis, saying that he would prevent the wretch from murdering anyone else, had him seized, and at once strangled by the common executioner. This most righteous punishment of course broke off the negotiation. Meantime M. de Courcelles invaded the Iroquois country. After a toilsome march of seven hundred miles through wilderness and forest deep with snow, he marched at the head of his men, shod with snow-shoes, and, like the private soldiers of his command, with musket and knapsack at his back. With him, under La Vallière and other French nobles of historic name, marched for the first time the representatives of that Canadian militia which has since gained such deserved fame for courage and every soldier-like quality. They found the Iroquois country a solitude; the men were all absent on expeditions elsewhere; the women had fled to the woods. But this expedition, made at mid-winter, struck terror into the hearts of the savages, and showed them that they were contending with a civilization whose power was greater than they had supposed. It would exceed the limits of a work like this to give in detail all the benefits which Canada owes to the wise and virtuous Talon. It was he that discovered the existence of iron at Gaspé and at Three Rivers; it was he that opened up trade with the Hudson’s Bay Territory, and that suggested the mission of Joliet and Marquette to the Mississippi. He and De Courcelles resigned office in the same year—1671-2. The next Governor was Louis de Buade, Count de Frontenac; a noble of high reputation for ability and courage. Taking advantage of existing peace with the Iroquois, and with the consent of their chiefs, Frontenac built at the head of Lake Ontario a fort, called by his own name. It stood on the site of the present artillery barracks at Kingston. The discovery of the Mississippi by Joliet, although it took place in Frontenac’s term of office, hardly belongs to Canadian History. Another explorer, La Salle, sailed down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. He received a grant of Fort Frontenac, which he rebuilt with stone walls and bastions. A few miles above Niagara Falls he built a ship of sixty tons and seven guns, which he called the Griffon. In this vessel he sailed to Lake Michigan. On his return he sent back the Griffon laden with furs, but she was never seen again, and is believed to have foundered in a storm. Frontenac was much harassed by disputes with Laval and the clergy on the old vexed question of the liquor trade, to which they were opposed. In 1682 he was succeeded as Governor by M. de La Barre. The Iroquois once more began to give trouble by endeavouring to take what remained of the fur trade out of the hands of the French, and transfer it to the British colonies. La Barre, with two hundred soldiers, marched into the Iroquois country; but sickness and a badly managed commissariat made his expedition a failure, and cancelled the influence which the successes of the three previous Governors had won over the savages. He was recalled in 1685, and the Marquis de Denonville took his place. Denonville’s administration marks the lowest point in the fortunes of New France, which now contained about ten thousand colonists. He was meditating an attack on the Iroquois, when, in 1686, he received a letter from the English Governor of New York, warning him that the Iroquois were now subjects of the King of England, and therefore must not be molested by the French. But Denonville was about to strike the Iroquois with weapons that were not carnal; he was about to degrade himself by fighting them with their own favourite arms, dissimulation and treachery. Through the influence of the missionaries in the Iroquois country, he called a meeting of the chiefs at Fort Frontenac, where he had them seized and sent in chains to France to work as galley slaves. Even the selfish tyrant on the throne of France was ashamed of an act like this, and wrote to reprimand his viceroy. Denonville meantime collected as many Iroquois as he could lay hands upon, intending to send them also to the galleys; but an order from the King released these and the other victims. Denonville’s act was not only a great crime, but a still greater mistake. Strange to say, the Iroquois did not visit it on the missionaries who lived in their country. They said to the Jesuits, “O men of the Black Robe, we have a right to hate you, but we do not hate you! Your heart has had no share in the wrong that has been done to us. But you must leave us. When our young men sing the song of war, haply they might injure you in their fury. Therefore, go in peace.” And so the Iroquois chiefs sent away the missionaries, under the protection of armed guides, who escorted them to Quebec. For some time all seemed tranquil. A raid made by Denonville into the Iroquois country led to no adequate result; and an Indian of the Huron race, known as “The Rat,” whom Raynal terms “the Machiavel of the Wilderness,” complicated matters still further, by seizing some Iroquois envoys who were on the way to treat of peace with Denonville. Of these “The Rat” murdered one, and having captured the rest, told them that this was done by Denonville’s orders, but that he would set them free. This of course infuriated the Iroquois still more. “I have killed the Peace!” said the Rat. With the accession of William III. and Mary, war broke out between England and France, the first of the wars between their rival colonies. In that war the Iroquois gave their powerful support to New York and New England. But they had a private grudge for which a signal vengeance was to be exacted. On the night of August 5th, 1689, all was still in the picturesque village of Lachine. The industrious inhabitants, weary with the day’s work in their harvest fields, lay asleep none the less soundly for a storm of hail which swept on their village from the lake. Under cover of this storm, which effectually disguised the noise of their landing, a force of many hundreds of Iroquois warriors, armed and painted, made a descent upon Lachine. Through the night they noiselessly surrounded every building in the village. With morning’s dawn the fearful war-whoop awoke men, women, and children to their dawn of torture and death. The village was fired. By the light of its flames in the early morn the horror-stricken inhabitants of Montreal could see from their fortifications the cruelties that preceded the massacre. It is said that the Iroquois indulged very freely in the fire water of the Lachine merchants, and that had the defendants of Ville Marie been prompt to avail themselves of the opportunity, the drunken wolves might have been butchered like swine. Paralyzed by the horrors they had witnessed, the French let the occasion slip. After feasting all day, at nightfall the savages withdrew to the mainland, not, however, without signifying by yells, repeated to the number of ninety, how many prisoners they carried away. From the ramparts of Ville Marie, and amid the blackened ruins of Lachine, the garrison watched the fiercely-burning fires on the opposite shore, kindled for what purposes of nameless horror they knew too well.

Panic-stricken, the French blew up Fort Frontenac and withdrew to Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec, to which towns the French possessions in Canada were now reduced. In this crisis Frontenac, superseding the incompetent Denonville, was once more sent to govern New France. He at once organized three expeditions, which invaded and ravaged what are now the States of New York, New Hampshire, and Maine. In retaliation, the British sent two expeditions against Canada. The first, under General Winthrop, broke down before it reached Montreal. The second, a fleet of twenty-two ships of war, was directed against Quebec, but owing to Frontenac’s vigorous resistance, was forced to withdraw, abandoning its artillery to the Canadians. In honour of this success a church was built in Quebec and dedicated to “Notre Dame des Victoires.” Next year another attack on Montreal by the English was repulsed. This war between the colonies, which is called “King William’s war,” was brought to a close by the treaty of Ryswick in 1697. The veteran soldier De Frontenac died at Quebec in the year 1698, and was succeeded by one of his lieutenants, M. de Callières. In 1701 war broke out again between France and England, and, therefore, between their colonies. It is known as “Queen Anne’s war.” In 1700 Callières died at Quebec, and was succeeded by the Marquis de Vaudreuil, under whom the colony attained its greatest prosperity. The total population of New France was then 15,000. An attack was made by four hundred French on a border fort named Haverhill, which they captured. In 1710 seven regiments of Marlborough’s veterans were sent under Admiral Sir Hovendon Walker to meet a force of four thousand under General Nicholson. But the fleet was wrecked among the St. Lawrence reefs, and Nicholson, when he heard of this, marched back to Albany. This war closed with the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, by which Acadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson’s Bay Territory were ceded to England. Canada was retained by France. In 1725 Vaudreuil, like his two predecessors, died at Quebec. He was succeeded by the Marquis de Beauharnois, in whose time the population rose to 40,000. This Governor, with consent of the Iroquois chiefs, built a fort at the entrance of the Niagara River. In 1745 war broke out again between France and England, but happily this did not affect Canada, as its operations were chiefly carried on in the Maritime Provinces, where a British force took Louisbourg. The next Governor was the Marquis de la Jonquière; but he was taken prisoner, his fleet being defeated by Admiral Anson. For the two years that followed—1747-1748—the war closed by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, when La Jonquière, being released, assumed the government. As a defence against the British fort of Oswego, La Jonquiere built a fort near the River Humber on Lake Ontario, called, from the French Minister of Marine, Rouillé, or by its Indian name, Toronto. This first feeble beginning of a great metropolis dates from 1749, a year for this reason one of the memorable ones of Canadian history. This fort, the germ of Canada’s industrial and intellectual centre, was situated about a mile from the Humber, to the south of the present Exhibition Building, in West Toronto. Meanwhile the administration of New France was becoming more and more corrupt. The greed and dishonesty of Bigot, the last of the Intendants, did much to hasten the downfall of the colony. The wealth he accumulated by fraud amounted to the enormous sum of £400,000. La Jonquière died at Quebec in 1752, and was buried in the church of the Récollet Friars, beside Frontenac and Vaudréuil. He was succeeded, in 1752, by the Marquis Duquesne de Menneville. This Governor sent a force to destroy a fort named Fort Necessity, which was defended by a Virginian officer of militia known to history as George Washington. Washington was forced to capitulate to the French commandant, M. de Villiers. The war which ensued is called the French war. Duquesne having applied for his recall, was succeeded by the Marquis de Vaudréuil-Cavagnal, son of the former Governor Vaudréuil, and born at Quebec. He arrived in Canada in 1755. Every man in New France was now called to arms; the farms were deserted, the fields uncultivated, the fur trade was extinct, prices rose as provisions became scarce, and wretches like Bigot throve on the miseries of the people. But the English received a check by the almost total destruction of their army in the fight in which General Braddock fell. This, however, was partly retrieved in the victory gained by General Johnson over the French General Baron Dieskau, near Lake George. George the Second made Johnson a baronet, as a reward for his success. In 1756, the French King named the Marquis de Montcalm Commander-in-chief of the forces in New France. Thus, on the eve of her downfall, after suffering much from incompetent rulers and corrupt officials, there was given to New France a leader who, in the purity of his chivalrous nature, in his combination of the two-fold type of soldier and statesman, is not unworthy to be compared with the heroes of her earlier and nobler day, with Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Samuel de Champlain.

In the autumn of 1756 Montcalm captured Forts Ontario and Oswego, and demolished them. This gave the French command of the entire lake region which Fort Oswego had controlled, and diverted the fur trade from the English colonies to New France. Montcalm continued his victorious career until Fort William Henry—which a French force, under a brother of Vaudréuil, had vainly endeavoured to take in the early part of the year—had surrendered, and was destroyed. This brilliant success gave Montcalm the control of Lake George, which he utilized by capturing and sinking all the English war ships that sailed on it. The glory of these exploits was stained by a series of massacres of English prisoners by Montcalm’s Indian allies and camp followers. But so great was the impression made by his exploits that the ever-faithless Iroquois meditated deserting their alliance with England, and would have done so had it not been for the influence of Sir William Johnson.

The Pitt administration had now assumed power in England, and the war was carried on with greater energy. An expedition was sent to Nova Scotia and Cape Breton in 1758, and, in the face of great difficulties, Louisbourg was taken. This was due in part to the skill and courage of a young officer, Brigadier-General Wolfe, who succeeded in marching a body of troops up a height which had been thought inaccessible—tactics which he was destined to repeat, with an ampler success, on a more memorable occasion. A second expedition, consisting of the largest army yet assembled in America, marched on Ticonderoga and Crown Point under General Abercromby. Montcalm in vain applied to the French King for succour; the selfish voluptuary, whose political wisdom was expressed in the saying, “After me the Deluge,” preferred spending the people’s money on diamonds for his mistresses, rather than in an effort to redeem the national honour by preserving to France her finest colony. But Montcalm did not relax his efforts, though he knew that his cause was hopeless. “We shall fight,” he wrote to the French Minister, “and shall bury ourselves, if need be, under the ruins of the colony.” One final triumph awaited him, the greatest victory ever gained on American soil by a far inferior force over a magnificent army. Montcalm, with 3,600 Canadians, had entrenched himself on a triangular space of elevated ground between a small river, called La Chute, and Lake Champlain into which it flows. At the apex of the triangle was a small fort, whose guns commanded lake and river. Abercromby advanced with his army of 15,000 veteran troops in four columns. Montcalm had defended his position on the only assailable side by a breastwork of felled trees, and had ordered the country in front to be cleared of woods, so as to afford no cover to an attacking force. The fight began by a movement made by a number of gun-barges on the river, which opened fire on the right flank of the French. They were speedily sunk by the cannon of the fort. Then the four columns of the British advanced, Montcalm writes, “with admirable coolness and order.” The column, composed chiefly of Highlanders under Lord John Murray, opened fire on Montcalm’s right wing, commanded by M. de Lévis, who, seeing the danger, ordered a portée to be made in order to assail the flank of the attacking column. This move succeeded. The column of Highlanders, in order to avoid a cross flanking fire, were forced to incline the column next their own; thus the four columns of the British as they advanced to the breastwork became massed into a dense body of troops, an easy mark for the fire of their opponents. Montcalm took advantage of the disgraceful blunder in strategy by which Abercromby sacrificed the lives of so many gallant soldiers. He gave strict orders that his troops should reserve their fire till the English came within twenty paces of the entrenchments. His order was obeyed to the letter. When the densely crowded mass of the English columns came quite close to the breastwork of trees, a storm of shot and flame leaped forth at once from all the French line in front of them; the leaden hail tore its way resistlessly through their crowded ranks. In vain they attempted to return the fire against the Canadians, secure behind the entrenchments. Falling back in some confusion, the English columns reformed and returned to the attack. They displayed the utmost valour. The Highlanders, in Montcalm’s own words, “covered themselves with glory,” the picturesque costume of the Scotch mountaineers being distinctly visible through the smoke in the foreground of the battle. But Montcalm held a position impregnable except by artillery, and Abercromby’s artillery lay on board the gun-boats at the bottom of the river. For six hours the attack was renewed by the British columns, but whenever they advanced to the breastwork of trees they were driven back by a murderous fire to which they could not reply with advantage. All through the battle Montcalm exposed himself to every danger. From his station in the centre he hastened to every spot where his men were most hotly assailed, bringing reinforcements, and cheering them by his voice and example. Such was the great victory which shed its lustre on the name of Montcalm and the declining fortunes of New France.

This defeat was in some degree retrieved by the capture and destruction of Fort Frontenac (Kingston) and of Duquesne by General Forbes, who changed its name to Pittsburg, in honour of the great Commoner. Abercromby was now superseded by General Amherst, who made a successful move against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. At the same time General Prideaux and Sir William Johnson attacked Fort Niagara, where Prideaux was killed by the bursting of a mortar. Johnson succeeded in taking the fort. Meanwhile, Mr. Pitt, with that instinctive appreciation of true genius which distinguished that great minister, had appointed young General Wolfe to the supreme command. James Wolfe was a typical example, to borrow Wordsworth’s language, of “whatever man in arms should wish to be.” Devoted to his profession, he declined lucrative staff appointments in order to go on active service. At the capture of Louisbourg he had already distinguished himself. Unlike most of the military men of his time, Wolfe had an ardent love for literature and art. He was engaged to be married to a young lady of great beauty and considerable wealth; but he left England with the germs of a mortal disease in his constitution, which would too probably prevent his seeing her again. Late in May, 1759, a fleet of twenty ships of the line and as many frigates conveyed Wolfe and his lieutenants, Townshend and Murray, with their eight thousand regular troops, up the St. Lawrence to the Isle of Orleans, where the troops disembarked, and took up a position at the western end, facing Quebec. The fleet meantime reconnoitred, the soundings being taken by James Cook, afterwards the celebrated sea captain and discoverer. It is a curious coincidence that there were then present in the two opposing camps of France and England the two greatest explorers of that age—Cook and Bougainville. Wolfe himself ascended the river, above Quebec, in a barge, in order to make a general observation of their position. It is characteristic of him that he held in his hand, and read from time to time, a poem, then lately published in England, by Mr. Gray, of Cambridge—“An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” “Gentlemen,” he said to the officers beside him, “I would rather have the glory of having written this poem than that of the capture of Quebec.” “None but God knows how to attempt the impossible!” wrote Montcalm from his post within the beleaguered city. The king whom he had served with such signal success had abandoned him to his fate. His army was forced to subsist on horse-flesh and a small daily allowance of biscuit. In front of him, supported by a powerful fleet, was a well-appointed army abundantly supplied with provisions and munitions of war. The viceroy and his creatures thwarted him at every step; yet, amid all discouragements, the victor of Carillon held his ground, firm as the rock on which he stood.

A British force under Moncton defeated the French troops at Point Lévis, directly opposite Quebec. From this commanding position, Wolfe, with his heavy artillery, proceeded to bombard the city. The cathedral and the best houses were destroyed, the whole of the Lower Town was consumed by fire; a shell struck the garden of the Ursulines, ploughing a deep trench close to the wall. Meanwhile, Montcalm had taken up a position outside the city, his army being entrenched from the mouth of the St. Charles, which was defended by a boom of ships, with masts chained together, to the mouth of the Montmorency; every point where an enemy could land being defended by a small redoubt. Every point where access seemed possible was guarded by sentinels, especially one zigzag path that led from what is now Wolfe’s Cove to the Plains of Abraham above the city. It seemed scarce likely that such a harebrained attempt would be made as to risk the ascent by such a narrow and precipitous approach. Still, sentries were posted on the river bank below, and a redoubt with cannon commanded the entire ascent. The command of the redoubt was intrusted to one Vergor, who, three years before, had surrendered Beausejour to the British. Brought to a court-martial for this unsoldier-like act, he was acquitted by the influence of the Intendant, Bigot, whose creature he was. Wolfe resolved to attack Montcalm’s army on the left wing, near the mouth of the Montmorency River. On July 31st, under cover of broadsides from the men of war, Wolfe, with eight thousand troops arranged in four columns, landed on the north St. Lawrence strand, crossed the Montmorency by a ford in the face of fire from a redoubt, which Wolfe captured. They were then within musket shot of Montcalm’s entrenchments. Wolfe’s troops, having formed once more in column, attacked the entrenchments with fixed bayonets. But as at Carillon, the Canadian militia reserved their fire till the British were within a few yards of their position; they then rose from the trenches and poured in their fire with unerring aim. The British soldiers fell fast before it. Wolfe’s columns were broken, and they fled. Their retreat was covered by a violent thunderstorm. When the mist and rain cleared away, the British were seen re-embarking with their wounded. The glory of the victory of Montmorency belongs to De Lévis, one of Montcalm’s lieutenants. Anxiety at this defeat brought on a severe attack of Wolfe’s malady. He called a council of war, and was in favour of renewing the attack from the direction of Montmorency. Colonel Townshend proposed the daring plan of marching the army up the steep ascent already referred to, and entrenching themselves on the Plains of Abraham, commanding the city. This plan Wolfe at once adopted. That night 4,828 men, with one field-piece, proceeded in barges to Wolfe’s Cove. Wolfe had ascertained from deserters the watch-word which the crews of some provision barges, expected that night, were to give to the sentries on the river bank. Officers who spoke French were appointed to answer the challenge of the sentries; thus the barges passed undiscovered. When they touched the shore Wolfe sprang out, followed by his light infantry. They quickly overpowered the French soldiers in the guard-house at the foot of the ascent. Noiselessly and quickly, company after company ascended the narrow and precipitous pathway. At the top was a redoubt. It was surprised. Vergor, the commandant, was taken prisoner in bed. At dawn Wolfe’s army was ranged in battle array on the heights above Quebec. Montcalm, probably fearing that the British might entrench themselves, marched through St. John’s Gate to attack them. His army advanced in an irregular line three deep, and began the fight with a well-sustained fire, which the British bore without flinching. Wolfe passed through the lines of his men to animate their courage. He ordered each soldier to put two bullets into his musket, and not to fire till the French were within twenty yards. So effective was the storm of shot that met the French advance that their lines were broken, on which Wolfe, though wounded in the wrist, led his Grenadiers to the charge. Presently he fell, shot through the chest. “They run!” cried one of the officers who was supporting him in his arms. “Who run?” asked Wolfe. “The French,” was the reply. “Then I die happy,” were the last words of the hero.

Quebec was won, and with Quebec was won Canada for English speech, English law, English freedom of thought and utterance. The remains of Wolfe were sent to England to be buried. Those of the conqueror of Carillon who had fallen about the same time with Wolfe, found a resting place in the garden of the Ursulines, being buried in a trench which a shell had ploughed close to the wall. On September 8th, 1760, the other French forces in Canada surrendered, and all Canada was ceded to England by the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

Chapter XIV.

THE ENGLISH MILITARY GOVERNMENT.

OR ten years after the cession of Canada to England, the government of the colony was necessarily a purely military despotism. The first arrangement of any regular governmental machinery was made by General Amherst, who divided Canada into three departments, following the old division of Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers, in each of which martial law was to be in force, under the direction of General Murray at Quebec, General Gage at Montreal, and Colonel Benton at Three Rivers. Murray instituted a council composed of seven of his officers, which sat twice a week, and took cognizance of the more important civil and criminal cases. But in all, he reserved to himself the decision, without appeal. Gage, with yet more regard to the rights of the conquered French Canadians, established five justice courts, composed of former officers of the French Canadian militia, reserving a right of appeal to himself. This military administration of justice does not seem to have been, in practice, offensive; but to the naturally susceptible feelings of the conquered race it seemed an intolerable tyranny, and rather than appear before such tribunals, litigants generally settled their differences by referring them to the arbitration of the parish curé or notary. For some time, the hope was cherished that France would make yet another effort to regain her greatest colony. It was now seen that such hopes were vain, indeed. The court was only too glad to get rid of a source of constant expenditure. Madame de Pompadour made bon mots about the King having only lost a few acres of snow. The rising spirit of republicanism rejoiced at the capture of Quebec as a victory of freedom over despotism. There was a considerable emigration from Canada to France during the years following the Conquest. Many Canadians obtained high offices at Court, and were in favour with Napoleon, and even with the Republicans of 1792. Those who resolved, come what would, to remain in Canada, sent envoys to London to represent their interests at Court. George III. was struck with the beauty of the wife of one of their delegates, the Chevalier de Lévy, and said, “If all Canadian ladies resembled her, we may indeed vaunt of our beautiful conquest!”

In October, 1763, the King, by an edict never confirmed by the English Parliament, and, therefore, not constitutionally binding, set aside the old French law, always hitherto in force, and put in place of it the law of England. This was from every point of view impolitic and tyrannical; and in depriving the French colonists of the jurisprudence to which they were accustomed, the royal decree did not give them in exchange the rights of British subjects, since it declared that representative assemblies for Canada should be held only when circumstances allowed. In November, 1763, Murray was appointed Governor-General, and in accordance with orders, convened a council, which, in concert with himself, was to exercise all executive and legislative functions. It consisted of the chief military governors, with eight of the leading colonists nominated by himself. In this council there was but one French Canadian. In consequence of this high-handed treatment, there was much irritation among the Canadians, who did not consider that the Treaty of Paris had been carried out. To give them some measure of relief, Murray issued a proclamation to the effect that in all questions relating to landed property and inheritance the old French laws and customs should be the standard. For General Murray, though stern, was just, and was by no means willing to see the brave inhabitants of the conquered province trampled under the feet of the adventurers. Camp-followers and hangers-on of great men now swarmed into Canada, and, on the ground of being English-born and Protestants, tried to engross all preferment and power. These men, at first, carried everything before them. They tried to do what the Family Compact, in after years, succeeded in doing. They had, for a time, the ear of England, where they could always appeal to the rooted prejudices of race and religion, and they might have succeeded in making Canada another Ireland, had not the trumpet blast of American Revolution awoke the muddle-headed King and his Councillors to the necessity of keeping the faith pledged to the Canadians at the Treaty of Paris. For the present, the British Protestant clique had influence enough to procure the recall of Murray, whom they charged with autocratic military rule. Their real reason for hating him was the justice of his rule, which they construed into partiality to the French Canadians. It is curious to record how these men, themselves the most unscrupulous of oppressors, posed as advocates of the rights of Britons, and demanded an elective Assembly in place of military rule. They wished for an Assembly to which none but their own clique could be elected, and it is certain that French Canada in those days of anarchy fared far better under military rule, which, if at times despotic, was for the most part well-intended, and often conciliatory.

In 1763, a plot, surpassing in the magnitude of its scope any other ever known in Indian annals, was framed, under the instigation of certain French ex-officials, by an Ottawa chief named Pontiac. Believing, on the assurance of the French who made him their tool, that the King of France would send another army to Canada and expel the English, Pontiac matured a complicated and far-reaching plan to seize on the fifteen military posts from Niagara to Lake Michigan. The basis of operation was, as usual in Indian warfare, treachery and surprise. Pontiac, with a number of his warriors with muskets whose barrels had been cut short to admit of being concealed under the blankets of the Indians, was to gain friendly admission to the fort at Detroit, to overpower the sentries when once inside the gate, and admit a host of warriors who would be in readiness without. But an Ottawa girl was the mistress of the commandant, and put him on his guard. Besides Detroit, the forts of Niagara and Pittsburg were able to repel Pontiac’s attacks. The other forts were surprised, and all the horrors of torturing and scalping were wreaked on the hapless women and children who were captured and deceived into surrender. One lady, the wife of an officer, after being struck in the face by an Indian, with the reeking scalp just torn from her husband’s head, managed to escape in the confusion. She returned at night to her ruined home, and contrived, unaided, to bury her husband’s body, after which she made her way to a place of safety. It is humiliating to think that General Bradstreet, when, in 1764, he arrived with a relieving force, condescended to make peace with Pontiac. The wretch was killed soon afterwards, while drunk or asleep, by the knife of an Indian as treacherous as himself. In our day, a brilliant American historian has thought it worth his while to record, in two volumes of high-sounding rhetoric the life of this execrable savage.

Sir Guy Carleton was appointed to the Government of Canada in 1766, and, acting under the instructions he had received from the home authorities, considerably relaxed the stringency of military rule. He also obtained a number of reports on various subjects connected with the French Canadians, and these being translated to the Home Government, were carefully examined and commented on by the Law Officers of the Crown; the result of which was the framing of a law which passed the British Parliament, and is known as the Quebec Act. This Act provided that the French law, consisting of the “Custom of Paris” and the edicts of the Canadian Intendants, should decide all but criminal cases; that the French language should be used in the courts of law; that there should be complete civil equality between the French and English; and that legislative power, with the exception of taxation, which was reserved for the crown, should be vested in a council in concert with the governors, by whom its members were to be chosen. The Quebec Act was a crushing blow to the schemes of those who sought to erect a British-born and Protestant oligarchy. Many of these men were so angry that they became sympathizers with the revolutionary measures already maturing in the thirteen colonies. But this most righteous law secured the adherence to Britain, in the struggle that ensued, of the Canadian priests and seigneurs, and, through them, of well nigh the whole French Canadian people.

Chapter XV.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AS IT AFFECTED CANADA.

T the commencement of the struggle between Great Britain and the American colonies, Congress sent broadcast over Canada printed documents dwelling on the advantages of independence, and urging the conquered race to assert their rights. These representations had some weight at first, and with a few; but the wiser among the French colonists were of opinion that they had nothing to gain by alliance with those New England colonies, who were Puritans, and opponents of their religion, and who a few years back had been the worst enemies of their race. Franklin was sent by Congress to try his powers of persuasion; but the Canadians remembered how, fifteen years before, he had been foremost in urging the British to conquer their country, and the philosopher’s mission proved a failure.

In the autumn of 1775, Congress and General Washington, at the instance of General Montgomery, resolved on the invasion of Canada. Montgomery, with three thousand men, besieged and took the forts of Chambly and St. John. A detachment of his army, a hundred and ten strong, under Colonel Ethan Allen, attempted to seize Montreal, by aid of sympathizers within the city; but Allen and his force were surrounded and made prisoners by three hundred Canadian militia under Major Carden, who met them at Longue Pointe. Allen was sent in irons to England. A second expedition of a thousand men marched from Maine, under Colonel Benedict Arnold, the Judas of the War of Independence. After enduring great hardships, they arrived at Point Lévis, but, not having canoes to cross the St. Lawrence, and Colonel Maclean being well on his guard at Quebec, a surprise was impracticable, and Arnold waited at Pointe-aux-Trembles. Meanwhile, Carleton, hearing that Quebec was threatened, at once repaired thither. Montreal, being thus left without defence, was immediately occupied by Montgomery—a fact which sober history must set down as no valid ground for boasting. From Montreal Montgomery marched east, to unite his force to that of Arnold, for an attack on Quebec.

Meanwhile, Carleton made great efforts to strengthen the defences of Quebec. The population in 1775 amounted to 5,000. The garrison numbered 1,800, of whom 500 were French Canadian militia. The fortifications had been, to a great extent, rebuilt since the war of the Conquest, and additional artillery had been provided, both on the landward side and toward the St. Lawrence. The Lower Town was defended by batteries at the centre, and by barricades masking artillery. At the approach to the Upper Town, on Champlain street, a masked battery of seven cannon commanded the entire street. When Montgomery arrived, the Americans proceeded to invest the city, making their headquarters at Sainte Foye. It was impossible, without artillery adequate to the purpose, to attempt a regular siege. Montgomery’s object seems rather to have been to watch his opportunity to capture the place by a sudden dash, when the garrison was off their guard. There is no doubt that he expected support from American sympathizers within the city. A considerable force of Canadians had joined him—men who had been alienated by Carleton’s injudicious attempt to force the Canadian militia to take up arms. But, as the seigneurs, without exception, adhered to England, these men had to be officered by an American, Colonel Livingstone. Montgomery had met with a number of successes since he had invaded Canada; but these were either against such forts, like Chambly, guarded by an insufficient force, or against more important places, such as Montreal and Three Rivers, which he found altogether undefended, and occupied without any opposition. A successful attack on Quebec, even with a sufficient force, required—what Montgomery did not seem to possess—genuine military skill. A competent general would have perceived that the American force was not sufficient to justify the attempt. Montgomery’s men, ragged and ill fed, were unaccustomed to the rigour of a winter like ours; they were also decimated by an outbreak of the most malignant form of small-pox. For the sick there was no hospital accommodation whatever. They were also almost altogether unprovided with funds. The Canadians, who had lost heavily by an inconvertible paper currency, issued by Bigot during the war, would have nothing to do with the paper money issued by Congress. It is true that several of the Montreal English traders had undertaken to deal with Congress, as representatives of Canada; but these men belonged to the clique already described as being so justly odious to the French Canadians, and had, of course, no influence whatever. Add to this, that the French who had sided with the Americans soon found that they were treated as an inferior race, their opinions never being asked. They foresaw that, if the Americans conquered Canada, they would be, in every respect, worse off than under British rule. The ragged and unsoldier-like appearance of Montgomery’s levies, too, could not but excite the contempt of those who, in the British and French armaments, were well accustomed to the pomp and circumstance of war.

Montgomery decided on attempting to carry Quebec by escalade, on the night of December 31st. The weather was suitable for his purpose: neither moon nor stars shone through the darkness; a boisterous wind would serve to prevent the movements of the attacking force from being noticed. But several days before this, Carleton had been warned by deserters that a night attack was in contemplation, and was well on his guard. The cannon on the ramparts and barricades were kept ready loaded, and the sentries warned to give the alarm at any sign of an enemy’s approach. Montgomery sent two detachments to make a feint of attacking St. John’s Gate and the Citadel, in order to divert Carleton’s attention from his own movement. Arnold, with 450 men, was to enter the Lower Town from the suburb of St. Roche, and take the battery at the Sault au Matelot. He himself leading the strongest column, would carry the barricade of the Près de Ville, and march by Champlain Street to the Upper Town. At 4 a.m., January 1st, 1776, his troops were ready, but the signals agreed on, two rockets, answered by others from the other columns, were of course seen by Carleton’s sentries, who at once gave the alarm. Montgomery’s column had to move along a narrow path between the cliff and the strand, encumbered with ice-blocks and snow. However, they reached Près de Ville in good order, and succeeded in passing the outer barricade. But as the column approached the next barricade a battery of seven cannon confronted it, manned by fifty men under Captain Chabot. Montgomery rushed forward, followed by the men of his column, when the battery opening fire, discharged a storm of grape shot through their ranks. Montgomery fell dead with his two aides-de-camp, and many others. The rest turned and ran away, not caring to face a second salute from the battery. Arnold, as he approached the outer barricade of the Sault au Matelot Street, was severely wounded in the leg by a ball, and had to be carried back to his camp. This column was efficiently led by a Captain Major, who succeeded in passing the outer barrier, but the inner barricade was so admirably defended by a party of French Canadians, under Captain Dumas, that he could make no further way, and Carleton having sent round a strong force to attack the Americans in the rear, they were caught as in a trap, and obliged to surrender. Carleton then stormed the battery at St. Roche. The British general did himself honour by burying the remains of the brave but rash Montgomery with full military obsequies.

The American forces continued to invest Quebec, but removed to a distance of several miles. They tried to bombard the city from Point Levis, but failed, not having artillery of sufficient range. Carleton, with somewhat of excessive caution, did not take the field against them till the arrival of reinforcements from England, when he marched with a thousand men and six field-pieces, and defeated the Americans, who ran, leaving their stores, artillery and baggage, with the sick and wounded, in the hands of the British. But Congress did not relax in its efforts to hold the ground which Montgomery had won in Canada. They sent reinforcements both to Montreal and to General Sullivan, who was in command in the Richelieu district, so that the Americans in Canada amounted to 5,400 men. But Carleton had been largely reinforced from England, especially by a corps of German mercenaries whose hereditary prince had sold them to George III., and who after the war made very useful settlers in Upper Canada. He took the field against Sullivan, defeated the American force, taking a number of prisoners, and finally drove the invaders from Canada by the fall of 1776. Elsewhere during this war the English arms were not as successful as in Canada. But the record of their reverses, and of the triumphs of the Americans when fighting on their own soil, does not belong to Canadian history. Peace was made, and the independence of the United States recognized by the Treaty of Paris, in 1783.

Thus did the most momentous event in the annals of the civilized world, since the Reformation and the discovery of America, rivet the attachment of conquered New France to her British masters. In the American Revolution, as in the European Revolution, which was its afterbirth, New France had neither part nor lot. The peasantry, the soldier settlers of Montcalm and his predecessors, hated the Puritan enemy of New York and New England far more than the subjects of King George. The landed proprietors and the priests scented in the new revolutionary gospel all that resulted therefrom in the Terror of 1793. Unlike the France of those days, New France was an island stranded by the wreck of the Middle Ages on the shores of North America. There were but two classes, the nobles—with whom we count the priests—and the peasants. There was no tiers etat. There were no newspapers. Means of education were scant and sparse.

Chapter XVI.

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1791.

HE party, mainly composed of traders and agents of English mercantile houses, who had been baffled by the Quebec Act in their scheme of making their own class supreme over the French Canadians, had never ceased to foment disturbance in the Legislative Council; among those in England who were opposed to the war against the Thirteen Colonies; and even among the seigneurs, some of whom were now desirous of an elective Assembly. At the end of his term of office, Carleton, in accordance with instructions from the English Ministry, formed a sort of Camarilla in the Legislative Council; a Privy Council of five members, nominated by the Governor. This caused some discontent among the members of the Legislative Council not included in this new Cabinet. Chief Justice Livius, in particular, questioned the action of the Governor, and demanded the production of the instructions upon which he acted. Carleton, in consequence of this, deprived Livius of his office. On the matter being brought before the Board of Trade in England, it was decided that Carleton had acted illegally. In consequence of this dispute, Carleton resigned office and left Canada, to which he had done signal service in holding Quebec against Montgomery, in driving the American invaders from our frontier, and in conciliating by just treatment the French Canadian people at a most dangerous crisis, notwithstanding the pertinacious opposition of the English Colonial office seekers.

Carleton was succeeded as Governor by General Haldimand, a Swiss soldier in the British pay, who took office in 1778. Unlike Carleton, he was of a hard, stern, and despotic disposition. In proportion as it became evident that the United States were about to succeed in their assertion of independence, so did Haldimand increase the severity of his rule in Canada. He forced on Canada the oppressive exactions against which the Puritans of England had risen in revolt a century before; compulsory enlistment, and enforced statute labour. On the slightest suspicion of discontent with his rule, or of sympathy with the American Revolution, even such sympathy as was openly avowed by the English Opposition, he committed the suspects to prison, and kept them there for months without the pretence of a trial. With a meanness characteristic of the crafty and suspicious race, which has furnished the mercenaries and lackeys of every European despotism, he descended to violate the sanctity of private correspondence. The Postmaster-General had frequently found the European and other mail bags lying open in the Governor’s office, and the letters, with broken seals, scattered on the floor. It must be remembered that in those days a Governor-General was not the mere titular shadow of departed power, not the harmless dispenser of civil speeches with which we of the Canada of 1884 are familiar. In those days the Governor-General ruled the country with an absolute authority permitted to no king of England since the Stuart tyrants were executed or expelled. Numbers of citizens were arrested on the merest suspicions; the most innocent were never safe from a long incarceration; a man would disappear, none knew how, and months might pass before his anxious family knew in what dungeon he was immured. The Swiss adventurer was careful, however, to confine his high-handed measures to the French Canadians. The English settlers, he knew, regarded him as an alien, and might, if roughly handled, turn the current of public opinion against his administration in England.

As was the Governor, such were his underlings. The mode of administering justice had become a public scandal. Ruinous fines were imposed by judges who sat on the bench drunk, or who refused to hear evidence on the ground that they already knew all about the case, or declined to investigate a charge, because the person inculpated was, in the judge’s opinion, incapable of anything of the sort. One stranger was arrested on suspicion, without any definite charge being brought against him. It was reported that he was a young French noble, one of Lafayette’s suite. The sentry in front of the prison was ordered to watch whether the prisoner showed his face at the window of his cell, and if so, to fire at him. And when those who had been thus imprisoned were at length set free, they could get no satisfaction from the Government as to the crime with which they had been charged. But Haldimand, in one instance, mistook the man he had to deal with. A French Calvinist merchant of Montreal, named Du Calvet, is entitled to the honour of being recorded in Canadian history as the first assertor of Liberal principles in Canada. In the darkest time of tyranny, when the French majority had not an idea beyond their narrow exclusiveness of race and religion; when the English minority sought representative institutions only as a means of oppressing others, Du Calvet raised and has left on record his protest on behalf of equality for all races and creeds, for representative and responsible government, and for free public school education. This admirable citizen, of whom no mention is made in most so-called histories of Canada, was suspected by the Swiss Governor of correspondence with the Americans, on what grounds Du Calvet was never able to ascertain. He was suddenly seized by a body of soldiers, who carried him from his home in Montreal, taking also his money and papers. He was hurried to Quebec, where he was confined on board a ship of war, and afterwards in a dark and loathsome dungeon, called the “black hole,” used for punishing refractory soldiers of the garrison of Quebec. He was thence removed to the Recollet Convent, which, under Haldimand’s regime, had been turned into a prison for political offenders, the common jail not being large enough to accommodate the victims. He was detained there for two years and eight months, and was then liberated, but could gain no explanation as to why he was imprisoned or why he was set free. The same thing, as has been stated, had been done in the case of many others, and none of them had the courage to challenge the constitutional right of the Governor to exercise this system of irresponsible inquisition. But Du Calvet was made of sterner stuff. As soon as the prison doors closed behind him, he travelled to London, and obtaining an audience of the king’s ministers, stated the wrongs he had sustained, and requested that Haldimand might be recalled, in order that, being on English ground, he might be prosecuted. But those were the palmy days of Toryism, when not only the king, but his governors, could do no wrong. The ministers turned a deaf ear to Du Calvet’s complaints. He appealed to another tribunal, the public. He published a volume of letters which he had scattered broadcast over England and Canada. They were terse, often eloquent, and bore the impress of truth. He detailed in simple, forcible language, the persecutions to which he had been subjected, and told how his enemy, the Swiss Governor, sought to influence the Court of Justice against him by taking his seat on the bench beside the judges. He drew a striking picture of the corrupt and despotic government of Canada, the peculations of public money, and the persistent refusal to permit the use of French law, in violation of the English Parliament’s Quebec Act of 1774. Finally, he demanded for Canada constitutional government, as the basis of French law for French Canadians in civil cases; in criminal cases trial by jury; permanent tenure of office during good conduct for all judges; the Governor-General to be subject, like other citizens, to the law; an elective assembly; Canada to be represented in the English Parliament; freedom of conscience for all sects alike; liberty of the press; and free education by parochial schools. Du Calvet’s proposition for Canadian representation in the English Parliament was indeed chimerical, though less chimerical than the form in which the same notion has been revised in the recent craze called Imperial Federation. But there was something to be said for it at the time. Canada was merely a dependency of England, governed by a satrap sent out by the Home Ministry. There were no newspapers worthy of the name; no telegraphs, no rapid transit to England, none of those thousand means by which in our days a complaint against official wrong-doing is sure to make itself heard.

Du Calvet was evidently a man far in advance of his time. His book did not produce any immediate result, but it was widely read in England, and no doubt laid the foundation of that intelligent sympathy with Canadian aspirations for self-government which manifested itself so beneficently in Pitt and Fox in that century, and in Melbourne and Lord Durham in the next. Haldimand’s one service to Canada was his aiding in the settlement of the immigrants who sought a home here at the close of the American war. Of that immigration an account will be given in a subsequent chapter. A more questionable service was his granting to the Iroquois an enormous quantity of the most valuable land in Canada, six miles on either side of the Grand River, from its mouth to its source. It is true that these savages had sided with the British in the American war, but they were paid for their services, and as to their “loyalty,” it seems absurd to talk of such a sentiment in the case of these unstable, shiftless tribes who were ever ready to turn against England or America, according to the changes of fortune, and whose atrocities disgraced whatever banner they fought under. Haldimand’s action condemned to nearly a century’s barrenness thousands of acres of the best land in Canada.

Haldimand’s term of office lasted for six years. The duties of Governor were performed for a time by Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton and by Colonel Hope; but in 1785 the office was conferred on Sir Guy Carleton, now Lord Dorchester, who landed at Quebec in October, 1785. On his arrival Lord Dorchester found considerable political discontent. The Legislative Council was regarded as a mere court for registering the decrees of the executive. Allsop, who had led the opposition in behalf of the English settlers in Quebec, had been expelled from the Council. Petition after petition was now sent to the English Parliament. One, signed both by the English and French Canadian colonists, asked that the English law of habeas corpus might be introduced into Canada, in order to secure the colonists, French and English, from such arbitrary arrests as those practised by Haldimand. They also prayed, in rather vague terms, but aiming, it is to be supposed, at an elective assembly, that all Canadians, without distinction of race or creed, might enjoy the rights, privileges, and immunities of British subjects. Counter petitions were sent from the Legislative Council, who, of course, did not wish any portion of their power to be shared with an elective assembly. An address was moved and carried, praying the king to maintain intact the constitution of 1774. Mr. Grant moved an amendment in favour of an elective assembly, but he was promptly voted down. The Tory ministers of George III. naturally took sides with the colonial oligarchy. Habeas corpus they would grant; to demand trial by jury, or an elective assembly, was little better than disloyalty. In spite of this discouragement, petitions in favour of an elective assembly continued to pour in, and Lord Dorchester was directed to collect authentic information on the political and industrial state of the colony. An enquiry was therefore set on foot on such questions as the administration of justice, education, agriculture, and statistics; to each of these, a committee was appointed by the Legislative Council. That appointed to consider the working of the existing system of administering justice ascertained that the grossest abuses and irregularities prevailed. Their investigation led to results which were strengthened by those arrived at by the Committee on Trade, the merchants examined before whom demanded the adoption in its entirety, of English law, including, in all cases, trial by jury. These merchants stated that no uniform system existed in the practice of the Canadian tribunals; some decided according to French, some according to English law; while some pursued an independent course of their own, which they called equity.

The Committee on territorial proprietorship showed its British pre-possession by giving decisions that feudal tenures should be done away with. Such tenures, it was maintained, were anti-progressive, and hindered the settlement of the country. The seigneurs, however, made most determined opposition to any change which would curtail their hereditary rank and emoluments as a privileged class, and it was resolved that no alteration of the feudal tenures should be recommended. The report of the committee on education manifested a more progressive spirit. At that time there existed no means of supplying education outside of the priesthood and the religious orders. Even those were of the scantiest. There were absolutely no schools whatever in the country parishes. In Montreal and Quebec the seminaries still diffused a little “dim religious light.” The excellent educational system of the Jesuit College at Quebec had fallen with the fall of the order. Nor did the bishop of Quebec, when applied to by the leading men of the diocese, think that the colony was advanced enough to support a university. He was examined before the committee, and he sought the restoration of the buildings of the Jesuits’ College, then used as a barracks, promising to establish therein classes in civil law, mathematics, and other branches of learning, preparatory to a university being founded. As to female education, the only schools were those attached to the convents of Montreal and Quebec.

The Committee recommended elementary schools in all parishes, district schools for arithmetic, French and English grammar, and practical mathematics and land surveying; also a university to teach the sciences and liberal arts, to be governed by a board composed of leading officials and citizens. A coalition was now formed between the British settlers and those of the French who desired a representative form of government. The former disclaimed any wish to seek political preponderance for their own race. The united party were termed “Constitutionalists,” and were actively opposed by the Legislative Council and its adherents, as well as by a numerous and respectable body of the French Canadians who looked on all change with apprehension, and desired only that the provisions of the Quebec Act of 1774, with regard to their own laws and language, should be carried out. Endless petitions and counter petitions were sent by both parties to the English Parliament. On the eve of the great French Revolution, there had arisen in England a strong tendency to favour liberal opinion, as was seen in the speeches of Fox, and till the session of ’93 brought about a reaction, in those of Pitt and Burke. This ensured a careful and favourable reception of the very moderate demands of the Constitutionalists. Another feeling then strong in the minds of English statesmen contributed to the same result: the desire to secure British America against the United States, to maintain it in thorough attachment to England, both as the limit to the aggrandizement of the Americans, and as a military basis, whence, in case of war, troops could be poured across their frontier. A difficulty had arisen by the sudden formation of a considerable population of English-speaking Protestants, numbering over twelve thousand, who had lately settled along the shore of Lake Ontario, and on the Bay of Quinté. It was clearly absurd to impose French law on these people, who could not understand the language. The difficulty was solved by a new constitution, laid before the English Parliament by William Pitt, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, he having previously submitted a draft of it to Lord Dorchester. The main provisions of the Act of 1791 were, (1) the division of the old Province of Quebec into two new provinces, Upper and Lower Canada, with separate legislatures; (2) the concession of an elective assembly to each Province.

The debate on this important measure elicited its warm approval by Fox, who, however, objected to the proposed division into two provinces, and wished the legislative council as well as the assembly to be elective. The illustrious Edmund Burke also spoke in favour of constitutional government for Canada. The bill was passed unanimously. It is known in our history as “The Constitutional Act of 1791.” Besides providing that the old Province of Quebec be divided into the two Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, it enacts that a legislative council and assembly be established in each province; the council to consist of not fewer than seven members in Upper Canada, not fewer than fifteen in Lower Canada, these to be chosen by the Crown. Both Provinces were to be divided into electoral districts in order to return representatives to the Legislative Assemblies; the Governor-General to define the limits of the electoral districts, and the number of representatives; in Lower Canada the number of the members to be not less than fifty, in Upper Canada not less than sixteen. All laws to receive a vote, in each case, by mere majority, of assent from both the council and the assembly, and in addition the approval of the Governor as representative of the Crown. There was also for each Province, an executive council, consisting of the Governor and eleven gentlemen nominated by the Crown.

It seems strange that the British settlers, who had been such ardent constitutionalists, were dissatisfied with the new constitution. They feared, and with some reason, that they would be swamped politically by an alien race and an intolerant religion. They looked on the new settlement on the lake shores as a band of pitiable exiles; they had not patience to wait for the gradual effect of the mighty power of English speech and Protestantism on a race that has never been a progressive one, and a church which cannot co-exist with the spread of education. Above all, they could not forecast the magnificent future of the younger and greater Canada.

Chapter XVII.

THE SETTLEMENT OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING CANADA.

HE conclusion of the War of Independence saw a vast migration of the defeated party in a political struggle between “Whig” and “Tory,” which had aroused no less bitter feelings between faction and faction than the struggle between the armies of Washington and of George III. in the field. The “Whigs” were not all of the same political complexion, and the word “Loyalist” imperfectly describes the attitude of many who entirely disapproved of the tyrannical acts of the Hanoverian king of England, but, like a large minority of the population of the Thirteen Colonies, did not approve of all the acts of the republican executive. At this distance from the heroes of the crusade that first made republicanism possible, we can see that in all that they did, in all that they suffered, a true political instinct led them through obstacles that seemed impervious to light and air. But we must not refuse our sympathy to those who could not, at the time, see what Washington and Franklin saw: whom a strong sentiment of attachment to the country of their birth or ancestry, or whom a survival of that loyalty to the personal government of a king, which had once been a genuine factor in the national life of England, led to risk life and fortune on a lost cause. Passions ran high toward the conclusion of the Revolutionary War. The “Tories,” or “king’s friends,” it must be owned, met with scant measure of justice. And we must remember the confiscations, the cruelties, the perpetual insults to which the families of the insurgent colonists had been subjected, during the war, by British officers. Action and reaction are equal in social phenomena, as in all others. Injustice to the Americans, fighting for freedom, produced equal injustice to the partisans of the mother country. Many were imprisoned, were treated with the greatest hardships; the life of a returned “Tory,” who had been fighting in the British ranks against the new Republic, was never safe.

An effort was made by Lord Shelburne’s Government at the conclusion of the war to obtain the restoration of their properties, in compensation for losses, to the adherents of England during the war. “The question of Loyalists or Tories,” says Lord Mahon, “was a main object with the British Government—to obtain, if possible, some restitution to the men who, in punishment for their continued allegiance to the king, had found their property confiscated and their persons banished.” And this was strongly and persistently urged by those who represented the British Government. Dr. Franklin, representing the Americans, at first refused point blank to entertain any proposal for compensation to partisans of England in the States. He next devised an astute compromise by which he offered to take account of the losses sustained by Loyalists, provided account were also taken of the losses inflicted on the Americans, by the raids and other excesses in which the Loyalists had taken part during the war. As this would have led to endless disputes, the British commissioners were fain to be content with Franklin’s assurance that Congress would do its best to induce the several States to make reparation for losses incurred by the adherents of Britain. In spite of the well-meant, but utterly ineffectual efforts of the American executive, the return of the Royalist partisans to their former homes was as unwelcome as the proposed reimbursement for their losses during the war. In many cases, committees were formed, who with every resource of outrage opposed their continuing as residents among their former neighbours. So general was this persecution that over 3,000 of these American Royalists applied, through their agents, to the British Parliament for protection. The duty of providing for these faithful adherents of the mother country, engaged the serious attention of Parliament, and the leading men of both political parties agreed that the national honour was pledged to succour and support them. The first effort to fulfil this duty was the transportation of a number of families to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, “countries,” as a U. E. immigrant wrote in 1784 “where winter continues at least seven months in the year, and where the land is wrapt in the gloom of a perpetual fog.” But with fuller experience of the climate and soil of the maritime provinces, these first prejudices were reversed, a sparsely peopled and imperfectly cultivated region was endowed with a new and vigorous population; the chief families of these flourishing provinces whose coal mines supply half Canada with fuel, whose agricultural resources equal those of any other part of Canada, whose sea-board cities and trade facilities are a new element in the progress of our country, date from the advent of those half-hearted immigrants of a century ago. Many of those who at first settled in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick became discontented, and sought “fresh fields and pastures new” in Western Canada. The country west of Montreal was then an unknown wilderness of swamp and forest, the haunt of wild beasts and reptiles, the hunting ground of savages whose hatred of civilized man made its exploration perilous. Here and there along the chain of lakes, a few small posts had been established, and with difficulty maintained. Michilimackinac at the entrance to Lake Michigan, Detroit, and Frontenac, were half posts, half trading depots. Beyond the clearings which fringed their palisades it was not safe for white men to penetrate too rashly the mystery of the wilderness. But in 1783, various causes co-operated to make the English Government wish to settle a new colony on the more accessible portions of that vast territory, hitherto only known as “Indian Hunting Grounds.” In view of the incessant disputes between the British settlers and the older French Canadian colonists which had embarrassed every Governor of Quebec since the Conquest, it was felt that the large number of immigrants who had now to be provided for must be settled at a distance from those who insisted on the domination of the French law and French language. It was also thought politic to preserve the French Canadians intact and distinct as a separate element in the colony, who might be relied on to oppose all revolutionary tendencies. Governor Haldimand was, therefore, authorized to have a survey taken of the lands around the Bay of Quinté, in the neighbourhood of Fort Frontenac, and to found settlements on the Niagara and Amherstburgh frontiers. Grants of land were then to be made, the applicant producing proof, when possible, on the evidence of a single witness, of his having sustained loss or injury from the people of the United States, in consequence of attachment to British interests. From the nature of the case many of the most deserving were unable to produce the evidence required, but the cases of the genuine applicants for relief seem to have been entertained in a liberal spirit, and it is even thought that many Americans who had little claim to the rewards of self-sacrificing loyalty obtained grants of land in the new settlements. As an instance of the manner in which these settlements were formed, I take the following account of the first settlement of Kingston and of the neighbouring part of the Quinté coast, from Dr. Ryerson’s Loyalists of America: “The government of the colony of Quebec found that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were overcrowded with Loyalist emigrants, and were beginning to turn their thoughts to the unexplored western part of Canada. The late John Grass, of the township of Kingston, had been a prisoner of war with the French at Fort Frontenac. The Governor having heard of this, questioned him as to the suitability of that part of the country for settlement, and the account given of it by Grass being favourable, offered to furnish to John Grass, and as many of the Loyalists as he could induce to accompany him, means of conveyance from Quebec, and the supplies necessary for subsistence till the settlers could provide for themselves. Grass accepted this offer, and with a considerable company of men, women and children, set sail from Quebec in a ship provisioned for the purpose. They were forced to spend the winter at Sorel, in Lower Canada, but in the spring reached Frontenac, pitching their tent on “Indian Point,” where the pleasant village of Portsmouth is now built around its two caravanseries for crime and misfortune, the Penitentiary and Lunatic Asylum. The adjoining country was not fully surveyed until July. Other companies had meantime arrived at the new centre of colonization. The Governor, who had come to visit them, called on Mr. Grass as having the first claim to a choice as to which township he would choose for himself and his company. Grass chose the first township, that of Kingston. In the same way Sir John Johnson chose the second township, Ernestown; Colonel Rogers the third township, Fredericksburg; Major Van Alstine the fourth township, Adolphustown; and Colonel Macdonnell the fifth township, Marysburgh. Those who, like the present writer, have lived for some time in Prince Edward County, know well how their names, borne, as they are, by worthy representatives of the Pilgrim Fathers of Ontario’s settlement, are household words among the thriving populations of “the garden of Canada” at the present day; and on those beautiful shores of the Bay of Quinté, where the wild beast and the prowling savage have long disappeared, where the masts of ships overtop the apple orchards and harbour, and harvest fields are almost everywhere close at hand, the few survivors of the children of the first settlers have many a tale of the hardships and privations with which their childhood was familiar. Even to reach the new settlements in Western Canada was a matter of much time and difficulty. The journey was performed in “batteaux,” large flat-bottomed boats resembling scows, calculated to contain four or five families and their effects. Twelve boats were counted as a brigade, and each brigade had a conductor, who gave orders for the safe management of the boats. These boats were supplied with but the bare necessaries of life. Shelter there was none. At night the immigrants slept, huddled close together, with only the sky above them.”

Grants, in a few cases of pensions, but for the most part of provisions, farming tools, oxen and seed, were made to the new settlers. Including the officers and men of the disbanded 8th regiment, the number of United Empire Loyalists who first settled in what is now the Province of Ontario may be estimated at between ten and twelve thousand men, women and children. Thus was English-speaking Canada settled in the manner most advantageous for its future progress. That settlement was not like that of French Canada, a tentative and gradual process, feebly subsisting on the fisheries and fur trade; it was a compact and organized invasion of the wilderness by an army of agricultural settlers. And these men, unlike later immigrants to Canada, did not need to be acclimated, they had nothing to learn of wood-craft or forest farming, they were no old country settlers glad to seek a home in Canada because they were failures elsewhere. They were of the distinct type of manhood which this continent had already begun to produce; energetic, self-helpful, and versatile. And the growth of their settlement of a century ago into its present greatness has been in geometrical proportion to the slow advance of the French Province. From the immigration in 1783 to the establishment of Upper Canada as a distinct Province in 1791, the settlement grew in silence; its only record during those years being that it strengthened the hands of those in the Lower Province who opposed the exclusive domination of the French Canadians. The Upper Province had been divided by Lord Dorchester, previous to 1791, into four districts, of whose uncouth German names, chosen to flatter the Hanoverian king of England, happily no trace remains. These were: Lunenburg, from the river Ottawa to Gananoque; Mecklenburgh, from Gananoque to the river Trent; Nassau, from the Trent to Long Point, on lake Erie; and Hesse, which included the rest of Upper Canada and the lake St. Clair. A judge and a sheriff were appointed to administer justice in each of these districts.

The first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada was one who has left his mark for good deeply impressed on our country. General John Graves Simcoe was an English gentleman of landed property, and a member of the British House of Commons, in which he had voted for the constitution of 1791. He had also served with distinction in the late war. He arrived at Kingston on July 8th, 1792, when the members of the Executive and Legislative Councils of Upper Canada were sworn in, and writs issued for the election of members of the Legislative Assembly. The capital of the new colony was at first fixed at Newark, now the old town of Niagara, then a straggling village at the mouth of the Niagara river. Here Governor Simcoe built a small frame dwelling which also served as a place of meeting for the first Parliament of Upper Canada; which body consisted of eight members of the Legislative Council and sixteen members of the Assembly—sturdy pioneers of the settlements which were now beginning to trench, with here and there a clearing, on the surrounding sea of forest. The session lasted four weeks, from September 17th to October 15th, 1792. Eight bills were passed; all well considered and of practical benefit to the new colony. They enacted that English law should be in force throughout the colony, with trial by jury in all cases; that the allowance claimed by millers should be limited to one bushel for every twelve bushels ground; provided for the easy recovery of small debts; and for the disuse of the German names which Lord Dorchester had imposed on the divisions of Upper Canada. The district from the river Ottawa to the river Gananoque was now to be the Eastern District; that from Gananoque to the river Trent was to be the Midland District; from the Trent to Long Point on Lake Erie was to be the Home or Niagara District; the rest of the Province, west to Lake St. Clair, was the Western, or Detroit District. Each of these districts was again divided into twelve counties, and it was enacted that a jail and court-house should be erected in each district. When Governor Simcoe found that the Niagara river was settled as the boundary between Canada and the United States, he judged it unwise to have the capital of the Province under the guns of an American fort, and desired to found a new London in the centre of the western peninsula, on a river formerly called La Tranche, but which he named the Thames. Lord Dorchester preferred Kingston, but Governor Simcoe would submit to no dictation from that quarter, and, after much deliberation, he fixed upon a site at the mouth of a swampy stream called the Don, and near the site of the old French fort Rouillé. The ground was low and marshy, but it had the best harbour on the north shore of Lake Ontario, and was comparatively remote from the frontier of the United States. The Governor christened the place York, in honour of Frederick, Duke of York, one of the royal princes. Governor Simcoe’s regiment, the Queen’s Rangers, were employed to make a road through the forest, extending north to the lake which bears the name of the first Governor of our country. It was called Yonge Street, in honour of Sir George Yonge, Secretary of War in the Imperial cabinet, who was a personal friend of the Governor’s. This, and many other projects of Governor Simcoe’s origination, were interrupted by his removal to St. Domingo, in 1796. His successor, the Hon. Peter Russell, was a man of a very different stamp, and furnished the first instance of the abuse of political power to personal aggrandizement which afterwards assumed such vast proportions under the Family Compact. His grants of new land were sometimes to himself, and were worded as follows: “I, Peter Russell, Lieutenant-Governor, do grant to you, Peter Russell,” etc. In the four years of Governor Simcoe’s administration, the population of Upper Canada increased to 30,000. Although Toronto was now the seat of Government and the capital of the Province, the Parliament of Upper Canada still met at Niagara. In the second session of our first Parliament an Act abolishing slavery was passed, ten years in advance of the loud-professing philanthropy of Lower Canada. Another Act, for offering rewards for the heads of bears and wolves, indicates the primitive condition of a Province which required such legislation. Major-General Hunter succeeded President Russell, and directed the administration up to the time of his death, which occurred at Quebec in the summer of 1805. Mr. Alexander Grant, a member of the Executive Council, temporarily took the direction of affairs. His successor arrived in 1806, in the person of Lieutenant-Governor Francis Gore, who had formerly administered the Government of Bermuda. He was a loyal and non-progressive man, suited to the times in which he lived. He surrendered himself to the domination of his Executive Council, and was a drag on the wheel of progress. Despite bad government, the Province had flourished. Its population now numbered 50,000. Ports of entry were established at Cornwall, Brockville, Kingston, York, Niagara, Queenston, Fort Erie, Turkey Point, Amherstburg, and Sandwich. In 1807 Parliament appointed a grammar school for each district, the teachers to have a salary of £100 per annum.

Meanwhile the tide of immigration continued to flow into Upper Canada, a land where taxes were unknown, where peace and plenty were the reward of industry, and which was consequently attractive to the overtaxed natives of Britain, burdened, as they were, with the expenses of a long and costly war.

Chapter XVIII.

LOWER CANADA FROM 1791 TO 1812.

HE elections held for the first Assembly of the new Province of Lower Canada by no means swamped the British element, many of whose representatives were returned by French and Catholic constituencies. Nor did the new constitution put an end to the old issues, as the use of the French law and language were the first subjects of debate. Lord Dorchester, having obtained leave of absence, sailed for England, appointing General Alured Clarke as his deputy. Clarke fixed the time of meeting for the new Assembly in December, 1792. The Legislative Council and the Assembly met on December 17th, in separate halls within the Palace of the Bishops of Quebec, a building which, ever since the Conquest, had been devoted to secular uses. The first debate in the Assembly was on the choice of a President. Messrs. Grant and McGill, two traders of British origin, were put forward by their party, but M. J. A. Panet, a distinguished lawyer, well versed in both English and French, was elected by a majority of ten. An injudicious and premature effort was made by the British party under Mr. Grant, seconded, strange to say, by the President, M. Panet, to have the minutes of the Assembly drawn up in English only. It was rejected, and a resolution was passed that the minutes should be recorded in both French and English, but that the laws passed should be expressed in English or French, according as they referred to British or French legislation. A bill was then passed providing for a most important need, the establishment of parish schools. A warm discussion took place with regard to the illegal appropriation by the executive of the Jesuit estates. These, it was urged with much justice, had been granted not for the personal benefit of the Jesuits, but for the purpose of education. The principal result of this, the first session of the Assembly of Lower Canada, was the maintenance of the French language. In this year (1792) a monthly mail was established for the first time between New York and Quebec.

In 1793, Lord Dorchester returned to Quebec for a third term of office. He brought instructions very conciliatory to the Lower Canadian French, that the seminaries of Montreal and Quebec should be permanently maintained, and lest the religious orders should create a revolutionary propaganda in Canada, he induced the assembly to pass a resolution authorizing the executive to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. This, which was in fact simply an Alien Act, was renewed every year until 1812. M. Panet was re-elected President by a unanimous vote. The overthrow of the French State Church, and the expatriation of its clergy by the revolutionary government of France, had meantime thrown all the influence of the French Canadian priesthood on the side of the British. M. Plessis, parish priest of Quebec, in his funeral oration over the late Bishop of Quebec, used the strongest language in favour of loyalty to Britain. “Beneficent nation!” he exclaims, apostrophising the English people, “which daily gives us, men of Canada, fresh proof of its liberality. No, no! your people are not enemies of our people; nor are ye despoilers of our property, which rather do your laws protect; nor are ye foes to our religion, to which ye pay all due respect. The maxim of M. Briand (the late bishop) was that even sincere Catholics are, and must be, all obedient subjects of their legitimate sovereign.” The preacher gave thanks to Providence that Canada had been snatched, as it were, a brand from the burning, from dependence on an impious nation which had overturned His altars.

In 1793, Dr. Jacob Mountain was appointed by the English Ministry to be the first Church of England bishop in Canada. He was sent out at the instance of a powerful corporation, the society for the propagation of the Gospel, and took the title upon himself of bishop of Quebec, which properly belonged to the Catholic bishop. Although the assumption of this designation was both in the letter and the spirit an infraction of the Treaty of 1763 and the Act of 1774, the Catholic bishop met the Anglican on his landing with a fraternal embrace. Dr. Mountain was appointed by Royal Letters Patent, and had, therefore, a quasi right to the title of “My Lord,” by courtesy; to which modern Church of England bishops, not appointed by the Crown, have not the shadow of a claim. Dr. Mountain was a cautious, amiable man, of no very brilliant abilities. In 1804, a very commonplace-looking-building was erected as an Anglican Cathedral, on ground memorable as having been the site of the old church of the Recollet Fathers. In the summer of 1796, Lord Dorchester returned to England, being succeeded as Governor, by General Prescott.

In this year, one Black, having decoyed an American citizen named McLane to Canada, in the hope of spreading republican principles, betrayed him to the executive, in order to receive the “blood money” offered in such cases. McLane was brought to summary trial and swift execution, all the barbarous customs which, in that day, degraded the white race to a level with the Indians, being fully observed. The body was lowered from the gibbet and cut open, the entrails were torn out, the heart burned, the severed head held up by the hangman, with the formula, “Behold the head of a traitor!” It is satisfactory to know that the execrable wretch who planned this judicial murder was shunned by every one, and died in the most squalid poverty.

In 1797, Governor Prescott got into some difficulty with the board for supervising Crown Lands, the president of which, Judge Osgoode, was (untruly) said to be a natural son of George III., and at all events had considerable influence in England. The board were accused of appropriating to themselves large tracts of land, to the great hindrance of the legitimate settlement of the country. In consequence of these disputes, Prescott, who had not been popular with any class, was re-called, and Sir Robert Shore Milnes sent as his successor. The new Governor thanked the Assembly for the money which the French Canadians had subscribed to aid in carrying on the war against the revolutionary government of France.

A proposal brought forward at this time by Bishop Mountain was adopted. It was to the effect that school-masters should be employed in the towns and larger villages, to teach the English language free of charge, and writing and arithmetic at a small fee. The Assembly passed a bill for the establishment of free public schools, to be maintained from the funds which had belonged to the Jesuits; but the Catholic priesthood were opposed to the measure, and it ended in grammar schools being founded in Montreal and Quebec only. In 1803, Chief Justice Osgoode ruled that slavery was contrary to the laws and constitution of Canada, and all slaves then in the country, in number three hundred, were emancipated. A refusal to raise the salary of the French translator of the Assembly gave rise to some irritation, as the ever-watchful jealousy of race caused it to be regarded as a premeditated insult; nor were matters soothed when Sir Robert Milnes, in a somewhat arbitrary manner, closed the dispute by proroguing the Assembly. But the bitterness thus evoked found expression next session, when the Assembly ordered the arrest of the publisher of the Montreal Gazette, in which paper an article had appeared censuring the action of the majority in the Assembly a session before. The publisher of the Quebec Mercury also had to apologise at the bar of the House. The popular party in the Assembly did not see that by thus assailing the liberty of the press, they were striking at their own best means of defence. In 1806, Sir R. Milnes returned to England, little regretted by any class in Canada. A step in advance was taken by the French Canadian party in November of this year by the establishment of Le Canadien, a paper edited with great ability, but, under an elaborate profession of loyalty to the British crown, bitterly hostile to the advancement of the British race and language in Canada. By this time a growing alienation prevailed between the United States and England. The republicans of America, not unnaturally, felt a sympathy for France, their ally in the war of Independence, now hemmed in by the European despotisms with which the Tory Government of England had thrown in its lot. The right of search, too, claimed by England, which at that time was mistress of the seas, was exercised on American vessels, with scant courtesy or regard for the feelings of the new nation, which the English had not yet forgiven for conquering in the late war. A new war was evidently at hand, the Americans, with characteristic shrewdness, calculating on being able to strike at England under the sword of Napoleon. In Canada preparations for defence were hurried on. Mr. Dunn, who was acting as deputy Governor, held a grand review, and called out for service a fifth part of the militia. In 1807, Sir James Craig arrived as Governor for Canada. He was a distinguished military officer, but had narrow views, and stern and unpleasing manners. The clique of office-holders who formed his court worked on his suspicious nature, to induce a belief in the existence of supposed disloyal conspiracies among the French Canadians. He was induced to make the Canadien newspaper more powerful for mischief than it could otherwise have been by persecuting the shareholders, several of whom, including the loyal and influential M. Panet, were put off the list of militia officers. Of course this gave much offence, and at the session of 1808, M. Bedard sounded the first note of the struggle for Responsible Government in an elegant and temperate speech, which however drew on him severe official censure as “The Apostle of Revolution and Sedition.” Craig met the Assembly’s determined attitude of opposition by first scolding, then dissolving it. But the people of Lower Canada replied to the Governor’s insults by returning a House of a yet more popular character than in the last session.

The Canadien justly animadverted on Governor Craig’s conduct. “He had power by law to dissolve the Assembly when it seemed good to him. He had no constitutional right to address abusive remarks on the conduct of the Assembly in the discharge of its legislative duties, a matter over which the law gave him no control whatever.” The agitation in the colony increased. At the next session of the Assembly, Bedard and Papineau, the chiefs of the constitutional party, proposed a committee of seven members to investigate the Parliamentary precedents with regard to the Governor’s late censures of the Assembly. It was also in contemplation to anticipate the recent action of the Dominion Government of Canada by sending an accredited agent to represent their Province in London. But these and other measures were interrupted by Craig, with a repetition of his former insult, proroguing the Assembly. In order to frighten the electors, this was followed up by another step, in what Craig’s admirers in the Executive Council called “vigorous policy.” A body of soldiers, accompanied by a magistrate, entered the office of Le Canadien, seized the printing press and type, and arrested the printer. After being subjected to a long inquisition, conducted with closed doors, before the Executive Council, the printer was sent to prison. The articles in the numbers of Le Canadien which were made the pretext for this foolish violation of the laws, appear harmless enough, absurdly destitute of anything like ability, their only evil tendency being to stimulate race prejudice, while the prosecution of the paper was certain to irritate much more than hundreds of Le Canadien editorials. One of them bore the mysteriously “disloyal” title of “Take hold of Your Nose by the Tip.” The Dogberry in office detected treason in this—an intention of violent seizure and disloyal tweaking of the official proboscis. Craig did not stop at this. Supported by the Executive Council, associated with whom it is unpleasant to see the name of Dr. Mountain, the Anglican bishop, he issued warrants for the arrest of Bedard, Taschereau, and Blanchet. Others were arrested afterwards. The severity with the political prisoners was such as to cause the death of one of them, M. Corbeil, of Isle Jesus. In vain they demanded to know of what they were accused, in vain they demanded the British subject’s privilege of being brought to trial. Meantime the Catholic bishop and his priests did all they could to allay discontent and promote attachment to British rule. This was difficult under the circumstances, and at the next election the popular delegates were once more returned in force to the Assembly. The English ministers had been influenced by despatches which Craig and his followers wrote to them, accusing the French Canadians of every kind of disloyalty, and it is plain that severe measures of repression would have been adopted, and the liberty granted by the constitution of 1791 still further trenched on, had it not been for the impending war with the United States. Lord Liverpool wrote to Craig unmistakable directions to adopt a conciliatory policy before it was too late. In consequence of this, the Assembly, when it met the Governor, was astonished to hear an address in which, after eulogizing the loyalty of Lower Canada, he expressed his hope that the utmost harmony might prevail between himself and all branches of the Legislature. Bedard was soon after this released from prison, but not till the session had closed, Craig fearing that the Assembly might claim the credit of having forced his hand. Soon after this Craig’s health gave way, and the “Reign of Terror,” as the French Canadians magniloquently termed his petty tyranny, ended with his departure for England, where he soon afterwards died.

The first steamboat was launched on the St. Lawrence in November, 1809. She was named the Accommodation, and was built by Mr. John Molson, of Montreal. The newspapers of the time contain glowing accounts of this wondrous ship which “could sail against any wind or tide.” She was crowded with admiring visitors and passengers. The fare from Quebec to Montreal was ten dollars, which included meals on board the boat.

Sir George Prevost, a distinguished officer, succeeded Craig. He was a man of mild and conciliatory disposition. His first act was to add seven additional members to the Executive Cabinet, which had hitherto been taken altogether from the Legislative Council, and to appoint to a judgeship M. Bedard, the object of his predecessor’s persecutions; to another popular leader, M. Bourdages, he gave a colonelcy of militia. Thus the French Canadians were conciliated, and their loyalty secured in the presence of a pressing danger.

Chapter XIX.

THE WAR OF 1812-’15.

N the 18th of June, 1812, war was declared against Britain by the United States; as regards Canada it may well be called the War of Aggression. The States’ Government knew well that Britain needed all her armaments for the gigantic struggle in which she was then engaged with the greatest soldier of the age. They calculated on over-running Canada. A force of 25,000 regular troops was ordered to be enlisted by Congress. This was to be supported by 50,000 volunteers. General Dearborn, a veteran officer of the War of Independence, was appointed to command. Sir George Prevost at once ordered all Americans to quit Canada within fourteen days, and made a tour of observation along the St. Lawrence and lake frontier. He found the settlers of Upper Canada, all of them good marksmen and trained to fighting as well as farming, to a man ready to leave farming or clearing to the care of the women and boys, and to take the field in defence of their newly-settled country. Had the United States Government confined itself to fighting England, as was done with a fair amount of success by their spar-decked corvettes, on the high seas which were the original scene of the quarrel, the people of Canada might have felt some sympathy for a brave people subjected to the wanton insult of the right of search. But to strike at England through Canada, a country whose manifest destiny it was to grow up into a free nation, was felt to be mere aggression. The spirit of Lower Canada, too, was roused to resistance. The insolence, the squalor, the exaction of Montgomery’s troops, whom their officers allowed to seize on the farmer’s stores, and who never pretended to pay for anything except in their worthless paper money, were remembered with disgust. The clergy gave the whole weight of their influence, all-powerful as it was, to kindle the patriotic resolution for the defence of altar and hearth against a heretic banditti. Although the Lower Canadian Assembly declined to pass an Alien Act, they gave a most liberal grant for organizing the militia, and for the general defence of the Province. The money so voted was to be raised in the form of army bills, in order to prevent specie from being carried to the United States. In Upper Canada, the Lieutenant-Governor had temporarily left the Province, having gone to England, leaving the administration of public affairs in the hands of Major-General Isaac Brock, a name which has become inseparably woven with our history. Though a comparatively young man, he had had much military experience, and was admirably fitted by nature and training for the difficult part he was now called upon to play. He had at first some difficulty in gaining the desired grant from the Legislature, which did not believe that war would ensue. But as soon as hostilities were declared, they cheerfully passed a very ample militia bill. There were then in Upper Canada 3050 regular troops; in Lower Canada, 1450. The Governor-General informed Brock that no further aid need be expected from England for at least some months.

The war began with the capture of Fort Mackinac, (Michillimackinac) by Captain Roberts, commandant of the small military post of St. Joseph, on Lake Huron. Mackinac was surrendered without bloodshed. It was an important position, commanding the entrance to Lake Michigan. On July 12th, 1812, the American General Hull invaded the western peninsula of Upper Canada with 2,500 men. He occupied Sandwich, and issued a proclamation inviting the Canadians to join his standard, and “enjoy the blessings of peace and liberty,” which he proceeded to illustrate by vaunting his country’s alliance with war and despotism incarnate in the person of Napoleon I. Colonel St. George was stationed at the neighbouring town of Amherstburg with a force of about 300 regulars. Had Hull advanced at once, St. George must have been overpowered. But Hull delayed, sent small detachments which St. George defeated, and meantime the Indians from Grand River poured in to St. George’s support, and Brock advanced in force from Toronto. Hull now recrossed the river, and took up a position at Detroit. Among the Indians present in Brock’s command was one of the most remarkable of Indian chiefs, Tecumseh, who in physique was a typical example of the strength and versatile dexterity which the wilderness sometimes developes in its children. He was born in the Miami Valley, and having distinguished himself in war and hunting, became recognized as a chief of note among his countrymen. He devised a new scheme for uniting the Indians into a political confederacy under his sway. In concert with his brother, who claimed supernatural powers, he originated a religious movement, in part borrowed from Christianity; but after some years the American troops attacked his town in Tecumseh’s absence. It was taken and destroyed, and this Mahomet of the Red Men had ever since hated the Americans with the implacable rancour characteristic of his race. In a council of war held opposite Detroit, Tecumseh traced with his scalping knife on a piece of birch bark a rude plan of the defence of Detroit. Brock then crossed the river, and opened fire on Detroit, which he was on the point of assaulting, when General Hull signalled his wish to capitulate. Hull and all his regular troops were sent to Quebec as prisoners of war. Brock returned in well-deserved triumph to York. But the Americans, anxious to efface the disgrace of Hull’s unsoldierlike conduct, sent an army of 6,000 men to the Niagara frontier, with orders to the General in command, Van Rensellaer, to force his way through Brock’s lines of defence, and establish himself on Canadian territory. The British and Canadian force for the defence of this entire frontier of thirty-six miles was less than 2,000 men. The Americans succeeded in landing, after some opposition from a party of the 49th regiment under Captain Dennis, who was compelled to retreat. He was met by General Brock with his aide-de-camp, Colonel McDonnell. Brock at once put himself at the head of six hundred men of the 49th, and, drawing his sword, led them to charge the Americans on the heights above. They advanced under a heavy fire, which killed several; among the first the gallant Brock. Infuriate at the fall of a leader universally beloved, the regulars and Canadian troops rushed up the hill, and swept before them a foe far superior in numbers. But the Americans were reinforced, and the British and Canadian force of three hundred, after a brilliant display of valour, had to retire. Meanwhile a vigorous attack had been made on General Scott’s forces (he had succeeded Van Rensellaer) by a young Iroquois chief, John Brant, who came in command of a body of warriors from the Grand River Reserve. General Sheaffe now succeeded Brock, and after a sharp conflict for about half an hour, although with a force inferior in numbers, forced the enemy to surrender. Brock was buried side by side with the brave McDonnell, at Fort George, Niagara, the Americans as well as his own army firing minute guns during his funeral.

Dearborn now threatened to invade Lower Canada from his position at Plattsburg. General Prevost then called out the entire Lower Canadian militia, and his summons was obeyed with such enthusiasm that Dearborn gave up the proposed invasion as impracticable. Meanwhile General Smith, who now commanded the American force on the Niagara River, made several attempts to cross to the Canadian frontier, in all of which he was so completely held in check by a much smaller force, that he had to skulk from his camp to avoid the anger of his own soldiers. These brave men deserved a more competent general. He was received in Buffalo with general execration, the very taverns being closed against him. He was soon after most deservedly cashiered. Meanwhile, in Congress, the representatives of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, who had refused to furnish militia for the war, were backed up by Maryland. Mr. Quincy denounced the war against Canada as piratical. “Since the invasion of the buccaneers,” he said, “there has been nothing in history more disgraceful than this war.” In 1813, once again the legislatures of both Upper and Lower Canada took ample measures to supply the Governor with funds for defence of the country. The campaign of this year opened with a victory of Colonel Proctor with five hundred regulars and six hundred Indians over General Winchester, in command of a detachment of General Harrison’s army. Winchester, with five hundred of his men, was taken prisoner. This checked Harrison’s advance. For the rest of the campaign, raids were made with varying success on both sides, upon either bank of the St. Lawrence. Ogdensburg was taken by Major McDonnell, who crossed the frozen river with a force of regulars. Fort Presentation, with seven guns, four field pieces, and a considerable quantity of arms, ammunition, and other stores, was taken by Captain Jenkins and Captain Eustace. In the next campaign, Commander Chauncey sailed from his naval stronghold of Sackett’s Harbour, with 1,600 regulars on board of fourteen vessels. These troops, under Brigadier Pike, landed, after some opposition, three miles west of York. Meanwhile the fleet opened fire on the very insignificant defences on shore, where Pike had succeeded in carrying the first battery. As he advanced, a tremendous explosion from the powder magazine shook the earth, and killed many, mortally wounding others, among whom was General Pike. It was impossible for General Sheaffe, with the force at his command, to resist the American invaders. He withdrew in orderly retreat to Kingston, leaving, for some, inexplicable reason, Colonel Chewett with two hundred and ninety-three militia, who, after a hard-fought conflict of seven hours, surrendered. Having fired the town and destroyed what public stores were left, Chauncey, with reinforcements from Sackett’s Harbour, made a descent on Niagara, where General Vincent, with but fourteen hundred men, held Fort George. Those who have visited the dismounted earthworks, where now the Niagara sheep, horses and children play in the casements and entrances, will have observed how completely it is exposed to the fire of the American Fort Niagara on the east side of the river. The fort now opened fire. Chauncey’s ships poured in a shower of grapeshot and shell from the lake close by. After three hours’ fighting, Vincent spiked his guns, blew up his magazine, and retreated to a position on Burlington Heights, near Hamilton. On the Detroit frontier, General Harrison, who, notwithstanding Winchester’s defeat, wished to retake Detroit and Michigan, received a severe check from General Proctor, with a loss of seven hundred men. But Proctor’s Indians wished to return home with their plunder, the militia were unwilling to sustain a siege, and he was thus compelled to leave Detroit, carrying with him his stores and munitions of war.

Sir James Yeo was now sent from England with a naval force of four hundred and fifty men. In concert with him, Prevost led an expedition against Sackett’s Harbour, which was partially successful, and would have been completely so, had not Prevost, mistaking the dust raised by the fugitive Americans for the approach of another army, ordered a retreat; a disgraceful blunder for which he was deservedly condemned by public opinion. Dearborn was now established on the Niagara peninsula, where, however, he was held in check by the neighbourhood of Vincent, with his small army on Burlington Heights. Dearborn sent a force of six thousand regulars, two hundred and fifty cavalry, and nine field pieces, to attack Vincent. The latter resolved on a night attack upon the American camp, which was carelessly guarded. With but seven hundred men Vincent and Colonel Harvey surprised the camp, inflicted a heavy blow on the enemy, and took a hundred and twenty prisoners, with the Generals, Chandler and Winder. Dearborn now retreated to a position on Forty Mile Creek, whence Yeo’s fleet soon forced him to fall back on Fort George, at Niagara. From thence Dearborn sent five hundred men, with fifty cavalry and ten field guns, to attack a British post at Beaver Dam, between Queenston and Thorold. Mrs. Secord, wife of one of the soldiers of Queenston, heard of this expedition, and the night before it took place, walked nineteen miles through the woods to give warning to Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, who at once communicated with the commanders of regulars and Indians in the vicinity, and prepared to give the Americans a warm reception. After a sharply contested struggle, the Americans surrendered to a force not half their number. Meanwhile, Vincent, by a skilful movement, extended his lines from Twelve Mile Creek to Queenston, thus isolating the four thousand Americans at Fort George to the narrow neck of land between river and lake.

But Chauncey had now built another ship of war at Sackett’s Harbour, and had the superiority over Yeo’s squadron. He attempted a descent on Vincent’s depot of stores at Burlington, but was prevented from doing any mischief by the militia regiment from Glengarry, which marched from Toronto to Burlington. They thus, however, left York unprotected. Chauncey sailed thither, burned down the barracks and stores, and set free the prisoners from the jail. Thus was the Provincial capital twice captured during this war of piratical raids. The Americans now put forth all the resources of their powerful country in order to stem the tide of Canadian success. Commodore Perry, with a well-equipped fleet of craft, outnumbering by ten the British squadron, and carrying guns of far heavier metal, encountered the British squadron, under the command of Captain Barclay, off Put-in Bay, on Lake Erie. The British ships were embarrassed by the insensate measure of having more landsmen than sailors on board. The fight began at a quarter before twelve, and continued till half-past two, during which time fortune seemed to favour Barclay’s fleet. Perry’s flagship, the Lawrence, being injured by the British fire, he went on board the Niagara. Soon after this the Lawrence struck its colours. But so defective was the equipment of Barclay’s ships that there was not even a boat to enable him to board his prize. A change of wind, which occurred just at the crisis of the fight, enabled Perry to get at the weather-side of the British ships, into which he poured such a deadly fire that, the officers being all killed or wounded, a third of the crew killed, and the vessels unmanageable, the entire squadron of Barclay surrendered. Perry showed the courtesy due from one brave man to another, to Barclay, whom he released on parole. The defeat and loss of the ships was a severe blow to General Proctor, who was now compelled to retreat. Having destroyed the fortifications of Amherstburg and Detroit, he now commenced his disastrous retreat. His army consisted of eight hundred and thirty men, with an auxiliary force of 1,200 Indians, under the chief Tecumseh. General Harrison followed in pursuit with three thousand men, among whom were included one thousand dragoons and mounted Kentucky riflemen. Near Chatham, Harrison overtook Proctor’s rear guard, and captured all his stores and ammunition. The only resource for Proctor now was to try the fortune of a battle. The ground he chose seems to have been well selected. Those who have visited and examined the field will remember that at this point the river banks are steep, descending some twenty feet to the water. There is still a swamp among the remains of the woods a few hundred yards from the river. The intervening ground is now level and open; it was then covered with lofty trees. Proctor’s left wing was protected by the river, and strengthened by a field-piece; part of his centre and all the right wing were defended effectually by a swamp; in the swamp, lurking in their usual manner behind trees, were a large body of Indians, with Tecumseh. The battle may be said to have begun and ended with a charge which General Harrison ordered to be instantly made by Colonel Johnson with the mounted Kentucky riflemen. To ordinary cavalry the ground, swampy as it was, would have been most unfavourable, but the Kentucky horsemen had been from boyhood accustomed to ride at full speed through the forests and swamps of their own state. They swept in full career on the British ranks before they had time to discharge a third volley. The soldiers, exhausted by forced marches and hunger, were no match for fresh troops, well supplied with everything, and flushed with Perry’s recent victory. The battle was lost. Proctor fled ignominiously, as did his men, nor did either stop till they reached the shelter of Burlington Heights. Meanwhile Tecumseh and his Indians kept up a galling fire from behind trees in the swamp. The American Colonel’s horse was shot, and he fell with it to the ground. A chief, conspicuous for his plume of eagle’s feathers, rushed forward, knife in hand, to scalp him. Johnson drew a pistol and shot the Indian dead. He believed that he had shot Tecumseh, but his having done so is, to say the least, very doubtful. It is certain, however, that Tecumseh was slain at the battle of the Thames, though his body was never found. The site of the battle is now marked by the site of a house, opposite the Indian village of Moravian Town, and formerly used as a tavern. It is now a farm house called the Red House.

Proctor’s force was scattered to the winds. Some two hundred and twenty, with the General, answered to their names next day at Burlington Heights. Harrison set fire to the village of the unoffending Christian Indians under care of the Moravians. It has since been rebuilt, and still retains its name, a reminiscence not to be set aside of the good work done among the Indians by the “Unitas Fratrum.” For his conduct on this occasion General Proctor was brought to a court martial, severely censured, and fined six months’ pay.

But in Lower Canada the British arms had more success. Colonel Taylor, with his gunboats manned by artillerymen from one of his regiments, attacked the American naval force on Lake Champlain, and in a fight closely contested on both sides, all but annihilated the American naval power on that lake. In the same campaign two victories took place, each of which more than compensated for the rout of Proctor’s army at Moravian Town—the battles of Chateauguay and Chrysler’s Farm.

On September 20th, 1813, the American General Hampton, with a well-equipped army of five thousand infantry and cavalry, advanced towards Montreal by a road leading through the village of Odelltown. There was then a forest swamp of about fifteen miles square, which Colonel De Salaberry, with his corps of Voltigeurs, had during the year before rendered impracticable by abattis. On account of these obstructions, Hampton changed his direction westward by the banks of the Chateauguay River. Colonel De Salaberry took up a position with his small force of four hundred men in a thick wood on the banks of this river, constructing breastworks of felled trees, and covering his front and right wing with an abattis; his left wing being sufficiently defended by the river. There was a small ford, which he commanded with a breastwork outpost. He rightly judged that, at whatever odds, this point ought to be defended against an invading enemy; for it was the only position where a stand could advantageously be made, all the rest being open ground as far as the St. Lawrence. On October 24th, Hampton advanced with three thousand five hundred men, led by General Izard. He sent Colonel Purdy, with a brigade, to march by a detour and attack the British in the rear. But Purdy got lost in the woods, and did not arrive in time. De Salaberry placed his men in extended order along the breastwork in front of their line, with orders not to fire till he discharged his own rifle as a signal. The Americans advanced in open columns of sections to within musket shot, when De Salaberry gave the signal by firing his rifle, with which he brought down a mounted officer among the enemy’s line. A hot fire was now poured into the dense columns of the Americans. They wheeled into line and attempted to reply, without much effect. De Salaberry now tried a ruse which Dr. Ryerson compares to Gideon’s ruse de guerre described in the Book of Judges. He stationed his buglers as far apart as possible, and ordered them to sound the advance. This caused a panic among Hampton’s troops, who thought that large reinforcements were about to aid the British. At the same time Purdy had been encountered by two companies of De Salaberry’s men, who completely routed his force. General Hampton, disconcerted at the failure of Purdy to execute his orders, and not daring, though with a force so immensely superior, to attack the breastwork and abattis with the bayonet, withdrew in good order. Thus did this gallant French Canadian soldier, with a force of less than four hundred, defeat an American army of several thousand strong. Well may Lower Canada be proud of De Salaberry’s memory, and honour those who bear his name at this day.

Meantime, Wilkinson, with an army of nine thousand Americans, had moved from Sackett’s Harbour, intending to take Kingston, form a junction with Hampton, and march on Montreal. But finding that Kingston was now garrisoned by ten thousand men, under General De Rottenburg, he did not attack it, but carried his army in three hundred boats down the St. Lawrence. Within three miles of Prescott he landed on the American side, in order to avoid the British batteries at that place, while his fleet of barges passed them in the night.

By this time a force of 800 regulars and militia, had been sent from Kingston to follow Wilkinson’s movements. On the 10th of November this corps of observation came up with Boyd’s division of Wilkinson’s army, consisting of between three and four thousand men, at Chrysler’s Point. The British took up a position, the right flank resting on the river, the left on a dense growth of pine wood. A general engagement took place, during which the British stood firm against a charge of an entire regiment of American cavalry, whom they met with a fire so hot that the cavalry were driven to retreat in confusion. At half-past four in the afternoon the entire American force withdrew from the field. Such was the battle of Chrysler’s Farm, the most elaborate military display of the war. On the Niagara frontier, the American General, McClure, after ravaging the surrounding country, by the barbarous orders of Congress, set fire to the village of Newark (Niagara). The darkness of the night of December 10th, 1813, was lit up by the flames of the burning houses, the women and children were turned, shelterless, upon the snow. Of course reprisals followed this outrage; General Riall surprised and gave to the flames the American towns of Buffalo and Lewiston, and the worst passions of warfare being now aroused, both armies marched torch in hand.

The Assembly of Lower Canada which met in the next year (1814) impeached several of Governor Craig’s subordinates as having been accomplices in his unconstitutional acts, more especially in the mission of the spy and traitor, John Henry, through whose agency, before the war of 1812, Craig had tried to sow disunion in some of the northern States. No definite result, however, followed. In the spring of 1814, Colonel Williams, with a force of 1,500 men, was attacked unsuccessfully by General Wilkinson with 4,000 Americans. The British General Drummond captured Oswego in May, but Commodore Yeo sustained a defeat in the same month, when endeavouring to cut out some boats laden with stores, at Sackett’s Harbour. In the Niagara district, General Riall having been reinforced from Toronto, resolved to assume the offensive against General Brown in the neighbourhood of Chippewa. Brown’s force amounted to over 4,000. On July 25th, 1814, the battle of Lundy’s Lane was fought. At first the British were worsted, and their general, Riall was taken prisoner. But the arrival of General Drummond from Toronto with a force of 800 men turned the scale, and the Americans made a hasty retreat to Fort Erie. After the victory of the British at Toulouse and the abdication of Napoleon, troops could be spared for service in Canada, and 1,600 of Wellington’s veterans were sent over. Sir George Prevost, however, disgracefully mismanaged the abundant means thus placed at his disposal. He attacked Plattsburg with 11,000 men, and after some idle manœuvring withdrew before a force of 1,500 Americans. For this misconduct he was to have been tried by court martial, but death saved him from the disgrace it might have inflicted.

In the Niagara district, General Brown compelled the British General, Drummond, to return to Burlington Heights. Drummond being supported by Commodore Yeo with a squadron on Lake Ontario, compelled Brown to withdraw from Fort Erie, and to retire beyond the river. On December 24th, 1815, this weary and unnatural war ended by the Treaty of Ghent, and the sword drawn for fratricide was sheathed, never, God grant it, to be drawn again.

Chapter XX.

LOWER CANADA, FROM THE PEACE TO 1828.

ENERAL DRUMMOND succeeded Sir George Prevost as Governor of Lower Canada. He had been before this Governor of Upper Canada. He speedily got into disputes with the Assembly, on the old vexed question of the impeachment of the judges, which the Prince Regent had ordered to be set aside. He was succeeded in July, 1816, by Sir John Sherbrooke, who had been Governor of Nova Scotia. He saw, and reported to the English Ministers, the great need there was for a conciliatory policy, and the bitter animosity that was growing up between the Assembly and the Executive Council. In 1817 the Assembly chose as its Speaker the rising young orator Louis J. Papineau, son of the constitutionalist leader before the war. In the same year the Bank of Montreal, the earliest bank in Canada, was established in Montreal; and, soon afterwards, the Bank of Quebec in the older capital. In 1818 the Governor informed the Assembly that he was instructed from England to apprise them that their former offer to undertake the civil list of the country was now accepted. This was a most welcome announcement to the popular head of the Legislature, who had long desired the control of the public expenditure. Sherbrooke, disgusted with the reluctance of the English Tory Government to permit needed reform, returned home, much regretted by the Lower Canadians. He was succeeded by the Duke of Richmond, a dissipated and spendthrift noble, who had often “heard the chimes at midnight” “with the wild Prince and Poins.” A year afterwards, the Duke’s eccentric career was closed by an attack of that terrible malady, hydrophobia, the result of the bite of a tame fox. The Duke broke from his attendants, and ran furiously along the banks of the little tributary of the Ottawa which flows through the village of Richmond. Arrived at the nearest house, the unhappy nobleman died in the village that bears his name, which he had purposed to make a considerable town.

In June, 1820, the Earl of Dalhousie came from Nova Scotia, where he had been Governor, to Canada, as Governor-in-Chief. A stormy session of the Legislature took place in 1821. Inquiry was demanded into the accounts of the Receiver-General of the Province, who was suspected of having appropriated large sums of public money. Exception was also taken to the iniquitous system of making lavish grants of Crown lands to the favourites of Government. As the Council and the Assembly could not agree on these points, no money was voted by the Assembly for the civil list. Meanwhile the Province advanced; no such freedom, no such prosperity, had been known under the French régime, as no less a witness than M. Papineau was free to own in a speech from the hustings. Montreal steamers were numerous on the lakes and the St. Lawrence. The Lachine and Rideau canals gave a great impetus to trade. The first beginnings of Ottawa were being advanced by Colonel By. The lumber trade was beginning to reap its harvest of rafts from the hitherto useless forests. The Eastern Townships alone now held a population as large as that of all Canada at the Conquest. There now arose a project for the Union of the two Canadas, to which the French Canadians were bitterly opposed. They sent John Neilson and Louis J. Papineau to England with a petition against it, signed by sixty thousand French Canadians. A gross case of fraud and embezzlement was now clearly proved against the Receiver-General, John Caldwell. The Government had been guilty of the folly of screening him, and were compelled to bear the odium of his crime. In June, 1824, Lord Dalhousie was succeeded by Sir Francis Burton, his Deputy, till 1826, when Dalhousie returned. The dispute between the French and English colonists, between the oligarchy of the Executive Council and the popular Assembly, went on year by year with wearisome iteration, Papineau being in the van of the malcontents. At last the Governor refused to recognize Papineau as Speaker, and declared that he could listen to no communication from the Assembly till it got itself legally constituted by electing a Speaker. The ever-recurring wrangle between the Government and the Assembly at last attracted notice in the British Parliament, and a Committee was appointed to consider the Lower Canada question. They met and decided every point in favour of the French Canadians. The Assembly ordered four hundred copies of their report to be printed and circulated through the country.

Chapter XXI.

UPPER CANADA, FROM THE PEACE TO 1828.

MMEDIATELY after the war, measures were taken by the British Government to send a stream of immigration into Upper Canada. A large number of valuable settlers came at this time from Scotland. In 1816 an Act of the Upper Canada Parliament established Common Schools, the first of a series of measures destined to culminate into the present Public School system which has attracted the admiration of European nations. With increased prosperity the people of Upper Canada began to have leisure to observe the working of the machinery of Government. Much dissatisfaction was caused by the promised lands not being given to the militia who had served during the war. The Executive Government, too, was in the hands of a few influential men, for the most part connected more or less by family ties, who kept all offices, all emoluments, and well nigh all grants of land in their own hands, and about this time became known by the name which has such sinister association in Canadian History—that of the Family Compact.

At this time Robert Gourlay, a Scotch immigrant who was desirous of becoming a land agent, bethought himself of the expedient of addressing a number of blank forms containing each thirty-two queries as to agricultural matters in each district. Unfortunately he added another query: “What, in your opinion, most retards the improvement of your township in particular, or the Province in general?” This alarmed the Government, who were in the habit of conferring large grants of land on their own favourites, a practice which they well knew was injuring the Province. Gourlay began to be denounced as a republican and preacher of disloyalty; while on the other hand, the generality of the replies that poured into his hands denounced the Clergy Reserves as the bane of provincial improvement. The Clergy Reserves, set apart as an endowment for a State Church, took from the people one-seventh of the Province of Upper Canada. They were not in one place, but scattered here and there all over the Province. For the most part, they were waste, and this deteriorated the value of adjoining property, by their paying no tax, and infesting the neighbourhood with the wild beasts they sheltered. Finding himself the object of unjust attack, Gourlay proposed to the people of Upper Canada to petition the Imperial Parliament for an investigation of the affairs of the Province. On the ground of a passage in a draft of this petition, prepared by Gourlay, a prosecution was entered against him on a charge of libel. He was imprisoned for six months in Kingston gaol, but when tried was acquitted. He had every chance of becoming a popular leader, when he offended the Assembly by proposing to assemble a rival body, “the Convention;” and so lost popularity. The Family Compact were then able to hunt him down unhindered. A creature of their own basely swore that Gourlay was a seditious person. He was ordered to quit the country, and not doing so, was thrown into a cell at the old jail of Niagara whence he wrote some telling attacks on the Family Compact Government in the Niagara Spectator. But ill-usage and prolonged incarceration told on his health. He became almost insane, and after being brought to trial, and condemned, was allowed to quit the country, where he owned a considerable tract of land. Thirty-five years later an old man whom no one knew visited the villages and farms on what had once been Gourlay’s estate. It was Robert Gourlay himself, come to reclaim his land. The squatters, great or small, were compelled to come to terms with him. In 1822 he published his book on Canada. It is full of bombast and ill-temper, but contains much valuable information for those who wish to picture to themselves the state of things in this Province during the palmy days of the Family Compact. Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor, had completely identified himself with that party, and his unfair dealings with poor Gourlay made him more unpopular than any previous Governor. Notwithstanding misgovernment, Upper Canada was now more flourishing than ever, with a population of 120,000. In consequence of this, there was an increase of representation in the Assembly. Five new members were added to the Legislative Council, by far the most remarkable and influential of whom was the Rev. John Strachan, who afterwards became the first Church of England bishop of Toronto. This noteworthy personage made his first appearance in Canada as private tutor in the household of the late Richard Cartwright, of Rockwood, near Kingston, at a salary of fifty pounds a year. From this he was promoted to be teacher of the District school at the village of Cornwall, where he married a widow with some money. Young Strachan had been bred a Presbyterian, but Presbyterianism at that time in Canada meant poverty. The Church of England was the Church of the Family Compact magnates, and to minister at its altars insured good pay and admission to the best society. So John Strachan threw aside his dislike to the “rags of popery,” and the “kist o’ whustles,” and without difficulty was ordained. He became an extreme advocate of political absolutism and religious intolerance, and to the end of his long life hated non-episcopalian Protestantism with intense bitterness. In 1823, a new subject of contention arose between the Legislative Council and the Assembly, in consequence of the attempts of the Family Compact to set aside the election of Marshall Spring Bidwell, for Lennox and Addington. On one pretence or other they were successful for the time, and their creature, one G. Ham, was declared elected, but Bidwell was soon afterwards returned, and became Speaker of the Assembly. The Family Compact made themselves odious in every way. The Assembly, in 1823, passed a law enabling Methodist ministers to solemnize marriage, but the Upper House, acting under Dr. Strachan’s influence, threw it out.

On the 18th of May, 1824, the first trumpet note of reform was sounded in the publication of The Colonial Advocate of William Lyon Mackenzie. This remarkable man was the son of a poor Highland family of Perthshire. His grandfather had fought with the Cavalier Prince at Culloden, after which he had escaped with him to France. Young Mackenzie came to Canada in 1820, and for some time kept a small drug store in Toronto. The first few numbers of his paper showed a vigour and command of sarcasm hitherto unknown in Canadian journalism. It was eagerly read by the great body of the people in Upper Canada, and in proportion aroused the bitter hatred of the Family Compact; for Mackenzie designated the Legislative Council as the “tools of a servile power,” pointed out the injustice of one church monopolising a seventh part of the Province, and freely criticised the unjust imprisonment of Gourlay. In 1826, the hatred of the Family Compact against Mackenzie rose to such a pitch that a mob of well-dressed rioters broke into the printing office in Mackenzie’s absence, wrecked the printing machines, and threw the type into the lake. This outrage was almost openly sanctioned by the Family Compact. But Mackenzie was not to be thus suppressed. He sued the rioters, and gained his case, with £625 damages, and costs. Of course Mackenzie now became more popular than ever, and in 1828 was elected to the Assembly for the county of York by a large majority.

Meanwhile in Lower Canada discontent and ill-feeling became worse and worse, though the colony continued to flourish. In 1826, McGill College, Montreal, received a charter, and in 1828, a petition signed by 87,000 of the French Canadians, was sent by their delegates to the Imperial Parliament, a committee of which recommended that its prayer should be granted, and the whole of the revenue be placed under the control of the Lower Canada Parliament. Lord Dalhousie was now recalled, and Sir James Kempt, formerly Governor of Nova Scotia, was sent to succeed him, charged with a mission of reconciliation. He confirmed the election of Papineau as Speaker, called into the Council representatives of the popular party, and in 1829, raised the representation of Lower Canada from fifty members to eighty-four. In 1830, Kempt was succeeded by Lord Aylmer. In the same year, the entire control of the revenue was assigned to the Provincial Legislature. The property of the Jesuits, long the subject of dispute, was now definitely made over for educational purposes.

In 1832, a terrible outbreak of Asiatic Cholera passed over Canada, from a ship at the quarantine station on the St. Lawrence. A second visit of the same pest took place in the summer of 1834. By this time the popular party, kindled into enthusiasm by the fervent harangues of Papineau, began to dream of an independent Republic. Constitutional clubs were formed, and a convention was held. The Assembly also appointed the late Mr. Roebuck as their representative in the Imperial Parliament, where he was of the utmost service to Canada in explaining the tyranny of the executive of Lower Canada, which, unless it were abolished, he affirmed, would drive the colony into insurrection.

Chapter XXII.

CANADA ON THE EVE OF REBELLION.

IR JOHN COLBORNE succeeded the unpopular Maitland in Upper Canada. When Parliament met, it was found that the Assembly consisted almost entirely of Reformers. Mackenzie was perpetually harassing the Family Compact Executive by asking all kinds of awkward questions, no less than by his eloquent advocacy of the Assembly’s right to control all the revenues of the Province. For, with the growth of prosperity in the colony, the territorial revenues which were still retained by Government had increased so much that the executive had now a civil list of their own, and were independent of the popular branch of the Legislature.

It will be observed that the grievances objected to by the Reform party in Upper and Lower Canada were the same, but it would be untrue to conclude that the political aims of Reformers in the two Provinces were identical. Both complained of the tyranny of the irresponsible executive; and both wished the Legislature to have full control of the public revenue. But while the Upper Canada Reformers desired, as the result of a radical change in these respects, the equality of all citizens irrespective of creed or race, those of Lower Canada wished to get power into their own hands in order to tighten the bonds of race and creed exclusiveness, to isolate themselves more completely in their Provincial-French nationality, to exclude from equal share of power and place those English-speaking settlers in Quebec and Montreal who had waked the slow-going old colony into active industrial life, but whom the Canadian sneered at as aliens and intruders. It would be an abuse of language to call Papineau and his followers “Liberal.” A new member of the Assembly who had been elected to represent Toronto now began to exert considerable influence. His father, Dr. Baldwin, had left his native Cork in the heat of the troubles of 1798, and some time after his arrival in Canada had come to Toronto, near which he built a house called by the name Spadina, a name still preserved by the stately avenue which stretches its broad highway from Knox College to the lake. Dr. Baldwin practised law as well as medicine, a union of several professions, not uncommon in those primitive times of Toronto’s history. Dr. William Baldwin did not seem to be of aristocratic family, or to be received as such by the exclusive coterie of the Family Compact. His first venture in Toronto was that of a private schoolmaster. It is probable that his exclusion from what were then regarded as the aristocratic circles of the capital of English Canada determined Dr. Baldwin’s mind in the direction of that Liberalism afterwards so ably advocated by his celebrated son. But by the death of the Hon. Peter Russell, a large estate, in what is now western Toronto, fell into the hands of his sister, a maiden lady, who thought fit to bequeath it to Dr. Baldwin, who then became a rich man and a person of consequence. Like most parvenus, he seemed to be bent on “founding a family,” and resolved that “there should be forever a Baldwin of Spadina.” The original house thus grandiloquently described stood on the corner of Spadina Avenue and Oxford Street. Having been built before the property was laid out, it stood with the gable end to the street. The son of this gentleman, Robert Baldwin, commanded general respect by his unimpeachable integrity and honesty of purpose, no less than by his political good sense, which, while it made him side with the Reform party on all the main issues, preserved him from “the falsehood of extremes,” and the Reformers of Upper Canada were now beginning to form into two distinct camps. On the one side, were the moderate men who were determined, come what would, to seek their constitutional aims by constitutional means. Of these Robert Baldwin was now the recognized leader. The other section of the Reform party was led by Mackenzie, whose influence was great, especially all through the county of York, and through most part of the counties of Brant and Oxford. Indeed, the farmer population generally, with the exception of the Orangemen, now a factor of some influence in the community, and the Anglican Church people, were assiduous readers of the Colonial Advocate, and sympathizers with Mackenzie.

Meanwhile, the stream of immigrants continued to pour into Canada. A large number of Catholic Irish settled in Peterborough and the central part of Upper Canada. These, as a rule, favoured the Reform party. Many Ulster Protestants also took up land, sturdy and thrifty colonists, whose love of constitutional freedom inclined them to join the moderate Reformers, while the hatred they had learned to feel for the Irish “rebels,” kept them thoroughly in the groove of loyalty. The population of Upper Canada in 1831 had reached a quarter of a million. At the election of 1830 the Family Compact exerted every influence that a large corruption fund placed at their disposal to secure a majority of their own supporters in the Assembly. Their tactics were successful. Mackenzie moved a resolution that the House ought to nominate its own chaplain, instead of having the choice of the Executive forced upon them. But the Assembly, by a three-fourths vote, refused to allow the motion, and the Family Compact Attorney-General, Boulton, compared the claim that the House should appoint its own chaplain to the conduct of a street assassin, to which rabid insult the Assembly tamely submitted. Mackenzie then moved for a committee of inquiry into the state of legislative representation in the Province of Upper Canada. It was bad indeed, a House packed with Family Compact officials, the mere creatures and mouthpieces of the Executive Council. Mackenzie’s unanswerable exposure of the corruption of the existing system so alarmed the House that they consented to his motion for inquiry amid applause from the public in the gallery of the House. But Mackenzie would not stop there; pension lists, fees, sinecurists, salaries, money abuses of all kinds so rife in that Augean stable of corruption, the Family Compact Government, were attacked and exposed in speeches whose scathing common sense struck home and were carried broadcast over the Province in the columns of the Colonial Advocate. At last, driven to despair, the Family Compact resolved to crush the man whom they could not answer. A committee headed by Allan MacNab, the Attorney-General, endeavoured to impeach Mackenzie for breach of privilege, but their case broke down. Mackenzie now continued to spread the agitation for Reform all through the Province. He spoke to excited multitudes in Galt, in Cornwall, and Brockville. His success in rousing the people’s mind was great, even in the heart of such Family Compact centres as Brockville and the Talbot settlement. He now prepared a petition in Toronto, asking that the Assembly might have full control of the public revenues and of the sale of public lands; that the clergy reserves might be secularized; that municipal councils might be established; that the right to impeach public officials might be conceded; that judges and clergymen might be excluded from Parliament; and the law of primogeniture repealed. To this petition 25,000 signatures were appended. All that Mackenzie asked has long been part of the law of Canada. We scarcely realize the benefits of our free institutions, because we take them, like light and air, as a matter of course. It is well to remind ourselves of what we owe to those who struggled in the bitterness of patient battle, not fifty years ago, against corruption entrenched in power. But the Family Compact, having now secured a majority of its own creatures in the Assembly, resolved to make use of it to crush their enemy. Some pungent and not very judicious strictures on the Assembly’s reception of petitions from the people were, by a vote of the House, construed as a libel. By another vote Mackenzie was expelled from the Assembly. In the debate on this question Attorney-General Boulton called Mackenzie “a reptile,” and Solicitor-General Hagerman compared him to a spaniel dog. Mackenzie rose to the height of his popularity; petition after petition poured in to the Governor entreating him to dissolve the corrupt Assembly. On the day of Mackenzie’s dismissal nine hundred and thirty of those who had signed the petition waited on the Governor to receive his reply. It was given in two or three curt, contemptuous words. The troops were ready armed, artillery men stood beside the loaded cannon, prepared, at a moment’s notice, to sweep the streets with grapeshot. It was well that the crowd of Canadian Reformers was perfectly orderly, as the chivalrous English Governor was fully prepared for the massacre of men, women and children within range of his guns. But the Assembly now attempted to bid for popularity; they voted an address to the Crown, praying that the clergy reserves might be secularized for the purpose of education. They then issued the writs for York County, but Mackenzie was returned by acclamation. Again they expelled him from the Assembly; again he was triumphantly returned. In 1832 Mackenzie went to England with his petition.

In 1834 the Lower Canadians embodied their grievances in the famous “ninety-two resolutions,” chiefly drawn up by Papineau. The effect of these on the Imperial Parliament was to appoint a committee who reported that the successive Governors had done their duty; that the troubles in Lower Canada were due to the quarrels between the two Houses of the Legislature. This was to shelve the difficulty, and it was now evident that the Lower Canadian Reformers would, sooner or later, revolt. In 1835 Lord Aylmer was succeeded by the Earl of Gosford, but he did not produce more effect than his predecessors on the heated passions of the French. Papineau, who aspired to be the Mirabeau of Lower Canada, was, for the moment, all powerful. In 1837 it became evident that the revolt was inevitable. Gosford learned that Papineau was organizing societies for the purpose of insurrectionary drill, and applied to Sir Colin Campbell, Governor of Nova Scotia, for a regiment, which was accordingly sent. Meanwhile, throughout the country parishes, drilling and arming went on openly. But the priesthood, whom the abolition of the Catholic Church by the French revolutionists had taught to hate the name of Republic, were frightened at Papineau’s republican projects. He had provoked the opposition of a power whose hold on the French Canadian peasant was mightier than his own.

The first collision with the authorities took place in Montreal, where a republican society, called the “Sons of Liberty,” were attacked while walking in procession. They were easily put to flight, and warrants were issued for the arrest of Papineau and twenty-six other leaders. Papineau sought shelter at the house of one of his Parliamentary colleagues, Dr. Wolfred Nelson, in the heart of the disaffected district. General Colborne, determining to check the insurrection at the outset, sent Colonel Gore, a Waterloo veteran, to attack St. Denis with a force of two hundred infantry, a troop of militia cavalry, and three field pieces.

Chapter XXIII.

REVOLT.

R. WOLFRED NELSON had for many years practised medicine in and around St. Denis. He spoke the language and thoroughly understood the character of his French neighbours. Considerable professional skill, freely exerted without pay or reward for all the poor among the habitants, had made him for years past exceedingly popular. He was elected to the Assembly, and there followed the leadership of Papineau, with whose republicanism he sympathized. Early intelligence was, of course, brought to him by the habitants of Colonel Gore’s approach. Nelson had seen service as military surgeon during the late war, and had sufficiently the courage of his opinions to resolve on active resistance. Not so Papineau. The Mirabeau of Montreal had not a particle of the pluck that gave backbone to the somewhat bizarre eloquence of the Mirabeau of the great Revolution. He left his followers to their fate and made an inglorious retreat to the States. Meanwhile Nelson rang the village tocsin, and the aroused habitants came flocking to its summons. Nelson stationed his men at the windows and loop holes of a large stone building, and at those of two others wherever a flanking fire could be directed on an attacking force. When Colonel Gore arrived he attacked Nelson’s position from ten in the morning till four in the afternoon. But his one gun could make no impression on the thick stone walls. He could not take the building by storm, his own men were being shot down, and at last he was forced to spike and abandon his field piece, and retreat as best he could. This victory, the only marked success of the revolt of 1837, was gained on November 23rd. But at St. Charles, though the insurgents were in far greater force, they were badly led, and fell an easy prey to Colonel Wetherell, who had been sent with a strong force to attack the place. With the exception of a raid by American sympathizers, across the border, this was the last of the revolt in 1837. It is pleasant to record that Dr. Nelson, who had shown the greatest kindness to Colonel Gore’s wounded soldiers, left on his hands, succeeded in escaping to the States, whence, in calmer times, he returned to his home in St. Denis. But next year a second insurrection took place in Lower Canada, led by a brother of Dr. Nelson. It was soon suppressed. Both insurrections were severely avenged by gallows and torch. Numbers of men were hanged with scant form of trial, and the darkness of the December night, in the parishes of St. Denis and St. Charles, were lit up by blazing homesteads and barns.

In Upper Canada, Colborne had been superseded at his own request, and was succeeded by Sir Francis Bond Head, a half-pay Major and an industrious writer of second-rate magazine articles. This vain and self-opinionated officer was sent out with instructions to pursue a policy of conciliation, which he at first attempted to carry out by appointing three Reformers, Rolph, Baldwin, and Dunn, to the Executive Council. But he never consulted these gentlemen, and they soon resigned in disgust. At the elections of June, 1836, the Family Compact put forth all their apparatus of corruption, and again secured a subservient majority in the Assembly. By this time the easily-flattered Governor was completely won over by the blandishments of the Family Compact clique. It was evident to Mackenzie that there was no hope in constitutional agitation, to which he and his followers had adhered while the faintest hope of fair-play remained. All which will be told at more length in the following chapter.

Chapter XXIV.

THE CIVIL WAR.

S the mist of party prejudice clears away we are able to judge of public acts by their results.

The rebellion of 1837-’38 was a purely Canadian movement, an armament of a portion of the Canadian people to win back by force those constitutional rights which the Family Compact Government had wrested from the electors; and, but for accidental circumstances, to be detailed in the sequel, this rebellion would, no doubt, have been successful in overthrowing, without bloodshed, the whole Family Compact system, and the rule of Sir Francis Bond Head. Of course, it would have been absurd to suppose that any attempt could have been made to hold Upper Canada against the military power of England. But the course of subsequent events, and the legislation which followed the publication of Lord Durham’s Report, show that it is equally absurd to suppose that the Liberal party then in power in England would have exerted military force to retain a system like that of Head and the Canadian Tories.

The Mackenzie rising, in 1837, must be carefully distinguished from the other movements, from the Lower Canadian insurrection, and from the filibustering raids of American “sympathizers” which followed. The English Canadian movement resembled only in appearance the Lower Canadian insurrection of 1837. The Upper Canadian movement was essentially a popular one. It was supported by the great mass of English Canadian people. Not so the rising in French Canada. The latter movement never had a really popular support, for it was from the first under the ban of the Church, and the Lower Canadian is a Catholic first, a patriot afterwards. Lafontaine had to mend his ways and become reconciled to the Church before he could become, what Papineau never had been, the real leader of French Canada. The English Canadian movement, under Mackenzie, had a distinctly national aim and support, and a military programme which came very near being successful. The French revolt under Papineau never could have been a success. Its solitary success in the field was gained under the English-speaking leader, Dr. Wolfred Nelson. Nor is the movement of 1837 to be confounded with the raids at Navy Island, at Amherstburgh, and at Prescott in the succeeding year, which were mere filibustering expeditions, for which no justification whatever is admissible.

It is clear that Sir Francis Bond Head was sent to Canada on what was intended to be a mission of conciliation. He bore the reputation of holding Liberal, or rather Whig opinions; he had been a zealous official as Assistant Poor Law Commissioner, in Kent; he was chiefly known to the public as the author of several magazine articles describing his personal adventures, and written in a garrulous, egotistical, but good-humoured tone. His utter ignorance, frankly avowed in his narrative of his official career, of Canadian politics, was not likely to be regarded as a disqualification by his English superiors, it being then the custom for English insular officialism to ignore colonial interests.

Sir Francis Head arrived at Toronto in January, 1836, and was greeted with inscriptions covering the fences on King Street of “Welcome to Sir Francis Head, the tried Reformer!” The “tried Reformer” soon showed the cloven hoof of partisanship. In reply to an address adopted at a public meeting of the citizens of Toronto, he snubbed the addressers as of inferior capacity, and requiring to be addressed “in plainer and more homely language,” words which naturally gave much dissatisfaction. Head’s manner, as he met the members of the Legislature, was also discourteous and haughty.

A reply to the Lieutenant-Governor’s official insolence was drawn up by Drs. Rolph and O’Grady. “We thank Your Excellency,” it began, “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 endeavouring to express yourself in plainer and more homely language, presumed by Your Excellency to be thereby brought down to the lower level of our plainer and more homely understandings.” The rejoinder then deplored, with sarcastic humility, the deplorable neglect of their education, resulting from the misgovernment of King’s College University, and the veto imposed by the Executive Government on the popular Assembly’s resolutions that the Clergy Reserves should be applied to the needs of public education. This able document proceeded to recite other grievances, and concluded with what, according to Mr. Charles Lindsey, “William Lyon Mackenzie, in a manuscript note he has left, calls the ‘first low murmur of insurrection.’ ” “If Your Excellency will not govern us upon those principles, you will exercise arbitrary sway, you will violate our charter, virtually abrogate our law, and justly forfeit our submission to your authority,” ran the reply. The able and sarcastic rejoinder was left by James Leslie and Jesse Ketchum at the door of Government House, and its bearers were whirled out of sight before the irate Lieutenant-Governor could discover who they were. In one of his outbursts of undignified fury he sent the paper to Mr. George Ridout, a member of a distinguished Toronto family, whose name did not even appear among the signers. It was at once returned to Sir Francis by Mr. Ridout. But the rejoinder was already in print, and in the hands of every member of the Legislature.

But Head had not proceeded thus far without some show of efforts to carry out his mission of conciliation. The Tory leaders had at first regarded Sir Francis with distrust on account of his presumed Reform tendencies. On this account, according to Sir Francis Head’s own statement—no very reliable authority, as he repeatedly contradicts himself—he was more ready to make overtures to the popular side. He induced three of the popular leaders to accept office in his Executive Council, the Hons. John Rolph, John Henry Dunn and Robert Baldwin. But these gentlemen, finding that they were never consulted by Sir Francis, and that thus they were made responsible for measures which they had never advised, soon afterwards resigned. Hence Sir Francis threw himself into the arms of the Family Compact, and ruled avowedly as an Irresponsible Governor.

Soon after this the Lieutenant-Governor appointed four new members of the Executive Council, all members of the extreme Tory faction, one being the clever renegade, Robert Baldwin Sullivan. This heightened the people’s indignation, the Assembly declared its entire want of confidence in the men whom Sir Francis had called to his Councils. A petition from Pickering, where the Reform party were ably led by Peter Matthews, protested against British subjects being reduced by the Lieutenant-Governor to a state of vassalage, and demanded the dismissal of the new Councillors. Other petitions to the same effect poured in from other townships.

In effect Sir Francis Head now regarded the people of English Canada as belonging to two classes, the “loyal”—i.e., those who supported the irresponsible executive in all its monopolies and the “rebels”—who demanded responsible government—all of whom were put down by Sir Francis Head as “traitors and republicans.” Yet in reality it was the Lieutenant-Governor himself who was the “rebel,” if disloyalty to the instructions of his English superiors can be so described. Lord Glenelg had sent a despatch in which he instructed Sir Francis Bond Head that in the British American Provinces the Executive Councils should be composed of individuals possessing the confidence of the people. In despite of these distinct instructions from the English Government, his masters, this addle-headed Governor persisted in treating as “rebels” all who desired to carry into effect the very system of responsible government which Lord Glenelg had charged him with the duty of establishing in Canada. But the British Colonial Office had yet to find out that they had to deal with a subordinate who had no notion of subordination, and whose only guide was his own over-weening restless vanity. The able men who directed the Family Compact counsels, men such as Strachan, Robinson, Powell, Hagerman and Sullivan, soon took the measure of the conceited little riding-master, and flattered him into the notion that it was his mission to suppress “democracy.”

Head’s next step was to dissolve the House, which was now completely beyond his control, and to issue writs for a general election. He had the supreme self-conceit to write to his superior, Lord Glenelg, telling him of his intention, and actually requesting that no orders might be sent him on that subject. To the English Colonial Office he reported his policy as supported by the loyal inhabitants of Canada, and entreated that he might not be interfered with in carrying it out. For the moment these representations had weight at the Foreign Office, more especially as Head’s account of things seemed confirmed soon afterwards by the success of his party at the general elections of 1836.

It is of the utmost importance that we obtain a thorough and clear understanding of the fact that at the general election of 1836, the agencies of force and fraud were openly and unblushingly used to exclude members of the Reform party, and to compel or bribe constituencies to choose Tory candidates. The Canadian constitution was virtually abrogated, by the right of electing their representatives being wrested out of the hands of the people. It was this that made the crisis of December, 1837, inevitable. It was this that made civil war a sacred duty to all who were loyal to their country.

Of this fact of the utter unconstitutionality of the elections of 1836, I wish to give the reader clear proofs. Lord Durham states in his famous “Report,” an authority whose truthfulness is admitted by the parties to be above suspicion, that “in a number of instances the elections were carried by an unscrupulous exercise of the influence of the Government, and by a display of violence on the part of the Tories, who were emboldened by the countenance afforded them by 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 actually been defeated at the polls.” The Tories raised an enormous corruption fund, grants of land were freely issued to those who would vote on the side of Government. In the North Riding of the County of York a set of lots at the mouth of the Credit Valley River were distributed during the election. It was well known that the great banking company, the Bank of Upper Canada, was at that time nothing more or less than a corruption machine, holding in trust large sums of money to be used in bribing the electors. It was no secret in Family Compact circles that about a month before the elections of 1836 the manager of the Bank sent for Attorney-General Hagerman, and that the cashier handed to him a large bundle of notes due to the Bank, at the same time giving him explicit instructions to be very lenient with every voter in York County who would pledge himself to vote against Mackenzie, but to “put on the screws” in the case of any who refused to pledge themselves. The Tories could not control public opinion. The unbiased elections of twenty years had made that plain enough. But they could, and they did hire mobs of drunken ruffians armed with guns, stones and bludgeons, to overawe the electors. At Streetsville, the polling-place for the newly formed Second Riding of York County, the path of Mackenzie’s friends was barred by a procession of Orangemen, with banners displayed and bands braying forth their party tunes. The refusal of scrutiny into election proceedings in many another case by the corrupt Parliament thus elected has hidden from record in how many another constituency the Tory Lords of misrule led forth their hired gladiators infuriate with loyalty and whiskey. There was many a polling-place where it was risking life to vote for a Reformer.

At the head and front of these outrages on the constitution stood the conceited and unprincipled Lieutenant-Governor. He openly avowed himself a partisan. He as openly denounced the Reformers. He stumped the country. He has been praised for the dexterity with which he threw himself into the role of an agitator, for his appeals to spread-eagle “loyal” sentimentality, his bunkum stump oratory about the “glorious old flag of England,” his ridiculous anti-climax, “let them come if they dare,” to an imaginary enemy, in the name of militia regiments, not one of which had he common-sense to embody for the defence of his Government when it was threatened by a serious danger. But all this, justly regarded, is but the stock in trade of a political charlatan, without common sense as he was without principle, his ever restless self-conceit exulting in a little brief notoriety. None of Head’s predecessors would have stooped to such a course, though some of them, such as Sir John Colborne and Sir Peregrine Maitland, were deeply attached to Tory principles. But they were high-minded English gentlemen. Head, whose real name was Mendez, had not a particle of right to the respectable English name he bore. His true surname was that of his grandfather, Moses Mendez, the descendant of a Portuguese Jew, a quack doctor who had settled in England some generations before. What has been said will, it is to be hoped, enable the reader to realize the iniquities practised by the Tories at the election of 1836.

The constitution of Canada was gone, the elective principle was a thing of the past, hope of constitutional remedy there was none. Well might Samuel Lount, the late member for Simcoe, when asked why he did not appeal to the House for an investigation of the corrupt practices by which it was patent that he had been unseated, reply: “it would be only throwing away £100; the present Parliament would give it against me all the same.” To complain of bribery before the tribunal of the House would be to challenge immorality before a jury of prostitutes. Well might Mackenzie, in his address to the Second Riding of York, express his despair of redress by constitutional methods. “I have been diligent in the Legislature; every proposition calculated to make you happier I have supported; and whatever appeared to me to be against popular government and the interests of the many, I have opposed, please or affect 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 improvements made by Government are of small moment; the priests of the leading denominations have swallowed bribes like a sweet morsel; the principle that the Executive should be responsible to the people is denied you; the means to corrupt our electors 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.” The fiery orator little foresaw the day when both political parties in the freely-elected Parliament of Canada would unite their forces to petition the British Government to extend to unhappy Ireland the system of Home Rule and Responsible Government under which Canada has thriven so well. But truly, at that time the outlook was dark indeed; all constitutional landmarks were effaced, every vestige of electoral freedom was trampled under the hoof of oligarchy. Dominie Strachan’s State church dominant; the night-birds of Tory corruption jubilant over the land! There remained but a pale hope of redress in answer to petition, and what beyond? Mackenzie’s last words were ominous enough: “If the reply be unfavourable, as I am apprehensive it will, then the Crown will have forfeited all claim upon British freemen in Upper Canada, and the result is not difficult to foresee.”

Chapter XXV.

THE CIVIL WAR—CONTINUED.

HE Reform party of English Canada, hitherto describable in scientific language as “homogeneous,” now became “differentiated” into two distinct elements, those who still clung to constitutional methods, and the revolutionists. Many a staunch advocate of Reform principles sided with the former. In Toronto the Scotch shrewdness of James and William Lesslie, the mild wisdom of Robert Baldwin, impelled them to take the constitutional side. It is true that these men were denounced as “rebels” by Head and his colleagues, and that they suffered insult during the brief hour of the Tory terror. For instance, Mr. James Lesslie, still happily surviving in the city, had his offices occupied by a lawless gang of militia soldiers, who stole and destroyed everything within their reach.

On the other side, that of revolution, were the most resolute leaders of the Reform party, prominent among whom was William Lyon Mackenzie. He had early been inured to poverty, and had all through boyhood been taught a daily lesson of unselfishness and self-help by the example of his widowed mother. He had received the usual excellent education of the primary kind obtainable in a Scottish public school. But the latter part of Mackenzie’s mental training was self-given. He had the advantage of studying thoroughly a few good books. He read the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton; then Plutarch’s Lives, Rollin, and a few of Robertson’s now forgotten histories, and these were the staple of his mental equipment for life. As a public speaker he had in a pre-eminent degree that power of carrying with him a large audience which is apt to follow from intense earnestness on the part of the speaker. His speeches are remarkable for an almost total lack of rhetorical ornament. They contain powerful passages, but these result from the intense convictions which form themselves into forcible expression, and “form thick and fast the burning words the tyrants quake to hear.”

Next in weight of character to Mackenzie came Marshall Spring Bidwell, he of the noble intellect and stainless life, statesman, orator, jurist, but above all Christian and gentleman. Born in Massachusetts, while it was still an English colony, Bidwell in early boyhood lived at Bath, near Kingston. It has been distinctly proved that never at any time did Bidwell overtly connect himself with the revolutionists, though it is pretty certain that he approved of their aims, and that he, on at least one occasion, advised them as to the legality of their proceedings. Though fearless in his opposition to evil, Marshall Spring Bidwell was moderate and discreet in word and action; he was one of the most impressive speakers on the Reform side in the Assembly, and had a singularly clear and expressive voice.

For many-sided talent it may be doubtful if any of the leaders of 1836-’37, was the equal of the Hon. John Rolph. An Englishman of good education, Rolph was for some time settled on Colonel Talbot’s estate, and according to Colonel Ermatinger was a special favourite with that eccentric old warrior till their political opinions separated them. Rolph began, like the first of the Baldwin settlers, to practise law, and was equally distinguished as a physician. As an orator the few specimens that remain of Dr. Rolph’s Parliamentary speeches rank with the best Canada can boast of. In consequence of a quarrel that took place between Mackenzie and Rolph, subsequent to 1837, those who side most warmly with the former are apt to undervalue Rolph’s services to the revolutionary cause. After careful enquiry I can see no just evidence against Dr. Rolph. He certainly staked everything on the perilous game then about to be played. He knew that whoever else might escape, he certainly could not hope to escape the unforgiving hatred of the Tory chiefs whose dearest plans his sarcastic oratory had thwarted so often. Dr. Rolph was singularly successful in his profession, and succeeded in attracting the warm affection of the young men with whom he came into contact as their teacher. His features were pleasing, his figure tall and commanding, and up to the day of his flight from Toronto no one was more trusted by those bent on a revolt.

Dr. Thomas D. Morrison, physician and member of Parliament, was another influential member of the revolutionary organization. He was a cautious, reticent man, a good speaker on political matters, and exceedingly influential with his party.

Samuel Lount, formerly member for Simcoe, had gained much influence among the farmers in the northern part of York County, especially in the neighbourhood of Holland Landing, where he resided. He combined with farming the business of blacksmithing, could make excellent horse shoes, and if need be, pike-heads also. An honest, affectionate, generous man, a kind husband and father, much beloved of all men, he had been deprived of his seat for Simcoe by the unconstitutional outrages of Head and his Tory abettors.

David Gibson, a land surveyor, and member of the Assembly, had a house on Yonge Street, at which Mackenzie’s friends frequently met in council. The same may be said of the home of James Hervey Price, which was situated in the same neighbourhood. The city meetings were generally convened at the large brewery owned by Mr. John Doel, on the north-west corner of Bay and Adelaide Streets. Part of this building is still standing (1884) and is used as a planing mill. Mr. Doel was much respected by men of all political opinions. Even Dr. Scadding, a pronounced though never uncharitable Loyalist, admits that in giving what comfort he could to the persecuted insurgents of 1837, Mr. Doel did himself honour. It was at this brewery that the first overt steps were taken towards forming a revolutionary organization. Here a meeting of Reformers was held on July 28th, 1837, at which a resolution was passed which was afterwards known as the “Declaration of Independence of Upper Canada.” This important document (as we learn from Mr. C. Lindsey’s “Life of William Lyon Mackenzie,” Vol. II. p. 17) had been previously drawn up mainly by Dr. Rolph, at Elliott’s tavern, at the corner of Yonge and Queen Streets. Its main features were a pledge to make common cause with the French Canadian Reformers, and “to summon a convention of delegates at Toronto, to take into consideration the political condition of Upper Canada, with authority to its members to appoint commissioners to meet others to be received on behalf of Lower Canada and any other colonies, armed with suitable powers to seek an effectual remedy for the grievances of the colonists.”

From this first measure towards revolution, it is evident that the thoughts of those who planned it were already moving in the direction of a Union of the Provinces. A lack of statesmanlike insight as to the condition of the French, as compared with the English colonists, is apparent in the reliance placed on Papineau’s frothy gasconades as a permanent political force.

At the Brewery meeting of July 31st, a permanent vigilance committee was appointed, of which Mackenzie was to be agent and corresponding secretary. He was to hold meetings in various parts of Upper Canada, and organize branch vigilance societies which were to be so organized as to be easily available for military purposes. Each society was to count not less than twelve, or more than forty members, as far as possible residents in the same neighbourhood. The secretaries of five of these societies were to form a township committee. Ten of the township committees were each to choose a representative to form a county committee, and these again were to elect a district committee, Upper Canada being divided into four districts. At the head of all was to be an executive committee. The secretary of each subordinate society would rank as sergeant, the delegate of five societies to a township committee as captain, the delegate of ten township committees to a district committee as colonel, at the head of a battalion of six hundred men.

The public meetings, the first of which was held at Newmarket, in the county of York, were enthusiastically attended by excited multitudes, who eagerly drank in Mackenzie’s fervid oratory. Among the chief promoters were Samuel Lount, of Holland Landing; Nelson Gorham, afterwards an exile in the United States; Giles Fletcher, who also became an exile; Jeremiah Graham; Peter Matthews, a farmer of Pickering, who held the rank of colonel, and was executed in 1838. Mackenzie was appointed chief of the Provisional Government; Dr. Rolph was invested with sole power as executive; Gibson, besides holding the rank of colonel, was appointed comptroller; and Jesse Lloyd as delegate to communicate with the French Canadians. It will be seen that the military organization aimed at was of the loosest kind. Mr. Lindsey tells us that not even an oath of secrecy and fidelity was exacted; all that was aimed at was to associate men from the same neighbourhood, who could trust each other, and to attain sufficient organization and discipline to enable its members to act together in the effort at surprising Toronto, which was from the first the main aim of the revolutionists. But the weekly drill on Yonge Street was regularly attended, bullets were cast, and old flint-lock muskets and pea-rifles carefully furbished; and at Lount’s forge, at Holland Landing, pike-heads were manufactured, and fitted to stout six-foot handles.

It is hardly possible now to estimate the actual number of Mackenzie’s avowed supporters. When the insurrection failed, numbers who would have joined Mackenzie had the attack on Toronto succeeded, multitudes who, in the London district, had actually taken up arms under Dr. Duncombe, made a pretence of offering their services to Colonel MacNab or Sir Francis Head, as the best means to secure their personal safety. Head’s boasts of the numbers of “loyal militia” that poured in to support him, rested therefore on very slight foundations. It was well known that Mackenzie had a very large following in Toronto itself, where he was most popular, having been the city’s first mayor in 1834. The intended rising was known, though not, it is believed, in all its details, to many gentlemen of high position, among others to Marshall Spring Bidwell and to the elder Baldwin. The latter, it is certain, did not communicate his knowledge of the revolutionary plans to his son Robert, who afterwards explicitly declared, in his place in Parliament, that he was in complete ignorance of what was going on. Sir Francis Hincks has also assured the writer that although everyone felt that a crisis of some kind was impending, he himself had no sympathy whatever with anything under Mackenzie’s leadership. East of Toronto, Mackenzie had a considerable following—about Cobourg, Port Hope, and Pickering. With the exception of the Orangemen, with which powerful organization Mackenzie had made the great mistake of quarrelling, and the Irish Roman Catholics, whose clergy denounced Mackenzie (he had made another mistake in picking a quarrel with their bishop), all the farmers of the Home District, and most of those in the Gore and Niagara Districts, were in full sympathy with Mackenzie. These were for the most part steady, industrious land-owners, men who risked not only life, but all that for half a lifetime they had toiled to reclaim from the wilderness, on the doubtful issues of insurrection. Many took the precaution of deeding in trust to friends, or to their children, what land they possessed, as a safeguard against government confiscation, should the rising fail. Besides the Home District contingents which were levied by Mackenzie and his lieutenants, Lount, Anderson, Gibson, Matthews and Lloyd, a very considerable force was raised in the Western Peninsula of Ontario, between the Detroit River and Lake Erie. This was one of the most fertile and best settled districts in English Canada; consequently it was one where the grievance of the Clergy Reserves was keenly felt. It was, as it is, a centre of Reform influence in Upper Canada.

The leading spirit in this phase of the revolutionary organization was Dr. Charles Duncombe, a resident of the village of Bishopsgate, on the town-line between Burford and Brantford townships, in the county of Brant. Like Dr. Rolph, like Dr. Wolfred Nelson in French Canada, this gentleman had gained considerable personal influence by his skill in the exercise of his profession, as well as by the self-sacrificing generosity with which he would ride for miles through swamp and forest to visit pioneer patients too poor to give any fee but gratitude. Like the able physicians named above, Duncombe was a many-sided man, a lucid and impressive speaker, well read in history and general literature, and gifted with a personal magnetism which enabled him to exert no slight influence over the farmers of the sections of five or six counties into which (so energetic were the medical men of those days,) his practice extended. He had been for many years representative in the Assembly of the riding in which he lived. In Parliament Dr. Duncombe exerted a marked influence. He it was that transmitted to the British Colonial Office such an impeachment of Sir Francis Head’s misgovernment, accompanied by proofs, as to cause the charges to be examined into, and the delinquent Lieutenant-Governor recalled in something very like disgrace. Duncombe had acquired considerable wealth in the course of his practice, and owned much land in Brant and Oxford.

On July 4th, 1837, a “significant date,” as Mr. Lindsey says, Mackenzie began to publish a newspaper called The Constitution, which, as compared with the more moderate public criticisms of his former Colonial Advocate, must be regarded as the organ of revolution. It lasted with some intermissions till the very eve of the rebellion. It was the voice of Mackenzie’s vigorous, incisive trumpet-call of insurrection, and openly recommended that new branch societies should be formed, and well supplied with “pikes and rifles.”

Chapter XXVI.

THE CIVIL WAR—MONTGOMERY’S FARM.

IR FRANCIS HEAD has in his published writings made two contradictory statements with regard to his knowledge of the preparations for insurrection. According to one, he sent the troops out of Upper Canada in order to tempt Mackenzie to an overt act of revolt; being well aware of the insurgents’ design. According to the other, he knew nothing about the rising till he heard of it at midnight, on December 4th. The truth probably is between the lines of the two statements. Head was, as he said, extremely desirous of forcing into apparent rebellion men like Bidwell, whom he had been ordered by his superiors to promote to the judicial bench. He hoped that the outbreak of actual insurrection would justify his boastful despatches, his ridiculous stump orations, his incessant denunciations of the advocates of Responsible Government as “rebels.” As to the cost to the people of Upper Canada in blood and treasure, as to the sacrifice of life on either side in the struggle, this charlatan descendant of a Jew quack took no account whatever, provided he carried his point, provided his purposes were served, what did that matter to the descendant of Moses Mendez? Meanwhile, trusting, as the political quack always does trust, to chance, and desirous above all things of self-display, this foolish coxcomb actually sent to Lower Canada the two companies of regulars which Sir John Colborne had left for the defence of the Toronto Government House and stores. Nor did he take the simple precaution of calling out a single regiment of militia; it was enough that the winter seemed likely to be an open one, and a small steamer was kept moored in the harbour in case the gallant Lieutenant-Governor should find it convenient to fly from his post. Nor, if the insurrection did not succeed, can its supporters impute any blame to Sir Francis Head. The force by which he apparently proposed to defend his Government consisted of a single artillery-man. There were some ten field-pieces, which had been moved from the Fort to the City Hall. Four thousand stand of arms, muskets with bayonets, belts and ammunition, were deposited in the City Hall at the disposal of any one who might choose to take them.

Mackenzie saw that the time had come for action. His first proposal, made at a meeting held in the beginning of November, at Mr. Doel’s brewery on Bay street, was in effect to take a strong party of “Dutcher’s foundry-men, and Armstrong’s axe-makers,” go with them to Government House, seize Sir Francis, confine him in the City Hall, and take possession of the muskets deposited there, and at once arm the innumerable friends who would rally to their support. It will be observed that Mackenzie, in making this proposal, did not insist on a demand for independence, but would have been content with the grant of Responsible Government and a fairly elected Assembly, the very privileges soon afterwards conceded by the beneficent liberal legislation which followed Lord Durham’s mission as Lord High Commissioner to Canada. The plan thus proposed, though bold, was perfectly feasible. The prestige of Head and the Family Compact must have broken down under a bloodless coup d’état which would have made them ridiculous. But Dr. Morrison, apprehensive, as Mr. Lindsey thinks (Life of Mackenzie, II., p. 56), of the fidelity of some one present at the meeting, threw cold water on the proposal. A few days later a more daring plan still was adopted, with the concurrence of Dr. Morrison and the other leaders. The entire available forces of the insurgents were to be concentrated at Montgomery’s hotel, on Yonge Street, a few miles north of the City Hall, and were thence to make a descent upon the city, capture Head, and seize the arms at the City Hall. The attack, which it was expected would be a surprise, was to take place at night, between six and ten o’clock. Dr. Rolph, as the executive, was to have supreme control of the enterprise, Mackenzie to carry out its details. Among the many deliberate falsehoods by which Head endeavoured to blacken the character of political opponents who were what no impartial historian can say that Head was, honourable and high principled, was the charge that Rolph and Mackenzie intended to rob the banks and set fire to the city. As Mr. Lindsey well remarks in commenting on this preposterous canard, the insurgents were, as a rule, of the wealthiest class of farmers in the county of York. Such men as Samuel Lount and David Gibson were supposed by Head to be mere bank robbers. Sir Francis Hincks, in 1838, a time when it was still perilous to defend the insurgent leaders even from unjust accusations, repels Head’s mendacious charge against the personal character of men like Rolph and Mackenzie with an honest warmth creditable to his true Irish heart, more especially when we remember that Mackenzie had, Scotchman-like, regarded young Hincks with harsh distrust as “a mere Irish adventurer.”

Head was repeatedly warned from the most reliable sources that preparations for a rising were taking place. The ablest of Canadian Methodist ministers, the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, with a brother clergyman, warned Attorney-General Hagerman of the incessant drillings and patrollings going on in that part of York County in which they had lately been ministering. Captain Fitzgibbon warned Judge Jones of the pike-heads and handles being distributed at Markham, and got snubbed for his over-officious zeal. Besotted in their self-conceit, Head and his Government would accept no advice, nor take any precaution.

Meanwhile the breakdown of Papineau’s movement in French Canada damped the ardour of Mackenzie’s followers, who had very unwisely over-estimated that gasconading poltroon, and had overlooked the fact that the Catholic Church alone could control the action of the French Canadians. As soon as the work of actual fighting began, Papineau had basely withdrawn, leaving braver men to fight their way out of the difficulty into which he had led them. As to the Church, as soon as she had allowed the insurrectionary movement to grow to such a sufficiently alarming proportion as might enhance the value of her own mediation, she spoke in decisive tones, and all good Catholics abandoned the standard which she denounced as rebellious and infidel.

Late in November the last details of the military arrangements had to be settled, for which purpose Mackenzie made a hurried tour of the country north of Toronto, visiting Lloydtown, Holland Landing and other centres of the movement. He distrusted, without reason indeed, as was plainly manifested in the fight at Montgomery’s hotel, his own want of military skill, and secured the services of Colonel Van Egmond, a veteran Colonel of Napoleon’s grand army. This gentleman had acquired a large property in Canada, all of which he risked and lost in his unselfish endeavour to serve the Canadian cause. Colonel Van Egmond, who was advanced in years, was captured subsequently to the battle of Montgomery’s Hotel, and died in the hospital of the prison where he was confined.

On the night of December 3rd, Mackenzie, having visited the house of David Gibson, one of the leaders already mentioned, learned, to his no small dismay, that the day of rendezvous had been in his absence altered by Dr. Rolph’s sole order, from Thursday, the 7th of December, to Monday, the 4th. This, of course, Mackenzie thought would throw all their plans into confusion, and was a violation of the undertaking into which all the leaders had entered, that the day of rising should not be changed except by general consent. But there is no reason to think that Dr. Rolph acted otherwise than in perfect good faith. And the issuing of a warrant for Mackenzie’s arrest, which followed at once on the publication of the latest issue of the Constitution, and the issuing of arms to a city volunteer company, seem to have fully warranted Rolph’s action. Had his plan been but privately carried out, Toronto would have fallen into Mackenzie’s hands on the morning of Tuesday, December the 5th. Fifty resolute men could have done it. Nor can it be considered wise in Mackenzie to endeavour to change the day of rendezvous back to the original date. How much better to have accepted the situation than thus to play at cross-purposes. In vain did he send messages to Colonel Lount, who sent word that the men were already on the march, and that no further change could be made. Mackenzie saw that the die was cast, and resolved, come what might, to abide the issue.

Montgomery’s hotel was a frame building of two stories, and of the type still familiar in many a backwoods settlement. Round the front aspect of the house, which faced towards Toronto, ran a platform, or “stoop,” raised on three steps to avoid the slush in spring thaws. On one side of the door was the usual large bar-room, over the main entrance a lamp, and before the house a huge sign-board raised on high, bearing the usual hospitable announcement. Thither Mackenzie repaired on the evening of the 4th of December, the day appointed by Dr. Rolph for the rendezvous. The hotel belonged to John Montgomery, who had rented it to one Lingfoot, a man who, if anything, was a Loyalist. Montgomery is stated by Mr. C. Lindsey to have had no direct connection with the insurrection. A strong contrary opinion has been expressed by Mr. Wilcox, the companion of Mackenzie’s flight after the battle, and by Mr. Brock, at present of Toronto, then one of Mackenzie’s officers. It is evident, say these gentlemen, that Montgomery knew all about his house being constantly made a place of meeting by the patriots. But the anticipation of the day of meeting had spoiled all commissariat arrangements. Mackenzie could procure neither beef nor bread till the next morning, and when, late in the evening, Colonel Lount arrived with some ninety men, dispirited by a tramp of thirty miles through the Yonge Street mud, little comfort awaited them beyond what might be had from bare boards and bad whiskey. Mackenzie now advised two measures, one a most sensible one, to cut off all communication with the city by placing a guard across Yonge Street. This was done at once, and had well nigh succeeded in preventing the news of the rising from reaching the Lieutenant-Governor that night. The other was that an immediate advance on the city should be made by Lount’s company of riflemen and pikemen. Against this proposal Colonels Lount and Gibson and Jesse Lloyd protested. They seem, from a military point of view, to have been quite right. Lount’s company were utterly exhausted by a thirty-mile tramp through heavy mud. They had not received any provisions. Men in such a condition were not fit for a further forced march, to conclude, perhaps, with a fight against fresh and well-fed opponents. Mackenzie then offered, if accompanied by three others, to ride into the city, ascertain the state of matters, and return with Dr. Rolph and Dr. Morrison. Captain Anderson, one of Mackenzie’s most trusted officers, and two others rode with him towards Toronto. On their way they met a mounted patrol consisting of Alderman John Powell and Mr. Archibald Macdonald. Mackenzie explained that the rising had taken place, and said he must send them as temporary prisoners to Montgomery’s hotel, where he would give orders that they should be well treated. He then put them on parole as to their being possessors of weapons. Powell gave his word of honour that he was without a weapon, but he had not ridden far before he dropped behind his mounted escort, and, drawing a pistol, shot Anderson in the back. Anderson fell dead, his murderer galloped away, and as he passed Mackenzie he fired the other pistol at him. The clumsy flintlock, however, failed to accomplish his deadly purpose.

Meanwhile a meeting of Loyalists was held at the house of Colonel Moodie, near Richmond Hill, in consequence of the march of Lount’s men having been observed on the neighbouring part of Yonge Street, at four o’clock in the afternoon of that day. Several of the loyal gentlemen resolved to ride, if necessary, through the guard at Montgomery’s hotel, in order to carry the news to the Lieutenant-Governor in Toronto. The other members of the Loyalist party were stopped by the insurgent guard, and conveyed as prisoners into the hotel, where, by Mackenzie’s orders, they were treated with every respect. But Colonel Moodie had, most unfortunately, been drinking heavily. He acted like a madman, drew a pistol in either hand, and fired right and left upon the guard. It was not to be expected that the fire, under such circumstances, should not be returned. Moodie fell, and was removed to the hotel, where he died two hours afterwards. Mr. Lindsey, who certainly is the most reliable authority, says that the fatal shot was fired by a man named Ryan, who stood on the steps in front of the hotel, where the moonlight, falling full on Moodie, gave him a good mark. But two gentlemen, who were present when Moodie fell, state that the shot was fired from a crowd of men on the other side of the road, where there was an open clearing, and that the unhappily successful marksman was a farmer from Simcoe.

When Powell had passed Mackenzie, after riding forward for a little, he dismounted, and, fancying himself pursued, hid for some time behind a log. He then proceeded to the city with the first news of the revolt. He first waited on the Chief Justice, together with whom he went to Government House, where courtly historians record that Sir Francis Head “had gone to bed with a sick headache.” Hurried orders were given to assemble the chief government officials. Torches flared in the streets, where excited groups continued to gather until dawn, and the city bells, with loud clangor sounding the alarm, gave warning to the insurgent camp that the time for a surprise had gone by. It had, in reality, not gone by. In the city, the Lieutenant-Governor, terrified and incapable, put his family and household effects on board the small steamer ready for flight, should Mackenzie capture the city. A son of the Hon. William Hamilton Merritt, then a pupil in Upper Canada College, thus describes the scene of that morning in Toronto: “It was a curious sight to behold; guards of civilians hanging about Government House; the shops all closed! People hurrying silently in all directions, some with arms, some without. And then, at the Town Hall, where were assembled the cannon, with torches ready to be lighted, and the arms distributed. Melancholy exhibited in every countenance. All was new and strange! Nothing was done that day, but various movements took place in their turn. All was exciting.” The judges, the city aldermen, and other leading gentlemen, set the example of coolly forming themselves into a company for defence of their Government. Sheriff Jarvis got together a small corps of volunteers who were supplied with arms. But still the condition of Head and his Government may be described as one of panic all the forenoon of Tuesday, December 5th. Two hundred resolute men, had that opportunity been seized, might have captured the Government House and sent the Lieutenant-Governor flying in the steamer he had provided for the purpose.

At the insurgent camp, at Montgomery’s hotel, all the conditions were favourable for an advance on Toronto at that critical moment of the insurrection. Colonel Lount’s men had recovered from the fatigue of their long march of the day before. New companies and straggling bodies of men had poured into the camp all night. On Tuesday morning the insurgents mustered between seven and eight hundred men, an ample force to have carried all before them. The greater number were armed with pikes of Lount’s manufacture, a rude but most effective weapon, especially for street fighting. Many had the old heavy-handle pea-rifle, which those who possessed it were pretty sure to know how to use. A sufficient commissariat, too, had been procured. Lingfoot, the “Loyalist” tenant of John Montgomery, was not unwilling to take the rebel money which Mackenzie most honourably paid for all expenses incurred. Requisitions were made on several neighbouring houses belonging to Loyalists, but Mackenzie and his lieutenants would permit no violence nor injury to property, in this respect showing a very different spirit from that displayed by the Loyalist forces when their time came for reprisals. Ample supplies of fresh and salt beef, too, as well as of bread, had been procured from a “truly loyal” butcher, some two miles north of Montgomery’s hotel. If the men had been refreshed with a good breakfast, and then had marched on the city, the attack must have succeeded. For, by Head’s own account (Sir F. B. Head’s Narrative, p. 331), he had but three hundred supporters in the city that morning, besides which he was notoriously unpopular, while Mackenzie had many ardent supporters in Toronto ready to join his force had it once advanced. And Mackenzie himself strongly urged an immediate advance. He was overruled by his lieutenants, especially by David Gibson, on the ground that the detachments from the west had not yet arrived, and that nothing was known of the state of things in the city, where the alarm bells warned them that their enterprise had been discovered, and would no doubt be resisted. Thus was the favourable moment lost by the want of proper discipline, and of subjection to those in authority. In fact, one of the gravest errors of the insurgents in planning the rising had been the neglect of securing communication by means of emissaries who would not be suspected, and by devious routes. They had trusted too much to receiving communications through leading men such as Rolph and Morrison, every movement of whom was sure to be watched by the Government. Dr. Morrison did, it is believed, endeavour to make his way to the camp at Montgomery’s on the night of December 4th. A Loyalist, Captain Bridgeford, meeting him, is supposed to have caused his return to the city (see Lindsey’s Life of Mackenzie, Vol. II. p. 80, a curious detail of circumstantial evidence in connection with this incident as discovered at Morrison’s trial for high treason in 1838). All through the 5th every avenue which directly led to the northern part of Yonge Street was watched by armed patrols, who did not hesitate to fire on any one whom they saw approaching in the direction of Montgomery’s hotel. Thus the younger Merritt, in his school diary, relates:—“In such a state of things human life is held at a very cheap rate. Next day, by going too near where the rebels were stationed, we (several Upper Canada College students) were taken prisoners. When in durance, I saw a sentry aim his musket at a person who was running away.”

As a proof of the abject state of panic to which Sir Francis Head was by this time reduced, he actually stooped to send a flag of truce to the insurgents’ camp, thus acknowledging them as belligerents with whom he might make terms. In his own account of this transaction, Head states that he sent the flag of truce on Wednesday, December the 5th, and that his motive was humanity. Both statements are false. It was on Tuesday, not on Wednesday, that the flag of truce was sent, and Head’s motive was not humanity, but fear, and a desire to gain time till his reinforcements of militia might arrive. Instead of sending a couple of his own officials, Sir Francis further showed the white feather by selecting as his emissaries men who were believed to be deep in the confidence of the insurgents. He first, through Sheriff Jarvis, appointed Mr. J. Harvey Price, well known to be a friend of Mackenzie’s, but Price refused point blank, lest he should afterwards be said to have gone to join the camp at Montgomery’s. At length Mr. Robert Baldwin and Dr. Rolph agreed to go, and arrived at Montgomery’s about one o’clock. For Rolph to have undertaken this mission as the representative of Head’s Government was a very great mistake. His appearance as the emissary of Head did much to discourage those whom he had urged on to take up arms. He should have declined the mission at all hazards to his personal liberty, or should have remained with his friends, leaving Robert Baldwin to carry back Mackenzie’s reply to Head’s message as to their demands: “Independence, and a convention to arrange details.” But, ever given to subtle policy, Rolph attempted a middle course. He went with Baldwin and returned with him, but sought a few minutes private conversation with Lount, in which he urged an immediate advance of the whole force on the city.

It is due to Mackenzie’s military reputation to say that he took immediate measures for carrying their advice into effect. He rode westward by College Avenue to what is now the head of Spadina Avenue, where a large body of the insurgents were stationed, and led them towards Yonge Street. When he arrived at Yonge Street he met Baldwin and Rolph, who brought word of the Lieutenant-Governor’s refusal to grant their demands. Here again Rolph advised an advance on the city, where they might expect to be reinforced by six hundred of their friends, by six p.m. At a quarter to six the whole of Mackenzie’s force were mustered at the toll-bar on Yonge Street.

Mackenzie on that occasion did all he could to animate his followers with his own intrepid spirit, but nothing he could say would supply the utter want of discipline in their disorderly ranks. They marched without order, those of Lount’s men who had rifles, in front, the pikemen following. They met and disarmed a Captain Duggan of the volunteer artillery, but soon afterwards they were fired on by a party of Sheriff Jarvis’s volunteers, who after the first volley ran away. A disgraceful panic ensued. Had the insurgents shown anything of the courage which, too late to save their cause, they showed when brought to bay on December the 7th, the result would have been very different. All but a score at most retreated to a considerable distance above the toll-gate. Mackenzie, aided by Lount and Alves, tried in vain to rally them, but Lount’s men threw away their pikes. They said they would march no further that night. Next morning, Rolph, finding that all hope of success was lost by the failure of the insurgents, left for the United States. The particulars of his escape, never before published, will be given in the next chapter. Many of the insurgents now went back to their farms, but some new arrivals kept up the force at Montgomery’s to nearly five hundred men. Thenceforth, their history is but a record of divided counsels and consequent failures, redeemed, it is true, by the courage with which they confronted, on the morning of the 7th, a greatly superior force of militia, well-armed and supported by artillery. Another error was committed by Mackenzie, though as he says in obedience to Rolph’s express orders, burning the house of Dr. Horne, a loyalist spy. This unduly alarmed the citizens of Toronto, and gave colour to Head’s accusation that Mackenzie and Lount meant to fire the city. This imprudent act, Mr. Brock, one of Mackenzie’s officers now surviving, tells me that he and his two brothers strongly opposed.

On Wednesday, Mackenzie, with Lount, Alves, Brock and others, galloped to Dundas Street to intercept the Western mail, which they succeeded in effecting. But meantime Sir Francis Head had received reinforcements on a scale that enabled him to assume the offensive. On the morning of Thursday, December the 7th, Colonel Van Egmond, as originally arranged, arrived to take command. He at once approved of all Mackenzie’s measures, and advised a delay till night, and meantime to divert the enemy’s attention and prevent an attack by sending a party of sixty men, including forty armed with rifles, to destroy the bridge over the Don, and intercept the mail from Montreal. This plan was carried out successfully, although the Don Bridge was but partially burned. But divided councils and Gibson’s opposition to the measures proposed caused a delay of two hours, which, as Mr. Lindsey says, proved fatal. Three steamers had conveyed Colonel MacNab’s and other bodies of militia to the Toronto wharves. At noon on Thursday, Sir Francis Head’s force marched from Toronto, (he calls it in his Emigrant “an overwhelming force”), led by Colonels MacNab, Fitzgibbon and Jarvis. They presented a motley appearance. Only the chief officers were mounted and in uniform; the rank and file were ununiformed; they had a sort of extemporized military band, and were preceded by the two field-pieces from the City Hall. About one in the afternoon the attacking column came in sight of the outposts of the insurgent camp. Mackenzie rushed forward to reconnoitre. Returning to his men, he asked if “they were ready to encounter a force greatly superior in numbers to themselves, well armed, and provided with artillery? They replied in the affirmative.” (Lindsey’s Mackenzie, Vol. II., 94.)

On the west side of the Yonge street roadway was a second growth of pine wood, just south of Montgomery’s hotel. On the other side of the road was an open clearing, where a party of the insurgents were posted under cover of the fence. But the main body were now stationed by Mackenzie, who had by this time abandoned his horse, in the pine grove on the west side. Meanwhile, the militia had halted, a little more than a gunshot from the insurgents, and opened fire with grape and canister. One or two of the shots knocked off an angle of the wall of a small building once used as a school house—a vestige of the battle which might have been seen till recently. The shot from the field-pieces crashed among the pine trees, throwing the splinters in all directions. Meanwhile, the militia, firing volleys of musketry as they went, with much effect, advanced both in front and on either flank, wherever they could find cover. They enormously outnumbered the insurgents, yet, says Mackenzie, “never did men fight more courageously. In the face of a heavy fire of grape and canister, with broadside following broadside of musketry in steady and rapid succession, they stood their ground firmly.” Hard pressed and outnumbered, they were at length compelled to retreat, their leaders, above all Mackenzie himself, fighting to the last. An eye witness, quoted by Mr. Lindsey (Life of Mackenzie, II., 96), states: “So unwilling was Mackenzie to leave the field of battle, and so hot was the chase after him, that he distanced the enemy’s horsemen only twenty or thirty yards by his superior knowledge of the country, and reached Colonel Lount and our friends on their retreat, just in time to save his neck.” Brock, who was with him all through the fight, has told me how Mackenzie, during the struggle, which lasted about an hour in all, exposed his person with the most intrepid courage. The battle was lost, and the insurrection was crushed under the feet of Head’s “overwhelming force.” Yet the bloodshed and the courage displayed by Mackenzie and his followers were not in vain. Their appearance in arms against the tyranny of irresponsible government drew upon English Canada with enduring beneficial effect the attention of English Liberalism. Head, MacNab, and their “overwhelming force” did indeed gain a victory over the four hundred insurgents, but it was a victory which to them and their cause proved more disastrous than any defeat. On the side of the Loyalists all was exultation. Carts were ordered up to receive the wounded of both sides, of whom there were many, but the insurgents managed to carry away most of their wounded to friendly farm houses. Several of the insurgents were killed. Head, before marching back to the city, ordered Montgomery’s hotel to be burned down.

Chapter XXVII.

THE FAMILY COMPACT TERROR.

ICTORY in their hands, the exultation of the Family Compact knew no bounds. The prisons were crowded with unoffending citizens, arrested “on suspicion.” To have been a Reformer of the mildest and most constitutional kind was sufficient to cause the man of a family to be imprisoned for months. When released, as arbitrarily as they had been arrested, they would find house and furniture wrecked by the brutal militia-men sent to occupy it. Rewards, to large amounts, of blood-money were set on the heads of the leading chiefs of the late insurrection.

Meanwhile the western division of the insurgents had met at the village of Scotland, in the southern township of Brant County. They were about five hundred, generally armed with rifles. On the news of the defeat of Mackenzie reaching them, Colonel Sackrider, who, as has been stated, was a veteran officer of 1812, wished to occupy the pine woods south of Burford, where they could have a friendly country as a base of supplies, and might make a stand against MacNab and the Loyalist militia. But Duncombe gave it as his opinion that they had better disperse, which was accordingly done. A full account of the interesting circumstances of Duncombe’s escape from the Loyalist prison, as gathered by myself from Dr. Duncombe’s daughter, and from the son of the gentleman who contrived the escape; as also of the flight, under circumstances of great difficulty, of Mr. Hagel, one of Duncombe’s officers, will be given at full length in a future work. As yet these stories, so characteristic of that period of Canadian history, have never been laid before the public. It is hoped, also, that in the advanced work a fuller account may be drawn from sources entirely original of Dr. Rolph’s escape from Toronto. His opponents were thirsting for his blood, and he knew it well. Calmly, on the morning of Wednesday, the 6th of December, he sauntered along King Street, passing in and out of the houses of his patients, as if intent on his professional practice. In advance of him a favourite pupil of his, now one of Toronto’s most eminent practitioners, had Rolph’s best horse ready saddled. A little past the western city limits, however, they met a party of militia, commanded by an exceedingly zealous Loyalist. Most fortunate for a life yet destined to be most useful to Canada and science, he had just received a letter from a sister, who lived at some distance, and was dangerously ill. Rolph produced the letter, said he was about to ride to see the patient, and was allowed to go on his way. He easily made his escape into the United States, where he resumed the practice of his profession with much success, until a pardon enabled him to return to Toronto.

Of William Lyon Mackenzie’s wonderful adventures during his flight a most graphic account is given by Mr. Lindsey. Less fortunate was the brave and generous-hearted Colonel Samuel Lount. For a short time he retreated along with Mackenzie, at the head of about ninety armed men. It was then thought most judicious that the party should separate. The Hon. James Young, in his amusing and useful book on Galt and Dumfries, states, on the authority of a militia officer still living, that Lount was secreted for some days near Galt. Mr. Young adds that Lount would certainly have been captured were it not that his arrest would have involved all who had sheltered him in the penalties of high treason. Lount was next secreted in an almost impenetrable swamp, near Glenmorris. Thence he was moved to the house of a political friend, near the village of Glenmorris; a magistrate arrived at the front door of that house to arrest him, just as Lount left by the back-door. Samuel Latchaw, a well known South Dumfries farmer, conveyed him thence to Waterford, where he lay concealed in the hay-mow of Grover’s hotel, while the Loyalist militia were scouring the country all round in search of him. At last, after many such adventures, he made his way to the Niagara river, where he was captured, as Mr. Young well puts it, “within sight of the United States and safety.” He was next seen being led through Chippawa as a prisoner. His cap had blown off his head into the river, and a ragged old red night cap had been placed on his head by his “loyal” escort in mockery of the Republican Cap of Liberty. Though given in heartless insult, no better head-gear could have befitted the brow of Samuel Lount. He was tried soon afterwards at Toronto, with Peter Matthews of Pickering. They were found guilty, and an eminent physician of this city who was present in the court house during the trial tells me that Chief Justice Sir John Beverley Robinson pronounced the cruel death sentence with evident satisfaction. It was as if he was eating honey. Orders had been sent from England to delay the capital sentence, but the Chief Justice and the Rev. John Strachan used all their influence to bring Lount and Matthews to the scaffold. They died calmly, confident in the justice of the cause for which they gave their lives, on April 12th, 1838. Of a very different nature from Mackenzie’s attempt to create a revolution by seizing the capital and overthrowing the Family Compact tyranny, and utterly unjustifiable on any patriotic ground, were the raids on Canadian territory by American sympathizers in 1838. The chief of these was made from the American side, whence a force of about a thousand Canadian and American sympathizers occupied Navy Island in the Niagara river above the Falls. They were, however, induced to disperse by the American General Scott. A steamer which they had used to convey supplies to the island was seized by MacNab, who set it on fire, and sent it to drift over the cataract. For this achievement MacNab was knighted.

In 1838 Head was recalled, and Sir George Arthur came to Upper Canada as Governor. The Family Compact had triumphed, and had filled the prisons with the “rebels.” Two of the leaders, Lount and Matthews, were executed; rewards were offered for the capture of Mackenzie, Duncombe and others, dead or alive, and the frontier was haunted by prowling Iroquois from the Grand river, eager to take the scalp of the “rebel” chiefs and earn the Government blood-money. In October of this year a raid was made by a body of sympathizers under a Pole named Von Schoultz, who occupied a stone wind-mill near Prescott. They were attacked by a large force of militia, and compelled to surrender. Von Schoultz was taken to Kingston and tried for high treason, being ably, but unsuccessfully, defended by a young lawyer named John A. Macdonald. Von Schoultz was executed. An attempt was also made by the insurgents to capture Windsor and Amherstburg, but they were dispersed with a loss of twenty-one by Colonel Prince. Four prisoners were taken, who were shot in cold blood by the Colonel. In their triumph the insolence of the Family Compact knew no bounds. The Reign of Terror in France and the Bloody Assize in England seemed about to repeat themselves in Canada. But a great change had taken place in England. The Tory party, which had been supreme since Waterloo, had fallen from power, and their place was filled by the great Liberal Administration of Lords Grey and Melbourne. By them Lord Durham was sent out as Imperial High Commissioner to adjust all questions and grievances in Canada. He stood between the political prisoners and the Family Compact party, who were made to see that their hour was past. Lord Durham, on his return to England, published his celebrated “Report,” which must ever be regarded as one of the chief documents of Canadian freedom. In this he recommended nearly all the reforms for which Mackenzie had for so many years asked in vain. Thus the insurrection, though as a military movement it failed, by arousing the attention of English Liberalism to the tyranny of the Family Compact, accomplished, in an indirect manner, all at which it aimed.

Chapter XXVIII.

THE UNION OF THE PROVINCES.

N 1839 Mr. Charles Poulett Thomson, an English merchant, was appointed Governor-General. Colborne, who now returned to England, received the title of Lord Seaton. In accordance with instructions from the English Minister, Thomson proposed for acceptance a measure which united the provinces, provided for equal representation of both in the conjoint Legislature, and conceded the full acknowledgment of the long-wished-for right of Responsible Government. The Lower Canadians were, of course, bitterly opposed to the union, but no attention was paid to their opposition. The Family Compact saw in it the ruin of their supremacy, but the hour was gone by in which they could cajole the English Government, now in the hands of the Liberals, who, thanks to Lord Durham, were no longer ignorant of Canadian politics. In 1840 the vexed question of the Clergy Reserves was again brought forward, and a bill passed authorizing their sale, but as it gave the lion’s share of the proceeds to the Anglican Church, the Reformers were still dissatisfied. But a victory had been won for Constitutional Government which outweighed all minor grievances, and the knell of the Family Compact oligarchy sounded in Governor Thomson’s message to the Upper Canada Parliament: “I have been commanded by Her Majesty to administer the Government in accordance with the well-understood wishes of the people, and to pay to their feelings, as expressed through their representatives, the deference that is justly due to them.”

The union of Upper and Lower Canada came into force in 1841. Kingston was made the seat of Government. Mr. Thomson received the title of Baron Sydenham. He endeavoured to carry out faithfully the work of inaugurating the system of Responsible Government, and introduced, through the Executive Council, many useful measures. Unfortunately when riding up the hill of Portsmouth, near Kingston, his horse fell, crushing his leg, an injury of which, to the great sorrow of all true Canadian patriots, he died on September 19th, 1841. By his own desire, he was buried at Kingston. He was succeeded by Sir Charles Bagot, a High Churchman and a Tory, who was at first received with dread by the Reformers, and with exultation by the Tories, who hoped that the good times of Sir Francis Head were come again. But neither party knew their man. Sir Charles Bagot had been sent to Canada to administer Responsible Government, and was, from first to last, faithful to his trust. He gave his confidence to the Reform Government, and refused to lend an ear to the blandishments of the Family Compact. Unhappily, he fell into ill health, aggravated by hard work, and exposure to the rigors of a Canadian winter, and he died at Alwington House, Kingston, in May, 1843. His successor, Sir Charles, afterwards Lord Metcalfe, was a politician of very different stamp. He threw himself wholly into the arms of the Tory party, who were the heirs of the defunct Family Compact, and, mainly by his influence, a small majority for that party was obtained at the elections of 1844. A Tory Ministry under Mr. Draper now came into power, Sir A. MacNab being Speaker. In 1845, the Draper Government proposed to pay all losses sustained by Loyalists during the troubles of 1837-’38 in Upper Canada. The French agreed to this, provided that similar compensation was given to Lower Canada. Commissioners were appointed, who reported that £100,000 would be required. As a sop to his French supporters, Draper proposed a grant of $9,986 in partial payment of Lower Canadian losses. This satisfied nobody, and the Draper Administration became unpopular on all sides.

In 1846 common schools were established throughout Upper Canada, the germ of our present public school system being introduced by Dr. Egerton Ryerson. The history of this very able administration in connection with our public school system arose out of the following circumstances connected with the official acts of Lord Metcalfe. The Governor-General had, it is believed, received secret instructions from a reactionary administration in England to oppose, as far as possible, the growth of Responsible Government. In carrying into effect these back-stairs instructions, Metcalfe had thrown all his personal and official influence into the support of Mr. Draper’s Government, which, it was evident, did not possess the confidence of the people. Metcalfe, in consequence of this, was exposed to considerable unpopularity, and was justly criticised by the caustic pens of Francis Hincks and Robert Baldwin Sullivan. Meantime it was suggested to the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, at that time President of the Methodist University at Cobourg, that he might, with advantage to his church and the university, employ his pen in defending Lord Metcalfe against the aspersions constantly thrown upon his political course by some of our ablest public ministers. The person who made this suggestion was the Hon. William Hamilton Merritt, of Welland Canal notoriety, in connection with which expensive enterprise he was more than suspected of serious malversation of public funds. The Rev. E. Ryerson was, at a time when such writing was more scarce than it is now, a vigorous and versatile writer, and a man of great force of character. But his Metcalfe letters are the least pleasant reading of anything the late Superintendent of Education has left behind him. They contain an admixture of political special pleading with the unctuous phraseology of the pulpit, which would be intolerable in the present day, and was only bearable at the time from the more influential position filled by preachers in influencing public opinion. As the first editor of the Christian Guardian, as a convert for conscience sake from the rich Episcopalian Church of his fathers, as a devoted missionary to the Indians, as the ablest of the ministers and champions of his church, Egerton Ryerson was, at the time, a power, and Lord Metcalfe and his advisers knew it. As a direct result of the Metcalfe letters, the position of Chief Superintendent of Education was offered to Dr. Ryerson, pretty nearly on his own terms. He was certainly the best man for the position, and both as regards income and power, it was decidedly the best position the country could offer. In the course of his long autocracy, Dr. Ryerson established an eclectic system of public education, in part based on the Prussian and part on the New England school system, with a selection of non-denominational text-books similar to those used at the time by Protestant and Catholic alike in the national schools in Ireland. Whatever mistakes Dr. Ryerson may have made from time to time in matters of detail, however imperious his self-assertion, it was necessary to have a firm hand and a strong will at the helm in those troublous times that saw the establishment of our school system. To Dr. Ryerson we owe the establishment of the collection of works of art in the Normal School museum, the germ, it is to be hoped, of a Canadian national gallery. In the graded improvement of this collection, in the collection of an admirable series of specimens of engravings historically arranged, and in the completion of an art catalogue likely to be of use to art study, Dr. Ryerson’s work has been well carried out by his subordinates. Of Dr. Ryerson’s work in our educational system it may be said, as we point to our city schools in Toronto, “if you seek his monument, look around you!”

Lord Elgin arrived in Canada as Governor General in 1847. The decaying Tory Government was now attacked with much effect by Mr. Francis Hincks in the Montreal Pilot. This able writer and speaker had much advanced the cause of Reform by his articles in the Toronto Examiner in 1839. The Clergy Reserves question was now again agitated. A famine in Ireland and Scotland caused an immense immigration to Canada in this year, as many as 70,000 having landed at Quebec. But these were the least valuable class of settlers. Too weak to be of use as labourers, they carried the seeds of pestilence and death broadcast over the country. At the elections of 1848, the Reformers were once more successful, and, Draper being forced to resign, the Baldwin-Lafontaine Ministry came into power. In 1849, the strength of the two parties was tested by a new Rebellion Losses Bill, to which the Tories were bitterly opposed. Meantime the Governor announced that the British Government was prepared to hand over the control of the Post Office Department to the Canadian Government, and that it was optional with the Canadian Legislature to repeal the differential duties in favour of British manufactures. Dr. Wolfred Nelson and M. Papineau were now returned as representatives from Lower Canada, but the magic of Papineau’s influence had gone with his cowardice at St. Denis, and the French Canadians followed in preference the leadership of the more moderate Reformer, Lafontaine. There was a memorable debate in Parliament over M. Lafontaine’s Rebellion Losses Bill. Sir Allan MacNab’s party entered the conflict with a will. The Knight led the attack, and his invective was unsparing and indiscriminate. He did not wonder that a premium was put upon rebellion, now that rebels were rewarded for their own uprising; for the Government itself was a rebel Government, and the party by which it was maintained in power was a phalanx of rebels. His lieutenants were scarcely less unsparing and fierce in the attack. But the Government boldly took up their position. Mr. Baldwin, Attorney-General West, maintained that it would be disgraceful to enquire whether a man had been a rebel or not after the passage of a general act of indemnity. Mr. Drummond, Solicitor-General East, took ground which placed the matter in the clearest light. The Indemnity Act had pardoned those concerned in High Treason. Technically speaking, then, all who had been attainted stood in the same position as before the rebellion. But the opposition were not in a mood to reason. The two colonels, Prince and Gugy, talked a great deal of fury. The former reminded the house that he was “a gentleman;” the latter made it plain that he was a blusterer. Mr. Sherwood was fierce, and often trenchant; while Sir Allan reiterated that the whole French Canadian people were traitors and aliens. At this date, we are moved neither to anger nor contempt at reading such utterances as those of the knights, for it would be wrong to regard them as else than infirmities; and it is deplorable that by such statements the one party should allow itself to be dominated, and the other driven to wrath. But through all these volcanic speeches Sir Allan was drifting in the direction of a mighty lash, held in a strong arm; and when the blow descends we find little compassion for the wrigglings of the tortured knight. It was while Sir Allan had been bestriding the Parliament like a Colossus, breathing fire and brimstone against every opponent, and flinging indiscriminately about him such epithets as “traitor” and “rebel,” that Mr. Blake, Solicitor-General West, stung beyond endurance, sprang to his feet. He would remind them, he said, that there was not only one kind of rebellion, and one description of rebel and traitor. He would tell them that there was such a thing as rebellion against the constitution as well as rebellion against the Crown. A man could be a traitor to his country’s rights as well as a traitor to the power of the Crown. He instanced Philip of Spain, and James II., when there was a struggle between political freedom and royal tyranny. These royal tyrants found loyal men to do their bidding, not only in the army but on the bench of justice. There was one such loyal servant, he who shone above all the rest, the execrable Judge Jeffreys, who sent among the many other victims before their Maker, the mild, amiable and great Lord Russell. Another victim of these loyal servants was Algernon Sidney, whose offence was his loyalty to the people’s rights and the constitution. He had no sympathy with the spurious loyalty of the honourable gentlemen opposite, which, while it trampled on the people, was the slave of the court; a loyalty which, from the dawn of the history of the world down to the present day, had lashed humanity into rebellion. He would not go to ancient history; but he would tell the honourable gentlemen opposite of one great exhibition of this loyalty: on one occasion the people of a distant Roman province contemplated the perpetration of the foulest crime that the page of history records—a crime from which nature in compassion hid her face, and over which she strove to draw a veil; but the heathen Roman law-giver could not be induced by perjured witnesses to place the great Founder of our religion upon the cross. “I find no fault in Him,” he said. But these provincials, after endeavouring by every other means to effect their purpose, had recourse to this spurious loyalty. “If thou lettest this man go thou are not Cæsar’s friend!” Mark the loyalty; could they not see every feature of it; could they not trace it in this act; aye, and overcome by that mawkish, spurious loyalty, the heathen Roman governor gave his sanction to a deed whose foul and impure stain eighteen centuries of national humiliation and suffering have been unable to efface. This spurious, slavish loyalty was not British stuff; this spurious bullying loyalty never grew in his native land. British loyalty wrung on the field of Runnymede from the tyrant king the great charter of English liberty. Aye, the barons of England, with arms in their hands, demanded and received the great charter of their rights. British loyalty, during a period of three centuries, wrung from tyrant kings thirty different recognitions of that great charter. Aye, and at the glorious era of the Revolution, when the loyal Jeffreys was ready, in his extreme loyalty, to hand over England’s freedom and rights into the hands of tyrants, the people of England established the constitution which has maintained England till this day, a great, free and powerful nation.

So fierce was the animosity of the Tory party to the Rebellion Losses Bill that some of them broke out into threats of secession, and clamoured for annexation. The bill however passed on April 26th, 1849. On the afternoon of that day a riotous mob assailed the Governor, Lord Elgin, as he was leaving the Parliament House; but his carriage drove rapidly away, and he thus escaped. Baulked of their object, the mob then turned their attention to burning the Parliament Buildings, to which a torch was applied by a Tory member for a constituency in the Eastern Townships. The Parliament House, with its library, containing historical documents of great value, was totally destroyed. In consequence of this disgraceful outrage, in which the Tory party demeaned itself in a manner worthy of Guy Fawkes, the seat of Government was removed for the next two years to Toronto, the name of York having been changed for the more appropriate Indian designation in 1834. Subsequently, until Ottawa was fixed upon as the seat of Government, the sessions of Parliament were held sometimes at Toronto and sometimes at Quebec.

A period of depression now set in, owing to the English market being opened to the importation of grain from all countries by the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. In 1849 municipal government was organized in Upper Canada, and in the following year in the Lower Province. In 1850 a treaty of reciprocal trade was proposed to the United States Government. At the same time the Clergy Reserves Bill was agitated anew, and a division took place on this question in the Reform ranks, those who advocated the secularization of the Reserves being called “Grits.” This was Canada’s Railway year. The first lines constructed were the Great Western, Grand Trunk, and Northern.

In 1851 Mr. Hincks became the head of the Ministry. In 1853 a bill for election reform extended the number of representatives in the Lower House from eighty-four to one hundred and thirty. The Reciprocity Treaty with the United States was concluded in 1854. In the same year Lord Elgin was recalled, and the office of Governor-General filled by Sir Edmund Head.

In 1855 the Clergy Reserves question was definitely settled by the secularization of the land, and the State in Canada was declared altogether independent of Church connection. In the Lower Province, all the remains of the feudal system, which had long been a hindrance to progress, were swept away, a balance of £656,000 being paid as compensation to the Seigneurs from the Treasury of United Canada. In 1856 a further reform was introduced, by the Legislative Council being made elective, and, as the population and general prosperity of the country increased, additional representation was from time to time secured. The abolition of the long-standing iniquity of the Clergy Reserves, the most bitter of all the oppressions against which Mackenzie had done battle, was effected. Perhaps no part of the community has been more a gainer by this great act of justice than the ancient historic Church which her bishops had wronged by their persistent efforts to grasp property that was not rightly theirs.

In 1859 the beautiful buildings of our Provincial University were completed amid the surroundings, not unworthy of such an edifice, of the people’s chief park in Toronto. The University buildings are, next to the Ottawa Parliament House, the most beautiful in the Dominion, and worthily represent the progressive condition of University education since it was liberated from the mediæval sectarianism of King’s College, Toronto. At the same period the introduction of a decimal coinage put an end to the vexatious anomalies caused by the use of the foreign monetary system of “pounds, shillings and pence,” and gave Canada a currency identical with that of the great continent to which she belongs.

In 1860 the magnificent bridge over the St. Lawrence, at Montreal, was opened for use. It ranks among the wonders of the modern world, and as a work of human art is well placed amid some of the finest scenery in Canada. In this same year was laid the foundation of the new Parliament House at Ottawa, a building of which any civilized nation might well be proud.

In 1861 Sir Edmund Head retired from office. He had not been a popular ruler—for rulers in some sense the foreign Governors of Canada still were in his day. But the principle of Responsible Government had been too firmly established as part of the Canadian constitution to be safely assailed, even by a Governor appointed by the Crown. Soon after his withdrawal to England, Sir Edmund Head died without issue, and his baronetcy expired with him. His successor was Lord Monck, an Irish Peer (and thus an inferior article in English view).

In 1861 broke out that great struggle which was to have such momentous results in the life of the great Republic, our neighbour. It was an hour of peril for Canada. The Jingo party in England, backed by the aristocracy and all the enemies of freedom, wished for nothing more than to involve England in war with the Republic, and more than once they seemed likely to gain their point. Had this happened, our country would have been the battle-field, our cities and homesteads would have fed the torch, our harvests have been trampled by the armies of England and the United States. War between England and the United States may always be looked on as a possible though not as a probable event in the future, as long as the Jingo party is influential in England, and the Irish millions who hate England increase, as they must increase, in numbers and power in the States. It is therefore ever increasingly the interest of Canada to keep out of the quarrel, by securing, as soon as may be in her power, the right to stand alone and apart from the feuds of foreign nations. As it providentially happened, no great harm came to Canada out of this war—except that business was unhealthily stimulated during its continuance by a scale of demand and of price which could not last, and was of course followed by a reaction proportionately violent. The general sympathies of the English Canadians may be considered to have been for the North and Freedom, against the slave-holding South, though the “shoddy aristocracy” at Ottawa thought it a fine thing to echo the English Jingo’s hatred of the world’s greatest Republic in the hour of her trial.

In 1862 Parliament met at Quebec, and a new administration came into power under John Sandfield Macdonald and L. V. Sicotte. Their programme included the double-majority principle in legislation, and the maintenance of the royal choice of Ottawa as the seat of Government. Ottawa has unfortunately proved to be “out of the way” of the general current of Canadian intellectual and industrial life, whose true centre is in Toronto. Mr. George Brown, who had assumed the leadership of the moderate Reformers, now began to attack from his place in the House, and in the columns of the Globe, of which paper, established in 1844, he was proprietor. He assailed the new Ministry, and upheld with much eloquence the only rational system of representation, that by population, irrespective of a division between the Provinces. In this year died Sir Allan MacNab, who, in spite of his championship of an unpatriotic cause, had done much good service to Canada, and personally was much esteemed. He had long retired from political leadership, the torch of Family Compact and Tory tradition having been handed on to John A. Macdonald, the able and astute member for Kingston. The revolt of the slave-owning oligarchy in the Southern States was now in full progress. Fortunately, in spite of sympathy on the part of English Toryism, and the attempts of Southern refugees to abuse Canadian hospitality by making our country a basis for raids on the neighbouring Republic, Canada escaped being involved in the war.

In the Parliament of 1863 Mr. George Brown appeared as member for the South Riding of Oxford. The Globe now led the battle in favour of Upper Canada obtaining her just share of increased representation, in consequence of its great advance over Lower Canada in increased population. Public opinion in this Province was, of course, on his side, but the action of the Ministry was then, as it has been so often since, to the detriment of our interest, hampered by the Lower Canadian vote. The Ministry also lost ground with Protestant Reformers, who justly condemned its weakness in yielding to the clamours of the French and Irish Catholics the right to a Separate School system. Sandfield Macdonald, on Parliament being dissolved, tried to regain the support of the Brown section of Reformers by reconstructing his Cabinet. In consequence of this he lost the support of one of the most eloquent orators yet heard in Canadian legislative halls—the Irish patriot, Thomas D’Arcy McGee.

In 1864, the Reciprocity Treaty being withdrawn by the Government of the United States, a season of depression again occurred in Canada. When Parliament met, the Sandfield Macdonald Ministry was evidently in a state of collapse. On its resignation a Tory or Conservative Administration was formed by Sir E. P. Taché and Mr. (afterwards Sir George Etienne) Cartier. In this Government John A. Macdonald held office as Attorney-General. But when Parliament met in May, 1864, it was evident that Government could not be efficiently carried on. The scheme for the union of the provinces had resulted in continual dead-lock. Upper Canada would not forego its rightful claim to an increased representation. Lower Canada would not concede the passing of a measure which would force her into a second-rate position.

At this juncture John A. Macdonald for the first time, and on a great scale, displayed the talent for which he has since been distinguished above all other modern politicians, except perhaps the late Lord Beaconsfield—the most valuable political talent of appropriating the ideas of other men, and utilizing them for the advancement of his party. John A. Macdonald had again and again ridiculed the scheme of joint Federal authority, of which Mr. Brown had been an advocate. It was seen by the wily party-leader from Kingston that his opponents had after all been in the right, and that the only escape from anarchy was the separate Provincial Government of Upper and Lower Canada, with a Federal Government of the whole country based on representation by population. But the history of Confederation is of so great importance as to require a chapter to itself. Meanwhile we must notice an influence from without, which had a considerable indirect share in bringing about the federal union of the Provinces which now bear the common name of Canada.

Since the troublous days of “sad but glorious ’98,” the American Republic had furnished cities of refuge for the proscribed agents of Irish revolt. There Thomas Addis Emmett, brother of the more gifted but more unfortunate Robert Emmett, was welcomed by the members of the American bar, among whom he rose to eminence. There, without taking into account the unstable and capricious McGee, the really able leaders of young Ireland found a career. With every year, from the dismal 1847, which the writer so well remembers, the crowds gathered on the Dublin quays, eager to fly from Sligo, dark with famine and pestilence. Thousands upon thousands repeated and twice told over, carried the religion of their fathers, the love for their country, the undying hatred of her oppressors, into the new world. A new and greater Ireland had grown up beyond the Atlantic, whose sons had fought, with the valour which had beaten back the bloody Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy, the battles of their protectress Republic against the slave-holding South. An organization having for its avowed object the establishment of an independent Irish Republic had been founded in Ireland, and had extensive branches throughout the Northern States and army. It took the name of “Fenian” from the ancient militia of the tribal system of the Brehon era of Irish civilization. It attempted a revolt in Ireland, of course without any success, for England was then unhampered by foreign wars, and English gold and steel were free to gag and smite. But it cannot be denied, except by the merest haters of all things Irish, such as Mr. Froude and some of his still more eminent literary confreres in England, that the Fenian movement in Ireland called forth the devotion, freely given through years of cruel imprisonment, of men like John O’Leary, Thomas Luby and John Martin. It is quite true that there has been in connection with the present Irish nationalist movement in the United States a great deal of misfortune, as well as many of those dynamite assassination horrors which would disgrace any cause; but in Ireland, and among the leaders there, this was not the case. Lever, who knew well what he was writing about, has described most truthfully the better side of the early Fenian movement in one of the most graphic of his later novels, “Lord Kilgobbin.” It must always be remembered that one wing, and that the most respectable by culture and character, opposed from first to last any proposal to make raids on Canada. It must be remembered also that if such raids were made there, they were out of no ill-will to the Canadians, but as an indirect means of striking at England. Had Canada been independent, no Fenian would have carried a rifle across her borders. But the guilt of entertaining such a proposal cannot be palliated. It was not only a crime but a mistake. It tended to create bitterness between Canada and the United States, which would surely be the greatest loss to Irish nationalism, as it would tend to strengthen the hold of British connection in Canada, and perpetuate for the use of English Jingoism its only available basis of operations against the United States. Happily the raids of the banditti calling themselves Fenians have never produced that effect. Between Canadian Liberalism and Irish Nationalism there has never been a close alliance. O’Connell was the firm friend of William Lyon Mackenzie, and used all his great influence to advance the victory, in this country, of Responsible Government. And very recently both political parties in the Canadian House of Commons joined forces to support the address expressive of a hope that Ireland might yet enjoy the measure of Home Rule possessed by Canada, which brought out so much British Billingsgate from the English journals, and aroused such intense sympathy in Ireland. As to the question between England and Ireland, a history of Canada does not enter into it, but this much is patent: the position of England is that of a strong man who has taken possession of his weaker neighbour’s house. Out of the original wrong-doing has grown hatred, agrarian outrage, murder most foul in myriad-shaped atrocity; but whence come all these evil results, if not from the original wrong-doing? The causes will continue to come home to roost till Ireland is granted the same Home Rule as is enjoyed by Canada. It is easy to declare against the plagues which afflict Egypt, but the plagues will continue till the oppressor ceases to harden his heart and let the oppressed go free. Fortunately for Canada, and fortunately for Irish Nationalism, the Fenian Raids in Canada were entirely premature, and could not have gained the smallest measure of permanent success—a fact which showed that the motives of invading peaceful Canada in order to punish English wrong-doing was a military error, as well as a political crime. In American Fenianism there is no doubt that there was a great deal of misfortune and swindling, which desired to make cheap capital out of an easy and dangerless raid, and so be able to trade on the one intense passion of the Irish American race, hatred of the oppressors of Ireland. At the time it seemed to many people that the Fenian raiders might be dangerous foes. The great war against slavery had just been concluded, and the Fenian raids were mainly manned by veteran soldiers. But their numbers were quite insufficient for any large operations. They were acting against the prevailing sentiment in the United States, where it was felt that to invade Canadian farms, and frighten the hired girls, was contemptible brigandage, and many a Canadian by adoption who was in thorough sympathy with the struggle of the Irish for Responsible Government and Home Rule, was glad to carry a rifle in the ranks of the volunteers who marched against the Fenian marauders in 1866.

In 1866 the Fenian movement in the States became divided into two parties; one under James Stephens, who wished to confine their operations to the proposed liberation of Ireland; the other led by Sweeney, who advocated the senseless plan of advancing Irish interests by making a raid on Canada. In June, 1866, a body of 900 Fenians, well armed, crossed the Niagara River, landing a little below the humble village, and once hotly-contested but now ruinous earthworks, of Fort Erie. They were commanded by a Colonel O’Neil, and mainly consisted of veterans of the late war. They took possession of the village of Fort Erie, and wrought much destruction among the provision stores and whiskey shops, licensed and unlicensed. They destroyed a part of the Grand Trunk Railway track, cut the telegraph wires, and attempted to burn bridges, but did not insult the inhabitants or wantonly injure private property, except to levy forced requisitions for rations. At the same time the United States’ armed steamer Michigan entered that part of the river, as if to prevent breaches of international law, but her commander did not trouble himself to interfere with O’Neil’s supporters as they crossed the river under his guns. When news of this “invasion” reached the Canadian cities, there was a general feeling of indignation, and the volunteers responded with enthusiasm to the call, promptly given, to march against the invaders of Canada. The present writer was then a lieutenant in the Lennoxville Company of the Sherbrooke Rifle Battalion, commanded by Colonel Bowen, a raid on Montreal being at this time expected on the Eastern Counties frontier. Most unfortunately, the military reserves of the country were, at that crisis in the hands of a Minister of Militia whose habits were such that he was notoriously incompetent to perform his public duties for above a week. Contradictory orders were sent, and steamers bustled hither and thither in most admired disorder. But the volunteer authorities lost no time in hurrying their men to the front. Major-General Napier, without delay, ordered the troops of the regular British service in Toronto and Hamilton districts to the Niagara frontier. Six hundred of the finest young men in Toronto mustered under Lieutenant-Colonel Dennis and Major Gillmor, of the Queen’s Own. Hamilton furnished her quota, the 13th Battalion. Lieutenant-Colonel Booker was sent in charge of these volunteer corps to Port Colborne for the purpose of securing the Welland Canal. Most unfortunately the entire armament was under the command of Colonel George Peacocke, of the 16th Regiment; a brave officer, no doubt, but from his ignorance of the locality through which he had undertaken to direct the movements of his troops, and from the arrogance of temper, which too often in English officers of the “regular army” disdain to profit by the counsels of “mere colonials,” seemed but too likely to make his expedition a second version of that disastrous one of General Braddock, little more than a century before. He sent orders by Captain Akers, who knew the country as little as himself, to instruct the commanding officer at Port Colborne to join the troops under his command to his own at Stevensville, a village a short distance west of Fort Erie. Akers duly communicated these orders early next day at Port Colborne.

Meantime, at Port Colborne, Lieutenant-Colonel Booker had received intelligence that the Fenian force at Fort Erie was smaller than had been supposed; that it was ill-disciplined and demoralized by drinking and plunder, and in fact afforded material for an easy victory. He accordingly took it on him to reconstruct the entire plans of the expedition. He, with his volunteer force, would proceed by rail to attack the enemy at Fort Erie. Captain Akers and Lieutenant Colonel Dennis might, if Peacocke approved, support the attack with the Welland garrison battery. But Peacocke did not approve, and Booker, altering his plans in deference to his superior officer, took his troops by train as far as Ridgeway station, whence he marched towards Stevensville. Soon after this his advance guard encountered the Fenian out-posts. O’Neil, having resolved before withdrawing to the States to destroy the locks of the Welland Canal, Colonel Booker and Major Gibson resolved to attack the enemy at once, not doubting that Peacocke and his regulars must be close at hand for their support. They did not realize the fact that by Booker’s want of attention to his superior officer’s orders, in leaving Port Colborne an hour before the time agreed on, he had thrown into confusion all Colonel Peacocke’s plans for combining the movements of his troops. Meanwhile the order to advance was given; the Fenians came into view, some few on the road in front of our men, the others firing under the cover of the fences of fields on either side of the road. The volunteers attacked with spirit, and repulsed the enemy’s out-posts and first line. Just at this crisis an orderly reached Booker with a despatch from Colonel Peacocke, ordering him to delay his departure from Port Colborne two hours from the time appointed. As Booker, contrary to all the traditions of military duty, had in fact started an hour before the time appointed, it was now but too plainly evident that he could get no support for at least three hours. Meanwhile the Fenian fire poured hotly on the companies of brave young volunteers, who, without any hope of support, were then exposed to a far superior force of veteran soldiers. A cooler head might yet have carried the day by a brisk attack on either flank, but Booker seems to have lost all presence of mind, and as a rumour reached him that a body of “Fenian cavalry” was approaching (it being well known that the United States army at that time had very little cavalry, and the Fenians none at all), Booker ordered Major Gillmor to “form his men into square to resist cavalry,” which manœuvre massed the unfortunate volunteers into a dense phalanx, the easiest of targets for the enemy’s rifles. When Gillmor noticed the mistake he tried to form into line once more, but it was too late. Something very like panic possessed the troops, the rear companies fell back in disorder, and the word was given to retreat.

It is only veteran troops that can be safely manœuvred when under a heavy fire, and only these when they have full confidence in their leaders. The volunteers were a few companies of imperfectly drilled college lads, lawyers’ clerks and business employees. I am told by more than one volunteer captain present at that skirmish, that what contributed most to the panic was the certainty that “someone had blundered.” Number One Company, Queen’s Own, held the rear guard, the post of honour in a retreat, and marched out of the field in good order. The Trinity College and University Companies distinguished themselves by their grand gallantry; they took skirmishing order and fired on the enemy as calmly as if on parade. The Fenians pursued, but did not, fortunately, understand the full extent of their advantage, or know that they had Booker’s troops at their disposal, without hope of reinforcement for the next two hours, or they might have followed up their success with much more disastrous results to our brave volunteers. As it was, the loss to the Canadians was one officer and eight men killed, six officers and twenty-six men wounded. The officer killed on the field was the gallant young Ensign McEachren, whom the present writer knew well when he served in Number One Company of the Queen’s Own, from which corps he exchanged into the Sherbrooke Battalion, having occasion to remove to the Eastern Townships of the Province of Ontario shortly before the Fenian raid took place. When McEachren fell, Dr. S. May, then serving as assistant-surgeon, rushed forward under a heavy fire to rescue him, but found life extinct. Worse consequences still may be expected from a system which makes the appointment of volunteer officers a political perquisite of the Ottawa Government, a Government of whom it is no breach of charity to suppose that in the future, as in the past, they will have no scruple whatever in committing the defences of the country to incompetent officers in order to subserve the omnivorous needs of party. It is well that a more disastrous defeat did not follow on drunkenness in the Council and incompetence in the presence of the enemy.

In the following year the Dominion Government lost one of its most influential outside members (a phrase by which I mean to designate one whose political training had not been that of the party and its leaders), Thomas D’Arcy McGee. This eccentric luminary of Irish, New York, and Montreal politics, began as one of the many orators of the young Ireland movement in 1847-8. Helped to escape from Ireland by the kindness of a Catholic bishop, McGee next appeared as a journalist in New York, where he quarrelled with the Catholic Church. Thence to Montreal, where, from the way in which his name had been connected with Irish revolt against English rule, McGee was for a time all-powerful with the Irish vote. His first attachment was to the Reformers, whom he left for the camp of their opponents. His most successful speeches were in advocacy of Confederation, but in proportion as he expressed admiration for English institutions, his popularity with the Montreal Irish began to change into hatred. At two a.m. on April the 6th, he had left the House of Commons, after delivering what was considered a brilliant speech. He had returned to his boarding house, and was about to open the door with his latch key, when, shot from behind by an assassin’s pistol, he fell dead. It is a comfort to know that the cowardly murderer was detected and hanged.

Canada showed her gratitude and regret by voting a pension of £300 to McGee’s widow. McGee has left to Ireland and to Canada nothing that will live. He was here, as there, “the comet of a season.” It is worth noting that poor McGee had, from the convivial habits natural to his light-hearted countrymen, fallen for some time into drinking habits. One of his best speeches just before Confederation was delivered while under the influence of liquor. When it was finished, the last firework of the peroration shot off, the actor sank back incapably drunk into the arms of a friend. It is possible that this, which took place at Lennoxville, in the Eastern Townships, may have been a mere tour de force, the speech having been, as all McGee’s speeches were, memorized previously to delivery, and thus easily thrown off by the brain already charged with it. My authority for the anecdote was a captain of the Lennoxville Company, in which I was lieutenant. However this may be, the fact is sufficiently notorious, that McGee used to drink very hard. A year before his death he became a total abstainer, and not even when in a severe illness, and when his physician assured him that brandy was necessary, would he expose himself to the temptation of its taste. McGee was, to the last hour of his life, faithful to his pledge. In this he has set a good example to some leading statesmen of his party, for of what use can it be for a party leader to make speechifications to temperance deputations, and catch the temperance vote, while his own life, that of a bar-room loafer from his first entrance into politics, continues its mockery of cynical comment in his professions, and makes men talk of the political corruption of those in high place? What use can it be to expect anything else from men who do not begin by being personally pure, whose conversation would pollute the ears of any virtuous young man, whose souls have been, for half a century, steeped in alcohol? Can we exaggerate the moral effect for good on the English people of the life of such a ruler as Gladstone, a life sincere, pure, temperate in all things? Whoever would venture to repeat in Mr. Gladstone’s presence some of the full-flavored anecdotes in which some of our Ottawa statesmen are said to delight would meet cold looks and prompt dismissal.

Chapter XXIX.

CONFEDERATION.

T had been for some time evident that under the legislative system which had existed since the union of Upper and Lower Canada, frequent deadlocks were inevitable, and that some new basis for the Constitution must be sought elsewhere. In the session of 1864 the Sandfield Macdonald Government had received the full support of Mr. George Brown, and of the Liberal party, which regarded him as their leader, and his newspaper as their organ and standard. Tired of the endless party wrangling that had impeded all useful legislation, that Government resigned—a mistake, as it has always seemed to many Reformers, in political tactics. To them succeeded the Taché-Macdonald Government, which led a hand-to-mouth existence from day to day on the sufferance of Parliament, and in virtue of a majority of two. From this feeble Administration Mr. Brown succeeded in obtaining a Committee to “consider the best means of settling the constitutional changes which might be recommended, to avoid trouble.” The Committee adopted and presented to Parliament a report in favour of “a federation system, applied either to Canada or to the whole of the British North American Provinces.” John A. Macdonald was foremost in opposing the adoption of the report. But next day the decrepit Conservatives fell into one of those pitfalls which their leaders have so often unwittingly prepared for the downfall of their own popularity. It “came out”—how many such things have “come out” since John A. Macdonald has been leader of the Conservatives—that A. T. Galt, Finance Minister in the Cartier-Macdonald Government, had, without the sanction of Parliament, lent $100,000 to the Grand Trunk Railway corporation. This of course inculpated, as they themselves did not attempt to deny, the whole of the Cabinet. Mr. Dorion moved a vote of want of confidence in this helpless Ministry, the two members whose votes alone sustained them in office having become hostile at this critical moment. What use did George Brown, for in those days George Brown and Canadian Liberalism were convertible terms, make of this signal victory? His bitter political foes lay at his mercy in humiliating defeat. A less high-minded statesman would have thought of party, if not of personal objects. George Brown was above both considerations, and thought only of the opportunity now ready to his hand of carrying into effect the federation system which he and he alone had desired, which above all else he wished to see carried into effect, even if the glory of its achievement should accrue to the Conservatives, who till the previous day had been its bitterest opponents.

Immediately after the Ministerial defeat Mr. Brown sought an interview with J. H. Pope and Alexander Morris, Conservative members of the House. He did this after consultation with his principal friends and supporters, as to how far the Reform party would consent to forego mere personal and party advantage in order to ensure the carrying out of a constitutional change of great benefit to the country. He conferred next with Messieurs Pope and Morris. Alone of the Reform party, the French Canadian Reformers refused to follow his self-sacrificing course in this matter, preferring the ordinary course of party triumph on the defeat of opponents. Mr. George Brown was grieved at this defection of his so long faithful allies, but he would not for that reason swerve from the path of patriotic duty.

In consequence of the conversation between Mr. Brown and Messieurs Morris and Pope, interviews took place between the Reform leader and members representing the defeated Government. John A. Macdonald exhibited a highly characteristic willingness to get his Government strengthened by a coalition, there being no other possibility of prolonging its existence, and proposed, with what motive it is easy to guess, that George Brown should himself become a member of the Cabinet. But the Father of Confederation was too wary to act with precipitation, and proposed that all personal matters should be postponed for the present.

On Mr. Brown asking what remedy the Government proposed, to do away with the present system of injustice to English Canada, Messieurs Macdonald and Gait stated that they proposed as the remedy a federal union of all the British North American Provinces, local matters being committed to local bodies, and matters common to all, to a Federal Government. It will be remembered that but two days before John A. Macdonald had voted directly against the proposal for a Federation of the Provinces. Truly, the conversion was sudden, and the neophyte zealous. In reply, Mr. Brown objected, not to the adoption of Federation, which had been his own ideal from the first, but to its too great remoteness and uncertainty, as a means of settling the injustice of which English Canada complained. As a more prompt measure, he asked for representation by population for all Canada, with no dividing line. But ultimately a compromise was arrived at, on the adoption of the principle of Federation for all the Provinces, as the larger question, or for Canada alone, with provision for the admission of the Maritime Provinces and the North-West Territory. A general accord was reached, on the basis that as the views of Upper Canada could not be met under the present system, the remedy must be sought in the adoption of the federal principle. As a guarantee to the Reform party, three seats were to be placed at the disposal of Mr. Brown and two of his friends. Parliament was now at once prorogued, and on the same day, the Hon. George Brown entered the Government as President of the Council, supported by the able but unstable Hon. William McDougall, as Provincial Secretary, and by the far more able and high principled Hon. Oliver Mowat, as Postmaster-General. The Hon. A. Mackenzie, in his “Life of the Hon. George Brown”^[2] frankly states that the appointment of Mr. McDougall was one desired by very few of the party. During the ensuing summer the various members of the new Coalition Government made a general tour of the Provinces, and held a convention of the Provincial delegates in October at Quebec. Parliament met early in 1865. The debate which ensued was one of the most remarkable which had, as yet, taken place in a Canadian Legislature. Of the two great changes which had been effected in the constitution of our country, the first, in 1791, had been altogether the work of the English Parliament, where its details gave rise to one of the most memorable debates of a great Parliamentary Assembly. The union of the Canadas in 1841 was also both planned and put into practical form by British statesmen, the consent of the Canadian Legislatures being but a form, and a form which, in the case of the French Canadian, was very summarily dispensed with. But the inception, the adoption, and the practical working out of the Confederation Scheme was entirely the work of our own Canadian statesmen; and the debating powers displayed when this question came before the Legislature were said to show a very marked advance in political insight and breadth of view from that shown in any previous discussions in the records of our Legislatures. A few years of that Home Rule which results from Responsible Government had already proved a political education. The leading speeches, those of Messieurs Brown, Macdonald, and Cartier, in support of the measure; those of Messieurs John Sandfield Macdonald, Huntington, Dorion and Holton, against it; the very exhaustive and luminous criticism with which Mr. Dunkin’s remarkable oration examined its bearings from every side, are well put forward and accompanied with much apt comment in the Hon. John H. Gray’s important historical work on Confederation—only the first volume of which unfortunately has been given to the public. John A. Macdonald’s speech on this question was one of those rare oratorical successes which came on a few great occasions from one who had hitherto been regarded, even by those who knew him most intimately, simply as an adroit debater, a matchless Parliamentary whipper-in, and a retailer of obscene bar-room jests. More logical, more incisive, far more effective with thinking men, was the speech of the real founder of Confederation, George Brown. But the most remarkable of all the addresses delivered on this memorable occasion was that of Mr. Dunkin, Colonel Gray’s criticism of which must be regarded by the impartial historian as utterly beside the facts. Colonel Gray says: “All that a well-read public man, all that a thorough sophist, a dexterous logician, a timid patriot, or a prophet of evil could array against the project, was brought up and pressed against the scheme.” Of course Colonel Gray regarded Confederation as the be-all and end-all of Canadian politics. Later students of Canadian political history, who see that difficulties have been left unprovided for, the distribution of authority between Federal and Provincial Governments unsettled, and a way left open to vast financial abuses, will see that Mr. Dunkin was right in supposing that the settlement effected by Confederation was no more a final one than that of the Union of the Canadas, or of the Act which created English Canada in 1791. A remarkable speech in favour of the proposed measure was also delivered on this occasion by Mr. Walter Shanly, member for South Grenville. On Friday, March 10th, the debate had exhausted itself, and the Hon. John A. Macdonald proposed the following motion:—“That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that she may be graciously pleased to cause a measure to be submitted to the Imperial Parliament for the purpose of uniting the colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, in one Government, with provisions based on certain resolutions, which were adopted by a conference of delegates from the said Provinces held at Quebec on the 16th of October, 1865.” After some further debate this resolution was carried by a vote of 91 to 33. The wish of John A. Macdonald in navigating the measure which he had with such consummate dexterity stolen from its legitimate author through the shoals of Parliamentary debate, was well understood to have been to centralize power as much as possible in the Federal Government, leaving the Provincial Legislatures in the position of mere municipal councils. This was in thorough harmony with John A. Macdonald’s political character, his insatiate greed for power, and that clinging to every exercise of personal authority which makes him delay conferring an official appointment, even upon a personal friend. But in this matter he was, to a certain extent, backed up by a feeling on the part of all those engaged in the work of political reconstruction, that Canada ought to take warning by what had recently seemed likely to be the break-down of the United States Constitution. It was thought, most erroneously, that what had caused the strain was the weakness of the central Federal authority. In reality the reverse was the case. The war was caused by one faction only, the opposition to slavery on the part of Mr. Lincoln’s Cabinet. That Cabinet was unlike a Canadian one, utterly unrestricted in its exercise of authority. John A. Macdonald did not on the occasion of the inception of Confederation succeed in his wish of sowing the dragon’s teeth of constitutional mischief, but never since then has he lost sight of his centralizing propensities, or neglected an opportunity to trample on Provincial Rights. A similar motion was introduced in the Legislative Council by Sir E. P. Taché, and carried by a vote of three to one.

In April Messrs. John A. Macdonald, Galt, Brown and Cartier made a visit to England, in order to confer with the Imperial Government, and arrange the final details of the scheme of Confederation. Meantime the feeling of the Maritime Provinces was increasingly manifested against the proposed Confederation. In Nova Scotia the opposing issues were advocated by two of the ablest orators that British America has produced, by Dr. Charles Tupper, erewhile a druggist at Amherst, and by Joseph Howe, a Halifax printer, being the ideal and representative man of his native Province. New Brunswick, ever cautious and reserved in her isolation from the rest of English speaking Canada, dreaded increased taxation. The little Province of Prince Edward Island held aloof, and the bleak cod-fishing banks of inhospitable Newfoundland withdrew into their native bay. When in England, the Canadian delegates held conference after conference with the Imperial Ministers on the proposed measures, on the question of treaties and legislation, the defences of Canada, the settlement of the North-West Territories, and the claims for compensation put forward by the Hudson’s Bay Company. And as one of the most cogent arguments put forward by the opponents of Confederation in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick was that the aim of those who forwarded that measure was to effect the independence of Canada, and the severance of all connection with England, the Canadian delegates pressed on the British Cabinet the desirability of a strong expression from the Home Government in favour of Confederation being conveyed to the Governments of the Maritime Provinces. It is a curious comment on the change that has come over public opinion, that in 1865 the mere mention of independence should have been regarded as offensive. Strong representations in favour of Confederation were accordingly transmitted from the English Ministry to the Governments of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, a step which, curiously enough, drew forth from the anti-Confederationists many bitter expressions of what might most justly have been described as “disloyalty,” and the British authorities were roundly denounced for attempting “an odious system of coercion of the colonies into the hateful bund.” It required all the arts of which John A. Macdonald is so justly reputed a consummate master to induce the recalcitrant Maritimes to fall into line. This, however, was at last effected, and the long disjointed pieces of the Canadian fishing-rod at last received that accession of strength which comes from union. Of all the able speeches delivered on this question, the most remarkable is one delivered by the Hon. George Brown, a passage from which may well be quoted as an example of how this important constitutional change was regarded by the first of Canadian Liberal statesmen, and by one who held no second place either as an orator or writer. “I venture to assert that no scheme of equal magnitude ever placed before the world was received with higher eulogiums, with more universal approbation, than the measure we have now the pleasure of submitting for the acceptance of the Canadian Parliament. And no higher eulogy could, I think, be pronounced than that I heard a few weeks ago from one of the foremost of British statesmen, that the system of Government now proposed seemed to him a happy compound of the best features of the British and American constitutions. And well might our present attitude in Canada arrest the attention of other countries. Here is a people composed of distinct races, speaking different languages, with religious and social and municipal and educational institutions wholly different; with sectional hostilities of such a character as to render Government for many years well nigh impossible; with a constitution so unjust in the view of one section as to justify every resort to enforce a remedy. And yet, here we sit, patiently and temperately discussing how these great evils and hostilities may justly and amicably be swept away for ever. We are endeavouring to adjust harmoniously greater difficulties than have plunged other countries into all the horrors of civil war. We are striving to do peaceably and satisfactorily what Holland and Belgium, after years of strife, were unable to accomplish. We are seeking, by calm discussion, to settle questions that Austria and Hungary, that Denmark and Germany, that Russia and Poland, could only crush by the iron hand of armed force. We are seeking to do, without foreign intervention, that which deluged in blood the sunny plains of Italy; we are striving to settle for ever issues hardly less momentous than those that have rent the neighbouring republic, and are now exposing it to all the horrors of civil war. Have we not, then, great cause for thankfulness, that we have found a better way for the solution of our troubles than that which has entailed on other countries such deplorable results? and should not every one of us endeavour to rise to the magnitude of the occasion, and earnestly seek to deal with this question to the end in the same candid and conciliatory spirit in which, so far, it has been discussed? The scene presented by this chamber at this moment, I venture to affirm, has few parallels in history. One hundred years have passed away since these provinces became, by force, part of the British Empire. I speak in no boastful spirit, I desire not for a moment to excite a painful thought; what was then the fortune of war of the brave French nation, might have been ours on that well-fought field. I recall those olden times merely to mark the fact that here sit to-day the descendants of the victors and the vanquished in the fight of 1759, with all the differences of language, religion, civil law, and social habit, nearly as distinctly marked as they were a century ago; here we sit to-day seeking amicably to find a remedy for constitutional evils and injustice complained of—by the vanquished? no—but complained of by the conquerors! Here sit the representatives of the British population claiming justice! only justice! And here sit the representatives of the French population discussing in the French tongue whether we shall have it. One hundred years have passed away since the conquest of Quebec, but here sit the children of the victors and the vanquished, also avowing hearty attachment to the British Crown, all earnestly deliberating how we should best extend the blessings of British institutions—how a great people may be established on this continent in close and hearty connection with Great Britain. Where, in the page of history, shall we find a parallel for this?”

Some disturbance of the amicable relations between the parties to the coalition was caused by the death of the Premier, Sir Etienne P. Taché, and the accession to the position of Sir Narcisse Belleau. Mr. Brown and the Reformers, however, thought it their duty to acquiesce.

The last Canadian Parliament opened in August at Quebec, and was occupied altogether with receiving the report of the delegates to England. The Government measure for Confederation was carried by overwhelming majorities. It was loyally supported by Mr. Brown and the Liberals, although that gentleman, whom the Tory tacticians vainly endeavoured to decry, having been studiously slighted when on a mission to Washington upon the reciprocity question, had thought it due to his own dignity to withdraw from the Government. Thus was this great change accomplished—a vast step in advance towards independence, although as passing events show more clearly every day, it cannot be regarded as a final one. The Hon. A. Mackenzie well observes (Life of Hon. George Brown, p. 107): “The first day of July, 1867, saw the great reform accomplished for which Mr. Brown had toiled so many years, and saw also that the Conservatives who opposed it to the last were reaping the fruits of their opponent’s labour. Therefore, Mr. Macdonald would be able to boast that he was the father of Confederation on the same ground that he boasted of carrying the measure to secularize the Clergy Reserve lands. He strongly opposed both measures, on principle, as long as it was possible to do so, and then joined the man who initiated and carried on the movement of both, and declared the work was all his own. Having no great work of his own to boast of, he bravely plucks the laurel from the brows of the actual combatants and real victors, and fastens it on his own head.”

Chapter XXX.

PROSPEROUS DAYS.

HE office of Governor-General had now become practically a sinecure, and a sinecure of most noxious influence on social and political life in Canada. Lord Monck was the incumbent of Rideau Hall in 1867. He was an impecunious sporting peer, and an Irish rack-rent landlord, glad to eke out an impoverished income by the $50,000 a year paid by Canadian taxpayers. He was the first, and, unhappily, not the last, used by the Imperial Government to corrupt Canadian statesmen, by bestowing “tin-pot knighthoods,” which, of course, bound the acceptor to prefer Imperial to Canadian interests whenever the two came in conflict. The first recipients of this questionable distinction were John A. Macdonald and George Etienne Cartier.

Now began a prosperous reign of Conservatism, under Sir John A. Macdonald, with the championship in French Canada of Sir George E. Cartier. The latter was a marked personage in the Conservative coterie, and few who have beheld that keen man’s figure, and heard the tones of that strident, high-pitched voice, will forget either. In early life Cartier had sat at the feet of Papineau, and, showing a courage of which that frothy demagogue was incapable, had fought bravely at St. Denis, when the French peasants, led by Dr. Wolfred Nelson, repelled a corps of the regular British army, led by a veteran of Waterloo. Like his leader, Cartier withdrew to the United States, and when amnesty was proclaimed for political offences, returned to Canada, a sadder and a wiser man. In 1848 he supplanted the Rouge leader, M. Dorion, as member for Vercheres, and, having had the sense to see what the old Rouge leaders had not insight for, the absolute necessity of keeping on good terms with the clergy and the Church, Cartier became the most adroit, successful, and popular manager of the vote of Jean Baptiste. The Finance Minister in the new Government, Alexander Tilloch Galt, was the son of a second-rate writer who had attained a sort of second-rate reputation as the acquaintance of Byron, of whom he wrote a biography. The elder Galt came to Canada in the service of the Canada Land Company, and resided at Toronto, of which place, and of Canada in general, he expressed the supercilious disdain with which foreigners who live on Canadian pay are apt to express their noble scorn of the people who are their paymasters. Sir Alexander Galt is chiefly noted for the quasi diplomatic position held by him for some time in London, England, and as one of the chief promotors of that most impracticable of enterprises, Imperial Federation.

The new Secretary of State, Hector L. Langevin, was formerly editor of the Courrier du Canada, in Quebec. In 1855 he was awarded the first of three prizes for an essay on Canada to be circulated in Paris, and being elected to the Canadian Parliament as member for Dorchester, soon took a leading position, second only to Cartier, to whose leadership he rightfully succeeded. Not less noteworthy was Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley. An earnest, although not eloquent speaker, he did good service to the country by promoting the adhesion of the Maritimes to Confederation. Sir William Howland, another tin-pot creation, and the Hon. William McDougall were two of the Liberal members of the Coalition which had caused Confederation, but were seduced by the siren blandishments of office to cast in their lot personally with “Sir John.” But in all the Cabinet there can be no question that the most remarkable figure was that of the astute and versatile lawyer from Kingston who was at its head. His deep and intricate knowledge of all the men and interests engaged in Canadian politics, much tact, a felicitous readiness in debate or repartee, and a command of what might be almost mistaken for eloquence, gave the Tory leader a pre-eminence to which none of his English-speaking satellites could in the remotest degree aspire. But the habits of the Premier were those of the pot-house politician to whom John A. Macdonald has been frequently compared—the English statesman Walpole, who first introduced into politics the infamous maxim, “Every man has his price.” Macdonald resembles Walpole in his systematic use of corruption, and in the coarse humour and full-flavoured stories for which both have such an unsavoury reputation. But here the likeness ceases. Walpole’s peace policy saved England. Macdonald has never originated a single measure for the benefit of his country save such as he stole from the Liberal repertoire. He has dragged the good name of Canada in the dirt with cynical disregard of public opinion, and has literally “sold his country” as well as himself. It is no excuse to say “that amid corruption he has continued personally pure,” for we consider the crime of the bawd to lose none of its infamy because she may not herself practise the sin to which she entices others. But at the time we write of, John A. Macdonald’s character was as yet comparatively untarnished.

A Reform Convention was now held at Toronto, which endorsed enthusiastically the patriotic and self-denying conduct of the Hon. George Brown, and declared that the deserters, Howland and McDougall, deserved ostracism from the Reform ranks. Howland, however, made the amende for a temporary lapse, by heartily throwing in his lot with the cause of Reform. A general election was at once held, and returned a considerable majority in favour of Confederation, and, therefore, as a matter of course, in favour of “Sir John,” the vessel of whose Cabinet was carried in over calm seas, its sheets distended by the wind which had been so adroitly taken out of the Liberal sails.

From that general election to the Day of Doom, when Mr. Huntington thundered forth the first sentence of his Pacific Scandal indictment, Sir John and Sir George Cartier were “the great twin brethren” of Canadian politics, against whom no champion could avail. The Ministry were now supported by a new politician, destined to exercise no small influence, to rise to all the honours of the tin-pot, and become even a dangerous “brother near the throne” to Sir John himself. In the little town of Amherst, on the New Brunswick frontier of Nova Scotia, an humble wooden store, garnished with bottles and gallipots, long bore the legend of “Dr. Tupper—office-hours 8 to 11 a.m.” He alone of the advocates of Confederation was able to stem the torrent in his native Province. Another Blue-nose representative was returned to Ottawa in the person of Timothy Warren Anglin, a trenchant writer and speaker, but, like Tupper, given to overtax the patience of his hearers. A mightier figure was that of the popular idol of the Nova Scotia fishermen, the versatile, vigorous, vituperative Joe Howe. But the reactionary effort to undo the work of Confederation was now met by a statesman whose intellectual force and oratorical power were, in that Parliament, and in many a succeeding one, to meet few seconds and no superiors. Edward Blake was now the leader of the Liberal phalanx on their slow but certain return to power. Mr. Blake is an instance of what is so rarely seen, hereditary talent, such as that of the two Pitts. He and his eminent brother, the Hon. Samuel Blake, are sons of the Hon. William Hume Blake, whose famous extempore reply to Sir Allan MacNab when the Tory chief taunted the Liberals of English Canada with the charge of rebellion, will be remembered as constituting such a brilliant episode in the history of Canadian Parliamentary debate. Mr. Blake’s luminous and crushing retort on Howe and the Maritime malcontents was ably seconded. A few months later, Sir Francis Hincks, an able financier, a clear and forcible speaker, and one whose personal magnetism rendered him a welcome acquisition even to a popular administration, once more entered public life, and became Minister of Finance. Sir Francis, at once after entering on office, delivered Canadian currency from the nuisance of a depreciated United States silver currency. The year 1868 was saddened by the murder of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, of whose career some account has been already given.

Chapter XXXI.

RECENT YEARS.

HE Hon. William McDougall had been rewarded for his defection from the Liberal camp by being appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories, and had proceeded with his family into that “far country,” where none doubted that a suitable field would present itself for his undeniable abilities, and in demonstrating the interests of which, and its importance to Ontario and Canadians in general, some of the ablest efforts of his life had been directed. He was undoubtedly the right man to rule Manitoba. So every one thought, excepting the Manitobans themselves, who were then half-breeds, and like most half-breeds, inherited the vices of their double descent. They were voyageurs and coureurs des bois, hunters, horse dealers, a suspicious and irritable race, who were easily induced to believe that the plan adopted by the Ottawa Government was a device for dispossessing them of their lands, and were in revolt shortly before the arrival of Governor McDougall. Their leader was Louis Riel, a half-breed, of considerable influence, of a daring, subtle, and malignant disposition. Associated with him were Ambrose Lepine and John Bruce. They had soon a force of four hundred armed men, and seized Fort Garry and other points. Governor McDougall was notified to leave the territory under pain of death before nine o’clock the next day. He did not get a fair chance to show what he could do. The Hudson’s Bay officers who, had they chosen to support him, could have stamped out this contemptible rebellion in a day, were only too much in sympathy with Riel and his cause. This dog-in-the-manger policy was about to meet a deserved rebuff by Ontario’s assuming the management of the magnificent country of whose products they had long held the most selfish of monopolies. The only other power that could and would have pacified the rebels, Bishop Taché, was absent in Rome.

Meantime some fifty Canadians banded themselves together under the leadership of Dr. Schultz. They were seized by Riel and confined in the fort, whence after three weeks’ imprisonment, Schultz managed to escape. Riel threatened to have him shot if recaptured, and events soon showed that the half-breed would have kept his word. Fortunately Schultz escaped to Ontario. A second attempt was made to vindicate the authority of Canada by about a hundred men under Major Boulton, but Boulton, with forty others, was captured and sentenced to death. The Catholic and Protestant clergy with much difficulty saved his life. But among the prisoners was a young man named Thomas Scott, a thorough adherent of the Canadian cause, a Protestant and an Orangeman, and for both reasons regarded by Riel with vindictive hate. Riel had him tried by a mock “court-martial,” and sentenced to be shot on the following morning. In vain did Methodist Missionary Young and others beg a reprieve. At noon Scott was blindfolded, and led to a spot a few yards from the fort. He was ordered to kneel, and a volley was fired, three bullets piercing his body. One of the firing party then put a revolver to the wretched victim’s head, and fired. This, however, did not end the agony, for Scott was heard to groan as the coffin was carried away.

It will hardly be believed that Sir John A. Macdonald had the temerity to condone this, the foulest crime known to Canadian history, and to allow the murderers of Scott to escape all punishment. He was the slave of his French allies, who of course sided with their compatriots and co-religionists. It will scarcely be believed that the Orangemen, instead of being true to their principles, and demanding justice for the murder of a member of their order, again and again voted into power the men and the Ministry on whose head rests to this day the unavenged blood of Thomas Scott. A fiasco of Fenian revolt in 1871 once more alarmed the country, and another attempt at a raid was made on the Missisquoi frontier. The Imperial authorities were now under the influence of a doctrine most forcibly put forward in a series of letters by Professor Goldwin Smith, and published in the London Daily News, that the colonies would be better off, more self-reliant, and less burdensome to England, if they were independent. In accordance with this just and statesmanlike view, it was resolved to withdraw the soldiers employed to garrison Canadian cities, with the exception of a few troops stationed at Halifax, on account of the necessity for that port being retained as a naval depot. This withdrawal of the foreign soldiers was, in every respect, a gain to Canada. Every vice followed in the train of the regiment. Drunkenness and prostitution are notoriously most prevalent in garrison towns, and the artificial would-be aristocratic manner of the men tended to create a vicious social tone, to disgust young Canadians with the industries of peace, and to teach our fine ladies to disapprove of the simpler ways of their own countrymen. It was a good day for Canada when the last regiment marched down the historic hill where Wolfe and Montcalm and Montgomery fell. New retribution fell on the Macdonald Cabinet in the revelation of its full connection with the Pacific Scandal disclosures, which are too recent in the public mind to need repetition here.

The history of Ontario, the premier Province of Canada, the only one entirely solvent and entirely Liberal, is that happiest of all histories, one with few marked events, and a quiet progress of self-improvement and beneficent, because practical, administration. Under Mr. Mowat’s Government economical rule has been carried out to a degree unapproached as yet by any Province in the Dominion. Party, at least on the main issues which divide the contending factions at Ottawa, has been banished from the Provincial Councils, appointments in the Civil Service have been made, not from a party standpoint, but on the sole grounds of efficiency for the public service, and, as a consequence, a Government has been established solid in the confidence and in the affections of the people. The ghost of the Family Compact has, in vain, attempted to do evil with its old weapons, calumny and corruption—the former has proved its own refutation, the latter is now in the criminal’s dock of our Police Court.

Chapter I.

HE history of the County of York, like that of almost every county in Western Canada, is closely bound up with the general history of the Province; insomuch that, in treating of those subjects, it occasionally becomes a matter of no little difficulty to keep the respective narratives perfectly clear and distinct from each other. Much of what commonly passes for local history is the inseparable birthright of the Dominion at large, and cannot adequately be represented upon a narrow canvas. But the Metropolitan County has nevertheless a consecutive series of incidents which are exclusively its own; which no other community can claim to share with it, and which consequently are of special interest to dwellers upon its soil. In some few cases these incidents are of genuine and undoubted historical value. In others they are transitory and ephemeral in their nature, and have no further interest for posterity than that which arises from their local associations; but they are not on that account to be contemptuously rejected by any one who undertakes to chronicle the local annals for the mingled instruction and amusement of future generations of local readers. The greatest historian of modern times declared that he would cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history if he could succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of their ancestors. In like manner, a less ambitious historian may leave “the dignity of history” to take care of itself, and may venture to declare that he shall feel as though his task had been well accomplished, if he can succeed in placing before his readers a faithful panorama of the mutations through which the scenes immediately surrounding them have passed in the course of the last two hundred years.

The known and actual history of the County of York reaches back to a time

“When wild in woods the noble savage ran,”

and extends over a period of about a hundred and thirty-five years; that is to say, from the year 1749. Prior to that time we have merely a few tolerably well authenticated but widely disconnected facts with reference to it. These facts, however, are generally founded upon no written data, and fable and tradition enter so largely into the record that it is frequently difficult to separate them, or to say whether or not they rest upon any substantial foundation of truth. About others there is such an amount of vagueness that but little real significance can be attached to them, even assuming them to be true. For instance, what importance can be attached to the conjectural visit of mendacious Father Hennepin to the mouth of the Humber, in 1678? Or to the subsequent visit of that bold discoverer in unknown regions, Robert Cavelier de la Salle?

There seems to be no manner of doubt that the territory comprised within the present limits of the County of York was trodden as long ago as the middle of the seventeenth century, and even earlier, by some of those intrepid adventurers of New France who were the first European explorers of the wild western wilderness. Whether the territory adjoining the beaten track which lay northward from Lake Ontario along the course of what is now the Humber River was to any considerable extent explored by them seems extremely doubtful. That an occasional coureur des bois may have varied his adventurous enterprises by more or less prolonged sojourns among the natives is likely enough. But such voyageurs, if any, have left no permanent traces behind them. All that is absolutely essential for us in these days to know on the subject is, that no portion of the domain now forming the County of York was the fixed abode of any civilized human being until near the middle of the eighteenth century. The Indians, however, have left very perceptible traces behind them, and with a view to comprehensiveness of outline, it is here desirable to say something about their connection with the region under consideration.

At a very early period in the history of western exploration, the attention alike of explorers and of natives was turned in the direction of the fur trade. The beetling cliffs of Cape Diamond would yield neither gold nor precious stones; but the contiguous forest, extending indefinitely in all directions, contained a seemingly never-failing supply of fur-bearing animals which promised to yield a princely revenue. The cupidity of French capitalists was aroused. They formed various companies for the purpose of developing the trade, and despatched their agents to all points of the compass. Some of these agents were scions of illustrious families, and were impelled to adopt this mode of life merely from a wild spirit of adventure. The picturesqueness and freedom of the pathless forest had for them an irresistible fascination. They fraternized with the natives, and left the adjuncts of civilization far behind them. By degrees they pushed their explorations into far-distant regions where their white faces afforded never-ceasing wonderment to the red barbarians of the wilderness. Their eagerness to obtain furs necessarily aroused a similar spirit in the breasts of the Indians, who found that the pale-faces at Quebec would give them knives, beads, and various other much-desired commodities in exchange for the skins of the beaver, the mink, the fox and the otter. Quebec, however, was a long way to go from the upper lakes where these animals were most abundant, and erelong the companies found it to their interest to establish trading-posts at various points along the St. Lawrence. These were but the precursors of still more distant posts along the shores of the lakes. Finally, a post was established on an island in the remote lake region of the west, at a place which is now a delightful summer resort, but which was then regarded by the French voyageurs as the very farthest limit of exploration. The island was called Michilimackinac, and is now known as Mackinaw. Its situation is well known to every summer tourist of the present day. It soon became the great western centre of the fur trade. Thither, at stated periods, the Indians of the Lake Superior region, and even from the head waters of the Mississippi, resorted in countless multitudes, to exchange their peltries with the representatives of the great Company of One Hundred Partners.

Michilimackinac having thus become a great central place of resort, all the land-trails and water-ways were chosen with a special eye to convenient and expeditious arrival thither. The route most traversed from Quebec and the Lower St. Lawrence was by way of the Ottawa and French Rivers to the inlet of Lake Huron now known as the Georgian Bay, whence the course was open and unrestricted. But those who adopted this route were perforce compelled to neglect the traffic of the upper St. Lawrence, and of Lakes Ontario and Erie, which yielded an abundant annual supply of the much-coveted furs. In order to catch this traffic, some agents made their way to and from Michilimackinac by a more southerly route than that by the Ottawa. Pursuing their way up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, they thence struck across by the River Trent and the chain of lakes and streams intervening between there and the Georgian Bay. This route was invariably productive, for it was literally alive with fur-bearing animals, but it was very toilsome and arduous, owing to the numerous portages, and the consequent difficulty of transportation. A still more southerly route was by way of the Niagara River. The voyageur ascended the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, and coasted along either the northern or southern shore to the mouth of the Niagara, trafficking along the route wherever the smoke on the neighbouring shore indicated the proximity of Indian wigwams, and the attendant possibility of turning an honest penny by turning his prow shorewards. By the time he had reached the mouth of the Niagara he had generally secured a sufficient supply of peltries to load his batteau to the water’s edge. He accordingly sent back his cargo and boat to Montreal or Quebec, and proceeded up the river to beyond the cataract, where he procured another boat and proceeded to Michilimackinac by way of Lake Erie and Lake Huron, and the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers.

But there was still a fourth and intermediate route, which, to readers of these pages, will be the most interesting of all. This was by way of the river now known as the Humber, which was long a not uncommon mode of reaching the Georgian Bay. The voyageur, whose ultimate destination was Michilimackinac, frequently made his way westward along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, calling at the mouth of the stream where the pretty town of Port Hope now stands, and where he generally found an Indian encampment well supplied with peltries. Thence proceeding westward, he soon passed the curving peninsula which in those remote times nearly encircled the beautiful bay upon which the intellectual capital of Canada was destined to rear its front in a far-distant future of which he did not venture to dream. Thence he arrived at the mouth of the Humber, where he was commonly able to complete his cargo, and start his batteau on its return voyage. He himself then proceeded on his way to Michilimackinac. The Humber River afforded him access to the ancient country of the Hurons, in what is now the County of Simcoe. Several well-marked trails existed thence to the Georgian Bay, where a boat was easily obtained for the rest of the journey.

In those days the Humber was one of the two direct routes between the Huron country and Lake Ontario; the other being by way of the Severn, Lakes Couchiching and Balsam, and the chain of lakes and rivers already referred to, having the Trent as its southerly terminus. The Huron country seems to have contained several spots known by the general name of Toronto. The Georgian Bay is set down in some old French maps as “Baie de Toronto.” In others the present Lake Simcoe is set down as “Lac de Toronto.” The Humber is sometimes set down as “Riviere de Toronto,” and other small streams and lakelets are similarly designated. The explanation of this is to be sought for in the meaning of the word Toronto, which is now generally admitted to be a Huron term signifying “a place of meeting.” The entire route from the mouth of the Humber to a point near the present site of Penetanguishene was frequently referred to by French writers of two hundred years ago as “the Pass by Toronto.” The word “Toronto” is spelled by old writers in a great variety of ways. Thus, we find it variously spelled Toronto, Toronton, Otoronton, Atouronton, Tarontah, Tarento, and so on through numberless variations. The conflict is doubtless due to the attempts of different writers to bring the Indian pronunciation within the principles of European orthography.

As the reader is doubtless aware, the whole of this portion of Canada then formed part of the domain of the King of France. The country south of Lake Ontario, on the other hand, forming the present State of New York, was an English colony. The profits of the fur trade gave additional keenness to the rivalry already existing between the French and English colonists, and there were frequent invasions of each other’s rights. The English resolved to participate in the immense profits arising out of the trade at Michilimackinac. Companies of New York adventurers made several expeditions into that distant region, and in each case the profits were sufficient to recompense them for the very serious danger they incurred. The danger was two-fold. The French very naturally regarded them as trespassers, and did not hesitate to treat them as such. The Indians thereabouts were staunch allies of the French, and they had additional grounds of dislike to the English arising out of the alliance of the latter with the much-dreaded Iroquois. Still, they were very much like their white brethren in one important respect—they had ever an eye exceedingly wide open to the main chance. The English colonists offered better prices than the French, and the Indians did not refuse to deal with them. In this way the monopoly claimed by the French as a matter of right was seriously threatened, and they cast about to find a remedy. For some time the English were restricted to the route by way of the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers. The Ottawa swarmed with French traders and their allies, and the English could not have made their way to Michilimackinac by that route without fighting their way inch by inch. The two intermediate routes presented obstacles equally serious, for they led directly through the Huron country, and the Hurons were firm allies of the French. In the middle of the seventeenth century, however, these two routes were thrown open to the English. It came about in this wise. In 1649 and 1650 the Huron country was subjected to an invasion by the Iroquois from the Province of New York. The invasion forms one of the most tragical chapters to be found even in the history of Indian warfare. The doomed Hurons were dispersed, driven away from their ancient home, and nearly annihilated. Their cultivated fields were turned into a wilderness. There was thus nothing to prevent the English trespassers from availing themselves of this shorter and more expeditious route to the great western fur depôt.

The French were quick to appreciate the situation, and to perceive that a remedy must at once be found. They resolved to erect strong forts at the entrance to each route. A fort was accordingly built at Cataraqui, to guard the passage to the mouth of the Trent by way of the Bay of Quinté. Near the mouth of the Niagara River another fort was built to guard the passage to Lake Erie. A detachment of men was about the same time despatched westward to the Detroit River to prevent the English from passing through to Lake Huron, but a fort was not actually constructed there until early in the eighteenth century. The “Pass by Toronto” was still left unguarded, as the resources of the French were seriously taxed by the preparations already referred to, and by the necessity of repelling frequent and formidable incursions on the part of the Iroquois, who became bolder and more aggressive year by year. The Humber route thus being the only avenue left free and unguarded, it was largely taken advantage of by the English colonists, who passed thereby to and from the Upper Lake region with comparative impunity. Their numbers and operations increased to such an extent as to occasion very serious disquietude to the French, who, after the lapse of many years, found it necessary to make special exertions to preserve their supremacy. These exertions were rendered all the more necessary from the fact that the English, in 1722, established a trading-post at Chouéguen, or, as it is now called, Oswego. The latter thus gained practical control of much of the traffic on Lake Ontario, as they offered better terms than the French, and gained a reputation among the Indians for liberal and straightforward dealing. Many of the barbarians who had been accustomed to resort to the forts at Cataraqui and Niagara to dispose of their wares now began to repair to Chouéguen, and the number of those who did so rapidly increased.

Such was the problem which stared the French adventurers in the face. The solution was obvious. The erection of a fort and trading-post at the mouth of the Humber would not only guard the “Pass by Toronto” against the English, but would be the means of arresting the traffic there. This had become the ordinary route of the Indians from the north and north-west to Chouéguen. If they found that they could dispose of their peltries to good advantage at the mouth of the Humber, there would be no inducement for them to extend their journey across the lake to the English trading-post.

The French bestirred themselves, and in 1749 a trading-post was built a short distance from the mouth of the Humber, on the eastern side of the bay. Its exact site is marked at the present day by the cairn in the Exhibition Grounds, near the lake shore, a few yards south of the main Exhibition building. It was fortified by a stockade, and was named Fort Rouillé, in honour of the French Colonial Minister of the period, Antoine Louis Rouillé, Count de Jouy. The fortifications do not seem to have been very effective, to judge from the account left by M. Pouchot, in his “Memoir upon the War in North America, 1755-60.” “This fort, or post,” he remarks, “was a square of about thirty toises on a side, externally with flanks of fifteen feet. The curtains formed the buildings of the fort. It was very well built, piece upon piece, but was only useful for trade.” He adds: “A league west of the fort is the mouth of the Toronto (i.e., the Humber) River, which is of considerable size. This river communicates with Lake Huron by a portage of fifteen leagues, and is frequented by the Indians who come from the north.” Remains of the foundation of this fortress were distinctly visible six years ago, when the Ordnance Lands were acquired by the Industrial Exhibition Committee.

Rouillé, as has been said, was the official designation conferred upon the fort. But wont and usage refused to be turned aside at the bidding of mere officials. The adjacent stream had, as we have seen, been known as the Toronto River. The very site of the fort itself had from time to time been used as a “Toronto,” or place of meeting, by the Indians. Wigwam villages had occasionally arisen there, to endure only for a brief space, and until the stock of furs on hand could be bartered away to a passing French trader. The name “Toronto” clung to the site, and that of “Fort Rouillé” sank into disuse, except in formal and official reports of the agents stationed there. At least as early as 1753 the spot became popularly known as Fort Toronto, and by that name it continued to be known as long as it had an existence—and, indeed, for long after. For “the Old French Fort,” as it was sometimes called, was not destined to be a permanent institution. Upon the conquest of Canada by the English, there was no longer any reason for maintaining it as a trading-post. It was burned and deserted by its former occupants, after a brief existence of about ten years. From that time forward history only catches one or two fitful glimpses of the spot, until the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe in the harbour of Toronto in the month of May, 1793. In September, 1760, Major Robert Rogers and his troops called here on their way westward to take possession of Detroit. They found the fort in ruins, and the cleared ground in the neighbourhood fast relapsing into a state of nature. The Major himself, in his published account of the spot, says: “I think Toronto a most convenient place for a factory”—by which he means a trading-post—“and that from thence we may easily settle the north side of Lake Erie.” Other visitors called there from season to season during the next three decades, and a certain amount of traffic with the Indians appears to have been periodically carried on there. But nothing was attempted in the way of permanent settlement. The hour and the man—Governor Simcoe—had not arrived. In an old manuscript map, the date of which is not definitely ascertainable—but which must have been prepared between 1760 and 1793—the site of Rouillé is designated by a little cluster of wigwams, appended to which are the words: “Toronto, an Indian village now deserted.”

Some account of the plan made in 1788 by Captain Gother Mann, and recently discovered in the English archives by Mr. Thomas Hodgins, of Toronto, will be found in the portion of this work specially devoted to an account of the city. From that plan, as well as from various references in colonial despatches and documents of the period, it appears that Toronto was even then regarded as the probable site of a future city. Captain Mann delineates an ideal town of large dimensions, extending from about the present eastern boundary of High Park to a considerable distance east of the Don, and stretching away indefinitely to the north. It is in the highest degree improbable that any survey of such a town-plot was ever made. At any rate, no trace of such a survey has ever been discovered.

In 1791, the statute known as the Constitutional Act of 1791 was passed by the Imperial Parliament, and Canada was divided into the two Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Upper Province, upon which he has stamped his name in indelible colours. He reached his capital—then called Newark, and now called Niagara—in 1792, and opened his first Parliament there on the 17th of September in that year. But Newark did not, in his opinion, fulfil the requisites of a Provincial capital. It was situated opposite the guns of the American fort on the other side of the Niagara River, and it was in a remote corner of the Province; both of which circumstances he justly regarded as serious disqualifications. He explored his domain from east to west in search of a suitable site for the future operations of his Government. He was much in favour of the present site of London the Less, where he at one time had serious intentions of founding a city to be called Georgina, in honour of His Majesty King George III. But the founding of the Forest City was to be the work of other hands than his. While exploring the northern shores of Lake Ontario, early in May, 1793, he entered the harbour now known as Toronto Bay. It was then completely land-locked, except on the western side, for what is now “the Island” was then a peninsula, to which the Indians from the mainland were wont to resort for sanitary purposes. The present site of Toronto was then a desolate marsh, from which rose the smoke of two or three wigwams, whose denizens were the only inhabitants of the place. The spot, however, possessed important natural advantages, and the Governor was not long in making up his mind that here should arise the future capital of Upper Canada. The Indian name, Toronto, was not to his taste, and he resolved that the place should be called York, in honour of the King’s son Frederick, who, it will be remembered, was Duke of York. In the course of the ensuing summer he took up his abode here, with his suite. He also brought over most of his troops and officials, and thenceforward only repaired to Newark during the sessions of the Provincial Legislature. On the 27th of August, a royal salute was fired by the troops from the shore, and replied to by certain ships in the harbour. This instituted the formal inauguration of the new capital, which was thenceforward known as York for a period of nearly forty-one years. All of which events will be found described at full length in the history of the city. They merely require enumeration here in so far as they form part of the history of the County of York.

A few words respecting the aboriginal inhabitants of this part of Canada would seem to be in order here. The Hurons already referred to were in their own tongue known as Wyandots—a word variously spelled, according to the nationality of the speller. Sagard, one of the earliest authorities, gives it as “Houandates,” of which word he supplies no interpretation. “Huron” was a purely French word, originating in jest among the soldiers and sailors of New France, and afterwards employed seriously, for the sake of convenience, by the French immigrants generally. A fashion of preserving a row or two of upright bristles along the ridge of the cranium, while the sides were closely shaven, produced, as the first European beholders thought, a grotesque resemblance to the head of a wild boar, called in French hure. Hence, according to Gabriel Lalemant, arose the name Huron, a word which lent itself readily to the Latin tongue, like Teuton and Saxon. The Hurons were comprised in a Confederation of four cantons, or nations, to which the Tobacco Nation was afterwards united. They were of the blood and speech of the Iroquois, who nevertheless became implacably hostile to them, and finally, as has been seen, destroyed them as a nation, and converted their “place of meeting” into a desolate wilderness.

The Mississagas, a few of whom were found encamped on the site of Toronto in 1793, were of the Algonquin race and speech. They were in fact Chippewas, who, after the desolation of the Huron country of the Iroquois, migrated from their homes on the rock-bound north coast of the Georgian Bay, and betook themselves to the more genial shores of Ontario. These Chippewa bands were called Mississaga-Chippewas, to distinguish them from the Chippewas of Sault Ste. Marie and the Lake Superior region generally. The specific name Mississaga was applied because those of them who were first fallen in with by the French hailed from the neighbourhood of the River Mississaga, an important stream which enters Lake Huron about 150 miles west of French River.

Several localities around Lake Ontario still bear names derived from the Mississaga Indians. On the west side of the entrance to the Niagara River is Point Mississaga, with the dismantled Fort Mississaga still conspicuous upon it. In the Bay of Quinté is another Point Mississaga, as well as an island called Mississaga off the mouth of the Trent. These names doubtless indicate customary camping-places of bands of Mississagas. Major Rogers speaks of the Mississagas whom he found on the site of Fort Rouillé in 1760; and Bouchette speaks of Mississaga wigwams on the same spot in 1793. So unmixedly were Mississagas found along the north shore of Lake Ontario at the time of the British Conquest of Canada that they were treated by the British authorities as the sole owners of the soil thereabouts, whose rights must be extinguished before the Crown could lawfully take possession.

The words Mississaga and Chippewa are variously spelt in early works in which they are referred to. Among modern writers the latter word is re-assuming the form of “Otchipway.” From a partial similarity in sound, Mississaga has been imagined by some to be connected with a Chippewa word for eagle; and, without any foundation in fact, it has been concluded that an eagle was the token or cognizance of the Mississagas. The correct interpretation of the word Mississaga is given by Mr. Alexander Henry, in his “Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the Years 1760 and 1776,” a work which is becoming exceedingly scarce, and which has begun to command a fancy price among Canadian bibliophiles. “I pursued my journey,” he writes, “to the mouth of the Missisaki [Mississaga], a river which descends from the north, and of which the name imputes that it has several mouths, or outlets. From this river all the Indians inhabiting the north side of Lake Huron are called Missisakies [Mississagas].” Michi, or Missi, signifies great or many, while saki or saga conveys the idea of the mouth or outlet of a river. It may further be observed that the Mississaga-Chippewas were sometimes called Matchedash Indians, from their descending to the shores of Lake Ontario from the direction of Matchedash Bay.

Chapter II.

ORK and its neighbourhood soon began to present an appearance of energetic settlement and civilization. The harbour was surveyed by Joseph Bouchette, who, in a paragraph which has been quoted by every subsequent writer on the subject, describes “the untamed aspect which the country exhibited.” The troops were well employed by Governor Simcoe in building operations, and in making roads. Mr. W. H. Smith, author of “Canada, Past, Present, and Future,” writing in 1851, and commenting upon this utilitarian employment of the Provincial troops by our first Governor, remarks: “It would be well for the Province, and equally beneficial to the troops, if other Governors employed them as usefully. The Province would then derive some benefit from the troops being stationed here, and the men themselves would be more healthy, and from being actively employed would be less likely to be led themselves, or to lead others, into dissipation.”

The most important highway surveyed and laid out under the Governor’s auspices was Yonge Street, extending all the way from York to Lake Simcoe, thirty miles distant in the northern wilderness. The name of “Yonge Street” was bestowed upon it by the Governor in honour of his friend Sir George Yonge, who was Secretary of War in the Imperial Cabinet during the early part of Governor Simcoe’s residence in Upper Canada. It may also be mentioned that Lake Simcoe, just mentioned, was named by the Governor in honour of his father, Captain Simcoe, of the Royal Navy, who died on the St. Lawrence River during the expedition against Quebec in 1759. The building of Yonge Street was intended to serve the double purpose of opening up the country along the route, and of shortening and facilitating travel between Lake Ontario and the North-West. It is thus referred to by Provincial Surveyor D. W. Smyth, in his Gazetteer, published in 1799. “This communication affords many advantages. Merchandise from Montreal to Michilimackinac may be sent this way at ten or fifteen pounds less expense per ton than by the route of the Grand or Ottawa Rivers, and the merchandise from New York to be sent up the North and Mohawk Rivers for the North-West trade, finding its way into Lake Ontario at Oswego, the advantage will certainly be felt of transporting goods from Oswego to York, and from thence across Yonge Street, and down the waters of Lake Simcoe into Lake Huron, in preference to sending it by Lake Erie.”

Another well-known thoroughfare, which we owe to Governor Simcoe’s enterprise, is Dundas Street, which was intended by him to be a means of communication throughout the whole of Upper Canada from east to west. It was named by him after the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville, who was Colonial Secretary in those days. Only a small portion of it was actually built during Governor Simcoe’s régime. A portion of it is still known in local parlance as the Governor’s Road, though its proper and official designation is the one originally bestowed upon it.

The territorial divisions of Upper Canada in Governor Simcoe’s days were very different from those now existing. The first was made by proclamation issued by Lord Dorchester, Governor-General of Canada, under authority of an Imperial statute. The proclamation was dated the 24th of July, 1788, at which date the Constitutional Act had not been passed, and while the Province afterwards known as Upper or Western Canada still formed a part of the Province of Quebec. The division thereby effected was into four districts, named respectively Lunenburgh, Mecklenburgh, Nassau and Hesse. The only one of the four with which the present narrative has any special concern is the District of Nassau, which embraced a large tract of country, extending westward from the head of the Bay of Quinté to a line extending due north from the extreme projection of Long Point, on Lake Erie. It thus included, among other land, the whole of the present County of York. This division was purely conventional and nominal, as the country was sparsely inhabited, and the necessity for minute and accurate boundary lines had not become pressing. Upon Governor Simcoe’s arrival he made a second territorial division whereby the Province was divided into nineteen counties, one of which was the County of York. This was in the month of July, 1792, nearly a year before he had caught his first glimpse of the site of his future capital of that name. The County of York, as then defined, extended from the County of Durham westward to the River Thames, then called La Trenche or La Tranche. During the first session of the First Parliament of Upper Canada, which closed its sittings on the 15th of October, 1792, an Act was passed (32 Geo. III. cap 8) whereby the names of the four districts set apart in 1788 were altered to the Eastern, Midland, Home and Western Districts—the Home District corresponding to the one theretofore called Nassau. One member was deemed sufficient to represent the Counties of York and Durham and one Riding of the County of Lincoln in the Provincial Legislature. Parliament was convened at Newark for five successive years. It met at York for the first time in 1797, by which time Governor Simcoe had bidden the Province a final adieu. In the year 1796 he departed on a special diplomatic mission to the Island of Hayti, or St. Domingo. After the fulfilment of his mission he returned to England. He died on the 25th of October, 1806, and his remains were interred in a little chapel on his Devonshire estates. A mural tablet is erected to his memory in Exeter Cathedral.

In this country, and more especially in the County of York, a strong interest must ever attach to the name of Governor Simcoe. This interest arises not merely from the fact that he was the first Governor of Upper Canada, but from his merits as a man and as an administrator. He was a man of enlightened views, in many respects considerably in advance of his time. He set on foot a wise system of administering public affairs, and, had his example been followed by his immediate successors, Upper Canada would have escaped some of the most serious evils which befell her during nearly half a century of her history. The special obligations of the County of York to him need no elaborate recapitulation. Briefly, it may be said that to him we owe the establishment of the Provincial and intellectual capital within our domain. To him we owe the construction of Yonge Street, and the opening up of the northern townships. His memory has claims upon us and our descendants which are not likely to be forgotten. As everything relating to him may be supposed to have an interest for us, the following letter, addressed by him, about five years before his death, to the clergyman of his parish, and now published for the first time, will doubtless be acceptable to the readers of this work. The original is in the possession of Dr. Scadding, of Toronto, whose valuable contributions to our local archæology are well known.—“Dear Sir,” it runs: “On the 22nd of this month I shall have lived half a century. You will therefore much oblige me if you will spend the day with me, and will celebrate divine service at 12 o’clock in our chapel. I shall esteem it as a favour if you would take for your text ‘Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,’ etc. The advantages of being a Christian, of having been educated by a most pious and excellent mother (my father dying, whilst I was yet an infant, in the service of his country), assisted by the companions of my father’s youth and the protectors of my own; the advantages of being an Englishman, and of that Church where Christianity is administered in its purest form; the advantages of being a member of that government where laws are most equal, and where justice is administered in mercy, are impressed on my heart, and I wish them to be recommended to my children. There is a text in Leviticus, I believe, that particularly enforces purity of heart to those who aspire to military command. As mine in all views is a military family, it may not be amiss in a more especial manner to inculcate the remembrance of the Creator to those who shall engage in the solemn duties of protecting their country at these times from foreign usurpation. I am truly yours, J. G. S. Feb. 14th, 1801.”

This interesting letter is thoroughly characteristic of the man. It breathes throughout a spirit of intelligent conservatism and devotion to duty. Its writer was recognized by successive Governments as a useful public servant. He has left behind him very distinct traces of his temporary direction of Upper Canadian affairs. Lake Simcoe, named by him as already mentioned, commemorates to successive ages his own name and that of his father. The County of the same name, and the metropolitan town of the County of Norfolk, were also designated after the founder of York. Simcoe and John Streets, Toronto, were moreover so called by way of commemoration of his surname and one of his Christian names. The maiden name of his wife, Miss Gwillim, is also commemorated in the townships of North, East and West Gwillimbury.

The laying out of Yonge Street was prosecuted under the personal supervision of Mr. Augustus Jones, a well-known land surveyor of those primitive times. He began his labours on the 26th of February, 1794. For many years after the original survey, and indeed down to a period within the memory of persons still living in Toronto, it did not extend southerly to the bay shore, but terminated at Queen (then called Lot) Street. During the early years of the present century it was impassable south of what is now Bloor Street. Persons driving into Toronto from the northward were here compelled to make a detour to the eastward until they arrived at Parliament Street, which was in tolerable condition for those times. In 1801 John Stegmann, another land surveyor whose name is frequently met with in old Upper Canadian surveys, was appointed to examine and report upon the condition of Yonge Street. He reported that: “from the Town of York to the three-mile post on the Poplar Plains the road is cut, and that as yet the greater part of the said distance is not passable for any carriage whatever, on account of logs which lie in the street. From thence to lot 1 on Yonge Street the road is very difficult to pass at any time, agreeable to the present situation in which the said part of the street is.” The Poplar Plains mentioned in this extract were situated immediately to the north of what is now Yorkville. But Yonge Street was of too much importance to be allowed to remain in such a state as that above indicated. It was largely used by the North-West Company, to whom good roads were an object, for purposes of transportation. They supplied funds for the improvement of the road, and contributed for that purpose as much as £8,000 in one single payment. About the close of the first decade of the century Yonge Street was serviceable along its entire length.

The land on each side of the road was granted to actual settlers on condition of their performing the usual settlement duties, which involved the necessity of building a house, clearing a proportionate part of the land, and “making the road across or in front of each lot.” It might be supposed that such liberal terms as these would have been readily and eagerly taken advantage of; yet we find that the progress of actual settlement was slow. In 1799 the entire population of the Home District was only 224. For some years afterwards its growth was barely perceptible. In 1798 the aggregate population of the townships of York, Scarborough and Etobicoke, together with the Town of York itself, was only 749. For this state of things the line of policy adopted by Governor Simcoe’s successors was in great measure responsible. Large tracts of land throughout the District were granted to favourites of successive administrations, and to others who could bring influence to bear upon those who had the ear of the executive. The lands so granted were usually “held for a rise” by the patentees, who resorted to all sorts of devices to avoid even the performance of the ordinary settlement duties. In this way a great proportion of the land was locked up in private hands, and practically closed to settlement. The practice flourished throughout the entire Province, but the Home District, being the headquarters of the Government, naturally became the focus and centre of such abuses. More than ten millions of acres of the public lands had been granted to the U. E. Loyalist immigrants alone; and one-seventh of the entire lands of the Province had been appropriated for Clergy Reserves. It was easy to perceive that land in Upper Canada would in course of time become exceedingly valuable, and many pages might be written illustrative of the spirit of greed which animated the office-holders of those days. There was very little check upon their rapacity, for the same spirit seemed to actuate all the officials, from the highest to the lowest. President Russell, who, as senior member of the Executive Council, succeeded to the administration of affairs upon Governor Simcoe’s departure for the West Indies, was wont to make grants of public land directly to himself—the verbiage employed being somewhat after the following fashion: “I, Peter Russell, administrator, do grant unto Peter Russell,” etc. During the regime of his successor, Lieutenant-General Peter Hunter, as well as under those of Commodore Grant and Francis Gore, similar practices prevailed, though it does not appear that in the case of any other person than Russell did the administrator go the length of conveying real estate directly to himself, without the intervention of a trustee.

In the original surveys of the territory embraced within the County of York, as then constituted, it appears that the frontier townships of Pickering, Scarborough and York were at first named Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin respectively. Pickering, as the reader is doubtless aware, now forms part of the County of Ontario. Full accounts of the other two townships will be found in their proper places in the present work, under separate and distinct headings, together with lists of the early patentees, showing the slow rate of progress of the settlements. The names of Glasgow and Dublin did not long attach to them, as it appears that they were known by their present designations before the advent of the present century. All, or nearly all, of the territory comprised within these townships, was surrendered by the Mississaga Indians to the Crown during the early months of Governor Simcoe’s administration. Other surrenders were made from time to time, until the Indian title was gradually extinguished, except as to lands specially reserved on their behalf, and as to which unfettered power of alienation was not admitted.

In 1798, during President Russell’s direction of affairs, an Act was passed “for the better division of this Province,” whereby it was enacted that the Counties of Northumberland, Durham, York and Simcoe should form the Home District. The County of York was divided into two parts, to be called respectively the East and West Ridings. The East Riding was declared to consist of the townships of Whitby, Pickering, Scarborough, York (including its peninsula, now the Island), Etobicoke, Markham, Vaughan, King, Whitchurch, Uxbridge, Gwillimbury, “and the tract of land hereafter to be laid out into townships, lying between the County of Durham and the Lake Simcoe.” The West Riding was made up of the townships of Beverley and Flamborough, East and West, so much of the tract of land upon the Grand River in the occupation of the Six Nation Indians as lay to the northward of Dundas Street, and all the land between the said tract and the East Riding of the County of York, “with the reserved lands in the rear of the townships of Blenheim and Blandford.” This adjustment remained undisturbed until the year 1816, when an Act was passed carving the District of Gore out of portions of the Niagara and Home Districts. By this Act also the township of Toronto was annexed to the East Riding of York. Five years later, in 1821, a new territorial division was made of the entire Province, whereby the townships of Reach, Brock, Scott and Georgina were annexed to the East Riding of York, and the townships of Albion, Caledon, Chinguacousy and the Gore of Toronto were annexed to the West Riding. The County of Simcoe was at the same time formed, being made up of various old and new townships formerly included within the limits of the County of York. The population of the Home District at this time was about 12,000. As it had then been settled nearly thirty years, the admission must be made that its progress had been very slow indeed.

Poor Robert Gourlay, writing several years before this time, gives a vivid, and, upon the whole, an accurate pen-picture of the conflicting elements then at work in the Home District. As his book has long since become practically unobtainable, and as his account will doubtless prove interesting to the present inhabitants of the territory so graphically described, it is worth while to quote a portion of it, more especially as it is of much topographical value. In order to make his allusions intelligible, the reader should be made acquainted with a few preliminary facts. Mr. Gourlay was a Scottish gentleman, of a decidedly critical cast of mind, who visited Canada in 1817, and who, after some observation of the country, resolved to engage in business as a land-agent, and to organize an extensive system of emigration from the British Islands to Canada. Having obtained much statistical information with respect to public lands and settlers, and having become cognizant of the unscrupulousness of many of the officials, and the baneful influence exercised by the Family Compact, he determined to make the facts generally known in Great Britain. In order to obtain minute and exhaustive intelligence, he addressed a series of printed questions to the principal residents in each township in Upper Canada, asking for information as to the date of settlement, number of inhabitants, houses, churches, schools, stores and mills; the general character of the soil; the various kinds of timber and minerals; the rates of wages; cost of clearing land; usual time of ploughing and reaping; extent and condition of wild lands, etc. The questions were thirty-one in number. All of them were unobjectionable, except the last, which ran thus:—“What, in your opinion, retards the improvement of your township in particular, or the Province in general, and what would most contribute to the same?” Nearly all the replies received to this question echoed the same strain. The slow development was attributed to the Crown and Clergy Reserves, and to the immense tracts of lands held by non-residents. The prevailing sentiment was well mirrored in a reply received from Kingston. Thus it ran:—“The same cause which has surrounded Little York with a desert, creates gloom and desolation about Kingston, otherwise most beautifully situated; I mean the seizure and monopoly of the land by people in office and favour. On the east side, particularly, you may travel miles together without passing a human dwelling. The roads are accordingly most abominable to the very gates of this, the largest town in the Province; and its market is supplied with vegetables from the United States, where property is less hampered, and the exertions of cultivators more free.”

These remarks, which were perfectly true as applied to the neighbourhood of Kingston, were still more applicable to the Home District. In the Home District, however, the influence of Dr.—afterwards Bishop—Strachan was paramount. The Doctor regarded Mr. Gourlay as a pestilent interloper whose career should not be allowed to go unchecked. Owing in a great measure to the exertions and influence of this active-minded ecclesiastic, not a single reply was received from the Home District. But the tract of country included therein was too important to be left out of Mr. Gourlay’s consideration, and in compiling his “Statistical Account of Upper Canada,” he prepared nine octavo pages of printed matter, wherein the District was portrayed in colours which were all but universally recognized as combining truthfulness with vigour. “From this District,” he writes, “I did not receive a single reply to my address, although it was first published here, and had the cordial approbation of the head magistrate of the Province, as well as of everybody with whom I held converse. This may be ascribed to two causes: first, the opposition of a monstrous little fool of a parson, who, for reasons best known to himself, fell foul of the address which I had published, abused me as its author, and has ever since laboured, with unremitting malignity, to frustrate its intention.”

The person thus irreverently alluded to as “a monstrous little fool of a parson” was of course Dr. Strachan. “This man, unfortunately,” he continues, “was a member of the Executive Council, and his efforts, from that circumstance, were but too successful.... The second cause may be traced to the low condition of society in the Home District, owing to the peculiar state of property. The foregoing reports sufficiently demonstrate how the farmers of Upper Canada have been baffled in their improvements by the large tracts of unsettled land; but in the Home District they have suffered most from this, and not only has it dulled the edge of husbandry, but in a remarkable degree clouded the rise of intellect and spirit among the inhabitants. No sooner was York fixed upon as the capital of the Province than it became obvious that sooner or later the landed property around, and on the high roads to Kingston, etc., would bear a high value. For this good reason, the creatures in office and favour bent their avaricious eyes upon it, and large portions were secured to them and their friends. The consequences are melancholy. For five miles round the capital of Upper Canada scarcely one improved farm can be seen in contact with another; and even within a gunshot of the place the gloomy woods rise up in judgment against its nefarious inmates. I say ‘the gloomy woods,’ because Nature does not appear in her full attire in the neighbourhood of Little York. The need of firewood has chosen from the forest its chief ornaments, and left a parcel of scorched and decaying pine trees to frown over the seat of rapacity. The only connected settlement commences about five miles to the north, on Yonge Street. In other directions, so far as the District goes, you might travel in 1817 to its utmost limits, and not find more than one farm house for every three miles. It is true, that round York, and particularly to the westward, the soil is inferior, but the convenience attendant on proximity to a town would long ago have overbalanced this disadvantage, had property not been monopolized and mangled. Where Yonge Street is compactly settled, it is well cultivated and thriving, particularly beyond what is called the Oak Hills or Ridges, a strip of elevated and irregular ground which parts the waters flowing into Lakes Simcoe and Ontario, and which indeed forms a sort of continuation of the mountain running through Gore and Niagara Districts. In this quarter the land is excellent, and it is well occupied by industrious people, mostly Quakers. In other quarters, simple and unsuspecting Germans—Tunkers, and Menonists—have been thinly stuck in by the knowing ones among their precious blocks and reserves, by whose plodding labours the value of this sinecure property may be increased.

“A curious document has been published in this country, which gives a sad proof of the effect of narrow-mindedness and wrong arrangement in property. The document is meant to draw reverence to the above-mentioned parson; but, in fact, is the strongest evidence against his deeds and sentiments. It is stated that seven or eight miles from York, on Yonge Street, there is a place of worship, where it is customary to see many grown persons coming forward to be baptized. The fact is, that this, with another belonging to the above mentioned Quakers, are the only places of worship to be seen in Yonge Street, extending near forty miles. In the first mentioned, service is only performed once a month; the dominant parson allowing nobody to preach but himself! Much moan has been made in this country as to the lagging of the gospel in Upper Canada; but I can assure the public that the chief cause rests in the state of property, which so scatters the people as to put the necessary union for building and endowing churches out of the question. The moment that Upper Canada becomes thickly peopled, the gospel, having free course, will be glorified; and this will the sooner take place, the sooner that clergy reserves, vainly set apart for the erection of an established church, are sold off to actual settlers. Next to personal security, the security and right ordering of property is the prime concern of wise legislation. Let these indeed be properly seen to, and all else will go well, whether the pate of magistracy be covered with a cowl, a crown, or a cap of liberty.

“There are not more desirable situations for settlement in the Province than on the great road from York to Kingston; but here the largest portions of land have been seized upon by people in power and office. Some twenty years ago, these people sold two whole townships of Crown Land, and had the effrontery to lay out great part of the proceeds in opening the road through their favourite locations, which actual settlers would cheerfully have done gratis, besides keeping it in continual repair. The road was indeed opened, but to this day, except in sleighing time and fine weather, it is an absolute block up against him who would attempt to pass between the two principal towns of the Province. Upon one occasion that I wended my weary way through this dismal defile, I was glad to rest for a little while in a farm-house, ‘far in the wild.’ It has been my frequent custom to judge my fellow men partly through external appearances—their farms—their houses—their dress. When approaching a human dwelling in Upper Canada, I would survey its neighbourhood: I would observe whether the fire-wood was neatly piled; the implements of husbandry snugly secured from wind and weather in a shed; or whether the pump and oven were in good repair. Sometimes, nay, I shall say often, all was right, sometimes quite the reverse. In front of a farm-house, I would sometimes see broken ploughs and decayed wagons lying upon a heap of chips which had been accumulating for years, and which had for smaller garnishing many-coloured and filthy rags, broken bottles, and pieces of crockery. What was to be augured of the man who exhibited such signals? certainly neither good humour nor rational conversation. Yet if the weary traveller must have rest and refreshment, he will not be repelled by these; he will at least march up to the house, and consult the windows. If well glazed and bright, in he may go, assured that the mistress will prove tidy, though her man is a sloven; and that the interior will yield comfort, though the exterior forbid the hope. If, on the contrary, an old hat, or piece of dirty blanket supplies the place of a pane of glass, the case is bad indeed; and nothing but the strongest necessity, or most violent curiosity, would induce me to enter. Both were urgent on this occasion; and after resting a little, I began to examine the various articles by which the light of the front window was obscured, or I should rather say, by which its numerous orifices were closed up. Let the reader reflect on the catalogue. There was one old great coat, and two pair of ragged pantaloons. This story, I think, will match with that of the paganism of Yonge Street, and the same cause has laid the foundation of both. Inspect all the wretched cottages of England, and you will not find a window so patched as that which I have spoken of. It is not mere poverty that produces such appearances. The poorest creature could find a piece of board, or a bit of paper, to nail or paste up in the place of a broken glass; and either the one or other would have some show of neatness and respectability; but an old hat, a blanket, a great coat, or ragged pantaloons, taken advantage of for such a purpose, mark a degree of degradation below brutality; and such is the state to which circumstances and situation can reduce humanity. It is the removal from social intercourse, the indulgence of indolence, the want of excitement, which can make the mind completely torpid, and at once extinguish taste, feeling and shame. The master of the house spoken of was tenant of a Clergy Reserve. But enough of this at present: there is quite enough to show why I had no reply to my queries in such a District.

“To carry on my estimate of population, I suppose that Little York might contain, in 1817, of people, I shall not say souls, 1,200. There are thirteen organized townships in the District; that is, such as hold town meetings for the choice of town office bearers, and to these, three others are united, each containing a few inhabitants. If to these thirteen townships, with their additions, are allowed 500 people each, the full number, I think, will be obtained as it stood in 1817 ...

Mr. Gourlay personally reaped nothing but ignominy and imprisonment from his public spirit. As his statements could not be met by just argument, the prevailing faction resorted to the argumentum ad hominem, and employed the most villainous means of silencing him. The same species of persecution assailed him, under the semblance of law, as was suffered in Great Britain by the Tookes, the Leigh Hunts, and the Cobbetts. Spies were sent about the country to dog him, in the hope that they might find something in his language upon which an indictment might be founded. The plan was successful. Indictments were found against him by packed Grand Juries, and cumulative prosecutions were set on foot in order to leave him no loophole of escape. The sad story of Robert Gourlay forms one of the darkest chapters in the national history. He was cast into prison at Niagara, and detained there for many months, after which, by virtue of an old statute which his persecutors warped to their own ends, he was ordered to quit the Province within twenty-four hours, on pain of death in case of his return. He accordingly left the Province, to which he did not return until after the lapse of many years. But the people of Upper Canada in general, and of the Home District in particular, had abundant reason to bless his name. The shameful treatment to which he had been subjected drew public attention to his case, and was the indirect means of bringing about a better state of things. When, nearly forty years afterwards, he again set foot in the County of York, he found that a new dynasty had arisen, and that all the most grievous of the old abuses had been swept away.

Chapter III.

N addition to the statutory territorial divisions indicated in the preceding chapter, several Acts of partial application only, affecting the County of York, were passed both before and after the Union of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841. In 1827, 1832 and 1836, three several enactments came into operation regulating or affecting the local boundaries, but in a brief sketch like the present it would serve no useful purpose to follow minutely the course of Provincial legislation. Suffice it to say that by the statute 14 and 15 Victoria, chapter 5, passed during the session of 1851, just before the second Lafontaine-Baldwin Administration went out of office, it was enacted that the County of York should consist of the townships of Etobicoke, Vaughan, Markham, Scarborough, York, King, Whitchurch, Gwillimbury East and Gwillimbury North. By this Act, which came into operation on the 1st of January, 1852, the counties of York, Ontario and Peel were declared to be united for municipal and judicial purposes. By section 5 provision was made for the dissolution of unions of counties, and under this enactment Ontario separated from York and Peel at the close of the year 1853. York and Peel remained united until 1866, when a separation took place, and they have ever since been entirely distinct municipalities.

Several subsequent partial enactments were consolidated in chapter 5 of the Revised Statutes of Ontario, the 41st section whereof enacts that the County of York shall consist of the townships of Etobicoke, Georgina, Gwillimbury East, Gwillimbury North, King, Markham, Scarborough, Vaughan, Whitchurch, York, the City of Toronto, and the villages of Aurora, Holland Landing, Markham, Newmarket, Richmond Hill and Yorkville. In a municipal sense, this is the present division, except that the Village of Yorkville was last year admitted into the City of Toronto under the name of St. Paul’s Ward.

The reader hardly needs to be informed, however, that the municipal divisions are not identical with the divisions for the purpose of Parliamentary representation. It has been seen on a former page that in very early times one member was considered sufficient to represent a tract of territory very much larger than the present County of York. To trace the progress of Parliamentary representation for the County of York from that time down to the present would occupy much space, and would be attended with very little benefit or entertainment to the reader. It will be sufficient to begin with the Union, at which date York was divided into four electoral Ridings, known respectively as the First, Second, Third and Fourth Ridings. During the First Parliament, which lasted from the 8th of April, 1841, to the 23rd of September, 1844, these constituencies were respectively represented by James Hervey Price, George Duggan, jr., James Edward Small, Robert Baldwin, and Louis Hypolite Lafontaine. The Second Parliament lasted from the 12th of November, 1844, to the 6th of December, 1847. Messieurs Price, Duggan, and Baldwin continued to represent their various constituencies. Mr. Small was reëlected for the Third Riding, but his return was declared null and void on the 14th of March, 1845, and his opponent, George Monro, was declared to have been duly elected. Mr. Monro accordingly represented the constituency from that time forward until the close of the Second Parliament. As for Mr. Lafontaine, his representation of an Upper Canadian constituency was merely a temporary expedient, and after the close of the First Parliament he was returned for the Lower Canadian constituency of Terrebonne. Before the assembly of the Third Parliament a re-adjustment and re-naming of the constituencies had taken place, and they were thenceforward respectively known as the North, East, South and West Ridings. The North Riding consisted of the townships of Brock, Georgina, East Gwillimbury, North Gwillimbury, Mara, Rama, Reach, Scott, Thorah, Uxbridge, and Whitchurch. The East Riding was composed of the townships of Markham, Pickering, Scarborough, and Whitby. The South Riding comprised the townships of Etobicoke, King, Vaughan, and York; and the West Riding was made up of the townships of Albion, Caledon, Chinguacousy, Toronto and the Gore of Toronto. During the Third Parliament, which lasted from the 24th of January, 1848, to the 6th of November, 1851, the North Riding was represented by Robert Baldwin, the East Riding by William Hume Blake and Peter Perry, the South Riding by James Hervey Price, and the West Riding by Joseph Curran Morrison. During the Fourth Parliament an Act was passed increasing the representation to sixty-five members from each section of the Province. Thenceforward York was divided into three constituencies only, the North, East and West Ridings. Without consecutively following the representation and divisions of the county any further, it may be said that by the eighth section of the second chapter of the Consolidated Statutes of Canada, the County of York is divided into three Ridings, to be called respectively the North Riding, the East Riding and the West Riding; the North Riding consisting of the townships of King, Whitchurch, Georgina, East Gwillimbury and North Gwillimbury; the East Riding consisting of the townships of Markham, Scarborough, and that portion of the Township of York lying east of Yonge Street, and the Village of Yorkville; the West Riding consisting of the Townships of Etobicoke, Vaughan, and that portion of the Township of York lying west of Yonge Street. By statute 45 Victoria, chapter 3, passed on the 17th of May, 1882, entitled “An Act to re-adjust the Representation in the House of Commons, and for other purposes,” it is enacted that the East Riding of the County of York shall consist of the townships of East York (i.e., the portion lying east of Yonge Street), Scarborough and Markham, and the villages of Yorkville and Markham; and that the North Riding shall consist of the townships of King, East Gwillimbury, West Gwillimbury, North Gwillimbury and Georgina, and the villages of Holland Landing, Bradford and Aurora.

Representation in the Local Legislature is provided for by the eighth chapter of the Revised Statutes of Ontario, entitled “An Act Respecting the Representation of the People in the Legislative Assembly,” whereby it is provided that the County of York shall be divided into three Ridings, to be called respectively the North Riding, the East Riding and the West Riding; the North Riding to consist of the townships of King, Whitchurch, Georgina, East Gwillimbury and North Gwillimbury, and the Villages of Aurora, Holland Landing and Newmarket; the East Riding to consist of the townships of Markham and Scarborough, that portion of the Township of York lying east of Yonge Street, and the villages of Yorkville and Markham; the West Riding to consist of the townships of Etobicoke and Vaughan, that portion of the Township of York lying west of Yonge Street, and the Village of Richmond Hill. Upon the admission of Yorkville as a portion of the City of Toronto, in 1883, it was specially provided that the village should for Parliamentary purposes still remain attached to the East Riding of York.

Independently of territorial and Parliamentary divisions, there is not much to record in the way of purely County history, beyond what is given in the various Township histories which will be found elsewhere in this volume. The County played a very conspicuous part in the Rebellion of 1837-’38, but the details of that ill-starred movement are recorded at considerable length in the “Brief History of Canada and the Canadian People,” with which the reader of these pages may be presumed to be already familiar. The merest outline is all that can be attempted here. The public dissatisfaction with the many abuses which existed in those days, and with the high-handed tyranny of the executive, was intensified in 1836 and 1837 by the injudicious proceedings of the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head. That dignitary employed the most corrupt means during the elections of 1836 to secure the return of members favourable to his policy, and the leading Reformers of Upper Canada were defeated at the polls. The most shamelessly dishonest means were employed to secure the defeat of William Lyon Mackenzie in the Second Riding of York, for which constituency he had already been returned five times in succession, and he had as often been unjustly expelled from membership in the Assembly. The combined tyranny and abuses of the time had long since aroused a spirit of resistance, and before the year 1837 was many months old this spirit had begun to assume an active shape. An enrolment of the disaffected throughout the Second Riding took place, and the list included many persons of the highest respectability and intelligence. Mackenzie’s paper, The Constitution, circulated largely throughout the constituency, and his influence there was paramount. He and his coadjutors made urgent and repeated inflammatory appeals to the people of the Province generally, who were incited to strike for that freedom which could only be won at the point of the sword. A Central Vigilance Committee was formed, and Mackenzie devoted all his time to the organization of armed resistance to authority. Drillings were held at night throughout nearly the whole of the northern part of the County of York. It was at last settled that an attempt should be made to subvert the Government. The time fixed upon for the commencement of hostilities was Thursday, the 7th of December (1837), at which date the rebels were to secretly assemble their forces at Montgomery’s Tavern, a well-known hostelry on Yonge Street, about three miles north of Toronto. Having assembled, they were to proceed in a body into the city, where they expected to be joined by a large proportion of the inhabitants. They were to march direct to the City Hall, and seize 4000 stand of arms which had been placed there. The insurrectionary programme further included the seizure of the Lieutenant-Governor himself and his chief advisers, the capture of the garrison, and the calling of a convention for the purpose of framing a constitution. A provisional government was to be formed, at the head of which was to be placed Dr. John Rolph, one of the ablest men who has ever taken part in Upper Canadian affairs.

The scheme promised well enough, but there was no efficient organization among the insurgents, who were from the beginning doomed to failure. The details seem to have been largely deputed to Mr. Mackenzie’s management, and if active energy could have insured success at the outset, the insurgent programme would have been fully carried out. Sir Francis Head, though kept continually informed of treasonable meetings in various parts of the Home District, treated all such intelligence with contempt, and made no preparation to defend his little capital. There was absolutely no possibility of failure on the part of Mackenzie and his forces, if they had manifested the least ability for conducting an armed insurrection. But the leaders had no common plan of operations, and were out of harmony with each other. No one seems to have been invested with undivided authority. Mackenzie reached the house of his friend and co-worker Mr. David Gibson, in the neighbourhood of Montgomery’s, on the evening of Sunday, the 3rd of December, when, to quote his own words: “To my astonishment and dismay, I was informed that though I had given the captains of townships sealed orders for the Thursday following, the Executive had ordered out the men beyond the Ridges to attend with their arms next day (Monday) and that it was probable they were already on the march. I instantly sent one of Mr. Gibson’s servants to the north, countermanded the Monday movement, and begged Colonel Lount not to come down, nor in any way disturb the previous regular arrangement.... The servant returned on Monday with a message from Mr. Lount that it was now too late to stop; that the men were warned, and moving, with their guns and pikes, on the march down Yonge Street—a distance of thirty or forty miles, on the worst roads in the world—and that the object of their rising could no longer be concealed. I was grieved, and so was Mr. Gibson, but we had to make the best of it. Accordingly, I mounted my horse in the afternoon, rode in towards the city, took five trusty men with me, arrested several men on suspicion that they were going to Sir Francis with information, placed a guard on Yonge Street, the main northern avenue to Toronto, at Montgomery’s, and another guard on a parallel road, and told them to allow none to pass towards the city. I then waited some time, expecting the Executive to arrive, but waited in vain. No one came, and not even a message. I was therefore left in entire ignorance of the condition of the capital, and, instead of entering Toronto on Thursday with 4,000 or 5,000 men, was apparently expected to take it on Monday with 200, wearied after a march of thirty or forty miles through the mud, in the worst possible humour at finding they had been called from the very extremity of the county, and no one else warned at all.”

This was certainly a disheartening state of affairs, though as a simple matter of fact there is no doubt that the city might easily have been taken just then, even with a less force than 200, if the rebels had been efficiently commanded. But the change of date from Thursday to Monday seems to have completely disheartened Mackenzie, who from that time forward seemed to act without either energy or judgment. Instead of proceeding into the city, he actually kept his forces at Montgomery’s until Thursday in a state of complete inaction. By that time the authorities in Toronto had of course become aware of the movement. Assistance had been summoned from Hamilton and elsewhere, and all hopes of success for the insurrection were at an end. On Thursday the loyalist forces advanced northward and met the rebels a short distance north of Gallows Hill. A skirmish followed, but was of very short duration, as the rebels were altogether outnumbered, and fled in all directions. Mackenzie and the other leaders succeeded in making their escape to the United States; all except poor Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews, who were captured and executed at Toronto on the 12th of April following. Their remains are interred in the Toronto Necropolis.

As, owing to their tragical ending, much interest is felt in these unfortunate persons, it may not be amiss to give some account of them. The following is condensed and adapted from “Canada in 1837-38,” a work written by Edward Alexander Theller, an Irish-American citizen who acted as a “Brigadier-General in the Canadian Republican Service.” Samuel Lount was born in the State of Pennsylvania, and lived there until he migrated to Upper Canada, which event took place when he was about twenty-two or twenty-three years of age. He settled near the shores of Lake Simcoe, in what was then a wilderness. By industry and frugality he in course of a few years amassed considerable property. To the many poor settlers who came from Europe and obtained grants of land from the Government he was a friend and adviser, and in cases of necessity he frequently supplied their wants from his own purse or his own granaries. He saw and deplored the many grievances which afflicted his adopted country. In 1834 he was elected a member of the Provincial Assembly, in which he served until 1836, when, owing to the machinations of Sir Francis Head and his advisers (who did not scruple to employ the most corrupt means to achieve such a result), he was defeated at the polls by a brother of Chief Justice Robinson. Like Mackenzie, Rolph and other leaders of the Reform party, he despaired of accomplishing anything of importance by further constitutional agitation, so he allied himself with the insurrectionary movement, and marched a body of men to Montgomery’s. When the collapse of the movement came, he fled, with others, to the neighbourhood of Galt, whence, accompanied by a friend named Kennedy, he made his way to the shores of Lake Erie. Having secured a boat, they attempted to cross to the United States, but their little craft was driven ashore by floating ice. They were at once captured and forwarded to headquarters at Chippewa, where Colonel MacNab’s camp was. Lount had no sooner reached Chippewa than he was recognized. He was next sent to Toronto and placed in jail until his trial. There was no question as to his guilt, in a legal and technical sense, and he attempted no defence. He was found guilty, and sentenced to death. The sequel has already been told.

Peter Matthews was a wealthy farmer, possessed of great influence among the people in the neighbourhood of his residence. He had served as a Lieutenant in the incorporated militia of the Province during the War of 1812, ’13 and ’14, and had signalized himself by his bravery. He made common cause with Mackenzie and Lount, and raised a corps in the neighbourhood of his home, at whose head he marched to Montgomery’s. On the morning of that fatal Thursday he proceeded with a company of men to the Don Bridge, for the purpose of creating a diversion in the east end of the city. While there he heard the noise of the engagement at Montgomery’s, and was compelled to vacate his position. He fled from the scene, and took refuge in the house of a friend, where, a few days later, he was discovered and captured. He adopted the same policy as Lount, and made no defence. He suffered the extreme penalty of the law, as has already been related. “He was,” says Theller, “a large, fleshy man, and had much of the soldier in his composition; and sure am I that he demeaned himself like one, and died like a man who feared not to meet his God.” Mackenzie, in his “Caroline Almanac,” bears testimony to the same effect. “They behaved,” he remarks, “with great resolution at the gallows; they would not have spoken to the people had they desired it.” He adds: “the spectacle of Lount after the execution was the most shocking sight that can be imagined. He was covered over with his blood, the head being nearly severed from his body, owing to the depth of the fall. More horrible to relate, when he was cut down, two ruffians seized the end of the rope and dragged the mangled corpse along the ground into the jail yard, some one exclaiming: ‘This is the way every d—d rebel deserves to be used.’ ”

A word upon the subject of Gallows Hill, near which the engagement between the loyal and insurrectionary troops took place. Every person living in or near Toronto is familiar with the spot, but comparatively few are acquainted with the tragical circumstances to which it is indebted for the name it bears. In the early years of the present century a rude wagon track ascended the hill a short distance west of where the road now is. Near the top was a narrow notch, with high banks on each side, caused by excavations. Lying directly across the notch, and at a sufficient height to admit of the passing of loaded wagons beneath, was a huge tree, which had been blown down by a violent storm, and which lay there undisturbed for many years. In the late twilight of a summer evening a belated farmer, driving home from attending market at York, was horrified to find an unknown man hanging by a rope from the tree which spanned the roadway. No clue was ever obtained, either as to the identity of the man, or as to the circumstances under which he met his death, though it was commonly believed that he must have committed suicide. The name of Gallows Hill soon afterwards came into vogue as applied to the spot, and it has been perpetuated ever since. Such is the origin of a phrase which has been a household word in and around the Upper Canadian capital for more than seventy years.

Chapter IV.

OTWITHSTANDING the heavy stake for which the County of York played during the troublesome days of 1837, matters quieted down within its bounds much sooner than could reasonably have been expected, and within a year or two after the collapse at Montgomery’s, matters, persons and things throughout the county had resumed their customary aspect. Lord Durham’s mission was the medium of procuring for the Canadian people nearly all the privileges for which they had contended. Lord Durham’s mission was a direct result of the rebellion, so that it cannot be said that the latter was fruitless, or that the blood of the Canadian martyrs had been shed altogether in vain. The Union of the Provinces followed in the wake of Lord Durham’s “Report,” and ere long a Reform Government came into power, with a York County representative—the Hon. Robert Baldwin—as its Upper Canadian head. In due time pardons were granted to the exiled rebels, most of whom returned to their homes. The northern portion of the County of York abounds with the descendants of persons who were “out” in ’37.

In the year 1843 a terrible crime was committed within the limits of the County of York—a crime which is still remembered by many old inhabitants, and which, even at this distance of time, can hardly be recalled without a shudder. As no account of it has been prepared for the sketch of the township wherein it occurred, and as no authentic account of it is accessible to the general public, the present would seem to be a suitable place for recounting the tragical story.

In the summer of the year 1843, and for some time previously, a gentleman named Thomas Kinnear resided in the Township of Vaughan, somewhat more than a mile northward from the northern outskirts of the village of Richmond Hill. He was possessed of considerable means, and lived a life of careless ease and self-indulgence. His house, which was of better construction than the common run of farm-houses in York County in those days, stood on the west side of Yonge Street, about twenty rods from the road. His housekeeper was a rather attractive looking woman named Nancy Montgomery, and the relation between the two seems to have been rather less than kin and considerably more than kind. The remainder of the domestic establishment consisted of James McDermott, a man-servant, twenty years of age, and a girl named Grace Marks, a sort of general household servant, who was but sixteen. Both the latter were Irish by birth and extraction, and had been only a few years in Canada. They had not been long in Mr. Kinnear’s employ before a criminal intimacy was established between them. They became envious of the easy lot of Nancy Montgomery, who dined with their master, and was the supreme head of domestic affairs, while they were compelled to take their meals in the kitchen, and to perform whatever drudgery and menial offices were required of them. “After the work of the day was over,” said McDermott,^[3] “she [Grace Marks] and I generally were left to ourselves in the kitchen, [the housekeeper] being entirely taken up with her master. Grace was very jealous of the difference made between her and the housekeeper, whom she hated, and to whom she was often very insolent and saucy. Her whole conversation to me was on this subject. ‘What is she better than us?’ she would say, ‘that she is to be treated like a lady, and eat and drink of the best. She is not better born than we are, or better educated. I will not stay here to be domineered over by her. Either she or I must soon leave this.’ Every little complaint [the housekeeper] made of me was repeated to me with cruel exaggerations, till my dander was up, and I began to regard the unfortunate woman as our common enemy. The good looks of Grace had interested me in her cause; and though there was something about the girl that I could not exactly like, I had been a very lawless, dissipated fellow, and if a woman was young and pretty I cared very little about her character. Grace was sullen and proud, and not very easily won over to my purpose; but in order to win her liking, if possible, I gave a ready ear to all her discontented repinings.”

These two human tigers allowed their morbid envy and jealousy to work upon their minds until they were ripe for any deed of darkness. McDermott was careless in doing his work, and, after repeated admonitions from Nancy Montgomery, received from her a fortnight’s notice to leave. On the afternoon of Thursday, the 27th of July (1843)—a day or two before the expiration of the fortnight—Mr. Kinnear rode into Toronto on horseback to draw certain bank dividends which were due to him. He was to return on the day following, when McDermott was to be paid off. Grace was also to be paid off and discharged, in consequence of her impertinence to the housekeeper. Whether they had formed any murderous designs before this time is not clear, as there is a conflict between their respective confessions in this particular. At any rate, they now determined to kill both their master and the housekeeper, and to proceed across the borders to the United States with such plunder as they could get together. They believed that Mr. Kinnear intended to bring a considerable sum of money with him upon his return from Toronto, and this belief may possibly have had something to do with their resolve to kill and rob him.

During the afternoon of this same Thursday, several hours after Kinnear’s departure from Toronto, Nancy Montgomery went out to pay a visit to some friends of hers in the neighbourhood, and during her absence this pair of wild beasts completed their arrangements. Nancy and Grace were to sleep together that night. After they had gone to bed McDermott was to enter the room and brain the housekeeper with an axe. “She always sleeps on the side nearest the wall,” said Grace, “and she bolts the door the last thing before she puts out the light; but I will manage both these difficulties for you. I will pretend to have the toothache very bad, and will ask to sleep next the wall to-night. She will not refuse me, and after she is asleep I will steal out at the foot of the bed and unbolt the door.”^[4] The doomed woman, in ignorance of the terrible fate impending over her, came home to supper before dark. “She was,” says McDermott, in his confession to his counsel, “unusually agreeable, and took her tea with us in the kitchen, and laughed and chatted as merrily as possible. Grace, in order to hide the wicked thoughts working in her mind, was very pleasant too, and they went laughing to bed, as if they were the best friends in the world.” A youth named James Walsh, who lived with his father in a cottage on Mr. Kinnear’s farm, spent the evening with them, and remained until half-past ten at night, playing his flute, at the housekeeper’s request. What happened after young Walsh left, and after the two women had retired to bed, is thus narrated by McDermott. “I sat by the kitchen fire with the axe between my knees, trying to harden my heart to commit the murder, but for a long time I could not bring myself to do it.” After some time spent in self-communing, he concluded to carry out his resolution. “I sprang up,” he continues, “and listened at their door, which opened into the kitchen. All was still. I tried the door. For the damnation of my soul, it was open. I had no need of a candle; the moon was at full. There was no curtain to their window, and it [the moon] shone directly upon the bed, and I could see their features as plainly as by the light of day. Grace was either sleeping or pretending to sleep—I think the latter, for there was a sort of fiendish smile upon her lips. The housekeeper had yielded to her request, and was lying with her head out over the bed-clothes, in the best possible manner for receiving a death-blow upon her temples. She had a sad, troubled look upon her handsome face, and once she moved her hand, and said ‘O, dear!’ I wondered whether she was dreaming of any danger to herself and the man she loved. I raised the axe to give the death-blow, but my arm seemed held back by an invisible hand. It was the hand of God. I turned away from the bed, and left the room—I could not do it. I sat down by the embers of the fire, and cursed my own folly. I made a second attempt—a third—a fourth—yes, even to a ninth, and my purpose was each time defeated. God seemed to fight for the poor creature, and the last time I left the room I swore, with a great oath, that if she did not die till I killed her she might live on till the day of judgment. I threw the axe on to the wood heap in the shed, went to bed, and soon fell fast asleep.”

It is hard to know how much of all this is worthy of belief, for the more one ponders over the actions and language of this terrible pair, the more convinced does one become that neither of them was capable of speaking the whole truth. Their confessions, given independently of each other, and without collusion, differ materially on several important points. They would seem to have reached such a depth of depravity that they were incapable even of thinking—to say nothing of telling—the exact truth. It does not seem probable that McDermott could have entered the bedroom nine times without waking his intended victim. Moreover, his antecedent and subsequent conduct would seem to indicate no such infirmity of purpose as would be involved in such a course of procedure as that above outlined. At any rate, even according to his own admissions, the taunts of his partner in iniquity were more potent with him on the following morning than any memory of his resolutions of the previous night. “In the morning,” he proceeds, “I was coming into the kitchen to light the fire, and met Grace Marks with the pail in her hand, going out to milk the cows. As she passed me she gave me a poke with the pail in the ribs, and whispered with a sneer, ‘Aren’t you a coward!’ As she uttered these words, the devil, against whom I had fought all night, entered into my heart, and transformed me into a demon. All feelings of remorse and mercy forsook me from that instant, and darker and deeper plans of murder and theft flashed through my brain. ‘Go and milk the cows,’ said I with a bitter laugh, ‘you shall soon see whether I am the coward you take me for.’ She went out to milk, and I went in to murder the unsuspicious housekeeper. I found her at the sink in the kitchen, washing her face in a tin basin. I had the fatal axe in my hand, and without pausing for an instant to change my mind, ... I struck her a heavy blow on the back of the head with my axe. She fell to the ground at my feet without uttering a word; and, opening the trap-door that led from the kitchen into the cellar where we kept potatoes and other stores, I hurled her down, closed the door, and wiped away the perspiration that was streaming down my face.”

A few minutes later Grace Marks came in with her pails, “looking as innocent and demure as the milk they contained.” McDermott told her what he had done, and demanded that she accompany him down into the cellar to dispose of the body of the murdered woman. She obeyed, and they went into the cellar, which presented a dreadful spectacle. Nancy Montgomery was not dead; she had only been stunned by the blow. She had partly recovered her senses, and was kneeling on one knee as the hideous pair descended the ladder with a light. “I don’t know if she saw us,” says McDermott, “for she must have been blinded with the blood that was flowing down her face; but she certainly heard us, and raised her clasped hands, as if to implore mercy. I turned to Grace. The expression of her livid face was even more dreadful than that of the unfortunate woman. She uttered no cry, but she put her hand to her head, and said: ‘God has damned me for this.’ ‘Then you have nothing more to fear,’ says I; ‘give me that handkerchief off your neck.’ She gave it without a word. I threw myself upon the body of the housekeeper, and, planting my knee on her heart, I tied the handkerchief round her throat in a single tie, giving Grace one end to hold, while I drew the other tight enough to finish my terrible work. Her eyes literally started from her head. She gave one groan, and all was over. I then cut the body in four pieces, and turned a large washtub over them.”

Such is the horrible narrative of McDermott to his counsel, the late Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie, as reported by Mrs. Moodie. It, however, contains some gross inaccuracies, and it seems probable that for some of the most revolting details the author of Life in the Clearings was indebted to her morbid, but by no means powerful imagination. In the published reports of the trial, for instance, there is no mention of the body having been quartered. The witnesses who discovered the remains depose to having “found the body of Nancy Montgomery, the housekeeper, doubled up under a washtub, in the cellar, in a state of decomposition.” The details are diabolical enough, in all conscience, without piling up fictitious horrors.

Mr. Kinnear returned about noon, not on horseback, as he had departed, but driving a light one-horse wagon. He was informed that the housekeeper had gone away to town in the stage; to which he replied: “That is strange; I passed the stage on the road, and did not see her in it.” After eating his dinner, Kinnear lay down to rest on his bed, and remained there until towards evening, when he got up and went out into the yard, and about the premises. He returned into the house and took tea about 7 o’clock. He was then inveigled by McDermott into the harness-house or back kitchen, and there shot through the heart. He staggered forward and fell, exclaiming as he did so: “Oh God, I am shot.” The body was then thrown down into the cellar. “I heard the report of a gun,” says Grace Marks, in her confession, made in the Toronto jail on the night prior to her removal thence to the penitentiary at Kingston—“I ran into the kitchen, and saw Mr. Kinnear lying dead on the floor. When I saw this I attempted to run out.” McDermott called her back, and ordered her to open the trap-door, which she did, whereupon he threw the body down. “We then,” continues Grace Marks, “commenced packing up all the valuable things we could find. We both went down into the cellar—Mr. Kinnear was lying on his back in the wine-cellar. I held the candle. McDermott took the keys and some money from his pockets. Nothing was said about Nancy. I did not see her, but I heard she was in the cellar, and about 11 o’clock McDermott harnessed the horse. We put the boxes in the wagon, and then started off for Toronto. He said he would go to the States, and he would marry me. I consented to go. We arrived at Toronto, at the City Hotel, about 5 o’clock; awoke the people, and had breakfast there. I unlocked Nancy’s box and put some of her things on, and we left by the boat at 8 o’clock, and arrived at Lewiston about 3 o’clock, and went to the tavern. In the evening we had supper at the public table, and I went to bed in one room and McDermott in another. Before I went to bed I told McDermott I would stop at Lewiston, and would not go any further. He said he would make me go with him, and about 5 o’clock in the morning Mr. Kingsmill, the high bailiff, came and arrested us, and brought us back to Toronto.”

The arrest of the murderers was of the most informal and irregular character, and was effected through the vigilance and public spirit of Mr. F. C. Capreol, of Toronto, who accompanied Mr. Kingsmill to Lewiston, where the facts were laid before a local magistrate, who forthwith issued his warrant without waiting for any process of extradition. The culprits were arrested and conveyed on board a steamer chartered expressly for the purpose by Mr. Capreol, and brought across the lake to Toronto, where they were lodged in jail. Mr. Capreol was not reimbursed, even for his actual outlay, until some years afterwards.

The trials took place at the Court House, in Toronto, on Friday and Saturday, the 3rd and 4th of November following. The Crown was represented by Mr. (afterwards the Hon.) William Hume Blake, father of the present leader of the Opposition in the Dominion Parliament. The prisoners were defended with much ability by Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie, who afterwards took high rank at the Upper Canadian bar. McDermott is described in the reports of the trial as “a slim made man, of about the middle height, with rather a swarthy complexion, and a sullen, downcast and forbidding countenance.” The female prisoner is described as rather good looking, totally uneducated, and possessing a countenance devoid of expression. Upon being arraigned they both pleaded “Not Guilty.” A demand was made by their counsel that they should be tried separately, which was granted. McDermott was then put upon his trial for the murder of Mr. Kinnear. The proceedings lasted until half-past one o’clock on the following morning. The evidence was necessarily circumstantial, as there had been no eye-witnesses of the actual commission of the murders except the prisoners themselves. It however left no doubt as to the guilt of the accused. The jury were absent about ten minutes, when they returned a verdict of “Guilty.” The Judge then addressed the prisoner McDermott, pointed out the heinousness of his crime, and sentenced him to be hanged on the 21st of the month. The condemned man evinced not the slightest emotion, either of fear or anxiety, hope or despair.

Next day Grace Marks was placed on trial for the murder of Mr. Kinnear. The evidence was substantially the same as that given on the previous day. The jury speedily returned a verdict of guilty, but recommended the prisoner to mercy. This was one of those kindly but mistaken impulses by which juries are apt to be swayed where good-looking women are concerned. The only conceivable grounds upon which any claim for mercy could justly have been founded in the case of Grace Marks was her extreme youth. The Judge sentenced her to suffer the extreme penalty of the law on the same date as that assigned for the execution of her partner in iniquity. On hearing her sentence she fainted away, but soon revived. The Judge held out no hope of clemency, but stated that he would forward the recommendation of the jury to the proper quarter; which being done, the prisoner was remanded to jail, and the trial was at an end. It will be observed that the criminals were tried for the murder of Mr. Kinnear only. Capital sentences having been pronounced upon them, it was considered unnecessary to proceed with the indictments against them for the murder of Nancy Montgomery.

The prisoners maintained a stolid silence as to their crime until shortly before the day appointed for their execution. On the 17th of the month Grace Marks, whose sentence had meanwhile been commuted to imprisonment for life in the Penitentiary, made a voluntary confession. With the exception of some portions which are irrelevant, and of others which are unfit for publication, it was in the following words:—

“My name is Grace Marks, and I am the daughter of John Marks, who lives in the Township of Toronto. He is a stone-mason by trade. We came to this country from the north of Ireland about three years ago. I have four sisters and four brothers, one sister and one brother older than I am. I was sixteen years old last July. I lived servant during the three years I have been in Canada at various places.... In June last I went to live with Thomas Watson, shoemaker, on Lot Street. Nancy Montgomery used to visit there, and I was hired as a servant by her for Mr. Kinnear at $3 per month, and I went there the beginning of July last, and saw at the house Mr. Kinnear, Nancy Montgomery, and McDermott. McDermott had been, I understood, about a week at the house. Everything went on very quietly for a fortnight, except the housekeeper several times scolding McDermott for not doing his work faithfully, and she gave him a fortnight’s warning that when his month was up he was to leave, and she would pay him his wages. He often after this told me he was glad he was going ... but would have satisfaction before he went.... About a week after this McDermott told me if I would keep it a secret he would tell me what he was going to do with Kinnear and Nancy. I promised I would keep the secret, and then he said Mr. Kinnear was going to the city in a day or two, and would, no doubt, bring back plenty of money with him. He would kill Nancy before Kinnear came home, would shoot Kinnear when he came home, and would take all the money and all the valuable things he could, and would go over to the United States. Mr. Kinnear left for the city on Thursday afternoon, the 27th July, about three o’clock, on horseback. McDermott, after Mr. Kinnear was gone, said to me it was a good job he was gone; he would kill Nancy that night. I persuaded him not to do so that night. He had made me promise to assist him, and I agreed to do so. He said the way he intended to kill Nancy was to knock her on the head with the axe, and then strangle her; and shoot Kinnear with the double-barrelled gun. I slept with Nancy Montgomery that night, and on Friday morning after breakfast she told me to tell McDermott that his time was up that afternoon. She had money to pay him his wages. I told him so, and he said: ‘Tell Nancy I shall go on Saturday morning’—which I did. He said: ‘—— her, is that what she is at? I’ll kill her before the morning;’ and he said: ‘Grace, you’ll help me, as you promised, won’t you?’ I said yes, I would. During the evening James Walsh came in, and brought his flute with him. Nancy said we might as well have some fun, as Mr. Kinnear was away. Nancy said to McDermott: ‘You have often bragged about your dancing; come, let us have a dance.’ He was very sulky all the evening, and said he would not dance. About ten o’clock we went to bed. I slept with Nancy that night. Before we went to bed McDermott said he was determined to kill her that night with the axe, when in bed. I entreated him not to do so that night, as he might hit me instead of her. He said: ‘—— her, I’ll kill her, then, the first thing in the morning.’ I got up early on the Saturday morning, and when I went into the kitchen McDermott was cleaning the shoes. The fire was lighted. He asked me where was Nancy. I said she was dressing, and I said: ‘Are you going to kill her this morning?’ He said he would. I said: ‘McDermott, for God’s sake don’t kill her in the room, you’ll make the floor all bloody.’ ‘Well,’ says he, ‘I’ll not do it there, but I’ll knock her down with the axe the moment she comes out.’ I went into the garden to gather some shives, and when I returned McDermott was cleaning the knives in the back kitchen. Nancy came in. She told me to get the breakfast ready, and she soon after called me to go to the pump for some water. McDermott and her were at this time in the back kitchen. I went to the pump, and on turning round I saw McDermott dragging Nancy along the yard leading from the back kitchen to the front kitchen. This was about seven o’clock. I said to McDermott, ‘I did not think you was going to do it that minute.’ He said it was better to get it done with. He said: ‘Grace, you promised to help me. Come and open the trap-door, and I’ll throw her down the cellar.’ I refused to do so, being frightened. He presently came to me and said he had thrown her down the cellar, and he said he wanted a handkerchief. I asked him what for. He said, ‘Never mind; she is not dead yet.’ I gave him a piece of white cloth, and followed him to the trap-door. He went down the stairs. I saw the body lying at the foot of the stairs. He said, ‘You can’t come down here.’ Went down himself, and shut the trap-door after him. He came up in a few minutes. I asked him if she was dead. He said yes, and he had put her behind the barrels. He said to me, ‘Grace, now I know you’ll tell; if you do your life is not worth a straw.’ I said, ‘I could not help you to kill a woman, but as I have promised you, I will assist you to kill Kinnear.’ McDermott then had some breakfast. I could not eat anything, I felt so shocked. He then said: ‘Now, Mr. Kinnear will soon be home, and as there is no powder in the house, I’ll go over to Harvey’s, who lives opposite, and get some.’ He soon came back. He took one bullet from his pocket, and cut another from a piece of lead he found in the house. Mr. Kinnear came home about eleven o’clock in his one-horse wagon. McDermott took charge of the horse and wagon as usual, and I took the parcels out. I asked Mr. Kinnear if he would have anything to eat. He said he would—was there any fresh meat in the house? Had Jefferson, the butcher, been there? I told him no. He said that was curious. He then said he would have some tea and toast and eggs, which I provided for him. Mr. Kinnear went into the dining-room, sat down on the sofa, and began reading a book he had brought with him. When I went into the kitchen McDermott was there. He said, ‘I think I’ll go and kill him now.’ I said, ‘Good gracious, McDermott, it is too soon; wait till it is dark.’ He said he was afraid to delay it, as if the new man was to come he would have no chance to kill him. When Mr. Kinnear first arrived home he asked me, ‘Where is Nancy?’ I told him she has gone to town in the stage. He said that was strange, as he had passed the stage on the road, and did not see her in it. He did not mention Nancy’s name afterwards to me. After Mr. Kinnear had his dinner he went to bed with his clothes on, I think, and towards evening he got up and went into the yard, and about the premises. When Mr. Kinnear was in bed, McDermott said, ‘I’ll go in now, and kill him, if you’ll assist me.’ I said, ‘Of course, McDermott, I will, as I have promised you.’ He then said, ‘I’ll wait till night.’ When Mr. Kinnear was in the yard, McDermott always kept near to me. I said to him, ‘Why, McDermott, if you follow me about so, Mr. Kinnear will think something.’ He said, ‘How can he imagine anything except you’ll tell him?’ I said I should not tell him anything. Mr. Kinnear had his tea about seven o’clock. I went into his room to take the things away, and, coming into the front kitchen with them, McDermott said, ‘I am going to kill him now. How am I to get him out? You go and tell him I want him.’ I said, ‘I won’t go and call him.’ I then took the tea things into the back kitchen. The back kitchen is in the yard adjoining the end of the house. As I was putting the tea-tray down I heard the report of a gun. I went into the kitchen and saw Mr. Kinnear lying dead on the floor, and McDermott standing over him. The double-barrelled gun was on the floor. When I saw this I attempted to run out. He said ‘—— you, come back and open the trap-door.’ I said, ‘I won’t.’ He said, ‘You shall, after having promised to assist me.’ Knowing that I had promised I then opened the trap-door, and McDermott threw the body down. I was so frightened that I ran out of the front door into the lawn, and went round into the back kitchen. As I was standing at the door, McDermott came out of the front kitchen door into the yard, and fired at me. The ball did not hit me, but lodged in the jamb of the door. I fainted, and when I recovered McDermott was close to me. I said, ‘What made you do that?’ He said he did not mean to do me any harm; he supposed there was nothing in the gun. This was about 8 o’clock, and the boy James Walsh came into the yard. McDermott had just then gone across the yard without his coat on, having the gun in his hand. He went into the poultry yard. He said if any one came and asked about the firing he would tell them he had been shooting birds. I went out to speak to Walsh, and McDermott, seeing me talking, came up to us. The boy said, ‘Where is Nancy?’ I said, ‘She is gone to Wright’s.’ ... After talking a short time the boy said he would go home, and McDermott went part of the way across the lawn with him. McDermott told me when he came back that if the boy had gone into the house he would have made away with him. He then told me how he had killed Mr. Kinnear; that when I had refused to call him out, and when I was taking the tea things away to the back kitchen, he went to the door of the dining-room and told Mr. Kinnear his new saddle was scratched, and would he come and look at it in the harness room. Mr. Kinnear rose from the sofa with a book in his hand, which he had been reading, and followed McDermott towards the harness room. The harness room is a small room at one corner of the kitchen. McDermott got into the harness room, took up the gun which he had loaded during the day, came out and fired at Mr. Kinnear as he was crossing the kitchen. He told me he put the muzzle of the gun very near his breast. We then commenced packing up all the valuable things we could find,” etc. The rest of her confession has been quoted on a former page.

Three days later—i.e., on the day before McDermott’s execution, his counsel, Mr. Mackenzie, had a final interview with him, in the course of which the murderer admitted his guilt, and made the several communications already quoted. He was profoundly disgusted to hear of Grace Marks’s reprieve. “Grace,” said he, “has been reprieved, and her sentence commuted to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. This seems very unjust to me, for she is certainly more criminal than I am. If she had not instigated me to commit the murder, it never would have been done. But the priest tells me that I shall not be hung, and not to make myself uneasy on that score.” “McDermott,” replied Mr. Mackenzie, “it is useless to flatter you with false hopes. You will suffer the execution of your sentence to-morrow, at eight o’clock, in front of the jail. I have seen the order sent by the Governor to the Sheriff, and that was my reason for visiting you to-night. I was not satisfied in my own mind of your guilt. What you have told me has greatly relieved my mind, and, I must add, if ever man deserved his sentence, you do yours.” When the unhappy wretch realized what was before him, and that he must pay the penalty of his crime, his abject cowardice and mental agonies were indescribable. He dashed himself on the floor of his cell, and shrieked and raved like a maniac, declaring that he could not and would not die: that the law had no right to murder a man’s soul as well as his body, by giving him no time for repentance: that if he was hung like a dog, Grace Marks, in justice, ought to share his fate. “Finding,” said Mr. Mackenzie, “that all I could say to him had no effect in producing a better frame of mind, I called in the chaplain, and left the sinner to his fate.”

Later on the same day McDermott, having become somewhat more composed in his mind, made a voluntary confession, which is worth preserving for the purpose of comparison with that of Grace Marks. The reader will notice certain contradictory statements in the two confessions. Each of these human monsters did all that was possible to throw blame upon the other.

The following are the ipsissima verba of the confession of McDermott, as taken down by Mr. George Walton, in the jail of the Home District, at four o’clock in the afternoon of Monday, the 20th of November, 1843.

“I am twenty years and four months old, and was born in Ireland, and am a Catholic. I have been six years in Canada, and was, previous to 1840, waiter on board the steamers plying between Quebec and Montreal. I enlisted into the First Provincial Regiment of the Province of Lower Canada in the year 1840. Colonel Dyer was the Colonel. The regiment was disbanded in 1842, and I then enlisted as a private in the Glengarry Light Infantry Company, and we were stationed at Coteau du Lac. The Company consisted of seventy-five men. I did not serve as a private in the regiment, but was servant with the Captain, Alexander Macdonald. The Company was disbanded 1st May this year. I had been in the Company just twelve months. After being discharged I came up to Toronto seeking employ. I lived in the city for some time at various places, upon the money I had saved during the time I was in the regiment, and I then determined to go into the country. I thought I would go in the direction of Newmarket. I set out about the latter end of June, and on my way I was informed Mr. Kinnear wanted a servant. I went to the house and saw the housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery. She hired me subject to the approval of Mr. Kinnear when he should return home. Mr. Kinnear, when he came home, approved of what the housekeeper had done as to hiring me. Grace Marks was hired as a servant a week afterwards. She and the housekeeper used often to quarrel, and she told me she was determined, if I would assist her, she would poison both the housekeeper and Mr. Kinnear, by mixing poison with the porridge. I told her I would not consent to anything of the kind. The housekeeper, Nancy, after I had been at the house a short time, was overbearing towards me, and I told Mr. Kinnear I was ready and willing to do any work, and did not like that Nancy should scold me so often. He said she was the mistress of the house. I then told him I would not stop with them longer than the month. Grace Marks told me a few days before Mr. Kinnear went to town that the housekeeper had given her warning to leave, and she told me, ‘Now, McDermott, I am not going to leave in this way. Let us poison Mr. Kinnear and Nancy, I know how to do it. I’ll put some poison in the porridge. By that means we can get rid of them. We can then plunder the house, pack the silver plate and other valuables in some boxes, and go over to the States.’ I said, ‘No, Grace, I will not do so.’ When Mr. Kinnear went to the city on Thursday she commenced packing up the things, and told me I was a coward for not assisting her. She said she had been warned to leave, and she supposed she should not get her wages, and she was determined to pay herself after Mr. Kinnear was gone to the city. She said now was the time to kill the housekeeper, and Mr. Kinnear when he returns home, and I’ll assist you, and you are a coward if you don’t do it. I frequently refused to do as she wished, and she said I should never have an hour’s luck if I did not do as she wished me. I will not say how Mr. Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery were killed, but I should not have done it if I had not been urged to do so by Grace Marks. After Nancy Montgomery was put in the cellar, Grace several times went down there, and she afterwards told me she had taken her purse from her pocket, and she asked me if she should take her ear-rings off. I persuaded her not to do so. The gold snuff-box and other things belonging to Mr. Kinnear she gave me when we were at Lewiston. Grace Marks is wrong in stating she had no hand in the murder. She was the means from beginning to end.”

On the following morning, a short time before his execution, McDermott confirmed his confession of the previous afternoon. He added some further particulars. He said that when the housekeeper was thrown down into the cellar, after being knocked down, Grace Marks followed him into the cellar, and brought a piece of white cloth with her. He held the housekeeper’s hands, she being then insensible, and Grace Marks tied the cloth tight round her neck and strangled her.

A few minutes before noon, the condemned was brought pinioned into the hall of the jail. The Rev. J. J. Hay, a Roman Catholic priest, prayed with him for a few minutes. He appeared perfectly calm and penitent. He then walked with a firm step to the scaffold, accompanied by Mr. Hay and another Catholic clergyman. In two minutes more he was launched into eternity. At one o’clock the body was taken down and handed over to the Medical School for dissection.

The younger criminal was duly forwarded to Kingston Penitentiary, where she remained for many years. In 1848 her counsel, Mr. Mackenzie, visited her there. He found that she retained a remarkably youthful appearance. “The sullen assurance,” said he, in his account of the interview, “that had formerly marked her countenance had given place to a sad and humbled expression. She had lost much of her former good looks, and seldom raised her eyes from the ground.” She informed her visitor that it would have been better for her to have been hanged with McDermott than to have suffered for years, as she had done, the tortures of the damned. “My misery,” said she, “is too great for words to describe. I would gladly submit to the most painful death if I thought that it would put an end to the pains I daily endure. But though I have repented of my wickedness with bitter tears, it has pleased God that I should never again have a moment’s peace. Since I helped McDermott to strangle Nancy Montgomery her terrible face and those horrible bloodshot eyes have never left me for a moment. They glare upon me by night and day, and when I close my eyes in despair I see them looking into my soul. It is impossible to shut them out. If I am at work, in a few minutes that dreadful head is in my lap. If I look up to get rid of it, I see it in the far corner of the room. At dinner it is in my plate, or grinning between the persons that sit opposite to me at table. Every object that meets my sight takes the same dreadful form. At night, in the silence and loneliness of my cell those blazing eyes make my prison as light as day. They have a terribly hot glare, that has not the appearance of anything in this world. And when I sleep, that face just hovers above my own, its eyes just opposite to mine; so that when I awake with a shriek of agony I find them there. Oh, this is hell, sir! These are the torments of the damned! Were I in that fiery place, my punishment could not be greater than this.”

It may be reasonably inferred that Mr. Mackenzie and Mrs. Moodie between them have somewhat polished and idealized the foregoing sentences, which are certainly not likely to have emanated from an uneducated and ignorant woman such as Grace Marks undoubtedly was. Several years later Mrs. Moodie paid a visit to the Penitentiary, and having heard Mr. Mackenzie’s account, she was desirous of beholding this unhappy victim of remorse. “Having made known my wishes to the matron,” she writes, “she very kindly called her [Grace Marks] in to perform some trifling duty in the ward, so that I might have an opportunity of seeing her. She is a middle-sized woman, with a slight, graceful figure. There is an air of hopeless melancholy in her face which is very painful to contemplate. Her complexion is fair, and must, before the touch of hopeless sorrow paled it, have been very brilliant. Her eyes are a bright blue. Her hair is auburn, and her face would be rather handsome were it not for the long, curved chin, which gives, as it does to most persons who have this facial defect, a cunning, cruel expression. Grace Marks glances at you with a sidelong, stealthy look. Her eye never meets yours, and after a furtive regard, it invariably bends its gaze upon the ground. She looks like a person rather above her humble station, and her conduct during her stay in the Penitentiary was so unexceptionable that a petition was signed by all the influential gentlemen in Kingston, which released her from her long imprisonment. She entered the service of the Governor of the Penitentiary, but the fearful hauntings of her brain have terminated in madness. She is now in the Asylum at Toronto; and as I mean to visit it when there I may chance to see this remarkable criminal again.”

This partly-expressed hope was soon afterwards realized. Mrs. Moodie visited the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, at Toronto, and was there once more brought face to face with the strangler of Nancy Montgomery. “Among the raving maniacs,” writes she, “I recognized the singular face of Grace Marks; no longer sad and despairing, but lighted up with the fire of insanity, and glowing with a hideous and fiend-like merriment. On perceiving that strangers were observing her, she fled shrieking away like a phantom into one of the side rooms. It appears that even in the wildest outbursts of her terrible malady, she is continually haunted by a memory of the past. Unhappy girl! when will the long horror of her punishment and remorse be over? When will she sit at the feet of Jesus, clothed with the unsullied garments of His righteousness, the stain of blood washed from her hand, and her soul redeemed and pardoned, and in her right mind?”

This hysterical effusion, like a good many others from the same source, was utterly thrown away upon its subject. According to the opinion of Dr. Workman and other leading experts in matters pertaining to cerebral disease, Grace Marks never was insane, but was a fiendish impostor to her heart’s core. She became weary of the monotony of life in the Penitentiary, and feigned madness in order to excite sympathy, and in order that she might be transferred to the Lunatic Asylum, where she would not have to work, and where she would enjoy certain indulgences not vouchsafed to her at Kingston. She was successful in her attempt, and was for some time under Dr. Workman’s charge in the Provincial Asylum. That shrewd judge of shams was suspicious of her from the first, but did not conclusively make up his mind about her until he had had ample time and opportunity for forming a positive opinion. It was during this interval that Mrs. Moodie visited the Asylum as above narrated, when Grace Marks “came out from her hiding-place, and performed a thousand mad gambols round her.” Dr. Workman in due course made his official report, upon the strength of which the incorrigible Grace was re-transferred to Kingston. But she so wrought upon the sympathies of visitors and others that a succession of petitions to the Government were sent in, praying that a full pardon might be granted to her. Various well-meaning but weak-minded persons made periodical appeals to Dr. Workman to join in these petitions, but in vain. On one occasion, after Grace’s return to the Penitentiary, the Doctor was waited upon by a deputation consisting of several clergymen and a number of ladies. They made an urgent and final appeal to him on behalf of their protegée, urging that she had been incarcerated for many years; that she had suffered untold mental agony; and that she had bitterly repented her great crime. “If she were at liberty,” urged the reverend gentleman who acted as chief spokesman for the deputation, “something might easily be done for her temporal, as well as her spiritual weal, and she might enjoy a few brief years of quiet happiness before the grave closes over her. She would thus have an opportunity of meditating over the past, and of preparing for a future life.” After continuing in this strain for some time he concluded by asking: “And now, Dr. Workman, will you still persist in refusing to join in the petition for her release, and thereby perchance close the gates of Paradise to a repentant sinner.” The Doctor’s reply was eminently characteristic of the man. He said: “Sir, I have no control whatever over the gates to which you refer, and if she is worthy to enter there she will doubtless be admitted without any interference on my part. But certainly the gates of the Penitentiary will never be opened to her through any act of mine. I have studied her carefully, and know her character and disposition better than you can possibly do. She is a creature devoid of moral faculties, and with the propensity to murder strongly developed. She is not safe to be entrusted with the ordinary privileges of society, and if her liberty were restored to her the chances are that sooner or later other lives would be sacrificed.” But persistence at last met with its reward. One petition after another went in to the Government, and doubtless other influences were brought to bear. This almost unique malefactor received a pardon, and was conveyed to New York, where she changed her name, and soon afterwards married. For all the writer of these lines knows to the contrary, she is living still. Whether her appetite for murder has ever strongly asserted itself in the interval is not known, as she probably guards her identity by more than one alias. Such is the astounding narrative of Grace Marks, which will doubtless be perused by many readers of these pages with greater avidity than any other portion of the volume.

The scene of the frightful tragedy has undergone little change during the last forty-one years. It was visited by the writer of this chapter on the afternoon of Saturday, the 20th of September, 1884, the object of the visit being to give completeness to the narrative by ascertaining the present condition of the locus in quo. The house still stands intact, and neither the building itself nor its immediate surroundings are sufficiently altered to prevent their being recognized by any one who had been familiar with them in bygone times. The orchard intervening between the house and Yonge Street has grown up in the interval, and now almost excludes the view of the building from the passer-by. The harness-house, adjoining the kitchen, where Mr. Kinnear met his doom, has been pulled down, and a new structure erected in the near neighbourhood; but with these exceptions the general aspect of the place is pretty much the same as it was in 1843, and if poor Kinnear were permitted to revisit the glimpses of the moon, he might well be permitted to marvel that time has wrought so few and so trifling modifications in the aspect of his earthly tenement. The parlour—the bedrooms—the hall—the kitchen where Nancy Montgomery’s terrible fate came upon her—the trapdoor, and the cellar into which the bodies were cast—all remain precisely as they were, except that they have grown older, and that one may here and there perceive more or less distinct traces of dilapidation.

The present owner of the property is Mr. John Clubine, who resides a short distance north of Aurora, and who purchased the place in the autumn of 1883. He intends to tear down the old house, and to replace it by a new brick mansion next year. The occupant of the place is Mr. James McWilliams, who has resided upon it between four and five years, and who declares most solemnly that he has not been subjected to any ghostly visitations since taking up his abode there.

As mentioned early in the present chapter, the house is situated on the west side of Yonge Street, about a hundred yards from the highway. It is approached by a gate leading down from Yonge Street to the barnyard. The barns are twenty-five or thirty yards north of the house. The writer, upon his arrival, was greeted by Mrs. McWilliams, a genial old lady, who cheerfully communicated all the information she possessed on the subject, and afforded every facility for inspecting the premises.

“So, Mrs. McWilliams,” remarked the writer, “this is the actual kitchen in which McDermott struck down Nancy Montgomery with the axe?”

“Yes, Sir,” was the reply, “and there is the trap-door to the cellar where the body was thrown down. Mr. Kinnear was not killed in the house, but in the harness-room, which has been pulled down. It stood there,” continued Mrs. McWilliams, pointing to a contiguous outhouse of modern construction. “He was shot through the lungs, and his body thrown into the cellar, where the housekeeper’s body was. Would you like to go down into the cellar?”

The implied invitation was accepted, and, the trap-door having been raised, the writer stepped down into that gruesome slaughter-house. It is of large dimensions, and is lighted at one end by a window, over which the cobwebs of years have clustered. Sure enough, there was the awful spot where Nancy Montgomery was strangled, and where her maimed body was doubled up beneath the washtub. A considerable quantity of vegetables are kept there at the present time, which necessarily create an odour. To the writer, who was familiar with the whole ghastly story, including many particulars not set down in these pages, that odour was sickeningly suggestive. It seemed as though forty-one years had been all too short a time to cleanse the spot of its impurities. There was no inducement to linger in such an atmosphere, clogged, as it was, with such unhallowed and nauseating memories, and the writer soon rejoined his hostess at the top of the landing.

“It’s not much of a place, is it, Sir?” resumed the lady.

“No, indeed; and do none of you ever see or hear any ghosts?”

“We don’t, and we are not afraid. Some of the neighbours used to try to frighten us when we first moved in, but we paid little attention to them. We have no objection to the place, except that it is too old to be comfortable. This kitchen is awfully cold in the winter, but Mr. Clubine won’t bother repairing it, as he intends to demolish the place and build a new house next spring. Yes, I have heard that Grace Marks is still living in New York, and that she got married there. I think they might better have kept her in the Penitentiary.”

The writer thought so too, and, having expressed his assent, he bade Mrs. McWilliams a cordial farewell. It seemed a relief to get away from the murder-haunted spot, and as he drove through the gateway Wordsworth’s lines emerged from the chambers of his memory:—

Chapter V.

TOLERABLY full account of the milling and other establishments to be found on the banks of the principal streams which meander through the County of York will be found scattered through the various local and township histories embodied in the present volume. The county as a whole is well watered. The Credit River, which takes it rise in the range of hills known as the Caledon Mountains, is a considerable stream. It enters Lake Ontario at the Village of Port Credit, about fourteen miles west of Toronto. Its head waters and upper tributaries formerly swarmed with that most delicious of all fish, the Canadian brook trout, but the erection of saw-mills and the march of civilization have greatly diminished the supply, although there are places where “the sweet, spotted fry” are still to be found in sufficient numbers to afford amusement to the disciple of Isaac Walton. The lower reaches of the river used to be prolific of salmon, but these also have been driven away by the encroachments of civilization, and the salmon leistering so graphically described by Mrs. Jameson nearly half a century ago can only be enjoyed as a picture of the past. The name of the river has given rise to a good deal of discussion among local archæologists. It is said by one or two writers to have been originally derived from a French trader named Crédit, who used to make periodical excursions from Lachine westward, to traffic with the Indians for furs, and who was accustomed to make the mouth of this stream the western terminus of his operations. Others derive the name from the fact that the traders used to buy peltries from the natives on credit. This custom was by no means confined to the particular locality under consideration, though the last-named derivation has received the imprimatur of competent authorities. “The River Credit is so called,” says Mrs. Jameson, in her “Sketches in Canada, and Rambles Among the Red Men,”^[5] “because in ancient times—i.e., forty or fifty years ago—the fur traders met the Indians on its banks, and delivered to them on credit the goods for which, the following year, they received the value, or rather ten times their value, in skins.”

It was here that the Rev. Peter Jones and the Rev. Egerton Ryerson respectively laboured with much acceptance among the Mississagas of the district. For an interesting account of Peter Jones’s labours, the reader is referred to the reverend gentleman’s well-known work on the subject. Dr. Ryerson’s work is set out in detail in the Story of his Life edited by Dr. Hodgins, and published in Toronto a few months ago. The following extract from a letter written by the Rev. William Ryerson to his brother George, on the 8th of March, 1827, is worth preserving, as affording a glimpse of missionary life in Canada fifty-seven years ago. “I visited Egerton’s mission at the Credit last week, and was highly delighted to see the improvement they are making, both in religious knowledge and industry. I preached to them while there, and had a large meeting and an interesting time. The next morning we visited their schools. They have about forty pupils on the list, but there were only about thirty present. The rest were absent, making sugar. I am very certain I never saw the same order and attention to study in any school before. Their progress in spelling, reading and writing is astonishing, but especially in writing, which certainly exceeds anything I ever saw. They are getting quite forward with their work. When I was there they were fencing the lots in the village in a very neat, substantial manner. On my arrival at the mission I found Egerton, about half a mile from the village, stripped to the shirt and pantaloons, clearing land with between twelve and twenty of the little Indian boys, who were all engaged in chopping and picking up the brush. It was an interesting sight. Indeed he told me that he spent an hour or more every morning and evening in this way, for the benefit of his own health, and the improvement of the Indian children. He is almost worshipped by his people, and I believe, under God, will be a great blessing to them.”

In Dr. Ryerson’s own diary, kept at this period and place, we find numerous passages suggestive of the primitive state of civilization among the Indians. Under date of March 19th, 1837, he writes: “An Indian who has lately come to this place, and has embraced the religion of Christ, came to Peter Jones, and asked him what he should do with his implements of witchcraft—whether throw them in the fire, or river, as he did not want anything more to do with them. What a proof of his sincerity! Nothing but Christianity can make them renounce witchcraft, and many of them are afraid of it long after their conversion.”

Next in importance to the Credit, among the streams of the county, is the Humber, which is fully treated of elsewhere, and which was originally named after the river of the same name in the north of England. Like the Credit, it was formerly a noted spawning-ground for salmon, which have since found other local habitations. It empties into Lake Ontario about a mile west of the present city limits, and is a good deal resorted to by pic-nickers and holiday makers during the summer season. The Don, also fully treated of elsewhere, was formerly a picturesque stream, but it has greatly diminished in size of late years and has been shorn of much of its ancient glory. The other local streams do not call for any particular remark.

We have topographical descriptions of portions of the county of York from the pens of many writers, from which it appears that the local scenery has little to distinguish it from the scenery of other rural neighbourhoods in Western Canada. Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle, in his “Canada and the Canadians in 1846,” gives a characteristically fault-finding and inaccurate account of a hurried ride from the northern portion of the county to Toronto. Space fails to follow him throughout the entire journey. It will be sufficient if we join his retinue at Richmond Hill. “Behold us,” he writes, “at Richmond Hill, having safely passed the Slough of Despond which the vaunted Yonge Street mud road presents, between the celebrated hamlet of St. Alban’s and the aforesaid hill, one of the greatest curiosities of which road, near St. Alban’s, is the vicinity of a sort of Mormon establishment where a fellow of the name of David Wilson, commonly called David, has set up a Temple of the Davidites, with Virgins of the Sun, dressed in white, and all the tomfooleries of a long beard and exclusive sanctity. But America is a fine country for such knavery. Another curiosity is less pitiable and more natural. It is Bond Lake, a large, narrow sheet of water, on the summit between Lake Simcoe and Lake Ontario, which has no visible outlet or inlet, and is therefore, like David Wilson, mysterious, although common sense soon lays the mystery in both cases bare—one is a freak of Nature concealing the source and exitus; the other a fraud of man.” The local reader will hardly need to be informed that the foregoing characterization is grossly unfair and inaccurate as applied to the founder of the sect known as Davidites, who have very little in common with the disciples of Joseph Smith. Sir Richard next refers to the Oak Ridges, and the stair-like descents of plateau after plateau to Ontario, as being “remarkable enough, showing even to the most thoughtless that here ancient shores of ancient seas once bounded the forest, gradually becoming lower and lower as the water subsided.” He journeys on southward until he reaches what he terms “Richmond Hill without the Lass,” where he found “Dolby’s Tavern a most comfortable resting-place for a wearied traveller.” “We departed from Richmond Hill,” he continues, “at half-past five, and wagoned on to Finch’s Inn, seven miles, where we breakfasted. This is another excellent resting-place, and the country between the two is thickly settled. We have now been travelling through scenes celebrated in the Rebellion of Mackenzie. About five miles from Holland Landing is the blacksmith’s shop which was the headquarters of Lount, the smith who, like Jack Cade, set himself up to reform abuses, and suffered the penalty of the outraged laws. Lount was a misled person who, imbued with strong republican feelings, and forgetting the favours of the Government he lived under, which had made him what he was, took up arms at Mackenzie’s instigation, and thought he had a call to be a great general. He passed to his account, so requiescas in pace, Lount! for many a villain yet lives to whose vile advices you owed your untimely end, and who ought to have met with your fate instead of you. Lount had the mind of an honest man in some things, for it is well known that his counsels curtailed the bloody and incendiary spirit of Mackenzie in many instances.... Next to Richmond Hill is Thornhill, all on the macadamized portion of the road to Toronto. Thornhill is a very pretty place, with a neat church and a dell, in which a river must formerly have meandered, but where now a streamlet runs to join Lake Ontario. Here is an extensive mill, owned by Mr. Thorne, a wealthy merchant, who exports flour largely, the Yonge Street settlement being a grain country of vast extent, which not only supplies his mills, but the Red Mills, near Holland Landing, and many others. From Montgomery’s Tavern to Toronto is almost a continued series for four miles of gentlemen’s seats and cottages, and, being a straight road, you see the great lake for miles before its shores are reached. Large sums have been expended on this road, which is carried through a brick-clay soil, in which the Don has cut deep ravines, so that immense embankments and deep excavations for the level have been requisite. Near Toronto, at Blue Hill, large brick-yards are in operation, and here white brick is now made, of which a handsome specimen of church architecture has been lately erected in the west end of the city.” The structure here referred to was St. George’s Church, on John Street, which was erected in 1844.

The present municipal system came into operation in the beginning of the year 1850. Previous to that time the County of York was governed by the Home District Council, which was presided over by a Chairman, elected annually. Since the new system has been in vogue the deliberations of the County Council have been presided over by a Warden, who is also elected annually. The following is a list of the gentlemen who have occupied that high office, together with the respective years of occupancy:—

The names and post-office addresses of the gentlemen composing the Municipal Council of the County of York for the current year (1884), together with the names and addresses of the various township clerks, appear from the following table:—

The following are the officers appointed by the Council for the current year:—

E. J. Davis, Esq., Warden, King; J. K. Macdonald, Esq., Treasurer, Toronto; George Eakin, Esq., Clerk, Toronto; J. T. Stokes, Esq., Superintendent York Roads and County Engineer, Toronto; J. T. Jones, Esq., High Constable, Toronto; J. K. Leslie, and Joseph Stokes, County Auditors; John Crawford and F. Jackson, Board of Audit; The Warden and Messrs. M. Jones and John Richardson, Commissioners of County Property; Robert Hull, Housekeeper.

County Board of Examination of Teachers:—James Hodgson, of Toronto, and David Fotheringham, of Aurora, County Inspectors; James H. Hughes, of Toronto, R. W. Doan, of Toronto, and George Rose, of Newmarket, Examiners.

Trustees of High Schools:—No. 1, Weston—William Tyrrell, John McConnell, M.D., and J. P. Bull; No. 2, Markham—John Crawford, P. Wideman, and John Gibson; No. 3, Richmond Hill—William Trench, P. Patterson, and M. Naughton; No. 4, Newmarket—C. Webb, A. J. Hughes, and Francis Starr.

The respective township treasurers are sub-treasurers of school moneys.

The following tables, obtained from official and trustworthy sources, will doubtless be specially acceptable to readers of this work:—

SCHEDULE

Showing the Aggregate Value of Real and Personal Property and Income; also Average Value per Acre of the Several Municipalities in the County of York for the Year A.D. 1883.

Table continued ...

Table continued ...

SCHEDULE

Showing the Aggregate Value of Real and Personal Property and Income; also Average Value per Acre of the Several Municipalities in the County of York for the Year A.D. 1883.—Continued.

Table continued ...

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SCHEDULE

Showing the Assessed and Equalized Value of the several Municipalities in the County of York for 1883.

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Chapter VI.

N the Report of the Ontario Agricultural Commission, compiled and published under the auspices of the Ontario Government about three years since, is to be found a great mass of agricultural and other information respecting the more important municipalities in this Province. The information collected therein with regard to the County of York is especially comprehensive and valuable, and includes statistical data relating to the soil, climate, topographical features, cultivable area and products, and the general progress and condition of husbandry. The various townships comprised within the County of York, as at present constituted, are represented as having been “entered and largely settled” between the years 1790 and 1815. “The first entered”—so runs the report—“was Markham, and the last Georgina, in the years named.” One-third of the latter township is represented as being still unsettled, together with about two thousand acres in East Gwillimbury and one thousand in North Gwillimbury; but some progress has been made since the publication of the report, and the proportion of unsettled lands are at the present day slightly under the figures therein given. In the remaining townships, we are informed, the process of settlement was completed in, on an average, a little more than 45½ years.

Under appropriate headings, we next find in the report the following useful information:—

CHARACTER OF THE SOIL.

Heavy clay, clay loam, and sandy loam, are the predominating soils in this county. Heavy clay exists in the proportion of about twenty-one per cent., with a depth of from eight to twenty-four inches, and resting principally on subsoils of clay and marl; clay loam, about thirty-eight per cent., depth from eleven to fifteen inches, and resting principally on subsoils of clay and marl; sandy loam, about twenty-two per cent., depth from six to twelve inches, with subsoils of clay and marl; sand, about ten and a-half per cent., depth not determinable, with subsoils of quicksand and gravel; gravelly, not appreciable; black loam, about eight and a-half per cent., depth from two to eight feet, and resting on clay, sand and quicksand. Except in North Gwillimbury, which reports three thousand acres, there is no land in the county which is too stony or has rock too near the surface to be profitably cultivated. About seven per cent. is so hilly as to be objectionable for the purposes of cultivation, about eleven per cent. is bottom, seven and a-half per cent. is swampy, and rather less than two per cent. wet, springy land. About sixty-eight per cent. of the area is reported as rolling and cultivable. About forty-four and a-half per cent. is reported first-class for agricultural purposes, thirty-three per cent. second-class, and the remainder third-class.

WATER.

The county is reported well watered by creeks, springs and wells; also by the Don, Holland, Humber, Black, and Rouge Rivers; in the south by Lake Ontario, and in the north by Lake Simcoe, and many tributary streams. Water is obtained by digging, at depths varying from four to one hundred feet.

PRICE OF FARMS.

The price of land depends wholly on locality, soil and buildings, and ranges from $25 to $100 per acre. The latter rate is exceptional. From $70 to $80 per acre may be taken as the average price of land within a radius of twenty miles of Toronto. Farms are leased at from $2.50 to $5 per acre.

STUMPS.

About fifty-four per cent. of the cleared acreage is reported free from stumps. Of the stumps remaining a large proportion are pine.

FENCES.

About sixty-nine per cent. of the farms are reported to be under first-class fences, consisting principally of cedar, pine and hemlock rails.

FARM DWELLINGS AND OUTBUILDINGS.

About sixty-two per cent. of the farm dwellings are reported to be either of brick, stone, or first-class frame; the remainder are log, or of inferior frame. Of the outbuildings fifty-seven per cent. are reported first-class; the remainder are inferior.

DRAINAGE.

About twelve and a-half per cent. of the farms are reported to have been drained, principally in King, Markham and York townships. Tile has been largely used in the latter township, and in the others to a limited extent.

FARM MACHINERY.

About ninety-three per cent. of the farmers use improved machinery for seeding and harvesting.

FERTILIZERS.

There are larger quantities of artificial fertilizers employed in this county than in any other county in the Province—the average being forty-two per cent. Plaster and salt are used in the proportion of from one hundred pounds to one hundred and fifty pounds of the former, and three hundred pounds of the latter, on nearly all descriptions of crops—but plaster, principally, on clover and roots, and salt on cereals. Superphosphate is also employed to a small extent on roots.

UNCLEARED LANDS.

About eighty-nine per cent. of the uncleared land is reported suitable for cultivation, if cleared.

ACREAGE AND AVERAGE PRODUCTS.

The township area of York is 540,271¼ acres; the cleared area is 392,513¾. Of the latter, about 12¼ per cent. is devoted to fall wheat, which yields, on an average (omitting East Gwillimbury, which does not in any case report the yield), about 20 bushels per acre; spring wheat, about 13 per cent. and 12-2/3 bushels; barley, 11½ per cent. and 25-1/3 bushels; oats, 12-1/3 per cent. and 38-1/3 bushels; rye (hardly any sown), from 15 to 20 bushels; peas, 7 per cent. and 19½ bushels; corn (hardly any grown), from 25 to 40 bushels; buckwheat (in Whitchurch only), 1 per cent. and 15 bushels; potatoes about 1½ per cent. and 103½ bushels; turnips, 1-3/10 per cent. and 383 bushels; other root crops, about 1 per cent. and 457 bushels; hay, about 14 per cent. and 1¼ tons. About 16 per cent. is devoted to pasture, and about 2 per cent. to orchards. In King 12½ per cent., in Markham about 9 per cent. and in Vaughan about 14 per cent. is put under summer fallow. The county is well adapted for stock raising, grain growing and dairying. A good deal of attention is being paid to the former in townships specially adapted for grazing and for the growth of clover. Fruit growing and market gardening are also largely followed, especially in Etobicoke and York townships, where are also some extensive nurseries.

STOCK AND STOCK BY-LAWS.

The townships sustain 27,669 horned cattle, 20,230 horses, 27,984 sheep, and 14,388 hogs. The horses are draught and general-purpose, with Clydesdale blood (some fine thoroughbreds have been introduced, and the number is increasing); cattle—Durham, Ayrshire and Devon grades; sheep—Leicester, Cotswold and Southdown; and hogs—Berkshire, Suffolk and Essex. A great improvement has taken place of late years in all descriptions of farm stock.

TIMBER LANDS.

About twenty-two and a-half per cent. of the area of York is still under timber, consisting of beech, maple, elm, basswood, pine, hemlock, cedar, tamarack and birch; used for building purposes, fencing and firewood.

MARKET FACILITIES.

The market facilities of this county are unexceptionable. Toronto, the principal market centre, is easily reached by road and railway. There are also good markets at Newmarket (which has just become a town—the only one in the county outside of Toronto), Sutton, Aurora, Stouffville, and King. Every township has one or more railways passing through it, or is within easy access to railways. Nearly all the farm produce of the county is consumed in Toronto, or is shipped thence to eastern and western markets.

LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

Omitting the City of Toronto, which has no municipal connection with the County of York, and which has large and varied manufactories, there are, in addition to other local industries dependent upon or providing a market for agricultural products, three flouring mills reported in Etobicoke; two cheese factories, two tanneries, two carding mills, seven saw mills and seven grist mills, in King; milling, farm implements, carriage and wagon and two cheese factories, in Markham; two agricultural implement factories in Vaughan; six grist, one woollen, and three paper mills and three tanneries, in York; and flouring, saw and planing mills, a tannery, a woollen mill, a hat manufactory, and organ, carriage and furniture manufactories in Newmarket. Some lumbering is still carried on in the county. All which matters are more particularly treated of in the respective townships to which they severally belong.

MECHANICS, FARM LABOURERS AND DOMESTICS.

There is no special demand for farm labourers, but good hands can always secure work in summer at high wages, and domestics all the year round. The demand for mechanics is not great.

The following table, modified and adapted from the Agricultural Commissioners' Report, summarizes much of the foregoing information:—

Chapter VII.

HE public schools of the County of York will compare favourably with those in other parts of Western Canada, and are maintained in a high degree of usefulness and efficiency. For educational purposes the county is divided into two parts, known respectively as the northern and southern divisions. The Inspector for the northern division is Mr. D. Fotheringham, of Aurora. For the southern division the Inspector is Mr. James Hodgson, of Bloor Street West, Toronto. The report of the last-named gentleman, bearing date the 11th of June, 1883, contains a good deal of interesting and useful information respecting the public schools in his division. “In the Township of York,” he writes, “the standing and efficiency of the schools have, upon the whole, been well maintained, fourteen schools ranking in the I. class, six schools in the II. class, and five schools in the III. class.

SCHOOL ACCOMMODATION.

“In the Village of Markham a new brick school-house, containing four large, airy school-rooms, has been erected, and in S. S. No. 22, Markham, a new brick school-house also; the school accommodation in South York is now ample. In the Village of Parkdale the school buildings are decidedly superior, and all the appliances necessary for successful teaching have been provided by the trustees, and the staff of teachers of the I. and II. class undoubtedly entitle it to be made the Model School for the training of teachers in South York. The head master is a first-class teacher, holding a Provincial Certificate, and is an undergraduate of Toronto University. In the school building there is a room to be specially set apart for the accommodation of teachers in training, so as not to interfere with the ordinary work of the school; this requisite was never provided in the Yorkville Model School.

“For the above reasons, and also for the convenience of candidates for the teaching profession in South York, I have recommended to the Education Department that the public school in the Village of Parkdale should be constituted the Model or Training School for the southern division of the County of York, and I feel confident that such is the public spirit of the trustees and inhabitants of that village that nothing will be left unprovided to make it a credit to the entire county.”

SALARIES OF TEACHERS.

The highest salary of a male teacher in the Townships of Scarborough and Markham was $525; in York, $900; in Etobicoke and Vaughan, $450. The lowest salary to a male teacher in York, $267; in Scarborough, $340; in Etobicoke, $300; and in Markham, $325.

The average of male teachers in the township was $422.56. Of female teachers in the township, $234.

NORMAL SCHOOL TRAINED TEACHERS.

In the County of S. York there were 16 teachers Old County Board, I. Class. Forty-three teachers New County Board, III. Class.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

In the whole of South York (not including villages) 40 children between 7 and 13 did not attend any school. On the Daily Registers 8,753 pupils of all ages attended school; of these 8,537 were of the ages between 5 and 16.

CLASSES OF THE PUPILS.

7,336 in Spelling and Dictation; 7,642 in Writing; 6,610 in Arithmetic; 4,648 in Geography; 3,274 in Grammar and Composition; 1,089 in Canadian History; 1,326 in British History; 943 in Hygiene; 247 in Algebra; 228 in Geometry and Mensuration; 376 in Bookkeeping.

76 Schools opened and closed with prayer. 47 Schools repeated the Ten Commandments with fair regularity. The Inspector hopes to be able to state in the next year’s report a decided improvement in these particulars, as the keeping of the Commandments, and a regard to the Moral Law lie at the foundation of individual and social happiness, and there can be no security for our country’s prosperity and well being without them.

AVERAGE APPORTIONMENT OF GOVERNMENT GRANT.

DAILY AVERAGES.

In his latest report, presented on the 9th of June, 1884, Mr. Hodgson, referring to the statistics presented during the previous year, remarks as follows: “I find, upon comparison, very little change in any of the statistics above named, and it has been to myself a source of unfeigned pleasure to witness the earnestness manifested by the teachers generally in their school work, and the increasing efficiency exhibited by them in the discharge of their onerous duties. A great deal has been said of late in favour of what are called ‘Uniform Promotion Examinations.’ I am not going to trouble you with arguing the question at length. It is one of the hobbies of the age, and, of course, has its admirers and advocates. My decided opinion is that the teacher is the proper person to make the promotions from one class to another. He knows, or ought to know, what strangers cannot possibly know, the real standing of every scholar, the ability of each, and the temperament also; and I hold him responsible for all promotions, and can never willingly consent to remove that responsibility from the teacher, and place it upon an irresponsible committee, however talented. I very seldom find any particular ground of complaint for improper promotions. My practice is to advise any new or fresh teacher, on taking charge of a school, not to make any changes in classification in a hurry, but to wait and thoroughly understand and find out the merits and standing of each pupil before attempting any changes whatever. I have full confidence in the candidates trained in our Model School for South York, that they will exercise suitable caution in this respect, and what I conceive to be the needless expense incident to uniform promotions will be avoided altogether.

“Of all the drawbacks affecting the success of our public schools, irregular attendance is the greatest, and seems to be the most difficult to be grappled with. Could not something be done effectively by giving prizes in books for regular attendance only, irrespective of attainments, or even what has been termed good conduct? The great object to be aimed at is to get the children to attend school, trusting the teacher to see to it that every thing be done on his or her part to secure their improvement or advancement in knowledge. The daily register would be the criterion for deciding as to the reward. Here there could be no favouritism shown; and superior talents could not carry off the prizes, as is often the case, thus giving a premium to ability instead of real merit, and often discouraging and sometimes crushing the spirit of more deserving pupils.

“The following note was attached to the annual returns of one of the School Sections in Etobicoke, æThe undersigned trustees wish very respectfully to say that they consider the School Law, in its present state, as regards the attendance of children between the ages of seven and thirteen years, as impracticable, at least in rural districts, as it requires the appointment by the Trustees in each School Section of a public prosecutor, to prosecute delinquent parents. Such a person cannot be found in a majority of rural sections. And while we think the attendance of the children in question very desirable, we think the end would be better, and much more effectually reached by the Trustees being required to examine into each case, and, if they found the non-attendance to be inexcusable, that they be directed to impose a penalty to be collected as a tax through the local Council, or otherwise. The end, in our opinion, would be more effectually reached in this way, without the odium and expense of going before a magistrate.’ I concur most fully in the above opinion, and think it very desirable that some such change should be made in the School Law by the proper authority and remedy, as far as possible, the evil of non-attendance, which is too prevalent in almost all the rural School Sections, as well as in many of our villages.”

The last report of the Inspector for the Northern Division, which was presented to the Municipal Council in June last, embodies a comparison of the state of public school education in 1871 and 1883. It also refers to other factors in educational work, not established in 1871, and not therefore open to comparison, but which now add considerably to general results from year to year.

“It is,” says Mr. Fotheringham, “over twelve years since the administration of school matters was put into the hands of County Inspectors, and since the law and regulations were so modified as to begin what may be styled the New Era of Education in Ontario. The period since 1871 is so considerable as to justify conclusions and inferences of comparative reliability; and, in this way, a vantage ground may be reached from which to look forward and plan for the future wisely and liberally.

I.—COMPARATIVE STATEMENT.

II.—EXPENDITURE FOR THREE YEARS.

“From these statements gratifying progress in most directions is evident.

“The population, not accurately reported for 1883, owing to an error in printing the annual returns, but about 7,000 has fallen off in about the same proportion throughout the Province, as indicated by the annual report of the Minister of Education. But increased facilities have been provided for attendance as shown by the addition of eleven school houses and eight school boards since 1871. That this has been appreciated is evidenced by a rise in the average attendance from 37¼ to 45 per cent.

“That liberality in the support of education is growing throughout the Inspectorate is evident from the very large amount expended on building, from the marked advance in the average salaries of both male and female teachers, and from the higher rate per pupil paid in the county. The average per pupil in the public schools of this Inspectorate is now $6.65. Throughout the Province it is $6.42; $6.03 in rural districts; $8.81 in cities; $6.86 in towns. In Toronto the cost per pupil is $9.31. The average cost per pupil of the High Schools is $27.56 throughout Ontario. The average attendance, 45 per cent., in North York, is the same as in all the Province. Waterloo County has an average of 49 per cent.—the highest among counties. The per cent. of attendance in Hamilton is 66; in Toronto, 64.

“The average salary of male teachers in the counties of Ontario is $385; of female teachers, $248; in cities, of male teachers, $742; of females, $331. In York (N.), male teachers receive an average of nearly $425, and females, $265.62.

“School property has been largely renewed, and has more than doubled in value; while the accommodation has greatly improved in character as well as in space. The teaching staff has kept pace in this march of improvement—in training, in literary attainments, and in efficiency. There are now 48 or nearly half of the teachers Normal trained; and the 43 third-class teachers have also received training, though of a more limited character, in County Model Schools.

“These conclusions may be reached and confirmed through facts to be observed in another direction. The classification and work of the schools are shown to be more efficient by the large increase of successful candidates at the half yearly Entrance Examinations to the High Schools, and also by the numbers that have passed the Uniform Promotion Examinations which have now been held in the Inspectorate three times. After an impartial and careful examination last March, 430 out of about 800 candidates for promotion were successful, and secured certificates.

“It is due to the County Council to say that after three half-yearly examinations for promotions in the schools of North York, these have more than realized my anticipations. They have given general satisfaction, and have proved a healthy and powerful stimulus to both teachers and scholars. So long as they deserve this character, you will not hesitate to make the usual half-yearly appropriation, which is hereby respectfully solicited.

“The High School Entrance Examinations, established thirteen years ago, have done much to stimulate to thorough work in the higher classes of the public schools; and never more than at present. About sixty at Newmarket and forty-five at Richmond Hill present themselves on each occasion, and an increasing percentage is successful from time to time. These places are, however, so far from some of the rural districts that the task of leaving their own neighbourhood, the cost of travel and board, and the nervousness produced by mingling with strangers at an examination, have deprived many of the advantages of the Entrance Examinations.

“To meet this difficulty I enquired in the schools of North Gwillimbury and Georgina, as to the number who might attend were an Entrance Examination held in Sutton, and was encouraged by the estimate of about twenty. I next secured the sanction of the Hon. G. W. Ross, Minister of Education, to this proposal, similar to an arrangement in Peel, where several special examinations are held, and the results found excellent. I then explained the matter to the Warden of the county, who also favoured the plan, and undertook to guarantee the expense, as the Council could not be consulted in time to allow the necessary advertising to be done. When I state that I have now applications from forty-five candidates to be allowed to write to Sutton, all of whom would either not have written at all or would have gone to High School out of the county, I am sure the Council will see the wisdom of this new departure, and readily provide for the necessary outlay, about one dollar per candidate. The plan I propose is to appoint one, or, if necessary, two competent persons to preside at the examination for two days; then to have all the papers sent to myself; and, with the Newmarket Head Master, I will examine and value the work done. The School Board of Sutton have kindly and readily placed their building at our disposal for the examination, without charge. Should this experiment prove satisfactory, I anticipate your approval of its repetition from time to time. It will afford much better facilities for pupils on the Lake Simcoe Branch Road, as well as for those in the two northern townships; and, at present, several from Mount Albert will attend who otherwise would go out of the county.”

Further interesting information with respect to the schools of the County of York will be found interspersed here and there throughout the sketches of the various townships.

THE TOWNSHIP OF YORK.

ORK is by far the most populous and important township in the county from which it takes its name. It is situated in the centre of the front tier of townships bordering upon the lake, having Scarborough on the west, Etobicoke on the east, and Vaughan and Markham on the north. It is divided for purposes of Parliamentary representation into East and West York, Yonge street being the dividing line. The concessions, which run north and south, are numbered east and west from Yonge street. East York comprises four and West York seven concessions, two or three of the latter being small and broken, owing to the course of the Humber, which forms the western boundary. The city of Toronto occupies the greater portion of the water front, which would otherwise be embraced within the limits of this township, and within a radius of several miles there are numerous suburban villages within the territory of the township proper, giving it a different character from the other divisions of the county, owing to the overflow of the suburban population.

The history of York township as a distinct territorial division commences in 1791, in which year the work of survey was undertaken. Eleven townships extending along the lake front, from the Humber river to the Bay Quinté and the river Trent, were marked out, York being at the western end of the line. The name at that time bestowed upon it was Dublin. All that was then done in the way of survey was to run the dividing lines between these townships. Mr. Augustus Jones, who had charge of the work, completed it, as far as “Dublin” was concerned, on September 15th, 1791. The name was shortly afterwards changed to that which it now bears, though it seems to have also borne for a while the designation of “Toronto,” as is shown by the following entry in the official records having reference to the laying out of the townships:

“Surveyor General’s office, Province of Upper Canada, 26th January, 1793. Description of the township of York, (formerly Toronto) to be surveyed by Messrs. Aitken and Jones. The front line of the front concession commences, adjoining the township of Scarborough (on No. 10), at a point known and marked by Mr. Jones, running S. 74° west from said front, and one chain for a road, and so on till the said line strikes the river Toronto [Humber] whereon St. John is settled. The concessions are one hundred chains deep, and one chain between each concession to the extent of twelve miles.” This is the earliest official reference on record to the township of York. The work was not completed by Messrs. Aitken and Jones. Other surveyors were employed on it at subsequent dates, and it was not until 1829 that the survey was concluded by Mr. Wilmot. The following names appear on the record of the early patentees of this township for the years indicated:

1796—Patrick Barns, Samuel Cozens, Paul Wilcott, John Ashbridge, Jonathan Ashbridge, Parker Mills, Benjamin Mosley, John Cox, John Scadding, George Playter, John Matthews, Joseph Barker, James Playter, Eli Playter, John Playter, John Coon, Hon. Peter Russell, William Demont, D. W. Smith, William Smith, Isaac Devens, Abraham Devens, Levi Devens, John McBride, William Youman, Elizabeth Russell, Jacob Philips, Elias Anderson, Benjamin Davis, John Graves Simcoe.

1797—David Ramsay, John Matthews, Christopher Robinson, John White, James Macauley, J. B. Bouchette, Major D. Shank, John Hewett, Abraham Lawraway, Lewis Vail, P. DeGrassie, Mary Ridout, Rev. Thomas Radish, John Lawrence, William Cooper, John Wilson, Junr., Capt. R. Lippincott James Johnson, Ephraim H. Payne, William D. Powell, Junr.

1798—William Cooper, E. W. Smith, Robert J. D. Gray, Peter Russell, William Cooper, Hon. Alexander Grant, Lieut.-Col. D. Shank, David Barns, Alexander McNab, William Chewett, William Allan, Thomas Ridout, Elizabeth Johnson, John White, Isaiah Aaron Skinner, Hon. John Elmsley, Eleanora D. White, William Wilcox, Sr., Lieut. John McGill, James Ruggles, Lieut. James Givins, John Ross, Alexander Macdonell, Anne Powell, Hon. W. D. Powell, William Halton, George Cruikshank, John Wilson, Reuben Clark, Bernard Cary, Capt. Daniel Cozens, Capt. William Graham, Robert Franklin, William Jarvis, Christopher Samuel White, Charles S. White, William S. White, Joshua Chamberlain, Jr., Zekel Chamberlain, Thomas Kirgan, David Burns, Alexander Burns, Marian White.

1799—Hon. Eneas Shaw, Rev. Edmund Burke, Elizabeth Tuck, Isabella Chewett.

1800—Lawrence Johnston, Nicholas Johnson, Thomas Johnson, Joseph Kendrick, Duke William Kendrick, Abraham Johnson, Joseph Johnson.

1801—Alex Gray, Sr., John Small, John Atwell Small, Benjamin Davis, John Dennis, Angus Macdonell, Edward Gahan, Robert Henderson, James Clark, William Davis, Jacob Gower, Ann Hollingshead, Elijah Huson, Jonathan Bell, Nathaniel Huson, Edward Baker Littlehales, Hugh Cameron, George Porter, Jacob Nathawdt.

1802—Stilwell Wilson, Augustus Jones, Alex. Gray, Jr., Thomas Ridout Johnson, David Smith, Hiram Kendrick, Christopher Heron, Jacob Winter, James Roch, Isaac Hollingshead, Elsie Willard, Joseph Provost, Mary Garner, George Wickle.

1803—Thomas Gray, Hon. Henry Allcock, Robert Richardson, William Allan, Richard Gamble, William Weeks, Margaret Cockran, John Everson, John Macintosh, Alexander Montgomery, John Coun, W. Baldwin, John McDougall, Charles Field, John Cowan, Mathias Saunders, Jacob Fisher, Jr.

1804—Frederick Brown, Andrew Macglashan, Francis Brock.

1805—John Kendrick, Patrick Bern, Joseph Shepherd, John Wilson.

1806—Henry Mulholland, William Armstrong, D’Arcy Boulton, Jr., S. Smith.

1807—Malcolm Wright, Augustus Boiten, Thomas Ruggles, Thomas Hamilton, Dorothy Arnold, James Lymburner, Joseph Philips, Alexander Macdonell, Michael Harris, Robert Lymburner, Thomas Hamilton.

1808—Richard Lawrence, William Marsh, Joshua G. Cozens.

1809—Hon. John McGill, Henry Jackson.

1810—William Halton, George Taylor Denison.

1811—William Jarvis, John Macdonell, John Eakins, Jr., Jacob Nathawdt, Stephen Jarvis, Cornelius Thompson, Robert Macdonell, Michael Dye.

1812—James Block, Simeon Devins, Thomas Humberstone.

1813—John Baskerville Gregg, John McLang.

Among later patentees were King’s College, the Rectory of St. James, and the Canada Company.

In 1798, according to the abstracts of the town clerk’s return of inhabitants in the Home District, the town of York, York township, Etobicoke and Scarborough altogether had a total population of only 749. The returns for 1802 give 659 inhabitants for York town and township and Etobicoke. The abstract of the assessment of the Home District for the year commencing 8th March, 1803, gives the area of cultivated land in the township at 1,109 acres. From the same we learn that the live stock of the settlers included 68 oxen, 133 milch cows, 45 young horned cattle and 53 swine. The township at this time also boasted one grist mill, a couple of saw mills and two taverns.

In 1820 York Township had 1672 inhabitants, an increase of 349 over the preceding year. In 1825 the population numbered 2412. In 1830 it was 3127. In 1842 there were 5720 inhabitants, and the rateable property in the township was assessed at £82,682. Since that time the population and wealth of York have increased steadily, though there have been continual fluctuations in the prosperity of different localities. An extensive shipping trade, for instance, was once done at the Humber river, from which as many as 84,000 barrels of flour and half a million feet of lumber have been shipped in one season. There was formerly a shipyard at the mouth of the river, where during the war of 1812 two vessels were constructed. Now it is merely known as one of Toronto’s most popular pleasure resorts, its industries having long since disappeared. Other localities have sprung up, and the tendency of the railroad system has been largely to centralize commerce in Toronto and its immediate neighbourhood.

The population of York Township according to the census of 1881 was 13,748, of whom 6,491 were in the Eastern, and 6,257 in the Western division. This indicates a considerable increase during the decade of 1871-81, the numbers returned by the census of ’71 being, East York, 4,390, West York, 4,112, or a total of 8,502. This is evidently due to the overflow of the city population into the suburban localities which still form part of the township, rather than to the normal increase of the rural population. Of the population 8,143 are of Canadian birth. In the eastern section the proportion of the English element is greater than in most localities, 3,649 being of English origin. In the eastern portion of the township the number of occupiers, according to latest census returns, is 548, of whom 357 are also owners of the land. The total acreage occupied is 26,728 acres, of which 21,409 is improved; of this 14,377 is in crops, 5,137 in pasture and 1,895 acres occupied as garden and orchards. In West York there are 677 occupiers, of whom 418 are also owners of the soil they till. The total acreage in occupation is 34,195 acres, of which 28,999 acres is improved land—22,043 acres are in field crops, 5,218 devoted to pasturage, and 1,738 to gardens and orchards. For the whole township the figures are as follows:—Occupiers 1,225, of whom 775 are also proprietors, acreage in occupation 60,923, of which 50,408 or as nearly as may be, five-sixths, has been improved; crop-growing land 36,420 acres; pasture land, 13,355 acres; and orchards and gardens 3,633.

The yield of the township in the staples of agricultural production is given as follows in the census returns of 1881: East York, wheat, 46,612 bushels; barley, 44,983 bushels; oats, 80,611 bushels; peas and beans, 10,500 bushels; potatoes, 126,312 bushels; turnips, 19,850 bushels; other root crops, 64,874; hay, 5,208 tons; West York, wheat, 72,390 bushels; barley, 78,004 bushels; oats, 115,625 bushels; peas and beans, 27,707 bushels; potatoes, 112,207 bushels; turnips, 37,056 bushels; other root crops, 59,117 bushels; hay, 8,301 tons; total yield for the township: wheat, 119,002 bushels; barley, 122,987 bushels; oats, 196,236 bushels; peas and beans, 47,207 bushels; potatoes, 238,519 bushels; turnips, 56,906 bushels; other root crops, 123,991 bushels; hay, 13,509 tons.

It may be interesting to compare these figures of the present production of the township with the returns for the year 1849, as given by W. H. Smith in his well-known work on “Canada—Past, Present and Future.” In round numbers these are as follows:—Wheat, 142,000 bushels; oats, 123,000 bushels; peas, 43,000 bushels; potatoes, 58,000 bushels; turnips, 9,000 bushels; and hay, 4,000 tons. As compared with recent figures they indicate the change that has been going on latterly all over the country in the direction of paying less attention to wheat growing and more to other crops. It will be noticed that although the population of the township has increased by more than one-third during the interval, the wheat production has considerably fallen off, while the roots and leguminous crops have very largely increased, and barley, not mentioned at all by Smith, now exceeds the wheat crop in volume. The farmers of Canada have learned by bitter experience the folly of risking everything on one staple, and the precarious nature of the wheat market in consequence of the opening up of new grain-producing countries is likely to confirm this tendency towards a diversification of farm produce.

The report of the Ontario Agricultural Commission issued in 1881 contains some valuable information respecting the nature of the soil and agricultural capacity of the township. The general character of the soil is described as being of “all grades from drifting sand to heavy clay.” About two-tenths of the area is estimated to be of heavy clay, four-tenths of clay loam, three-tenths of sandy loam, and one tenth sand. A very small proportion of the land is gravelly. The rich black loam which is so fertile in sustaining luxuriant crops is only found in few localities. There is no land too stony or having rock too near the surface to be uncultivable, but about one-tenth of the total area is sufficiently hilly and broken to render tillage difficult or impossible. Two-thirds of the land is undulating, but not to a degree sufficient to interfere with cultivation. Not more than one-twentieth is low-lying, flat land such as would be subject from its location to frequent floodings which would seriously depreciate its value, and swamp land is still rarer, only about one acre in three hundred coming under this category. A still smaller proportion is classed as wet, springy land, which is not estimated to include more than two acres out of every thousand. One third of the total acreage is ranked as being first-class agricultural land, another third as second-class, one-sixth as third class and one-sixth as inferior. The township is described as being generally well watered, but the depth at which water is obtainable by digging varies from five to one hundred feet. The price of land rules from $40 to $80 per acre, but this of course in a township surrounding a great commercial centre is liable to be governed by other considerations than those of agricultural fitness, and the land in the immediate neighbourhood of Toronto has a speculative value owing to the rapid growth of the suburbs and the possibility of its being some day available for building purposes. One half the farms are under first-class fence. Two-thirds of the dwellings and outbuildings are of stone, brick or first-class frame. Half the farms are partially drained, principally by tile drainage. The proportion of the acreage devoted to the leading crops and the average yield per acre is given as follows:—Fall wheat, two-twentieths, twenty bushels; spring wheat, one-twentieth, fifteen bushels; barley, four-twentieths, twenty-eight bushels; oats, two-twentieths, thirty-five bushels; rye, one-eightieth, twenty bushels; peas, two-twentieths, twenty bushels; potatoes, one-fortieth, one hundred bushels; hay, four-twentieths, one and one half tons per acre. About one twentieth of the township is still timbered, a good deal of pine being mixed with the hardwood which forms the principal growth. The exact area is given at 64,399¾ acres, indicating a degree of precision and scrupulous avoidance of exaggeration that cannot be too highly commended. The total number of cleared acres is set down at 56,501, and the enumeration of live stock shows 3,370 cattle, 2,728 horses, 1,970 sheep and 1,520 hogs.

The first municipal record of the township relates to a meeting of the inhabitants held in pursuance of the provisions of an Act of the Provincial Legislature, passed in 1835, entitled, “An Act to reduce to one Act the several laws relative to the appointment and duty of the township officers in the Province.” This Act made several important changes in the methods of municipal government. The record is as follows:—“Monday, 4th January, 1836. In pursuance of the statute passed in the fifth year of the reign of His Majesty William IV., the inhabitants of the Township of York met at the house of William Cummers, when they unanimously appointed James Hervey Price, Esq., their chairman, who, in consequence of the unfitness of the house for a public meeting, adjourned to the tavern of Mr. John Marsh, on Yonge Street, when the chairman read over the Act, and the meeting proceeded by ballot to choose the township officers. David Gibson, Esq., was chosen secretary to the meeting.” The candidates for the office of township clerk were John Cummer, Elisha Pease, Joseph McMullin, and John Willson, 4th. On a vote being taken, John Willson, 4th, was declared duly elected. It may be necessary to explain to modern readers that the numeral affix to his name denotes that the wearer was the fourth in the line of descent bearing the same name. The practice still obtains in the New England States. A son who is his father’s namesake will sign himself “2nd,” instead of “junr.,” following the royal fashion. We commend this fact to those writers who are always endeavouring to prove that the Americans have still a sneaking affection for monarchical institutions. It would be just as relevant as many adduced with that object. But to return to the Township Council for 1836. The vote for councillors resulted in the return of James Davis, Daniel McDougall, and William Donaldson. James McMullin was chosen assessor. The following were then appointed by a show of hands:—Collector, Abraham Johnson; pathmasters, John Montgomery, William Kendrick, E. Pease, Robert Erwin, William Morse, John Beates, John James, Alexander Wallace, William Denison, Jacob Kertz, Richard Smith, Joseph Gale, Robert Harding, Henry Crosson, J. Griffith, John Duncan, Stephen Brunndage, Thomas Denison, George Cooper, Henry Phillips, Joseph Helliwell, George Thorn, William Milne, Alex. McCormick, James Cunningham, John Sanburn, Richard Willson, John Harris, David Cummer, Archibald Wright, Edward Brock, Henry Devenish, Richard Herron, Christopher Williams, Henry Earl, John Thompson, and Jonathan Ashbridge; poundkeepers, Thomas Maginn, Joseph Holby, John Montgomery, and Mr. Finch. The Treasurer’s account for the year comprised the following items:—Cash received of the District Treasurer for wild lands assessment, £3 11s. 9d.; cash received for fines and costs, £7 11s. 4d.; cash received in commutation of statute labour, £1 12s. 6d. Credit—Cash paid constable for services, £3 10s. 10d.; blank book for use of the township, 9s. 6d.; for paper, etc., 5s.; balance on hand, £8 10s. 2d. Economy was evidently the rule in municipal administration in those days. In 1837 the township meeting was held on January 2nd, at John Montgomery’s, destined shortly afterwards to be the scene of civil commotion and bloodshed. David Gibson officiated as chairman, Elisha Pease was chosen township clerk, Conrad Grau, Jacob Snider, and William Donaldson were elected members of the Council, Abraham Johnson, assessor, and William James, collector. In 1838 we find the electors meeting at Montgomery’s and adjourning to Anderson’s tavern, York Mills, where the following officials were duly chosen:—William Hamilton, town clerk; Peter Lawrence, assessor; Robert Harding, Alex. Montgomery, and William Marsh, commissioners; and William Evans, collector. In 1839 John Willson, 4th, was again elected town clerk, a position which he continued to hold from that time forth until his death, which occurred in 1866. He was succeeded by his son, Arthur Lawrence Willson, who has also had a long term of office. And here some details respecting the Willson family, who have been so long and intimately connected with the township, may appropriately be given. John Willson, 1st, was a native of Surrey, England. The maiden name of his wife, who belonged to the same locality, was Rebecca Thixton. In the year 1752 they emigrated to America, settling in New Jersey. In 1776 John Willson took the Loyalist side, and obtained a captaincy in the army, his son, also John Willson by name, entering the same service as a lieutenant. The property of the family was confiscated, and they joined the large number of U. E. Loyalists who sought refuge in New Brunswick. John Willson, 2nd, was married at this time, his wife being Sarah Sackman, a native of Wales. The family removed to Upper Canada at the time of Governor Simcoe’s arrival, some twenty-four other families of exiled Loyalists accompanying them on their long journey to the Western wilderness. After a short residence in the Niagara District they settled on Yonge Street. Capt. Willson had four sons, John (2nd), Stillwell, William, and Jonathan. The first of these was the grandfather of the first township clerk of York. His son, Arthur L. Willson, who held the office for about a dozen years, is the author of a Municipal Manual which has been found of practical value as a guide to those requiring a knowledge of municipal law.

In 1842 the records show the election of school commissioners, viz.:—Rev. James Harris, Bartholomew Bull, James Sever, Clark Bridgland, Charles Maginn, John Andrew and James Davis. Among the names most frequently recurring in the latest records in connection with the more important positions, we find those of William James, who was township reeve for the period 1852-60, William Tyrrell, who succeeded him in office, Bartholomew Bull, Jr., J. P. Bull, William Mulholland, William Jackes, E. Playter and R. E. Playter. The Playter family have taken a prominent part in the affairs of the township and county. They are of Loyalist stock. Their ancestor, Capt. George Playter, originally came from Suffolk, England. He settled in Philadelphia, where he married a Quakeress and became himself a member of that denomination. But his peace principles could not stand so powerful a strain as the outbreak of the war for Independence. It is recorded that when he stripped off the Quaker clothes which he wore, to put on his uniform as a loyalist soldier, he laid down the discarded apparel with the exclamation “Lie there Quaker!” and so went forth to do his part manfully in the struggle. He participated in several engagements, and when the patriots secured their Independence, he was of course among the proscribed. On first coming to Canada he resided in Kingston, but shortly after York had been selected as the capital, he moved to the township, and with his sons took up extensive tracts of land. The family did much to forward the progress of the community in various ways. His services to the Crown, during the war, received the recognition of a pension at the hands of the British Government. Capt. Playter was a gentleman of the old school. His precision of manner and old fashioned style in costume were a conspicuous survival of antique modes. He is described as habitually wearing a three-cornered hat, silver knee-buckles, broad-toed shoes with large buckles and white stockings, and carrying a long gold-headed cane. His house was a short distance beyond the limits of Toronto, being immediately north of Castle Frank. His son, Capt. John Playter, lived immediately across the Don. At the time of the American invasion in 1813, many of the archives of the Province were conveyed to their residences for safety, but the precaution was in vain, for the invaders found out where they had been placed and carried away all they could lay their hands on. One of the sons of Capt. George Playter, called after him, was, for some time, deputy sheriff of the Home District, and another Mr. Eli Playter at one time represented North York in the Provincial House.

The officials for the year 1884 are as follows:—Reeve, H. Duncan; Councillors, F. Turner, Joseph Watson, H. R. Frankland and Joseph Davids; being all Deputy Reeves in the order in which they are named. Clerk, J. K. Leslie; Treasurer, William Jackes. The township hall is situated in the village of Eglington, on Yonge Street, in immediate proximity to the site of the famous Montgomery tavern where Col. Moodie met his death in the outbreak of 1837. Eglington is about four miles from Toronto, and is a long straggling village of about 700 inhabitants. For many miles Yonge Street is thickly settled on both sides, so that that the numerous villages along the route are not so noticeable or distinctive in their character as where the population is more drawn to a centre. About half a mile from Eglington, to the south-west, the remains of an Indian village were discovered about twelve or fifteen years ago. The character of the relics unearthed, which were of the usual kind found about the sites of aboriginal settlements in this neighbourhood, indicated that it had been a populous village, and that it must have been a place of habitation for a long period.

Between Toronto and Eglington is the Village of Davisville, near which, on the eastern side of Yonge Street, is the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, which is beautifully situated and very tastefully laid out in accordance with the modern idea that the last resting-place of those we have loved and lost should be made attractive and cheerful in its surroundings, instead of sombre and repellant. Nearer Toronto, again, on the brow of the high land is Deer Park. There are a large number of handsome villa residences in these villages and the intervening spaces, most of them of quite recent construction. The land rises abruptly a short distance beyond the present limits of Toronto, and from the brow of the elevation a magnificent view of the surrounding country is obtainable. This lofty bluff which runs to the westward for some distance is known as the Davenport Ridge, and is some 250 to 300 feet above the Lake Ontario level. This ridge consists of fine rounded gravel, the beds of which all dip to the southward. Rounded lumps of fine clay are also of common occurrence among the gravel. Their presence is accounted for by supposing them to have been rolled, perhaps when in a frozen state, by the waves of the ancient lake. In a paper presented to the Geological Society of London, in 1837, Mr. Thomas Roy states the occurrence of thirteen ancient water margins between Toronto and Lake Simcoe, the lowest of which is 342 feet and the highest 996 feet above the sea level. The conclusion drawn from these investigations is that the country was at one time submerged, and that the waters have gradually, or perhaps by spasmodic changes, retired to their present level. Along the Davenport Ridge, which is beautifully wooded in parts, and affords a commanding view of the city and adjoining country, with the blue waters of the lake in the distance, are a large number of handsome suburban residences.

Seaton Village, a thriving and rapidly growing community, is situated immediately north of the city limits, about a mile west of Yonge Street. In this vicinity there are large deposits of clay suitable for the manufacture of white bricks, an industry which is extensively carried on in the environs of the city. This clay, which extends through a considerable area of the township, is bluish when moist, but ash-coloured in a dry state. It has a distinctly-jointed structure, and is sparingly interspersed with pebbles and boulders. Over the irregularly denuded surface of this horizontally stratified clay is spread a coating of yellow clay and sand, which conforms to the undulations of the surface soil. In one section the upper stratum of yellow clay, which holds pebbles and boulders and burns to red brick, is three feet in thickness; beneath, in two sections, are some five to nine feet of yellow sand interstratified with yellowish and bluish clay, both burning white. Under this there is a solid blue clay, which has been penetrated to the depth of sixty feet without apparent change. To the east of Toronto clays generally overlaid by sand continue through the southern section of the township.

West of the former limits of the city of Toronto, but hemmed in to the north and west by the outlying portion of the city, formerly the village of Brockton, is Parkdale, a recently built-up suburb, possessing a separate municipal organization. It is beautifully situated, overlooking the lake shore, and contains a number of handsome villa residences. Of late manufacturing enterprise has been developed, and the population is increasing rapidly. It numbered 1,170, according to the census of 1881, and its population must now be in the neighbourhood of 2,700. Mr. Hugh McMath is reeve of the village, G. S. Booth is deputy-reeve, and H. S. Langton clerk. The natural beauties of the scenery in the vicinity of the lake shore from this point westward to the Humber are greatly appreciated by residents of Toronto. Humber Bay, which is surrounded by shores wooded in portions down to the water’s edge, forms almost a semicircle, and on a bright, clear day the view is a most picturesque one. At the head of the Bay is situated High Park, one of Toronto’s most delightful pleasure resorts. It comprises some 290 acres, the principal portion of which is the gift of John G. Howard, whose name ought always to be held in grateful remembrance by the people of Toronto. Other wealthy men have endowed churches, colleges, and the like, but it is questionable whether any of them has an equal title to the gratitude and esteem of posterity as the donor of High Park, who has given what was much more urgently required—a breathing-space for a densely crowded and rapidly increasing population, deprived by the stupidity or venality of the municipal representatives of the larger portion of the Queen’s Park. An additional area of forty-five acres, retained by Mr. Howard for his own use, will be added to the Park on his death. From the lake front a large marsh runs north between the eastern and western sections of the Park. The high ground to the west rises in an abrupt, heavily-wooded slope from the marsh, like an unbroken wall of variegated verdure. A less precipitous incline on the eastern side of the marsh affords space for a shaded drive winding in and out among the trees—now along an open glade, now into the heart of some gloomy hollow, where the overhanging branches exclude the sunlight, and now on the crest of a ridge shaded by the interlacing foliage. The higher ground is reached by a succession of easy ascents, passing several partially wooded elevations, which add to the varied beauties of the charming landscape. To the northward lies an undulating grassy plain, dotted with shade trees, singly or in groups. In the northern portion of the enclosure are great stretches of natural park lands, where art has merely removed what was obstructive or unsightly, leaving the natural beauties undefaced. The western slope of the Park overlooks the Grenadier Pond, a pear-shaped sheet of water, the broadest portion of which is towards the lake. The opposite shore rises almost precipitously out of the water, and is well timbered. To the northward stretch away the rich uplands, laid out in tillage or orchard. Tradition traces the origin of the name to the drowning of a party of grenadiers in its waters during the war of 1812. It is alleged that when crossing the pond in the winter the ice gave way beneath them. The truth of the story, however, is not beyond peradventure. The pond is of unknown depth, and its edges marshy and overgrown with rank vegetation.

The Humber River lies about half a mile further west, forming the boundary between York and Etobicoke townships. It is also a favourite resort for excursionists and pleasure-seekers. Its banks present a variety of scenery, large areas of low lands and swamps overgrown with reeds alternating with steep wooded bluffs. There are stone quarries at intervals. The rocks, which crop out of the abruptly rising ground, are of the Hudson River formation, which consists of a series of bluish-grey argillaceous shale, enclosing bands of calcareous sandstone, sometimes approaching to a limestone, at irregular intervals, and of variable thickness. In some instances the bands are of a slaty structure, splitting into thin laminæ in the direction of the beds; in others they have a solid thickness of a foot, but in few cases do they maintain either character for any great distance. The sandstones while in the beds are hard and solid, and upon fracture exhibit a grey colour with much of the appearance of limestone, but by protracted exposure to the weather they turn to a darker brown, and ultimately crumble to decay. These sandstones generally abound in calcareous fossils, which in some places predominate, so as to give rise to beds of impure limestone, which are, however, rare. The slaty variety of the sandstones is well adapted for flagging, and by a careful selection some of the arenacious bands yield abundance of good building material, but the stone cannot be said to be generally adapted for the purpose. The banks of the Humber, as well as those of the Mimico, Etobicoke, and Don, for certain distances from the lake shore, expose sections exhibiting sixty feet or more of these strata, but advancing northward the formation becomes concealed by the great accumulation of drift, of which the interior of the country is composed. At Lambton, a village of some 400 population, about three miles up the Humber, partly situated in Etobicoke, the banks of the stream rise to a height of more than one hundred feet, of which from fifty to sixty feet are composed of the Hudson River shales and sandstone, while the upper part consists of sand and gravel.

About the close of the last century the old Indian trail along the margin of the lake was enlarged, so as to admit of the passage of vehicles, and became what is now known as the Lake Shore Road. A ferry was established at the mouth of the Humber, where passengers and wagons were taken across in a scow. In 1815 a Scotchman, named McLean, had charge of the ferry, and kept tavern in a building on the York side of the river. This was for some time the only house for the accommodation of travellers between Toronto and Hamilton. After McLean’s death his widow continued business at the hostelry for many years. In 1853 Mrs. Creighton was in charge of the tavern, but the building was destroyed when the Great Western was built. In 1838, Mr. Rowland Burr, one of the pioneers in mill construction in York County, erected a saw-mill on the York side of the Humber, not far from its mouth. The mill was shortly afterwards sold to Mr. William Gamble, who converted it into a barley-mill, and afterwards erected a bone-grinding mill immediately adjoining it. The property fell into the hands of the Bank of Upper Canada, from whom it was purchased, in 1864, by David and Joseph Atkinson. The mills were finally swept away by a spring freshet.

In 1801 a saw-mill and a grist-mill were erected at Lambton on the east side of the stream, north of the Dundas Road, by Mr. Thomas Cooper, an Englishman, who some years afterwards sold out the property to his son. About 1840 the property was purchased by Mr. William P. Howland, now Sir William, who took some of his brothers into partnership. Messrs. Peleg and Frederick Howland afterwards became sole proprietors, and in 1845 put up a new flour mill, five stories high, and with six run of stones, south of the Dundas Road, the old mills being pulled down. A saw-mill was erected by the Howlands in the same neighbourhood in 1844, which was some time afterwards leased by Edward and Alfred Musson, and turned into a brewery.

In 1846 a new saw-mill was built by Mr. Samuel Scarlet in York Township, about a mile above Lambton, but he abandoned it in a few years for a new site across the river, where greater water-power was obtainable. Further up the stream Mr. Joseph Dennis put up a saw-mill in 1844, which afterwards became the property of his son, Henry Dennis, who converted a portion of it into a flax-mill. James Williams had a carding and fulling mill a little distance above, which was destroyed by fire in 1865.

The Humber River used to be a famous stream for salmon fishing, but the erection of mills destroyed the fisheries at an early period. We find the following anecdote, illustrating the plentifulness of salmon at one time, in Smith’s “Canada,” which we insert to tantalize the modern follower of Isaac Walton, who sits patiently on the bank all day and comes home with an undersized rock bass and a couple of measly little perch. The legend runneth thus:—A party during the time the salmon were running came up the river in a skiff to spear fish. In drawing their boat ashore, as they intended to spear standing in the water, they inadvertently left it resting across a log lying on the beach. The salmon were plentiful, and they were able to spear them as fast as they could take them out of the water. As they caught them they threw them into the skiff, and excited with the sport took no heed of the way they were piling them up until a sudden crash arrested their attention, and they saw their skiff broken in two in the middle by the weight of the salmon pressing it down on the log.

About three miles above Lambton, on the Humber, and some eight and a half miles from Toronto, by the Grand Trunk Railway, is the Village of Weston, to which more extended reference is made elsewhere. Other villages in the western portion of the township are Carleton, about a mile and a half from Lambton, and six miles from Toronto by the Grand Trunk, Davenport, half a mile east of Carleton on the Northern Railway, and Fairbank, about a mile north of Davenport, and a short distance from the Northern Railway, on the road leading to Vaughan. From Davenport to the northern part of Toronto, lately the Village of Yorkville, runs the Davenport Road, winding in an irregular course at the foot of the Davenport Ridge, previously described. The neighborhood of Carleton and Davenport is a network of railways. A short distance south of Carleton the tracks of the Grand Trunk, Toronto Grey and Bruce and Credit Valley, which run alongside from Parkdale, begin to diverge, the Credit Valley taking a westerly direction parallel with the Dundas Road, until it reaches Lambton, when it deflects to the south-west, and the others running to the north-west. At this point of divergence the new Ontario and Quebec Railway makes its junction with the Credit Valley. This railway centre is known as West Toronto Junction. Here the railway yard for the accommodation of the through freight traffic of the Ontario and Quebec Railway is located, and it is expected that it will very shortly become an important and populous neighbourhood.

Reference has already been made to the most notable localities on Yonge Street as far northward as Eglington, and we will resume a detailed description of the local features of interest at that point. About Eglington the name of Snider is prevalent, the family being of old U. E. Loyalist stock, and originally of German ancestry. The name is the Anglicized form of the Teutonic “Schneider.” Martin Snider was one of the Loyalist refugees who emigrated to Nova Scotia. He afterwards settled on Yonge Street. One of his sons, Jacob Snider, was engaged as a volunteer under Gen. Brock in 1813. Another of the early settlers in this neighbourhood was Mr. Charles Moore, who was born in Ireland in the year 1793. He emigrated to the United States, but the strong anti-British sentiment then prevailing rendered his position uncomfortable, so he crossed over to Canada. After a few years spent in the Township of Nissouri, then an almost unbroken wilderness, he removed to Yonge Street and purchased a farm on the present site of the Village of Eglington. For many years he was one of the most prominent residents in this section. His death took place in 1867.

North of Eglington, and about six miles from Toronto, is the Village of York Mills, for long popularly known as Hogg’s Hollow, from James Hogg, who was at one time the owner of the flour mills in the valley. Here the western branch of the Don is crossed by a bridge. The banks of the river are very steep, but in places the ascent is broken by intervening level land. On one of these flats half-way down the bluff Mr. Hogg erected at an early period a Presbyterian place of worship. He was a man of strong individuality, and took a prominent part in political affairs. Once, incensed at a newspaper criticism of his conduct, he sent a challenge to mortal combat in due form to Mr. Gurnett, editor of the Courier. The meeting, however, did not take place. His death occurred in 1839. The second Episcopal Church in York was erected at York Mills in the fall of 1816. It was an oblong frame building, erected by the united liberality of the people of the neighbourhood, Messrs. Seneca Ketchum and Joseph Shepherd being among the chief promotors; the first named contributing largely of his means and time, the latter giving three acres of land for the site of church and for burial ground. The corner-stone was laid in the presence of a large number of spectators by Lieut.-Governor Gore and the Rev. Dr. Strachan, the missionary for York, in a manner in keeping with the infant state of the parish. A hole was dug, and a bottle containing a medal and a halfpenny was placed in it, a rude and unpolished stone was used to cover it. The missionary preached to the people, who had seated themselves on boards and timbers collected near the site. In 1842 it was decided to erect a more commodious church, 40 x 60, in plain and simple style of construction. On Tuesday, May 30, 1843, the foundation stone was laid. Although a very wet and inclement day, a large congregation assembled in the old church. At noon, Bishop Strachan, the former missionary, took his place within the church. The Rev. A. Sanson read the prayers, the Rev. Dr. Beaven, Professor of Divinity in the University of King’s College, preached from Psalm cxviii. 22, 23, 24 verses. The Bishop afterwards administered the apostolic rite of confirmation to the Reverends A. Townley and A. Sanson, also to Messrs. Leach and Richie, formerly Presbyterian ministers, but then candidates for holy orders in the Church of England. After these services the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the new church was proceeded with. The Rev. H. J. Grasett, the Bishop’s chaplain, read the appointed prayers, after which the following, inscribed on a roll of parchment, was read by Rev. A. Sanson, the minister of the parish:—“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen, this corner-stone of St. John’s Church, Yorkville, County of York, Home District, was laid on the thirtieth day of May, 1843, in the sixth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, by the Honourable and Right Reverend John Strachan, D.D., LL.D., Lord Bishop of the Diocese, Rev. A. Sanson being minister of the congregation, etc., etc.” This document together with the latest number of The Church Journal, a programme of the ceremony, an English shilling, sixpence and fourpenny piece; a penny and halfpenny of the Montreal bank, a halfpenny of King George III., and three silver medals were placed in a bottle which the architect sealed and deposited in a cavity of the stone. One of the medals had been dug up in a good state of preservation from beneath the south-east angle of the old church and bore on one side this inscription:—

on the other “56th of George III.” The following inscription was added: “Removed from the old church near this, 30th May, 1843.” The church was opened for divine service in the fall of 1843. The large folio Bible and Prayer-book used in the old church is still in use in St. John’s Church, Yorkville, on the fly-leaf of each is the following:—“Presented by the Chief Justice Powell to the Second Episcopal Church in York.”

The present rector of St. John’s Church, Rev. H. B. Osler, was ordained and appointed missionary to Lloydtown, Township of King, Albion and parts adjacent, in October 29th, 1843, and held the appointment until removed to York Mills in May, 1874. For many years he held regular services on Sundays and week days in King and Albion, with occasional ones in the Townships of Adjala, Mulmur, Mono, Caledon, Chinguacousy, and Vaughan. He was born and educated at Falmouth, Cornwall, England, came to Canada in 1841; read for holy orders with Rev. F. L. Osler, at Tecumseth; was ordained October, 1843; received the appointment of Honorary Canon of St. James’ Cathedral in 1867 from Bishop Strachan. He was appointed Rector of St. John’s, York Mills, May, 1874, and Rural Dean of west and north York in 1875, by Right Rev. A. Bethune, D.D., second Bishop of Toronto. Owing to the steepness of the valley at York Mills, Yonge Street formerly made a considerable detour to the east. It now crosses the hollow in a bee line on a raised embankment constructed about the year 1835.

About a mile north of York Mills is the Village of Lansing, and a little further on is Willowdale. Here stood the residence of David Gibson, one of the leaders of the insurrection of 1837, which was burned by the militia, acting under the order of Sir Francis B. Head, after the defeat of the insurgents. Mr. Gibson was a surveyor and farmer, and at one time represented North York in the Provincial Parliament. After the rebellion he became a superintendent of Colonization Roads. His death occurred at Quebec in 1864. A short distance to the eastward from Willowdale is a noted camp meeting ground, on the lot formerly owned by Jacob Cummer, one of the early German pioneers. It was in the midst of a thick maple bush, and witnessed many characteristic scenes. Peter Jones, the celebrated Indian missionary, furnished in his autobiography the following description of one of the old-time religious gatherings held at this spot. Writing under date of the 10th of June, 1828, he says: “About noon I started for the camp ground; when we arrived we found about three hundred Indians collected from Lake Simcoe and Scugog Lake. Most of those from Lake Simcoe have just come in from the back lakes, to join with their converted brethren in the service of the Almighty God. They came in company with brother Law, and all seemed very glad to see us, giving us a hearty shake of the hand. The camp ground enclosed about two acres, which was surrounded with board tents, having one large gate for teams to go in and out and three smaller ones. The Indians occupied one large tent, which was 220 feet long and 15 feet broad. It was covered overhead with boards, and the sides were made tight with laths to make it secure from any encroachments. It had four doors fronting the camp ground. In this long house the Indians arranged themselves in families as is their custom in their wigwams. Divine service commenced towards evening. Elder Case first gave directions as to the order to be observed on the camp ground during the meeting. Brother James Richardson then preached from Acts II. 21., after which I gave the substance in Indian, when the brethren appeared much affected and interested. Prayer-meeting in the evening. The watch kept the place illuminated during the night.”

A mile or so north of Willowdale, and about the same distance south of the township line, is the little village of Newton Brook. The villages of East York are mostly of a suburban character, situated to the front of the township, within easy access of Toronto. The city now extends along the lake front eastward as far as the township line south of the Kingston Road. North of that thoroughfare, a short distance east of the present city limits, is the village of Leslieville, which took its name from Mr. George Leslie, one of the early inhabitants. The nursery of fruit trees established by him is the most notable feature of the locality. The Woodbine Driving Park is a little further on, on the south side of the Kingston Road. At this point, about two miles east of the Don River, the Kingston Road takes a north-easterly turn, leading to the Village of Norway. A short distance to the north-east of this is the new railway suburb of Little York, where the Grand Trunk Railway has constructed a large freight yard. The amount of railway business transacted at this point renders it probable that the population will increase rapidly, as a number of the employés have their homes here.

The villages of Doncaster and Todmorden lie within a short distance of each other on the east bank of the Don; the former being about half a mile lower down. The scenery of the Don, in this neighbourhood and for miles further up, is extremely picturesque. The Don winds through a broad valley, the bottom lands immediately adjoining the river, which are usually flooded in the spring time, yielding rich pasturage. The banks, which are thickly wooded, rise abruptly, sometimes from the water, but more often at a considerable distance. They are broken by ravines, where tributary streams unite their waters with the Don, and occasionally these bluffs enclose a wide space, giving an amphitheatre-like effect. The river pursues a serpentine course, but the general direction in ascending it is northward for about four miles, when it takes a turn to the east, the same characteristics being observable. About two miles above Todmorden is the Forks of the Don, where the river divides into three branches, the eastern, middle, and western streams. It is the western Don that crosses Yonge Street at York Mills. The neighbourhood of the Forks, where there is a small village, abounds in romantic scenery. Owing to the hilly and broken character of the land this section is not thickly settled, and much of it, especially along the water courses, remains heavily timbered. The wildness and beauty of the ravines, glens, and stretches of woodland, present attractions for the lover of nature not readily surpassed in this part of Canada.

The water-power in this neighbourhood was formerly utilized for milling and manufacturing purposes to a much greater extent than at present. On the east branch of the Don, or Scarborough Creek, as it is best known, there were at an early period three saw-mills, one built by William Hough, one by a man named Dark, and the other, further up the stream, by John Heron. These mills are all gone, leaving hardly a vestige of where they stood. A German, named Knotthardt, also erected a carding-mill on this stream, which has long since disappeared. The volume of the stream, once considerable, has greatly diminished, owing to the clearing of the country, and it is no longer available for milling uses. In the year 1817, Alexander Milna built a large mill, three stories in height, driven by an overshot wheel, eighteen feet in diameter, upon a creek tributary to the west branch of the Don. The two lower stories of the mill were used for carding and fulling, and the third story was a saw-mill. The water-power was shortly afterwards found to be insufficient, and Mr. Milna abandoned this location for a better one on the main branch of the Don, where a woollen factory and saw-mill were put up. Here an extensive new brick building was erected in 1879-80, by Alexander William Milna, a descendant of the original owner of the property. The old carding machine, used by Alexander Milna in the first mill, is preserved as an heirloom. The next saw-mill above Milna’s was at one time the property of John Hogg. It began operations about 1829, and was run for fifteen or twenty years. Above this site is William Gray’s grist-mill, with two run of stones, and Alexander Gray’s saw-mill. In the same neighbourhood there was formerly a distillery, owned and operated by James Gray. A saw-mill was built a little further up by Mr. Knotthardt, who committed suicide in 1840, the mill afterwards falling into the hands of James Hunter. It was rebuilt, a short distance further down stream, by J. Hunter & Sons, and in 1878 was destroyed by a flood. The firm has since erected a steam mill. Farther up, again, stood Stilwell Wilson’s mill, which was swept away by a flood caused by the bursting of a water-spout, about 1828. The property afterwards passed into the hands of Thomas Sheppard, who ran a grist-mill here for some time, until it was burned in 1869. Above this was a saw-mill constructed by Philip Phillips, and then a saw-mill and woollen-mill built and run by Mr. Cummer. His successors in the woollen manufacturing business were Mr. McIntosh and James L. Vroom, operations being discontinued about 1857. Cupper’s grist-mill came next. It was situated near the point where the German Mill Creek empties into the Don. A saw-mill was built on this creek by Mr. Davidson, and afterwards came into the possession of John Sellers, who ran it until about 1870. Further up the main Don was a saw-mill formerly belonging to Samuel Hamil, which was worked until about twenty years ago. The last mill on the stream, east of Yonge Street, is Brunskill’s grist-mill. A log grist-mill, built by W. Walker, stands just on the west side of the street.

On the lower Don, between the Forks and the city, are situated Taylor’s paper mills, one near Todmorden and the other a mile or so further up.

At an early period, the boats of the North-West Company en route to Lake Huron used to make their way up the western Don as far as Yonge Street, at the present locality of York Mills, where they were taken out of the water and carried on trucks to the Holland River. On the banks of the Don, fresh water shells have been found beneath a considerable thickness of sand, thirty feet above the lake level—which, in connection with other indications, are taken as evidence that the entire region has, at one time, been submerged. The Don and its tributaries are crossed in several places by the substantial bridges of the recently constructed Ontario and Quebec Railway which, skirting the northern limit of Toronto, strikes across the township in a north-easterly direction.

The Village of L’Amaroux is situated in the northern part of the township, near the Scarborough line. It is about nine miles from Toronto.

There are in all twenty-five public schools situated within the limits of the Township of York, all of which are under the jurisdiction of Mr. Hodgson, who has already been referred to as the Inspector of Public Schools for the South Riding. The most important of them are located as follows: No. 1, at Davisville, a short distance north of Mount Pleasant Cemetery; No. 2, at Eglington; No. 3, at York Mills; No. 4, at Willowdale; No. 5, at Newton Brook, near the northern outskirts of the township; No. 7, at Doncaster; No. 8, at Wexford, on the town-line between York and Scarborough; No. 9, near Don Post Office; No. 12, at L’Amaroux; No. 13, at Davenport; No. 14, on the second concession; No. 15, at Fairbanks; No. 16, between the second and third concessions, near Mr. Duncan’s; No. 17, at Down’s View, in the fourth concession; No. 18, on the fourth concession, but farther north than No. 17, and near Elia Post Office; No. 19, beyond Weston, near Emery Post Office; No. 20, at Norway; No. 21, at Weston; No. 25, at Seaton Village.

THE TOWNSHIP OF ETOBICOKE.

TOBICOKE Township, situated at the south-west corner of the county, is irregular in shape, and laid out in a fragmentary and unsystematic fashion. It fronts on Lake Ontario, having the Humber river as its eastern boundary. Its western limit is Etobicoke Creek and the Gore of Toronto in Peel County, and to the north lies the Township of Vaughan. It comprises 29,540 acres, being, with the exception of North Gwillimbury, the smallest township in the county. The northern portion, comprising about two-thirds, is laid out in concessions running north and south, the three western concessions being numbered, and the eastern ones known as A, B, and C. The southern portion is broken up into smaller rows of concessions, some numbered from west to east, and others running north and south, in a very confusing manner.

The etymology of the name Etobicoke is uncertain. It is usually supposed to be Indian, but on the earliest documents it appears as “Toby Cook.” In the Crown Lands Department there is preserved a map dated Newark, 1793, by Abraham Iredell, Assistant Deputy Surveyor, upon which has been written the following memorandum:—“The river Toby Cook is a rapid stream of water. The land in the bottom good, but much cut to pieces with the high water. On the rear boundary line from the river Toby Cook to the large stream of water on lot 15, the land is very good. From the stream to the north angle is a burr and pine plain; from thence to the said stream, from the stream to lot No. 9, burnt land, but tolerable good; from thence to the lake, good. The land west of the 100 acre lots on the line No. 16, W. is good to lot No. 7, but low land to No. 13, the other lots good.” “Toby Cook” appears to have been the customary spelling during the early days of settlement, as it is seen on several other maps, but in 1811 the name was given as it is now spelled, on an official plan, and since that time “Etobicoke” has been the recognized etymology. As no such person as Toby Cook is known either to history or tradition in connection with the locality, it is altogether probable that the first surveyors or settlers caught the Indian pronunciation imperfectly, and rendered it by this homely appellation as a matter of convenience, the true derivation being obscured by the spelling. The first settlement of the township took place about the beginning of the century. In 1795 the “militia lands” were laid out by Surveyor Iredell. Part of the boundary was marked out in 1797 by Mr. Augustus Jones. The following year a surveyor named Hambly undertook the work of survey, which was continued at various intervals by Messrs. Wilmot, Ridout, Hawkins and Castle, the latter completing the laying out of the township in the year 1838.

The earliest settlers of Etobicoke were the U. E. Loyalist refugees, who sought to build up homes in the wilderness, whose strong arms and stout hearts subdued the forest and dared the perils of an unknown and savage land. All honour to their memory! Those were indeed “the times that tried men’s souls.” Their descendants of to-day, in the midst of comfort and plenty, surrounded by the blessings of civilization, can hardly even picture to the imagination the rough and rude beginnings of our national greatness, the unbroken forest north of the great lakes, the arrival of the few travel-worn bands of emigrants whom the result of the revolutionary struggle had reft of home and possessions, often of their nearest and dearest. Old men, whom cruel war had robbed of the sons whom they fondly hoped would be the stay of their declining years, widows and orphans, youths barely grown to manhood, pushed out to battle with the perils and vicissitudes of an unknown region, together with those in the prime and vigour of maturer years, survivors of many a hard-fought field, who had laid down the sword or musket to assume the implements of peaceful industry and carve out homes and build up fortunes for themselves in the Canadian wilds. Such were the original elements of our flourishing and prosperous community.

They halt where the land seems richest and the position most favourable, and the forest echoes are awakened with three ringing cheers for King George. Then follows the bivouac around the camp fire, and the next day the woods ring to the unaccustomed sound of the axe, and many a tall tree topples to the ground with a resounding crash, letting the sun stream down on the thick underbrush through the ever-widening rifts in the canopy of green. Rude log-huts are built with chimneys of unhewn stone without plaster, and a single aperture to serve for door and window. The first crop is sown on the narrow clearing, thickly studded with stumps, and bounded on all sides by the straight grey columns of the tree trunks, charred by the burning of the brush heaps. Winter comes, and the pitiless storm drifts the snow in between the chinks of the logs, and the howl of the wolves is heard at nights. There is scant store of provisions, and the skill of the hunter must supplement the shortness of the crop. There is sickness, and accident, and death. Ofttimes the settler is crushed and mangled by falling timber or prostrated by fever, and the medical appliances are of the rudest. And so the stern contest with nature goes on until the clearings widen and the forest retreats, until glimpses of the smoke rising from adjoining cabins bring a sense of neighbourhood and closer association. The old Indian trail through the bush is widened into a wagon track. New waves of population follow. The original log cabins give place to larger and more commodious structures. The itinerant preacher comes along, and his visit is hailed with joy as a harbinger of gospel privileges of which the settlers have so long been deprived. He marries half a dozen waiting couples who have delayed their union for perhaps years until such an opportunity should present itself, and admits to the visible Church on earth as many young native Canadians, the first-born of the settlement. It is a great day when a small church of logs is erected, and a settled minister secured. And so here and there population crystallizes around centres, the embryo towns and villages, and the first struggles and perils and inconveniences of the pioneers are over. These struggles, these hardships of which we, their descendants or successors, reap the benefit in such ample measure, should never be forgotten by Canadians.

One of the earliest grantees in Etobicoke was Colonel Smith, of the Queen’s Rangers, who received a large tract of land which now forms the 4th and 5th concessions of the southern portion of the township. Colonel Smith was for some time President of the Province of Upper Canada. Gourlay, in his “Statistical Account of Upper Canada,” thus speaks of Colonel Smith’s homestead on the Lake shore, in the neighbourhood of the River Etobicoke:—“I shall describe the residence and neighbourhood of the President of Upper Canada from remembrance, journeying past it on my way to York from the westward by what is called the Lake Road, through Etobicoke. For many miles not a house had appeared, when I came to that of Col. Smith, lonely and desolate. It had once been genteel and comfortable, but was now going to decay. A vista had been opened through the woods towards Lake Ontario; but the riotous and dangling undergrowth seemed threatening to retake possession from the Colonel of all that had once been cleared, which was of narrow compass. How could a solitary half-pay officer help himself settled down upon a block of land whose very extent barred out the assistance and convenience of neighbours? Not a living thing was to be seen around. How different it might be, thought I, were a hundred industrious families compactly settled here out of the redundant population of England.” The writer continues to narrate how he lost his way in the woods, owing to the disappearance of the road a short distance beyond the President’s house, in a bank of gravel thrown up at the mouth of the Etobicoke. He gave his horse the rein, and let him take his own way. “Abundant time,” he says, “was afforded for reflection on the wretched state of property flung away on half-pay officers. Here was the head man of the Province ‘born to blush unseen,’ without even a tolerable bridle way between him and the capital city, after more than twenty years’ possession of his domain. The very gravel bed which caused me such turmoil might have made a turnpike, but what can be done by a single hand? The President could do little with the axe or wheelbarrow himself, and half-pay could employ but few labourers at 3s. 6d. per day, with victuals and drink.”

Colonel Smith, however, showed a good deal of public spirit in some directions. He did something towards improving the breed of horses, spending considerable amounts in the importation of blood stock from the United States.

Among the original patentees of Etobicoke were the following, their patents bearing date in the respective years indicated:—

1798—Sergeant Patrick Mealy.

1799—Thomas Tivy, Joseph Hunt, James Hunt.

1800—James Crawford, Thomas Moseley.

1801—Francis Bark, Barnabas McGrevie, George Bender, Abraham Cameron, Christian Chisholm, Adam Baker, Jr., William Hooten, Francis Stevenson, John Doggert, Leah T. Gamble, William Clarke, Ann Christie, Catherine Magdalen Gamble, Eliza Christie, William Calder.

1802—Hon. Robert Hamilton, John Gamble, Richard Wilson, S. Stevenson, A. Brigham, B. William.

1803—Isaac Pilkington, Samuel Giles, Alexander Thomson, Michael Miller, Dan Laughlin.

1804—Robert Gray, George McDonald, John Berry, Daniel Stewart, J. Doggert.

1805—Isaac Mitchell.

1806—Robert Richardson, John Gould, John Claus, Samuel Smith, John Thorn.

1807—Andrew Morrow, Gerhard Himck, Thomas B. Gough, Moses Dewar, Dorothy Arnold.

1809—Eleonora Moore, Elizabeth Moore, L. Stevenson.

1810—Simcoe Stevenson, Elizabeth Stevenson, Eleonora Stevenson, Harriet Hainer.

1811—William Halton, Robert Gray.

1815—Sarah Powell, T. H. Stevenson.

1817—Christopher Widmer.

Among others who also received patents at an early date in the history of the township were John Campbell, Caleb Humphrey, Edward Heazzel, John Vanzantee, Esther Burden Davison, Joseph Shaw, George Gowland and Thomas Whitaker. The Canada Company, King’s College and Christ Church, also obtained extensive grants.

No records of the township meetings prior to 1850 have been preserved. At the first meeting in that year, the township was divided into five wards. The following were elected members of the Council by the meeting:—Moses Appleby, Thomas Fisher, William Gamble, William B. Wadsworth and John Geddes. At a subsequent meeting held on the 21st January, the Council was organized by the election of William Gamble as Reeve, and William B. Wadsworth as Deputy-Reeve. Edward Musson was afterwards chosen Township Clerk. A report presented to the Council by Mr. Thomas J. Hodgkin, Superintendent of Common Schools, shows that at this date there were eight school sections in the township, in seven of which schools were established. The report complains of defective school requisites. The number of scholars on the roll between the ages of five and sixteen years was 333, besides ten above school age, two-thirds of the whole number being boys. Only one of the schools was free. Of the scholars, 214 could write, 13 were studying French and 8 taking Latin lessons. The expenditure of the year was as follows:—For bridges, £98. 11s. 4½d.; printing and stationery, £21. 1s. 3½d.; school assessments, £179; contingencies, £20. 13s. 7d.; salaries, £75. 6s. 1½d.; school funds, £89. 0s. 9d.; cash in hand, £179. 15s. 8½d.

In 1851, the Council consisted of Moses Appleby, Alex. McFarlane, Andrew Ward, Joseph Smith and John Geddes. Joseph Smith was elected Reeve, Andrew Ward, Deputy-Reeve, and John R. Bagnell, Clerk and Treasurer. Mr. Smith retained the Reeveship till 1855, in which year he was succeeded by Alexander McFarlane, who in 1858 gave place to Edward Musson. The latter occupied the position continuously for seven years until 1864. W. A. Wallis and Matthew Canning are among those who have since held the Reeveship. Andrew Ward first chosen Deputy-Reeve in 1851, retained that office for five years, William M. Ross succeeding him in 1856, and giving place to W. A. Wallis two years later. Since then the Deputy-Reeveship has been filled by W. B. Wadsworth, Matthew Canning, W. Taylor, P. Wardlaw, E. C. Fisher, Jonathan Orth, Robert Willcock, and others. In 1855, Joseph Dawson was chosen Township Clerk and Treasurer, being succeeded by William R. Scott in 1861, who held the office for three years. In 1864, Alexander McPherson was appointed and has filled the position ever since. The following are the principal municipal officials for 1884: Matthew Canning, Islington, Reeve, J. D. Evans, Islington, Deputy-Reeve; Daniel F. Homer, Mimico, James Kellam, Highfield, and James A. Young, Weston, Councillors; Adam F. Mather, Islington and John F. Hill, Weston, Assessors.

The soil of Etobicoke consists of heavy clay, and clay loam, in the northern section, and sandy loam and sand in the southern division, black loam being distributed over the township. About 25 per cent. of the area is heavy clay, eight inches deep, with an argillaceous subsoil. About equal proportions consist respectively of clay loam, eleven inches in depth, and sandy loam of the depth of one foot, with a clayey subsoil in both cases. Perhaps 10 per cent. is sand, and varying in depth, and 15 per cent. black loam, two feet or so above a stratum of sand and clay. None is too stony to interfere with remunerative cultivation, and only about 1 per cent. objectionably hilly in character. Ten per cent. is rolling land, and the low flat land is not more than 2 per cent. of the total area. An unusual proportion of the acreage of this township can be classified as first-class land, four-fifths being of this quality; 19 per cent. is of second-class quality, and only 1 per cent., third-class. The average price it will bring in the market for agricultural purposes is $80 per acre for first-class, and $60 for second-class land. The township is well watered, and where the springs and creeks do not furnish a supply, water can be reached by digging at a depth varying from 10 to 40 feet. Many of the farms are fenced in first-class style, rail and board fences being the kinds most generally adopted. Three-fourths of the dwellings and the outbuildings of the farms are constructed of brick or stone, or rank as first-class frame buildings. Drainage is not practised to any considerable extent, only 3 per cent. of the farms being drained. Artificial fertilizers are in use upon about one-tenth of the farms, plaster, salt and superphosphate being the kinds generally employed.

The proportion of land devoted to the staple crops is as follows: Fall wheat, 15 per cent.; spring wheat, 5 per cent.; barley, 20 per cent.; oats, 10 per cent.; peas, 5 per cent.; potatoes, 3 per cent.; turnips, 1 per cent.; other root crops, 1 per cent., and hay 15 per cent. Twenty-two per cent. is pasture land, which is a larger proportion than in any other township in the county, and 3 per cent. devoted to fruit raising. The following is the average yield per acre:—Fall wheat, 20 bushels; spring wheat, 15 bushels; barley, 30 bushels; oats, 40 bushels; peas, 20 bushels; potatoes, 100 bushels; turnips, 300 bushels; other root crops, 500 bushels; hay, a ton and a-half. A large proportion of the land is still timbered; the woods consisting mainly of beech, maple, elm, basswood, and pine. There are three flouring mills in the township. In 1881, the number of cattle was, 1887; of horses, 1257; of sheep, 1277; and of hogs, 826. A good deal of imported stock has been introduced. The breeds of stock most extensively raised are draught horses, Durham grade, Devon cattle, sheep of the Cotswold and Leicester breeds, and Suffolk and Berkshire hogs.

In 1850, the population of the township was 2,904—it contained five grist and seven saw mills, and the crop returns for the previous year were: 82,000 bushels of wheat, 16,000 bushels of barley, 41,000 bushels of oats, 20,000 bushels of peas, 25,000 bushels of potatoes, 11,000 pounds of wool, 4,000 pounds of cheese, and 24,000 pounds of butter. Since that time, the population has been almost stationary. In 1871, the inhabitants numbered 2,985, and the census of 1881 gives the number at 2,976. Of this number, 2,137 were native Canadians. The number of occupiers of land was 425, of whom 254 were the owners of the soil. The total area occupied amounted to 28,527 acres, of which 24,801 was improved land. The area in cultivation for field crops included 19,435 acres—4,319 acres were devoted to pasturage, and 1,047 to gardens and orchards.

The staple agricultural products were returned as follows:—Wheat, 58,245 bushels; barley, 90,305 bushels; oats, 104,791 bushels; peas and beans, 15,766 bushels; potatoes, 92,905 bushels; turnips, 50,000 bushels; other root crops, 41,705 bushels; hay, 5,394 tons.

A saw-mill was constructed by the Government about the year 1795 on the Etobicoke side of the Humber, about two miles and a-half from the lake. The work was done by a mill-wright named Nicholas Miller, who was brought from New York State for the purpose. The mill, which was built partly of logs and partly of boards, was run successfully by parties named Jillson, Cushman, and Stile Stephenson, who either rented it or were employed by the Government, it is not certain which. About 1820 the mill and twelve hundred acres of land were leased to Mr. Thomas Fisher at a low rent, but he soon afterwards gave up the greater portion of the land. The mill was purchased by Mr. William Gamble in 1835, and the year following he erected on the site a five-story stone flour-mill with six run of stones. The supplies for the mill were carried up from the mouth of the river in barges, and the flour shipped in the same way. Mr. Gamble afterwards built a wharf and storehouse near the entrance of the Humber.

In 1835, a four-story flour-mill was erected by Mr. Fisher on the Etobicoke side of the present village of Lambton. It was partly stone and partly frame, and was burned down in 1843. It was, however, rebuilt the following year, and leased to the Howland brothers. The dam was washed away by a flood in 1878. In 1880 the property was purchased by George Smith, who made extensive additions, and fitted up the mill for the woollen manufacture. Near this point a carding and fulling mill was constructed in 1820, which underwent several changes in proprietorship as well as in the uses to which it was put. Mr. James Williams was the owner about 1867, since which time it has not been in operation. About a mile above Lambton a saw-mill was erected by Samuel Scarlet, in 1854. It was destroyed by fire six years later, but soon rebuilt. The property was purchased by George Stonehouse in 1875. Half a mile or so higher up stream John Scarlet, father of Samuel Scarlet, put up a saw-mill, in 1831, and also partly constructed two flour-mills in the immediate neighbourhood. The saw-mill and a quantity of adjacent land passed to his son Edward, and in 1871 the mill became the property of Mr. Matthew Canning.

Market gardening is carried on to a considerable extent in the south-eastern portion of the township, the markets of Toronto affording a ready sale for vegetables and fruit. There are excellent railway facilities, especially in the southern portion of the township. The Great Western branch of the Grand Trunk runs within a short distance of the lake, east and west. It has a station near the Village of Mimico, a pleasure resort about a mile and a half west from the Humber, where many of the Torontonians have summer residences. The spot is a favourite one for picnics and excursion parties. At this point the Mimico River enters the lake, and the beauties of the scenery along its banks and in the neighbourhood of the lake shore are greatly appreciated by pleasure-seekers.

The Credit Valley Railway strikes the township at Lambton, about two miles north of the Great Western branch, and traverses it in a south-westerly direction, parallel for most of the distance with the Dundas Road. About a mile from Lambton, on the Dundas Road, is the Village of Islington, where the agricultural exhibitions of the township are held. Two miles further west, partly in Etobicoke and partly in the adjoining Township of Toronto, in Peel County, is the Village of Summerville.

The main line of the Grand Trunk runs west from Weston. The Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway runs northward from the latter point to within about a mile from the northern boundary of the township, when it deflects to the north-west. The principal villages in the northern portion of the township are Clairville, in the extreme north-western angle; Smithfield, about two miles to the south-east; and Thistletown, a mile and a-half further in the same direction. These are all connected by a road running from Weston northward for a mile or so, and then crossing the Humber and running north-west to Clairville. Highfield is situated about a mile from the western boundary, and a short distance north of the Grand Trunk main line.

There are, in all, ten public schools within the limits of the Township of Etobicoke. Their respective situations are shown by the following table:—

THE TOWNSHIP OF SCARBOROUGH

CARBOROUGH Township is situated at the south-eastern corner of the county. It comprises nine concessions, of which, however, only five extend to the eastern limit of the county, the rest being broken by the water front, which slopes inwards from the western side-line. The broken concessions are known as A, B, C and D, the remaining ones being numbered. The front of the township was surveyed in 1791 by Mr. Augustus Jones, the name then given it being “Glasgow.” It is bounded on the north by the Township of Markham, on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by Pickering, in the adjoining County of Ontario, and on the west by York. The concession lines were not run until the year 1833, when the laying out of the township was continued by Mr. Galbraith, P.L.S. In 1850 the western boundary was fixed by Messrs. William Smith and John Shier, Provincial Land Surveyors, and in 1854 the eastern limit was established by Mr. John Shier, P.L.S. The Boundary Line Commissioners fixed the northern limits of the townships. There are many irregularities in the laying out of this township, owing to the surveys having been made by different parties at long intervals, whereby some of the original landmarks were destroyed or lost sight of. Mr. F. F. Passmore, P.L.S., in 1864 presented a report to the Township Council in connection with a map of a re-survey, in which he stated that there were at that time, exclusive of the exterior road between the township and its neighbours, 126 side-roads, many of them well opened up and travelled. The soil of the southern portion of Scarborough is light and sandy, as indicated by the considerable quantity of pine timber intermixed with the hardwood growths. In the central and northern sections the soil is heavier and better adapted for agriculture, the timber being nearly all hardwood. The township is abundantly watered, and the land is generally undulating, excepting in the neighbourhood of Highland Creek and the River Rouge, the banks of which are steep and rugged. In the southern part of the township there are extensive beds of clay, suitable for brick-making purposes, generally overlaid by sand several feet in depth. The geological characteristics of the township are not of much interest, presenting but little variety. Two springs on the 16th lot of the 4th concession have a local reputation for their mineral properties. Their waters give, by boiling, a small amount of earthy carbonate, but even when evaporated to one-tenth they have no marked taste. They contain, in addition, only sulphate of lime with traces of chloride. Sandstone of the Hudson River formation is met with along the banks of the streams near the lake shore.

Traces of the large aboriginal population which occupied the western portion of this township, but disappeared before the advent of the white settlers, are frequently discovered. Their principal settlement appears to have been near the mouth of the River Rouge, where the site of what was once a considerable Indian village was indicated by the remains of the logs which formed a wooden palisade surrounding their habitations. Here have been discovered from time to time a variety of Indian relics, which, in the opinion of scientists, show a continuous residence on the spot for at least a century. Some have all the characteristics of the stone age, and mixed with the rude weapons and implements of “native industry” are those of copper and iron, and also glass beads, which were probably obtained by intercourse with the early French voyageurs and traders. These relics of a vanished race were found intermixed with ashes and charcoal. A few yards from the site of the village a number of graves containing aboriginal remains were discovered.

In the immediate proximity of this site, and near the present villages of Greenvale and Claremont, in the adjoining Township of Pickering, other Indian relics have been found in considerable quantity, showing that aboriginal villages once existed in those localities. At the site near Claremont, a large Indian burying-ground was found. These ancient settlements were connected with the one in Scarborough, and all are believed to have belonged to the once powerful Huron nation.

The first patents to land in Scarborough were granted in 1796. The following are among the original patentees for the years indicated:—

1796—Capt. William Mayne, John White.

1797—James Hoghbelling, John McGill, William Eadus and others, George Irvine, Amos Merritt, Eliza Small, John Hewitt.

1798—Joseph Ketchum, Dorcas Kendrick, James Malloy, Capt. William Demont, James Ketchem, Owen McGrath, Elizabeth Davis, James Whitton, Elizabeth Vanderlip, James Thompson.

1799—Sarah Ashbridge, David Fleming, Jonathan Ashbridge, John Adair, Andrew Templeton, William Osterhout, Nicholas Smith, Thomas Hewitt, Elias Thompson, John Weaver, James Eliot, David Robertson, Samuel Heron, Martin Buckner, Ephraim Payen, Susannah Harris, John Segar, John Markly, Richard Hatt, Andrew Johnston, Archibald Thompson, John Henry Kahman, Eliphalet Hale, Eliza Small, Margaret Ryckman, Richard Flock, Eva Bradt, Lieut. Miles McDonnell, Barnabas Eddy, Azariah Lundy.

1801—Parshall Terry, jun’r, Ellis Dennis, Samuel Heron, Robert Isaac, Dey Gray, John Smith, John Wintermute, John Robert Small.

1802—Submission Galloway, Parker Mills, Robert Tait, Nipporah Robuck, Jacob Fisher, Nicholas Macdougal, David Thompson, Andrew Thompson.

1803—William Devenish, Valentine Fisher.

1804—John Macdougal.

1805—E. Osterhout, Donald McLean.

1806—John Richardson, Alexander McDonnell.

1807—Pelva Cole.

1809—Thomas Cornwell.

1810—Henry Webster, John Robert Small.

1811—Andrew Mercer, James Osburn.

1812—Peter Reesor, Benjamin W. Eaton, George Kuck, Helen Fenwick, John Kennedy, sen’r.

In addition to the patents issued to individuals, King’s College and the Canada Company appear among the early grantees. Many of the names given above are largely represented among the present inhabitants of the township.

No very early municipal records have been preserved, the year 1848 being as far back as the documents now extant reach. In the memorandum of proceedings for that year, the following names of electors are subscribed to a declaration that “We, the undersigned, do sincerely promise and swear that we will faithfully and diligently perform the duties for which we are appointed for the current year”—Joseph Pilkey, George Snider, Adam Walton, William Kennedy, William Fawcett, sen’r, William Mason, Thomas Kennedy, Medley Robinson, Daniel Kennedy, George Galway, John Palmer, John Warren, Isaac Christie, Timothy Devenish, John Richardson, Alexander Wilson, George Stephenson, Abraham Stoner, William Young, William Richardson, William Westeny, William Anthony, James Saw, Isaac Stoner, Thomas Adams, Thomas Booth, King Parkes, James Peters, William Chamberlain, Marshall Macklin, Thomas Adams, jun’r, Isaac Sëcor, William A. Thompson, James A. Thompson, James Johnson, John Sherburn, James Spring, Thomas Brown, John Wilson, John Law, William Nelson, Robert Jackson, Andrew Potter, and Thomas Demma. The first meeting of the “Municipal Corporation” of the township was held at Thomas Dowswell’s tavern, on the 21st of January, 1850, on which occasion were present, Peter Sëcor, reeve; John P. Wheeler, deputy-reeve; William Helliwell, Christopher Thompson and Edward Connell. The following year Mr. Wheeler attained the reeveship, and Thomas Brown was elected deputy-reeve, and Stephen Glosson, clerk. In 1854, John Torrance became reeve, and William Clark, deputy-reeve. Mr. Wheeler was again chosen reeve in 1855, and filled the office for ten years in succession. During three years of this period, 1861-3, he was warden of the county. Among those who have held the reeveship are Donald G. Stephenson, Thomas Brown and George Chester. The deputy-reeveship has numbered among its incumbents John Crawford, Simon Miller and William Tredway. From 1856 to 1865 James Moyle officiated as township clerk. He was succeeded by John Crawford, who still holds that position. The other leading municipal officials for 1884 are: Reeve, John Richardson; 1st deputy-reeve, A. M. Sëcor; 2nd deputy-reeve, George Morgan.

In 1842 Scarborough contained 2,750 inhabitants, and had one grist-mill and eighteen saw-mills. The enumeration taken in 1850 showed that its progress had been very marked, the number having increased to 3,821. It had then three grist-mills and twenty-three saw-mills, and its agricultural products from the crop of 1849 were as follows: 90,000 bushels of wheat, 101,000 bushels of oats, 29,000 bushels of peas, 56,000 bushels of potatoes, 5,000 bushels of turnips, 3,700 tons of hay, 14,000 pounds of wool, 12,000 pounds of cheese, and 35,000 pounds of butter. The returns of the latest Dominion census, taken in 1881, show a large increase in the productive capacity of the township. The leading items are as follows: Wheat, 85,595 bushels; barley, 132,870 bushels; oats, 160,474 bushels; peas and beans, 35,280 bushels; potatoes, 114,838 bushels; turnips, 283,670 bushels; other root crops, 125,839 bushels; hay, 10,510 tons.

Latterly there has been a falling off in the population of the township, largely owing to the considerable emigration to the North-West, which has drawn away many of the young men. The population in 1871 numbered 4,615, in 1881 it had decreased to 4,208. The census of the latter year gives the number of occupiers of land at 588, of whom 412 were also owners. The total acreage occupied was 43,634, of which 36,225 acres were improved. Of this, 28,065 acres were devoted to field crops, 6,892 acres to pasturage, and 1,268 were laid out in gardens and orchards.

Of the total population, 3,233, or more than three-fourths, are of Canadian birth, though mostly of recent British origin, as the U. E. Loyalist element in the population is small. Smith’s “Canada, Past, Present and Future” says on this point: “The Township of Scarborough is said to be occupied almost exclusively by natives of the British Isles, who have obtained some considerable degree of local celebrity as ploughmen.” It is interesting to note that after the lapse of a generation the yeomen of Scarborough still retain their well-won pre-eminence in this department, notwithstanding many a well-contested match in which the representatives of other townships have sought to wrest their honours from them. Mr. James Patton, residing near Scarborough Junction, is the pioneer ploughman of the county, and one of the most active in promoting competitions. On the 17th of June, 1884, the veteran ploughman was presented with an address and testimonial, in recognition of his services in promoting the cause of prize ploughing.

The report of the Ontario Agricultural Commission furnishes some valuable details respecting the condition of agriculture in the township. The report states that the area was all settled in about forty years after the entrance of the first settlers in 1798. The general character of the soil is described as a clay loam, but about one-nineteenth is a heavy clay, and ten per cent. in the middle of the township is a sandy loam; there is a little gravel which is considerably scattered, and about ten per cent. of the soil is black loam; none of the land is too stony or rocky to be profitably cultivated, but about one-fourth is so hilly as to interfere with tillage; the remaining three-fourths is rolling land. Only about one-fortieth is low, bottom lands, one-fourteenth swampy, and one-fifteenth wet and springy. One-half the total area is considered first-class land, the quantity of second and third class being estimated at one-quarter each. Water is obtainable, by digging, at from fourteen to ninety feet. The average price of land is from $80 to $110 per acre for first-class land, from $50 to $80 for second-class, and from $10 to $50 for the third-class quality. About half the land is under first-class fences, the material employed being generally rails and posts. Two-thirds of the dwellings are of brick, stone, or first-class frame, the remaining one-third being log or inferior frame. Two-thirds of the out-buildings are also reckoned first-class. A third of the farms are under-drained, principally by means of tile drains.

The acreage devoted to the leading crops, and the average yield of those crops per acre, as nearly as can be estimated, are given as follows:—Fall wheat, 5 per cent., 20 bushels; spring wheat, 10 per cent., 10 bushels; barley, 12 per cent., 30 bushels; oats, 10 per cent., 45 bushels; peas, 5 per cent., 20 bushels; potatoes, 2 per cent., 130 bushels; turnips, 2 per cent., 500 bushels; other root crops, 1 per cent., 500 bushels; hay, 20 per cent., 1½ tons per acre; 15 per cent. is in pasture lands, and 3 per cent. in orchards. The portion of the township about the flats and banks of the Rouge River and Highland Creek are pronounced better adapted for stock raising than for grain-growing purposes. The kinds of stock most extensively raised are Clydesdale horses, Durham and Ayrshire cattle, Cotswold sheep and Berkshire pigs. A good many of the Clydesdale horses are imported stock. Among the principal owners of thoroughbred stock are John Little, Alexander Neilson, J. and J. Neilson, Stephen Westney, William Westney, John Crawford, William Crawford, and John Lawrie. The proportion of the township still under timber is estimated at about eight or ten acres to the hundred. The principal varieties of timber are cedar, maple, beech, and pine. The exact number of acres is 43,019½, of which 33,760 are cleared. The cattle number 2,371, the horses 2,198, the sheep 951, and the hogs 1,329.

The township is well traversed by highways and railroads, securing the farmers a ready access to the leading markets. The Kingston Road, the old thoroughfare between Toronto and Kingston, runs along the front of the township near the lake shore in the western portion, but striking further inland as it proceeds eastward. The scenery in the neighbourhood of Scarborough Heights, which lie between the road and the lake-shore, near the eastern boundary of the township, is extremely wild and romantic. The Heights, which are about 320 feet above the level of the lake, present an extensive view over the water and surrounding country. They form a thickly wooded elevation, and their masses of foliage rising from the shore present a beautiful view from the lake. There is a steep ravine to the west of the Heights, encircled on every side by densely timbered banks, abounding in swampy recesses where ferns, mosses, and creepers of all sorts grow in rank luxuriance. It is a charming and delightful spot to all lovers of picturesque natural scenery. Within a short distance is Victoria Park, one of the most pleasant and popular of the summer resorts of Toronto, which is within an hour’s sail of the city, and throughout the summer attracts large numbers of pleasure-seekers and wearied citizens in search of a brief respite from the toil and worry of urban life. There is a broad, sandy, shelving beach, running back to a high clay bluff. The front portion consists of a smooth, grassy expanse, fringed with trees, overlooking the lake. A summer hotel and pavilion have been provided for the accommodation of the public. To the rear is the park proper, sloping gradually upwards, retaining most of the natural characteristics of the forest, excepting that the underbrush has been cleared away in places, and winding paths have been made in every direction. The country outside of the Park presents attractions of which many of the wealthier citizens of Toronto have availed themselves, a number of summer residences having been built in the neighbourhood.

Scarborough Village is situated in concession D, about midway between the eastern and western limits of the township. It is distant about ten miles from Toronto, and has a population somewhere in the neighbourhood of three hundred. It is an attractive and pleasant neighbourhood. A more considerable village, four miles further east on the Kingston Road, is Highland Creek, situated on the stream from which it takes its name. It has a population of about six hundred. The Danforth Road enters the township about one mile north of the lake shore, and runs in a north-easterly direction through the small Village of Danforth, from which it takes its name, until the Village of Woburn is reached, which is situated about one mile due north of Scarborough Village, on the road to Markham. The Danforth Road then takes a southward turn to Highland Creek. Malvern Village is the most central in the township, and Armadale is located near the northern boundary. The Grand Trunk Railway, in the western part of the township, runs for some distance almost parallel to the Kingston Road, about half to three-quarters of a mile to the north of it, but crosses it near Scarborough Village, and reaches the lake shore and the township boundary at the Village of Port Union. At Scarborough Junction, about a mile and a half north of the lake, the Toronto and Nipissing Railway diverges from the Grand Trunk, and crosses the township due north and south at a distance of about two miles from its western line. The Ontario and Quebec Railway, which was opened for traffic on the 11th of August, 1884, traverses Scarborough in a north-easterly direction, having a station at the Village of Agincourt, near the centre of the township.

Scarborough possesses a flourishing Mechanics’ Institute, the head-quarters of which are at the Village of Ellesmere, in the western part of the township. It was established on the 7th of April, 1834, being then known as the “Scarborough Subscription Library.” The following were the first subscribers:—J. George, T. Patterson, A. Johnston, A. Glendinning, Wm. Glendinning, S. Thomson, F. Johnston, W. D. Thomson, J. Thom, J. Gibson, S. Cornell, C. Thomson, J. Brownlee, Wm. Forfar, jun’r., Wm. Paterson, James A. Thomson, G. Scott, D. Brown, T. Brown, R. Hamilton, Wm. Hood, J. Muir, R. D. Hamilton, A. Bell, J. Stobo, D. Graham, J. Davidson, J. Findlay, Wm. Elliott, J. Elliott, J. Tingle, Alex. Jackson, A. Patterson, T. Whiteside, J. Martin, George Thomson, J. Glendinning, John Thornbeck, B. Ferguson, M. Macklem, R. Tackett, Wm. Crone, T. Walton, sen’r., Wm. Findlay, Wm. Scott, J. Carmichael. The entrance fee was fixed at five shillings currency, and the annual subscription at the same figure. A general meeting was held half-yearly for the purpose of choosing managers, inspecting books, and deciding upon additions to the library. A substantial frame building was erected in 1846, which is still in good repair. The Institute was incorporated in 1878, at which time the library comprised 1,108 volumes in good condition. No public aid was received until 1879, when a Government grant of $400 was voted to the Institute; and in 1880 a grant of $25 was made by the Township Council. There are 1,737 volumes in the library of the Institute, which has a membership of about sixty. The number of volumes issued last official year was 1,825. The total amount of Government grants paid the Institute from 1879 to 1883 amount to $560.64. The Government Inspector in his last official report bears the following strong testimony to the admirable condition and efficiency of this important factor in the diffusion of intelligence among the people of Scarborough:—“The books are well-arranged. I know of no library anywhere that is better kept. It is really a credit to the municipality and its managers.” The office of librarian was held by David Martin from 1852 until 1882, when he was succeeded by Sidney C. Thomson. There are few, if any, rural communities in Canada where a public library has been so successfully carried on for a lengthened period, and the fact speaks very highly for the intelligence and public spirit of the people of Scarborough.

The Township of Scarborough contains eleven public schools, the situations of which are apparent from the following table:—

THE TOWNSHIP OF MARKHAM.

ARKHAM is situated east of Yonge Street, which forms the boundary between it and Vaughan, and north of the Township of Scarborough. It comprises 67,578 acres. It was first settled about the year 1790, some years before any survey was made. It was partially surveyed in 1794, being the third township in the county marked out. In laying out the township Yonge Street was made the base line. There are ten concessions fronting on Yonge Street, each comprising thirty-five lots, the township being almost a square, excepting the eastern line, which is also the boundary of the county, and does not run parallel with the concession lines. Some of the lots in the 10th concession are consequently deficient in area.

The general character of the soil of the township is argillaceous. About one-fifth of the area lying in the north of the township is heavy clay. A belt of sandy loam, being about one-tenth of the acreage, runs through the centre, and the southern section, being about three-fifths of the whole, is clay loam. Black loam tracts are interspersed in the flats of the Don and Rouge Rivers, amounting to one-tenth of the area. The soil is principally undulating in character, and nearly all cultivable, four-fifths of it being considered first-class land, the average price of which is $80 per acre. Second-class land is valued at $60. Water is obtainable, by digging, at an average depth of thirty feet.

Though a few scattered pioneers had here and there taken up land before that date, there was no systematic attempt at settlement until 1794, when a number of Germans came over from the United States, under the leadership of William Berczy. Governor Simcoe, believing that many U. E. Loyalist families still remained in the United States who would be glad of an opportunity to settle in Canada if encouraged to do so by offers of land, held out inducements which were responded to by a good many, who were not actuated so much by the motive of establishing themselves under the rule of King George, as of securing land grants. Among these were sixty-four families of Germans who had but recently arrived from Hamburg, having been brought out by agents to locate on “Captain Williamson’s Demesne,” or, as it was also called, the Pulteney Settlement, in New York State. Here they would have been in the position of tenants, under the “patroon” system then prevailing in New York. The prospect of owning their own farms in Canada was more inviting, and, in the face of great difficulties, they made their way to Markham. There were then no roads and no stores; supplies had to be procured from the south of the lakes; some few articles could be got at Niagara, but nearly everything required in the way of tools, farm implements and provisions had to be brought from the settlements in New York State. York was then a mere hamlet. Yonge Street did not exist, though the line had been marked out. But Berczy, the leader of the expedition, was a man of indomitable energy and boundless resource. He had, during his residence in the United States, constructed a wagon road all the way from Philadelphia to Lake Ontario, and under his direction the immigrants cut their way through the unbroken forest, and made a wagon track from York to the southern portion of Markham, which, winding in and out among the trees, marked the beginning of Yonge Street. Over this primitive road they set out on the journey from York with their families and household effects. Their wagons were ingeniously contrived so that they could be used as boats on an emergency. Made of closely fitting boards with the seams caulked, the body of the vehicle being removed from the carriage could be floated across small bodies of water, carrying a considerable load. Thus they crossed the Don and other streams in their journey. Where the banks were steep they lowered their wagons down the declivity by ropes passed round the trunks of saplings, and pulled them up on the opposite side in a similar manner. They settled on the banks of the Rouge, sometimes known as the Nen River, which they at first supposed to be a tributary of the Don, but on following it to its outlet they discovered that instead of leading to York it entered the lake nearly twenty miles to the eastward. This route afforded them easier access to the front than Yonge Street in its primitive condition, and for many years it was the one mainly in use.

The first saw and grist mills in York County were built by William Berczy in the early days of settlement. They were situated on the River Rouge, on lot No. 4, in the 3rd concession, and were known as the German Mills. The Gazetteer, in 1799, in referring to the Township of Markham, mentions it as having “good mills, and a thriving settlement of Germans.” It may be mentioned here that the two first white children born in the township were John Stivers and Henry Elson, whose parents came in with Berczy’s party.

Berczy became greatly embarrassed in his circumstances, and was discouraged by the treatment he met with at the hands of the Government. The pledges under which the project of settlement was put into execution were not fulfilled as he had expected, and in 1799 he withdrew from the enterprise, and took up his residence in Montreal. His losses in connection with the settlement of Markham were stated at £30,000. Ultimately he returned to the States, and died in New York in 1813. In the year 1805 the mills were advertised in the Gazette for sale. They were purchased by Captain Nolan, of the 70th Regiment, which was then stationed in Canada, but his venture was not successful. In the Gazette of March 19th, 1818, the following advertisement appears: “Notice—The German Mill and Distillery are now in operation. For the proprietors, Alexander Patterson, Clerk.” The mills were again offered for sale ten years subsequently. The U. E. Loyalist of April 5th, 1828, contains the following advertisement relating to them: “For Sale or to be Leased—All or any part of the property known and described as Nolanville or German Mills, in the 3rd concession of the Township of Markham, consisting of 400 acres of land; upwards of fifty under good fences and improvements, with a good dwelling-house, barn, stable, saw-mill, grist-mill, distillery, brew-house, malt-house, and several other out-buildings. The above premises will be disposed of, either the whole or in part, by application to the subscriber, William Allan, York, January 26th, 1828. The premises can be viewed at any time by applying to Mr. John Duggan, residing there.” The Mills formed for long the nucleus of early settlement, the road lying between this point and Yonge Street being a well-travelled thoroughfare.

Another early pioneer in the industries of Markham was Nicholas Miller, who built the first mill on the Humber. In 1794, Mr. Miller settled on lot 33, concession 1, of Markham, and built a small grist mill on a tributary of the Don. About the year 1828, Benjamin Fish put up a distillery near the township line between York and Markham, on the middle branch of the Don. In 1830, he built a saw-mill at this point, and in 1848 a flour mill, which in 1850 he leased to David McDougal. Some years afterwards the flour mill was burned, but it was subsequently rebuilt by Mr. Fish. In 1860 he built a distillery. The property was purchased by John Parsons in 1866. The distillery business was discontinued, and the flour mill remodelled in accordance with modern improvements. On lot 26, in the 1st concession, Rowland Burr built a saw-mill in 1825, which became the property of the late John Arnold, one of the pioneers of the township, who lived to the age of eighty-six. It was burned in 1830, but soon afterwards rebuilt, and was in operation until 1870. The Pomona Mills, on lot 30, in the 1st concession, now the Village of Thornhill, occupy the site which was first utilized by the erection of a saw-mill, in 1820, by Allan MacNab. He afterwards added a grist mill, and after some years sold out to Daniel Brooke, returning to Hamilton to resume his original profession of the law. He subsequently attained a leading position in public life, as Sir Allan MacNab. The mills were rented to George Playter for a term of years. Mr. Playter was well known as the proprietor of a stage line of four-horse coaches, running between York and Holland Landing. After passing through several hands the property was acquired by John Brunskill, who rebuilt the mills on a larger scale, and christened them the Pomona Mills. He ran the mills for twenty-five years. After his death they became the property of Mrs. Harris, and were managed by John Ramsden, who for some time was head miller under Mr. Brunskill.

On the same lot a carding and fulling mill was built by Rowland Burr, in 1839, and worked by Benjamin Williams for some years. On the purchase of the property by Mr. Brunskill, Mr. Williams established the carding mill in a large frame building, which was afterwards burned. Three breweries have been in existence in this neighbourhood, but they have all been short-lived.

A distillery was built on lot 33, on a creek north of Pomona Mills, about 1828, and worked by William Cruikshank for about fifteen years. On the north half of the same lot John Lyons built a distillery, in 1810, and ran it for a long time. To the northward again, on the same creek, Nicholas Miller built the first flour mill in the township, in the year 1793. It was an old-fashioned coffee mill, on a very small scale. Further up the stream, in the year 1856, John Langstaff built a steam saw-mill, shingle factory, and planing mills, which he worked for about twenty years. In 1866 he put up a factory for the manufacture of pails and other wooden-ware driven by steam power.

On the most easterly branch of the Don in the township, in addition to the German Mills, and further to the south, a saw-mill was erected and run by Mr. Hamell, in 1839, on lot 1, concession 3. It was burned down about ten years later. A short distance above the German Mills Mr. Bournan built a carding and fulling mill, in 1832, which, together with the other mills and factories in the neighbourhood, was abandoned in 1835, on account of the damage done by a flood.

Among other mills on this stream were a saw-mill put up on lot 7, concession 2, by Benjamin Fish, about the year 1825; a carding and fulling mill, built in the same year by Benjamin Hoshel, on lot 11, in the same concession; a grist mill, erected by Thomas Shaw in 1848, and burned down almost as soon as completed; a pail factory, put up by John Amos, and also consumed, and a grist mill, erected on the site of the latter, also by John Amos, and afterwards abandoned when the water-power gave out.

Prominent among the early settlers of Markham were several of the French emigrés who obtained grants of land in the Oak Ridges region. Those who obtained patents in this township included René Augustin, Comte de Chalus, Jean Louis, Vicomte de Chalus, the Comte de Puisaye, Quetton St. George, and Ambroise de Farcy. The Comte and Vicomte de Chalus derived their title from the Castle of Chalus, in Normandy, where Richard Cœur de Lion met his death. The Vicomte had been a Major-General in the Royal army. Ambroise de Farcy bore the rank of General. The most notable of these exiles, however, was the Comte de Puisaye. “This man,” remarks Lamartine, speaking of him in his “History of the Girondists,” “was at once an orator, a diplomatist and a soldier—a character eminently adapted for civil war, which produces more adventurers than heroes.” And Thiers, in his “History of the French Revolution,” observes of Puisaye that “with great intelligence and extraordinary skill in uniting the elements of a party, he combined extreme activity of body and mind, and vast ambition.” In 1803 Puisaye, who took a conspicuous part in the futile loyalist struggle against the convention, published, in London, a work comprising five octavo volumes of Memoirs in justification of his course. He died near London, England, in 1827. For a time one of the settlements in the Oak Ridges bore the name of “Puisaye’s town.” The great majority of the emigrés were satisfied with a very brief experience of life in the Canadian backwoods, for which they were not at all fitted, and returned to Europe; but a few remained, and some of their descendants are still in the country.

The following is a list of the early patentees of the township, arranged according to the years in which they received their titles:—

1796—John Lyons, Nicholas Miller, Thomas Kinnear.

1797—Samuel Cozens.

1798—Thomas Lyons, John Dexter.

1799—James B. Macauley, John Simcoe Macauley.

1800—Samuel Ewison.

1801—Ira Bentley, Elizabeth Shiffe, William Johnson, Martin Holder, Samuel Tiphe, Christian Long, James Weiant, Elijah Bentley, Timothy Street, Henry Green, Joshua Millar, jun’r, Lieut. Lunout, Jas. McGregor, James Brown, James Osborne, James Hamilton, Levi Collier, George Boils, Peter DeGeer, Russell Olmstead, Isaac Westcook, Rachel Graham, Oliver Prentice, William Jarvis, Ira Bentley.

1802—Anthony Hollingshead, Baker Munshaw, Hugh Shaw, Andrew Davidson, John Jumon, William Bentley, Jonathan Kuscie, Zachariah Gallway, Nancy Eodus, John Warts, Abraham Gordin, Christian Fred. Krister.

1803—John Leslie, Elizabeth Dennis, Abner Miles, Joshua Sly, John Debrug, Melchier Quantz, John Ulsom Francis Schmidt, John George Schultze, Henry Liedo, Henry Schell, Frederick Schell, Mark Rumohr, John Gottlieb Wycheer, Jacob Botger, Peter Stolus, John Cook, Abraham Orth, Henry Boner, Frederick Ubrick, Jacob de Long, John Klandenning, sen’r, Isaac Davis, Alex. Legg, John Macbeath, Abraham Gordin.

1804—Samuel Gardiner, Oliver Butt, Wm. Smith, John Gray, John Schmeltzer, William Berczy, Robert Isaac de Gray, Charles H. Vogel, Ann Kohmann, John Boye, William Weekes, John Bakus, Frederick Hederick, Abraham van Horn, John Haacke, Peter Millar, Elizabeth Fisher, Anna Margaretha Pingel, John Rumohr, George Pingel, John Nicholas Stiffens, Samuel Nash, John Campbell, Elisha Dexter, Mary McIntyre, Colin Drummond, John Hamilton, John Luman.

1805—Samuel Osborn, Thomas Stovel, Bowler Arnold, Henry Hebuor, John Arnold, Allbright Spring, Jacob Millar, John Peter Lindeman, James Harrison, William Marsh, sen’r, Samuel Mare, William Long, James Farr, John Button, Philip Weedaman, Joshua Miller, sen’r, John Farr, Andrew Clubin, Christian Stickley.

1806—Rene Augustin Comte de Chalus, Le Chevalier de Marscal, Quetton St. George, John Furon, Ambroise de Farcy, Daniel Cousins, Nathan Terry, John McGill, Nero Fierheller, Colin Drummond, John Feightner, John Williams, Margaret Pomeroy.

1807—John Pickard, Michael Franchard, Jean Louis Vicomte de Chalus, Lieut.-Col. Augustine Boiton, Neil P. Holm, Peter Pinay, Daniel Suffer, Anna Overhalt, Peter Anderson, Mary Hollinshead, John Henry Burkmester, Mark Schell, Mary Gray, Norman Milliken, John H. Pingel, John Edgell.

1808—Stilwell Wilson, John Gretman, Nicholas Stover, Peter Haldtz, John Wm. Mischultz, Samuel Bentley, Daniel Merrick, John Philip Eckhardt, Robert Huisborn, George Post, Frederick Kapke, Julian le Bugle.

1809—John Charles Killer, Cornelius van Horn, Cornelius Vanostrand, Philip Beck, William Marr, Mary Malatt, Christopher Hovell.

1810—John Button, John Street, Daniel Furon.

1811—Samuel Mercer, Christian Schroder, Jacob Misener, Watson Playter, Andrew Thompson, Henry Windeeker.

1813—John Henry Langhurst, James Mustard, Samuel Reynolds.

1815—John Sparham, John Kennedy, Reuben Bentz, Matthias Cline, Jessie Haley, Philip Long.

1816—Peter Godfrey, John Walden Miles, John George Munich, John Stann, John Englehardt Helmke, Wm. Carpenter, Joseph Moer, Leonard Caster.

1817—John Farheller, James Stimort, William Hoggner, Samuel Whitesides, William B. Caldwell, Edward McMahon, Henry Keysinger, George Cutler.

1818—George Backendahl, Francis Schmid.

1819—Nicholas Hagerman, Absalom Summers.

1820—John Daniel, Frederick Bush.

1821—Polly Marr, John Marr.

1822—Jacob Rowns.

1824—Christian Whidnear.

1825—John Long.

1827—Joachim Lunen.

1829—Joseph Barris.

1830—Philip Bartholomew.

1832—Daniel Tipp.

1833—Christian Reesor, Christopher Vanalen.

1837—John Reesor, jun’r.

W. H. Smith, in his “Canada, Past, Present, and Future,” refers to Markham as “long noted for the advanced state of its settlement and agriculture.” He states that in 1842 it contained 5,698 inhabitants, and in 1845 there were eleven grist and twenty-four saw-mills in the township. In 1850 the population had increased to 6,868, and there were thirteen grist and twenty-seven saw-mills. The crop of 1849 produced 150,000 bushels of wheat, 11,000 bushels of barley, 7,000 bushels of rye, 145,000 bushels of oats, 45,000 bushels of peas, 55,000 bushels of potatoes, 3,000 bushels of turnips, and 3,000 tons of hay. Education was also well advanced about this period. In 1847 Markham had twenty-seven Common Schools in operation—a larger number than were to be found in any other township in the Home District.

The total production of the principal agricultural staples in 1881 was as follows:—110,050 bushels of wheat, 199,181 bushels of barley, 271,851 bushels of oats, 55,954 bushels of peas and beans, 10,280 bushels of corn, 89,671 bushels of potatoes, 122,312 bushels of turnips, 118,397 bushels of other root crops, and 10,589 tons of hay.

The report of the Ontario Agricultural Commission, issued in 1881, states that 20 per cent. of the acreage of the township is devoted to wheat growing, 15 per cent. to barley, 15 per cent. to oats, 8 per cent. to peas, 15 per cent. to hay, 1 per cent. to turnips, and 2 per cent. each to corn, potatoes and other root crops, 10 per cent. is in pasture land, and 2 per cent. in orchard. The average yield of the leading products per acre is as follows:—Fall wheat, 25 bushels; spring wheat, 15 bushels; barley, 30 bushels; oats, 50 bushels; peas, 25 bushels; corn, 40 bushels; potatoes, 120 bushels; turnips, 500 bushels; other root crops, 600 bushels, and hay, 1½ tons. The varieties of stock most extensively raised in the township are Clydesdale horses, Durham cattle, Cotswold sheep, and Berkshire hogs. Imported stock has been largely introduced. The number in 1881 were—cattle, 3,665; horses, 2,829; sheep, 4,407, and hogs, 1,843.

The Dominion census for 1871 gave the population as 8,152. In 1881 this had fallen to 6,375, the decrease being partly due to a diminution in area owing to the incorporation as separate municipalities of the villages of Markham, Stouffville and Richmond Hill, the first of which lies entirely and the two latter partially within the township lines. Of the population of Markham 1,836 are of German origin, and 2,439 of English extraction. The native Canadians number 5,197. There are 850 occupiers of land, of whom 567 are also owners. The total area in occupation is 66,475 acres, 56,297 acres being improved; 46,732 acres are devoted to tillage, 7,800 to pasture and 1,765 to gardens and orchards. About 10 per cent. of the area of the township is still in timber, principally beech, maple and basswood, with a few pine in some parts.

The municipal records of the township show that in 1850 Amos Wright was reeve, and David Reesor deputy-reeve. The latter became reeve the following year. He was succeeded in 1852 by George P. Dickson. Henry Miller held the position during the years 1853-5. R. Reesor became reeve in 1856 and retained the office for two years. In 1858 W. Button was elected and the next year R. Reesor again filled the chair. In 1860 the reeveship fell to David Reesor, and George Eakin was appointed township clerk and treasurer, a place which he continued to fill until 1874 when he attained his present position as county clerk. In 1861 W. M. Button was chosen reeve and continued in office for three years. In 1864-5 John Bowman was elected to the reeveship, being succeeded in 1866 by W. M. Button. John Bowman again occupied the chair for a year. Then James Robinson held the position for the period 1868-72. William Eakin became reeve in 1873, and in 1874 James Robinson was again elected and retained the position for another period of several years. The township officials for 1884 are: David James, Thornhill, reeve; Robert Bruce, Gormley, first deputy-reeve; F. K. Reesor, Box Grove, second deputy-reeve; A. Forster, Markham, third deputy-reeve; William Lundy, councillor, and John Stephenson, Unionville, township clerk and treasurer. Mr. Stephenson was appointed clerk in 1874, on the resignation of Mr. Eakin.

About a mile and a-half north of the southern limit of the township on Yonge Street, partly in Markham and partly in Vaughan, is the Village of Thornhill. At this point, a short distance north of the old road to the German Mills, another of the numerous tributaries of the Don crosses Yonge Street, flowing between lofty banks. Here mills and manufactories were established as the country became settled. Thornhill was so named in honour of Mr. B. Thorne, who arrived here from Dorsetshire, England, in 1820, and built a residence on the bluff overlooking the Don. The early settlers of Thornhill were principally English. Among the pioneers was Mr. Parsons, another emigrant from Dorsetshire, who was associated with Mr. Thorne in several business enterprises. An English church was organized in Thornhill at an early date. One of the first incumbents was Rev. Isaac Fidler, who attained some celebrity as the author of a book entitled “Observations on Professions, Literature, Manners and Emigration in the United States and Canada.” It was a good deal in the style of Mrs. Trollope, Capt. Basil Hall, and other early British critics of American democracy. Rev. Geo. Mortimer subsequently occupied the pastorate. He was a man of earnest spirituality and energetic temperament; though not physically strong, his labours for the advancement of the cause of religion were unremitting. He died suddenly in the midst of the active duties of his sacred calling. Another incumbent of this church was Rev. Dominic E. Blake, brother of Mr. Chancellor Blake, and uncle of Hon. Edward Blake, at present leader of the Reform party in the Dominion Parliament. Rev. Mr. Blake came to Canada in 1832, from the County Mayo, Ireland. Like most of his family he was a man of unusual mental calibre. His death, which was sudden and unexpected, took place in 1859. His successor was Rev. E. H. Dewar, author of a work published at Oxford, in 1844, entitled “German Protestantism and the Right of Private Judgment in the Interpretation of Holy Scripture.” His thorough acquaintance with the condition of religious faith in Germany was gained while residing at Hamburg, as chaplain to the British residents in that city. His death occurred at Thornhill in 1862. It will be seen that the English congregation of Thornhill was exceptionally favoured for a village community in the high intellectual standing of its successive clergymen.

An advertisement published in the Gazette of May 16th, 1798, shows that at that time salmon were caught in large numbers in the Don at this point. The announcement offers for sale by auction a valuable farm, situated on Yonge Street, about twelve miles from York, and after expatiating on the richness of the soil and other inducements, adds, “above all it affords an excellent salmon fishery, large enough to support a number of families, which must be conceived a great advantage in this infant country.” The present population of Thornhill is upwards of seven hundred.

Three or four miles north of Thornhill, on Yonge Street, is the incorporated village of Richmond Hill, which is partly in the township limits. It will form the subject of a separate notice. A short distance to the north of Richmond Hill in Markham was the residence of Colonel Moodie, who was shot at Montgomery’s tavern in the troubles of 1837. Colonel Moodie was a retired officer of the regular army, having been Lieut.-Colonel of the 104th regiment, and having seen service in the Peninsular war and the struggle with the United States in 1812-13.

The Toronto and Nipissing Railway enters the township from the south in the fifth concession, and proceeds in a northerly direction to Unionville, then making a considerable easterly detour to the village of Markham, and from that point it runs north-easterly to Stouffville, in the north-east angle of the township. The latter village is partly embraced within the limits of Whitchurch, and, with Markham Village, will be dealt with separately.

Unionville is the place of meeting of the Township Council, and is pleasantly and picturesquely situated about two miles and a half west of Markham village, on the River Rouge. The population numbers about three hundred. Smith’s “Canada,” published in 1851, states that it then contained “about two hundred inhabitants, a grist mill with three run of stones and a saw mill, with two churches, Congregational and Wesleyan Methodist.” It is a thriving and prosperous community.

Buttonville is about two and a-half miles west of Unionville. It was named after Major John Button, who came to Canada in 1799, and after a residence of two years at Niagara settled in Markham. He raised and commanded a troop of cavalry, known as the “York Light Dragoons,” which did good service in 1812. His sons, William and Francis, were members of the body, the former being lieutenant. In 1837, the family were again to the front, John Button as major and Francis as captain. Col. W. M. Button, at one time reeve of the township, is the son of the latter.

The smaller unincorporated villages of the township include Gormley’s Corners, Almira, Victoria Square, Headford, Cashel, Milnesville and Mongolia, in the northern portion, and Dollar, Brown’s Corners, Hagerman’s Corners, Milliken, Box Grove, Cedar Grove and Belford, to the south.

THE TOWNSHIP OF VAUGHAN.

AUGHAN is situated west of Yonge Street, which divides it from Markham, north of Etobicoke and south of King. It has an area of 67,510 acres. It ranks third in size among the townships of York, being a few acres less than Markham, but it is the second in point of population, having 6,828 inhabitants, according to the census of 1881. Survey was commenced in 1795 by Surveyor Tredell, and settlers began to come in during the following year. The concessions are laid out with Yonge Street as the base line, and are numbered to the west. There are eleven in all, the 10th and 11th being defective. The survey was not completed until 1851, and ten years afterwards the side lines were re-surveyed. Owing to mistakes in the early survey of the line in the south-western corner of the township, considerable litigation was necessary before the boundary was rectified.

The following is a list of those who received patents in the earlier years of settlement:

1796—Asa Johnson.

1797—William B. Peters, Captain Richard Lippincott, Samuel Heron, Samuel D. Kiener.

1798—Jacob Fisher, jun’r, Nathan Chapman, Stephen Colby, Lieutenant Abraham Tredell, Jonathan Willcott, John McKarrby, James Cram, Jacob Fisher, Captain Daniel Cozens, Bernard Carey, Samuel Street, Hugh McLean, James Ruggles, William Graham, Nicholas Cower, Robert Franklin.

1799—Silas Cook, Priscilla Tenbreck, Garrett Klingerland, Thomas Barry, Hon. Alexander Grant, Thomas Butter, sen’r, John Tenbroeck.

1800—John Anderson, James Maul, Richard Gamble, Walter Roe.

1801—Jannette Anderson, John McDougall, Thomas Hill, George McBride, Thomas Knight, Dorothy Porter, Alexander Shaw, W. D. Powell, Thomas Forfar, William Forfar, John Wintermute, Hugh Cameron, David Thompson, Annie Dally, James Ledan, Ann Davis, Peter Kulum, Joseph Hilts, Rachael DeFoe, Daniel Cozens, Samuel D. Cozens, W. D. Powell, jun’r, William Harlong, John Dennis, Garrard McNutt.

1802—Elisha Dexter, Robert Marsh, James Perigo, Mary Lawrence, Alice Osburn, Catharine Williams, Achsah Souls, Nicholas Miller, Sally Miller, John McDonnell, Elias Williams, Asail Davis, Eliza Davis, Nathaniel Huson, Rebecca Huson, Ann Haines, John Size, Lawrence Williams, John Wintermute, Jacob Phillips, Sarah Hodgkinson, Conrad Frederick, Hugh Sweeny, Sarah Patterson, James B. Macaulay, George Macaulay, Augustus Jones, Samuel Sinclair, Charles Tremble.

1803—Abner Miles, William Bowkets, Michael Korts, William Hollingshead, Benjamin Cozens, Abigail Bessey.

1804—John Easter, Joshua Y. Cozens, Thomas Medcalf.

1805—Daniel Soules, Samuel Sinckler, William Flannigan, Richard Lawrance, Samuel Backhouse.

1806—John Hampstead Hudson, Ambroise de Farcy, Rene Augustin Comte de Chalus, Quetton St. George, Alexander McDonnell.

1807—Joseph Williams, John Cameron.

1808—John C. Stokes, Julian C. Bugle, Margaret Chapman, Jane Wortsell.

1809—John Wilson, jun’r, Eleanor Moore, Louisa Stephenson.

1810—John Wilson, sen’r.

1811—James Edward Small, John Robert Small, Eliza A. Small, Wm. Hunter, Lucy Allen, Haggai Cooke.

1812—Betsey Ann Holmes, Alex. Wallace, John Crosson.

1815—Sophia Dennison, Francis Henry Stephenson.

1817—James Richardson, jun’r, J. Augustus Stephenson.

1819—David Townsend Stevenson.

1820—Francis Renoux, Michael Saigon, James Marchaud.

1821—Maria Lavinia Hamilton, Augusta Honoria McCormick, Hannah Owen Hamilton, Wm. Monson Jarvis, S. B. Jarvis.

Several of the names in the list are those of French loyalist refugees who settled in the Oak Ridges region, concerning whom particulars have been given in connection with other townships. Another notable name is that of Captain Richard Lippincott, one of the U. E. Loyalists who attained considerable notoriety during the American War. He was a native of New Jersey and a Captain in the Loyalist army. Joshua Huddy, who held the same rank in the patriot forces, having been made prisoner of war, was entrusted to Lippincott’s charge until an exchange of prisoners could be effected. A relative of Lippincott’s named Philip White, a loyalist like himself, had fallen into the hands of the patriots and been cut down while attempting to make his escape. In retaliation Captain Lippincott, acting without any recognized authority, hanged Huddy on April 12th, 1782, leaving his body suspended in the air with the following paper fastened on his breast: “We, the Refugees, having long with grief beheld the cruel murders of our brethren, and finding nothing but such measures carrying into execution, therefore determined not to suffer without taking vengeance for the numerous cruelties, and thus begin, having made use of Captain Huddy as the first object to present to your view; and further determine to hang man for man while there is a Refugee existing. Up goes Huddy for Philip White.”

This unjustifiable act—for the killing of a prisoner attempting to escape was obviously no provocation for the deed—resulted in a demand by Washington for Lippincott’s surrender, which was refused. A British officer, Captain Asgill of the Guards, who had fallen into the hands of the Americans, was selected as a victim in retaliation, and the time for his execution fixed, but strong influences were brought to bear in his behalf, and he was finally released. Lippincott at the close of the war obtained as compensation for his dubious “services” three thousand acres of land, a large portion of it being in Vaughan. His only child, Esther Borden, married George Taylor Denison, of Toronto. Lippincott died in Toronto in 1826, in his eighty-second year.

Another of the early grantees, Captain Daniel Cozens, was also a New Jersey loyalist. He raised at his own cost a company of soldiers, and at the close of the war his large estates in New Jersey were confiscated. He received from the Crown grants amounting to three thousand acres as compensation for his losses. Captain Cozens is said to have built the first house in the Town of York. He died in 1801, near Philadelphia.

Surveyor John Stegmann, whose name frequently appears in connection with the early survey and settlement of the townships of York, also settled in Vaughan. He had been lieutenant in a Hessian regiment, and served in that capacity through the American War, after which he took a leading part in the work of laying out the new settlements in this locality. His descendants still live in the neighbourhood of Pine Grove. The name is now spelled “Stegman.”

The first saw-mill in Vaughan was built in 1801, by John Lyons, who came to Canada from New York State in 1794, and after living for a while in York, settled on lot 32, concession 1, in Markham, The mill was built on the main branch of the Don, where it crosses Yonge Street. In 1802 he constructed a small grist mill with a dam over 200 feet long and ten feet in height. The pond was used to conceal articles taken from the Government warehouse in York at the time the Americans were in possession of the town, during the War of 1812. The invaders generously presented the settlers with a quantity of agricultural implements belonging to the Canadian Government, and when they left a search was made through the country for these articles. Many of the residents in this locality consigned their share of the plunder to the waters of Lyons’ Mill Pond for safe-keeping. John Lyons died in 1814, and his mills and other real estate were purchased by William Purdy, who added many improvements. His sons, in connection with their cousin, William Wright, built a tannery and grist mill. The Lyons’ mill was afterwards used as a carding and fulling mill. A fire in 1828 consumed the new flour mill built by Mr. Purdy, and he sold the whole property to Thorne & Parsons. This firm, in the year 1830, built a new flour mill on a large scale, and also a tannery, and for many years afterwards a large business was done, the locality being named Thornhill in honour of the senior partner of the firm. Mr. Thorne failed in business in 1847, in consequence of heavy losses sustained on flour shipped to England, and shortly afterwards committed suicide. During the period of his prosperity he had added several other branches to his extensive business. After his failure the property fell into the hands of David Macdougall & Co. They were unfortunate, the principal buildings being destroyed by successive fires.

In 1820 Henry White built a distillery farther up the stream. On lot 34, concession 1, Nicholas Caber, a German, built a saw-mill in 1825, which was destroyed by an incendiary fire five years later, being rebuilt the following year. In 1835 it was bought by John Barwick, who ran it for many years, and subsequently sold out to George Wright. It was again burned and rebuilt, and is still in operation. On lot 36, in the same concession, Barnabas Lyons, a son of John Lyons, previously mentioned, built a saw-mill in the year 1839, which was worked for about thirty years. Hiram Dexter built a saw-mill on lot 37, in the year 1836, which was in operation for many years. In 1830 John Dexter put up a saw-mill on the next lot, which was in use until about 1870. At this point the stream divides, the west branch passing the village of Carrville and Patterson’s Agricultural Implement Factory. On lot 16, concession 2, now Carrville, Thomas Cook built a saw-mill in 1850, which was worked for upwards of thirty years, until the supply of logs failed. On the next lot Michael Fisher built a saw-mill, in 1820, and the year following put up a grist mill, which is still in good working order. The small village of Patterson is situated on lot 21, concession 2, where, in 1854, Messrs. Patterson commenced operations by the construction of a saw-mill, afterwards establishing here the extensive farm implement manufactory to which the place owes its prosperity. On lot 41, in the same concession, a saw-mill was built by Reuben Burr in the year 1828, which was worked for about twenty years. Mr. Burr was an excellent mechanic, and constructed the first fanning-mill in use north of Toronto. Rowland Burr, his son, was one of the most noted mill and factory builders in the early days. He put up a flour mill—known as the Greenfield Mill—on lot 41, which was leased to Mr. Shephard, and was destroyed by fire about the year 1840. C E. Lawrence built a saw-mill on lot 42, in 1834, and six years afterwards built a carding and fulling mill and woollen factory, which he worked for many years, until his death, after which it changed hands frequently. James Lymburner built a distillery on lot 43, which was afterwards conducted by Mr. Kurtz, who was succeeded by J. Clarke. The latter also built and kept a tavern at Richmond Hill. On the same lot occupied by the distillery, Lymburner built a small log grist mill in 1811, which was afterwards owned by John Atkinson, who about 1840 put up a new grist mill at a cost of about £1,000. Mr. Atkinson afterwards fell into financial difficulties, and his property was purchased by Edward Hawke, of Toronto. This mill is still in good working order. A double-geared saw-mill was erected on lots 45 and 46 by James Playter in 1848, which is still extant. Higher up, on the same branch of the stream, stood a distillery built by James McDavids in 1844. A saw-mill was built by John Langstaff in 1847, which was the nucleus of various other industries dependent on the same water-power, including a foundry and edge-tool factory. Mr. Langstaff also had an implement factory on another small branch of the Don, in the immediate neighbourhood. This was constructed in 1850, a steel file factory being afterwards added.

On lot 50, concession 1, a saw-mill was built, in 1842, by a man named Heslop, and worked for many years. Peter Frank put up a saw-mill on lot 25, in the second concession, near Patterson, which was used for about twenty years. In all, there have been first to last twelve saw-mills, seven grist mills, and three distilleries, built on the Don and its tributaries in Vaughan Township.

The settlement of Vaughan was completed about thirty-five years after the arrival of the pioneers. The general character of the land is clay and clay loam; 19,266 acres being heavy clay, 41,074 acres clay loam, 5,670 acres sandy loam, and 1,500 acres sand. About one-third of the total area is rolling land. The low bottom-land does not embrace more than 1,000 acres, and about an equal area is wet and springy. Thirty-five thousand acres are regarded as first-class agricultural land, the market price of which averages about $70 per acre; 20,000 are ranked as second-class, and are estimated as worth $50 per acre, and the third-class land, including 12,510 acres, is valued at $30 per acre. About one-half of the farms are under first-class fencing. One-third of the dwellings and out-buildings are of brick, stone or first-class frame. Under-drainage is not practised to any considerable extent, only about one farm in twenty-five being under-drained. As nearly as can be given the proportions of the area devoted to the staple agricultural products are as follow:—Fall wheat, 10,600 acres; spring wheat, 2,750 acres; barley, 6,600 acres; oats, 6,500 acres; peas, 5,000 acres; potatoes, 700 acres; turnips, 700 acres; other root crops, 500 acres; hay, 6,600 acres; pasturage, 8,000 acres, and orchards, 500 acres. The average yield per acre of these crops is as follows:—Fall wheat, 15 bushels; spring wheat, 10 bushels; barley, 18 bushels; oats, 40 bushels; peas, 15 bushels; potatoes, 100 bushels; turnips, 500 bushels; other root crops, 500 bushels; hay, 1½ tons. About 11,000 acres is still wooded with pine and hardwood, which makes the total area of cleared land about 56,500 acres.

In “Smith’s Canada” the population of Vaughan for 1842 is given at 4,300. In 1850 it had increased to 6,255. At that time there were in the township five grist and thirty-four saw-mills, and the crop of 1849 produced 155,000 bushels of wheat, 4,000 bushels of barley, 102,000 bushels of oats, 46,000 bushels of peas, 51,000 bushels of potatoes, and 7,000 bushels of turnips. In the same year the number of Public Schools in operation was twenty.

According to the census of 1881 the total yield was 152,996 bushels of wheat, 149,795 bushels of barley, 242,483 bushels of oats, 75,283 bushels of peas and beans, 103,622 bushels of potatoes, 32,890 bushels of turnips, 48,019 bushels of other roots, and 8,656 tons of hay.

The population, like that of several of the townships of York, shows a slight decrease during the decade 1871-81, for which the exodus to the States and to the Canadian North-West is partly responsible, but is largely accounted for in the case of Vaughan by the incorporation of Richmond Hill, a portion of which is embraced with the limits of the township. In 1871 the population was 7,657; in 1881 it was 6,828. Of the population in the latter year those of German origin numbered 993, being mostly the descendants of old settlers from Pennsylvania. There were 5,248 native Canadians. The occupiers of land numbered 824, of whom 500 were also owners. The total area in occupation was 67,848 acres.

In 1881 the live stock of the township numbered as follows:—Cattle, 2,952; horses, 2,481; sheep, 4,349, and hogs, 2,207. The principal breeds are Clydesdale horses, Durham cattle, long-wooled sheep, and Berkshire and Suffolk hogs. Among the owners of thoroughbred cattle are M. Reaman, Robert Marsh, William Agar, George Bell, Peter Frank, Jacob Lakmer and sons, and Edwin Langstaff.

The municipal records of Vaughan, which have not been preserved farther back than 1850, show that in that year the council was organized under the new legislation which then came in force by the election of David Smellie, David Bridgford, John W. Gamble, James Adams and John Lawrie as councillors. At the first meeting held in the township hall in the fifth concession, J. W. Gamble was elected reeve and David Smellie deputy-reeve, James Ashdown was chosen township clerk, and Nathaniel Wallace, John Stephens and William Porter, assessors. At a subsequent meeting, Rev. James Dick was appointed superintendent of Common Schools at a salary of £20. In 1851 the councillors were David Smellie, D. Bridgford, J. W. Gamble, Alexander Mitchell and John Lawrie. The election for the offices of reeve and deputy resulted as before. Mr. Gamble held the reeveship without intermission until 1858, when Mr. D. Bridgford, who had been elected deputy-reeve every year since 1852, succeeded him. In 1859-60, H. S. Howland was reeve and Alfred Jeffrey deputy. Robert J. Arnold filled the chair in 1861 and the two following years, with William Cook as deputy-reeve. In 1864 H. S. Howland was again chosen reeve, and continued to hold the position until 1868. Alfred Jeffrey was deputy-reeve during the former year, and Thos. Graham for 1865-7. In 1868 the reeveship fell to Peter Patterson, and William Hartman and Robert J. Arnold became deputies. In this year Mr. G. J. F. Pearce, who had officiated as township clerk and treasurer for nearly ten years, resigned, and Mr. J. M. Lawrence was appointed to succeed him. Mr. Patterson held the reeveship for four years. David Boyle was elected reeve in 1872-3, and W. C. Patterson succeeded to the office in 1874, and retained it for several years. In 1875 the number of deputy-reeves was increased to three by reason of the growth of population. The principal municipal officials for 1884 are as follows:—Reeve, T. Porter, Humber; 1st deputy-reeve, William Cook, Carrville; 2nd deputy-reeve, D. Reaman, Concord; 3rd deputy-reeve, Alexander Malloy, Purpleville; councillor, George Elliott, Woodbridge; township clerk and treasurer, J. M. Lawrence, Richmond Hill.

Mr. Lawrence is of U. E. Loyalist origin. His grandfather, John Lawrence, held the rank of captain in the royalist forces during the American War of Independence, and at its close he went to New Brunswick, where he remained until 1817, when he came to Upper Canada. Mr. Lawrence’s maternal grandfather, Robert Marsh, settled in Vaughan in 1800.

The incorporated villages of Richmond Hill and Woodbridge are the most considerable centres of population in the township. Klineburg, a village about two miles from the western and three from the northern line, has a population of upwards of six hundred. Other villages in the northerly portion of the township are Purpleville, two miles east of Klineburg, Teston, Maple, and Patterson, further to the east. Vellore is in the centre of the township, and Elder Mills, Carrville, Pine Grove, Edgeley, Concord and Brownsville in the southern section. The Northern Railway traverses the township almost parallel with Yonge Street three or four miles to the west, and the Toronto, Grey and Bruce, entering it at the south, near the Humber, takes a north-westerly direction.

The first white child born in the Township of Vaughan is said to have been Susan Munshaw, who afterwards became Mrs. Wright.

The School Inspectorate of North York consists of the townships, towns and villages of the North Riding, together with that part of the Township of Vaughan north of the second side-road, which separates between lots ten and eleven across the municipality. For reporting purposes the whole Township of Vaughan is included. This inspectorate, therefore, comprises the townships of Georgina, North Gwillimbury, East Gwillimbury, Whitchurch, King, and Vaughan, the Town of Newmarket, and the Villages of Holland Landing, Aurora, Richmond Hill and Woodbridge; this last reporting only in the northern inspectorate. In these municipalities there are eighty-five school-boards, who employ from one hundred to one hundred and ten teachers, with an aggregate salary of over $40,000; an average of $425 to males and $265.62½ to females. The outlay on building in 1883 was over $8,000; on maps, etc., $400; on care-taking, heating, etc., $7,500; for all purposes over $56,000. The income from all sources in 1883 was over $62,000—nearly $3,700 from the Legislature; $7,000 from municipal grants; $32,000 from direct taxation, over $10,000 from C. R. Fund and other funded moneys, and the balance from 1882. The school population of this district is about 7,600, of which the attendance at present at school is forty-five per cent. Twelve years ago the percentage of attendance was thirty-seven and a quarter. The classification of the children enrolled in 1883 was as follows: 2,400 in the First Book; 1,600 in the Second Book; 1,800 in the Third Book; 1,200 in the Fourth Book; and thirty-five in the Fifth Book. Nearly all are instructed in arithmetic and writing; considerably over half in geography, drawing, grammar and object lessons; while music, temperance and hygiene, geometry and mensuration, algebra, history and elementary physics receive a fair share of attention, according to the numbers in the classes for which these subjects respectively are prescribed. Drill and calisthenics are not entirely overlooked, though they are not taught in half the schools.

In this district there are ninety school-houses. Of these, thirty-two are brick and fifty-eight are frame. In seventy-four cases the premises are freehold and in sixteen the grounds are rented, while the houses are the property of the school corporation. Nearly fifty of the houses have been erected since the year 1871, and thirty have been enlarged or improved so as to meet the requirements of the Act of that year. Almost, if not all the school-grounds, are over half an acre, and many are double that size. School property, which has more than doubled in value in twelve years, is now worth $150,000, and $90,000 has been expended in the improvement of school premises in the same time.

The Township of Vaughan has eighteen school sections and unions with houses in them, and three unions with houses outside the municipality.

No. 1, union with Markham or Thornhill, is a brick house, with a frame addition, in the Village of Thornhill. The average, Vaughan part, 26, Markham part, 29. Teachers, R. O. Harvey and Annie Hendrie.

No. 2, union with Markham. Frame house on Yonge Street, lot No. 9. built nearly fifty years ago, is probably the oldest in the county. Average from Vaughan part, 4, Markham part, 15. Emma M. Ansley, teacher.

No. 3, Carrville School, stands on lot 15, half way across the 2nd concession. This frame building was enlarged a few years ago, and is conveniently arranged for its purposes. Teacher, James Bassingthwaighte. Average attendance, 38.

No. 4, a union with Richmond Hill, has no school of its own.

No. 5, or Hope School, stands on the west end of lot 28, in the 3rd concession. It is a brick building, with a frame addition for an assistant. Average, 37. Teacher, Abram Carley.

No. 6, Maple School, is a substantial brick structure, somewhat awkwardly divided into two rooms. Teachers, Joseph P. McQuarrie and Jennie Walkington. Average, 50.

No. 7, or Mudville School, on the east end of lot 6, 3rd concession, is a good brick building. The average is 32. Teacher, Chester Asling.

No. 8, Edgeley School, is a good brick house on the west end of lot 7, 4th concession. Average, 41. Teacher, Jacob H. Hoover.

No. 9, Town Hall School, is a large frame structure on the west end of lot 17, in the 5th concession. Teacher, Nellie Franks. Average, 24.

No. 10, a fine, new brick building, stands on the north-west corner of lot 30, in the 5th concession. Average 24. Teacher, Robert Moore.

No. 11, Purpleville School, is a good frame house, with excellent furniture recently introduced. It is situated on the east end of lot 27, 7th concession. Average, 34. Teacher, Wm. Watson.

No. 12, Pine Grove School, stands on the west end of lot 9, in 6th concession. The building is frame. Average-attendance, 38. Teachers, John W. Franks and Annie Mason.

No. 13, on the east end of lot 6, in the 9th concession, is of brick. Average, 19. Teacher, Joseph Clark.

No. 14 is a union with, and has its school in, Woodbridge. Average attendance, 9.

No. 15, near the centre of lot 15, in the 9th concession, is a fine, new brick building, fairly furnished and kept. Average, 38. Teacher, Thos. B. Hoidge. A small part of Toronto Gore is in union with No. 15.

No. 16, in union with 7, Toronto Gore, called the Coleraine School, is a brick building, rather awkwardly placed on the ground, and suffering from defective foundations. Teacher, Miss McDonald. Average, from Vaughan, 19, from Toronto Gore, 6.

No. 17, Kleinburg School, in the Village of Kleinburg, is a brick house, with frame addition for assistant. Its situation is fine, overlooking one branch of the Humber. Teacher, Kenneth Beaton. Average, 36.

No. 18, near the middle of lot 31, in the 10th concession, is a frame house, not well furnished. Average, 24. Teacher, James Asher.

No. 19, Patterson School, is a good brick structure, situated on the east end of lot 21, 2nd concession. Average, 28. Teacher, Hesse A. Nicholls.

No. 20, a new frame house on the west end of lot 31, in the 8th concession, has a good situation and is kept in fair condition. Average, 34. Teacher, James R. Graham.

No. 21 is a union with the house in Markham, about two miles north of Richmond Hill, on Yonge Street. Average attendance from Vaughan, 29.

THE TOWNSHIP OF KING.

ING has the largest area of any township in the County of York, its total extent being 86,014 acres. It is situated north of Vaughan, and on the west side of Yonge Street. Its northern boundary is the Holland River, which divides it from West Gwillimbury and Tecumseth, and on the west, in the adjoining County of Peel, is the Township of Albion. King has twelve concessions, numbered westward from Yonge Street, but the last two are deficient, as the county line does not run parallel with Yonge Street.

The township was first laid out in 1800 by Surveyor Stegmann. The survey was continued from time to time by others, being completed in 1859 by Mr. Whelock, P.L.S. Some alterations in its boundaries were made in 1851, when the County of Simcoe was organized, and the portion of the township known as North King was detached from West Gwillimbury and annexed to King.

The following are the original patentees for the township as given in the “Domesday Book,” exclusive of that portion known as North King, which was subsequently annexed:—

1797—Thomas Hind, John McKay, Edward Wright, Thomas Phillips, William McClellan, Archibald Thompson, Edward Wright.

1799—Daniel Rose, Alexander Gardnar.

1801—John Cole, Mary McDonnell, James Selloch, Jeremiah Taylor, Mary Lutz, David Bessey, Elizabeth Ross, Joseph Gillie, Jonathan Sells, Mary Gordon, Sarah Playter, Daniel Nixon, Dorothy Burger, Anthony Hollingshead, William Crowder, William Smith, Caty Brown.

1802—Henry Harman, James Cody, P. Cody, James Gilbert, Isaac Phillips, Nathaniel Gamble, jun’r, Alexander Gardner, Eliza Ghent, Hepzibah McWilliams, Lucretia Stewart, Marianne Williams, Pierre Protim, Charles Jabbin, Matthew Hern, Jenny Cairn, Catharine Walker, Fred. Lewis Mills, Eli Skinner, E. Wright, Sarah Vansicklen, Henry Windeckar, George Thompson, Robert Innes, Christopher Harrison, Jonathan Kincey, James Newkirk, Chloe McDonnell, Hannah Palmer, James Osborn, Titus Doran, Margaret Buckner, John Broughner, Philip Bender, Mary Buchnar, Mary Rogers, A. Rogers, Richard Pattinson, Catherine Hesse, Joseph Dennis, Benjamin Wells, John Latteridge, Aaron Crefas, Mary Springer, Duncan Gilchrist, William Gilchrist, Neil Gilchrist, Eleanor Nugent, Charles Gisso, Thomas Walker, David Fraser, John Chisholm, Bernard Maisonville, Margaret Smith, Joseph Dean, Abin Miner, Alice Forsyth, James Cannon, Marie Joseph Gouin, Alexis Maisonville, William Farr, John Van Zantee, Phœbe Adair, Benjamin Springer, Christopher Culp.

1803—Jacob Crane, jun’r, William Kennedy, William Hughes, Isaac Hollingshead, James Fulton, Rachel Skinner, Mary Rott, Martin Fuitz, Elizabeth Newkirk, John File, Hugh Heward, Elizabeth Cline, Rosanna Fairis, Martha McKirbie, Alexander Clendenning, William Lee, John McMicking, Elizabeth Robertson, Mary Smith, George Stewart, jun’r, Mary Ward, William Applegarth, Elizabeth Fogelalay, Joshua Applegarth, John Applegarth, Andrew Wilson, Hugh Wilson, James Hunter, Abraham Astlestine, William Emery, William Crumb, William Burk, Archibald Mitchell, Elizabeth Hogellang, Sarah File, Caleb Swayze, David Van Every, jun’r, Jane Hover, Elizabeth Wright, Sarah Ward, Sarah Mann, John Stoner, Valentine Stoner, Mary Myers, William Macdonell, Annie Turner, Ann Jones, Anna Broughmer, Christopher Overholk.

1804—James Burgess, Rufus Rogers, Asa Rogers, George O’Kill Stewart, Samuel McKirbie, Mary Thompson, D. Secord, Sarah Boyles, Sarah Wagstaff, Mary Cushman, Elizabeth McKenzie, Ann McDonald, Isaac Astlestine, Deborah Hill, Daniel Young, Hannah Coldwell, John Minthorn.

1805—Daniel Jackson, Mary Moody, Wm. Tyler, Isaac Rogers, David Palmer, jun’r, Mary Kithman, Marvin Hunter, Garrett Scram, Gertrand Plato, John Wilson, Catherine Farr, Sol. Austin, jun’r, Charles Stewart.

1806—Rene Augustin Comte de Chalus, John Dean Fisk.

1807—Lieut.-Col. Augustin Boyton.

1808—Joseph Minthorn, Elizabeth Hassun.

1809—Murdoch McLeod, Wm. Weer.

1810—Abraham Webster.

1812—John Haviland, Rev. Clarke.

1813—Henry Bonnell.

1814—John McDonald.

1815—Wm. Moore.

1816—Thos. Whittaker.

1817—Rosannah Ferris.

1827—Patrick Hartney.

1826—Sarah Lotteridge.

1830—N. Gamble.

1833—James Lloyd, Stephen Bissonette.

1832—John Scott, Ann Purvis, Elizabeth Clow.

1835—Hannah Cowell, Peter Rankin, John Proctor, Jeremiah Smith.

1837—Peter Wintermute.

1838—John Fulton, Bernis Baynam, William Boyle, Chas. Tomlinson.

1839—R. Machell, Richard Perry, J. Edmunds.

1840—James Macaulay, Wm. Brydon, John Grant, William H. Moore, Rev. John Rolph, Jeremiah W. Dawson.

1841—James Henderson.

1842—Thos. Irvin.

1843—John Rodenhurst, Martin Snider, William Proudfoot, Isaac Gude.

1844—Robert Cathgart, Samuel Pearson.

1845—Wm. Patton, Thomas Allen Stayner.

1846—W. D. Parker.

1847—Alex. Brown, Philip Boisverd, Isaiah Gardner, William Hane, John Fogart.

1848—Neil Wilkie.

1850—Patrick Tridnor, John Allen Nibbe.

1853—Jeremiah P. Cummins, Rev. Richard Edmund Tyrwhitt, Septimus Tyrwhitt.

1854—Thomas McFee.

1860—Benjamin Pearson.

A considerable area of land lying in different concessions was also granted to the Canada Company.

When the alteration in the township lines took place in 1851 the first concession of West Gwillimbury, lying east of the Holland River, was annexed to East Gwillimbury. The remainder of the portion of that township east of the river, forming a triangular-shaped section terminating in a long, narrow strip running along the northern boundary of King, became part of the latter township. The land of north King, as a rule, is swampy, and not fit for cultivation. Much of it still remains in the hands of the Government, but many lots have been patented. The following names appear on the list of grantees:

1805—Obadiah Rogers, Obadiah Griffin, Bethuel Huntley; 1807—Ann Dennis, Abraham Nelles; 1808—Abraham Vanalstine; 1812—John Haviland; 1840—John Darling; 1843—William Proudfoot; 1845—George Lount; 1847—Ebeny Doan; 1849—S. Watson. The Canada Company also obtained some lots in this section, and numerous patents have been issued during later years.

The predominant character of the soil is clay loam. In the western portion of the township an area amounting to about 30 per cent. of the whole is of heavy clay, of the average depth of eighteen to twenty-four inches. Clay loam prevails in the eastern, central and southern sections, constituting about 40 per cent. of the whole, the average depth of the surface soil being twelve to fifteen inches, with a subsoil of clay. In the northern section there are considerable tracts of rich, black loam, of an average depth of from two to eight feet, comprising about 12 per cent. of the total acreage. In various parts there are areas of sandy loam of a depth of from six to ten inches over a clay subsoil, being about fifteen per cent. of the whole township. Two and a-half per cent. of the soil is deep sand, and gravel beds, also of considerable depth, are also met with. The larger portion of the land is undulating, about one-fifth being so hilly as to lessen its value for agricultural purposes. Swamps and wet springy land comprise 5 per cent. of the area, principally situated along the Holland River, and an equal proportion is bottom-land.

The Oak Ridges, forming the height of land between lakes Ontario and Simcoe, run through the centre of the township from east to west. The region is hilly and broken, and contains a number of lakes and ponds. Some of these are the source of the numerous tributaries of the Humber and Holland Rivers. Boulders displaying a mixture of the characteristics of the Laurentian, Silurian and Huronian formations are met with in this region.

The proportion of first-class land is comparatively small, being only 25 per cent., the average price of which is $70 per acre. The second-class land comprises 60 per cent. of the whole, and its average value is estimated at $45. Third-class land brings $25 per acre, and constitutes 15 per cent. of the total acreage. Three-fourths of the farm buildings are first-class in point of materials and construction, and about the same proportion of the farms are well fenced. Underdrainage is adopted on about one-tenth of the number. Four-fifths of the farmers use some description of artificial fertilizer—the kinds principally employed being plaster and salt.

As nearly as can be given, the following is the proportion of the area given to the leading crops:—Fall wheat, 15 per cent.; spring wheat, 12 per cent.; barley, 8 per cent.; oats, 14 per cent.; peas, 8 per cent.; potatoes and turnips, 1 per cent. each; other root crops, ½ per cent.; hay, 12 per cent. Pasture lands occupy an area of 15 per cent., and orchards about 1 percent.

The average yield per acre of the staple crops is as follows:—Fall wheat, 20 bushels; spring wheat, 12 bushels; barley, 20 bushels; oats, 35 bushels; peas, 15 bushels; potatoes, 100 bushels; turnips, 250 bushels; other root crops, 300 bushels; hay, 1 ton.

Stock-raising is carried on to a greater extent in King than in any other township in the county. In 1881 the number of cattle was 4,088; horses, 2,917; sheep, 5,337; and hogs, 2,282. The larger proportion of these are the common varieties, but in the last decade some importations of thoroughbreds have been introduced, comprising Shorthorn cattle, Southdown, Cotswold and Leicester sheep, Clydesdale horses, and Berkshire and Suffolk hogs. Among the proprietors of thoroughbred stock are: George Hollingshead, John Beasley, James Cherry, jun’r, and William Jardine, in the western part of the township; and George N. Heacock, Seth Heacock, Simeon Lemon, R. J. Kennedy, W. Linton, Robert Riddell, and John C. Tawse, in the eastern portion.

The municipal records of King are unusually complete; the minutes of the township meetings as far back as 1809 being still extant, and throwing a good deal of light on the early condition of the community. A return of the number of inhabitants taken on March 28th, 1809, shows thirty-three heads of families, and a total population of 160. The names are as follows: James Rogers, John Doan, Enos Dennis, Amos Hughes, Isaac Rogers, William Doan, Joseph Doan, Mahlon Doan, Ebenezer Doan, Rufus Rogers, Levi Dennis, Nathaniel Gamble, jun’r, Isaac Phillips, Isaac Hollingshead, Thomas Taylor, John Nichol, Benjamin Pearson, William Hughes, Joseph Cody, Wm. Haines, Jacob Hollingshead, William Tyler, Wm. Kennedy, Henry Harman, Isaac Davis, Caleb McWilliams, John Devine, David Love, James Love, John Hunter, Michael St. John, Henry Sagle and Benjamin Kester. In 1811 the total number of inhabitants was 206. In 1812 there were 42 families and 226 inhabitants. A decrease in population was caused by the war with the United States, which broke out in that year, and three years afterward the inhabitants only numbered 209. But after peace was restored the population began to increase more rapidly, and in 1823 there were 67 families, and the total number of inhabitants was 394. In 1842 the population numbered 2,625. In the course of eight years it more than doubled the number, in 1850 being 5,574. In 1871 it reached its maximum, the Government census of that year showing a total population of 7,482. In 1881 it had fallen to 6,664. Of the latter number 5,248 were of Canadian birth. Those of English descent numbered 2,872; 2,047 were of Irish, and 1,087 of Scotch extraction. The occupiers of land were 907 in number, of whom 611 were the owners of their holdings. The total area occupied was 79,209 acres, of which 59,149 were improved. Of this 49,488 acres were devoted to field crops, 8,402 acres to pasturage, and 1,259 to gardens and orchards.

In 1849, the agricultural produce comprised 149,000 bushels of wheat, 5,000 bushels of barley, 8,000 bushels of oats, 37,000 bushels of peas, 52,000 bushels of potatoes, and 14,000 bushels of turnips.

The census of 1881 gives the yield as follows:—200,185 bushels of wheat, 121,776 bushels of barley, 214,506 bushels of oats, 81,875 bushels of peas and beans, 76,688 bushels of potatoes, 93,701 bushels of turnips, 30,164 bushels of other roots, 8,670 tons of hay and 1,964 bushels of grass and clover seed.

The municipal records for 1809 give the officials for that year as follows: Town clerk, William Haines; assessors, Jacob Hollingshead and William Hughes; collector, William Tyler; overseers of the roads, Henry Harman, Thomas Taylor, Rufus Rogers; pound-keeper, Isaac Hollingshead; town wardens, William Kennedy and John Nichol. The following minutes are recorded:—

“It is agreed that the fences shall be lawful that are five feet high, two feet of which shall not be more than four inches between the rails, and the other part not more than six inches between the rails, except liners, which shall not exceed fifteen inches.”

“It is agreed that hogs shall be free commoners.”

In 1810 the following were the township officers:—William Haines, town clerk; Benjamin Pearson and William Doan, assessors; Wm. Tyler, collector; David Love, John Hunter, Jacob Hollingshead, Thomas Taylor and John Doan, overseers of the roads; Nathaniel Gamble, jun’r, pound-keeper; Henry Harman and William Hughes, town wardens.

William Haines held the position of town clerk until 1836, when he was succeeded in office by John R. Kennedy. The township meetings from 1810 until 1838, with one or two exceptions, were held at the house of Nathaniel Gamble, jun’r. Subsequent meeting places were Samuel Clay’s, James Graham’s tavern, and Goat’s Inn.

In 1843, Joel Hughes and William Brydon were town wardens; Andrew Sloan, town clerk; Nathaniel Pearson, assessor; Richard Murphy, collector; Barnes Beynon, Thos. Cosford, John Tawse, M.A., Jacob Lemon, Isaiah Tyson, Donald McCallum and Capt. A. Armstrong, school commissioners; and Thomas Cosford, Thomas W. Tyson and Henry Stewart, district councillors. In 1844, John R. Kennedy became town clerk, the district councillors being the same as the preceding year. Mr. Kennedy held the clerkship until 1847. The officers for that year were: Town wardens, John McKinley, Thomas Cosford and James Hunter; assessor, James O’Brien; collector, Andrew Sloan; town clerk, Joseph Wood. In 1848, the district councillors were Henry Stewart and Thomas W. Tyson; town wardens, Robert Parker, John Wells and Benjamin Jennings; assessor, James McCallum; collector, Isaac Dennis. In 1850 the present system of municipal organization came into force, and the district councillors were replaced by reeves and deputy-reeves—the first reeve was George Hughes, Joseph Wells being deputy. In 1851 Mr. Hughes was re-elected and Septimus Tyrwhitt chosen deputy. In 1852 Stephen Tyrwhitt was reeve and Joseph Wells deputy-reeve. George Hughes occupied the reeveship again during the period 1853-7, and was succeeded in 1858 by J. D. Phillips, who had previously been deputy-reeve for three years. A. Armstrong filled the chair in 1859, and the next year gave place to James P. Wells, who had held the second place two years before. Mr. Wells remained in office until 1864, when Albert Webb was elected. In 1865 Joel Phillips was chosen reeve. Mr. Webb had another innings in 1866. T. Tyson and J. Stokes followed each for one year, and Mr. Webb served a third term of two years’ duration. Among the later occupants of the position are J. D. Phillips, Joel Phillips and Joseph Stokes. The township officers for 1884 are E. J. Davis, King, reeve; Charles Irwin, Lloydtown, 1st deputy-reeve; Michael J. O’Neill, Holly Park, 2nd deputy-reeve; Thomas Wilson, Newmarket, 3rd deputy-reeve; Robert Norman, councillor; Joseph Wood, township clerk; Gershom Proctor, treasurer; John Leigh and William Brydon, assessors; Charles Fuller and William Winter, collectors; John D. Phillips, township engineer.

Mr. Wood has filled the office of clerk since 1847. He is an Englishman by birth, and came to Canada in 1830 when quite young. The family, after remaining in York for a year, removed to Whitchurch, near Aurora. In 1835 they took up land in the 6th concession of King. Mr. Wood is well known as a prosperous and public-spirited citizen, and the fact that he has been clerk for thirty-seven years continuously shows how highly his services in that capacity are appreciated.

The principal villages of King are Lloydtown and Schomberg, near the northern boundary, in the western part of the township; Linton, in the eighth concession, towards the centre; Nobleton, in the south-west; Pottageville, Kettleby and Grenville, in the northern section; and Laskay, King Horn, King, Eversley, Temperanceville, Springhill and Oak Ridges, in the south and south-east. Aurora is partly in King and partly in Whitchurch. The Northern Railway runs across the south-eastern section and enters Whitchurch near Aurora. After a lengthy detour to the eastward through that township it crosses the swamp lands of North King in a north-westerly direction. Its most important station in the township is at the thriving Village of King, about a mile from the southern boundary, which is a stirring and lively place, with a population of about 120.

Lloydtown is a place of some note in the annals of York County. It early became one of the principal centres in the north, and was one of the rallying points of the Mackenzie rising in 1837. A description of the village and the neighbouring country is given in Smith’s “Canada.” There have been of course many changes since that time. Entering the township from the west the road known as the “tenth line” leads to the village. The first portion of the road is very hilly, and the timber consists of pine and hardwood intermixed. About four miles before reaching Lloydtown you cross a cedar swamp, after which the timber becomes principally pine and hemlock for the next two miles; large tracts of land bordering the road being still (1851) covered with wood; the country then opens, and large clearings lie before and on either side of you. The character of the timber here becomes changed, and a large proportion of it is hardwood. The soil the whole distance is of a loamy character, varying in consistence. The country generally has a new appearance, a large portion of the stumps still standing in the fields, and the houses and farm buildings are poor with few exceptions. The road the whole distance is hilly, or composed of a succession of rolling ridges. The population of Lloydtown is given as 350. “The village,” Smith goes on to say, “is situated in the midst of a hilly country. The west branch of the Holland River runs through the village, and a grist mill having three run of stones, a saw mill, and a carding and fulling mill, are situated on it. The grist mill has a fall of twenty-five feet. There are also in the village two tanneries, a post-office, and two churches—Episcopal and Methodist. Lloydtown is twelve miles from Yonge Street, nine miles from the Vaughan Plank Road, sixteen miles from Holland Landing, nine miles from Bond Head, twelve and a-half from Bradford, and fourteen from Newmarket. At about a mile from Lloydtown, situated to the north-east, is a small village called Brownsville. It contains 138 inhabitants, a grist mill, saw mill, and tannery, and a church open to all denominations. Brownsville is also situated on the west branch of the Holland River, which has here a fall of twenty feet.” The name was subsequently changed to Schomberg. The road east from Lloydtown to Kettleby, or as it was then more generally known, Tyrwhitt’s Mills, is described as very hilly, and for part of the distance timbered with cedar, hemlock and pine, with a little hardwood intermixed.

It was at Lloydtown that the second of the series of public meetings in support of Mackenzie’s agitation in 1837 was held. At a meeting of Reformers, held at John Doel’s Brewery, Toronto, on the 28th of July in that year, a plan submitted by Mr. Mackenzie “for uniting, organizing, and registering the Reformers of Upper Canada” was adopted, under which societies were to be established all through the Province as the machinery of agitation. The first outside meeting under this plan was held at Newmarket, the second at Lloydtown, on the 5th of August. It was addressed by Messrs. W. L. Mackenzie, Jesse Lloyd, Samuel Lount, and David Gibson, all of whom afterwards took a prominent part in the insurrection. Seventeen resolutions were passed. Any intention of resorting to arms was disclaimed. One of the resolutions declared that “A bribed and pensioned band of official hirelings and expectants, falsely assuming the character of the representatives of the people of Upper Canada, corrupted by offices, wealth, and honours 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 refused to order new elections for members who have accepted places of gain under the Government, have refused to institute a free and constitutional inquiry into corruptions practised 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 covenant of the British Constitution by resolving that their pretended power of legislation shall continue over us three years longer than they were appointed to act.” Canadian Independence was advocated on the ground that British connection involved a State Church, an “unnatural aristocracy, party privilege, public debt, and general oppression.” It was suggested that the country should pay a money price for its freedom in order that civil war might be avoided, and a resort to the ballot, it was urged, would show a large majority in favour of dissolving the colonial bond. The meeting declared for elective officials, including the judiciary. Some very significant devices were displayed, including a flag which bore a large star, surrounded by six smaller lustres, and in the centre a Death’s head with the inscription, “Liberty or Death.” Another flag displayed the word “Liberty” in bold relief, with figures of pikes, swords, muskets and cannon. It had been intended to erect a liberty pole one hundred feet in height, but the design was abandoned. The meeting elected as delegates to the convention proposed to be held in Toronto, Dr. W. W. Baldwin, Jesse Lloyd, James Grey, Mark Learmont, John Lawson and Gerard Irwin.

Mr. Mackenzie visited Lloydtown again a week or two before the outbreak, in order to complete the arrangements for a descent upon Toronto. It was here that he announced his determination not to assume a position of military command on account of the lack of training and experience requisite to qualify him for it. Samuel Lount and Anthony Anderson were then assigned leading positions. Lloydtown sent a large contingent to the force finally mustered by the insurgents. They were principally armed with rude pikes, few possessing firearms.

The present population of Lloydtown is about four hundred, and it is a prosperous and flourishing community.

The Township of King has nineteen school sections, with two unions having houses in the township, and three unions with houses outside the township.

No. 1, union with Whitchurch, is a double frame house on Yonge Street, three miles south of Aurora. Daniel Gregory is teacher. The average from King is 17; from Whitchurch, 20.

No. 2, Spring Hill School, stands on the east end of lot 7, 4th concession. It is a good brick house with two rooms. Teacher, John T. Saigeon. Average, 54.

No. 3, union with Whitchurch, has its house in Whitchurch, and will be referred to under that township.

No. 4, the Laskay School, is situated on lot 7 in the 5th concession, west end, half a mile north of Laskay. It is a good, brick building, but in need of renovation. Teacher, John Watson. Average, 31.

No. 5, the New Scotland School, stands on lot 16 in the 7th concession, near the centre. The house is a frame one, fairly kept, and well furnished. Teacher, Miss Kate McMurchy. Average, 30.

No. 6, a rather old frame house, stands near the middle of lot 25 in the 5th concession. The average attendance is 18. Teacher, George Edward Brown.

No. 7, stands on lot 8 in the 9th concession, on the west end. The house is a fine brick structure in a fine situation. The teacher is William Boal. Average, 43.

No. 8, is a small union with Albion. Pupils go to Bolton Village.

No. 9, the Grenville School stands between the Old Survey and lot 35 in the 2nd concession. The building, a new plank structure, is conveniently arranged, and has hot air furnaces instead of the universal stove. John S. Stephens is the teacher. Average, 25.

No. 10, is two and a half miles west from Aurora. The house is a good brick one. The teacher is Byron Oliver. Average, 32.

No. 11, Kettleby School, stands on the east end of lot 27 in the 4th concession. Teacher, Thomas Butler. Average, 35.

No. 12, situated on lot 31, near the middle, 5th concession, is a small and old frame house. The teacher is William Pearson. His average, 22.

No. 13, stands on lot 26 in the 7th concession. It is a brick building, recently erected and comfortably furnished. Teacher, Maria Norman. Average, 16.

No. 14, Schomberg School, on the north-east corner of lot 32, in the 9th concession, is a good and commodious brick structure having apartments for two teachers. Mr. A. Wilkinson and Miss J. King. Average, 58.

No. 15, Lloydtown School, is a fine specimen of school architecture in brick, somewhat thrown out of proportion inside by recent division into two rooms. Teachers, Henry Ward and Miss Srigley. Average, 48.

No. 16, Crawford’s School, stands on the south-east corner of lot 21, 11th concession. It is a frame building of moderate size. Teacher, Miss Libbie Cody. Average, 14.

No. 17 stands on the north side of lot 30, near the centre of the 11th concession. It is an old frame building, and not comfortably furnished. Teacher, Malcolm D. Hall. Average, 23.

No. 18, the Linton or Little Lake School, stands on lot 19, in the 9th concession. It is a frame structure. Teacher, Cunningham Moore. Average, 33.

No. 19, Nobleton School, is a double frame house on lot 5, near the west of concession 8. The two teachers are William F. Moore and Adelaide Watson. Average attendance, 60.

No. 20 is a union with 13 Albion, house not in the township.

No. 21 is situated in the 1st concession, west end of lots 7 and 8. It is a substantial and almost new brick house, and well furnished. Teacher, Henry J. Bolitho. Average, 30.

No. 22, the Eversley School, is a fine new brick house, on the west end of lot 9, 2nd concession. Teacher, H. W. Bolitho. Average, 22.

No. 23, Kinghorn School, a well-kept frame house, stands near the west end of lot 6, in the 4th concession. Teacher, Joseph B. Morris. Average, 21.

No. 24, New Amsterdam or Bradford Bridge School, a good frame house, stands in the Old Survey, on the road between Holland Landing and Bradford. Teacher, Sarah C. McConnell. Average, 11. A small union of East Gwillimbury with 24 has an average of 3.

THE TOWNSHIP OF WHITCHURCH.

HITCHURCH is situated to the north of the Township of Markham, and east of Yonge Street, which divides it from the Township of King, being in the middle of the eastern row of townships. It was laid out in 1800 by Mr. John Stegmann, who had been an officer in a Hessian regiment during the War of Independence, and afterwards found employment as a surveyor in Upper Canada. Mr. Stegmann’s work was completed in 1802, but further surveys were afterwards made on the 8th and 9th concessions by Surveyor Wilmot, and in 1869 a re-survey of some of the lines was made by Mr. John Shier. Whitchurch comprises 59,743 acres. It has ten concessions, numbered eastward from Yonge Street, two of which are deficient. Settlers began to come into the township as early as 1795. The “Domesday Book” records the following patents issued in the earlier years of settlement:—

1796—Joseph Bouchette.

1797—Frederic Smith, Charles Fathers, James Pitney.

1798—William Bond, John Chisholm, Capt. W. Graham.

1801—Capt. John Baptist Bouchette, Mary Chambers, Duke William Kendrick, John Stegmann.

1802—Nathaniel Gamble, sen’r, Stephen Barbarce, Simon McMirty, James McMurty, Frederic Baron de Hoen, Isaac Phillips, James Roche, Peter Miller, Ebenezer Cook, John Ferguson, Nathan Hixon, John Baker, George Althouse, John Bogard, John Herns, James Mitchell, William Smith.

1803—Abner Miles, Abraham Tucker, Robert Wilson, James Miles, James Fulton, Hugh Shaw, George Chisholm, Joseph Webster, Godfrey Hilts, Peter Brillenger, John Engelhard, Joseph Durham, Jeremiah Durham, Robert Henderson, Hugh Wilson, Peter Boughstanch, John Cline, Joseph Derick, Gilbert Vanderbarrow, William Bechtel, Samuel Betzner, Jacob Bechtel, sen’r, Adam Cline, Mary Feeks, William Cornell, Samuel McLin, Loyal Davis, John Bricker, David Alberson, George Clemens, John Cornwell, Samuel Bucker, Phil. Saltberger, Hall Davis, Moses McCay, Benham Presson, David Hooter.

1804—John Jones, John Starkweather, Henry Crone, Timothy Rogers, Isaac Pilkington, Isaac Willis, James Starr, William Webster, Thomas Jobett, John Dehart, Jesse Ketchum, Henry Hashall, Ebenezer Lundy, Davenport Philps, John Eyer, Aaron Wilson, James Rogers, Josh. Smades, John Cook, jun’r, Ebenezer Jones, jun’r, Obadiah Taylor, Hannah Beans, Martin Bogart, sen’r, John Berry, Robert Gray.

1805—Ebenezer Britton, Robert Ward, Shadrack Stephens, Andrew Clubine, Abraham Webster, John Lundy, George Semon, John Bassel, Russell Hoag, Mary Walts.

1806—Joseph Chiniqui, Mary McNab, William Hill, Samuel Palmer, William Pearson, Isaac Johnson, Alexander Gray, John Furon, Ambroise de Farcy.

1807—Hannah Johnson, Elijah Groomes, Edward Heazzel, Nathaniel Pearson, Christian Schill, Nathaniel Hastings.

1808—Sarah Vanwick, James Lundy, Peter Wheeler, William Maclean.

1809—Abraham Stouffer, jun’r, Abraham McDonald, George Foukler.

1810—Jacob Long.

1811—John R. Small, W. Widdifield, James Edward Small.

1812—Wm. Eadus, Whitfield Patterson, John Kendrick, Joseph Widdifield, Mary Wells, Aaron Tool, Joseph Randall, Eliezer Lundy, Osborne Cox.

Frederic Baron de Hoen, whose name is given in the above list, received extensive grants of land in Whitchurch. He was an officer in a Hessian regiment which disbanded at the close of the American Revolution, and a great friend of the Baldwin family. His real name was Von Hoen. He also had a farm in York Township, about four miles north of Toronto, upon which he resided. Baron de Hoen officiated as the second of Attorney-General White in the duel with Mr. John Small, in 1800, which resulted in the Attorney-General receiving a fatal wound.

Two or three of the names which appear among the earlier patentees are those of French royalist emigrés, a number of whom settled in the Oak Ridges region. Most of them were located in Vaughan and Markham. The land was rough, and not well adapted for farming, and after a few years most of the French settlers left the country, though some of their descendants still remain. Among the number is Mr. Henry Quetton St. George, whose name is well known in the commercial world. Mr. St. George still retains an interest in the picturesque locality where the little French colony was established, as in addition to his business operations he is engaged in agriculture, according to the most improved scientific methods, on a fine farm in the 2nd concession of Whitchurch, inherited from his father, the Chevalier de St. George. His estate is known as “Glenlonely.”

A number of the first settlers were Quakers, from Pennsylvania. This body now numbers 371, according to last census returns. The Gazette, of October 4th, 1806, contains an address from the Quakers residing on Yonge Street to Governor Francis Gore, on the occasion of his arrival in Upper Canada, which concludes by “hoping thy administration may be such as to be a terror to the evil-minded and a pleasure to them that do well: then will the Province flourish under thy direction, which is the earnest desire and prayer of thy sincere friends.” This quaintly worded and characteristic document was presented by Timothy Rogers and Amos Armitage. The first-named, together with Jacob Lundy, took a leading part in the affairs of the Quaker settlement. A few years before the address to Governor Gore the Quakers had occasion to interview his predecessor, Governor Peter Hunter, to complain of the delay in issuing the patents to their lands. Governor Hunter had then just arrived in the country. He heard the story of the Quakers as presented by their spokesmen, Rogers and Lundy, and was convinced that there was just foundation for their complaints of official negligence. He summoned all the officials to whom the Quakers had successively appealed in vain, and entered into a searching investigation as to the cause of the delay. It transpired that the order for the patents was of over a year’s standing, and that Mr. Jarvis, Secretary and Registrar of the Province, was responsible for the documents not being forthcoming. Mr. Jarvis advanced the stereotyped official excuse: “press of business.”

“Sir,” replied the irascible Governor, “if they are not forthcoming, every one of them, and placed in the hands of these gentlemen here in my presence at noon on Thursday next, by George! I’ll un-Jarvis you!” Two days afterwards the Quakers got their patents.

Other times, other manners. Those were the days when governors were not content with being mere “figureheads,” as the common phrase goes. What would be thought nowadays if Lieutenant-Governor Robinson should talk to Provincial Secretary Hardy in that style?

Both Timothy Rogers and Jacob Lundy had numerous relatives, the names frequently appearing in connection with the early history of the township.

Further to the north of the township, just beyond the Oak Ridges, the country was largely settled by Mennonites and Tunkers. These two sects are not identical, as is frequently supposed, owing to the similarity of their beliefs and customs. They wear long beards and hair, old-fashioned coats and broad-brimmed hats, though these peculiarities have been much modified, and are principally seen among the older members of these churches. Both denominations hold the same views as the Quakers in relation to war and oaths. The Tunkers practise feet-washing as a religious rite, holding the Saviour’s example and precept in this respect as a perpetual ordinance. They also consider the text “greet ye one another with a holy kiss,” as prescribing the mode of salutation among Christians, though this familiarity is not extended to those of opposite sex, as a public observance at least. The Mennonites and Tunkers are mainly of German and Dutch extraction. According to the census of 1881 there were 311 belonging to these denominations. The Teutonic element, however, is by no means confined to the sects referred to. It is very strong in this township, and, as everywhere else, is characterized by thrift, honesty and intelligence. Many of the best and wealthiest farmers of the township came of this stock. The last census indicated that of the total population 811 were of German and 260 of Holland origin. The great majority are thoroughly Canadianized by this time, and have little more than their names and family traditions to mark their foreign extraction.

The quantity of Indian remains unearthed from time to time in the township indicates that it must anciently have contained a large aboriginal population. By far the most important discoveries of Indian relics within the county have been made in Whitchurch. Ever since the early settlement of the vicinity, the site of the Indian village on lot 9, in the 8th concession, has been well-known to all who were sufficiently curious about such matters to interest themselves in these relics of a departed race. This village occupied about two acres on the brow of a hill overlooking a steep ravine. There were no indications of the rude fortifications such as the Indians frequently threw up around their villages. A quarter of a century since many remains were dug up in the neighbourhood, such as stone-axes, flint arrows and spear heads, and broken crockery—the latter being the fragments of vessels large enough to hold several gallons, and evidently used in cooking. Earthen and stone pipes in great number have also been found here, and also bears’ teeth with holes bored through them, and the well-worn and polished teeth of beavers, deer and moose, which had apparently been used for decorative purposes. The implements found also included bone needles and two or three articles constructed from the shoulder-blades of deer, having six prongs about three inches in length. It is not known whether they were used as combs or for fish-spears. The large deposits of ashes and other refuse, such as partially carbonized corn-cobs, are held to indicate that the village had been a place of continuous residence for many years. Among the more interesting remains was a circular portion of a human skull, well worn, but in excellent preservation. It was perforated with seven holes, and had evidently been held as a trophy, the holes being the score of enemies slaughtered in battle by the wearer. Down in the adjoining ravine are a number of large boulders, in each of which is a round well-worn depression about a foot in diameter and two or two and a-half inches in depth. These were used as millstones by the Indians, the corn being placed in the hollow and crushed with stones. No graves have been discovered at the village, but a quarter of a mile or so distant, on lot 10, in the same concession, a pit containing many hundred Indian skeletons was found. This was opened about 1848, and large numbers of skulls and other remains removed.

Another site of a once populous Indian community is located on lot 16, in the 6th concession. It comprises about three acres on the top and partially down the slope of a hill, and is enclosed by a trench and mound. The trench is still five feet in depth, and on the inside there is evidence that a wooden palisade once existed. Trees twenty inches in diameter are growing on the top of the mound. The indications of the occupation of this site by the aborigines include an immense quantity of ashes, bones, flint instruments, etc. The original forest was cleared away for a considerable space around the village, and many of the pine trees now growing there are forked from the root upwards, showing that they must have been trodden down when young. The burying-ground of this village was situated outside the trench on the north side—two thousand interments having taken place in the immediate spot. These interments were all made singly, and not in accordance with the usual custom among the Hurons of exposing their corpses until the flesh is eaten by birds or beasts of prey, and then interring the bones promiscuously in a pit. The position of the remains unearthed showed that the bodies had been laid down on the side with the knees drawn up towards the chin. Large numbers of these ghastly relics of mortality were dug up by the early settlers at a time when scientific interest, in anything tending to throw light on the history and customs of the Indian races, had not sufficiently developed to lead to their preservation. Latterly, however, the remains unearthed have fallen into the hands of collectors. Mr. Hirschfelder, of Toronto, an enthusiastic archæologist, has secured many of those recently obtained in Whitchurch for his large collection of Indian curiosities.

About two hundred yards distant from the fort there is a pond three or four acres in extent, on the border of which is another burial ground where a large number of interments have been made. The discovery of these cities of the dead, in a neighbourhood from which the last living representative of their race has disappeared, may well excite such reflections as those to which Alexander McLachlan, the too-little known Canadian poet, has given utterance in his poem “To an Indian Skull,” which opens as follows:—

Other Indian sites have been discovered near the Village of Aurora, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Northern Railway depot, and on lot 15 in the 5th concession. Rev. Mr. Jenkins, Presbyterian minister, took a great interest in promoting the explorations of the latter locality, which to judge from the remains found, had been occupied as a place of residence for a considerable time. The situation of these and other sites in adjoining townships show that a line of Indian villages extended from the mouth of the River Rouge to Penetanguishene, and the more thickly peopled district of the Georgian Bay.

The natural features of Whitchurch are a good deal more varied than those of most other sections of the county. The Oak Ridges or high land between Lakes Ontario and Simcoe run almost diagonally from the north-west to the south-east angle of the township. It is a rugged picturesque region abounding in beautiful sylvan scenery, and presenting many features of interest. Here the numerous tributaries of the Don, the Rouge, the Holland River and other streams have their rise. There are numerous small lakes scattered along the height of land, including Bond’s Lake and Lake Willcocks, in the south-eastern portion of the township, near Yonge Street, Lake Reesor towards the centre, and Lake Musselman and Island Lake near the western boundary. Bond’s Lake, at which point Yonge Street makes a slight detour to the west, had its name from William Bond, the owner of the surrounding property, who as early as 1800 had established a nursery garden in the town of York. It covers an area of fifty-one acres, and is over three hundred feet in depth, and having no inlet nor outlet is apparently fed by springs from the bottom. About half a mile to the north-east lies Lake Willcocks, which is considerably larger in area, covering perhaps an extent of about 150 acres. It was named after Col. William Willcocks, who early in the century was Judge of the Home District Court, and was allied by marriage with the Baldwin family. He was an early owner of the property adjoining the lake. About a mile and a half north of Bond’s Lake is the Pinnacle, being the most elevated land in this region, and about eight hundred feet above the sea level.

The soil of Whitchurch is varied in character, but fairly adapted for agricultural purposes. About one-fifth is composed of heavy clay on the surface, the sub-soil being principally marl, though somewhat diversified. Six-twentieths of the area is a clay loam over a sub-soil of marl and other constituents. Six-twentieths is sandy loam, and three-twentieths sand. About one-twentieth is black loam. Perhaps one acre in twenty is sufficiently hilly to interfere with successful cultivation. Nine-tenths are undulating, about one-twentieth low, flat land, and the same proportion wet and springy. Boulders presenting mixtures of the Laurentian, Huronian, and Silurian formations are met with along the height of land. The first-class farming land comprises about one-quarter of the total area, and seven-twentieths is reckoned second-class, the remainder being third-class or inferior. The average price of farms in the market is $60 per acre for first-class land, $40 for the second quality, and $20 for the third-class farms. About two-thirds of the farms are well fenced, the material principally in use being cedar and pine rails. Draining is not generally resorted to. The farm houses are principally of a substantial and comfortable character, two-thirds being of brick, stone, or first-class frame, one-third log or inferior frame. Half of the outbuildings are first-class in point of material and construction.

The average yield of the leading crops to the acre is as follows:—Fall wheat, 20 bushels; spring wheat, 15 bushels; barley, 28 bushels; oats, 35 bushels; rye, 15 bushels; peas, 20 bushels; corn, 25 bushels; buckwheat, 15 bushels; potatoes, 100 bushels; turnips, 300 bushels; other root crops, 300 bushels; hay, one ton. The acreage devoted to these crops bears the following proportion to the total area:—Fall wheat, spring wheat, barley and hay, 10 per cent. each; oats, 15 per cent.; peas, 5 per cent.; rye, corn and buckwheat, 1 per cent. each; potatoes and turnips, each, 2 per cent., and other root crops, 1 per cent.; 10 per cent. is in pasture land, and 2 per cent. devoted to orchards. About three-sevenths of the whole is still timbered, the remaining bush being a mixture of hardwood, pine, and hemlock. The number of acres cleared is about 42,000. The township as a whole is considered better adapted for grain raising than for stock and dairy farming. In 1881 it had 3,323 cattle, principally Durham grades; 2,341 horses, largely roadsters and of Clydesdale stock; Cotswold, Southdown, and other breeds of sheep to the number of 3,608, and 1,888 hogs, the Berkshire and Suffolk varieties being those principally produced.

In 1842 Whitchurch contained 3,836 inhabitants. In 1850 the number had increased to 4,242. The population numbered 5,014 according to the census of 1871. In 1881 the returns indicated that it had fallen to 4,529. This is partly, but not altogether, accounted for by the fact that Stouffville, part of which was formerly included in the township, having in the meantime become an incorporated village, has a separate place in the last census, instead of a portion of its population being credited to Whitchurch. Of the present population 3,873 are of Canadian birth.

In 1849 the crop produced included in round numbers 76,000 bushels of wheat, 8,000 of barley, 81,000 of oats, 22,000 of peas, 42,000 of potatoes, and 40,000 of turnips. The Dominion census returns for 1881 give the leading articles of agricultural produce as follows:—78,543 bushels of wheat, 93,562 bushels of barley, 200,323 bushels of oats, 4,554 bushels of rye, 63,120 bushels of peas and beans, 69,687 bushels of potatoes, 104,482 bushels of turnips, 44,950 bushels of other roots, and 5,825 tons of hay.

There are 689 occupiers of land in the township, of whom 458 own their farms. The total area occupied is 53,346 acres, of which 39,858 acres are improved land. The area devoted to field crops amounts to 33,320 acres, 5,609 are in pasture, and orchards occupy 929 acres.

The earliest records of municipal organization extant date back to 1826. In that year Joseph Hewitt was town clerk, William Reader and J. Hewitt, assessors, Samuel Ball, collector, and Eli Gorham and John Bogart, jun’r, town wardens. John Bogart, jun’r, was elected town clerk in 1825 and held that position twenty-three years. The town wardens under the old form of municipal organization were as follows: 1827—Eli Gorham and John Bogart, jun’r; 1828—Martin Bogart and John Bogart, sen’r; 1829—Martin Bogart and E. Gorham; 1830—James Faulkner and Timothy Millard; 1831—Isaac Lundy and Jacob Wiedman; 1832—John Balsfred and Abraham Stover, sen’r; 1833—John Sharfer and Ludwick Wiedman; 1834—William Aikins and John Stover; 1835—Thomas Macklin and Andrew Clubine. In 1836 the Act of the Provincial Legislature, passed the previous year, regulating municipal affairs came into force. Commissioners took the place of the town wardens, and for the old-fashioned designation of “town” was substituted that of township. The first Commissioners elected were Samuel Pearson, Joshua Wilson and Ludwick Wiedman. Among other curious details which appear in the records, indicating the difference between the methods of those days and the present age, we find mention of “money raised by subscription to open and make a road between lots 25 and 26 in the 4th concession, and to make a certain piece of road on the 5th concession line.” The total amount raised was £25 18s. 1d., ten shillings being the usual figure of individual subscriptions, but John Bogart, jun’r, put down his name for £3. The account of the receipts and expenditures on the township roads for 1836 will also be of interest. It runs as follows:

“Received of Mr. Cawthra, for gravel taken out of the highway, £1 0s. 6d., also from Thos. A. Teb, 7s. 6d., from T. Billings, jun’r, for wild land tax for the year 1834, £4 19s. 7d. Received of Joshua Wilson, £1 15s. gratis, also of L. and D. Lang, 2s. 6d. gratis, likewise of Mr. Bogart, jun’r, 10 dollars, gratis. Paid for roadwork £4 7s. 6d. Received of Thomas R. Pearson, in lieu of statute labour, £1; also of Solomon Wamsley; £1 13s. 9d., and Gabriel Lount, £3 2s. 6d.; J. Watson, 5s.; Samuel Pearson, 10s., and a number of others for the same. Dr. account, £18 19s. 6d. Cr. account, £22 10s. Due to the township, £3 18s. 4d.” This indicates a considerable degree of public spirit among the settlers of that day. In this era the acknowledgment by municipal officials of amounts received “gratis” would cause considerable astonishment.

In 1837 Joseph Pearson was chairman of the township meeting, and was appointed one of the Commissioners, the others being John Macklin and Eli Gorham. A resolution was passed imposing a fine of £5—a pretty stiff penalty in those days—on any one allowing the Canada thistle to grow on his farm. A project was broached in this year for the erection of a township hall, and the following were appointed a committee to fix a suitable site and open a subscription list: Adam Gorham, John Millard, Simon Beels, Joshua Wilson, Ezra Clubine, Ludwick Wiedman, Eli Gorham, James Edmonson, Jacob Laing, J. Lloyd, jun’r, Thomas Macklin and J. Burkholder. The project, however, fell through owing, no doubt, to the breaking out of the Rebellion. In the year 1838 it is stated that “there was no township meeting held, by order of the justices of the peace, in consequence of the Rebellion taking place about the same time; and the township officers for the year are to remain as they were in 1837, except those commissioners known to be under bonds or implicated.”

In 1839 the old nomenclature of “wardens” seems to have been resumed in place of “commissioners.” The chairman of township meetings and wardens for the next eleven years until the present system of municipal representation was adopted in 1850, were as follows: 1839—Chairman, Joshua Willson; wardens, Robert Fenton, Joshua Willson, Isaac Lundy. 1840—Eli Gorham, chairman; Phil. Bogart, John Miller, John Macklin, wardens. 1841—T. Willson, chairman; P. Bogart, Benjamin Bozer, D. Hunter, wardens. 1842—T. Willson, chairman; B. Bozer, J. Dockler, sen’r, T. Hunt, wardens. 1843—T. Willson, chairman; T. W. Collins, Jacob Clark, T. Bozer, W. Graham, wardens. 1844—P. Pearson, chairman; T. Macklin, G. Bozer, T. Botsford, wardens. 1845—Michael T. Empey, chairman; J. B. Colwell, C. Stouffer, Hugh Norman, wardens. 1846—Michael J. Empey, chairman; T. Botsford, Henry Widdifield, W. Seaton, wardens. 1847—M. T. Empey, chairman; J. Cook, R. H. Smith, J. Patterson, wardens. 1848—J. Hewitt, chairman; T. Pearson, J. Doherty, J. Macklin, wardens. 1849—P. Pearson, chairman; J. Hunt, Nelson Scott, John Hill, wardens. In 1850, under the present municipal organization, the council were as follows: Joseph Hartman, T. Pearson, J. Macklin, E. Wiedman, and G. Playter. G. S. Hewitt was appointed township clerk, in place of J. Hewitt who resigned after holding the position for about two years; Joseph Hartman was elected reeve. The following year the council comprised: J. Willson, G. Playter, J. Macklin, T. Pearson, and Henry Weedman. In 1852 the members were: J. Hartman, R. Weedman, D. Smith, G. Playter and R. Brodie. Mr. Hartman obtained the reeveship, which position he retained until his death in 1859, a resolution of respect and condolence being passed by the township council. John Ironside succeeded him in the reeveship, which he held until 1863. Among those who have subsequently been thus honoured are Edward Wheeler, John Randolph, D. Wheeler, and Maxson Jones. The latter was first elected reeve in 1874 and still occupies the position. The other officers for the year 1884 are: Charles J. Brodie, Bethesda, 1st deputy-reeve; Lot L. Hartman, Aurora, 2nd deputy-reeve; John Irwin, Ballantrae, and John Burkholder, Lemonville, councillors; Philip Jones, Bloomington, assessor; Stewart Walker, Aurora, collector; J. W. Collins, Newmarket P.O., clerk and treasurer. Mr. Collins has held the clerkship continuously for thirty-two years, the date of his appointment being 1852. Joseph Collins, his father, was one of the early pioneers, having come in from Pennsylvania when the country was a wilderness. He erected a grist mill—the first in the neighbourhood—on the site of the present Village of Uxbridge, and not long afterwards met his death by accident. The family are originally of Welsh stock. On the maternal side, Mr. Collins is connected with the family of the Bogarts whose names occur so frequently in the annals of Whitchurch, who were also immigrants from Pennsylvania, but of Dutch extraction.

The Town of Newmarket, the most important business centre in the county outside Toronto, is in the north-western corner of the township, and about four miles to the south-east, lying partly in King Township, is the incorporated Village of Aurora. These places will be fully noticed elsewhere. They are connected by the Northern Railway, which enters the township a short distance south of Aurora. The Lake Simcoe Junction Railway runs through the eastern portion of the township from Stouffville on the southern boundary northward, passing the Village of Ballantrae, where the township meetings are held, and Vivian, about a mile and a-half south of the Township of East Gwillimbury. Other villages are: Ringwood, a mile and a-half west of Stouffville; Lemonville, about two miles to the north-west of the latter place; Bethesda, in the centre of the township, about a mile and a-half north of the southern boundary; Bloomington, about two miles north of Stouffville; Pine Orchard, in the northern portion, and Petchville and White Rose lying to the east of Aurora.

Whitchurch formed a portion of the North Riding of York for Parliamentary purposes until 1882, when the re-distribution of seats in the Dominion Parliament, popularly known as the “Gerrymander Act,” took place, by which this township, together with the Town of Newmarket and the Village of Stouffville, were detached from North York, and made a portion of the Riding of West Ontario.

Whitchurch has twelve school sections, and three union sections with houses in the township, and two with houses outside the township.

No. 1 stands on lot 21 in the 2nd concession, directly east from Aurora. The house is a new, neat and substantial brick building in a commanding situation. The teacher is Henry Love. His attendance is 35 on an average.

No. 2, on lot 17 in the 3rd concession, near Van Nostrand’s Mills, is a frame house in fair condition, surrounded by an unusually attractive lot of evergreen and hardwood shade trees. The teacher is Thomas McCormack. Attendance, 28.

No. 3, the Bogarltown School, a comfortable brick house, stands on lot 31, near the centre, in the 3rd concession. Teacher, J. A. Sangster. Average, 39.

No. 4, the Pine Orchard School, is a renovated frame house on lot 29 in the 4th concession. Robert O. White is teacher. The average is 30.

No. 5, stands on the south side and near the middle of lot 31 in the 8th concession. It is a new and good frame house, but badly situated in its yard. The teacher, Miss A. Myers, has an average of 40.

No. 6, on the west end of lot 10, 3rd concession, is a new frame building with comfortable furniture. The teacher is William T. Stone. His average attendance is 22.

No. 7, an old and unattractive frame house, stands on the north side of lot 5, near the centre, in the 3rd concession. Teacher, E. J. Smyth. Attendance, 27.

No. 8, on the east end of lot 9, 5th concession, is a frame building. The teacher is Mary E. Cook. Her average is 16.

No. 9, the Lemonville School, stands on lot 8, 7th concession. It is a frame house, enlarged some years ago, and supplied with modern desks and seats. Teacher, Alexander Marshall Hannah. The attendance averages 25.

No. 10, Bloomington School, is a frame house, on the west end of lot 10, 9th concession. The average under the present teacher, Henry J. Hoidge, is 43.

No. 11, known as the Ballantrae School, stands on the side road between the 8th and 9th concessions, on lot 21. It is a double frame house. Teacher, Edwin Ball. Average, 40.

No. 12, on the west end of lot 7, 5th concession, is a good brick structure, with dinner and hat rooms, in need of some repairs however. Teacher, Isaac Pike. Average, 32.

No. 2, union with Markham, known as the Ringwood School, is a brick structure of unusual pretensions, rapidly falling to ruin through defects in workmanship and neglect. The teacher is Wellington H. Wismer. The average for the Whitchurch part is 24.

No. 3, union with King, known as the Brick School, Yonge Street, stands on lot 28, 1st concession. The main building is an old brick structure—the addition is frame. Teacher, Joseph A. McPherson; assistant, Ellen Cody. Average—Whitchurch, 12, King, 30.

No. 1, union with East Gwillimbury, known as Shrubmount School, a small frame house, is situated on lot 35, 6th concession. Teacher, Agnes Brillinger. Her average—Whitchurch, 12, East Gwillimbury, 11.

THE TOWNSHIP OF GEORGINA.

EORGINA was surveyed and settled at a date considerably later than the other townships of the county. According to the original plan in the Surveyor-General’s office it was laid out by Mr. Duncan McDonald, acting under instructions from Surveyor-General Thomas Ridout in 1817. Settlement, however, had begun about two years previously. The first patents were issued in 1819. The name of the township was given in honour of George III. It is in the extreme north-east of the county, and is bounded on the north by Lake Simcoe, on the west by North Gwillimbury, on the south by Scott, and on the east by Brock, both the latter townships being in the County of Ontario, to which Georgina seems naturally by its location to belong rather than to York. The township comprises 34,996 acres, about two-thirds of the total area being settled. It has eight concessions running east and west, two of them broken by the lake. It is crossed by numerous ridges running south-west to north-east, the soil of the uplands being good agricultural land, while that of the depressions between the ridges is swampy, requiring drainage to render it cultivable. The swampy portion comprises about half the land in the township. One-fourth of the soil is heavy clay, and an equal area sand, the latter being principally found in the eastern section. The remainder is divided in nearly equal proportions between clay loam, sandy loam, gravel, and black loam.

Rock of lower Silurian formation appears on the surface at Pefferlaw along the stream, and at Duclean Point, where the same stratum is exposed on the lake shore. Large boulders are deposited along the ridges, especially at their north-eastern termination. These are water-worn, and have evidently been conveyed to the spot by icebergs when the country was submerged. The first-class land of the township, embracing about one-half the area, is valued at from $50 to $80 per acre; swamp lands bring about $10.

The list of the earlier patentees of the township includes the following:—

1819—Alexander Robbins, Rebecca Greangan, Dorothy Buck, Michael Cryderman, Isaac Orser, George Snook, Joseph Morden, jun’r, Abraham Lambert, John Deniell, Jane Deniell, Wilhelm Dusenbery, Arnoldi Dorland, Jane Smith, Rebecca David, Margaret Baker, Gilbert Orser, John Dusenbery, Jane Everitt, David Secord, David Burdett, Thomas Fairman, John Fralick, Nancy Goldsmith, Nathaniel Hand, David Kinnaly, John McTaggart, Elizabeth Hess, Margaret Hess, Sarah Coleman, Deborah Osborn, John Phillips, James Phillips, Mary Phillips, Samuel Peak, Tenby Taylor, Abram Dafoe, John Goldsmith, David Goldsmith, Mary Tripp, John van Horn, Peter Bonner, Susannah Bennett, Joseph Kellar, John Young, William Bouchier.

1820—Angus McDonald, alias Roy, Arah McDonald, John McLennan, Donald Fraser.

1821—Susannah Lousuir, Henry A. E. Pilkington, Margaret McDonnell.

1822—John Comer, Asa Smalley, John Peregrine, James Dorithy, James Johnson, William Carter, John Dusenbery.

1825—Philip Wickwire, John King.

1826—Charles Hay Howard, Thomas McKie, William Miller.

1827—William Johnson, William Kimmerly, Anthony Trimper, Loal Hale.

1828—David Brady, James Donnell.

1829—Roche Moffatt, William Crawford, Nenas Huntly.

1830—Amable Du Sang, James Cumming, J. C. Bouchier.

1831—David Robertson, Benjamin Ritchie, Catherine Harvey.

1832—Andrew Wagner, Austin Huntly.

1833—Neil Farman, Daniel Sullivan, Hugh Morrison.

1834—Abram Oldum, Robert Johnson, Patrick Rock, Simeon Secord.

1835—George Augustus Jack, John Elerbeck, Catherine Bogge, Dan. King, Mary Donahoe, Godfrey Wheeler, James O’Brien Bouchier.

1836—Charles Henry Bernard, J. Hann.

1838—George Playter.

1839—James Appleton, Samuel Park.

1840—William W. Baldwin, William Allan, John Rae, John Finston, John Davis, William K. Rains.

1843—Patrick Roche.

1845—Joseph Lyall, Thomas Allen Stayner, John Griffin.

1846—Absalom Hurst.

1848—Samuel Brook, William Dalie.

1850—Kenneth Cameron.

The two earliest settlers in Georgina, so far as known, were Captain James O’Brien Bouchier and John Comer. The former commanded Fort Penetanguishene during the war of 1812, and afterwards took up land like many other officers who retired on half-pay at the close of hostilities and became permanent settlers. The first white child born in the township was the daughter of John Comer, who lived to a good old age. Mr. Comer was the first assessor and collector of the municipality. Georgina was united for municipal purposes with the adjoining Township of North Gwillimbury until 1826. After the separation took place, the first town clerk elected was Alexander Craig Lawson, the first, and for some time the only, school teacher in the township, who held the clerkship for many years. The accessible records of the township are very scanty, and but little information is procurable as to the early officials. The first reeve was Charles H. Howard, who held office during the years 1850-51. The position was filled in 1852 by James Bouchier, in 1853 by John Boyd, in 1854-55 by Samuel Park, in 1856 by W. S. Turner. Angus Ego, the present township clerk, succeeded him, and continued in office for the six years 1857-62, and after an interval of one year, during which Archibald Riddell filled the chair, was again chosen for 1864-65. Then Archibald Riddell had a six years term, and was followed by Donald McDonald, who presided over the council for five years consecutively. James Anderson was chosen in 1877, and re-elected in 1878. Mr. Ego was township clerk and treasurer from 1872 until 1877, when John Guben was chosen clerk and George Evans, jun’r, treasurer. In 1878 P. McPherson was clerk. Angus Ego was re-elected township clerk in 1881. The officials for 1884 are as follows:—Reeve, J. R. Stevenson, Georgina; deputy-reeve, Henry Park, Vochill; councillors, John Kay, Mark Kay and Christopher Raynard; treasurer, George Evans, jun’r; collector, George Lake; assessor, Wm. E. Tomlinson; auditors, Alexander Williams and William Fry.

In 1842 Georgina contained 586 inhabitants. The population in 1850 had increased to 946. In 1871 the number was 1,987. While most of the townships of this county have decreased in population during the decade 1871-81, Georgina shows an increase of about one-fifth, the number of inhabitants, according to the last census, being 2,482. Of these 2,039 are native Canadians. The occupiers of land number 298; occupants, who are also proprietors, are 216 in number. The total area in occupation is 29,469 acres, of which 16,938 acres are improved. The portion of this under tillage is 13,109 acres, 3,514 acres being grazing lands, and 315 acres gardens and orchards.

The returns of agricultural produce for 1849 gave the following figures in round numbers:—13,000 bushels of wheat, 8,000 bushels of oats, 3,000 bushels of peas, 9,000 bushels of potatoes, and 9,000 bushels of turnips. The Dominion census of 1881 gives the following as the yield of the staple crops:—Wheat, 39,467 bushels; barley, 13,769 bushels; oats, 70,261 bushels; peas and beans, 22,426 bushels; potatoes, 25,304 bushels; turnips, 78,583 bushels, and hay 2,196 tons.

As closely as can be ascertained, the acreage of agricultural land is distributed among the leading crops in the following proportions:—Fall wheat, 10 per cent.; spring wheat, 20 per cent.; barley, 5 per cent.; oats, 8 per cent.; peas, 6 per cent.; potatoes, 1 per cent.; turnips, 2 per cent.; hay 10 per cent.; pasturage, 30 per cent.; orchard, 1 per cent. The land yet uncleared, about one-third of the total area, is timbered with hemlock, hardwood, cedar and tamarack. The live stock of the township in 1881 included 1,684 head of cattle, 823 horses, 1,485 sheep and 606 hogs. The varieties most extensively raised are heavy draught horses and ordinary cattle. The quantity of thoroughbred stock raised in the township is small, but increasing. Among those who are owners of Durham cattle may be mentioned John L. Howard and James Baine.

Sutton, also known as Georgina, the latter being the name of the post-office, is the principal village in the township. It was originally called “Bouchier’s Mills,” and owes its origin to the enterprise of Captain James O’Brien Bouchier before referred to, who established a flouring mill and factories, and did a great deal in other ways to build up the village as a centre of population. Sutton is located on the Black River, about three miles from Lake Simcoe, and on the western boundary of the township. It has about 700 inhabitants, and is in a flourishing condition. The Church of England and Presbyterian bodies have places of worship here. Smith, the author of “Canada: Past, Present and Future,” states that in 1851 Sutton contained a grist and saw mill, a carding and fulling mill, a tannery, and a new cloth factory in course of erection. Of these only the saw and flouring mill are now in operation, and no new industries have taken their place. The tendency of our modern manufacturing system is all in the direction of centralization in the larger towns and cities, and the smaller factories which used to build up the country villages are becoming either abandoned or transferred to the great industrial centres.

Jackson’s Point, which lies about a mile and a half to the north of Sutton, a picturesquely wooded headland, is the terminus of the Lake Simcoe Junction Railway. It is a favourite resort for excursion parties, as in addition to the beauties of the scenery it has the attraction of boating and fishing, and there are frequent steamboat trips to Belle Ewart, distant about ten miles, and to other points on the lake. The other villages are Port Bolster, situated, as its name indicates, on the lake, at the extreme north-eastern angle of the township; Virginia, about midway between this point and Sutton, a mile or so distant from Lake Simcoe; Pefferlaw, in the eastern portion of the township, about three miles south-west of Port Bolster, and Vachell and Baldwin, in the western part of the township. In the south-eastern corner of the township there are three small lakes connecting with the stream which reaches Lake Simcoe near Port Bolster, and there is also another near Pefferlaw.

Georgina contains six sections, with seven Public schools.

No. 1, a union with North Gwillimbury, is situated in the Village of Sutton, the terminus of the Lake Simcoe Branch of the Midland Railway, now a part of the Grand Trunk system. The building is a handsome and substantial brick structure, with rooms for three teachers. The Principal is Robert Sanderson, whose well-directed labours have secured for his pupils several third and intermediate certificates, as well as a large number for entrance to High Schools. The average attendance is about 120.

No. 2 is situated on the line running east from Sutton, at about four miles distance, on the south-east corner of the farm of George Evans, Esq., the township treasurer. It is a large frame house, and the average attendance is about 44. Miss S. Tomlinson is the teacher.

No. 3, the school of the fertile and attractive district known as Egypt, is situated about two miles east of the Baldwin station of the Lake Simcoe Railway, and about four south-east of Sutton. It is a large frame house, with rooms for two teachers, of whom the present headmaster is George A. Cole. For years this school has held a foremost place for efficiency. The average attendance is about 56. The assistant is Saidie Cameron.

No. 4, called the Pefferlaw School, stands about half a mile south of the Black River Bridge, on the same line as No. 2, and about seven miles from Sutton. It is a mile north of the Village of Pefferlaw. It is a new and good frame structure. The average attendance is 47. Thomas A. Wilson is the present teacher.

No. 5, the Udora School, is situated three-quarters of a mile north of Udora, on the base-line, and in the south-east corner of the township. The house is a new and comfortable frame building. The average attendance is about 30, and the teacher is Miss Maggie Thomas.

Sub-section No. 5 is a division of No. 5, with a new frame house, about two miles to the west of No. 5. At present it is only kept open for six months of the year, but when paid for, and the liberal sentiments of the whole section are a little more developed, the children of the western part of the section will be as well provided for as those of the eastern. Miss Orphea Birdsall was employed during the first half of 1884.

No. 6, or Cedarvale School, is situated on the base-line, a mile and three-quarters south of the Egypt School, from which it is a recent offshoot. The house is a new and substantial frame building. The teacher, Miss Bertha Appleton, has an average attendance of 36.

THE TOWNSHIP OF NORTH GWILLIMBURY.

ORTH GWILLIMBURY is the smallest township in the county, both in area and population. It comprises 29,011 acres, and according to the last census has 2,151 inhabitants. It is bounded by Lake Simcoe to the north, East Gwillimbury to the south, Cooke’s Bay to the west, and Georgina to the east. The concessions, of which there are eight, are numbered eastward from Yonge Street, though the first concession only comprises a few lots in a little strip of land south of Cooke’s Bay, and the second has a broken front, the water encroaching in some places upon the third concession. The eighth concession is also deficient, as the rear line does not run parallel with Yonge Street, but due north and south. North Gwillimbury was first settled early in the present century. The earliest patent is one dated in 1800. The following is a list of some of the patentees:—

1800—J. Ozburn.

1803—James Roche, Isaac Willcox, Garrett Vanzante, Antoine Lapalme, Ann Woodcock.

1804—Antoine German Bertrand, Hon. James Baby, William Smalley, John Mardoff.

1805—Levi Bales, William Garner, Frederick Sprague.

1806—Edward Heazel, Calvin Ennes, Joseph Quarry, Ira Gardiner, Quetton de St. George, Samuel Lawrence, Benjamin Reynolds, Alice Cook, Mary Rogers, Cornelius Ryckman, Joseph Willson, Catharine Wesbour, Magdalene Allair, Frederick Augustus Goring, Elizabeth Veemer, Eliza Forfar, Benjamin Cozens, Simon Montross, James Gromer, Rev. Patrick.

1807—John Small, Peter Anderson, Alexander Wood, David Bishop Warren, Ann Sherrard, Lieut.-Col. Augustin Boiton, Le Chevalier de Mariscal, John Conrad Miller, James Davidson.

1808—Jean Louis, Vicomte de Chalus, Samuel Moody Kinsal, Lina Curlett, Catherine Osborne, Levi Sherwood, George Bond, Margaret Munday, Andrew Bigham, Sarah Foder.

1809—Esther Dennison.

1815—D. Mann.

1818—Eli McDonnell.

1820—Peter Anderson, Darius Mann.

1821—Margaret McDonnell.

1822—D. Cox.

1823—Rachel Wolcott.

1825—Alexander Kennedy.

1828—John Winch, William Powell, Henry E. Nichols.

1833—David Sprague.

1835—Louis Fontaine.

1836—Thomas Mossington, Elisha Mitchell.

1839—James Rose.

1840—Ephraim Holland Payson, Rev. John Roaf, J. B. Sprague.

1842—Arad Smalley.

1845—George Tomlinson.

1846—William Mesin.

1847—Andrew Willoughby.

1857—John Gaedike.

1862—Silas B. Fourbonson.

About one-third of the total area of North Gwillimbury, in the northern and western parts, is flat, low-lying land, a large portion of which is swampy. Three thousand acres are stony, and the remainder is undulating cultivable land. Heavy clay and sandy loam are the predominant characteristics of the soil, but there are considerable areas of clay loam and sand, and smaller tracts of gravel and black loam. The proportions of first, second, and third-class land are about equal. The values range from $50 to $80 for first-class land, $25 to $50 for second-class, and $10 to $25 for third-class farms. About two-thirds of the farms are under first-class fences, and the dwellings are half of the first-class and the remainder inferior. A very small proportion of the land has been improved by under-drainage. The proportion of land devoted to the principal items of agricultural produce is as follows:—Fall wheat, one-tenth; spring wheat, one-third; barley, one-tenth; oats, one-tenth; peas, one-twentieth; potatoes one one-hundred-and-fiftieth; turnips, one-hundredth; hay, one-tenth; pasturage, one-fifth. The yield per acre as nearly as can be calculated is as follows:—Fall wheat, 20 bushels; spring wheat, 15 bushels; barley, 25 bushels; oats, 35 bushels; peas, 20 bushels; potatoes, 100 bushels; turnips, 500 bushels; hay, one ton. About one-twenty-fifth of the whole area is still wooded. There is but little improved live stock in the township. The returns for 1881 show 1,754 head of cattle, 1,306 horses, 1,594 sheep, and 784 hogs.

The early records of the township show that in 1821 the number of the inhabitants of North Gwillimbury and Georgina were 272. In 1822 the population of the two townships had increased to 314—in 1823 it was 339. North Gwillimbury, in 1842, contained 697 inhabitants—in 1850 the number was 1,172. The census of 1871 showed a population of 2,304, which, as in most of the townships, has fallen off somewhat during the last decade, the census of 1881 giving the number as 2,151. Of this number 1,869 are of Canadian birth.

The agricultural products of 1849 included 26,000 bushels of wheat, 13,000 bushels of oats, 5,000 bushels of peas, 13,000 bushels of potatoes, and 10,000 bushels of turnips. In 1881 the yield amounted to 53,168 bushels of wheat, 22,921 bushels of barley, 76,720 bushels of oats, 20,843 bushels of peas and beans, 24,367 bushels of potatoes, 26,833 bushels of turnips, and 2,692 tons of hay.

The occupiers of land number 335, of whom 224 own the soil, the total area in occupation being 28,783 acres, of which 19,106 acres are improved land. The area devoted to field crops is 14,763 acres, 3,826 acres being pasture, and 517 gardens and orchards.

The townships of North Gwillimbury and Georgina were united for some time. The officials for the united townships for 1822 were as follows:—Arad Smalley, town clerk; Holland A. Payson and Alexander Lawson, assessors; Joshua Utler, collector; Erastus Smalley, Asa Crittenden, George Williams, Daniel Mann, Zenas Hentley, Fountain D. Hunter, and William Carter, path-masters; Silas Emes and L. Hale, pound-keepers; William Crittenden and Joseph Lile, town wardens. In 1823 Arad Smalley was town clerk; Asa Smalley and Benjamin Jefferson, assessors; H. H. Payson, collector, and Joel Draper and Simeon Martin, town wardens. The town wardens for 1824 were Jacob Draper and J. Donald—for 1825, John Comer and Squire Martin. In 1826 the Township of Georgina was separated from North Gwillimbury, and the record of municipal proceedings thenceforward relates to the latter township only.

In 1827 Joel Draper and David Mann were town wardens; Silas Emes, assessor; John Prossor, collector, and Arad Smalley, town clerk. In 1828 David Sprague became township clerk, an office which he retained until 1842. James Crittenden and Ephraim W. Payson were town wardens for the former year. The town wardens for some years following were as follows: 1829—David Sprague and Noah Gager; 1830—Joseph Rose and Martin Wariner; 1831—J. Rose and Squire Martin; 1832—Abraham Sedore and Austin Huntley; 1833—N. Gager and Joel Draper; 1834—Silas Emes and Israel Bennett; 1835—J. Ross and E. Willoughby.

In 1836 the municipal system underwent some changes. D. Sprague, B. W. Smith, John Prossor and Justin Hatfield were chosen commissioners. In 1837 the commissioners were Justin Hatfield, Isaac Bennett and Peter Bilder. A memorandum dated 1st of January, 1838, is as follows: “In consequence of the Rebellion which broke out on the 4th of last December no township meeting took place this day. The township officers of last year therefore remain in their various offices during the year. David Sprague, town clerk.” The records contain a minute of a special session of the magistrates for the division of North Gwillimbury and Georgina, held at North Gwillimbury on the 16th April, 1838, bearing the signatures of Arad Smalley, J.P., and Thomas Mossington, J.P. In 1839 Oliver Barton, N. Gager, and D. Sprague, sen’r, were town wardens. There was another special session of magistrates of the two townships this year at which Arad Smalley, James D. Boucher, of Georgina, Thomas Mossington, and Simon Lee were present. In 1840 the town wardens were Silas Emes, J. Bennett, and G. D. Earl; in 1841, D. Sprague, sen’r, and George D. Earl; 1842, J. Carbett, Silas Emes, and George W. Chipperfield. In this year David Dawson was appointed town clerk in place of Mr. Sprague, and retained the position until his death, in 1846, when Mr. Sprague was again chosen to the office. The town wardens for 1843 were G. D. Earl, G. W. Chipperfield, and J. Bennett. In 1844 the Home District Council was organized, Isaac Bennett being chosen councilman for the township. The town wardens for this year were, G. W. Chipperfield, N. Gager, and D. Sprague, sen’r.

The town wardens for the remaining years during which this office existed were as follows: 1845—H. Huntly, Austin Huntly, Simeon Huntly; 1846—T. Mossington, Israel Shepherd, J. Chipperfield; 1847—Cornelius Silver, William L. T. Corbett, G. D. Earl; 1848—John Prossor, Hugh H. Wilson, Silas Emes; 1849—Nicholas Bennett, Robert Anderson, S. Sprague, sen’r.

In 1850 it is recorded that the first meeting of the municipal council of the township took place on the 22nd of January, at Dughill school house, Isaac Bennett being reeve, and Messrs. J. Prossor, Arad Shepherd, J. Morton, and D. Sprague, councillors, and Richard Sheppard, township clerk. Thomas Mossington became reeve the following year. In 1852 John Prosser was elected to the reeveship. He was succeeded in 1853 by David Sprague, who held the office for two years. He subsequently held the same position in 1856, 1858, and 1864. In 1855 and 1862 the reeveship fell to John Morton, and in 1857 to D. B. Wilson. Thomas Evans filled the chair in 1859 and again in 1861, William Henry in 1860 and 1865, Henry Draper in 1863 and subsequently for the period 1866-69. In 1870 he was succeeded by John Marritt who had a five years’ term, and filled the position again in 1876. Elijah Prossor and Willard Bennett are also among those who have held the office of late years. The present reeve is R. M. Van Norman of Keswick, the deputy-reeve being D. H. Sprague of the same place. The other councillors are Stephen Winch and J. D. Davidson, both of Belhaven, and John Boag, of Ravenshoe. Henry Sennett, Belhaven, is township clerk; E. Nosser, of Keswick, treasurer, and Ellis Sheppard, of Belhaven, assessor.

The township meetings, for some fifteen years past, have been held at Belhaven, a village containing about a hundred inhabitants, occupying a central position in the township. Keswick, originally called Medina, is picturesquely located on the summit of the uplands, overlooking Cooke’s Bay to the west. The population is about one hundred and sixty. Three miles to the north is the village of Roach’s Point, on the headland which forms the northern limit of Cooke’s Bay, the romantic situation and surroundings of which have not availed to induce its growth. It was formerly known as “Keswick,” but lost its official designation when the post-office was removed to the lower village. A mile and a half south of Keswick is Jersey. The three villages are connected by a road following the course of the elevated land along the coast. Another road strikes across the township in a north-easterly direction from Ravenshoe in East Gwillimbury. This was the outlet of travel to Yonge Street in the early days of settlement. The Lake Simcoe Junction Railway traverses the township from south to north within a very short distance of its eastern boundary.

North Gwillimbury contains seven school sections, and seven teachers.

No. 1 is half a mile east of Queen Street, and on the first side-road north from the town-line south. It is a plank or frame building of considerable age, and not so comfortable as recent improvements have made pretty general. The average attendance under the present teacher, Miss Sarah Earl, is 35.

No. 2 is also on Queen Street, five miles north of the town-line, and half a mile north of Keswick, or Dug Hill. The house is a rough-cast frame of good size and comfort. The average attendance is 33. Teacher, J. E. Pollock.

No. 3 is situated on the base-line, two miles directly west of Sutton, and one and a half from Lake Simcoe. The house is an old plank or frame, with some recent improvements and good furniture. The average attendance is 32. The teacher, Miss T. Price.

No. 4 is nearly in the centre of the township, on the farm of John Morton, Esq., lot 18, 5th concession, and is an old frame house fairly furnished and kept. Average attendance, 41. Teacher, Miss Sarah Fisher.

No. 5 is on the south-east corner of lot 6 in the 5th concession in the English Settlement. It is an old frame building, with a recent addition to make legal space for the school population, but not comfortable or attractive inside. Miss Thusnelda Borugasser is the teacher. Her average attendance is 40.

No. 6, or Roach’s Point School, is an old frame house on the base-line, about six miles west from Sutton, on lot 23, 3rd concession. The average attendance under the present teacher, Miss Jennie Rogers, is 20.

No. 7, known as Gum Swamp School, is situated on lot 15, 7th concession. The building is a neat and comfortable frame building erected in 1882. Miss Mossie Sheppard is the teacher. The average attendance is 18.

THE TOWNSHIP OF EAST GWILLIMBURY.

HERE are three townships bearing the name of Gwillimbury—East and North Gwillimbury in the County of York, and West Gwillimbury in Simcoe. They were named after the wife of Governor Simcoe, whose family name was Gwillim, and whose father, at that time aide-de-camp to Gen. Wolfe, was killed at the taking of Quebec. She was a lady of marked intellectual capacity and strong artistic tastes, and long survived her husband, as her death did not take place until 1850. East Gwillimbury comprises about 58,000 acres, and is bounded on the north by North Gwillimbury, on the east by Scott, on the south by Whitchurch, and on the west by King. It has nine concessions east of Yonge Street and one west of it, the latter originally forming part of West Gwillimbury. Two of the concessions are defective.

The first settlements in the township were made in 1798, two years before the commencement of the work of survey by Surveyor Stegmann. Other surveyors who from time to time continued the laying out of the township were Hambly, Wilmot, Lount, Chewett, Lindsay, Haller and Gossage, the latter completing the survey in 1865.

The first patentees are given by the “Domesday Book” as follows:—

1800—Elijah Welch.

1801—John Weddle, Ebenezer Weller, Elijah Robinson.

1802—Reuben Richardson, Joseph Hill, Samuel Haight, A. Howard, Daniel Travis, Joel Bigelow, William Anderson.

1803—Josiah Coolige, George Cutter, Edward Taylor Collins, John Eves, George Holinshead, Levy Vanbleck, Thomas Young, Abijah Mack, Esther Frisbee, Jeremiah Moore, jun’r, Jacob Reer, jun’r.

1804—Nehemiah Hide, Theodore Wine, Nathan Farr, Joseph Pearson, Timothy Rogers, Frederick Harrick, Jacob Johnson, Adam Lepard, William Huff, Jacob Lepard, Jesse Bennett, Zebulon Ketchum, Ephraim Talbut.

1805—Obadiah Griffin, Bela Clark, Obadiah Huff, Elisha Mitchell, Bernard Velie, John Dunham, Henry Proctor, Isaac Kitly, David Willson, Joseph Sutherland, John Hodgson, Peter H. Vanderburgh, Jeremiah Traviss, Philip Chinger, Job Cogsele, Jesse Ketchum, Peter Emery, Richard Banks, Thomas Price, Christian Hershey, jun’r, Henry Huber, Frederick Ashbough, Joseph Dobinger, Aveng Stiles, Augustus House, George Buck, Philip Buck, Anna Connor, Catharine Rouset, Le Chevalier de Marseul, Nathaniel Gager, Bethnel Huntley, William Phillips, Daniel Wilson, Stephen Howard.

1806—Catherine Smith, Mary Parry, Elizabeth Laughlan, Andrew McGlasham, Mary Adams, Catherine Pallit, Mary Kreen, Catherine Rood, Elsy Sherrard, Nancy Barnum, Rebecca Chysdale, Ann Hoiks, Elizabeth Harriss, Sarah Storer, Jane Huffman, Elizabeth Beech, Rachel Woolcutal, Nancy Black, Samuel Pickel, Catherine Elsworth, Phœbe Cornwall, D. Cox, Mary Robben, James McCaul, Robert Nichol, James Pettibon, Charles Hill, Benjamin Mosley, Elijah Howley.

1807—Peter Anderson, Conrad Gostman, Calvin Washburne, Henry Lepard, John Johnson, William Coldwell, Hermanus House, Lewis House, John Hall, James Kinsey, Peter Anderson.

1808—Sarah Grant, Ann Tiffany, John Secord, jun’r, Benjamin Dunham, Henry Zufelt, J. Osburn, Mary Brown, Rachel Brown, George Bond, Nathaniel Dennis, Catherine Bisenbery, John Benedick.

1809—Samuel Dean, Humphrey Finch, Jean Louis Vicomte de Chalus.

1811—Amos West.

1812—Nathaniel Sherrard, Gideon Veron, Eunice Scorils, Thomas Selby.

1813—John Titus.

1816—Peter Robinson.

1817—Joseph Robinson, Edward Foreman.

1822—Daniel Cox.

1828—R. McCarthy, George McCarthy.

1829—Moses Knight.

1831—John Doan, sen’r, Ebenezer Doan.

1833—John Weddel, Samuel Hughes, Samuel Johnson.

1835—John McKay, Obadiah Rogers.

1840—J. B. Spragge, Benjamin O. N. Lyster.

1842—Texty Weller.

1843—Thomas Leighton, William H. Wilson.

1845—John Bromer.

1846—Charles Kinsey, William Langton, George Heron.

1847—William Pegg.

1848—William Elmer.

1849—William Hutall, Henry Shuttleworth, John Snarr.

1850—William Hawkins, Robert Culverwell.

1855—H. Proctor, T. J. O’Neill.

The soil of East Gwillimbury is generally of a light character, about two-fifths of the total area being sandy loam, one-fifth sand, three-tenths clay loam, and one-tenth heavy clay. Considerably more than half is rolling land, about 2,000 acres being so hilly as to render cultivation difficult or impossible. About 11,600 acres, principally in the north-east of the township, near the mouth of the Holland River, are low-lying, a good deal of it being swamp land. The amount of first-class land is smaller in proportion to the total area than in any other township except King, one quarter being classed under this head. An equal proportion ranks as second-class, another quarter as third-class, the remainder being considered practically useless for agricultural purposes. The price of land is about $60 per acre for first-class, $40 for second-class, and $15 for third-class land. Two-thirds of the farms are under first-class fences, cedar being the material principally used. About one-third of the dwelling-houses are first-class in construction and materials; two-thirds being inferior. The out-buildings are about equally divided in point of quality. Under-drainage is not generally practised. About 26,000 acres is still wooded, the leading kinds of timber being maple, hemlock, tamarack, birch, pine and beech. The proportion of the acreage under cultivation devoted to the leading crops is as follows:—Fall wheat, one-tenth; spring wheat, one-tenth; barley, one-twentieth; oats, one-fifth; peas, one-tenth; potatoes, one-hundredth; turnips, one-fiftieth; hay, three-twentieths; pasture lands, three-twentieths and orchards one-half of one per cent.

The agricultural produce of East Gwillimbury in 1849, when the township was somewhat less in area than at present, amounted in round numbers to 50,000 bushels of wheat, 46,000 bushels of oats, 14,000 bushels of peas, 34,000 bushels of potatoes, and 27,000 bushels of turnips. According to the Dominion census of 1881, the yield was 100,614 bushels of wheat, 42,111 bushels of barley, 147,537 bushels of oats, 46,394 bushels of peas and beans, 57,708 bushels of potatoes, 218,383 bushels of turnips, 20,434 bushels of other roots and 4,955 tons of hay. The number of live stock in the township in 1881 comprised 2,575 head of cattle, 1,620 horses, 3,006 sheep and 1,103 hogs. The thoroughbred stock was about one-fifth of the whole.

The population of East Gwillimbury in 1842 was 1,796, which in 1850 had increased to 2,616. In 1871 it was 3,934, and increased during the decade, 1871-81, to 4,143. The number of native Canadians was 3,390. It is one of the most purely agricultural communities of any in the county—no fewer than 600 being occupiers of land. Of these 385 are also proprietors. The total area of land in occupation is 50,996 acres, of which 36,154 are improved and 29,585 under tillage, 5,773 acres being pasture land, and 796 in gardens and orchards.

According to “the first book of the proceedings of the township commissioners, agreeable to an Act of the Provincial Legislature passed 1835,” which is still in preservation, the township officers for 1836 were:—Samuel Hughes, John H. Wilson and John Fletcher, commissioners, and John Weddel, town clerk; J. H. Wilson and William Nelson were two of the commissioners the following year. In 1838 R. F. Nelson was chairman of the board of commissioners, which comprised Israel Lundy, Findlay McFarlane and John Fletcher; James Aylwood was assessor, and John H. Wilson, collector. In 1839 William Nelson was chairman, the board being composed of William Sloan, Peter Rowen, and William G. Dunham, with Moses Knight as assessor, and John Reed, collector; William Nelson retained the chairmanship of the board for the two following years. In 1842 Hugh D. Wilson and William Nelson were elected district councillors; Wm. Reed, sen’r, being chairman of the township commissioners. In 1843 the chairmanship reverted to Mr. William Nelson, who held it until 1849, when Moses Knight held the office for one year. In 1850, when the new system came into operation, Mr. Nelson was the first reeve of the township; Moses Knight and Samuel Harrold were the district commissioners for some years previous to the change. John Weddel continued in the office of town clerk from 1836 until 1846, when he was succeeded by H. D. Wilson, who in 1850 gave place to William Moore. In that year the members of the Council consisted of William Nelson, reeve, John H. Wilson, Thomas Brothers, Jesse Doan and William Millar. In 1851 Joshua Harrison was reeve; councillors, R. T. Wilson, Moses Knight, Henry D. Stiles and Charles Traviss. In 1852 R. J. Wilson was chosen reeve, and Charles Traviss, deputy-reeve; Henry D. Stiles was elected reeve in 1853, and held the position continuously for six years. The deputy-reeves during his term were: J. R. Harrison, Moses Knight, R. Powell and W. D. McLeod, the latter of whom succeeded to the reeveship in 1859, retaining it for two years. James Panham was chosen reeve in 1861, and continued in office until 1868, when J. Doan who had been deputy the previous year was elected to the chair. Among the occupants of the position during later years have been Messrs. Mosier, W. Cane, William H. Rowen, John Ramsden and W. W. Pegg. The township officials for 1884 are as follows: Reeve, W. H. Rowen, Sharon; 1st deputy-reeve, Charles Traviss, Holt; 2nd deputy-reeve, J. Holborn, Ravenshoe; councillors, Mahlon Doan and John A. Ramsden; clerk and treasurer, John T. Stokes, Sharon; health commissioners, B. Cody, J. T. Stokes, James Silver, W. H. Rowen, and John Leek, the first named being chairman of the Board. Mr. Stokes has now occupied the position of township clerk for a period of twenty-nine years.

The most considerable village in East Gwillimbury is Holland Landing, situated on Yonge Street, about four miles above Newmarket. It is of sufficient importance to require a separate notice. East of Holland Landing, on the line between the 1st and 2nd concessions, is the smaller village of Sharon, formerly known as Hope. It was at one time a more important point than at present, as, before the completion of the northern portion of Yonge Street, the line of travel to the upper part of the country diverged to the east at Holland Landing, and passed through Sharon. The construction of the Northern Railway, which passes within about a mile of it, following the west bank of the Holland River, has considerably decreased the amount of traffic along this thoroughfare. A good deal of local travel still goes northward by the stage route. The great feature of Sharon, however, is the conspicuous temple of the local sect known as the “Children of Peace,” founded by David Willson. This remarkable character, whose name is indelibly associated with the early days of Sharon, was an American, of Presbyterian parentage, his native place being Dutchess County, in New York State. In his younger days he was a sailor. In 1801 he settled in Upper Canada, and after a few years became a member of the Hicksite branch of the Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, and adopted the profession of school teacher. On account of some peculiarities of belief or conduct he was disowned by the Quakers, and several others who held similar views withdrew from membership at the same time. The outcome of this secession was the establishment of a new body under the designation of the Children of Peace, of which Willson became the leader. About the year 1825, Willson erected the Sharon Temple, which was designed to symbolize the mystical views held by the sect. This structure, which at once strikes the eye of any one entering the village, is a frame building painted white, and seventy feet in height. It comprises three stories. The first is sixty feet square, with a door in the centre of each side, and three large windows on each side of every door. On two sides of the building the setting sun is depicted, with the word “Armageddon” inscribed beneath it. The second story is twenty-seven feet square, with three windows on each side, and the third nine feet square, with one window looking in each direction, the edifice being crowned by a large gilt ball. At the corners of each of the stories were square lanterns with gilt mountings. The interior of the building was painted fawn-colour, green and white. There was no pulpit or platform from which to speak to the congregation, but in the centre were sixteen pillars surrounding a square cabinet of black walnut. This contained a table covered with black velvet, and hung with crimson merino and fringe, on which was deposited a Bible. The four central pillars were inscribed with the words “Faith,” “Hope,” “Charity” and “Love”; the others bore the names of the twelve apostles.

In constructing this temple, Willson, in imitation of the method of building Solomon’s temple, had the framework prepared at a distance, and put up without the use of tools as far as possible. On the first Friday in September in each year the Children of Peace held an annual feast, on which occasion the temple was illuminated with over a hundred candles.

David Willson was for some time under the impression that he was an object of dislike to the Government, and at the close of the War of 1812 addressed a remonstrance to the British Crown against the intention, which he supposed them to hold, of subjecting him to exile or imprisonment. It is needless to say that his apprehensions were entirely unfounded. Periodically the Children of Peace were in the habit of coming to Toronto, driving down Yonge Street in their wagons in procession. Services would be held in some public place as previously announced. Willson’s favourite topic was the corruption of public affairs, and his addresses were delivered in instalments, between which hymns of his own composition were sung by a company of females dressed in white, who occupied one side of the room, while a band of music on the other rendered an accompaniment. Patrick Swift’s Almanac for 1834 contains the following notice of the Children of Peace:—“This society numbers about 280 members in Hope, east of Newmarket. They have also started places of preaching at the old Court House, York, on Yonge Street, and at Markham. Their principal speaker is David Willson, assisted by Murdoch McLeod, Samuel Hughes, and others. Their music, vocal and instrumental, is excellent, and their preachers seek no pay from the Governor out of the taxes.”

A more comprehensive account of David Willson, and the peculiar sect founded by him, is given in an article entitled, “A Visit to the House of David,” published in a recent number of the Rural Canadian. “About the middle of last century,” says the writer of this article, “there lived in the City of Carrick Fergus, County Antrim, one Hugh Willson, a merchant and extensive dealer in linen, an occupation followed by his father before him. He had two sons, Hugh and John, who came to America in 1770. They landed in New York; then proceeded up the Hudson, and afterwards settled in Dutchess County. Here David Willson (son of John) was born in the year 1780; here he grew to manhood, and married about the beginning of the century, Phœbe Titus. Soon after marriage he made a trip to Cuba, and on his return came to Canada, where he settled in the year 1801, on the uncleared lands where is now the village of Sharon. We will not dwell upon that trip, a portion of which was by Indian trail, or upon the privations and hardships incident to pioneer life. Our subject, being of a religious turn of mind, became at once, on his arrival in Canada, identified with the Friends, as the most of the settlers in this region at that time were Quakers from Pennsylvania. David Willson was a ready and an impressive speaker. He advocated opinions that were not in accordance with those held by the Friends, for which he was formally expelled from the Society that gathered at that time for worship on Yonge Street. He, with three or four other families, then established the Church of the Children of Peace, at Hope. They held their meetings first in the houses of the settlers, afterwards in the school-house; but soon after erected what is now known as the old meeting-house, which has long since fallen into disuse. Between the years 1825 and 1830 they erected the Temple, called by them the Upper Meeting-house. This was opened only twice a year, at the first Saturday in June, called the seeding feast; and the first Saturday in September, called the harvest feast. It is a structure of sixty feet square, with a height of main or outside part of about twenty-two feet. This is surmounted by a central second story, or crystal music room; and this by a dome twelve feet square. At the top of the dome are four central spires, across which are wires, and from these is suspended a large metallic globe; at the corners of each of these a crystal spire or lantern. The Temple is composed largely of windows, and the night before the harvest feast the whole building was illuminated. The belief of David Willson and his followers seems to be one about midway between that of the old Jewish belief and that of the Quakers, and flourished up to about 1840, when, it is thought, nearly 200 souls gathered there for worship. In the year 1843 they built their largest house of worship, called the Town Meeting-house. The building has a frontage of 100 feet, and a depth of fifty feet. It is of much the same style of architecture as the one already described, and is surrounded by a colonnade or row of pillars about four feet from the building. They are arched between, forming a sort of balustrade around the entire edifice. The two buildings seem to represent in a way the Old and New Testament, as inside there is a central colonnade, and upon each of the pillars is engraved the names of the principal characters in the Old Testament; and on the corresponding pillars in the temple are the names of the twelve apostles, and the four central ones are made to represent Faith, Hope, Love and Charity. One of the principal points of difference with the Friends was the introduction of music. This was made a principal feature, and there was at one time at this place one of the finest silver bands in the Province. At the time of the harvest feast the people gathered from near and far, assembling in the Lower Meeting-house, where tables were already spread with every dainty the country afforded. They then marched in procession to the Temple, headed by the band, where an especial half-yearly service was held; afterwards returning to the Lower House, where feasting and good cheer prevailed. This people have been friends of an honest and economical administration of Government, and were strongly opposed to the Family Compact. Several of them were with Mr. Mackenzie in 1837. The Patriarch was not; yet he and his two sons were arrested and taken from their homes. The father was soon after released, but the two sons (Hugh D. and John D., who are the only surviving members of the family, and now fourscore years or more) were confined each five months in Toronto jail; and the former was then taken to Kingston, where a further incarceration of seven months was endured. Although styled the Children of Peace, and for many years a most harmonious body, dissensions have at last arisen, and the congregation has diminished from time to time, until scarcely a dozen families assemble on the Lord’s day; yet we deem it not more than justice to this worthy people, many of whom are now departed to the Land of the Children of Peace, to say that a more intelligent, well-to-do and moral people can not be found throughout the length and breadth of the land.”

Mr. Willson died in 1866, at the good old age of eighty-nine years and seven months, his son taking his place as head of the sect, the members whereof still retain many of their peculiarities.

East Gwillimbury contributed largely towards the rising in 1837. One of the most prominent leaders of the agitation—the patriotic and ill-fated Samuel Lount—resided near Holland Landing. He was appointed to a command in the insurrectionary force a short time before the outbreak, and one of the principal causes for the miscarriage of the movement was the misunderstanding between Mackenzie, Dr. Rolph and himself as to the day upon which the rising was to take place. He organized the movement in the north-eastern part of the county, and raised about eighty or ninety men, who were the first to begin operations in Upper Canada, and bore the brunt of the fighting in the neighbourhood of Toronto. Mr. Lount was a blacksmith by trade, and many of the pikes which formed the only arms procurable by a large portion of his followers were of his manufacture. He was captured on the 18th of January, 1838, and was sacrificed to the blood-thirsty vindictiveness of the Government, being executed on the 12th of April, 1838.

Other villages in the township, in addition to those already mentioned, are: Queensville, about four miles north of Sharon; Ravenshoe, on the northern boundary, five miles east of Yonge Street; and Hartman, Holt, and Mount Albert, in the south-eastern part of the township. The last named village, which has a population of about 380, is a station on the Toronto and Nipissing Railway, which runs northward within a short distance of the eastern boundary.

East Gwillimbury has fourteen school-houses and two unions with other townships.

No. 1 stands on lot 5 (or 100) on Yonge Street, concession 1, west. It is a good frame structure. The average attendance from East Gwillimbury is 20, from the part of King therewith united, 5. The teacher is Robert Irwin Terry.

No. 2 stands on lot 30, in the 3rd concession, two miles north of Queensville. It is an attractive and comfortable frame building. The average attendance is 27. It is in charge of Henry Johnston.

No. 3 is built of brick, on the west end of lot 10, in the 2nd concession. The average attendance is 14. Miss Frances Kelty is the teacher.

No. 4 is situated on the east end of lot 9, in the 2nd concession, on Queen Street, a little south of Sharon. It is a roomy and comfortable, though not modern, frame building, well kept and furnished. The teacher is Ira D. Breals. The average attendance is 40.

No. 5, on lot 20, in the 3rd concession, is in Queensville, a double frame house, comfortable in furnishing and accommodation. Only one teacher, Robert Price, is at present employed. Average, 50.

No. 6, the Eastville School, is situated on the east end of lot 13, in the 6th concession. It is an old frame building, enlarged to meet legal requirements, not well furnished according to later ideas, but fairly comfortable. The teacher is George Welsh. The attendance averages 30.

No. 7 is on the south-west corner of lot 8, in the 4th concession. It is a recent brick structure of good appearance and fair comfort. The teacher is William L. Bond. The average is 23.

No. 8 is also on Union Street, east end of lot 20, in the 3rd concession. It is a fairly preserved frame house, well lighted and ventilated, with good furniture recently introduced. The average is 35. Teacher, Miss Lizzie Ross.

No. 9, on the east end of lot 30, in the 3rd concession, on Union Street, is an oldish frame building, rather poorly furnished and situated. The teacher is Hattie E. Lewis. Her attendance is 15.

No. 10 is located near the centre of lot 29, in the 5th concession, on its south side. The building is a plain frame house, with only moderately comfortable furnishings. Miss Eliza Sheppard, the teacher, has an average attendance of 32.

No. 11, a recently built frame house, is situated on the west end of lot 14, in the 5th concession, on Silver Street. The attendance averages 25. Teacher, Minnie Steele.

No. 12, a new school in the Ridges, is a frame building on lot 26, in the 8th concession. Miss Jessie Toole is the teacher. The average is 10. Owing to the poor soil and the surrounding swamps this is one of the weakest sections in the inspectorate.

No. 13, situated on lot 16, in the 8th concession, is directly north of Mount Albert, about three-quarters of a mile. The house is a frame structure, having two apartments. Mr. James A. Breuls and Miss M. Smith are the teachers. The average attendance is 60.

No. 14, a large, but badly kept, frame house, stands on lot 5, in the 8th concession, a mile and a quarter south of Mount Albert. The teacher, Miss McPhail, has an average of 25.

THE TOWN OF NEWMARKET.

EWMARKET is the only town in the County of York, and is a place of historical and commercial importance. It is situated in the Township of Whitchurch, close to the northern boundary, and a short distance east of Yonge Street. It is about twenty-eight miles from Toronto, with which it has communication by the Northern Railway. Newmarket became a centre of trade at a comparatively early period. The foundation of its prosperity was laid by Elisha Beaman, who came here from New York State in 1806, and established mills and stores. Other pioneers of industry were Mordecai Millard, who, about the same time, built mills upon a branch of the Holland River, and Joseph Hill, who started a tannery. A great impetus was given to its growth by the advent of Peter Robinson, who purchased a mill in 1812, and went extensively into business. In 1814, according to the testimony of one of the early settlers, there were two frame and several log buildings in the village. Mr. Robinson occupied one of the frame houses, and Timothy Millard, who was in his employ as miller, the other. Mr. Robinson afterwards became one of the representatives of York and Simcoe in the Provincial Parliament, and was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands in 1827. His brother, W. B. Robinson, also resident in Newmarket, attained Parliamentary honours likewise. The Robinsons were famous for their open-handed hospitality. Among the distinguished guests whom they entertained were Sir John Franklin, Sir John Ross and Captain Jack, the Arctic explorers. Their old time residence was one of the landmarks of the village until carried away by a freshet in 1878. The convenience of doing their trading at Newmarket, instead of taking their produce to York to exchange it for supplies, was appreciated by the settlers in the neighbourhood. As trade sprang up, the name of “Newmarket” gradually came into use as an appropriate designation for this outpost of traffic.

One of the earliest settlers, who survived until a recent period, was William Roe, who, for over forty years, was postmaster of the village. Mr. Roe was born at Detroit, while it was in the possession of the British, his father being an Englishman from London. When in pursuance of treaty stipulations, Detroit was handed over to the Americans, it was Mr. Roe, sen’r, who officially delivered the key of the fort to the officer of the United States deputed to receive it. He and his family afterwards removed to Windsor, where he died. John Loughton, Mr. Roe’s maternal grandfather, as a naval officer took an important part in the capture of Quebec. In 1807 William Roe came to York. During the war of 1812, he was instrumental in concealing from the invading American force, under General Dearborn and Commodore Chauncey, a large portion of the contents of the public treasury. He was at that time employed in the office of the Receiver-General, and by the order of the Government he buried three bags of gold and a quantity of army-bills, on the farm of Chief Justice Robinson, on the Kingston Road. The enemy afterwards secured the bills, but the gold was safely restored to the authorities by Mr. Roe when the Americans had withdrawn. He also removed the iron chest of the Receiver-General’s office to the house of Donald McLean, Clerk of the Assembly. The latter was killed in battle, and his house plundered, about one thousand silver dollars being taken from the chest.

After the war, Mr. Roe removed to Newmarket, where, in partnership with Andrew Borland, he was engaged for many years in the fur trade. The Indians at that time came to Newmarket in large numbers to exchange their peltries for supplies. These parties sometimes numbered as many as three or four hundred, and the value and extent of the trade may be realized from the fact that sometimes Messrs. Roe and Borland obtained furs at one time amounting to fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Roe died in April, 1879, at the age of eighty-four.

Mr. Andrew Borland, who was associated with him in the fur trade, was in active service during the war of 1812. He was made prisoner by the Americans when York was taken in 1813, but his capture was not effected before he had received six wounds, the results of which he continued to experience for the remainder of his life. He also participated in the battles of Queenston and Detroit. The Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada, at a meeting held on the 11th of June, 1813, voted him a donation of sixty dollars, in the words of the report, “for his patriotic and eminent services at Detroit, Queenston and York, at which latter place he was severely wounded.” The petition to the society requesting this grant to be made was presented by D’Arcy Boulton, in whose employment Mr. Borland had been. The latter afterwards received a pension of twenty pounds a year. The troubles of 1837-8 found Mr. Borland still ready to take up arms in defence of his country. He was placed in command of two hundred Indians, who were stationed at Holland Landing, but their services were not needed. Mr. Borland had a thorough knowledge of the Indian character, as well as of the language of the neighbouring tribes, and had acquired considerable influence over them.

Another of the more conspicuous names among the early settlers is that of Mr. John Cawthra, who, with his brother Jonathan, was at the front during the War of 1812, and was engaged at Queenston and Detroit. He was subsequently in business at Newmarket for a considerable time, and was elected Member of Parliament.

Newmarket was one of the centres of the agitation against the Family Compact, which preceded the insurrection of 1837. The first of the series of public meetings held by Mr. Mackenzie throughout the country, in pursuance of his scheme for organizing the Reformers of Upper Canada, was held here on the 3rd of August, 1837. After Mr. Mackenzie had spoken for an hour and a-half, resolutions were passed approving of the Toronto Declaration of Independence, and declaring that the constitution was “continually violated and trampled upon by the Executive, and countenanced by the Colonial Office and the English Parliament.” The resolutions also pledged the meeting to abstain, as far as possible, from the consumption of articles upon which a duty was imposed, and to unite with the Lower Canadians, whose cause was declared to be the cause of Upper Canada, “in every practicable measure for the maintenance of civil and religious liberty.” Delegates were appointed to the convention which it was proposed to hold in Toronto. These were Samuel Lount, afterwards executed for his participation in the rising; Nelson Gorham, who was also involved, and who sought refuge for a long time in the United States; Silas Fletcher, another refugee; Jeremiah Graham, and John McIntosh, M.P.P. The latter, although committed to the insurrection, was never called to account for his participation in the preliminary movements. The Newmarket meeting resulted in the formation of a political association and a vigilance committee. At Lount’s suggestion, three cheers for Papineau and the Lower Canadian Reformers were given, and when Lieutenant Carthew, an ex-officer of the British army, called on those opposed to Papineau to separate themselves by moving to the right, he was followed by only two persons.

Newmarket in 1851 was described by W. H. Smith, in his “Canada: Past, Present and Future,” as “a considerable village, containing nearly eight hundred inhabitants. It has been long settled, and to tell the truth, it has rather an old-fashioned look about it. It is divided into two distinct positions, at some little distance from each other. The east branch of the Holland River runs through the village, and two grist mills are erected on it. There are also in Newmarket a foundry, tannery and brewery; seven churches: Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, Wesleyan-Methodist, Baptist, Christian, and Roman Catholic; a court-house and a grammar-school. Newmarket is situated in a fine section of country, and is surrounded by excellent farms.”

The first Episcopal church in Newmarket was built in 1834. It was an unpretentious frame structure, to which, some time afterwards, a school-room and two transepts were added. The first clergyman to hold service in this church was the Rev. Mr. Williams, who was followed by the Rev. (now Canon) Ritchie. Both of these were travelling missionaries. Rev. Robert Taylor was the first incumbent of the church. His successor was the Rev. George Street. In 1848 Rev. Canon Ramsay became incumbent, and continued in charge for twenty-four years, during which period Aurora and Holland Landing were made distinct missions, and Newmarket became a parish. In 1873 Rev. Dr. Tremayne succeeded to the pastoral office, and on his resignation the Rev. Canon Givins temporarily supplied the vacancy for a year. The Rev. H. B. Owen was appointed incumbent in June, 1879. The present rector, the Rev. Albert W. Spragge succeeded him in May, 1882. The old frame building was demolished in the summer of 1883 in order to make way for the erection of a substantial stone edifice in its place. On the 26th June, 1884, fifty years after the building of the old church, the corner-stone of the new structure of St. Paul’s Church was laid in the presence of a large assemblage by Miss Rosamond Mulock, assisted by the church officers, in accordance with the customary ceremonies observed by the Church of England. Addresses were delivered by the Rev. W. W. Bates, Thornhill, Mr. Clark, of Bolton, the Rev. Albert W. Spragge, rector of the Church, William Mulock, M.P., Lieutenant Armstrong, of King, and others. The new church will be a handsome building, with sitting accommodation for three hundred people in the nave.

Newmarket possesses a flourishing Mechanics’ Institute, which was incorporated in 1856. It has thirty-five members, and 828 volumes in the library, the number of volumes issued last business year being 810. It has received since 1869 Government grants amounting to $721. There are two excellent weekly journals published in the town—the Newmarket Era and the North York Reformer—the latter, as the name implies, being an exponent of Liberal views, while the former, though of similar tendencies, is non-partisan.

The town was formerly embraced within the Parliamentary constituency of North York for Dominion as well as Provincial electoral purposes, but the Dominion re-distribution measure of 1882 detached it from that Riding, and constituted it, together with Whitchurch Township and the Village of Stouffville, a portion of West Ontario.

The incorporation of Newmarket as a village took place in 1857. The following were the first officials:—Donald Sutherland, reeve; George H. Bache, E. Jackson, William Roe and William Wallis, councillors; Edwin P. Irwin, clerk, and William Trent, treasurer. In 1880, Newmarket was incorporated as a town with three wards: St. George’s, St. Andrew’s and St. Patrick’s. The officials for 1884 are as follows:—William Crane, mayor; Erastus Jackson, reeve; Thomas H. Lloyd, deputy-reeve; H. S. Crane, Nelson Johnson, B. T. Reesor, T. G. Robertson, John Eves, Dr. Stanley Scott, John H. Millard, William Bowden and John Gascoigne, councillors; David Lloyd, town clerk and treasurer. The population was 1,760 according to the census of 1871—in 1881 it had increased to 2,006. Among the prominent architectural features of the town is the high school, which is a handsome brick building, situated in a conspicuous position upon a hill. Mr. J. E. Dickson, B.A., of Toronto University, is head-master. It has a favourable reputation for thoroughness and efficiency, and many of its graduates have attained leading positions in the country.

The Model or Public School consists of a large one-story frame building with three wings, furnishing accommodation for the Principal, William Rannie, and three assistants, George Rose, Annie Birnie, and Jennie Fidell. There is also a Model Class Room, where students-in-training receive instruction. The spacious grounds are much improved by plank walks and flower-beds in front of the building and shade trees. The average attendance here is about 150.

The Primary, conducted by Miss Johnston, is a good frame building in the western part of the town, with an average of about forty pupils in the first two books.

THE VILLAGE OF AURORA.

URORA, being situated on Yonge Street, about twenty-five miles north of Toronto, lies partly in the Township of Whitchurch and partly in King. It is the largest village in the county, the population, according to the census of 1881, being 1,540. It was formerly known as Machell’s Corners, and in 1851 the number of inhabitants was estimated at about a hundred. In 1871 the population numbered 1,132. Aurora was incorporated as a village on January 1st, 1863, the first municipal officials being Charles Doan, reeve; Seth Ashton, Robert Boyd, James Halladay and G. S. Stevenson, councillors; Charles York, clerk and treasurer. The officials for 1884 are, A. Yule, reeve; William Ough, deputy reeve, and S. H. Lundy, clerk and treasurer.

One of the most noteworthy events in the history of the village was the delivery of Mr. Edward Blake’s celebrated “Aurora Speech,” at a political demonstration held here on the 3rd of October, 1874, which was intended to foreshadow a new departure in the Liberal policy, and caused much political controversy at the time. The gathering took place in the drill shed at the head of Moseley Street, about 2,000 persons being present. The chairman of the meeting was Mr. Nelson Gorham, of Newmarket, a veteran Reformer, who in his younger days took a prominent part in connection with Mackenzie’s insurrection. Mr. Blake, in what he then described as a “disturbing speech,” took strong ground in favour of the encouragement of Canadian national sentiment, and the assertion by Canadians of the right to more complete self-government than hitherto accorded them. On this point he said:

“For my own part, I believe that while it was not unnatural, not unreasonable, pending that process of development which has been going on in our new and sparsely-settled country, that we should have been quite willing—we, so few in numbers, so busied in our local concerns, so engaged in subduing the earth and settling up the country—to leave the cares and privileges to which I have referred in the hands of the parent State, the time will come when that national spirit which has been spoken of will be truly felt amongst us, when we shall realize that we are four millions of Britons who are not free; when we shall be ready to take up that freedom, and to ask what the late Prime Minister of England assured us should not be denied—our share of national rights.” The speech created a sensation in political circles, and the controversy which ensued inspired strong hopes among men of progressive views; but the repressive influences were too powerful, and the movement, though exciting a temporary enthusiasm among the younger element, came to nothing.

Aurora is an enterprising and stirring business community. It contains several factories and mills, five churches, and two weekly newspapers are published there, the Banner, of Reform politics, and the Aurora Borealis, Conservative.

The recent erection of a handsome white brick Episcopal place of worship, upon an attractive site, has contributed materially to the architectural beauty of the village. It takes the place of the church opened on the 27th of September, 1846. The first Church of England service in Aurora was held in 1843, in a private house, by Rev. George Street. After the building of the church the Rev. Septimus Ramsay officiated from 1848 to 1859. In 1860 the Rev. H. W. Stewart was appointed incumbent, and the year following he was succeeded by the Rev. J. H. McCollum, during whose pastorate the present parsonage was erected, Mr. McCollum being a large contributor to the fund for that purpose. It was built by the united subscriptions of the three congregations of Aurora, Oak Ridges and King, and cost $3,000. In 1871 the Rev. A. J. Fidler succeeded to the incumbency, and remained in charge until 1878, when the Rev. C. W. Paterson was appointed. During his incumbency the parish of King was separated from Aurora and Oak Ridges. On the death of Mr. Paterson, in 1881, the Rev. E. Horace Mussen, the present incumbent, succeeded him. Mr. Mussen is a graduate of Trinity College, Toronto.

In this village the school-house, though substantial, is old and out of keeping with the improvements growing up around it and the unusually rapid development of the place. It is of brick and affords insufficient accommodation for the school population. The teachers are M. H. Thompson, principal, and Misses Bretta Barron, E. Ruth Dickson and Mary E. Lough. Average attendance, 210.

THE VILLAGE OF WESTON.

BOUT eight miles from Toronto, in a north-westerly direction, is the picturesque and busy Village of Weston, which lies in a valley formed by the Humber River. The larger portion of the village is in York Township, that on the west side of the river being in Etobicoke. The village stretches for some distance along the main street, which is a portion of one of the oldest roads of the county, and diverges from the Dundas Road near Carleton. At Weston it runs parallel to and within a stone’s throw of the river. The fall in the river at this point is sixteen feet and a-half, the excellent water power being available for the mill and other industries pursued here. The banks are largely composed of thin horizontal layers of limestone, suitable for some of the purposes for which stone is required other than building, with clay interposed, and a surface soil of sandy loam.

Weston has a population of about 1,200. It was incorporated as a village in 1882, when William Tyrrell was elected reeve, and W. J. Conron, clerk and treasurer, which positions they still retain. The other officials for 1884 are as follows:—Councillors, John Barton, Jacob Bull, David Rowntree and James Conron; assessor, John Gram.

The village has a fine public hall, erected in 1883, which occupies a central position on the west side of the main street, and is a conspicuous feature. It is a handsome building of red brick, two stories in height, surmounted by a tastefully designed mansard roof, with fancy iron work and a dome in front. Here are the council chamber and municipal offices, the library of the Mechanics’ Institute, and a large hall for public meetings and entertainments, known as Dufferin Hall. Its erection is justly regarded as a marked improvement, both from the standpoint of practical convenience and architectural taste. There are four churches in or near the village. The Methodist church, a brick building erected in 1849, which has a large and flourishing congregation under the pastoral care of Rev. Peter Campbell; the Presbyterian church, also of brick, built a few years ago; the Catholic church, a capacious frame structure, and the Episcopal church, situated within a short distance from Weston, in Etobicoke. The three latter churches are at present without resident pastors, being supplied from Toronto.

Weston has a High School of noted efficiency, the head master of which is Mr. George Wallace, B.A., of Dublin University. It is attended by about fifty pupils.

Sixty years ago, on the York side of what is now the Village of Weston, then known as “Farr’s Mills,” there were only three houses, all occupied by farmers. The village was almost entirely on the Etobicoke side of the river, being mainly situated upon a narrow strip of land, containing between two and three acres, bounded on the west by Wadsworth’s mill and tail race, and on the east by the Humber. About fifteen houses, besides stores and other business places, constituted the village. It comprised two stores, a tavern, and blacksmith’s, weaver’s, cooper’s, and saddler’s shops. This locality was gradually abandoned, owing to the damage caused by spring freshets. Several buildings were greatly injured from this cause in 1842, and in 1850 the buildings remaining in that part of the village were entirely destroyed. Weston has latterly been almost entirely on the York side of the stream.

In the year 1818, Mr. George Dixon constructed a saw-mill on the Etobicoke side, a short distance below Eagle’s Bridge. On the adjoining lot below, his brother, Thomas Dixon, put up a saw-mill in 1823, which afterwards passed into the hands of a man named Keating, being purchased in 1840 by Gibson Brothers. They pulled down the old building, and erected a flour mill in its place. It was afterwards sold to Mr. Somerville, and twice destroyed by fire. Opposite this point, on the York side, where the extensive mills of the Weston Woollen Manufacturing Company now stand, a saw-mill was erected in 1827 by Joseph Holley, who two years afterwards sold out to John Chew. The property was successively transferred to James Clifford, J. N. Coons, and James Magee, the latter of whom erected a flax-mill adjoining the saw-mill. In 1853, the property came into the possession of Mr. John Dennis, who put up a woollen factory of brick and stone on the site of the old mill. This was run by John Wardlaw, and afterwards by Messrs. Farren and Miles. About thirteen years since the place was purchased by Messrs. Smith and Wilby, who made extensive improvements, and established the business on a much larger scale. Mr. Smith withdrew from the concern in 1879, leaving Oliver Wilby sole proprietor. The factory was three times destroyed by fire within two years, but rebuilt owing to the indomitable energy of Mr. Wilby. Latterly it has been turned over to a joint stock company, under the title of the Weston Woollen Manufacturing Company, Mr. Wilby still retaining the management of its affairs.

Further up the river, on the Etobicoke side, just above Eagle’s Bridge, a brewery was built about fifty years ago, which ran but a very short time before it was burned down. Opposite this site, on the York side, an oil refinery was established in 1863 by Messrs. Tyrrell and Noble. Two years later the refinery was consumed, though afterwards rebuilt. Some distance up stream, a saw-mill was put up by Mr. Porter in 1830, which ten years later became the property of Mr. Burr, who added a flour mill and woollen factory under one roof a few rods west of the saw-mill. It was destroyed by fire, and in 1849 Mr. Robert McDougall became the owner of the property, and the year afterwards built a flour mill four stories in height, with three run of stones. This mill is yet in operation. He pulled down the old saw-mill, and replaced it by a new one, which was worked until 1870. Mr. Gracey erected a brewery a little way above, which was burned down fourteen years since. A tannery business was carried on in this immediate neighbourhood by John Lawrence from 1842 to 1855. On the Etobicoke side, somewhat further up, two brothers, Edward and Thomas Musson, built a small distillery in 1820, which was pulled down in 1842, and a larger one constructed on the site. This was burned down two years later, and immediately rebuilt.

During the latter years of the eighteenth century, a grist mill was built by Mr. Countryman, on a site just above that now occupied by Wadsworth’s mill. It met what appears to be the usual fate of mills—destruction by fire—and was rebuilt by Joseph Holley, who also put up a saw-mill adjoining the first building. In 1815, these mills, together with 150 acres of land, fell into the hands of Mr. James Farr, from whom the locality took the title of “Farr’s Mills,” by which it was known for a long time. Alexander Milne, of Markham, in partnership with Jacob McKay, of York, subsequently carried on carding and fulling in a portion of the flour mill. The Messrs. Wadsworth purchased the property in 1828, and two years afterwards put up a new saw-mill, which remained until 1870, when it was pulled down. The firm erected a distillery in 1840, which was in operation for twenty years, having been burned down and rebuilt during that period. In 1856, the Wadsworths erected a new flour mill, five stories in height, and with six run of stones, below the old building. On the east side of the mill-pond a tannery was built, in 1840, by William and Peter Gibson, who carried on the business for a long time. Joseph Holley put up a saw-mill just opposite, in 1841, which the Wadsworths afterwards purchased and worked until about twelve years since.

The industries of the village have done a great deal to advance the progress of the place, and make it one of the most prosperous villages in the county. Its excellent railway facilities are an important factor of its growth. It is a station on the main line of the Grand Trunk, and on the Toronto, Grey and Bruce line, now a branch of the Canada Pacific. Weston is a noted resort for sleighing parties from the city, being within convenient driving distance, and having first-class hotel accommodation.

One of the most notable of the old-time residents of Weston was Mr. Joseph Dennis, who was born in New Brunswick in 1789, his father, John Dennis, having been a U. E. Loyalist refugee. The family removed to Upper Canada in 1792, Mr. John Dennis receiving a grant of land on the Humber as a compensation for his losses. He subsequently removed to Kingston, on his appointment as superintendent of the dock-yard in that city. This secured to his son a thorough knowledge of ship-building, but he found sailing a more congenial occupation. Joseph Dennis owned a lake vessel at the outbreak of the war of 1812, which he placed at the disposal of the Government, and which was attached to the Provincial marine. In one of the naval engagements on the lake his vessel was lost, and he was captured by the Americans, and remained a prisoner of war for about fifteen months. Mr. Dennis afterwards commanded the Princess Charlotte, supposed to have been the first steamer on Lake Ontario, which plied between the Bay of Quinté, Kingston and Prescott. On returning from active pursuits he made his home at Weston, where he passed his declining years, dying respected by all who knew him in the year 1867, aged seventy-eight years.

THE VILLAGE OF RICHMOND HILL.

VERYBODY has heard of the beautiful English landscape bearing the name of Richmond Hill, and it is often asserted in off-hand conversation that our Canadian village was so named in consequence of its close resemblance to its trans-Atlantic prototype. As matter of fact, nothing could be much further from the truth. The two places bear about as much resemblance to each other as a hawk bears to a handsaw. But, though our Canadian Richmond Hill has little or nothing beyond its elevation in common with the fair Surrey landscape, it has charms peculiar to itself, and is one of the most beautiful villages to be found anywhere throughout the length and breadth of “this Canada of ours.” As its name indicates, it stands on an eminence, and it overlooks a wide expanse of richly cultivated farm land. Its situation is on Yonge Street, about sixteen miles north of Toronto, and nine miles south of the Village of Aurora. Yonge Street forms its principal thoroughfare, and divides it into two parts, the portion to the west of the street lying in the Township of Vaughan, and that to the east being in Markham. It is a long, straggling place, the houses principally following the line of the great northern thoroughfare, instead of grouping round a centre, so that it extends over a more considerable area of ground than might be expected from its population.

Richmond Hill is referred to in Smith’s “Canada: Past, Present and Future” as a smart little place, the population of which it is difficult to calculate, on account of the houses being so scattered, but which contained at that time (1851) a steam grist-mill, a steam saw-mill; a tannery, and two churches, Presbyterian and Methodist.

But we must go back to a date long anterior to 1851 in order to discover the origin of its name. A settlement seems to have sprung up here during the early years of the present century, and to have received the appropriate name of Mount Pleasant. It made reasonable progress, and in 1819 it became necessary to erect a Presbyterian Church for the accommodation of the professors of that faith resident in the neighbourhood. While the work of construction was in progress a very distinguished personage visited the spot, and his visit proved to be an important historical event in its history, for it was the means of conferring upon it the name which it has borne ever since. The visitor was no less a personage than Charles Gordon Lennox, Fourth Duke of Richmond, who was then Governor-General of Canada. His Grace was engaged in making a tour of both the Provinces, in the course of which he drove from York to Penetanguishene. The Village of Mount Pleasant being situated midway between the two ends of Yonge Street, was a frequent place of call for travellers, who generally stopped there to rest and bait their horses. The Governor-General and his retinue followed this example, and remained in the village several hours on their upward progress. The Duke inspected the little church which was building, and conversed with the workmen with the utmost affability. The people of the village, impressed by his Grace’s dignified yet pleasant bearing, resolved to commemorate his visit by re-christening the place in his honour, and accordingly bestowed upon it the name of Richmond Hill. The Governor’s visit took place in the month of July, 1819. It was not destined to be repeated. He died from hydrophobia, in a little hovel on the banks of the Goodwood River, near its confluence with the Rideau, in the County of Carleton, on the 28th of the following month, and within six weeks after his vice-regal progress up Yonge Street.

Fifty-three years elapsed between the time of the Duke of Richmond’s visit and the incorporation of Richmond Hill as a village. The latter event took place in 1872. The first council comprised Abraham Law, reeve; and William Warren, David Hopkins, Jacob Brillinger and William Powell. Matthew Teefy was appointed village clerk and treasurer, and still retains that position. The reeve for the present year is J. Brown. The population of the village, according to the Dominion census of 1881, was 867, and is now about 900. Richmond Hill has no immediate railway connections, but the Northern Railway passes within four miles to the west, and there is a station at this point, known as Richmond Hill station. Stages run regularly to Toronto and other places on Yonge Street.

There are several spots in the village which are of special interest to students of our local history and topography. Not the least interesting of these is the office of Mr. Teefy, the village postmaster, which is situated on the west side of the main street, in a central and convenient locality. Mr. Teefy is the gentleman already referred to as the clerk and treasurer of the village corporation. He is an enthusiastic archæologist and antiquarian, and probably knows more of the history, topography, traditions and folk-lore of Richmond Hill and its neighbourhood than all the rest of the inhabitants put together. He is a gentleman of upwards of three-score years of age, but his physical and mental vigour are those of one in the prime of life, and he presents the appearance of a man of forty or forty-five. He has been postmaster for thirty-four years, having been appointed to that position in 1850. He has also been a magistrate for a period of thirty-one years, and has during all the interval been one of the most popular and useful citizens. His private office is immediately to the rear of the post-office, and is crammed full of objects of interest. In the centre of the room is his desk, from which he dispenses magisterial justice. The wall to the right is lined with volumes of the Dominion and Provincial Statutes, and other law books and works for technical reference. Another side of the room is largely taken up by files of the Colonial Advocate and other rare old Canadian newspapers which have long since been practically unprocurable. Around, set in suitable frames, are various old documents, the sight of which is eminently calculated to gladden the heart of any one sufficiently versed in Canadian history to know their value. Conspicuous among them is a printed Address from Mr. William Jarvis, dated “York, 14th July, 1800.” Mr. Jarvis was for many years Provincial Secretary of Upper Canada, and was the gentleman referred to elsewhere in this volume as having been sharply admonished by Lieutenant-Governor Peter Hunter for neglect of duty. The document now under consideration is addressed “To the Free and Independent Electors of the Counties of Durham, Simcoe, and the East Riding of York.” It sets out that Mr. Jarvis will be a candidate for their suffrages at the ensuing elections; that he has not relinquished his intention of so doing, and that all reports to that effect are utterly unfounded. Next, we find a framed broadside issued as an advertisement by Peter Perry, dated at Whitby, on the 20th of December, 1841. Most readers of these pages doubtless have some knowledge of Mr. Perry. “From forty to fifty years ago,” says the author of “The Canadian Portrait Gallery,”^[6] “there was no name better known throughout the whole of Upper Canada; and, in Reform Constituencies, there was no name more potent wherewith to conjure during an election campaign. Peter Perry was closely identified with the original formation of the Reform Party in Upper Canada, and for more than a quarter of a century he continued to be one of its foremost members. During the last ten or twelve years of his life he was to some extent, overshadowed by the figure of Robert Baldwin, whose lofty character, unselfish aims, and high social position combined to place him on a sort of pedestal. But Peter Perry continued to the very last to be an important factor in the ranks of his party.” He died at Saratoga Springs, New York State, on the 24th of August, 1851. At the time when he issued the broadside which hangs framed in Mr. Teefy’s office, he kept a general store at Whitby, originally named Perry’s Corners. The broadside is headed “O yes! O yes! O yes!” and contains a pressing injunction to his debtors to pay up their several liabilities or take the consequences. It is too long for quotation here, but is very suggestive throughout to any one who remembers the man and the times. We next come to a framed Address from the Irish inhabitants of Upper Canada to the Queen, printed in 1838. It is headed “Erin Go Bragh!” and deplores the recent rebellion, at the same time avowing the loyalty of the Irish inhabitants. Mr. Teefy also has a number of volumes of rare and unprocurable Canadian pamphlets, concerning which it is not an exaggeration to say that they are worth their weight in gold. But space fails to describe the multiform out-of-the-way objects which are here exhibited. Any one who feels sufficiently interested in the matter should call on Mr. Teefy and see them for himself.

On the northern outskirts of the village, on the east side of Yonge Street, and about twenty feet from the road, stands the whilom residence of Colonel Moodie, who was shot by the rebels at Montgomery’s, while trying to force his way southward, in December, 1838. The house is an antiquated looking structure, which has undergone various modifications since the impetuous Colonel’s days, but the identical frame is still there, and forms a sort of connecting link between the past and the present. It is the property of the Robinson estate, but is at present occupied by a tenant, and seems to stand in need of repairs.

About two miles further north, on the opposite side of Yonge Street, stands the former residence of Thomas Kinnear, where the frightful murders described in a former portion of this volume were committed in the summer of 1843.^[7]

Some of the buildings in Richmond Hill are of a character not often found in country villages. The Methodist church, for instance, is a structure which would do no discredit to any street in any city in the Dominion. It stands on the east side of Yonge Street, near the centre of the village, and is conspicuous for miles in every direction by reason of its lofty and imposing spire. The building, which is of white brick, was erected in 1880. Unnecessary to say that the congregation attending worship there is a wealthy and numerous one. The resident ministers are the Rev. William R. Barker and the Rev. William B. Booth. The Presbyterian church, another large and imposing structure of white brick, stands on the west side of Yonge Street, some distance from the road, and near the southern outskirts of the village. It was erected four years ago, near the site of the little church already referred to as having been in course of erection during the Duke of Richmond’s visit in July, 1819. This also has a high massive tower of white brick, which is a conspicuous object from the surrounding country. A few yards further south, and on the same side of Yonge Street, is the Episcopal church, a neat and tasteful structure of white brick. The Roman Catholic church is of frame, and occupies a more northerly situation than those already described.

Among other important public buildings, the village can boast of a Masonic Hall, a Temperance Hall, and an excellent High School. Mr. McBride, the principal of the last-named institution, is a graduate of the University of Toronto, as also is his assistant, Mr. T. H. Redditt. The average attendance at the institution, which was established in 1851, is about eighty pupils. The Public Schools are not well suited to the wants of the place, being crowded together on the front part of a long narrow lot. The Principal, Miss Emma Spragge, and third assistant, Miss Cruickshanks, occupy the more modern and convenient brick building, built originally for High School purposes; while Mrs. Wiley and Miss Rutherford occupy, one a room in the old High School (a frame building), and the other a room in the brick building, properly the Public School-house. Average attendance, 144.

The village also possesses a Mechanics’ Institute, incorporated in 1869, which last year had a membership of 66, and a library comprising 546 volumes. The number of books issued during the year was 547. There are two weekly newspapers published in the village—the Liberal, and the York Herald—the first being a Reform journal and the latter Conservative.

THE VILLAGE OF WOODBRIDGE.

OODBRIDGE is situated on the Humber River, in the Township of Vaughan, about fourteen miles from Toronto. It has a population of about 1,100. It was formerly called Burwick, after Rowland Burr, who settled in the neighbourhood in 1837, having exchanged a hundred-acre farm on Yonge Street for an uncleared lot on the Humber, the property of Washington Peck. A considerable migration of labourers took place at the same time, most of whom obtained building lots in the new village. The irregular manner in which the lots are now divided is accounted for by a tradition of its early settlement, according to which Mr. Burr measured each man’s property by the primitive mode of taking so many paces in each direction, the ground being staked off accordingly. The first mill erected was a flour-mill put up by Mr. Burr in 1837. Other industries rapidly followed, including a saw-mill, a distillery, and a woollen factory, erected the following year. The factory latterly passed into the hands of Mr. Abell, and was utilized by him in the manufacture of shoddy. In 1840 Mr. Burr built a considerably larger woollen factory, further down the stream. This factory passed through many changes of ownership. It was first operated by Hart & Burr, and afterwards by Self & Burr, who were succeeded by the firm of Mitchell & McNally. After remaining unworked for a considerable period it, together with the rest of the Burr property, fell into the hands of John W. Gamble. The factory was again operated by Mr. McNally for a time, and subsequently by Duncan McIntosh and the Roe Brothers, successively. In 1874 the property was purchased by John Abell, who leased the factory to J. McIntosh, by whose son the business was still carried on at a recent date.

Mr. John Abell, whose enterprise has done a great deal for the prosperity of Woodbridge, settled in the village in 1845. His first business venture here was undertaken in partnership with Messrs. Wood & Etheridge, in the wagon and carriage manufacture. The first stage-coach that made regular trips between the city and Woodbridge was constructed at their factory. In 1847 Mr. Abell put up another shop on a small scale for the manufacture of mill-irons and similar articles. Here he made a lathe, by the aid of which he constructed for his own use the first steam engine used in Vaughan Township, which is still preserved. In January, 1862, Mr. Abell opened an agricultural implement factory employing about twenty men. The business rapidly increased, and to meet its growing wants additional buildings were erected; in 1874 the number of men employed was over one hundred. In that year the establishment was visited by burglars, who, after blowing open the safe and stealing a quantity of valuable securities, fired the place, which was destroyed. The loss sustained by Mr. Abell on this occasion was estimated at two hundred thousand dollars. Nothing daunted by this misfortune, however, he set vigorously to work to rebuild, and in two months afterwards the manufactory was in running order, employing a larger number of men than before the fire. About 1831 a saw-mill was built by Samuel Smith on his property, in what is now the northern portion of the village, but, owing to the result of litigation with Mr. Burr respecting the water privileges, the mill was removed to a site higher up the Humber. This mill was worked by Mr. Smith until 1856, when the building, having become unserviceable, was pulled down. A new structure was put up on the same site, which was intended to be used as a foundry by Mr. Abell, but a disagreement arose, and the project was never carried out. It was occupied by Louis de Rouche, and afterwards by William Towers, for the manufacture and repairing of machines. In 1879 it was purchased by William Mackie, who ran it as a shoddy factory for a few months, and then sold out to Hardy & Burkholder, who were succeeded by Keys, Hallett & Rea.

For some years previous to Mr. Burr’s advent Washington Peck had been in business as a cooper, which he relinquished on selling out to Burr, and left the place. After his departure a cooper-shop was started by Francis J. Bunt on the 8th concession of Vaughan. A year afterwards he sold out to Nathaniel Wallace, whose son George is still engaged in the business.

The first school was started in Woodbridge about 1830. The present school-house is a brick structure, with a frame addition. The average attendance is about 112. The teachers are George Deacon, Maggie Smithers, and Lucy Woolley. The village was incorporated in 1882. Mr. John Abell is reeve, for the current year, and Mr. C. J. Agar clerk and treasurer.

THE VILLAGE OF MARKHAM.

HE Village of Markham is located in the southern portion of the township of the same name, on the line of the Toronto and Nipissing Railway, and about three miles from the line dividing that township from York. Settlement in this neighbourhood was commenced almost at as early a date as in the Town of York, the pioneers following the banks of the Rouge River, which for some time formed their readiest means of access to the front. The village is agreeably situated, and on entering it by the main road, which runs north and south, the charms of its natural surroundings are at once apparent. The soil in the neighbourhood is rich, and the farmers prosperous and wealthy, and consequently the village as a centre of local trade is a thriving and comfortable community, although latterly it has not increased much in population, owing to the centralizing tendency of our modern industrial and transportation system, which builds the larger cities and towns at the expense of the smaller places. The upper portion of the village to the northward is built on level land, the lower part where it is crossed by the Rouge being uneven and hilly. In 1851 “Smith’s Canada” described Markham as “a considerable village, containing between eight and nine hundred inhabitants, pleasantly situated on the River Rouge. It contains two grist mills with three run of stones each, a woollen factory, oatmeal mill, barley mill and distillery, foundry, two tanneries, brewery, etc., a temperance hall, and four churches—Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Wesleyan Methodist.” The population given by the census of 1881 was 954. The village was incorporated by by-law of the County Council, passed on the 20th day of November, 1872, to take effect on the 1st of January, 1873. The following were the members of the first Municipal Council, which held its first meeting on the 20th of January, 1873:—James Speight, reeve; Captain Thomas A. Milne, John Jerman, Henry Tane, and Hugh McGill, councillors. Henry R. Corson was appointed clerk and treasurer; John D. Smith, police inspector; Levi Jones, license inspector, and John Doherty, assessor. Mr. Corson still retains the clerkship and treasurership. The reeve for the current year is G. R. Vanzant.

Markham Village has an excellent High School, the head master being Mr. Dion. C. Sullivan, LL.B. The number of pupils is about seventy. The school house, which is of brick, occupies a conspicuous position, and is an ornament to the village.

The Markham Economist, a well-known weekly journal, of Liberal, politics, is of long standing, and exercises considerable local influence.

THE VILLAGE OF HOLLAND LANDING.

OLLAND LANDING is the northern terminus of Yonge Street and was a noteworthy point in the line of travel between the Lake Simcoe region and Lake Ontario long before the settlement of the country. A historic interest attaches to it as the spot where the Indians were accustomed to embark and land when going on, or returning from, expeditions to the great lakes. The old Indian trail ran from this neighbourhood to the west of Yonge Street, following the main stream of the Holland River and afterwards the valley of the Humber.

The Holland River, from which the Landing is named, and on the east branch of which it is situated, received its appellation from Major Holland, who was Surveyor-General of the Province of Quebec, before Upper Canada became a separate Province. This officer distinguished himself in the war which resulted in the conquest of Canada by the British, and after the cession of the country was appointed Surveyor-General, and made extensive explorations in that capacity. He penetrated from Toronto Bay through a then unknown region to the river which now bears his name. Major Holland died in 1801.

At the Upper Landing, where the village proper is located, only small boats can land. The Lower Landing, for steamers and larger craft, is some distance further down the stream, which is much obstructed by the swampy and weedy nature of its banks. At the Lower Landing, near which Yonge Street strikes the river, there were formerly a number of Government buildings, built of logs, and used as military and naval store-houses. This cluster of buildings was known as Fort Gwillimbury.

Mr. John Galt’s “Autobiography” contains the following references to Holland Landing. Speaking of his journey from Toronto to Goderich via Penetanguishene in 1827, the author narrates how, after leaving Newmarket, “we went forward to a place on the Holland River called Holland’s Landing, an open space which the Indians and fur-traders were in the habit of frequenting. It presented to me something of a Scottish aspect in the style of the cottages, but instead of mountains the environs were covered with trees. We embarked at this place.”

In 1832 the project of a steamer for the Holland River and Lake Superior was advanced. In order to carry out the scheme subscriptions to the amount of £2,000 were called for by advertisement in the York Courier of February 29th of that year, it being intimated that Captain McKenzie would take up one-fourth of the amount required to construct the boat. The shares were placed at £12 10s. each. A number of well-known names in the early history of York County appear on the list of shareholders, including those of Hon. Peter Robinson, J. O. Bouchier, John Powell, Grant Powell, Samuel P. Jarvis, James E. Small, G. Ridout, T. G. Ridout, Thomas Radenhurst, Jesse Ketchum, and Samuel Lount. The movement resulted in the construction of the steamer Simcoe, which was built at the Upper Landing, and when finished was with great difficulty dragged through the swampy accumulations in the river to deep water. This vessel plied for some years between the Lake Simcoe ports and Holland Landing. Other steamers built at an early date were the Peter Robinson, Captain Bell, and the Beaver, Captain Laughton.

The population of Holland Landing in 1851 was about 500. At that date it had a grist mill and two saw-mills, one of them worked by steam power, a foundry, tannery, and brewery. The population has not increased much since then, as the census of 1881 gives a total of 580.

Holland Landing is a station on the Northern Railroad, and about thirty-two miles from Toronto. It was incorporated in 1861. Its first reeve was W. D. McLeod, who held office for two years. Among others who have subsequently held the position are R. T. Wilson, B. Thorne, W. H. Thorne and James McClure, the latter being the present occupant of the civic chair. Frederick J. Kitching is the clerk and treasurer. There are places of worship in the village in connection with the Church of England, Methodists and Plymouth Brethren. The Public School is a double frame house, with large class-rooms and ante-room, and teachers’ retiring-rooms. The teachers, Douglas G. Wiley and Miss Woodington, have an average of fifty pupils.

THE VILLAGE OF STOUFFVILLE.

TOUFFVILLE lies partly in the Township of Markham and partly in Whitchurch, the main street of the village being the township line. It is near the eastern boundary of the county, and is a station twenty-eight miles from Toronto on the Toronto and Nipissing Railway. The Lake Simcoe Junction Line connects with the former road at this point. The village derives its name from Abraham Stouffer, the original proprietor of the site. The orthography was for some time unsettled, the family name often appearing as “Stover,” or “Stofer,” and the locality being known as “Stoversville,” or “Stauffville,” under which latter designation it is referred to in “Smith’s Canada,” as a flourishing little village of recent date, containing about 350 inhabitants, a grist and oatmeal mill, saw-mill, foundry, and tannery, and a Congregational church. This was in 1851. Since that time the growth of the place has been steady, and the census of 1881 gives the population as 866. It has now, in addition to the Congregational place of worship, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Baptist churches.

Stouffville became an incorporated village in 1877, the first municipal officers being, James Dougherty, reeve; J. G. Reesor, William Leaney, G. L. Freel, and J. Gibney, councillors, and H. W. Woodgate, clerk. The present reeve is W. B. Sanders, and Mr. Woodgate still retains the clerkship. Stouffville has a flourishing Mechanics’ Institute, incorporated in 1878, and according to the latest returns comprising 111 members. Its library contains 793 volumes, the number issued during the year being 999. The Masonic body is represented by Richardson Lodge, No. 136.

Formerly Stouffville was divided in the matter of Parliamentary representation by the township line, the Whitchurch section belonging to North York, and the Markham portion to East York. By the Act of 1882, for the redistribution of the Dominion constituencies, the village as a whole was annexed to West Ontario, together with Whitchurch and Newmarket.

Chapter I.

The Town of York Founded.

T the time of the erection of Upper Canada into a distinct Province, as mentioned elsewhere, a separate government was assigned to it, and an administrator was appointed, with the title of Lieutenant-Governor. The office was conferred upon Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe, whose appointment led to his crossing the Atlantic in 1792, and taking up his residence at Newark (now called Niagara), the provisional capital. Newark, at this time, if we except Kingston, at the other end of the lake, was the only place of importance in Upper Canada, and it naturally became the cradle of the Western Province. It had, therefore, some claim to become the permanent capital. Unfortunately for the town, its nearness to United States territory and the dangerous proximity of Fort Niagara dashed the hopes of its inhabitants in this respect. To Governor Simcoe’s surprise, he found that the fort at the mouth of the river was shortly to be garrisoned by American soldiery, and that it did not belong to King George. Having made this discovery, and not approving the idea that the chief town of a Province should be placed under the guns of an enemy’s fort, he turned his attention to other parts of the Province for the site of a capital. From the Gazette, published at Newark, we learn that “On Thursday, the 2nd of May (1793), his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, accompanied by several military gentlemen, set out in boats for Toronto, round the head of Lake Ontario by Burlington Bay.” From Burlington Bay he proceeded eastward to the Humber, and thence to the harbour of Toronto, of which he had heard favourable accounts from the Provincial surveyors. Here, despite the lowness of the land, there were many and positive attractions. The spot had already been the site of a fort, “a place of meeting,” and a mart for trade. It was sheltered from the lake, and in its harbour a fleet might safely ride. The geographical situation, moreover, was excellent. The die at length was cast: Toronto was to be the future capital.

Returning to Niagara, the Governor busied himself with the task of removal, and proceeded to make arrangements for taking formal possession of the site of Toronto, and getting the troops across to assist in laying the foundations of the town. Whatever counter-attractions other sites presented, there is no doubt that Simcoe, in his heart, accepted Toronto. We say Toronto, but this was not the name he chose for his newly-found capital. The King’s army was then in Holland, and his second son, the Duke of York, had command of the continental contingent. He it was that our soldier-governor had it in his mind to honour. Hence, York, and not Toronto, came for a time to be the name of the capital. Reporting to Quebec his having found a suitable site for the future metropolis, Governor Simcoe writes in the following strain: “It is with great pleasure that I offer to you some observations on the military strength and naval convenience of Toronto, now York, which I propose immediately to occupy. I lately examined the harbour, accompanied by such officers, naval and military, as I thought most competent to give me assistance thereon, and upon minute investigation, I found it to be without comparison the most proper situation for an arsenal, in every extent of the word, that can be met with in this Province.” Again, in writing to the Secretary of War, in London, the Governor speaks with equal warmth when he says that “York is the most important and defensible situation in Upper Canada, or that I have seen in North America. I have, sir, formerly entered into a detail of the advantages of this arsenal of Lake Ontario. An interval of Indian land, six-and-thirty miles, divides this settlement from Burlington Bay, where that of Niagara commences. The communication with Lake Huron is very easy, in five or six days, and will in all respects be of the most essential importance.”

In such terms, which to us, in these piping times of peace, seem an exaggeration, did the first Governor of the Province speak of its infant capital. One would suppose that he was about to construct some Alexandria or Sebastopol, rather than a quiet city for the home of commerce, and a safe haven for the Provincial Parliament. Put to the test of 1813, the Governor’s naval citadel—“the arsenal” of which he proudly speaks—cut a sorry figure, whatever disaster befel the invader. But there is much in the naming of a thing, as we may see in the appellation of our “Gibraltar Point,” which, if it ever put the town’s enemies to flight, must have done so more by the terror of its name than by its frowning battlements. The times, however, were then warlike, and there was need of the cities of the lake being fortified. Moreover, we must remember that Simcoe did not stay in the country to put all his plans into effect. Had he done so, York might have become the Quebec of the Lakes. What it has become we know to-day.

With such pomp and circumstance as were possible to the occasion, Governor Simcoe set out from Navy Hall, Newark, on board His Majesty’s ship, Mississaga, to take formal possession of the incipient capital. The date—for the event is worthy of a minute chronicle—was the evening of Monday, the 29th of July, 1793. Some portion of the troops had preceded the Governor by a few days, to make the necessary preparations for the State landing, and, doubtless, to act as a guard of honour in receiving his Excellency. As convoys of the Mississaga, others of the King’s ships—the Onondaga and Caldwell—set out to cross the lake, with, as we are told, a favourable gale, and having on board the remaining companies of the Queen’s Rangers. As the interesting fleet leaves Niagara’s dark stream, the sinking sun paves the water with gold. Cleaving their way over the lake, the forest-crowned Heights of Queenston, which in a score of years were to become forever famous, hide the reddening orb from view. Night falls upon the historic scene. With the morrow the fleet rounds the mole which forms a natural fender in front of the city and comes to moorings in the harbour of Toronto.

What a scene of bustle and commotion must the land-locked bay then have witnessed, its solitudes broken in upon by the intrusion of some companies of a regiment which was to hew a town out of the forest, and in time give place to the serried ranks of industry, and the march of incoming battalions of many-tongued commerce. Bouchette’s often-quoted picture of the harbour at this time will bear another transcribing. It is a reminiscence of his hydrographical survey of the ports of Ontario, as detailed in his account of “The British Dominions in North America.” Says Surveyor Bouchette: “It fell to my lot to make the first survey of York harbour in 1793. Lieutenant-Governor the late General Simcoe, who then resided at Navy Hall, Niagara, having formed extensive plans for the improvement of the colony, had resolved upon laying the foundations of a provincial capital. I was at that period in the naval service of the lakes, and the survey of Toronto (York) harbour was entrusted by his Excellency to my performance. I still distinctly recollect the untamed aspect which the country exhibited when first I entered the beautiful basin, which thus became the scene of my early hydrographical operations. Dense and trackless forests lined the margin of the lake, and reflected their inverted images in its glassy surface. The wandering savage had constructed his ephemeral habitation beneath their luxuriant foliage—the group then consisting of two families of Mississagas—and the bay and neighbouring marshes were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of immense coveys of wild fowl. Indeed, they were so abundant,” adds Mr. Bouchette, “as in some measure to annoy us during the night.”

In this sanctuary of nature Governor Simcoe proceeded to build his civic and legislative altar, and to rear, under the name of Castle Frank, a domestic shrine among the sombre pines of the Don. With the erection of primitive buildings for the meetings of the Provincial Legislature, a beginning was made to clear a site for the town. Under the Governor’s eye the building of the new capital had its first start, and what at a later date was to be marked as the path of the sword was meantime being wearily won for the axe and the plough. Outside of the little clearing the spirit of the woods rested upon the whole scene, for the forests covered the Province as with a garment. But the soldier-administrator had a practical eye for his work, and speedily set the troops—the Queen’s Rangers—to the necessary task of road-making, and the opening of lines of communication with the interior. Yonge Street, an arterial line connecting the infant capital with the Holland River and the water-way to the west, was the first great achievement of the troops. Dundas Street, a main post-road traversing the Province, and giving access to the large and fruitful region of settlement in the peninsula, was another sagacious undertaking. But we are somewhat anticipating. As yet the Governor, his officers and officials were, with the troops, only effecting a landing at the new capital—an historic proceeding of which we have no detailed account from an eye-witness. Each reader may therefore form his own idea of the significant scene—of the troops landing material of war at the entrance of the harbour, to be stored in the fort which was to command the approaches to the town; a company of stalwart soldiers cutting a pathway from the garrison to the Don; and the Governor and his suite disembarking by the stream on the banks of which he was to hoist his canvas tent, and on the heights to the north subsequently erect his summer home. But if the scenes connected with the formal landing and laying out of the town had no special chronicler, and, so far as history relates, were attended at the time with no civic or military display, within a few weeks occasion arose for general rejoicing in an event which happened in the outer world, advantage of which was taken to baptize the Town of York, and mark the natal day of the infant capital. Just a month after the occupation of the place, news came from England of successes over the French in Flanders, in which the Duke of York and the English troops had taken part, though the lustre of victory was not fated to last. Having determined to call the town by the appellation of York, Governor Simcoe, on hearing the news of the Duke’s engagement with the enemies of the Crown in Holland, conceived the idea of a military demonstration, which would not only commemorate the event, but associate it with the naming of the town and harbour. Hence was issued the following General Order:—

“York, Upper Canada, 26th August, 1793. His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor having received information of the success of His Majesty’s armies under His Royal Highness the Duke of York, by which Holland has been saved from the invasion of the French armies, and it appearing that the combined forces have been successful in dislodging their enemies from an entrenched camp supposed to be impregnable, from which the most important consequences may be expected, and in which arduous attempt the Duke of York and His Majesty’s troops supported the native glory; it is His Excellency’s orders that on the raising of the union flag at twelve o’clock to-morrow, a royal salute of twenty-one guns is to be fired, to be answered by the shipping in the harbour, in respect to His Royal Highness, and in commemoration of the naming of this harbour from his English title, York. E. B. Littlehales, Major of Brigade.”

With this military pageant, and the salute from garrison and harbour, which must have scared the wild fowl from the bay and dumbfoundered the Mississaga hanger-on in the camp, the rough, unhewn site of the future capital rose to the dignity of a town, while the old oaks by the marge of the lake bowed their heads in recognition of the honour. The echoes of the cannon’s thunder, we can well suppose, would carry news to the rival but provisional capital across the lake, which would be badly received, and jaundice the liver of every inhabitant of Niagara. Not yet, however, was its full-blown conceit to be humbled. York was still unprepared for the assembling of Parliament. Though the first meeting of the Executive Council of the Province was held at York nearly a month before the military demonstration we have chronicled, there was as yet no building in which to give the honourable gentlemen shelter. We must imagine therefore that the weighty affairs of State were discussed in that canvas tent of the Governor’s which had done duty for the great discoverer, Captain Cook, in his historic voyages. The Council, we learn, remained in session until the 5th of September, when it broke up, and the Government returned to Niagara. Meantime, the work of laying out the town advanced; and ere the woods had put on their autumnal glory several huts were built, and some portion of the region surveyed. In October we find the ever-active Governor back on the north shore of the lake, where he and his family wintered. Before the close of the season he personally conducted an exploring expedition to Lake la Clie, or what was thenceforth to be known as Lake Simcoe. Shrewdly discerning the importance of communication northward, he determined to open up a highway to its waters. Ordering the surveyors to mark out a practical route thither, the winter was spent by the troops in felling part of the timber. This highway to the north, however, was not constructed until the winter of 1795-6; and the early years of the succeeding century had arrived before it was opened out to the shores of Ontario. The road, which is thirty-two miles in length, was called after the English Secretary of War, and has ever since borne the name of Yonge Street. Other expeditions throughout the year 1794 were undertaken by the Governor, and nearly every portion of the Province was embraced in the circuit of his travels. The Governor periodically returned to Newark to summon and prorogue Parliament and direct the affairs of State. The buildings which he had ordered to be planned for the Legislature at York meantime had been proceeded with, and streets were beginning to branch out from the site of the new Westminster. With all his enthusiasm and practical energy, however, the development of the town was necessarily slow. The plan of the city was extensive, and before it could be built the forest had to be cleared. Yet there was progress as the years went by.

Of the year 1795 there is little to chronicle, save the going and coming of the war-ships on the lake, and the occasional expeditions of the Governor. The legal machinery of the Province seems this year to have been put in motion, for we learn for the first time of the arrival at York of Chief Justice Osgoode, accompanied by Attorney-General White, who were going to different parts of the Province to hold circuit. We also learn that the prosaic round of life in these early times was enlivened by the occasional festivity of “a ball,” and the reception of some Old World visitor. At Navy Hall, and in his famous tent at York, the Governor’s hospitalities were both lavish and kindly. It was in June of this year that the Due de Liancourt and his travelling companion paid their historic visit to the provisional seat of Government, and were treated with marked consideration and courtesy by the Governor. Alas! the return for this was the noble Duke’s babbling about desertion among the troops, and his defamation of the character of the people of the new capital.

The following year is notable for the definitive surrender of Fort Niagara to the Americans, together with other posts on the frontier held by Britain. To Governor Simcoe, as an old campaigner in the Revolutionary War, this no doubt was distasteful, and must have increased his antipathy to the people of the Republic. To the Six Nation Indians, who were now settled on their reserve on the Grand River, this also was repugnant, for it meant the abandonment forever of their ancient territory. It also brought home to the chiefs of the confederacy the conviction that they had gained little by their fealty to Britain, and had benefited nothing by their alliance, on many a hard-fought field of battle, with the troops of the British Crown. The improvident character of the concessions of the Treaty of 1783 were now becoming apparent, and there was much involved in the sacrifices that Simcoe, doubtless, could ill bear. Whether his known dislike to his republican neighbours engendered the fear in the British Cabinet that this might lead to international complications, or whether the Governor had to thank the Due de Liancourt for more of his politeness, it would be difficult to say, but suddenly the news fell upon the young colony that its first administrator was to be transferred. In September, 1796, Simcoe left Navy Hall for San Domingo, and the Province that owed so much to him was to see him no more. With what devotion and sturdy fidelity he had served the King in his new Province of Upper Canada there is no need to tell. He gave the colony his every thought, and worked resolutely to put it on its feet. Could he have had his own way, it is not too much to say that it would not long have remained a mere stripling by the side of the nation to the south of it. But he was too independent to be an official truckler, and had been brought up in a school that knew little of dissimulation. The student of history can have nothing but respect for the bluff old soldier.

Chapter II.

York at the Close of the Last Century.

N the withdrawal from Upper Canada of Governor Simcoe the administration of its affairs devolved upon President Russell, who was the senior member of the Executive Council, and had also acted as Inspector-General. The charge of the Province only fell temporarily, however, to this functionary, until the arrival from England of a new administrator. This did not take place until 1799, when the Crown appointed Lieutenant-Governor Peter Hunter.

One of the last official acts of Governor Simcoe was to prorogue Parliament at Newark (Niagara), on the 3rd of June, 1796. On the 11th of the following September, President Russell issued a proclamation setting forth his provisional appointment as administrator. With this change of régime, what, it may be asked, was the attitude of the acting Governor in regard to the removal of the capital? Fortunately there is a letter of his extant to some one in authority at the new capital, which shows not only what he designs to do, but reveals the inadequacy of the provision which York was as yet able to make for the meeting of Parliament. “As the Legislature,” writes the President, “is to meet at York on the 1st of June, it becomes absolutely necessary that provision shall be made without loss of time for its reception. You will therefore be pleased to apprize the inhabitants of the town that twenty-five gentlemen will want board and lodgings during the session; which may possibly induce them to fit up their houses and lay in provisions to accommodate them.” To those familiar only with the Toronto of to-day, and having before their eyes the mammoth hotels and multitudinous boarding-houses of the modern capital, the necessity that compelled the administrator of the Province to see in advance to the housing and feeding of the members of the Legislature will hardly seem a serious one. But serious the necessity then was, as the President no doubt would have discovered had he omitted the precautionary measure. What body of men, need we ask, could be got to sit through the “Speech from the Throne,” who had only the planks of the Council Chamber the previous night for their couch, or would consent to vote the supplies on empty stomachs? There were uses in those days for a Lieutenant-Governor!

The matter of the removal of the capital to York having been thus definitely settled, we find Parliament summoned in due course for the dispatch of business. The date of meeting, as we have seen, was the 1st of June, 1797. The Houses of Parliament which had been planned by Governor Simcoe, and which he no doubt took pleasure in seeing gradually rise on the site he had chosen for them, he was fated not to inaugurate. The honours of the occasion fell to President Russell. The buildings were situated close by the bay, not far from the Don River, at a point almost due south from what is still known as Parliament Street, at the intersection of Front, or what was then termed Palace Street. The site was long marked, in modern times, by a massive grey stone building used as a jail. This New World Westminster had very indifferent surroundings, and was itself of a primitive type, though contemporary documents describe it as consisting of “two elegant halls, with convenient offices for the accommodation of the Legislature and the Courts of Justice.” They were built of brick, and might have seen length of years, and been preserved to later generations as a sacred relic, but unfortunately, in 1813, they fell a prey to the torch of the invader.

We return to the first meeting of Parliament, and to Administrator Russell’s summons to Council and Commons to perform their legislative functions for the first time in York. Here is the edict which calls them to their duties: “The King ... convokes, and by these presents enjoins you and each of you, that on the First day of June, in the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, you do meet Us in Our Provincial Parliament, in Our Town of York, for the actual dispatch of Public Business, and to take into consideration the state and welfare of Our Province of Upper Canada, and therein to do as may seem necessary.” In such kingly phrase does his Excellency summon his Councillors and faithful Commons to meet him, in furtherance of their legislative duties, in what, by a euphuism only, could be considered “the Royal Town of York.” The population of the place, exclusive of about two hundred soldiers, did not at the time exceed some ten or twelve families. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that these were ill-prepared to house and feed the Legislature. Despite the high-flown call of the President, the country’s law-makers seem to have kept their heads, and sensibly to have got through their work. With the primitive surroundings of the place the ceremonial of opening and closing the House according to British use and wont must have been apt to raise a smile. But the gravity of the times gave it a dignity, and the simple needs of the Province lent it a grace, in sharp contrast to the levity and absence of decorum which wait nowadays on much of the legislation of even the Imperial Parliament. The stately dignity of our early law-makers, and the grave decorum with which they conducted their legislative duties, would put to shame the honourable members who in these modern days, in the far-off British metropolis, make a bear-garden of the historic Hall of Westminster. There is a delightful passage in Dr. Scadding’s “Toronto of Old” in reference to the historic scenes which our Canadian Westminster was witness of, and which imparts such a rich colouring to the picture which the genial historian has drawn for us of our humble St. Stephen’s, that we cannot refrain from here quoting it. It is a reminiscence of a later time: “Objectionable as the first site of the Legislative buildings at York may appear to ourselves,” says the Doctor, “and alienated as it now is to lower uses, we cannot but gaze upon it with a certain degree of emotion, when we remember that here it was the first skirmishes took place in the great war of principles which afterwards with such determination and effect was fought out in Canada. Here it was that first loomed up before the minds of our early law-makers the ecclesiastical question, the educational question, the constitutional question; here it was that first was heard the open discussion, childlike, indeed, and vague, but pregnant with very weighty consequences, of topics, social, and national, which, at the time, even in the parent State itself, were mastered but by few.

“Here it was, during a period of twenty-seven years (1797-1824), at each opening and closing of the annual session, amidst the firing of cannon and the commotion of a crowd, the cavalcade drew up that is wont, from the banks of the Thames to the remotest colony of England, to mark the solemn progress of the Sovereign or the Sovereign’s representative, to and from the other Estates in Parliament assembled. Here, amid such fitting surroundings of state as the circumstances of the times and the place admitted, came and went personages of eminence, whose names are now familiar in Canadian story. Never, indeed, the founder and organizer of Upper Canada, Governor Simcoe himself, in this formal and ceremonious manner, although often must he have visited the spot otherwise, in his personal examinations of every portion of his young capital and its environs. But here, immediately after him, however, came and went repeatedly, in due succession, President Russell, Governor Hunter, Governor Gore, General Brock, General Sheaffe, Sir Gordon Drummond, Sir Peregrine Maitland.

“And, while contemplating the scene of our earliest political conflicts, the scene of our earliest known State pageants in these parts, with their modest means and appliances, our minds intuitively recur to a period farther removed still, when under even yet more primitive conditions the Parliament of Upper Canada assembled at Newark, just across the lake. We picture to ourselves the group of seven Crown-appointed Councillors and five representatives of the Commons, assembled there, with the first Speaker, McDonell, of Glengarry; all plain, unassuming, prosaic men, listening, at their first session, to the opening speech of their frank and honoured Governor. We see them adjourning to the open air from their straitened chamber at Navy Hall, and conducting the business of the young Province under the shade of the spreading tree, introducing the English code and trial by jury, decreeing roads, and prohibiting the spread of slavery; while a boulder of the drift, lifting itself up through the natural turf, serves as a desk for the recording clerk. Below them, in the magnificent estuary of the River Niagara, the waters of all the Upper Lakes are swirling by, not yet recovered from the agonies of the long gorge above and the leap at Table Rock. Even here, at the opening and close of this primæval legislature, some of the decent ceremonial was observed with which, as we have just said, the sadly inferior site at the embouchure of the Don became afterwards familiar.”

The scene of these historic ceremonies in York fast rose to importance. The town grew and spread itself; streets were opened out which, though they have now long become unfashionable, were in their day the home of wealth and the dress-parade of fashion. Even their regal names—Palace, Princes, Duke, Duchess, Frederick, Caroline, George, and all the string of them—that sought to honour the person and family of the reigning king, have not saved them from desertion or stayed the hand of decay. But they and the town were then new, and anticipation gilded the future and every hope seemed bright. In addition to the Houses of Parliament there had been erected close by a building which long served the purposes of a Government House, though it afterwards bore the monastic title of Russell Abbey. It was erected for President Russell, by whom and his maiden sister it was long occupied, and subsequently it became the residence of the Roman Catholic Bishop, McDonell. Here and there the recesses of the neighbouring forest were invaded by courageous settlers, who wished to found a home for themselves and their families in the woods. From these homesteads were erelong to come forth the men who were to guide the destinies of the country and become notable figures in the town. Meanwhile the century crept to its close, and the Town of York began to show that it had an existence other than on paper. To what length it had grown and what were its prospects we may learn from a contemporary volume now before us—the “Topographical Description and Gazetteer of Upper Canada,” prepared by Surveyor-General David W. Smyth. We will close the present chapter by quoting from it. Says the Gazetteer: “York is in about 43 degrees and 35 minutes of north latitude,^[8] and is the present seat of Government of Upper Canada. It is most beautifully situated within an excellent harbour of the same name, made of a long peninsula, which confines a basin of water sufficiently large to contain a considerable fleet; on the extremity of the peninsula, which is called Gibraltar Point, are commodious stores and block-houses, which command the entrance to the harbour; on the mainland, opposite to the Point, is the garrison, situated in a fork made by the harbour and a small rivulet, which, being improved by sluices, affords an easy access for boats to go up to the stores; the barracks, being built on a knoll, are well situated for health, and command a delightful prospect of the lake to the west, and of the harbour to the east. The Government House is about two miles above the garrison, near the head of the harbour, and the town is increasing rapidly; the River Don empties itself into the harbour a little above the town, running through a marsh, which when drained will afford most beautiful and fruitful meadows. This has already been commenced in a small degree, which will, no doubt, encourage further attempts. The long beach, or peninsula, which affords a most delightful ride, is considered so healthy by the Indians that they resort to it whenever indisposed; and so soon as the bridge over the Don is finished, it will, of course, be most generally resorted to, not only for pleasure, but as the most convenient road to the heights of Scarborough. The ground which has been prepared for the Government House is situated between the town and the River Don, on a most beautiful spot, the vicinity of which is well suited for gardens and a park. The oaks are in general large; the soil is excellent, and well watered with creeks, one of which, by means of a short dam, may be thrown into all the streets of the town. Vessels of all sizes may be conveniently built here, and a kind of terrace or second bank in front of the town affords an excellent situation for a rope walk. The remains of the old French fort, Toronto, stand a little to the westward of the present garrison, and the River Humber discharges itself into the Lake Ontario about two miles and a half west of that; on this river and the Don are excellent mills, and all the waters abound in fish. In winter the harbour is frozen, and affords excellent ice for the amusement of northern countries, driving in traineaus. The climate of York is temperate, and well sheltered from the northerly winds by the high lands in the rear. The Yonge Street leads from hence to Lake Simcoe, and the Dundas Street crosses the rear of the town.”

Chapter III.

The Administrations of Governors Hunter and Gore.

UST prior to the beginning of the present century the infant settlement at York was honoured with the presence of a new Lieutenant-Governor. President Russell, who provisionally succeeded Governor Simcoe, was relieved of his administrative duties by the arrival at the capital of Lieutenant-General Peter Hunter, of whose antecedents, it may here be said, little was known. He was a Scottish gentleman, possessed of the characteristic qualities of his nation, and, as it turned out, had those additional virtues which we associate with the military man, and which were needed in his official capacity—discernment and decision. Governor Hunter arrived at York on the 17th of August, 1799, and presently took up his residence in the garrison. The event is duly chronicled in the press, the Niagara Constellation of the 23rd instant supplying us with the following interesting paragraph: “His Excellency, Governor Hunter, arrived at York on Friday morning last in the Speedy. On landing he was received by a party of the Queen’s Rangers; and at one o’clock p.m. was waited on at his Honour’s, the President’s, by the military officers, and congratulated on his safe arrival and appointment to the government of the Province.”

After a brief visit to Niagara, Governor Hunter seems to have returned for a time to Lower Canada, for we presently find the direction of affairs again committed to the hands of President Russell, with whom is now associated the Hon. J. McGill, J. Elmsley and Æneas Shaw. The official Gazette continues from time to time to report the going and coming of Governor Hunter, and the various movements of Government schooners on the lake, as they carried to and fro, on the business of the Crown, the law officers of the Province, and such naval and military magnates as were in this part of the world on His Majesty’s service. The entries are varied by the advertisements of sailing packets, plying between different ports on Lake Ontario, in the interest of the growing commerce of the Province. Occasionally there is a paragraph in the Gazette which records some calamitous shipwreck on the lake, the foundering or running ashore of some Government or merchant vessel, or other dire mishap which brings grief and dismay to the young colony. The naval architecture of the shipping on the lakes was at this period of a very primitive type, and few came to commit themselves to any extended voyage on the lake without serious apprehension and grave misgiving. Abroad, His Majesty’s navy was making Britain “mistress of the seas;” but in the inland waters of Canada English commerce had as yet done little to give the colony trustworthy boats. Among the casualties recorded in the journals of the time we find that which overtook the schooner Speedy, late in the season of 1802. At the period above referred to she foundered off Presqu’ Isle, and the whole of her passengers, including many notables of the Province, were lost. In Dr. Scadding’s “Toronto of Old,” he who has a love for the eventful may gratify his taste by reading the account given in the volume of the loss, some twenty years earlier than the period we are writing of, of the Ontario, Captain Andrews in command, which “went down with all on board while conveying troops—a detachment of the King’s Own—under Colonel Burton, from Niagara to Oswego.” The vessel carried twenty-two guns, the weight of which, when she became disabled, soon sent her to the bottom of the lake. Dr. Scadding tells us that one hundred and seventy-two persons perished on this occasion. The calamitous story has long since passed from memory or tradition among us, though it deserves to be worthily commemorated in some modern epic. Presently the announcement is made that the Legislature has enacted that lighthouses shall be established round the lake, one of which is to be constructed on Gibraltar Point. This, in some measure, lessened the risks of navigation on the waters of Ontario.

For the next few years we meet with little of moment in the announcements of the Gazette. The colony, indeed, was at the time living through but a humdrum existence. Events that were occurring in the outside world took long to reach the colony, and the inhabitants as yet were so few that their significance failed to make that impression which might otherwise be expected. Within the country we find record of a few events which, to the good people of York, were of absorbing interest. Among these may be mentioned the opening at the capital of a weekly public market, the necessity for which had now become urgent. Governor Hunter had set aside nearly five acres, in the region of the present St. Lawrence Hall, for this laudable purpose, and the market was opened by official proclamation on the 5th of November, 1803. Henceforth it was not necessary to send to Niagara, as we have an amusing record of, for a few pounds of butter. In the same year we find several notables of the town elevated by royal proclamation to the rank of the legal profession. This honour fell upon Dr. W. W. Baldwin, father of the Hon. Robert Baldwin—the noted later-day Liberal—William Dickson, of Niagara, D’Arcy Boulton, of Augusta, and John Powell, of York. Dr. Scadding tells us that these gentlemen used to be referred to as the “heaven-descended” barristers.

Another historic announcement appears in the Gazette of the period, in the hoisting, for the first time since the union of Great Britain and Ireland, of the Royal Standard—the flag of the now United Kingdom. This national emblem was first given to the winds in Upper Canada one day about the middle of November, 1801, from the flagstaff of Fort George. In 1803 the Duke of Kent, uncle of Her Present Majesty, paid his second visit to Canada, and was entertained at York by the Hon. Æneas Shaw, now become a general. In this year, for the first time, we come upon an instance of the benefits which “our coloured brethren” derived from Simcoe’s humane Act, in forbidding the further introduction of slaves into Canada, and the freedom that was to be granted those born in the country on attaining a certain age. On record in the Registry Office of Toronto, under the year 1803, is a registration of the sale, by Robert Franklin, York, yeoman, free black man, of “the front half of lot number five in the second concession east of the Township of York.” On file, in the same depository, is also to be seen the will of Isaac de Gray, Solicitor-General of Upper Canada,^[9] by one of the clauses of which he gives freedom to a slave in his possession, and leaves a handsome sum for her support. The clause reads thus: “Thirdly, I feel it a duty incumbent upon me, in consequence of the long and faithful services of Dorinda, my black woman servant, rendered to my family, to release, manumit, and discharge her from the state of slavery in which she now is, and to give her and all her children their freedom. My will, therefore, is that she be released, and I hereby accordingly release, manumit, and discharge the said Dorinda, and all and every of her said children from slavery, and declare them and every one of them to be free.” The provision Mr. De Gray made for them was the funding of £1,200, “the interest of which was to be paid to the said Dorinda, and her heirs and assigns forever.”

Three years later, in sharp contrast to the humanity of Governor Simcoe, we find Mr. Administrator Peter Russell offering for sale in the advertising columns of the Gazette and Oracle^[10] “a black woman named Peggy, aged forty years, and a black boy, her son, named Jupiter, aged about fifteen years, both of them the property of the subscriber. The woman,” so sets forth the advertisement, “is a tolerable cook and washerwoman, and perfectly understands making soap and candles.” The price set upon Peggy is $150, and upon Jupiter, junior, $200, “payable in three years, with interest from the day of sale, and to be secured by bond.” His Excellency is good enough to say, however, that “one-fourth less will be taken for ready money.”

For the first time we now hear of what used often to be referred to as “the Church at York.” The “meeting-house for Episcopalians,” as it was also for a period termed, though subsequently the church was to develop into the Cathedral of St. James, had its origin in the year 1804, and was, as we learn, “a plain, barn-like structure of framed timber, forty feet by fifty, standing east and west.” The building was put up with the assistance of some troops from the garrison, by permission of Colonel Sheaffe, the commandant. Its first clergyman was the Rev. G. O’Kill Stuart, who afterwards became an archdeacon in the church, and for a time was master of the Home District School at York. In the records of both church and school we meet with the names of estimable citizens who, with their families, have been long associated with the town, and been instrumental, in large measure, in advancing its prospects.

Society at the capital was presently, however, to receive a shock in the receipt of a despatch conveying intelligence of the death at Quebec of the Lieutenant-Governor, General Hunter. As commander-in-chief of the forces he had gone to the capital of the Lower Province on a tour of military inspection, and there fell ill and died. His body was buried at Quebec on one of the last days of August, 1805. His temporary successor in the governorship was Commodore Alexander Grant, who is chiefly known by his zeal in establishing for a while at York an institution for the promotion of Natural Science, and in procuring a grant from Parliament for the purchase of the necessary apparatus.

In the following year there came to the Province from the governorship of Bermuda the Hon. Francis Gore, who for the next five years was to figure in provincial history as Lieutenant-Governor. During this period York made slow but steady progress, and the Province continued satisfactorily to advance in settlement. Parliament voted sums for the construction of roads and bridges, and made laudable efforts to open up new sections of the country. Postal facilities were also increased, and communication with Lower Canada and the outer world became more practicable. The population of the capital had by this time grown to 2,000. In George Heriot’s work on British North America, he says of York in 1806 that “many houses are already completed, some of which display a considerable degree of taste. The advancement of the place to its present condition,” he adds, “has been effected within the lapse of six or seven years, and persons who have formerly travelled in this part of the country are impressed with sentiments of wonder on beholding a town which may be termed handsome, reared as if by enchantment in the midst of a wilderness.” Mr. Heriot filled the office of Deputy Postmaster-General of British North America. The mail between Montreal and York, we learn, was at this time so light as “to be carried by pedestrian white men between these two places, and by an Indian between York and Niagara, all of whom carried axes to enable them to cross streams. The number of post-offices in Upper and Lower Canada at this date was less than twenty, and only about eight hundred miles of post road were open, of which not more than one hundred and fifty were in Upper Canada.”

“No country in the world—” we quote from a modern source—“was less burdened with taxes than was Upper Canada at this period. A small direct tax on property, levied by the District Courts of Session, and not amounting to sixteen thousand dollars for the whole country, sufficed for all local expenses. There was no poor-rate, no capitation tax, no tithes or ecclesiastical rates of any kind. The chief check to the great prosperity of the country was the want of paper currency, there being no bank then in Canada. Gold and silver were the only circulating mediums, and, as the exports did not balance the imports, the little money brought into the colony by settlers, or paid out by Government, was insufficient to meet the increasing wants of the community. A system of barter was thus originated between merchant and farmer, highly prejudicial to the latter, and which frequently led him into debt.

“Nor were the public morals as much calculated to advance the welfare of the country as could be desired. Intemperance was a prevalent vice. The rough backwoodsmen, too, were often quarrelsome in their cups, and pugilistic encounters very frequently took place. The mass of the people may be described as a rough, homespun generation, with little religion, still less education; but honest in their general demeanour; steady, yet simple in their manners, and exceedingly hospitable in their homes. In the early days of York the vice of intemperance was punished in a somewhat summary though certainly utilitarian way: all persons guilty of drunkenness were made to give a certain amount of labour in pulling out tree-stumps in the public streets.”

Such is the picture of York on the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Gore. In some respects the country was an “earthly paradise,” where there was abundance for all, with quiet enjoyment and reasonable pleasures to him who would dress the land and till it. But paradises, historically, have not been able to keep out discord. How much of this came to be introduced into Upper Canada, and what evil from the outside threatened to befall the young colony, we shall in the next and following chapters discover. Europe was at the period in the throes of a conflict which was putting Anglo-Saxon pluck and British manhood to the severest test. Nearer hand, the clouds of war were stretching their murky curtain over British possessions in Canada, and the mutterings of a portentous storm were already disturbing the land. In the Governor’s address at the opening of Parliament, in 1809, occurs this presage of the coming conflict: “Hitherto,” says His Excellency, “we have enjoyed tranquillity, plenty, and peace. How long it may please the supreme Ruler of Nations to favour us is wisely concealed from our view. But under such circumstances it becomes us to prepare ourselves to meet every event, and to evince by our zeal and loyalty that we know the value of our Constitution, and are worthy the name of British subjects.” Two years afterwards Governor Gore, obtaining leave of absence, quitted the country, and there now comes upon the scene the memorable figure of Brock.

Chapter IV.

Brock, and the War of 1812.

T can hardly be said that the thirty months’ conflict, in which the Canadian Militia took so large and honourable a part, between the forces of Great Britain and those of the United States, holds that high place in history which its importance claims for it. Occurring so soon after the struggle of the American colonies for Independence, and while Britain was at the time passing through the throes of a terrible conflict in Europe, we can partly understand why it is that what is known on this side the Atlantic as the “War of 1812” has not had its due share of recognition. Recognition from writers in American educational text-books it certainly has had; but this is a recognition which has done justice more to the American faculty of appropriating honours than it has done justice to Canadian patriotism and the cause of truth. Canadians are quite content that the struggle so long and bravely maintained on their soil through the terrible years of 1812-14 should be dwarfed in the greater struggle of which the continent of the Old World was at the time the witness; but they are not content that the prowess of their forefathers and the rightful honours of the contest should suffer eclipse at the hands of mendacious historians. Fortunately, however, the history of the struggle is now becoming better known, and if American writers are not wholly taking back their words, their assumptions are not quite so vainglorious; and Canada is allowed to have her share of credit. Moreover, among American writers who have given careful thought to the subject, an uncomfortable feeling is beginning to betray itself, in finding justification, if not for precipitating the war, at least for invading Canada. What the Americans expected to gain by this step they very quickly discovered was not to be realized; and the incensed protest of Randolph, of Virginia, against “converting Canadians into traitors, as a preparation for making them good American citizens,” many of their historians and public men now wish they had given heed to. Troubles enough Canada at this time had, and she had many and weighty reasons for being dissatisfied with her political rulers; but this did not lessen her loyalty to Britain, nor dissuade her from doing what she could to keep her soil inviolate.

For a moment let us look at the work that lay before her. The total population of Canada at this time did not exceed 300,000, of which number only about a fourth was settled in the Upper Province. The regular troops of all arms in the country did not quite number 4,500 men, less than a third being in Upper Canada. With this small body of troops Canada had to rely upon her own militia, actively aided by the patriotism of her people, to defend a frontier of over 1,500 miles, threatened at many points by a large and disciplined army, with a population to draw upon of nearly eight millions! Yet such was the spirit of her sons that, hopeless as seemed the undertaking, she did not hesitate to take the field at the first signal of danger.

With the return to England of Governor Gore, in the autumn of 1811, Lieutenant-General Isaac Brock became President and acting Administrator of the Province. Throughout this year the growing hostility to Britain shown by the United States, which had never got over the acrimony of separation, rose to a flame over some unauthorized acts of British naval officers in command of vessels on the Atlantic coast. Previous acts in asserting England’s “right of search” on the high seas for deserters and contraband goods, which the United States had resented, had aggravated public feeling, and intensified the bitterness between the two countries. President Madison’s non-intercourse policy, and his establishment of a close blockade over American ports, so as to cut off all trade with Britain, were portents of the coming storm. With remarkable prescience General Brock saw that trouble was impending, and he set about making preparations for defence. At the opening of the Legislature at York, in February, 1812, he presses upon the House the importance of adopting at once “such measures as will best secure the internal peace of the country, and defeat every hostile aggression.” He expresses the hope, at the same time, “that cool reflection and the dictates of justice may yet avert the calamities of war.” This, however, was not to be. On the 18th of June, 1812, Congress declared war against Great Britain, and took instant steps to invade Canada. Canada, with equal promptitude, proceeded to call out her militia, and determinedly braced herself to resist invasion.

It is the fashion among many American writers of to-day to deny that the War of 1812 was a war of aggression. But nothing can well be further from the truth. There was at the time a bitter hatred of England and increasing jealousy of her maritime supremacy. To humiliate her on the seas was a difficult undertaking, but not so difficult, it was thought, would be the task of snatching from her her colony on the North. That this was the design in invading Canada there can be no manner of doubt. From a volume published at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1820,^[11] we find the following emphatic corroboration of the aggressive intent of the United States in declaring war against Britain. It was nothing less than to secure possession of the rich peninsula of Upper Canada, and obtain control of the entire trade of the St. Lawrence. After enumerating the advantages of the latter river as a highway to the sea, the writer speaks thus frankly of the forcible annexation of Canada. “From these considerations,” says Mr. Niles, “as well as from those of a political nature, the annexation of the Canadas to the United States, which would give us the whole of the great valley of the St. Lawrence, and the entire control of the extensive water communication which forms its natural outlet to the ocean, must always be an object of primary importance; and ought never for a moment to be lost sight of by the councils of the Republic. Our extended and extending Republic can never be considered as complete and consolidated until this object is accomplished. Was there nothing else to awaken our solicitude, to arouse our fears and provoke our pride, in relation to this subject, the great angle or peninsula of Upper Canada, which projects nearly six degrees into the very heart of the United States, ought to be sufficient. It remains a standing monument, admonishing us of our duty to ourselves, our country and posterity.

“The annexation of the territory of the Canadas to the United States would open to the future millions that will inhabit the American borders of the vast interior waters a free and natural channel of commerce down the St. Lawrence; give us a north-western frontier, guarded by impenetrable barriers of frost which would save millions that will be required to defend the present extended and exposed frontier; and remove a permanent cause of differences and wars between the two countries.

“But here is another reason, perhaps more important than any which has been noticed: the acquisition of the Canadas is necessary to preserve the political balance of this Union, and to countervail the immense territory which has been acquired to the south and west by the cession of Louisiana. In addition to these considerations, it is an object worthy of a free, an enlightened and magnanimous nation, which boasts of its liberty, its laws and civil institutions, to extend, by all just and proper means, the inestimable blessings of a free press, free suffrage, and the principles of republican government, to all who are in a condition to receive and enjoy them; and especially to a brave and hospitable people, whose contiguity to our Republic renders them special objects of our sympathy, and whose destiny seems to have been identified with our own by the common Parent of the human family.”

This delectable extract there is no need to enshrine in these pages as very exceptional evidence, from a contemporary American source, of the designs of the United States in invading Canada. The frank remarks of Mr. Niles are no solitary confession of the feelings and desires of his countrymen at the period. It was, of course, very kind of the “free, enlightened and magnanimous nation” to take that hearty interest in a young colony which led it to treat it as “a special object of sympathy,” and to desire, “by all just and proper means”—i.e., by a war of conquest, bloodshed and pillage—to extend to it “the inestimable blessings ... of Republican Government.” It was, further, a most laudable undertaking to aid “the common Parent of the human family” in his either unwilling or too difficult task of shaping the destinies of this country. But these North American possessions of the British Crown did not appreciate this gratuitous kindness of the good people of the neighbouring Republic; neither were Canadians particularly anxious to avail themselves of the “inestimable blessings ... of Republican Government.” Nor was Canada merely coy and waiting to be wooed. She did not like the suitor, and from the mouth of many a matchlock she hotly told him so.

Space will not permit our following, with any detail, the fortunes of the war, nor does it specially lie in our way to do so. Two incidents of the conflict, however, York had special interest in, and with one of these, at least, we must in the present chapter deal. Of these incidents we need hardly say that one connects itself with the York militia and their heroic leader; the other with the attack upon and surrender of Fort Toronto, and the raiding of the capital.

Early in 1812 the Governor-General, Sir George Prevost, had received instructions to permit the return of General Brock to England, that the army of the continent might have the benefit of his services. Of this the Governor-General advised Brock from Quebec. But the latter, impressed with a sense of the critical position of the country, and believing that preferment was as likely to come to him in the fulfilment of duty at his present post, decided to remain and share with Canadians the honour, as well as the risk, of preserving the Province of Upper Canada to the British Crown. What the risk was to him we shall presently see: the sentinel column that stands to-day on Queenston Heights is a sad memorial of the risk, while it perpetuates the memory of a deed of undying renown.

Less than a month after the declaration of war, the American general, Hull, with an army of 2,500 men, crossed the Detroit River and entered Canada. On hearing of this, Brock at once called an emergency meeting of Parliament, despatched some companies of the 41st Regiment, then in garrison at York, to Niagara, and thither, within a few days, followed them. Colonel Proctor, with the remaining companies of the 41st, was ordered to reinforce the troops at Amherstburg; and Captain Roberts, in command at Fort St. Joseph, was instructed to re-take the old trading-post of Michilimackinac. With the 3rd Regiment of York militia Brock himself set out, on the 6th of August, for Amherstburg. Here he was joined by the Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh, with whom and his Indian followers Brock concerted for the capture of Fort Detroit.

By this time General Hull had withdrawn his army from Canada, and retired upon the stronghold of Detroit. Promptly carrying out his project, Brock put his small force in fighting array, and crossed the river into Michigan. Before assaulting the fort he summoned the garrison to surrender. The summons, to Brock’s surprise, was complied with, and 2,500 American soldiers gave up to him their arms. Elated at his unlooked-for success, and enabled by the capitulation of the fort to more efficiently arm the Canadian militia, he resolved at once to return to York, thereafter to cross Lake Ontario and sweep from the Niagara frontier other detachments of the enemy. By the 27th of August we find him and his troops back at the capital, where he was received with the warmest acclaims of the populace.

Unfortunately, when about to set out again, Brock’s design to prevent the enemy from massing on the Niagara River was for the time frustrated by an ill-timed armistice, which had been agreed to by Sir George Prevost, who held supreme command in Lower Canada. This delayed action till the following October, and gave the Americans time to concentrate a force of some 6,000 men, under Van Rensselaer, in the neighbourhood of Lewiston. At daybreak on the 13th the advance-guard of this force effected a landing on the Canadian bank of the Niagara River, despite the heroism of its defenders. General Brock, hearing at Fort George the cannonading, galloped with his aides to the scene of action, and at once found himself in the thick of a desperate onset.

The story is now a brief one. Two companies of the 49th Regiment, under Captain Dennis, with about a hundred of the Canadian militia, had for sometime been holding the enemy in check. The engagement speedily became general. A portion of the invading force, gaining the heights unobserved, from their vantage-ground began to pour destruction upon the defenders. Brock, with characteristic gallantry, instantly placed himself at the head of the troops, with whom were two companies of the militia of York, and hastened to dislodge the enemy from the heights. Conspicuously leading the storming-party, and with the cry, “Push on the York volunteers!” on his lips, Brock was struck by a musket-ball, and fell mortally wounded. Maddened at the death of their heroic leader, the troops twice essayed to clear the invaders from the flame-clad heights. Twice, however, were they driven back; and the gallant column, of barely three hundred men, was compelled to retire upon the village, waiting reinforcements. Presently these came up, and under General Sheaffe they now outflanked the Americans, and on the brink of the river forced them to surrender. Victory once more rested upon British arms, though its lustre was grievously dimmed by heavy losses sustained by the victors, and by the death of Brock, their loved commander. Three days afterwards they laid his body temporarily to rest in a bastion of Fort George, and the Canadian people mourned for their dead hero.

Chapter V.

The Advent of Dr. Strachan, and the Fall of York.

URING the remaining months of the year 1812 nothing very notable happened to the arms of the two nations. The success won on Queenston Heights, though it had cost the life of the gallant Brock, was a serious blow to the Americans, as nearly a thousand men surrendered to Sheaffe, with Wadsworth, their general. Small as was the Canadian force opposed to the invader, its losses shed a gloom over the capital. With Brock there fell the Provincial Attorney-General, John McDonnell, who was acting as aide-de-camp to the Governor, together with many a gallant militiaman. York gave of its best blood to the war, and few who were able to fight shirked the duty the sword imposed upon them.

To mitigate the horrors and alleviate the sufferings of the conflict, there was now established at the capital an association called the “Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada,” the principal objects of which were to make provision for the widows and orphans of the war, to tend the wounded, and give succour to those whose homes had been made desolate. The founder of this society, and one of the most active citizens of the still young capital, was a reverend divine who had but recently come to take up his residence in York, and whose profession well fitted him to act the part of the Good Samaritan. We refer to the Rev. Dr. John Strachan, a name that was to become a household word throughout the Province, and its owner one of the most notable figures in its history.

Born at Aberdeen, in 1778, this young Scot, who was to become the first Bishop appointed by the Crown in Upper Canada, left the charge of a parish school in the neighbourhood of St. Andrews and came to Canada, in 1799, to devote himself to the work of teaching. It had been wisely proposed by Governor Simcoe that the Province should encourage the establishment of an academy, to grow in time into a college, and that some capable person should be obtained from Britain to take charge of the institution. The offer of the principalship, tradition has it, was first made to the notable divine, Dr. Chalmers, and being refused by him, young Strachan, the Aberdeen graduate, was induced to accept it. On the last day of the century, the young Master of Arts arrived at Kingston, and presented himself at the house of Mr. Richard Cartwright, a gentleman of much local repute, who was afterwards heartily to befriend him. Here he learned that with the departure of Simcoe, and other intervening events, the project of founding an academy under the auspices of the Government had been abandoned. Undeterred by this mischance, and aided by his good friend Cartwright, Strachan opened a private school at Kingston, and immediately met with success. For the first time was now set in motion that educational machinery which erelong was to overspread the Province, and bear the lamp of learning into every village in the land.

While at Kingston Strachan determined to take orders in the Church of England, and being admitted by Bishop Mountain to the priesthood, he was given a charge at Cornwall. Thither Strachan and his now celebrated school removed, and for a time we find him imparting more than the conventional rudiments of education to a group of young men who from the Grammar School at Cornwall were erelong to go forth to the highest positions in the Province.

In 1811 there died at Kingston an intimate friend and correspondent of Strachan, the Rev. Dr. John Stuart, who for a quarter of a century had ministered to the people of that town. The man looked to as his successor was the schoolmaster at Cornwall; but just then Governor Gore was inducing the worthy dominie to come to York, and engage in clerical and educational work. For a time Strachan wavered in his choice, but the incumbency of York being pressed upon him by many prominent people of the town, he finally accepted the charge, and removed to the capital. Through the favour of Major-General Brock he was also appointed to the chaplaincy of the troops, and offered some official post in the Provincial Council.

Dr. Strachan’s biographer, and his successor in the See of Toronto, gives us a brief but interesting picture of York at the period of Strachan’s advent. “York, at this time,” writes Bishop Bethune, “was a little town of a few hundred inhabitants; the houses all of wood,^[12] and of very unpretending dimensions. Seven years later, when first seen by the writer of this memoir, its population hardly exceeded 1,000; and there were but three brick houses in the whole place. In 1812 it might be regarded as a quiet little parish, affording sufficient but not severe labour to the incumbent, and quite within the compass of one man’s pastoral ministrations. But now it was shaken and disturbed by the din and turmoil of war; it was the residence of the Commander of the Forces, and the centre, consequently, of all military arrangements. No sooner was war proclaimed than there followed the active preparations and energetic movements of Sir Isaac Brock; and before many months we had the bloodless triumph at Detroit, and the sanguinary, yet not less glorious, contest at Queenston Heights—having, however, one most calamitous result, the death of the gallant Brock himself. After this, as the wintry season drew on, there was comparative quiet; but far and near were the notes of preparation on either side, and thickening anxieties for the coming spring. In such a stirring time it was not in the nature of Dr. Strachan to be idle; burning with love of his country, and full of indignation at this unrighteous aggression, he was active and judicious in his counsels; and if he could not take the lead in the field, he was foremost in devising means to ameliorate the calamities which the war was inducing.”

Among the means devised by Dr. Strachan for the relief of the victims of the war was the founding, as we have already narrated, of the Upper Canada Loyal and Patriotic Society, which, though established at York, had branches throughout the Province. Of this benevolent institution, to the funds of which large contributions had generously been forwarded from England, the writer we have just quoted remarks that “it contributed more towards the defence of the Province than half-a-dozen regiments, from the confidence and good-will it inspired amongst the population at large, and the encouragement it gave to the young men of the country to leave their homes and take their share in its defence.” The events of the following year, unhappily, called into requisition all the aid the society could offer for the relief of the wounded, and to meet the necessities of the families of those who had fallen. With the spring of 1813 the Americans renewed their military and naval operations against Canada, and more actively by way of the lakes. Here the enemy was stronger, and the water boundary between the two countries now became, in great measure, the scene of hostilities. Towards the end of February the Legislature of Upper Canada was called together by General Sheaffe, the Provisional Administrator, and in concert with Sir George Prevost and the Parliament of the Lower Province, active measures were adopted and money votes passed for the continued defence of the country. Efforts were also made to strengthen the weak marine on the lakes, for the command of which Sir James Yeo had arrived at Kingston. But the Americans were earlier prepared to renew hostilities, at least on the water. They had also planned demonstrations by land, both in the east and west, with the hope of recovering their lost military prestige, and of effacing the recollection of the previous year’s disasters. A flotilla was even now ready to leave the eastern end of Lake Ontario with designs against York. Unfortunately for the Provincial capital, its slender defences and the handful of troops in the garrison—now commanded by Major-General Sheaffe—could not avert the fate that menaced it. On the 25th of April, Commodore Chauncey set out from Sackett’s Harbour with a fleet of fourteen armed vessels and some 1,600 troops, with the object of capturing Fort Toronto and raiding the capital. The attacking force was under the command of Brigadier Pike, directed by General Dearborn, who remained on board the flag-ship. On the evening of the 26th the fleet appeared outside the harbour, and on the following day the troops detailed to attack the fort were landed in the neighbourhood of the Humber River, and, under fire from the ships, proceeded to take the outworks, and to scale the inner defences, which interposed but slight obstacles to the enemy. Conscious of the weakness of his position, General Sheaffe had concluded to evacuate the fort, and had already fallen back upon the town. Passing through it with his few “regulars,” he proceeded eastward, ignominiously leaving the militia to make what further defence they could, or to treat with the enemy. The latter, finding that the fire from the fort had suddenly ceased, and anticipating a surrender, pushed on in column to take possession. The next moment there was a terrific explosion. General Pike and over two hundred of his command were shot into the air. The powder magazine had been fired by an artillery sergeant of the retreating force, to prevent it falling into the hands of the Americans, and the fuse was lit, from all accounts undesignedly, at a horribly inopportune moment. With the evacuation of the fort came the surrender of the town and its subsequent pillage—a grim pastime which seems to have been carried out in the spirit of the Revolutionary formula: “In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!”

For a few days after the event just narrated, the Americans held possession of York, and received the submission of Colonel Chewett and the handful of militia who had not fallen in defence of the town. The Canadian loss, including that of the troops, was about 130 men; and nearly 300 militia surrendered themselves prisoners. The casualties also included a number of Indians, who had been of much service, under Major Givins, when the enemy were in the act of landing. The loss to the Americans, in killed and wounded, was not short of 350 men, more than a half of whom had been blown up in the fort. The exploding of the magazine and the calamitous loss to the invaders, as may be expected, put them in no humour to treat with any generosity either the townspeople or the town. The Houses of Parliament, with the library and public records, were burned; one or two vessels on the stocks, with the dockyard, and a quantity of marine stores, were also given to the flames; and everything of value that could be removed was put on board the fleet. Life only was not sacrificed. The Canadian militia were released on parole, and articles of capitulation, after some little friction, were duly drawn out and signed. There is extant some memoranda of Bishop Strachan, written at the time, which give a graphic account of scenes connected with the capitulation, and the difficulties he had to contend with in getting the enemy to restrain their lawlessness and respect private property. Some extracts from this diary may not be without interest to the modern reader, and we here append them. Says the Doctor: “On hearing the tremendous explosion of the magazine, hurried home and found Mrs. Strachan greatly terrified, and off with the children to a neighbour’s house; sent her to a friend’s a little out of town. Go up towards the garrison, which we had by this time abandoned; find the General and his troops in a ravine, the militia scattering. The General (Sheaffe) determines to retreat to Kingston with the regulars, and leaves the command with Colonel Chewett and Major Allan, two militia officers; and desires them to make the best conditions they can with the enemy for the protection of the town. Offer my services to assist them. Go to Mr. Crookshank’s house, and meet Major King and Colonel Mitchell, on the part of the enemy. Our Attorney-General, Mr. Robinson,^[13] also went with us, and assisted us to discuss the points of capitulation. A difficulty arose from a ship and naval store having been set on fire during our negotiations; this considered very dishonourable. At length a capitulation is agreed upon, subject to the ratification of the commanding officer. Soon broken through; Major Allan, though under the protection of a flag of truce, is made prisoner, and deprived of his sword. I accompany him to town in the midst of the enemy’s column. The militia on our side ground their arms. The enemy return to the garrison, with the exception of the rifle corps, which is left under pretence of protection to the town.

“Wednesday, April 28, met Major King at the Hon. Mr. Selby’s; complain of the indignity offered Major Allan, and that the capitulation had not been ratified, nor a copy so ratified returned in a few minutes, according to promise; and declared that the whole thing appeared a deception. Major King was sorry, would do everything that lay in his power, and desired us to go to the garrison, and everything would be amicably adjusted. Went to the garrison, but the commanding officer, Colonel Pierce, can do nothing. The militia had been detained in the block-house without victuals, and the wounded without nourishment or medicine. Complain to Colonel Pierce, who ordered rations for the prisoners. Meet a deputation from General Dearborn, to discuss the articles of capitulation; find that they cannot parole the militia officers and men.

“Demand an officer to take me on board the principal ship, where Dearborn was. Meet him coming ashore, and present him with the articles of capitulation. He read them without deigning an answer. Request to know whether he will parole the officers and men, and demand leave to take away our sick and wounded. He treats me with great harshness; tells me that we had given a false return of officers; told me to keep off, and not to follow him, etc., he had business of much more importance to attend to. Complained of this treatment to Commodore Chauncey, the commander of flotilla; declare that if the capitulation was not immediately signed we would not receive it; and affirmed that the delay was a deception, calculated to give the riflemen time to plunder, and after the town had been robbed they would then perhaps sign the capitulation, and tell us they respected private property. But we were determined that this should not be the case, and that they should not have it in their power to say that they respected private property, after it had been robbed. Upon saying this, I broke away. Soon after. General Dearborn came to the room where his deputation was sitting, and having been told what I had said, settled the matter amicably. The officers and men were released on parole, and we began to remove the sick and wounded.

“Spent the whole of Thursday, the 29th, in removing the sick and wounded, and getting comforts for them. On the following day the Government building on fire, contrary to the articles of capitulation, and the church robbed. Call a meeting of the judges and magistrates; draw up a short note stating our grievances, and wait upon General Dearborn with it. He is greatly embarrassed, and promises everything.”

This extract introduces us at an early stage to many of the characteristics of a remarkable man, who was to become a notable figure in the history of the Province, and, in time, the first Bishop of Toronto. For over half a century he was to be closely identified with the development of Upper Canada, the affairs of which he thus early took into his own hands to manage. Matters political, as well as educational and ecclesiastical, were, in large measure, to come under his control, and be more or less moulded by his forceful and practical mind. In many respects his influence was objectionable, and the dominance of the party with whom he worked pernicious; but, on the whole, he may be said to have served his country faithfully, and from the best of motives. Curt and stubborn, at times even to rudeness, many often found him; and no doubt it was to this trait of his character, with, perhaps, a little officiousness, that Dearborn’s impatience with him is to be traced; though his doggedness and incensed manner would, we may be sure, get all the indulgence possible for the militia and citizens of York from the town’s rude captors.

After the submission and humiliation of York, Chauncey’s fleet set sail for the mouth of the Niagara River, with the intention of attacking Fort George. Though gallantly defended by a small force under General Vincent, the fort was at last abandoned by its garrison, which then fell back on a strong position, between Niagara and Burlington Heights. Besides the loss of the fort, over 400 men fell on the sharply-contested field. This loss was, however, more than atoned for, and the account squared, by the heroic engagements at Beaver Dam and Stony Creek, and, later in the year, by the descent upon Black Rock. Eastward, there had been a brilliant exploit at Ogdensburg, and several engagements on Lake Champlain; while, in the Detroit region, Proctor had been successful, with the aid of Tecumseh and his Indians, in harassing the American “Army of the West.” On the lakes fortune was capricious, now playing into the hands of Chauncey and Perry; anon into those of Barclay and Yeo.

Taking advantage of aid sent from the capital to General Vincent at Burlington Heights, which depleted the already slender garrison, Chauncey in July—three months after his first visit—made another descent upon York, and gave much of the town to the flames. The war-scarred capital now presented a sorry spectacle, for what of value was not burned was carried away. Among the loot of York, it is worthy of mention, was a fire-engine, which was long treasured at the Navy Yard, Washington, as part of the spoil of the town. The trophy had been presented to the inhabitants of York by Lieutenant-Governor Hunter in 1802. In the reprisals from the seaboard in the following year, when the British captured Washington and burned the capitol, it is comforting to think that there was occasion given the Americans for its use.

Canadian history has in 1813 to chronicle two other successes, which more than counterbalanced the loss to its arms in a year of untold hardships and much bloodshed. Chrysler’s Farm and Chateauguay has to be added to the roll of honour on the war banners of the young colony. The year closed, however, amid woe and desolation. The American General, McClure, in command of the captured stronghold of Fort George, being hard pressed by Vincent’s troops, decided to winter in Fort Niagara, on the other side of the river. Thinking his safety even there endangered by the proximity of Newark, he committed the inhuman act of turning out of their homes, in the depth of winter, about 150 families, including 400 women and children, and fired the town at thirty minutes’ notice. For this barbarous act the Americans were held to a terrible account in the reprisals which instantly followed—the surprise and capture of Fort Niagara, and the consigning of all American villages, from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, to the flames.

There is little to record in the events of 1814, save the failure of the British attack on the strong position of the Americans at Chippewa, and the crowning victory of the war, the Battle of Lundy’s Lane, with which the War of 1812 may be said to have practically ended. The Treaty of Ghent, which was signed on the 14th of December, 1814, terminated the protracted struggle, and left Canada in possession of her own. The country had been devastated, innumerable homes made desolate, and thousands of lives sacrificed, in an inglorious attempt by the American people to subjugate Canada, and supplant the Union Jack by the Stars and Stripes. The ordeal was a trying one for the country, but her sons were equal to the occasion, and she acquitted herself with honour, and carried to the credit of her national life that which has since strengthened and ennobled it.

Chapter VI.

York: 1813-1823.

ORK, which for three years, as we have seen, had been passing through the agonies of a long and unequal contest, now hailed with fervour the return of peace, and set herself the task of laying anew the foundations of her material advancement. The harrow of anxious times and the sword and torch of the invader had ruthlessly gone over the town, and desolated hearts as well as homes. With peace in Europe there came large accessions to the troops in Canada; and apprehension gave up its fears at the coming of better times and returning confidence.

At the close of the year 1813, Lieutenant-General Drummond, who had commanded at Lundy’s Lane, arrived at the capital to take charge of the civil and military affairs of the Province. In the following February we find him calling the Legislature together in a hall used as a ball room, in the York Hotel, situate on King Street East—the Houses of Parliament having been burned during Chauncey’s first descent upon the town. In April, 1815, Sir George Prevost, the Governor-General, was recalled to England, to answer charges reflecting on his military character during his operations with the troops in Lower Canada. General (now Sir Gordon) Drummond was appointed in his place. Until the return of Francis Gore, in 1815, the administration of the Upper Province was entrusted to Generals Murray and Robinson. In September, however, Governor Gore returned and resumed control of affairs. His presence was not altogether acceptable to the people, who were now turning their attention to defects in the government of the Province, and with good reason. The affairs of Upper Canada had hitherto been almost wholly administered by the Governor-in-Council. In legislative matters representatives were not well versed, and for a time there were few men who were familiar with Parliamentary systems, or had given them even a thought. Necessarily, therefore, the work of administration fell largely into the hands of the Governor for the time being, and his advisers. What more natural, then, that having hitherto enjoyed exclusive power, the advisers of the Crown were loath to share it with the people’s representatives? But the time had come for a change. The Province was making headway, and the country was being opened up. The militia were disbanded, and many of the troops of the mother country had either been granted or had acquired their discharge. Immigration, moreover, had set in, and settlers desired to take up land. Now came the conflict between the people and the Government, its creatures and officials. We are on the eve, it will be seen, of the period of the “Family Compact.”

But though political discontent was beginning to show itself, York and the young colony were making substantial progress. Trade was springing up, and the first steamer ever seen on the waters of Ontario, the Frontenac, had been launched on the Bay of Quinté. The Session of Parliament held in the spring of 1816 is notable for having laid the foundation of the Common School system of the Province. An Act was passed authorizing the establishment of schools “in such town, township, village, or place,” at each of which the attendance of pupils should not be less than twenty; and £6,000 were appropriated to provide the machinery of education. The measure also provided for the election of school trustees—“fit and discreet persons,” who were “to examine into the moral character and capacity of any person willing to become a teacher, and to nominate or appoint him.” Considerable sums were voted for building roads and bridges; for the support of a provincial agent in London; for the purchase of books for the Parliamentary Library, which had been burned. A grant from the Provincial Exchequer of £2,500 was also made for the purposes of civil government, and permission to expend £3,000 was asked of the Crown for the purchase of a service of plate for the Governor. This latter investment seemed to not a few of the representatives a lavish and unnecessary one, in view, particularly, of the absence of the Governor during the whole period of the war, and the many other more laudable objects on which the money could be expended. In the following session provision was made for a modest system of police supervision of the town, and for some measure of municipal government. Before this session closed an effort was made by the Lower House to take into consideration “the present state of the Province.” But the spectre of Reform, the Governor and his friends had decided, should not be long allowed to show itself. Presently down came a message from the Governor, summoning the House to the Bar of the Upper Chamber, where, without waste of words, the country’s representatives were dismissed to their homes. “I will send the rascals about their business!” were the irate words of the Governor, when he heard the nature of the House’s deliberations, and he almost literally put his threat into execution. In May, 1817, Governor Gore, however, was recalled to England, and the relations between the administrator and Parliament for the time escaped rupture.

With the return of Mr. Gore to England another interregnum occurs in the consecutive order of Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada, during which Colonel Samuel Smith acts as President, and for the time being administers the affairs of the Province. Gore left the capital in the spring of 1817, and his successor did not arrive until the summer of the following year. Colonel Smith was a retired half-pay officer, who had been appointed a member of the Executive Council by the Prince Regent, acting for His Majesty, George III. Among the appointments made at this period (7th October, 1815), we notice that of Dr. John Strachan, “to be an Honorary Member of the same Council.”

In the month of August, 1818, his Excellency, Sir Peregrine Maitland, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Upper Canada, and Major-General commanding His Majesty’s Forces, arrived. This officer was the son-in-law of His Grace the Duke of Richmond, with whose daughter, the charming Lady Sarah Lennox, he had eloped from Paris. The Duke himself had just been appointed Governor-General of Canada, and had come to the country with his son-in-law and daughter. Here, a year hence, he was to meet with a painful death, from the bite of a pet fox, as has often been told.

The coming to York of Sir Peregrine and Lady Sarah Maitland, it may readily be imagined, raised no little flutter in society circles in the young colony. He was stately, and she was fair, and about both there was a romance which would endear them to the hearts of the young and gushing in the prosaic capital. But the society of Little York was to see little, comparatively, of their Excellencies. They made their residence mainly at Stamford, not far from the Falls, where Nature was bountiful and life more quiet. At intervals a visit would be paid, however, to the capital, where they were always received with state ceremonial, and interest would now and then be added to the occasion by the presence of some notable visitor from Europe. There were also the ceremonies to be witnessed in connection with the opening and proroguing of Parliament—new Legislative Buildings having been erected. On occasional Sundays there would also be the unpretending, but nevertheless attractive, spectacle of the presence of the mimic court at divine service in “the Church of York.”

St. James’s had by this time been enlarged. At the southern end of the church a pew of state had been erected, with an elaborate canopy, and the symbol of the Royal Arms overhead. Within the building, as Dr. Scadding, Toronto’s genial historiographer, takes pleasure in telling us, “used to assemble periodically the little world of York; occasionally, a goodly proportion of the little world of all Upper Canada.” Here the troops and townspeople would assemble, with the judges, members of the Legislative Council, and those of the Lower House, together with the state officers, and the Provincial and town officials. And here the reverend oligarch, Doctor John Strachan, would try to solemnize his mind for the performance of his ministerial duties, and endeavour to forget the evil that was incarnate in politics, and the tribulation that daily beset him in his dual care of the State and the Church.

Meanwhile York was extending its boundaries. The once infant capital was now growing up to adolescence, and those who had been born in the town to young manhood. The settlement that had at first hewn itself a home by the banks of the Don was now spreading north and westward. About the market had sprung up a number of public buildings, stores, taverns, and land and steamboat offices, and more than one denomination had begun to build itself a sanctuary. The judges had erected residences outside the town limits, and the Reverend incumbent of the parish had domiciled himself in what was long known as “the Palace,” situate on Front Street, to the west of York. Newspapers had come into existence, and there was already talk of founding a college, in addition to the District Grammar School, of which Strachan was still Principal. The professions also were beginning to establish themselves, and legislation had been enacted to regulate their practice. In legislation we also find the evidence of growth and prosperity. In 1820 increased representation was granted to the House of Assembly. Counties which had attained a population of 4,000 were given two members to represent them; while towns of 1,000, in which Quarter Sessions were held, were given one member. In 1822 the Bank of Upper Canada came into corporate existence; and steps were taken to establish a uniform currency. The following year saw the erection of a jail and court-house; and the unexpended moneys of the “Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada” were devoted to the building of a hospital.

The revenues of the Province, besides the moneys raised from land sales, were mainly obtained from a share in the duties levied by the Lower Province on goods coming into the country. This sum was yearly increasing; though the Province at the time had difficulty in getting the amount regularly paid over by the Lower Canada Government. Goods entering the Province from the United States of course paid duty directly into the Upper Canada exchequer. It may not here be amiss to see what was then the tariff.

At the first settlement of Upper Canada, it was not uncommon, we are told, for soldiers to sell their 200-acre lots of land for a bottle of rum. This favourite beverage of the other branch of the service was not then high-priced in consequence of the tariff, but rather from the primitiveness of trade and the dearth of importers. In 1821 circumstances had changed. The tariff of that year placed a duty of 2s. 6d. a gallon on distilled spirits, and 6s. a dozen on beer, in bottles. Sheep paid 1s., live hogs 20s., cows 25s., and oxen 50s. per head. Clothing, cotton goods, books, paper, and pictures were taxed 35 per cent. ad valorem; snuff had an impost put upon it of 7½d., manufactured tobacco, 7d., and unmanufactured, 4d. per pound. On soap there was levied 2d., and on hair powder 4d. a pound, while their complement, looking-glasses, were taxed 40 per cent. Boots and shoes paid 25 cents per pair; while all other manufactured goods, the growth and produce of the United States, were subject to a duty of 30 per cent.

We are at this early period without information of the amount of revenue these imports yielded at York; but the sum could not have been large, as the trade of the town as yet had not assumed any great proportions, and most imports were still entered at Niagara. The local traffic at the port, however, was annually growing; and steamboats, which had replaced the old-fashioned Durham packets, were now actively plying between the capital and various towns on the lake. It was still, however, a primitive time in York; and the annalist can with truth make nothing more of the place than to reveal it in its real colours. True, from the travellers of this period, and even from some of its long-time residents, the town has had bare justice done it. The former have too often written from caprice, or from the impressions formed by a hasty, and perhaps an accidentally unpleasant visit. The latter have not unfrequently described the place with a temper soured by failure in the colony, or with teeth gnashed against some one individual who has unluckily given them offence. A collection of criticisms on the capital, which appear in print from contemporary writers, would be curious reading. They would be as varied as the humours of the visitor, and often as tart as a green apple. But everything must have a beginning, and the beginnings of York, we may as well confess, were unlovely.

The modern tourist, who has his first view of Toronto from the water, and lands to drive through its elegant streets, or to take a coupé to one or other of its fashionable hotels, can have little notion of what scenes were presented to the visitor at the water-front, or in the streets of “muddy Little York,” in the years prior to the Rebellion. Here is a picture, exaggerated perhaps, certainly not over complimentary, of York in 1823. It is from the pen of Mr. Edward Allen Talbot, described as of the Talbot Settlement, Upper Canada, but who is not to be confounded with the hermit Colonel, with the same patronymic, who in 1803 founded the colony on the northern shores of Lake Erie.^[14] Says Mr. Talbot: “The streets of York are regularly laid out, intersecting each other at right angles. Only one of them, however, is yet completely built; and in wet weather the unfinished streets are, if possible, muddier and dirtier than those of Kingston. The situation of the town is very unhealthy; for it stands on a piece of low marshy land, which is better calculated for a frog-pond, or beaver-meadow, than for the residence of human beings. The inhabitants are, on this account, much subject, particularly in spring and autumn, to agues and intermittent fevers; and probably five-sevenths of the people are annually afflicted with these complaints. He who first fixed upon this spot as the site of the capital of Upper Canada, whatever predilection he may have had for the roaring of frogs, or for the effluvia arising from stagnated waters and putrid vegetables, can certainly have had no very great regard for preserving the lives of His Majesty’s subjects. The Town of York,” he half-graciously adds, “possesses one great advantage, which is that of a good, but defenceless, harbour.”

The contrast between this picture and what would be sober truth, in describing the Toronto of to-day, each one can draw for himself. As the city has improved æsthetically, it has improved sanitarily; and in this respect the modern resident has cause to be grateful for the transformation which time and labour have produced. Not by enchantment, we may be sure, but by the toil of brain and muscle, and the slow evolution of weary years, has the change been brought about.

And what has been done for the cities has been done at large for the Province. The whole face of the country has undergone change. What, emphatically and universally, was a wilderness, is now, in large measure, a cultivated garden. Nature has yielded up its tyranny, and the soil is yearly giving of its abundant increase. At what cost this change has been brought about, and how much of individual toil it represents, only the pioneers of the country adequately know. Nor was the toil alone that of the labouring man: often, indeed, it was that of the delicately nurtured, and the privation fell hardest on gentle blood. The work we have just referred to supplies signal proof of this. In a passage dealing with the Talbot Settlement the writer gives us this picture of its celebrated founder; and its local reference must plead excuse for our quoting it: “The Colonel” (Talbot), says his relative, “is perhaps one of the most eccentric characters on the whole continent. He not only lives a life of cheerless celibacy, but enjoys no human society whatever. So great was his aversion to the fair sex, that, for many years after his arrival at Port Talbot, he refused to hire a female servant, but milked his own cows, made his own butter, and performed every other function of kitchen-maid, cook, and dairy-woman. Is it not strange, that a British officer of such high rank in the army, and respectable connections in civil life, should be induced to settle in the pathless wilderness, where he is totally excluded from society, unless he should associate with a class of people whom he considers entirely beneath him, and with whom he has never yet in any respect confederated? Being a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada, he goes to York once or twice in the year; these visits, and an occasional one to England at intervals of five or six years, serve to rub off the rust contracted in his lonely cottage, and to remind him that the world is still as merry as it was when he figured in its gayest circles.”

Before closing these social pictures of the time, and as a sort of antidote to Mr. Talbot’s depreciatory sketch of the capital, let us quote another authority in regard to the condition of York under the régime of Sir Peregrine Maitland. In Bishop Strachan’s memoirs, published in 1870, by Bishop Bethune, his successor in the Toronto episcopate, we find the following reminiscences of York in 1820. Says the Bishop: “Though inferior in size and condition to many of our present villages, York took a high rank as to social position. From its being the seat of Government, the society was excellent, having not less than twenty families of the highest respectability, persons of refinement, and many of high intellectual culture. To these were added a small sprinkling of military. For the size of the place there was a large amount of hospitality exercised, and on a handsome and bountiful scale.... Sir Peregrine and Lady Sarah took the lead, of course, in the hospitalities of the place. They had their regular dinner parties during the Parliamentary Sessions, and once or twice a year there was a grand evening party with dancing, which gathered in all the respectability of the community in a mass. Sir Peregrine was reserved, but courteous and agreeable; had not a shade of superciliousness; and would at times be very animated in conversation.... Lady Sarah was of a more lively temperament, but remarkably gentle and amiable. She held her position as became a Duke’s daughter; but, like a genuine member of England’s nobility, had no pride, and maintained an intercourse on very kindly and familiar terms with the ladies of the place.

“The unpretending, old-fashioned wooden house of Chief Justice Powell, with its two-storied verandah facing the bay, was a great attraction to residents and visitors; because it contained a lively, amiable, and hospitable family. And the residence of the rector of the parish—then the best in the place, and afterwards by courtesy “the Palace”—was renowned for its frequent and elegant hospitalities. So, too, the abode of Attorney-General Robinson, then of small dimensions; but whose inmates possessed, what they ever after maintained, the esteem and love of all who knew them.

“The public buildings were not out of keeping with the modest pretensions of the town in general; they presented no envy-provoking contrast with the abodes of individuals. The Court-house was a small, unpainted wooden building, a little to the north of King and east of Yonge Street—the site, and sunburnt aspect of which, some of our old inhabitants may remember; and the jail was a homely and rickety structure on the south side of King Street, where now some of our proudest shops are exhibiting their attractive wares. The Parliament House was a cottage-looking edifice, near the intersection of York and Wellington Streets; afterwards transformed into public offices, and subsequently into a private residence, with neat and tasteful grounds around it. The district schoolhouse was a capacious wooden building, standing on an open common a little in rear of St. James’s Churchyard.

“There was at that time throughout Upper Canada but a mere sprinkling of clergymen; though the members of the Church bore a large proportion to the general population, and everywhere its ministrations were very cordially accepted. There were in those days but few Presbyterian places of worship—not one either in York or in Kingston; and the ministers of that body were correspondingly few.... The Methodists were a more numerous body, and had at that time a large chapel in York, which was pretty well filled on Sunday evenings.

“To extend our view as regards the position of the Church of England in Upper Canada, it will surprise many to hear that, in 1820, the first clergyman you came to west of Toronto was at Ancaster. On the Niagara peninsula there were three—at Niagara, Chippewa, and Grimsby. Going westward from Ancaster, you found none until you reached Amherstburg and Sandwich. All that vast interval—now comprehending a large diocese with nearly ninety clergymen—was, as regards the ministrations of the Church, a blank. Going eastward from York, the first clergyman we came to was at Cobourg; and north of this, in Cavan, another was settled. Then a blank, until we reached Belleville, then Bath, then Kingston. The next was at Williamsburg, and the last at Cornwall; sixteen in all. There was, besides, a chaplain to the forces stationed at Niagara, a chaplain to the navy at Kingston, and a clergyman at the latter place in charge of the Grammar School.... They had but a small revenue to deal with—merely the rents from the (Clergy Reserves) leased lots; but it was considered the hopeful beginning of good days for the extension and strength of the Church.”

Chapter VII.

William Lyon Mackenzie and the Rule of Sir John Colborne.

N the annals of Upper Canada the period covered by our last chapter is perhaps the least interesting of any with which the historian has to deal. The era of commotion and disorder which was to follow not only saw much intellectual activity in Parliament and in the press, but saw even considerable progress in the building up of the capital.

All places have their local prejudices, and the infant Town of York was no exception to the rule. Founded near the banks of the Don, its citizens had determined even thus early to get away from the place of its birth. The town was now growing to the north and to the west. From Windmill Street, to the east of Parliament, the place had extended westward as far as York, or even Graves (now Simcoe), streets; while northward from Palace (now Front), King, Duke, Duchess, and Lot (the modern Queen) streets had been surveyed and in part opened out. West of Church Street ran Market (now Wellington), King, Newgate (now Adelaide), and Hospital (now Richmond) streets; while intersecting them, at right angles, were Jordan, Bay, and York. Already, it will be seen, the town was beginning to assume some proportions, and justify its selection as the capital city.

The year 1824 is notable for the initiation of two enterprises which were fraught with beneficent results to the Province. One of these was the proposal to construct the Welland Canal, to cross the peninsula which lies between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie; the other was the formation of the Canada Land Company, under Imperial Charter. The Welland Canal project was the conception of Mr. W. H. Merritt, a gentleman of U. E. Loyalist parentage, who had been an officer of militia in the War of 1812. He was engaged in large business operations, the importance of which led him early to note the commercial value of an unbroken waterway between the two lakes. Bringing his scheme before the Government, he, after some delays, obtained the aid which justified his forming a company and proceeding with the work. In five years the enterprise was completed, and it stands to-day a monument to his memory.

The Canada Company was organized with the design of acquiring lands in the Province, and of promoting its colonization. The original agreement was for the purchase from the Imperial Government of tracts of the Crown and Clergy Reserves in Upper Canada, to the extent of over two million acres, for which three shillings and sixpence an acre was to be paid. Owing to objections made to the sale of the Clergy Reserves by the Upper Canada Executive, a block of one million acres of land in the Huron district was sold to the Company in lieu thereof, one-third of the purchase money being allowed the Company for the construction of public works and improvements in the district. To the operations of the Company is due the settling of a large portion of what is now Huron County. The Company was given sixteen years to carry out its contract with the Government, and to pay over the value of the lands in annual instalments ranging from £15,000 to £20,000. Within ten years the Company paid into the Upper Canada Exchequer £250,000, and, mainly through its operations, 5,000 people were settled in the County of Huron.

It was in connection with the Canada Company that York and the Province came to know John Galt, the genial author of “Lawrie Todd,” the much-prized contributor to Blackwood, and the father of the present Sir Alexander and Mr. Justice Thomas Galt. Mr. Galt came to the Province in 1826 as commissioner for the Canada Company, and for a time had his home at “The Priory,” Guelph, where he and Dr. Dunlop, the witty and eccentric surgeon of the Company, with other kindred spirits, held “high holiday,” while at the same time actively organizing Scotch settlements along the valley of the Grand River and its tributary, the Speed.

In the capital, Galt does not seem to have found congenial society, for the social circles of York deemed him proud and reserved in his intercourse—the result, perhaps, of failure to establish cordial relations with Sir Peregrine Maitland and his little court. This want of harmony between him and the Provincial Executive finally led to his recall to England, though at headquarters he was deservedly held in high esteem for his probity.

While a resident of York, notwithstanding his moods and his indifference to the people of the capital, Galt, in the winter of 1827, gave an entertainment, which, considering the prosaic times and the small number likely to be available to take part in the proceedings, was of a rather unusual character. Conjointly with Lady Mary, the wife of Mr. Willis, who had recently been appointed to the Bench of Upper Canada, he gave a Fancy Ball, “at which, for once,” as Dr. Scadding tells us, “the potent, grave and reverend seigniors of York, along with their sons and daughters, indulged in a little insanity.” The ball, as we learn from Toronto of Old, was held in the assembly room in Frank’s Hotel, on the corner of Market Square, which is now known as Colborne Street. The hall used to do duty for the citizens as a concert and ball-room, and was occasionally of service as an extemporized theatre. For an account of the ball, and a list of the characters presented, we must refer the reader to the work we have already quoted, where those who relish a mild bit of scandal may learn of an incident which formed a dénouement of the ball, and of its remoter consequences.

The year before these frolics of the elders of the town took place, a frolic of another sort had been indulged in by the younger blood of the capital, which was attended with like unpleasant consequences. In the wrecking of Mackenzie’s Printing Office—the escapade to which we have reference—we have a bit of history which, with the ball, somewhat relieves the dull chronicle of those early times, but which, properly to introduce, it will be necessary to go back to the first coming on the scene of him who was thenceforth to fill a large section of the canvas of Upper Canadian history.

William Lyon Mackenzie was born at Dundee, Scotland, in 1795, and five years later, so poor was his then widowed mother, that we are told she had to part with the tartan plaid of the family clan, in exchange for a little coarse barley meal, to tide over for a time the necessities of herself and her youthful son. Humble as was his origin, and nurtured, as we have just said, on the scant fare of a Scottish peasant, Mackenzie, like many a sturdy Scot, determined at an early age to rise from the poverty of his surroundings. Deficient as was his education, he made up for the lack of schooling by a zealously pursued course of self-training and omnivorous reading. Between the years 1806 and 1819, he himself tells us he read nine hundred and fifty-eight volumes, in almost every department of literature. His mother used to say of him that he would be found at his books every evening till midnight, until she thought “the laddie would read himsel’ oot o’ his judgment.” And what he read he remembered.

In 1820, he came to Canada, though prior to this he had seen something of the world, in England as well as in Scotland, and had even ventured upon a visit to Paris. He possessed good business abilities, had a clear, and for his age, well-stored brain, and was a shrewd critic of his fellow-men and a keen observer of the world. Mr. Charles Lindsey, his son-in-law and biographer, thus describes his personal appearance.^[15] “He was of slight build 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 and 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 inmost thought, 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 baffled and thwarted, could not be subdued.”

For a time Mackenzie was engaged in the combined business of druggist and bookseller, first in York, then in Dundas, where he married, and, at a somewhat later date, in Queenston. At the latter village he renounced trade and espoused journalism, for which he was not unfitted, as he had the gifts of a ready and forcible writer, and was not unfamiliar with politics and political literature. At Queenston, on the 18th of May, 1824, appeared the first number of the Colonial Advocate, Mackenzie’s earliest effort in journalism. The character of the publication may be judged from its editor’s views of the state of the country at the time of its appearing. It had not come into existence to add to the number of Government bulletins or official gazettes. It was a new departure in journalism. Previous to his taking up the pen of a journalist, he had never, as he tells us, “interfered in the public concerns of the colony, until the day on which I issued twelve hundred copies of a newspaper, without having asked or received a single subscriber.” In the first number of the paper he adds:—“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 management 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 had had 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 were the avowed enemies of common schools, of civil and religious liberty, of all legislative or other checks to their own will.”

With this severe indictment of the then rulers of Upper Canada, Mackenzie set out as a public censor, and bravely began the agitation for those reforms which, after years of unparalleled toil and wrecked happiness, he was yet to see secured to the country. But for a time Reform was to accomplish little. What, indeed, could it accomplish, with so radically defective a system of administration? To attack abuses in detail was only to court annoyance, and in the end to suffer defeat. And for long this was the fate of Mackenzie, as it had been that of Gourlay. The Executive was supreme and impregnable, and hardly less so was the Crown-nominated Upper Chamber. The popular Assembly, even when it really represented the people, was powerless against the ruling party. The latter could snap its fingers at the polls, and reject every bill the Assembly saw fit to pass. As Mackenzie’s biographer remarks: “The difficulty was that these representative Assemblies were mocked with the semblance of that legislative power, with the substantial possession of which they were never endowed.”

Against Mackenzie and his journal there was now directed unceasing malevolence, which, when both were transferred from Queenston to the capital—which transfer shortly took place—was to find expression in a thousand acts of hostility and petty annoyance. Two instances of this hostile feeling may be cited. The first is connected with the re-interring of the remains of Sir Isaac Brock at Queenston Heights; the second, with the wrecking of his printing office and the throwing of the type into Toronto Bay. At the ceremony of laying the remains of General Brock finally to rest, under the column which the country had erected to his memory, it seems that some friend of Mackenzie had clandestinely deposited a copy of his journal, the Colonial Advocate, in the cavity where the customary coins and official journals were placed. This fact was presently bruited about, and, coming to the ears of the authorities, the foundation-stone of the structure was ordered to be removed, and the contaminating paper cast forth from its place of honour.

The other incident took place on a summer evening, in June, 1826, and shows how deeply Mackenzie had cut into the personal susceptibilities of the “Family Compact” by his free-lance criticism in the Colonial Advocate. Two years before this period, the general elections of 1824 had returned a large Reform majority to the House. Seriously affected by this circumstance, and much exasperated by the crusade Mackenzie had actively entered upon in his journal, the position of the ruling powers was beginning to be exceedingly uncomfortable. The fact was patent, the high-handed, unrighteous stewards of the Upper Canada vineyard were now having an uneasy time of it. Nor could the troubles of the precious junto be concealed. The younger generation, sons of the placemen and pensioners who were mis-ruling the country, had got to know pretty well the facts, and the quarrel was taken up by the hot-bloods among them. Mackenzie they held responsible, and he it was who was to suffer. Taking advantage of the latter’s temporary absence from the town, a band of these lawless youths effected an entrance into his office, broke up his “forms,” scattered his type—much of it they threw into the bay—demolished his printing press, and generally wrecked his establishment. This act of valour on the part of the young chivalry of York, if not actually encouraged, was at least winked at, by two magistrates who were said to be close by the scene of the outrage at the time of its occurring. To these representatives of Justice blindfold, as well as to all the members of the “Family Compact,” the summer evening’s escapade was, doubtless, a joyful one, though the young rioters, or their fathers for them, had, after process of law, to indemnify Mackenzie for the loss sustained by him. The amount he recovered, after a good deal of haggling, was £625, a sum which enabled him to make good his loss, and to equip his office more efficiently. But beyond the legal satisfaction he was fortunate enough to obtain in Court, Mackenzie had a more substantial solatium in the sympathy of the people, who were greatly incensed at the affair, and whose denunciations of the act, and of those high in authority who connived at it, were both loud and deep. The hostility of the party in power against their critic and censor wofully miscarried, and the effort to crush Mackenzie and his journal only recoiled upon those who had instigated the foul act.

The year 1828 witnessed a change in the administration of the affairs of the Province. Sir Peregrine Maitland was transferred to Nova Scotia, and Sir John Colborne reigned in his stead. The latter, like his predecessor, was essentially a military man, having been distinguished both in the Peninsula and at Waterloo. His régime was, almost from the very outset, characterized by stormy scenes in the Legislature, and may be regarded as the transition period in the political history of the Province. The new Governor met his first Parliament on the 9th of January, 1829, in the old brick hospital on King Street West, which had been the scene of its deliberations since the destruction of the old buildings by fire five years before. During this session the attitude of the Reformers became more aggressive than ever; the forces of the Compact were reduced in numbers, and the tone of the debate on the Address was a significant warning as to the state of public feeling. Mr. Mackenzie was a member of this House, having been elected for the County of York in 1828. The House adjourned towards the end of March, and shortly afterwards the editor of the Colonial Advocate once more came into prominence. In July of this year Sir John Beverley Robinson, the Attorney-General, was raised to the bench as Chief-Justice of Upper Canada. This created a vacancy in the representation of York, for which Robert Baldwin, then twenty-five years of age, presented himself as a candidate and was elected. During the campaign he was vigorously supported by the Colonial Advocate, which published a series of fierce attacks upon Mr. Small, Mr. Baldwin’s opponent, and upon the Compact, of which he was the nominee. Mr. Small retaliated with an action for libel; and the increased bitterness thus engendered culminated the following year in the expulsion of Mr. Mackenzie from the House, by virtue of an obsolete rule which prohibited the unauthorized publication of the Parliamentary proceedings. This was followed by a popular demonstration in his favour in the streets of York, and by his re-election and re-expulsion no less than five times in succession. Finally the constituency was punished by being deprived of one of its members, and Mr. Mackenzie disappeared for a time from the scene of his struggles and triumphs, having embarked on a mission to England as the bearer of petitions to the Home Government in his favour.

It may not be out of place here to quote a description by Mr. Mackenzie himself, given in his “Sketches,” of the demonstration above alluded to, as giving an idea of a scene in those days not unfrequently to be witnessed on the streets of York: “A procession was formed (at the Red Lion Inn on Yonge Street, Price’s or Tiers’, where the hustings were). In front of it was an immense sleigh belonging to Mr. Montgomery”—on which stood the hero of the day, wearing a gold chain and medal just presented to him by his constituents—“which was drawn by four horses, and carried between twenty and thirty men and two or three Highland pipers. From fifty to one hundred sleighs followed, and between one and two thousand of the inhabitants. The procession passed by the Government House, from thence to the Parliament House, thence to Mr. Cawthra’s and then to Mr. Mackenzie’s own house, giving cheers at each of these places. One of the most singular curiosities of the day was a little printing-press, placed in one of the sleighs, warmed by a furnace, on which a couple of boys continued, while moving through the streets, to strike off their New Year’s Address and throw it to the people. Over the press was hoisted a crimson flag, with the motto ‘The Liberty of the Press.’ The mottoes on the other flags were: ‘King William IV. and Reform’; ‘Bidwell and the Glorious Minority’; ‘1832, a Good Beginning’; ‘A Free Press, the Terror of Sycophants.’ ”

The first two years of Sir John Colborne’s administration were marked, in so far as York was specially concerned, by notable additions to its public buildings. In 1829 Upper Canada College—an institution on the model of the great English public schools—was founded, and was formally opened in January of the following year in the York Home District Grammar School, on Adelaide Street, pending the completion of the embryo of the present college buildings. The College Avenue, the Don tubular bridge and the St. James’ Church which was destroyed by fire in 1839, also date from this period. In 1829, too, immediately after the close of the session, advertisements appeared asking for tenders for the construction of Legislative buildings on what was then known as “Simcoe Place.” And, finally, in the same year the construction of “Lawyers’ Hall,” the original of the present Osgoode Hall, was commenced. Further and fuller accounts of these and other public buildings and works will be found in the chapter which treats of the institutions and industries of Toronto.

Among other noteworthy events occurring during this period of the history of York, may be mentioned the establishment, in 1829, of what is now the oldest journal in the City of Toronto, viz., the Christian Guardian, which, whilst pre-eminently the organ of a special religious body, at the same time devoted considerable space to the publication of the current news and of general reading. Another noteworthy event—as being rare in the society annals of York, if it were not indeed the first of its kind—was the opening, in 1832, of a fancy bazaar, the proceeds of which were intended to be applied to the relief of the cholera sufferers. It was under the patronage of Lady Colborne and was held on September 2nd, in one of the Commissariat store-houses near the foot of John Street. The proceeds of the sales amounted to £311. The cholera visitation paralyzed, for a time, the business enterprise of York, but it had a good effect in paving the way for much-needed sanitary reforms.

Chapter VIII.

The Birth of Toronto.

HE population of York in 1834, the year which witnessed the birth of the City of Toronto, was, in round numbers, ten thousand souls. Within its contracted limits nearly every industrial occupation was represented; there were steam sawmills, iron foundries, and steam-engine manufactories, starch, candle and soap, and paper factories, besides a theatre, schools, and half a dozen printing offices, a fire department, and an artillery company. The management of the affairs of the town, however, was still unsatisfactory, and the feeling of the majority of the inhabitants upon the subject had, by the end of 1833, become so strong that it was decided to obtain incorporation. This proposition chiefly met with favour from the Conservatives, on the ground that the increased area of taxation would cause a corresponding increase of revenue; while the Reformers opposed it on the ground that the expense of a separate administration for city and county would more than counterbalance any benefit which the citizens would derive therefrom. In February, 1834, a Bill embodying the proposed measure was introduced in the Legislature by Mr. Jarvis, the member for the town, and carried through the House. On the 6th of March it received the Royal assent and became law. The main features of the Act, which was a formidable document, containing no less than ninety-seven clauses, were provisions for constituting the place a city, under the name of the City of Toronto, and dividing it into wards, with two Aldermen and two Common Councilmen for each ward, to be elected by the citizens, and a Mayor, who should be elected by the Aldermen and Common Councilmen from among themselves—such Mayor, Aldermen and Common Councilmen to undertake the management of the affairs of the city, and the levying of such moderate taxes as should be found necessary for improvements and other public purposes.

On the 15th of March a proclamation appeared in the Gazette appointing the 27th of the same month for the first election of Aldermen and Common Councilmen for the five wards into which the young city had been divided. As was to be expected in a place where party feeling ran so high, much excitement prevailed over the election, which was virtually a trial of strength between Reformers and Conservatives. The former won the day, a majority of their nominees—among them Mr. Mackenzie himself—being returned to the new Council. The names of the successful candidates were as follows:—

St. Andrew’s Ward.—Aldermen, Dr. Thomas D. Morrison and John Harper; Councilmen, John Armstrong and John Doel.

St. David’s Ward.—Aldermen, William Lyon Mackenzie and James Lesslie; Councilmen, Franklin Jackes and Colin Drummond.

St. George’s Ward.—Aldermen, Thomas Carfrae, jun’r, and Edward Wright; Councilmen, John Craig and George Gurnett.

St. Lawrence Ward.—Aldermen, George Monro and George Duggan, sen’r; Councilmen, William Arthurs and Lardner Bostwick.

St. Patrick’s Ward.—Aldermen, Dr. John Rolph and George T. Denison, sen’r; Councilmen, Joseph Turton and James Trotter.

Of the above gentlemen, whose names, as those of the first rulers of the City of Toronto, have been judged worthy of being preserved in these pages, only two survive at the time of writing, viz., Mr. James Lesslie and Mr. John Harper.

Great as had been the victory of the Reformers at the polls, their triumph was not yet complete. The crowning event of the civic campaign was the election of Mr. Mackenzie to the honour of the Mayor’s chair. The Reformers had it all their own way, and, although it was generally understood that Dr. Rolph, a prominent and deserving member of the party, would be its candidate, it was finally decided to give the party vote to Mr. Mackenzie, as a set-off to the wrongs he had endured both at home and abroad, and as a triumphant reply to the contumelious assertions of his enemies. Dr. Rolph at first seemed unwilling to make way for Mr. Mackenzie—a man whom he appears at no time to have held in very high estimation—but he finally bowed to the will of the majority, not, however, without giving evidence of his dissatisfaction by resigning his seat in the Council, and this notwithstanding the fact that he had been offered the support of the Conservative members in his candidacy for the mayoralty. On the 3rd of April, the day appointed for the election of mayor, the Council met and by a vote of ten to eight—Dr. Rolph being absent and Mr. Mackenzie abstaining from voting—raised the expelled member for York to the highest position in the gift of the city. The same day Mr. Mackenzie took the prescribed oath, and was formally invested.

The new Council soon set to work with a will; and there was plenty for it to do. The city’s finances were in a deplorable condition; it was burdened by a debt of over nine thousand pounds, due to the Bank of Upper Canada; its treasury was practically empty, and money was urgently needed for public buildings, and still more urgently for the repair of the streets, which were in a vile condition. In the whole city there was not such a thing as a plank sidewalk. The situation was embarrassing, but it had to be grappled with. The first action of the Council, after electing its officers—among whom were James H. Price, City Clerk, and Matthew Walton, City Chamberlain—was to appoint committees to report upon certain matters, in dealing with which no time was to be lost. Prominent among these was the financial question, as a partial solution of which the Council, upon the recommendation of the Finance Committee, resolved to levy an additional tax of two pence in the pound upon the assessed value of all property, real and personal, within the city. An attempt was also made to effect a loan of one thousand pounds, in anticipation of the taxes, in order that the repair of the streets might be commenced forthwith. Negotiations to this end with the Bank of Upper Canada—already the city’s creditor—were unsuccessful; but, finally, the money was obtained from the Farmers’ Bank, upon the personal security of the Mayor and the individual members of the Council. The result was that 2,618 rods of sidewalk were laid on the principal streets—miserable causeways they would appear in the present day, consisting merely of two twelve-inch planks laid side by side longitudinally.

This work completed, the city again found itself at the end of its resources, and it was decided to levy on the taxpayers an assessment of three pence in the pound. The proposal roused considerable popular indignation, and was the occasion of two public meetings, one of which, the later, terminated tragically. A balcony in the market, upon which a number of spectators were standing, gave way under the stamping of the crowd and precipitated them into the butchers’ shops below, where many were impaled upon the hooks, others broke their limbs, and some seven or eight received fatal injuries. The wisdom of the unpopular measure was abundantly proved when the first collection of taxes was made, as at the increased rate of three pence in the pound the revenue was raised to the substantial figure of £2,336, and from this time the question of municipal ways and means was no longer found to be an embarrassing one.

The year 1834 will long be remembered in Toronto as the cholera year, and the sights that met the eye on every hand during the visitation are still fresh in the memory of those who witnessed them. Five per cent. of the population of the city fell victims to the plague; and many of these, it is to be feared, owing to the absence of proper organization and treatment, although an association of noble men and women, which included the Mayor, was formed for the purpose of visiting and assisting the sick so far as lay in their power.

Old citizens will also remember this year as having been that in which the public pillory and stocks were used for the last time. The fact of the Mayor having caused a dissolute woman to be imprisoned in them caused these old-fashioned instruments of punishment to fall into disrepute, and would seem to have led to their abandonment.

The municipal elections of 1835 considerably changed the political complexion of the Council. Mr. Mackenzie had no seat in it, having been defeated by Mr. Robert Baldwin Sullivan, who successfully opposed him in St. David’s Ward, and who was subsequently elected to the mayoralty. Mr. Sullivan—an eloquent and brilliant lawyer—had professed Liberal principles, but had of late years evinced a decided leaning towards Conservatism. Mr. Mackenzie, however, who had been returned to the Assembly in the previous October as member for one of the four ridings into which the County of York had been divided, received, on his retirement from office, a public vote of thanks for his services. The year 1836 is but little remarkable either in the political annals of the Province or in the history of the city. It witnessed the appointment of Mr. Mackenzie’s famous Committee of Grievances and the close of Sir John Colborne’s term of office. Sir John, however, continued at the head of the Administration until the early portion of the following year, almost his last official act being the endowment of the forty-four rectories from the Clergy Reserves—a measure which completed the growing disfavour with which he had of late been regarded.

In 1836 Mr. Thomas D. Morrison was chosen to fill the Mayor’s chair. The city had steadily progressed in prosperity, and its population had proportionately increased. On the 23rd of January the new Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head, arrived in Toronto, and with this day commences the more immediate history of the Rebellion. With Sir Francis’ connections with his advisers, his futile attempt to conciliate the Reformers by the bestowal of empty office, his contemptuous reply to the address of a number of citizens of Toronto, the no less sarcastic retort which this piece of blundering evoked from the Reformers, and the gradual steps by which the Rebellion was brought about, we have nothing to do in a chapter which pretends merely to deal with the annals of the City of Toronto. But for some months after Sir Bond Head’s arrival, the events which agitated the entire Province were closely connected with Toronto’s history. Those events, however, have been sufficiently dealt with in former portions of this work, wherein the story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion has been told with some circumstantiality of detail.

The Municipal Council’s choice of Mayor for 1837 was Mr. George Gurnett. Alderman Powell, who did the city and the Provincial Government such service by his courageous conduct, as related in the account of the Rebellion on former pages, on the memorable night of the 4th of December, received his reward at the hands of his fellow-citizens by his return for St. Andrew’s Ward at the municipal elections in 1838, and by his subsequent elevation to the mayoralty, to which he was again elected in 1839 and 1840.

Chapter IX.

From 1838 to 1851.

HE year 1838 witnessed the trials in Toronto of those implicated in the rising of the previous year. It also witnessed the removal of the man who by his fatuous policy had contributed in no small measure to bring about the events of 1837. Sir Francis Bond Head had proved himself eminently unfitted to cope with the task with which he had been entrusted, and he was permitted to resign. On Friday, the 23rd of March, 1838, he left the city on his way homewards, a few hours after his successor, Sir George Arthur, had assumed the reins of office. Sir George’s first public utterances subsequent to his assumption of his new dignity were on the occasion of the presentation to him of a congratulatory address by the mayor and aldermen of the city. His reply, in which he urged a policy of justice tempered with mercy, created a most favourable impression, and excited great hopes—which were doomed to be disappointed—of the success of a petition, signed by 30,000 people, praying for the commutation of the sentence of death passed on Lount and Matthews.

A question now arose, however, involving interests of far greater importance to the city than either the arrival of the new Governor or the trials of the rebel prisoners. This was nothing less than a proposal for the removal of the seat of Government from Toronto. The agitation had its origin in Kingston, which aspired to supplant Toronto as capital of the Province. It was urged by the advocates of the removal scheme that recent events had proved that Toronto’s unprotected position unfitted it to be the centre of government: whereas, in view of the existence of fortifications at Kingston, the latter city offered every security for the safety of the Government. The press of both cities took up the matter, and for some time waged a fierce war of words. The supporters of Toronto argued that as a matter of fact her citizens had amply proved their ability to defend the capital; that Kingston was not as central as it was desirable the seat of Government should be; and that, if the Government must be removed, it should be westward rather than eastward; that it would be folly to abandon the existing buildings in Toronto, and either hire or erect new ones elsewhere; and that, finally, such a removal would be ruinous to the business of those who had invested in property in Toronto on account of its being the seat of Government. And so the wordy conflict raged. But in the meantime events elsewhere were slowly paving the way for the change so much dreaded by the Toronto folk.

In July of the current year, Toronto received a visit from Lord Durham, the statesman who had been entrusted by the Imperial Government with the task of solving the Canadian problem. On the 17th His Excellency landed, and was conducted in great state to the Parliament buildings, where he was presented with an address by the Mayor and Corporation. The next day he left the city, and a few months later returned to England, having resigned his office. Doubtless the enthusiastic citizens of Toronto who so vigorously cheered His Excellency had little idea of the grave results for their city that his mission would indirectly be the means of bringing about.

In October of this same year arrived in Canada the Right Honourable Charles Poulett Thomson—afterwards Lord Sydenham—who had been despatched hither by the Home Government to carry out the recommendations of Lord Durham with a view to effecting a union of the Canadas. On the 21st of November, Mr. Poulett, having gained the assent of the Special Council of Lower Canada to his plans, arrived in Toronto with a similar object in view in regard to the Upper Canadian Legislature. Parliament was convened on December 3rd, and before the end of the month both Houses had, in compliance with the evident wish of the Imperial authorities, passed resolutions in favour of union, on the understanding that the capital of the united Provinces should be in Upper Canada, a proviso which the Governor-General undertook to carry into effect. So far as the people of Toronto were concerned the project was unpopular. A scheme which included the removal of the capital from Toronto had nothing to recommend it to them. But, satisfied or not, there was nothing for it but to submit, and to put the best face on the matter possible. But when it became known that Kingston had been selected as the new capital, then indeed it was felt that a crushing blow had overtaken Toronto. A general panic prevailed; people refused to believe that the city could continue to flourish after being stripped of her glory as the premier city of the Province. It was expected that a tremendous fall in lands and rents would be the inevitable result of the change, and not a few merchants began to contemplate the advisability of removing to Kingston. We shall see that all these fears were utterly groundless; Toronto’s prosperity was too well founded to be dependent for its continuance upon the presence in her midst of a staff of Government clerks. After the passage of the Union resolutions by the Upper Canadian Legislature the Imperial Parliament lost no time in passing a Union Act; a royal proclamation dated February 5, 1841, gave effect to its provisions, and on the 10th of the same month the union of the Provinces was consummated.

In Toronto, as in many other cities of the Province, the first year under the new régime was marked by sanguinary election riots, in order to quell which it became necessary to invoke the assistance of the troops. But the first excitement over, the city settled down to a long period of quiet, marked, notwithstanding the occurrence of periods of commercial depression, by a steady advance in progress and prosperity. During the eight years from 1841 to 1849 the growth of the city was rapid, and the improvements, of which the principal will be noted here, numerous.

At the time of the incorporation of the city in 1834 its population was somewhat under 10,000; in 1841, the first year of the Union, it was slightly in excess of 15,000. Sir R. H. Bonnycastle, who visited Toronto in 1845, describes it as “a city in earnest, with upwards of 20,000 inhabitants—gas-lit, with good plank sidewalks and macadamized streets, with vast sewers and fine houses of brick or stone. The main street—King Street,” he adds, “is two miles and more in length, and would not do shame to any town, and has a much more English look than most Canadian places have.” Gas had been introduced in 1840, under contract with Mr. Albert Furniss, a Montreal gentleman largely interested in the gas works in that city. But this subject will be referred to again in connection with “The Industries of Toronto.” In the following year, 1846, a local chronicler stated that the city—the entire length of which was three miles—contained ninety-two streets, twenty-one churches and chapels, fifteen common schools, and ten newspapers; it enjoyed the privileges not only of gas but of waterworks; it was connected by steamboat with Kingston, Hamilton, Niagara and Rochester; property had increased wonderfully in value, and buildings in good business localities commanded rents as high as $1,000 and $1,250 per annum. Truly the removal of the seat of Government had been ineffectual to interfere with the progress of Toronto. And equally resultless had it been in affecting for good the fortunes of Kingston. Three years after the change which struck with panic the business men of Toronto, Kingston ceased to be the capital, and the seat of Government was again removed, this time to Montreal—soon, however, to return once more to Toronto.

But before Toronto was to be permitted to assume the proud position of capital of Canada, she was destined to be visited by the double scourge of fire and pestilence. Fires of some magnitude occurred during the early months of 1849, but in April of that year the city was visited by a conflagration which did infinite damage to property—which, indeed, has been regarded as the most disastrous known in Toronto. It broke out early in the morning, on Saturday, the 7th of April, in some outbuildings in rear of a tavern on the corner of King and Nelson Streets. It then spread to the main part of Nelson Street, on the east, consuming Post’s Tavern and the Patriot Office. A contemporary account, quoted by Mr. J. C. Dent, in the Semi-Centennial Memorial Volume, thus describes the progress of the flames: “The fire extended from King Street to the south of Duke Street, where it consumed nearly all the back buildings and the office of the Savings Bank. It then crossed to the west side of Nelson Street to Rolph’s Tavern, destroying the whole block, including the Mirror Office, to Mr. Nasmith’s bakery. Proceeding from Rolph’s Tavern, the flames laid hold of the corner building, occupied by Mr. O’Donohue, which was speedily consumed, and then they ran along the whole block to Mr. O’Neill’s, consuming the valuable stores of Messrs. Hayes, Harris, Cherry, O’Neill and others. About three o’clock the spire of St. James’s Cathedral took fire, and the building was entirely destroyed. About the same time the flames broke out in the old City Hall, consuming the greater part of the front building, including Mr. McFarlane’s small store. The fire then extended from the Cathedral across to the south side of King Street, where a fire had lately occurred. The shops of Mr. Rogers and others were with difficulty saved; all that block was in great danger. Some of them had most of their goods removed, and great injury to property was sustained. About five o’clock the flames were in a great measure subdued. The exertions of the firemen were for a long time retarded for want of water. The soldiers of the Rifle Brigade from the garrison were extremely active, and deserve the highest gratitude of the citizens. The loss by this fire is estimated at the lowest computation to be £100,000 sterling. It is not easy to describe the gloom which this calamity has cast over the city, or the ruined appearance of the ground so lately occupied by many respectable and industrious individuals, who, by the work of four or five hours, were suddenly thrown out of business or seriously injured in their circumstances. In whatever light this serious event be regarded, it must be acknowledged as a heavy blow and sore discouragement to Toronto; the heaviest it has received. There cannot be a doubt, however, that the activity and enterprise of the inhabitants will soon surmount the loss. The season is favourable for rebuilding, and many improvements will doubtless be introduced in the formation of new streets.” And so it proved. The present noble cathedral of St. James rose from the ashes of that destroyed in the great conflagration, and around it sprung up a better class of buildings than those which had succumbed to the flames. But it was not only the loss of property that cast a gloom over the city. Several casualties occurred, and one valuable life was lost. Mr. Richard Watson, Queen’s Printer, a man generous and generally beloved, perished in the flames while attempting to save his stock.

To the fire succeeded the pestilence. Cholera made its appearance among the immigrants landed at Quebec early in the season, and rapidly swept across the country, reaching Toronto towards the end of June. All possible precautions were adopted to stay its ravages, but in vain; it pursued its course unchecked until the cool weather set in, when it abated, but not until it had occasioned a mortality of sixty per cent. of those attacked.

In political as in general affairs, 1849 was a memorable year for Toronto—more especially in connection with matters arising out of the Rebellion of 1837-8. Shortly after the middle of March, in consequence of the passage of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Amnesty Bill, William Lyon Mackenzie returned to Toronto, where he was the guest of Mr. John McIntosh, of Yonge Street. His return gave great offence to the ultra-Loyalists of the city, a party of the more hot-headed of whom assembled on the evening of Thursday, the 22nd of March, with the object of making an anti-amnesty demonstration. After parading the streets they burnt in effigy Messrs. Robert Baldwin and Wm. Hume Blake, the law officers of the Government, in front of the residence of the former gentleman. They then marched to McIntosh’s house, which some of the noisier of the rioters threatened to pull down; but, fortunately, they contented themselves with storming the building and burning Mr. Mackenzie in effigy. Mr. George Brown, editor of the Government organ, the Globe, next came in for a share of their attentions. His house was also besieged and stoned, after which the mob dispersed, without a single effort having been made by the authorities to put a stop to its lawless doings. It would appear, indeed, that some of the leading city officials at heart sympathized with the rioters, for we are told that Mr. George L. Allen, Chief of Police, and at least one member of the City Council, were unconcerned witnesses of the outrages, while other members of that body called the Mayor, Mr. Gurnett, roundly to task for having incurred the expense of providing special constables to save the life of such a “scoundrelly rebel” as Mackenzie. Another alderman went even further, and declared in the presence of the assembled City Council that, if it were not for the law, he would not scruple to take Mackenzie’s life.

Fortunately the anti-Amnesty riot in Toronto had no serious results for the city in which it occurred. It was otherwise with the disturbances in Montreal, during the following month, arising out of the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill, and which culminated in the burning of the Parliament Buildings and the mobbing of Lord Elgin—the former on the 25th, and the latter on the 30th of April. Montreal’s loss in this case was Toronto’s gain. It was decided to remove the seat of Government from the former city to the latter for the two remaining sessions of the existing Parliament, and then to transfer it alternately to Quebec and Toronto for periods of four years. But, previous to arriving at this decision, the Governor-General deemed it advisable to pay a personal visit to Upper Canada, for the double purpose of satisfying himself as to the state of public feeling there, and of holding a conference with the President of the United States on the subject of reciprocity. His Excellency arrived in Toronto on the 9th of October, and though his reception was generally characterized by good feeling and enthusiasm on the part of the citizens, its heartiness was somewhat marred by the disposition of certain individuals, during the Governor’s progress from the wharf to his hotel, to repeat in Toronto the scenes which had disgraced Montreal on the last day of April. There was some stone and rotten egg throwing; but a baker’s dozen of the offenders were arrested, and as the grand jury was then in session, the rioters were forthwith presented and committed to gaol. Toronto was evidently in no mood to put up with any follies that might endanger its chances of becoming the capital of Canada.

During the following month (November) the removal took place, and the administrative departments were lodged in the Parliament Buildings on Front Street—the same which had been in use by the Legislature of Upper Canada previous to the Union, and which are now occupied by the Ontario Legislature. Of course the buildings had been renovated and fitted up for the reception of their new occupants. The Governor-General, soon after his arrival, established himself at Elmsley Villa, once the residence of Chief Justice Elmsley, and years later on to be converted into Old Knox College. It occupied the site on which the Central Presbyterian Church now stands. In Toronto the Government remained until 1851, when, pursuant to the arrangement agreed upon, it was removed to Quebec.

The municipal affairs of the city during the period under consideration may now fairly engage our attention. It has been seen that Mr. Powell, of Montgomery’s Tavern fame, occupied the chief magistrate’s chair during the years 1838-’39-’40. The successive occupants of the chair, from the latter year until 1851, were as follows: 1841, Mr. George Monro; 1842-’43-’44, the Honourable Henry Sherwood; 1845-’46-’47, Mr. William Henry Boulton; 1848-’49-’50, Mr. George Gurnett. Until the last-mentioned year the municipal elections had been held under the Act of 1837, by the provisions of which the Aldermen and Common Councilmen held office for two years, the representative of each class in each ward who received the smallest number of votes retiring at the end of one year, but being eligible for re-election. In 1849, however, an Act was passed reducing the number of aldermen for each ward to one: but this was repealed by an Act of the following year. The number of wards at this time was six, an additional ward, that of St. James, having been formed in 1847 from St. David’s Ward.

In 1851 Mr. Gurnett—who, shortly after the expiration of his term of office, accepted the position of Police Magistrate—was succeeded in the occupancy of the chief magistrate’s chair by Mr. John G. Bowes, a gentleman described by one of those who knew him best, as “by far the ablest man who had ever filled the chair.” During his last year of office (1853) Mr. Bowes’s name was brought into unpleasant prominence in connection with a transaction in Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway stock, but his fellow-citizens testified that their confidence in him was unshaken by electing him to the civic chair in 1861-’62-’63.

Chapter X.

From 1851 to 1859.

ETWEEN the above mentioned years is included a period which was of no great importance in the local history of Toronto. It was pre-eminently a political period—a season of ministerial change, of bitter encounters in the parliamentary arena, of incisive diatribes in the columns of the party organs. Perhaps the city was more closely identified with these matters than she might otherwise have been, inasmuch as in 1855 the Government offices were again removed to Toronto. But with politics a history of Toronto pure and simple, such as this, has little to do, except where political action directly influenced the prosperity or the repute of the city. It will not, therefore, be within the province of these pages to deal with the political duels which were fought within the walls of the Legislative buildings between 1855 and 1859, nor to descant at any length upon the manœuvre by which Ottawa was finally selected for the honour of being the permanent capital of Canada. These matters belong to the history of Canada; our business is with Toronto.

The first year of the period which forms the subject of this chapter was marked by the inception of a work which would place the city in close relations with the towns of Western Ontario, would narrow down to nothing, as it were, the distance between Lakes Ontario and Huron, and would, by making Toronto the receiving house for the products of the north-western part of the Province, contribute largely to her importance and her progress. This was the inception of the first railroad in the western half of the Province, the Ontario, Simcoe, and Huron Railway, an inconveniently long title which was soon after exchanged for the simpler one of “the Northern.” On the 15th of October Lady Elgin turned the first sod for the new highway on a spot nearly opposite the Parliament Buildings on Front Street. The road was completed and opened to Aurora in May, 1853, and to Collingwood in 1855, in which year also Toronto obtained direct railway communication with Hamilton by the Toronto and Hamilton, and with Montreal by the Grand Trunk road. The latter line was extended westwards to Guelph in the early part of the following year, and soon after to Sarnia.

Towards the close of 1854, Sir Edmund Walker Head succeeded Lord Elgin as Governor-General, and in November of the following year, a month after the removal of the seat of Government to Toronto, he entered into the occupancy of the old Government House, which stood on the site of the present building, and which, as well as the Legislative Chambers, had been repaired and decorated for the use of the four-year visitors. On the 15th of February, 1856, a memorable session of Parliament was opened. It was a fortnight old when the famous altercation arose between the Hon. John A. Macdonald and Mr. George Brown, in the course of which the latter was accused by the former of grave delinquencies in connection with the Penitentiary Commission, of which Mr. Brown was secretary. With those charges, and with the investigation that followed, and the personal enmity between the two gentlemen concerned in the matter, we have nothing to do here, any more than with another celebrated altercation between Mr. Macdonald and Colonel Rankin, which very nearly led to a duel. One matter, however, did come up during this session, in which the City of Toronto was immediately interested. This was a motion, introduced by Mr. John Sandfield Macdonald, in favour of discontinuing the system of alternating the seat of Government between Toronto and Quebec. This motion was carried, and, thanks to Lower Canadian influence, the Assembly decided, by a vote of 64 to 56, that after 1859 Quebec should be the permanent capital of Canada. Another political event which marks the last stay of the Government in Toronto, was the celebrated “Double Shuffle,” by which, within the space of a few days, two changes of ministry occurred, the Macdonald-Cartier Government making room for the short-lived Brown-Dorion Ministry, which in forty-eight hours was followed by the Cartier-Macdonald Administration. It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that to the unpopularity of Her Majesty’s selection of Ottawa as the permanent seat of Government were due these rapidly shifting scenes on the political stage. The time had now come when Toronto had for the last time been the arena on which were fought out the battles of Upper and Lower Canadian politicians. In 1859 the Government offices were finally removed, to remain at Quebec till 1865, and then to be shifted, for the last time, to Ottawa. During November of this year, Toronto was the meeting place of a great Reform Convention, attended by nearly six hundred members of the party, who adopted resolutions condemnatory of the union in its then existing state, and in favour of Local Governments for the management of local affairs, and of a “joint authority” to regulate matters of interest to the Province at large.

In municipal affairs the period with which we are engaged was as uneventful as its political aspect was eventful. In 1853, during Mr. Bowes’s term of office as Mayor, a seventh ward, known as St. John’s, was formed from St. Patrick’s. The following year Mr. Bowes was succeeded by Mr. Joshua G. Beard, who had represented St. Lawrence Ward in the Council almost continuously since 1834, the year of the city’s incorporation; but Mr. Beard falling ill shortly after his election, his place at the head of the Council board was temporarily taken by Mr. John Beverley Robinson. In 1855, Mr. (now the Hon.) G. W. Allan succeeded to the chief magistracy, and was followed in 1856 by Mr. J. B. Robinson. In 1857, Mr. John Hutchison was elected, and in 1858 Mr. W. H. Boulton succeeded to the civic chair. The latter gentleman, however, resigned early in November, and his place was taken by Mr. D. B. Read, Q.C. Mr. Read was the last Mayor elected by the City Council until the revival of that system in 1867. During 1858 an Act—known as the “Upper Canada Municipal Institutions Act”—had been passed, by which it was provided that mayors of cities and towns should thereafter be chosen by the electors of such cities and towns at the annual election to be held on the first Monday in January. This system prevailed until 1866, and under it Mr. Adam Wilson, who now occupies an honoured position on the Bench of Ontario, was elected; but, inasmuch as he had also been returned to Parliament, Mr. John Carr, a representative of St. Patrick’s Ward, was appointed President of the Council, to represent the Mayor during the latter’s absence.

The city’s progress from 1851 to 1859 was very far from being such as its well-wishers would have desired. Already in 1856 there were evidences of commercial depression and monetary stringency, but 1857 will long be remembered as the gloomiest epoch in the history of the commerce and industries of the country. Solvency and enterprise seemed to be things of the past. Mercantile houses of long established reputation went by the board; the factories were idle, trade was stagnant, and the streets swarmed with beggars and vagrants. Even those who had hitherto been in ordinarily comfortable circumstances now tasted for the first time the bitterness of poverty, and there is reason to believe that not a few deaths from starvation occurred. As usual, in such times of depression, drunkenness was rife, and during the year close upon two thousand people were committed to gaol. During 1858 the condition of affairs underwent a slight improvement, but it was not until the following year that confidence was re-established, and the city resumed its normal business-like aspect.

In 1851, at the opening of the period under consideration, the population of the city was 30,775. In 1856 this had increased to 45,000. The average daily attendance at the city schools in 1854 was 1,459, and in 1857, only 1,863, although the population now numbered over 45,000. The unsatisfactory attendance at the schools at this time was the subject of bitter comment by the Superintendent of Education, who despairingly contrasted the returns with those of 1844, when, with a population of only 18,500, the average daily attendance was 1,194, at a cost of £1 10s. per head, whereas the cost in 1857, with the above meagre result, was £3 5s. per head. In the year last mentioned the number of houses in the city was 7,476, and the real and personal property assessment value £515,806, yielding a gross sum of £74,962.

Chapter XI.

The Six Years Before Confederation.

HE year 1860 was marked by two notable events—the visit of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, and the Anderson Extradition Case. The first of these took place early in September, and was the occasion of festivities on a scale seldom, if ever, equalled in Toronto. The Prince, accompanied by the Duke of Newcastle, Colonial Secretary, the Governor-General, Sir Edmund Head, and a numerous suite, reached Toronto from the east on the 7th of September. For days and weeks previous the citizens had been busy with preparations to do honour to the Royal visitor; a series of magnificent triumphal arches had been erected on the streets, flags and bunting in immense quantities had been purchased, addresses had been drawn up, programmes of banquets and entertainments prepared—in fact neither trouble nor expense had been spared to make Toronto’s reception of the Prince a brilliant and splendid affair. At half-past six o’clock in the evening of the 7th of September the steamer Kingston, with the Royal party on board, reached the landing-place at the foot of John Street, where a huge amphitheatre had been erected and was now crowded by thousands of the wealth and fashion of the city. The roadway from the landing-place to the Esplanade—where a handsome arch had been erected—was also lined with tiers of seats, in which not a vacant space was to be found, while the entire neighbourhood was black with eager and loyal people, who, undaunted by the threatening aspect of the sky, had turned out to do honour to the city’s Royal guest. As the Kingston approached the wharf a storm of cheers broke from the assembled multitudes. The Prince, on leaving the steamer, was received by the city magnates, and an address of welcome was read by the Mayor, Mr. Wilson. When the Prince had replied, over a thousand children of the Public and Sunday schools, who had been specially trained for the occasion, raised the strains of the National Anthem. The Prince and the Governor-General were driven to Government House, which had been specially prepared for their reception. In the evening the city was brilliantly illuminated, and the royal party drove through the streets amidst the cheers and acclamations of a vast crowd. The Globe, speaking of the illuminations at the time declared that: “As a whole it is doubted if the display of that night was ever excelled in America in extent, variety, and brilliancy of decoration.” Speaking of the arches the same journal remarked: “The arch erected on the crest of the amphitheatre at the landing will be a lasting monument to the fame of its designer, Mr. Storm. Fine as were the arches erected at Quebec, Montreal and Ottawa, the finest of them could not for a moment enter into competition with it.”

It would be impossible, in the space at our disposal, to give anything like an account of the festivities during the Prince’s stay—from the 7th to the 12th. The entire six days were one prolonged fête. The principal features of this carnival time were a levée at Osgoode Hall, a regatta on the bay, a review of the active militia force, a visit to the University, and the formal opening of the Horticultural Gardens by His Royal Highness, who planted there a young maple which still flourishes, though no longer young. During his visit the Prince also made a hurried trip to Collingwood, and on the 12th bid the city farewell.

The only untoward event which occurred during the Prince’s stay was a foolish escapade by a few young hot-heads who assembled on Colborne Street and burnt in effigy the Duke of Newcastle and Sir Edmund Head. The objects of the demonstration having set their faces against the exuberant Orange decorations at Kingston and Belleville, the effigy-burners resorted to this method of expressing their dissatisfaction.

The second event which signalized the year 1860—the Anderson Case—was one which will long be remembered for the intense interest it awakened throughout the length and breadth of Canada, and scarcely less in Great Britain. Anderson was a runaway slave from Missouri, who, while making his way to Canada, slew a man named Diggs, who was in pursuit with intent to capture him. In April, in the year mentioned, a man who had tracked Anderson to this country caused his arrest for murder, with a view to extradition. The case came up at the Michaelmas Term of the Court of Queen’s Bench, on a writ of habeas corpus, Anderson being defended by leading members of the Bar—for such was the excitement throughout the country that funds poured in for his defence. The decision of the Court—one of the three Judges dissenting—was in favour of the surrender of the prisoner. Anderson’s counsel, however, determined to make a further effort, and a writ of habeas corpus was obtained from the Court of Queen’s Bench in England to bring the prisoner before the Judges there—a decision in his favour from that quarter being beyond a doubt. A conflict between the British and Canadian Courts seemed imminent, but fortunately it was avoided by the issue of a third writ of habeas corpus from the Upper Canadian Court of Common Pleas, which liberated the prisoner upon a technicality, without entering into the merits of the case. The excitement which had prevailed while Anderson’s case was still sub judice was only equalled in intensity by the rejoicings over his release. The coloured community was especially jubilant; but the whole of Canada, Great Britain, and even New England, shared in their satisfaction.

The breaking up of the ice in the Don in the spring of the following year (1861) solved a mystery which for sixteen months had seemed impenetrable. A battered, bruised and partially decomposed body was discovered in the water near the mouth of the little river, entangled in some weeds. Upon examination it was identified as that of John Sheridan Hogan, a prominent Toronto journalist and Reform member of the Legislature for the County of Grey, who had unaccountably disappeared in December, 1859. No end of theories had been broached to account for his disappearance—among others that he had fled to the United States to avoid the importunities of his creditors; but the idea that he might have been foully dealt with does not seem to have struck the public mind. Such, however, upon investigation, proved to have been the case. From the evidence it appeared that on the night of his disappearance the murdered man crossed the Don bridge in pursuance of an intention to visit a friend who lived on the Kingston Road. When in the act of crossing the bridge he was accosted by a woman who engaged him in conversation, while a second female struck him on the head with a stone placed in the foot of a stocking. Both women belonged to a notorious band of ruffians who infested a wood on the east side of the Don—from which they took their name, the Brooks’ Bush Gang. Other members of the gang then came up, a considerable sum of money was taken from the body of the murdered man, and the body itself was thrown over the bridge railing into the river. Although several members of the gang were arrested, there can be no manner of doubt that the really guilty parties escaped punishment, while a comparatively innocent man underwent the extreme penalty of the law. One of the ruffianly set turned Queen’s evidence, others succeeded in proving an alibi, while one, named Brown, less successful, was found guilty and hanged. Brown, although present at the murder, does not seem to have had any actual hand in it. The revelations at the trial had the effect of completely dispersing the gang, one member of which, an infamous woman, is now said to be a notorious resident of Buffalo. Another member, also a woman, was, until comparatively lately, an inmate of Toronto gaol.

The year 1861 witnessed the death of William Lyon Mackenzie, one of the most prominent figures in the history of the city of which he was the first Chief Magistrate. The story of the great agitator’s declining years is a sad one. From the time of his return to Toronto in 1849, he continued to reside there till his death, supporting himself chiefly by journalism. From 1851 to 1858 he represented the County of Haldimand in the Provincial Legislature, but in the latter year he resigned his seat, and devoted himself entirely to the management of his journal, Mackenzie’s Weekly Message. The profits, however, were small, and the editor’s life was one of hardship, debt, and deprivation. Some of his Reform friends, becoming aware of his unfortunate situation, opened a subscription—ostensibly for the purpose of presenting him with a testimonial in recognition of his services; really with the object of relieving his necessities—not an easy object to attain without wounding his feelings of independence and self-respect. A considerable amount was raised, and with a portion of this a house and lot on Bond Street were purchased and presented to Mr. Mackenzie. Another sum was handed to him as a loan—nominally, of course—by the subscription committee; but as no small part of this was employed by him in paying debts, it was not long before he was again in distress. But the end was not far off. Utterly broken down in body and mind, careless of the approach of death, refusing medical aid, the great Reformer gradually sank, till, on the 28th of August, death put an end to the restless, busy life—within less than four years of the allotted span of three-score and ten.

Towards the close of 1861, Toronto was in a ferment. The seizure of the Confederate envoys, Messrs. Mason and Slidell, on board the British mail steamer Trent, had just taken place, and every one was discussing the probabilities of a war with the United States. The entire population seemed to burn with a sudden military ardour; thousands of volunteers enrolled themselves as recruits; drill was a regular every day matter; new companies, were added to existing regiments; and speculations were freely indulged in as to the probability of Toronto becoming the great military centre for Upper Canada, and even a naval station, in view of the probability of operations by water. Sympathy with the South, in which, previous to the Trent affair, the citizens of Toronto, like Canadians generally, were by no means a unit, now became general, and a war with the United States would have been extremely popular. Happily there was no occasion to put to the test the enthusiasm of Canadians; the Confederate envoys were surrendered, and the excitement in Toronto, as elsewhere, cooled down. But the seed had been sown, the emergency had taught the people a lesson; and from the crisis brought about by the Trent affair, the military spirit which has given Canada its present militia force may be said to date.

Outside of the events just related, the local history of Toronto from 1860 to 1865 was that of the proverbial happy country that has no history. The close of the decade of the fifties had witnessed commercial depression, stagnation in trade and manufactures, starvation and misery. The first half of the decade of the sixties brought commercial vigour, activity in trade and manufactures, abundance and prosperity. It was the story of Pharaoh’s kine reversed. The cause of this state of things was to be looked for in the American civil war. The country was overrun with commissariat agents purchasing stores for the army. American gold poured in, in a steady stream, and produce of all kinds could not be supplied with sufficient rapidity to meet the demand. Farmers and merchants—wholesale and retail—reaped a golden harvest, and many a fortune was accumulated by trader and speculator. Toronto of course had its share of the general activity, and the condition of the city, in those days when war prices ruled, was one of unexampled prosperity.

We now come to one of the saddest chapters in the whole of Toronto’s history—a story of events which threw the entire city into mourning. During the morning of Friday, the 1st of June, 1866, intelligence was received in the city that a body of one thousand Fenians had crossed the Niagara River at Black Rock, landed near Fort Erie, and were ravaging the country in the vicinity. Regular troops were at once despatched to the spot, and the city volunteers were called upon to furnish their quota to repel the invader. It was now that the military spirit evoked among the citizens during the Trent excitement came into play. The call was promptly responded to, and by two o’clock in the afternoon a force of six hundred men of the Queen’s Own—many of them University students—had embarked on board the steamer City of Toronto, which was to convey them across the lake. The force was under the command of Major Gillmor, and consisted mainly of young men. With what happened on the banks of the Niagara River we have nothing to do here—it is matter of Canadian history, with which every Canadian is familiar. A conflict took place at Ridgeway, the brunt of which had to be borne by the volunteers, owing to the failure of the regulars to put in an appearance in time, and some of the Toronto contingent lost their lives on the battle-field. The news, in an imperfect form, reached the city on the Sabbath morning, and it was a sad Sabbath that the Toronto people spent. A writer in the ’Varsity for June 2nd, 1883, gives the following graphic description of that memorable day: “That Sunday was one such as Toronto had never seen before. The most contradictory rumours were afloat in the city. The churches presented a most extraordinary spectacle. Instead of the usual attendance of quiet worshippers—of the hymn of praise, the calm discourse—the attendant throng was assembled in deep humiliation and earnest prayer. I doubt whether a single sermon was preached in Toronto that day. Excited people came rushing into the churches and announcing the latest news from the front. Then a prayer would be offered up by the pastor, or the congregation would bow their heads in silent supplication. The merchants, on word being received that the volunteers were suffering from want of food, ransacked their warehouses for supplies to be sent to the front by the steamer that was to go to Port Dalhousie that afternoon for the dead and wounded; and all the young men were hastening to the front.”

About ten o’clock that night the steamer above alluded to, with her mournful freight, reached the Yonge Street wharf, where an immense throng had congregated, and where several hearses and stretchers borne by men of the 47th Regiment were in waiting. A writer in the Globe of the following day thus describes the scene on board the steamer: “At one end of the vessel lay arranged together the rough coffins enclosing the dead. Near the other, laid on couches and shakedowns, tenderly and thoughtfully cared for, were the wounded. No word of complaint escaped them as they were severally moved by strong arms and feeling hearts to the cab or the stretcher, as their case might require. Ten were severely wounded and were carefully sent to the hospital; the remainder were sent to their respective homes. While the wounded were being thus disposed of, the dead were deposited in hearses and carried to their several destinations. The coffins in which they were enclosed were formed of rough plain timber, the name of the sleeping occupant being chalked on the cover.” The following are the names of the dead who were brought to the city: Ensign Malcolm McEachren, No. 5 Company, Q.O.R.; Private Christopher Alderson, No. 7 Company; Private William Fairbanks Tempest, No. 9 Company; Private Mark Defries, No. 3 Company; and Private William Smith, No. 3 Company.

On the following Tuesday, the 5th, the remains of the five heroes were accorded the honours of a public funeral. During the forenoon of that day the five bodies lay in state in the Drill-shed, which was draped in black, the coffins being covered by flags. About four o’clock the procession started for the cemetery, headed by the band of the 47th Regiment. Following the private mourners came the funeral committee, the troops—regular and volunteer—the mayor and corporation, and a long procession of citizens on foot and in carriages. All the shops were shut, the bells tolled, the streets were lined by silent crowds, many people wearing badges of mourning. And so the solemn procession wended its way to St. James’s Cemetery, where the bodies were committed to the earth.

A week after the funeral two of the wounded, Sergeant Hugh Matheson and Corporal F. Lackey, of No. 2 Company, Queen’s Own, succumbed to their injuries. They also were buried with public honours. In addition to these, two other members of the regiment, who were not residents of Toronto, had fallen on the battle-field, and were buried at the places to which they respectively belonged. Thus the total death-roll of the Queen’s Own on this fatal occasion was nine. It is almost unnecessary to add that their devotion to their country was suitably honoured. Pensions were granted by the Province to the bereaved widows and orphans, and the monument in the Queen’s Park—of which a description will appear in its proper place—testifies to the loving regret with which the country cherishes the memory of her devoted sons.

The Chief Magistrate of the city in these stirring times was Mr. Francis H. Medcalf, who had succeeded Mr. Bowes in 1864, and who retained office until the close of 1866. In the latter year the municipal law of the Province again underwent a change. The election of mayors in cities by popular vote was discontinued, and a return was made to the system of election by the Council. The office of councilman was also abolished, and three aldermen were allowed to each ward. The first Mayor of Toronto elected under the new Act was Mr. James E. Smith, in 1867.

Chapter XII.

Toronto a Capital Once More.

HEN the clock struck midnight on the night of the 30th of June, 1867, the joy-bells of St. James’s Cathedral rang out. It was the 1st of July, the birthday of the New Dominion; Confederation was accomplished, and Toronto was once more a capital—the capital of a Province only, it is true, but that Province the wealthiest, the most enterprising, and the most populous in the Union. The day was observed by the greatest rejoicings in the city. What with bonfires, fireworks, illuminations, excursions, military displays and musical and other entertainments, the citizens and the thousands of strangers who crowded the streets did not want for amusement. Our allotted space is nearly filled, so it will be impossible to describe the manner in which the new capital celebrated the occasion. Since the visit of the Prince of Wales no such day had been witnessed in Toronto.

On the 27th of December, in the same year, the Lieutenant-Governor, Major-General Stisted, opened the first session of the First Parliament of Ontario in the old buildings which had seen so many administrative changes. The approaches to the buildings were thronged with people, eager to witness a ceremony familiar to most Toronto people of to-day. The procedure differed in no important particular from that observed on such occasions, and the usual postponement was made—to allow of the election of a Speaker—until the next day, when the formal opening took place. This was the only ceremony of the kind at which General Stisted presided, as he was succeeded in the following July by the Honourable William Pearce Howland, the well-known merchant prince of Toronto.

In 1869 the city was once more honoured by the presence of royalty, in the person of His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, who had been attached to a corps then stationed in Montreal, and who visited the Provincial Capital on his way back from London, where he had opened the Provincial Exhibition. The preparations that had been made in his honour were much on the same scale and of the same character as those by which the city had testified its loyalty on the occasion of the Prince of Wales’s visit in 1860. A series of triumphal arches had been erected, and the streets were decked with flags, streamers, evergreens and bunting. The Prince, accompanied by the Governor-General, Sir John Young, Lady Young, and a numerous suite, arrived in Toronto on Saturday, the 2nd of September, by Great Western train. From the station they were conveyed in carriages to the City Hall, where the civic address was to be presented. As in 1860, the streets were packed, and the Prince’s progress was one continuous ovation. Every window, balcony, parapet and roof was occupied, and it is estimated that from thirty thousand to thirty-five thousand people had assembled to witness the demonstration. At the City Hall addresses to the Prince and the Governor-General were read by the Mayor, Mr. Harman; and after suitable replies had been made the party were driven to Government House, where His Royal Highness remained during his stay, as the guest of the city. During his visit, which was one round of festivities, the Prince, on the 5th, turned the first sod of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway. The next day the royal visitor left the city for the east.

It may be mentioned here, that during this year the Society of the York Pioneers—an association composed of residents of the County of York previous to the incorporation of the City of Toronto, and their descendants on attaining the age of forty years—was founded. The society, which at the present time has a membership of about four hundred, has done good work in preserving documents and other mementoes of the early days of the county.

The monument erected in the Queen’s Park to the memory of the volunteers who fell during the Fenian Raid of 1866 was formally unveiled on the 1st of July, 1870, by the Governor-General, who was then visiting Toronto. A large crowd thronged the neighbourhood of the monument, and the three city volunteer corps, the Queen’s Own, Tenth Royals, and Grand Trunk Brigade, were present. The ceremony consisted merely of the reading of the report of the secretary of the Monument Committee, a short speech by His Excellency, who then unveiled the monument amid loud cheers, and of eloquent addresses by the Hon. M. C. Cameron and Dr. McCaul.

We have seen that Mr. J. E. Smith was the first Mayor elected under the Act of 1866, by which a return was made to the system of election by the Council. The same gentleman occupied the civic chair during the following year, and was succeeded in 1869 by Mr. S. B. Harman, who also held the position for two years; but owing to his absence in England during a part of his second term, the Council was for some time presided over by Mr. George D’Arcy Boulton. In 1871, Mr. Joseph Sheard was elected, and the same mark of confidence was bestowed upon him in 1872. He was followed in 1873 by Mr. Alexander Manning, who was the last Mayor elected by the Council. During this year the Municipal Election Law was again changed, and the election of Mayors in cities was once more vested in the people, who have ever since continued to exercise this right. The Chief Magistrates of Toronto since that time have been as follows:—1874-75, Mr. Francis H. Medcalf; 1876-78, Mr. Angus Morrison; 1879-80, Mr. James Beatty; 1881-82, Mr. W. B. McMurrich; and 1883-84, Mr. A. R. Boswell.

The following were the occupants of Government House during this period:—Major-General Stisted, Hon. W. P. Howland, Hon. John Crawford, Hon. D. A. Macdonald, and Hon. John Beverley Robinson, the present Lieutenant-Governor, who entered office on the 30th June, 1880.

The progress made by the city since Confederation has been amazing. Not only have its area and population been largely increased, but it has been greatly beautified by the erection of huge business establishments and palatial private residences; and it has developed a commercial enterprise and energy which seriously endanger the pretensions of Montreal to the mercantile supremacy of the Dominion. Since 1873 five additional wards have been created, viz., St. Thomas’s, formed in that year from St. David’s; St. Stephen’s, in 1875, from St. Patrick’s; St. Paul’s, in 1883, consisting of the annexed Village of Yorkville; and, in 1884, St. Mark’s and St. Matthew’s, formed respectively of the Villages of Brockton and Riverside, which had also cast in their lot with the city. Of the growth in population an idea may be formed from the following figures:—In the census of 1871 the population was given as 56,092, being an increase of 11,271 during the previous decade. In 1881 the census gave 86,415, showing an increase of 30,323 since 1871; but at the present time, in consequence of the annexation of the three suburbs of Yorkville, Brockton and Riverside, the population may be fairly estimated at something over 100,000.

It was during the years 1872-4 that Toronto began to make those rapid strides in commercial enterprise that have placed her in the proud position she now occupies. They were years of unusual prosperity, and trade of all kinds received a remarkable impetus. Happily the foundations then laid of the city’s mercantile greatness were sufficiently solid to resist the shock of the reaction that followed. In 1875 there set in a period of depression, reflected in great measure from other parts of the world, and more especially, owing to the close trade relations between the two countries, from the United States. But bad harvests, extravagant living, long credits, and persistent over-importations had no small share in bringing about the change. The depression continued until 1878, when the city began slowly to recover from the effects of the evil times. As a measure of the volume of business at the present time the following figures may be acceptable, being those of the imports and exports for the year 1873:—Imports, $18,634,451; exports, $3,481,813.

A comparison of the city assessment figures in the year before the era of prosperity set in, and in that after the return to prosperity which followed the depression period, may also prove interesting. Thus in 1871 the realty was placed at $22,037,470; personalty and income, $7,239,665; total, $29,277,138. In 1880 the figures were:—Realty, $42,020,155; personalty and income, $8,146,484; total, $50,166,639.

Figures such as these tell their own story. As Dr. W. H. Russell says, describing his impressions of the city in 1881: “Toronto has increased in all the elements of wealth and consequence by springs and bounds; and since 1861, when I was there, its population has doubled, and it is increasing still very rapidly.” Of the future that is before it, a future of prosperity and greatness, to which its present prosperity and greatness are as very trifles, there can be little doubt. In that future its citizens firmly believe, and it is pleasant to know that their belief is shared by outsiders, and that, as the author above quoted says, “some day, surely, this ‘place of meeting,’ which is, I believe, the meaning of the name, must be of greater importance than it is now, rapid as has been its growth, and great as is its present prosperity.”

There remain yet two events in the city’s history to chronicle, and our story is done. The first of these is the opening of the Industrial Association Exhibition in September, 1878, by Lord Dufferin. As the story of the circumstances under which the Association was organized is related in the succeeding section of this work, it will be sufficient in this place to record the fact. The second event—the latest in the history of the city up to the time of writing—was the great Semi-Centennial celebration.

The year 1884 being the fiftieth since the incorporation of Toronto, Mr. W. B. McMurrich, ex-Mayor of the city, suggested the propriety of celebrating Toronto’s Semi-Centennial in a manner worthy of the Provincial capital. The suggestion was received with enthusiasm, and arrangements were made during the latter end of 1883 for a great civic demonstration, to be held in June and July, and to extend over an entire week. The actual date of incorporation was March 6th; but as that time of the year was unsuitable for out-door festivities, it was deemed advisable to postpone the celebration until the week within which Dominion Day should fall. The 6th of March, however, was not allowed to pass unheeded, the main events of the day being the opening of the Free Public Library by the Lieutenant-Governor in the afternoon, and a reception held by the Mayor in the City Hall in the evening. There was also a liberal display of flags throughout the city, and some firing of cannon and ringing of bells.

Monday, June 30th, was the first day of the great celebration proper. Its dawn found the city in gala array. Flags, bunting, mottoes and evergreens had all been pressed into the service of decoration, and the scene, looking down one of the principal streets, was simply a vista of fluttering colour, which almost hid the buildings on either side from view. From this day until the end of the week the city was wholly given up to pleasure, and was the rendezvous of thousands of sight-seers from all parts of the Province, from Montreal, and from many cities in the United States. The streets were thronged from early morn till late at night, and the hotels and lodging-houses were hard put to accommodate the immense influx of visitors. The event of the first day was the historical procession, of which the great feature consisted of a number of tableaux representing events in the early history of York. The Mayors of the City, of Philadelphia and Port Huron, the members of the existing and of past City Councils, of the Celebration Committee, of the School and Library Boards, the York Pioneers, the Police Force, the Fire Brigade, and seven bands of music took part in the pageant. The procession finally brought up at the Exhibition grounds, where addresses were delivered by the Mayor, Mr. W. B. McMurrich, Dr. Daniel Wilson, the orator of the day, and Mayor Smith of Philadelphia. An address and medal were then presented to the Rev. Dr. Scadding on behalf of the York Pioneers. In the evening there was a fancy dress ball at the Horticultural Gardens, the city was illuminated, and the firemen held a torch-light procession.

Tuesday, July 1st, was Dominion Day, and consequently the crowds who turned out to witness the festivities were enormous. This was “Military Day,” its main feature being a march through the city of all the available troops, including the Governor-General’s Body Guard, the Toronto, Hamilton, and Welland Canal Field Batteries, “C” Company, Infantry School, the Governor-General’s Foot Guards (Ottawa), the 6th Fusiliers (Montreal), the 7th Fusiliers (London), the Tenth Royals, the 12th, “York” Rangers, the 34th, 36th and 77th Battalions, the Queen’s Own, 14th, “Prince of Wales” Rifles (Kingston), and the 13th Battalion (Hamilton). There were also minor attractions in the form of bicycle races and athletic games; and in the evening a promenade concert and fireworks display at the Horticultural Gardens.

On Wednesday there was a Trades’ and Industrial Demonstration, in the form of a procession illustrative of the trades and industries of the city. It consisted, in part, of wagons in which various mechanics were plying their daily avocations, and also of displays of manufactured goods and raw material. The procession was fully four miles in length, and occupied two hours in passing a given point. In the evening the oratorio of “The Creation” was performed at the Horticultural Gardens.

On Thursday morning the U. E. Loyalists and their descendants from all parts of the Province held a gathering in the Horticultural Gardens in honour of the 100th anniversary of the settlement of Upper Canada by their ancestors. Dr. Canniff occupied the chair and delivered an appropriate address. In the afternoon the Loyalists attended a reception held in their honour by the Lieutenant-Governor at Government House. In the evening there was a brilliant display of fireworks on the Bay, and at the Horticultural Gardens the Philharmonic Society rendered Gounod’s oratorio, “The Redemption,” before the largest audience of the week.

Friday had been set apart for a parade of the benevolent societies, but a steady downpour of rain rendered this impossible, and the procession was postponed until next day. This was the more unfortunate as nearly ten thousand people were to have taken part in the parade, hundreds of whom were compelled by their engagements to return to their homes the same night. In the evening the Semi-Centennial Committee entertained the visiting uniformed societies in the dining-hall on the Exhibition Grounds.

Saturday morning brought with it another deluge of rain, but towards eleven o’clock the storm had sufficiently abated to allow of the postponed benevolent societies’ parade taking place. The societies represented were the Oddfellows—uniformed and otherwise—the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of Shepherds, the Foresters and the Sons of England. In the afternoon the uniformed societies held a drill-competition on the Exhibition Grounds. But the feature of the day was the children’s parade. The little ones mustered shortly after noon in the Queen’s Park and marched to the Lacrosse Grounds, where drill and calisthenic competitions were held; and in the evening a children’s festival—in which six hundred took part—was held in the pavilion in the Horticultural Gardens. This closed the celebration, which fully realized the expectations of its promoters and passed off without any hitch in the arrangements.

In connection with Toronto’s Semi-Centennial it will not be out of place to refer to an interesting relic which was discovered by Mr. Thomas Hodgins, Q.C., in 1884, while engaged in making researches for documents bearing upon the Ontario Boundary question, and which he at once forwarded to Mr. W. B. McMurrich, Chairman of the Semi-Centennial Committee. It is a curious plan of the Harbour of Toronto in 1788, executed by Captain Gother Mann, of the Royal Engineers, and dated Quebec, 5th December, in that year. It was accompanied by a report by the same officer, which was sent to Lord Dorchester, and in which the author describes the conditions and bearings of the harbour. He says: “The Harbour of Toronto is nearly two miles in length from the entrance on the west to the isthmus between it and a large morass on the eastward. The breadth of the entrance is about half a mile, but the navigable channel for vessels is only about five hundred yards, having from three to three and a-half fathoms water.” After describing the peculiarities of the Bay he goes on to say: “From what has been said it will appear that the Harbour of Toronto is capacious, safe and well sheltered; but the entrance being from the westward is a great disadvantage to it, as the prevailing wind is from this quarter, and, as this is a fair wind from hence down the lake, of course it is that with which vessels in general would take their departure from this place; but they may frequently find it difficult to get out of the harbour.” The plan also shows “the proposed town and post by the settlement,” a perfectly square plot, with a broad esplanade on each of the four sides. The document will form a valuable addition to the historical relics of the city whose story has just been related.

TORONTO: HER HIGHWAYS, HER INSTITUTIONS,
AND HER INDUSTRIES.

ROM an architectural point of view Toronto is in every way worthy of her position as capital of the leading Province of the Dominion. To Montreal only, of all the cities of the Dominion, does she yield the palm in this respect—and that too with a decided, though perhaps not decidedly expressed, opinion, that the day is not very far off which will see the Queen City of the West outstrip her Eastern sister in this as in her other claims to supremacy. Already she is treading hard on the heels of the latter in the race for the commercial leadership; and in point of population her progress has been so marked as to give well-grounded hopes that Toronto will, before many decades have rolled past, stand at the head of the list of Canadian cities in this as in all other respects.

To the stranger approaching the city, whether by land or by water, Toronto scarcely offers much promise of what she has to show. It is only when the visitor drives through her streets that he can form any adequate idea of her beauties. From an artistic point of view the site on which the city stands is an unfortunate one. The ground lies low, gradually rising as it leaves the lakeshore, until the upward slope terminates in the ridge which bounds the view on the north. And it is only from this ridge, crowned by the residences of some of the wealthier citizens, that anything like a comprehensive view of the city can be obtained. But this point of vantage is little known, even to many life-long residents, though the prospect from its summit is not unlike that to be obtained from the mountain that keeps guard over Montreal. It is true that it lacks the marked features of the latter, the broad St. Lawrence, spanned by the Victoria Bridge, and the deep blue hills of Vermont in the far distance. The outlook from Toronto’s little mountain covers an unbroken background of shining water, except on an exceptionally clear day, when the dim coast-line on the other side of the lake is barely visible, and towards the right the “pillar of smoke” which overhangs Niagara Falls is just distinguishable. But it is the only spot from which a Pisgah-like view of the entire city can be obtained, and this being the case it is surprising that its advantages have not yet been utilized. Views of Toronto, so-called, have hitherto generally been taken either from some steeple or tower, from which only a limited portion of the city can be seen; or from the bay or island—the result in the latter case being merely a representation of the water front and the buildings in the immediate vicinity, backed by a sprinkling of spires and chimneys. Yet even viewed from the bay there are bits of perspective which are far from being unattractive, notably the glimpse afforded of Spadina Avenue, lined on either side by foliage and terminating in the buildings of Knox College. Simcoe Street, with Erskine Church in the distance, is another case in point.

Speaking of foliage it will scarcely do to leave unnoticed one of the special beauties of the streets of Toronto—the trees. True we have no giant elms such as Oliver Wendell Holmes loves; nor any historic oaks to delight the antiquarian and move the poet’s soul to song. But trees we have in plenty. It used to be said that there was not a spot in London from which a tree could not be seen. Surely there is scarcely a spot in Toronto’s streets where trees in abundance do not meet the eye. The chestnut is by long odds the favourite, though the elm, the poplar, the oak, and Canada’s own maple are by no means wanting. The more fashionable thoroughfares are lined with them, while the less pretentious by-ways, the home of the artisan and the mechanic, give goodly promise of refreshing greenery in the near future, even every bandbox of a cottage having before it its sapling or two and its bit of boulevard.

The artist and the æsthete would doubtless be no more inclined to go into raptures over the arrangement of the streets of Toronto than over the selection of its site. But the former, like the latter, is eminently convenient and practical, and admirably suited to the requirements of a city of commercial aspirations. As is the case with most modern cities, the streets of Toronto run north and south, or east and west—a main artery starting at the edge of the lake and extending due north for thirty miles, from Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe. Crossing Yonge Street at its outset are the two great thoroughfares King and Queen Streets, and nearly a mile further north Bloor Street, formerly the dividing line between the city and the suburb of Yorkville, stretches away westward far beyond the city limits into the open country. For convenience of topographical description these four streets may be accepted as dividing the city into five great divisions. The first of these is that lying to the south of King Street and extending as far as the waters of the bay. The second would consist of the long torpedo-shaped strip extending from the junction of King and Queen Streets at High Park, in the west, to the point where they again converge on the banks of the Don, in the east. The third would include the area east of Yonge, north of Queen and south of Bloor, but extending beyond the extremities of the two latter streets across the Don. The fourth would cover the corresponding district west of Yonge Street; and the fifth the quondam Village of Yorkville, now forming part and parcel of the city.

Before entering upon any detailed description of these arbitrary districts, it will be well to take a cursory glance at the main thoroughfares which form their boundaries, leaving fuller accounts of their principal architectural features to be dealt with later.

To King Street be given the pas. It is more aristocratic, more frequented and more business-like—in so far, at least, as its central portion is concerned—than any of its sisters. It can also lay claim to greater antiquity, having been the first thoroughfare of the future city—the village street of Muddy Little York. King Street extends almost the entire length of the city, from High Park to the Don, where it joins Queen Street and, after crossing the bridge over the river, becomes the Kingston Road. It is on King Street, from York Street to Church, that the fashionable stores are situated; and here that, of a fine afternoon from three till six, the fashionables and would-be fashionables of the city most do congregate to display their charms and their attire, affecting especially for that purpose the south, or “dollar” side. It is in this portion of the street that are situated the Rossin House, for many years one of the leading hotels, and the principal dry-goods, millinery and jewellery stores, on the south side; while on the north side are the offices of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, in the building erected and formerly occupied by the ill-fated United Empire Club; the stately building of the Mail Printing Company, which suffered to a considerable extent by fire on the 24th of May last; the less pretentious and older Globe office, the scene of the shooting of the Hon. George Brown; besides restaurants and stores, the latter of a more staid appearance than the fashionable shops across the way, and devoted to the sale of the necessaries rather than of the luxuries of life. On the north-east corner of King and Church Streets stands the Anglican Cathedral of St. James, and a little further eastward, on the south side, the St. Lawrence Hall and Market. This part of the street is almost entirely given up to the farmers and those who supply their wants; here the jewellery and millinery stores give place to emporiums for the sale of substantial clothing, seeds and agricultural implements, and to hotels of the class chiefly frequented by the farming community. Beyond the St. Lawrence Hall King Street East is utterly commonplace. Probably the malaria which is known to infest this portion of the city is an obstacle to its progress and prosperity. West of York Street, as far as Spadina Avenue, King Street still presents noteworthy features, more especially St. Andrew’s Church, Upper Canada College and Government House. Beyond the avenue this end of the street is as dead, as deserted and as colourless as the opposite extremity.

Yonge Street ranks next to King in importance as a business thoroughfare, stretching from end to end of the city—and even far beyond as a country road—and, forming the dividing line between East and West Toronto, it might be compared to the backbone of the city, while the lesser thoroughfares that intersect it form the ribs. From the Esplanade to King Street it is lined by handsome buildings, chiefly occupied as banks, insurance offices and wholesale business houses, one of its most prominent features being the Custom House on the corner of Front. Above King Yonge Street is not rich in architectural specimens, though here and there a lofty building of recent construction towers above its neighbours. Until, say, within the last ten years, the structures lining this portion of the thoroughfare were of the plainest description—mainly two-story buildings of the ordinary brick-and-mortar or rough-cast type. But of late several handsome stores have been erected, notably the Arcade, just finished, a row of retail stores just above Queen Street on the west side, and another row on the opposite side just below Wilton Avenue. Unpretentious as its buildings are, however, Yonge Street is no whit behind King Street as to the amount of business transacted—if it does not even surpass its more fashionable sister in this respect. Along its whole length as far as Bloor Street, and for several hundred yards beyond this point, it presents an almost unbroken succession of stores, taverns and restaurants.

Queen Street, another important retail business thoroughfare, presents a singular combination of splendour and squalor, which cannot fail to strike the observant peripatetic. It presents, side by side, some of the finest buildings and some of the most wretched hovels in the city. Osgoode Hall, one of the noblest architectural monuments to be found in Toronto, is jostled by the miserable slums of St. John’s Ward and the low dives of York Street. Shaftesbury Hall, another imposing structure, is surrounded by contemptible shanties and vis-a-vis’d by the tumble-down rookeries of Jew dealers in second-hand furniture and cast-off clothing. Trinity College and the Lunatic Asylum are more fortunately situated, though the contrast they offer with the structures in their immediate vicinity is sufficiently striking. By far the larger portion of the business of Queen Street is transacted west of Yonge, the dead-alive condition of the eastern section being the very antithesis of the bustling, business-like air that pervades the section between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street. Still further westward Queen Street runs through the suburb of Parkdale, which has hitherto persistently resisted all attempts to induce it to follow the example of its sister suburbs and link its fortunes with those of the city. A feature worth noticing at this end of Queen Street is the subway—now nearly completed—that dips beneath the railway tracks at what used to be an exceedingly dangerous crossing.

In the district south of King Street almost the entire wholesale trade of Toronto is concentrated, as well as the greater part of its heavier manufacturing industries—the former grouped especially in the immediate vicinity of Yonge Street, the latter scattered over the outlying districts. Crossing Yonge Street at right angles are, in order from the Bay upwards, Front, Wellington and Colborne Streets, the two first-named lined with imposing structures erected by private enterprise, the last narrow, dirty and gloomy, but all three “full of business,” as will be seen when we come to speak of Toronto’s financial and mercantile institutions. In the eastern half of this division are the City Hall, the St. Lawrence Hall and Market, the Northern Railway Station, the Drill Shed, the Gas Works, a great distillery, a brewery or two, and several factories. The extreme end of this eastern section is a dreary wilderness, into which no man ever seems to venture except the aborigines, and in which all the refuse of the city seems to accumulate. It has already been hinted that the unsavoury reputation it bears from a sanitary point of view is probably at the bottom of its want of prosperity. Certain it is that if the curious pedestrian wishes to see the abomination of desolation standing at his very gates he need only take a stroll through this unsavoury region of a Sunday morning. West of Yonge Street, and running parallel to it, Bay and York Streets are almost entirely given up to business, the succeeding streets being as exclusively reserved for private dwellings. At the foot of York Street stands the Union Station—the centre of nearly all the railways of the Province—surrounded by hotels, both great and small. West of the Union Station are the freight sheds, and from this point westward a large slice of this section is monopolized by railway tracks, cattle sheds, round-houses, immigrant sheds, etc. To the north of the freight sheds are the Parliament Buildings, and still further north Government House. At the extreme western end of this division are the Central Prison, the Exhibition Buildings, and the Old and New Forts. The Esplanade, with its numerous tracks, forms the southern boundary of the division, and is fringed with elevators, wharves, coal-yards, and boat-houses.

Between King and Queen Streets lies one of the most important sections of the city. Not only does it embrace a large portion of the retail trade of the better class, but being the habitat of the minor courts of law, it is much affected by lawyers, whose offices cluster thickly about Adelaide, Church, and Toronto Streets. The latter thoroughfare—a somewhat ambitious title for a street not much over fifty yards long—is perhaps the busiest in the city; it certainly is so for its size. It is the immediate approach to the Post-office from the south, which perhaps accounts for a portion of the activity manifested; but apart from this it is, from end to end, emphatically a business street, lined with large and costly buildings, which are chiefly occupied by lawyers, financial and insurance companies and brokers. On the south side of Adelaide Street, to the west of Toronto Street, stands the Court-house and County building, of which the less said the better; and further on, on the north-east corner of Adelaide and Church, the Public Library, formerly the Mechanics’ Institute. On Court Street, an alley leading from Toronto to Church, stands the Police Court building, a wretchedly inadequate structure, which also contains a police station and fire hall. From Church Street eastwards there is little to interest the stranger; the streets, which higher up become broad and beautiful thoroughfares, being, below Queen Street, squalid and unpicturesque. To the west of Yonge, on Adelaide Street, is the Grand Opera House, and just beyond this, running parallel with Yonge, Bay Street, formerly Bear, near the north-west corner of which stands a portion of Doel’s brewery, in which the reformers of 1837 used to hold their meetings previous to the outbreak of that year. The next street to Bay is York, which in this portion bears perhaps a worse reputation than any other street in the city. Its low dives are the resort of all the worst characters of both sexes, and it is in this vicinity that illegal liquor-selling and midnight brawling have their fullest swing. The street itself has possibilities in the way of making a handsome thoroughfare, but its broken sidewalks, tumble-down shanties, and frowsy second-hand stores give it at present an appearance as unenviable as its reputation. Nothing less than a clean sweep of the ricketty tenements that cover it would be necessary to prepare the way for its regeneration and purification. For some distance beyond York Street this section is characterless—colourlessly respectable; but proceeding eastwards, and more especially on the further side of Spadina Avenue, the evidences of comfort decrease, the dwellings are of a more humble class, and we are once more among the homes of the less fortunate citizens.

Above Queen Street—with the exception of Yonge, Church, Parliament, Spadina Avenue, and other thoroughfares of a similar type—the business character of the city disappears. Private houses are now the rule, and shops—barring the ubiquitous corner grocery and the tavern—the exception. In the section lying east of Yonge Street are some of the finest residences in the city. In this particular, Jarvis Street, with its costly mansions, carefully tended grounds, and luxuriant shade-trees, stands pre-eminent. Sherbourne Street and some of the cross-streets—notably Carlton and Wellesley—are not far behind; while nearly the whole section, and notably that portion lying north of Wilton Avenue, is neatly laid out in blocks of private houses of a superior class. The streets are well paved and broad, the situation elevated, the air pure, and these many advantages have caused this portion of the city to be regarded as one of the most desirable positions for private residences. In fact, the whole district has within the last ten years been built over with amazing rapidity, so that it is fortunate that two breathing-spaces, the Horticultural Gardens and Riverside Park, have been secured to the residents. In this section, towards its north-east corner, are the General Hospital, the Medical Schools, St. James’ Cemetery and the Necropolis. Among its public buildings it also numbers the Normal School, Boys’ Home, Girls’ Home, and Collegiate Institute, besides a number of handsome schools, and, across the Don, the Jail. Its eastern boundary is Greenwood’s side-line, running north from the Kingston Road just below Leslieville. The other section of this division—that to the west of Yonge Street, extending to the western boundary of the former suburb of Brockton—presents a fantastic mélange of poverty and wealth, of ramshackle shanties and princely residences, of gross ignorance and high culture. Immediately adjoining Yonge Street, and extending to the Queen Street Avenue, is the notorious St. John’s Ward, at once the negro quarter, the Five Points, and the St. Giles’ of Toronto. This description at least applies to its southerly half; its northern portion contains many elegant residences and handsome streets. But below the Yonge Street Avenue, Chestnut, Centre, and Elizabeth Streets bear a reputation that is only excelled in unsavouriness by that of York Street, and equalled by that of William Street to the west. In the “Noble” Ward—so called presumably on the lucus a non lucendo principle—are Osgoode Hall, the House of Industry, the Hospital for Sick Children, and Shaftesbury Hall. To the north-west of it lie the Queen’s Park and Provincial University, with the spacious grounds surrounding the latter stretching northwards to Bloor Street and westwards to St. George. In the immediate vicinity of the University, and lying to the south, are the School of Practical Science, Meteorological Observatory, and Wyckliffe Hall, the latter a Church of England Divinity School of the Evangelical type. To the east of the Park, on St. Joseph Street, is St. Michael’s (R.C.) College, and north of the University, on Bloor Street, McMaster Hall, the Baptist Theological College. All the above mentioned institutions are either connected with or affiliated to the University. Crossing the Queen Street Avenue, a noble drive shaded by chestnut trees, another region of respectability is reached. That portion of this district which lies between Queen Street and College Street is well built up with a substantial and in many cases superior class of residences. Above College Street the land is more open, but building operations are in constant progress. Knox College, the Presbyterian Theological Hall, stands at the head of Spadina Avenue, which is probably the widest, and might be one of the finest thoroughfares in the city. Architecturally speaking, however, it is beneath contempt, if we except one or two recent additions. From Spadina Avenue to Bellwoods Avenue all is dead commonplace. In this vicinity is Claremont Street, that has of late acquired an unenviable reputation in connection with a settlement of recently imported Irish paupers who achieved some notoriety during the latter portion of 1883. Then come the Bickford grounds and those of Trinity College, spreading north as far as Arthur Street, above which the land is entirely open. From Trinity College to the western limits the ground has of late years been rapidly broken, and a class of private houses erected very similar to those that cover the north-eastern portion of the city.

North of Bloor Street lies the beautiful suburb of Rosedale and the former suburb of Yorkville, the latter now forming a part of the city and known as St. Paul’s Ward. Its western section is laid out in well-kept avenues, in which not a few residences of the better class have been erected. Bloor Street, on both sides, is also well endowed in this respect. To the north of Yorkville lie Mount Pleasant and St. Michael’s cemeteries and the waterworks basin. The only features in this section specially deserving of mention are the former town hall and the Magdalen Asylum.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

It is a singular anomaly that in a city of the size and importance of Toronto, the chief city of the county and of the Province, the three buildings which might have been expected to present an appearance commensurate with the dignity of the several bodies of which they are the material representatives, should be the least attractive and least imposing of all the public edifices which grace its streets. Yet such is the fact. The Parliament Buildings, the County Building and Court House, and the City Hall; representing, respectively, the Provincial, the County, and the City Governments, are, each and every one, structures of uninviting exterior—to use no stronger word—and totally inadequate to fulfil the purposes for which they were intended.

The Parliament Buildings occupy the block formed by Front, Simcoe, Wellington, and John Streets. They consist of a range of squat red-brick buildings, forming three sides of a quadrangle, and stand in a large open space, one-half of which appears to have been converted into a market garden. Any description of their architectural features is out of the question, for they have none. The question of erecting a more suitable structure has for some years past been mooted, but the scheme has not assumed any tangible form, which is the more to be regretted, inasmuch as within the building, which offers no security against fire, are stored the valuable library of the Ontario Legislature and the title-deeds of all lands held from the Crown, the loss of which would be irreparable. The buildings were erected in 1830, a vote of seven thousand pounds having been made for this purpose in 1826.

To the north of the Parliament Buildings stands Government House, the grounds surrounding which are tastefully laid out and extend northwards to King Street. The building itself is of red brick with white stone facings, and stands out in strong contrast with the massive gray walls of St. Andrew’s Church on the opposite side of Simcoe Street. The present structure was erected in 1869 on the site of the old Government House.

The Custom House, on the south-west corner of Front and Yonge Streets, is one of the most ornate specimens of architecture which the city possesses. It is built in the Renaissance style, of white pressed brick, with white stone façades, the basement being constructed of Georgetown stone. The decorative work is exceedingly elaborate and intricate, without, however, being bewildering. The main entrance on Front Street consists of an enclosed porch, over the cornice of which is a balustrade from which rise columns with richly carved caps and moulded bases. A rich block cornice—each bracket of which presents a different design in carved foliage—separates the ground floor from the first story; and a plainer cornice separates the latter from the second. Below the windows of the ground floor are panels filled with carved heads of animals, while on the keystones are similarly carved heads representing Commerce, Agriculture, etc., and heads of eminent men of the fifteenth century. The coats-of-arms of the principal seaports throughout the world are carved on the transoms of the windows, and on the windows of the second story appear medallion heads of famous navigators of the Middle Ages. The building was completed in 1876, its construction having occupied two years. Hon. James Patton, Q.C., LL.D., is the present Collector of Customs.

The General Post-office is, as regards architectural beauty and elaborate detail, only second to the Custom House. It stands on an admirably selected site on the north side of Adelaide Street East, facing Toronto—a position that could scarcely be improved upon, as the imposing appearance of the edifice is much enhanced by the many rich buildings which line the approach to it. The façade is in the Italian style, faced with wrought Ohio stone, and is fifty-six feet high to the eaves. It consists of a central break, relieved with coupled columns and pilasters, with foliated caps and moulded bases and cornices. On each side of the central break is a recessed bay, and beyond, at each angle, a tower, with mansard roof and cast-iron cresting. The main cornice is surmounted by a handsome clock, with moulded frame, flanked by carved trusses. Immediately behind this rises the central dome, thirty-six feet high, giving an entire height of ninety feet to the building. The doors and windows have richly foliated imposts, and carved heads for keystones. The frontage of the main building is seventy-five feet and its depth sixty-six feet, continued back to Lombard Street, a distance of one hundred and eight feet, by a one-story building used as a sorting and mailing-room. Mr. T. C. Patteson is Postmaster. The General Post-office has four branch offices—in the eastern, western, and northern portions of the city, and at Parkdale, respectively.

The Provincial Lunatic Asylum, with its huge dome, is one of the most striking features of the city when viewed from a distance. It is a massive building of gray brick, situated in the midst of spacious grounds on the south side of Queen Street West, about three miles from the City Hall. It consists of a main building nearly six hundred feet in length, flanked at each end by a wing extending two hundred and forty feet to the south. The front elevation consists of a centre building, five stories high and surmounted by a dome, and two side-wings, which, like the rear wings, are four stories high. The maintenance of the institution entails a yearly outlay of between eighty and ninety thousand dollars, which is met by an annual parliamentary grant of a tax of one penny per pound on the rateable property of each municipality. Nearly one hundred officials are employed in the building, the Medical Superintendent being Dr. Daniel Clark, who succeeded Dr. John Workman, the well-known Canadian alienist. The Provincial Asylum has, under the management of Dr. Clark and his predecessor, acquired a reputation which is continental.

Few of the public institutions in Toronto have undergone such a marked transformation within the last decade as the General Hospital. Ten years ago the Toronto Hospital was anything but a credit to the city; to-day, thanks to efficient management and increased resources, it bears a reputation second to none in the Dominion. The building, or rather buildings, for it consists of no less than five, exclusive of laundry, mortuary, and other adjuncts, stands amid spacious grounds which occupy the entire quadrangle formed by Gerrard, Sumach, Spruce and Sackville Streets, and on an elevation of over eighty feet above the level of the Bay. The main building is constructed of white brick with stone dressings, and is three stories high, with mansard roof and a central tower one hundred feet high, and smaller towers at each angle of the front elevation. It is used for the accommodation of ordinary medical and surgical cases, and contains some seventeen or eighteen public wards, besides a number of private wards for patients who can afford to pay for treatment and attendance. The operating theatre forms an L in the centre and behind, and is flanked on either side by a wing. Connected with the main building by bridges on each side are the Fever Hospital and the Mercer Eye and Ear Infirmary, the former on the west, and the latter, which also contains the apartments of the Medical Superintendent, on the east. In the north-west angle of the grounds is the Burnside Lying-in Hospital, which is supported by voluntary contributions, by the fees of students in attendance, and by a yearly Government grant of $400. This building, as well as the Eye and Ear and Fever Hospitals, is of the same style and material as the main building. Between the Lying-in Hospital and the main buildings a structure has recently been erected which serves as a resort during the day for convalescent patients, and immediately to the east of this are the mortuary, laundry, etc. The main buildings are one hundred and seventy feet in length by one hundred and twenty in depth. The wards are roomy and well ventilated—the latter having been a subject to which special attention was paid in the construction of the edifice. The entire institution is under the charge of Dr. Charles O’Reilly, Medical Superintendent, assisted by a matron and a staff of four assistant house surgeons, the latter selected from the graduating classes of each year in the two principal medical schools.

Osgoode Hall, the headquarters of the Superior Courts of Ontario, is perhaps the greatest architectural triumph ever achieved in the city of Toronto. Its stately façade excites general admiration among visitors to the Provincial capital, and this admiration is increased by the admirable appointments and tasteful decorations of the interior. If Toronto possessed no other monument of the architect’s art, Osgoode Hall alone would repay the visit of the lover of the beautiful. Mr. W. G. Storm, after whose designs “the Hall” was built, will leave behind him in this magnificent structure an enduring memorial of his name and skill, and one of which his fellow-citizens are justly proud. Osgoode Hall stands on the north side of Queen Street West, at the head of York Street, on a plot of ground some six acres in extent—now beautifully laid out as garden and lawn—which was donated to the Toronto Law Society by Sir John Robinson, father of the present Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, and at whose suggestion the proposed edifice was named after the Hon. William Osgoode, the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada. The first building erected was a modest structure of brick occupying the site of the present east wing. It was completed in 1832. In 1845 the west wing was built, and subsequently the two isolated edifices were connected by an intermediate range of buildings, which were surmounted by a dome. From 1857 to 1859 the central structure underwent a modification, the dome was removed, and the present handsome façade of cut stone was added. The general style of the façade is Ionic, with some Renaissance modifications. Fortunately the building stands well back from the street, so that none of its imposing characteristics are lost. Of late years considerable additions have been made in the rear, so that the actual structure almost extends to the northern limit of the grounds. The interior is no less remarkable than the exterior, containing some fine tesselated stone work in the atrium and vestibules. “The Hall,” as it is called by the members of the legal profession, is the property of the Law Society of Upper Canada. The grounds are surrounded by a handsome open iron railing—a plan that might be adopted with advantage in the case of several other public buildings. Notably do the grounds of Government House and Trinity College, both hedged in by unsightly board fences, suffer by comparison with others which are more liberally displayed.

From Osgoode Hall to the Court House is from the sublime to the ridiculous—from one of the most magnificent buildings in the capital to one of the meanest and most poverty-stricken. It is a shabby-looking edifice, Roman in style, faced with Ohio stone, and stands on the south side of Adelaide Street East, between Toronto and Church Streets. It contains the Assize, County and Division Court-rooms and the County Council chamber, with the offices of the various officials attached to each. Happily the present building will not long continue to disgrace the county at least, as it is proposed to erect a new and more appropriate edifice on Queen Street West.

The jails and reformatories of the city are four in number, viz., the Central Prison, a gloomy gray stone building on the west side of Strachan Avenue; the Toronto Jail, situated on an eminence on the north side of the extension of Gerrard Street, beyond the Don; the Industrial Refuge for Girls, on the south side of King Street, near Dufferin Street; and the Mercer Reformatory, standing to the north-west of the Exhibition Grounds, also on King Street, near Dufferin Street. Of the two last mentioned institutions the former is intended for the reclamation and industrial training of girls committed under the penal laws of Ontario; the latter for the reception and reformation of girls and women sentenced to a term of imprisonment therein by the police magistrate, and more especially for fallen women.

The Free Library building is a plain, unpretentious structure on the north-east corner of Adelaide and Church Streets. It was formerly occupied by the Toronto Mechanics’ Institute, the committee of which made over their building and library to the Free Library Board upon the passage of the Public Library by-law by the citizens. The building has been entirely remodelled internally and was formally re-opened, under the new auspices, on the 6th March, 1884. Branches of the library have also been opened in the northern and western portions of the city. In this connection a few facts relating to the inception and growth of the organization which gave place to the Free Library, may not be considered to be out of place. The Toronto Mechanics’ Institute was established in January, 1831, at a meeting of influential citizens called by Mr. James Leslie, now of Eglinton. During its early days the meetings of its members were held in the “Masonic Lodge” rooms on Market (now Colborne) Street. Here a library and museum were formed, lectures delivered, and evening classes held for the improvement of its members. In 1838 a suite of rooms in the Market Buildings—now the St. Lawrence Hall—were obtained from the city corporation for the accommodation of the Institute. Six years later a move was made to rooms above the store, No. 12 Wellington Buildings, just east of the Wesleyan Book-room, and the winter lectures were held in the County Court Room. During the year 1846, a second move was made—this time to entirely new quarters in the second story of the fire-hall, just erected (on the site of the present police court), an extension of the original plan of the building having been made on purpose to accommodate the Institute, the latter paying the difference between the original estimate and the actual cost of the extended building. In 1853 the site of the present Free Library was purchased, and an appeal made to the citizens for assistance to enable the association to erect a suitable building. The result of the appeal was so gratifying that operations were commenced during the same year. During the year 1855 the Provincial Government leased the unfinished building for four years for departmental purposes, and the revenue derived from this and other sources was sufficient to enable the Institute to discharge its liabilities. On the expiry of the Government’s lease some necessary alterations were made in the building and it was finally taken possession of by the Institute in 1861. During the following winter a more complete system of evening-class instruction was inaugurated, and these classes were carried on with marked success until the winter of 1879-80, when they were discontinued in consequence of the establishment, by the Public School Board, of similar evening classes. In 1871 the Institute building was purchased by the Ontario Government for the purposes of a School of Technology, the Institute being, however, allowed to retain, free of rent, the use of their library, reading and boardrooms. On the removal of the School of Technology to the new building in the Park, the Church Street property was re-sold by the Government to the Institute, in whose hands it then remained until handed over, as already stated, to the Free Library Board.

The Canadian Institute, a literary and scientific society of a high class—the only one in Ontario in fact worthy the name—have their head-quarters in a handsome red brick building, with white stone facings, on the north side of Richmond Street east, a little to the west of Church Street. The edifice, which is in the Parisian Renaissance style, contains a museum, lecture and reading rooms and a well stocked library. The Institute was established in 1849 “for the purpose of promoting the physical sciences, for encouraging and advancing the industrial arts and manufactures, for effecting the formation of a provincial museum, and for the purpose of facilitating the acquirement and the dissemination of knowledge connected with the surveying, engineering and architectural professions.” The Society meets every Saturday during the season, and meetings of other scientific associations, such as the Toronto Medical Society, the Entomological Society, etc., are also periodically held in its rooms.

The Young Men’s Christian Association have their headquarters in Shaftesbury Hall, a convenient and tasteful building on the eastern corner of Queen Street West, and James Street. It contains a large and a smaller hall for public meetings and lectures, besides parlours for the use of members of the Association, and a free reading-room and employment bureau.

The Drill Shed is a plain but massive structure at the foot and on the west side of Jarvis Street. It is the headquarters of the city regiments of militia.

The Industrial Association Exhibition Buildings are pretty well-known to most people in the County of York, to say nothing of the thousands from other parts of the Province who have attended the yearly exhibitions held there since their opening by Lord Dufferin in 1878. The buildings, with their annexes, occupy a tract of land of some sixty acres in extent on the lakeshore, at the foot of Dufferin Street, and on the site of the old Fort Rouillé, the exact spot occupied by which is now marked by a monument, whose foundation-stone was laid during the Semi-Centennial Celebration. The main building is a “crystal palace,” constructed of glass and iron upon a solid brick foundation. In addition there are special structures for the machinery, agricultural, dairy, flower and fruit, carriage, stove, and other departments, as well as extensive pens and stalls for cattle, sheep, and pigs, and a well-laid race track and cattle ring. The whole of these buildings were erected in the comparatively brief period of ninety days. The grounds are tastefully laid out and carefully kept, and are within easy access of the city, while the railway conveys visitors from abroad to their very gates. So far the buildings and grounds have cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The buildings were erected in 1878 in consequence of a pledge given by the Toronto deputation to the annual meeting of the Agricultural and Arts Association of Ontario in 1877 to the effect that if the Provincial Exhibition for the following year were promised to Toronto, that city would provide suitable accommodation therefor. The pledge was accepted and the promise made, much to the disgust of the Guelph deputation, who were desirous of securing the Exhibition for their own city. But here a new difficulty met the Toronto Council—they were unable to obtain a suitable site for the proposed buildings. Finally, after much loss of time, the present site, a portion of the Ordnance lands, was secured from the Dominion Government, and after considerable further difficulty and delay, owing to the opposition of a portion of the citizens, the buildings were put up and the grounds laid out in time for the exhibition. At the following meeting of the Agricultural and Arts Association, however, it was decided to hold the next annual exhibition at Ottawa. Thereupon the Toronto committee, under the leadership of Alderman Withrow, finding themselves left with an expensive set of buildings lying idle on their hands, set to work with a will, and in a short time a new organization was formed, composed of representatives of a number of societies and bodies, both local and Provincial, and received incorporation under the name of the Industrial Exhibition Association, under whose auspices yearly exhibitions have since been held in Toronto, with the most gratifying and with ever-increasing success.

Before quitting the subject of the miscellaneous public buildings of Toronto, a few words may be said in reference to the Grand Opera House, which is situated on the south side of Adelaide Street, nearly midway between Yonge and Bay Streets. It is a fine four-storied building, with a façade in the Parisian Renaissance style, and extends backwards nearly half the distance to King Street. Its erection was undertaken in 1872 by a joint-stock company, and its management entrusted to Mrs. Morrison, a lady as well known in the social as in the theatrical circles of the city. Unfortunately the venture did not prove a success, and the theatre passed under the hammer, being purchased by Mr. Alex. Manning, who engaged Mr. A. Pitou, of New York, to manage it. On Nov. 29th, 1879, disaster in a new shape overtook the theatre, which was destroyed by fire. The proprietor, however, nothing daunted by his ill-fortune, at once commenced re-building, and in ten weeks the present structure was opened by the late Miss Adelaide Neilson. Since then the Grand Opera House seems to have enjoyed unbroken prosperity under the management of Mr. O. B. Sheppard.

THE CITY GOVERNMENT.

In the unpretending building which stands on Front Street, to the south of the St. Lawrence Market—but which, it is to be hoped, will soon be replaced by a structure more befitting the dignity of the capital of Ontario—is centered the machinery which directs the municipal affairs of the City of Toronto. A writer on the city and its history characterizes the edifice as one of the ugliest in the city, and one does not feel disposed to quarrel with him for his plain-speaking. The City Hall, in its present state, is simply an eyesore, though little more favourable can be said of its surroundings, while its unsanitary condition is a perennial source of discomfort and danger to its occupants. It is a plain building of brick, faced with stone, with a frontage of 140 feet, and is about as commonplace as it is possible for any building to be. Some interest, however, attaches to its site, as being that of the original Town Hall of Little York.

The government of the city is vested in a Mayor, elected by the people, and thirty-six Aldermen, three representing each of the twelve wards. The mayor is in receipt of a salary of $2,000, but the Aldermen serve without remuneration. Until January of the year 1884 the city consisted of but ten wards, but by the annexation of the suburbs of Riverside and Brockton—now known respectively as St. Matthew’s and St. Mark’s Wards—the area of the city has been greatly extended and the membership of the Council correspondingly increased, until, as a prominent daily recently remarked, it outnumbers that of many of the Provincial Assemblies of Canada. The following is a list of the wards of which the city is at present composed:—To the east of Yonge Street: St. Lawrence, St. James, St. David, St. Thomas, and St. Matthew. To the west of Yonge Street: St. Andrew, St. George, St. John, St. Patrick, St. Stephen, and St. Mark: to the north, St. Paul’s Ward, formerly the suburb of Yorkville.

The civic departments whose headquarters are in the City Hall, are:—City Clerk’s Office, City Solicitor’s Office, City Treasurer’s Office, Engineer’s Department, City Commissioner’s Department, Water Works, Assessment Department, License Inspector’s Department, Medical Health Office, Registration Office, and Fire Department.

City Clerk’s Office.—Robert Roddy, the present City Clerk, was appointed to this position in 1875, upon the death of the late Stephen Ratcliffe, after having held several important positions in the service of the Corporation.

City Solicitor’s Office.—W. G. McWilliams, City Solicitor, is a native of the County of Brant. He completed his education at the University of Toronto, where he graduated in 1863, and subsequently commenced the study of the law in the office of Messrs. Crooks, Kingsmill & Cattanach, and later on with Mr. Thomas Hodgins, Q.C. After being admitted to practise, in 1869, he entered into partnership with Messrs. Hodgins & Bull, the firm being known as Hodgins, Bull & McWilliams, and continued this connection until 1872, when the firm merged into that of Bull & McWilliams. In October, 1875, Mr. McWilliams formed a partnership with Mr. Foster, under the style and title of Foster & McWilliams, and continued in business in this connection until May, 1876, when he was appointed one of the City Solicitors, being associated in that office with the present Lieutenant-Governor; and on the appointment of the latter to office Mr. McWilliams assumed sole charge of the legal affairs of the city.

City Treasurer’s Office.—The present Treasurer, Mr. S. Bruce Harman, was appointed in 1873. R. T. Coady, Assistant City Treasurer and Chief Accountant, is a native of Toronto, his father having removed to this city in 1827. He for some years held the position of accountant in a local lumbering firm, and in 1872 accepted the position of Deputy-Assistant Treasurer, from which he was promoted, on the death of the then Assistant Treasurer, to the office he now holds.

John Patterson, Cashier, was born in Toronto in 1848. His father, the late Thomas Patterson, came from County Cavan to settle in the city in 1847. Mr. Patterson was appointed a junior clerk in the City Clerk’s Office in 1872, and was promoted to his present position in 1873.

George Kimber, jun’r, Clerk, was born in London, England, in 1849, and emigrated to Canada in 1870. He was appointed Clerk to the Assessment Commissioner in 1873 and was transferred to the Treasurer’s Office in 1877.

City Engineer’s Department.—Charles Sproat, City Engineer, has held the office since September 24, 1883. Some years previous to that date he had occupied the position of Deputy Surveyor, having received this appointment at the time Mr. Frank Shanley assumed the duties of City Engineer, and under his directions the present sewerage arrangements of Toronto were carried out. An account of Mr. Sproat’s professional career is given in the biographical section of this work.

Joseph Jopling, C.E., Assistant City Engineer, was born at Westminster, London, England. He studied his profession under the present Sir John Hawkshaw, from whom he received his diploma. His profession has taken him through nearly all the principal Oriental cities, much of his time having been spent in travelling in the East. He also spent several years in Italy and was subsequently stationed for a time at Constantinople. He came out to Canada for the purpose of assuming a position on the Canadian Pacific Railway, but in consequence of a change in the management of the road, he found it necessary to alter his plans, and soon afterwards accepted the position he now holds. Mr. Jopling is a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers.

William H. Schutt, Accountant, is a native of England. He studied engineering at Limehouse, London, England, and was subsequently for several years Inspecting Engineer for the Metropolitan Board of Works, and was also engaged on the main drainage. He came to Canada in 1870, since which time he has been connected with the City Engineer’s Office.

Charles H. Rust, Assistant Engineer in the City Engineer’s Department, was born at Chatham Hall, Great Waltham, Essex, England. He emigrated to Canada in 1872 and held consecutively positions on the township survey in Muskoka and on the preliminary survey of the Toronto & Ottawa Railway. He was appointed rodman on the City Engineer’s staff in 1877, and to his present position in 1883.

City Commissioner’s Department.—The City Commissioner, who presides over the Department of Works and Health, is Mr. Emerson Coatsworth, a native of Yorkshire, England. He was born in 1825 and came to Canada when only seven years old. His family selected St. Catharines as their future home, and here Mr. Coatsworth, who adopted the calling of a carpenter, remained until 1846. From that year until 1851 he engaged in various contracts, chiefly for the construction of bridges, dock works, saw-mills, etc., in various parts of the Province. His first prolonged visit to Toronto was in 1851, when he undertook the construction of a bridge across the Don; and he subsequently for six months superintended the laying of the plank road running north from the city. The following year he returned to Toronto and engaged in general contracting and building. Among the many public works in which Mr. Coatsworth had a guiding hand, at this time, maybe mentioned the wharf at Collingwood, constructed in 1852-3; the first bridge over the Northern Railway, on Dundas Street, in 1852; and the gravel road bridges throughout the County of Grey. In 1873 he was offered the position of City Commissioner, which he accepted, and in this capacity he continued to act until his appointment, in 1881, as Commissioner of Works and Health—an office for which his previous extended experience in construction works peculiarly fitted him.

Water Works Department.—T. J. McMinn, Assistant Engineer and Draughtsman, entered the service of the city in 1874. He has been largely identified with the construction of the water works system, having been employed in nearly all the various departments of this undertaking, as the reservoir, pumping mains, distribution, wharf, engine house and conduits, and having held the position of resident engineer on the lake extension works.

George Burton Morris, Secretary of the department, is a native of Liverpool, England. He came to Canada in 1873 and settled in Toronto, and soon after his arrival entered the office of the City Clerk. Here he remained five years, and at the time of the abolition of the Water Works Commission he was promoted to his present position.

Joseph Raffan, head accountant, has been identified with this department since its organization in 1872. He came to Canada in childhood, and has ever since been a resident of the city.

James Hutchinson, rating clerk, is a native of Montrose, Scotland, where he was for some time connected with municipal affairs. He came out to Canada in 1873, and was soon afterwards attached to the Assessment Department, but was subsequently transferred to the Water Works.

John H. Venables, chief engineer in charge of the engine house, is a native of England, where he served his time as a mechanical engineer. He came to Toronto in 1868, and followed his profession both in this city and in the Western States. He was engaged for some time on marine and locomotive works in Detroit, and later on served as foreman in the shops at Muskegon, Mich. In 1872 he returned to Toronto to take charge of the works of Messrs. Dickey, Neil & Co., and two years later he entered the service of the city in his present position.

E. Foley is foreman of the street water mains, in which capacity he has acted since 1856, being the oldest employé in the department. He is a native of Tipperary, and emigrated to the United States in 1853. In 1855, while in the employ of a New Jersey company, he came to the city to superintend the laying of some cement mains, and has remained ever since in connection with the outside work of the water system, both before and since its transfer to the city corporation. In October, 1883, Mr. Foley was presented by the employés of the department with a gold watch and an illuminated address.

Thomas R. Skippon, foreman and manager of the press house, and one of the oldest employés of the department, is a native of Old London. He came to Canada in 1854 and learned his trade as a mechanic in Toronto, where he was employed by Messrs. Dickey, Neil & Co. He was inspector of the engine-house building and adjacent wharf, and also of the pipes manufactured for the company both in the city and in Buffalo. The duties which specially fall under Mr. Skippon’s department are the supervision of the repair of engines and valves for the different parts of the city, and the distribution of stores. An idea may be formed of the magnitude of the operations included under the latter head alone, from the fact that in 1883 no less than $16,000 worth of stores left the press-house.

Assessment Department.—This important branch of the civic government is in charge of Mr. N. Maughan, Commissioner.

Fire Department.—The history of the Toronto Fire Department is so closely interwoven with the story of the career of the present Chief, Mr. James Ashfield, that it is next to impossible to disassociate them. Mr. Ashfield’s history for the last forty-five years is the history of the Fire Brigade, of which he has always been a prominent member, and in the improvement of which he has ever been largely instrumental. His connection therewith dates since 1839, the days of the old “bucket brigade.” Previous to, and for some time after, that date, Mr. Ashfield, who came to this country from the north of Ireland with his parents in 1831, carried on the business of a gunsmith—his father’s trade—after having served for two years as foreman with Ira Smith, and his successor, Wm. Gurd. On the outbreak of the Rebellion in 1837, Mr. Ashfield was entrusted with the duty of putting in order and serving out to the volunteers the muskets and small arms then in store in the city, for which purpose he was authorized to engage a competent force of workmen. In 1839, when his connection with the Fire Brigade commenced, the appliances for extinguishing fire were of the rudest description; wells and barrels were the sole reservoirs for water, and the only engines in use were four small hand machines—one of which is now at Riverside—manipulated by an unpaid volunteer corps. Mr. Ashfield’s personal courage, added to his mechanical skill and executive ability, soon gained for him the confidence and respect of the members of the brigade and of the citizens generally. He rapidly rose, from private to captain, and in 1851, after twelve years of gratuitous service, he was unanimously elected Chief Engineer, a position which he has since held

uninterruptedly until the present time. Other honours had already fallen to his lot, for in 1848 his fellow-citizens had sent him as one of their representatives to the City Council—a mark of confidence which was renewed year by year until 1854, when his acceptance of a salary as Chief Engineer of the Fire Brigade necessitated his resignation. In the meantime he had every year been confirmed in the latter position, which in those days was elective, though subsequently the appointment was made permanent and vested in the City Council. In 1855 Mr. Ashfield was sent on a tour of inspection of the fire brigade systems in use in the principal cities of the United States and Canada, and the result of his observations was the purchase by the City Council, upon his recommendation, of two first-class hand engines, one of Montreal, the other of Boston make. These continued in use until the introduction of steam fire engines, the first of which was brought to the city in 1861, and was followed by a second the succeeding year. The innovation, including the employment of a small paid brigade, created some dissatisfaction in the city, and gave rise to a public demonstration of hostility to the new order of things, during which the Chairman of the Fire and Gas Committee was paid the honour of being hanged in effigy. The malcontents, however, soon became reconciled to the march of progress, and in 1871 Toronto was in possession of four Silsby steam fire engines, three of which are yet in the city, though one only, the “J. B. Boustead,” is in commission. It is gratifying to be able to state—on Mr. Ashfield’s authority—that the water pressure at the hydrants has been so good that the services of this relic of a by-gone system have not been required more than three or four times since March, 1876. Another improvement that the Chief Engineer was mainly instrumental in introducing was the electric alarm system. As late as 1871 alarms were given by striking on some of the church or other bells the number of the ward in which a fire had broken out; a very inefficient mode of indication, as in many cases the locality of the fire was not known to the brigade until revealed by the glare in the sky. Regularly for seven or eight years had Mr. Ashfield inveighed against the inadequacy of this method, and urged the adoption of the electric system as the only one adapted to the needs of the city. But in the year mentioned, Alderman Boustead, Chairman of the Fire and Gas Committee, took the matter in hand, and before August of that year the Gamewell Automatic system was in successful operation. In 1873 another reform was effected, in the construction by the city of its own water works, which in 1876 were so far advanced that the fire engines were no longer required to respond to the summons to a fire. Under the old system, when the water works were the property of a private company, there were but eighty-five fire hydrants, and from these the water was turned off on Tuesdays and Fridays, and at such other times as the necessity for making repairs might require. At the present time there are in the city 1,260 hydrants, from any of which a good supply of water may be obtained at a moment’s notice. And now for a bit of contrast. In the old Fire Brigade, before the introduction of steam fire engines, there were six engine companies, one hook-and-ladder company and one hose company—in all about 320 men. When the alarm was rung the men had to go from their several places of business to their respective fire halls, and thence haul their respective apparatus to the scene of the fire; and this once reached the probability of securing a sufficient supply of water was, to say the least, small. The present brigade consists of one company of sixty-four men, including the chief and his assistants. This company is told off into thirteen sections, ten of which consist of branch and hose, and three of hook-and-ladder men. The several sections are stationed in comfortable fire halls in different parts of the city, and nineteen horses and fourteen drivers are employed to convey them and their apparatus to the scenes of their operations. Horses and drivers are under contract, and cost the city about $8,800 per annum. The entire cost of the department for the year 1883 was $54,000. Mr. Ashfield, who has taken an active and prominent part in all the measures which have contributed towards bringing the brigade to its present high degree of efficiency, is now in his seventy-third year, but is still as active and as fit for work—after forty-five years’ service in the department—as most men of fifty. Since 1876, in consideration of his long and faithful services, the City Council has relieved him of that portion of his duties which necessitated his attendance with the brigade at fires. Mr. Ashfield has been a member of the Orange order for many years, and has been connected with the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society since its organization.

Donald Gibson, City Electrician, is a native of Glasgow, Scotland. He came out to Toronto in 1854 under an engagement with the Gas Company, with whom he remained eleven years. He then carried on a plumbing and gas-fitting business for several years, and in 1872, on the establishment of the electric fire-alarm system, accepted his present position. He was connected with the volunteer service for twenty-eight years, having joined the Queen’s Own at the time of its organization. In 1867 he was transferred to the Artillery, in which he successively held the rank of lieutenant and captain, the latter for a period of thirteen years, until his retirement in 1884. He has had the honour of competing on four occasions at Wimbledon as a member of the Canadian team of marksmen.

Police Department.—The City of Toronto is singularly fortunate in its police force, which is composed of as fine a body of men as may be seen in any similar corps in the world, and even perhaps in any military organization. The majority of them have, previous to their Canadian experience, served in the Royal Irish Constabulary, and as they are thus already individually well drilled and disciplined, the handling of the force, which is carried out on strictly military principles, becomes a comparatively easy matter. The physique of the men and their soldierly bearing evokes the admiration of all visitors to the city, and especially of those from the other side of the border, accustomed to the anything but martial-looking patrolmen of the American cities. The management of the force has been, since the year 1859, in the hands of three Commissioners, viz., the Police Magistrate, one of the Judges of the County Court and the Mayor. Previous to that time it had been invested in the City Council, but the mismanagement and jobbery under this arrangement were so glaring that the Local Government interfered and instituted the régime which now prevails. The headquarters of the force are in the Central Police Station on Court Street, with four subsidiary stations in different quarters of the city. The present Commissioners are Col. G. T. Denison, who is also Police Magistrate, chairman; Judge McDougall, of the County Court, and A. R. Boswell, Esq., Mayor. The Chief of Police is Major Frank C. Draper, and the Deputy-Chief John Macpherson. The latter officer has had a life-long experience in police matters, and his selection for the position he holds was regarded on all hands as a most wise one. He is a native of Scotland, where he served for six years on the Edinburgh and Argyleshire police forces. He came to Canada in 1855, and was attached to the new city police, then just reorganized under the management of Chief Sherwood. Mr. Macpherson served two years in the police office, and was promoted in 1862 to the rank of Sergeant; in 1865 to that of Sergeant-Major, and in 1876 to the position of Deputy Chief.

As already stated, the Police Magistrate is Col. G. T. Denison, and the Clerk of the Court Mr. J. T. Nudel, who has held the position for many years, but has of late, in consequence of the increasing amount of business entailed by the growth of the city and its population, been assisted by Mr. M. J. Meyerfey. The latter gentleman is a Hungarian, having been born at Buda-Pesth in 1848. He emigrated to the United States in 1862, and came thence to Canada in 1874. He was appointed to assist Mr. Nudel in 1877.

The five police stations distributed over the city are as follows:—No. 1, headquarters, Court Street, under the charge of W. E. Stuart, Assistant Deputy-Chief of Police; No. 2, Agnes Street, between Yonge and Teraulay Streets, Inspector Wm. Ward; No. 3, St. Andrew’s Market, Inspector R. Leith; No. 4, Wilton Avenue, east of Parliament Street, Inspector David Archibald; No. 5, in the former Yorkville Town Hall, Inspector Joseph Johnson.

Assistant Deputy-Chief Stuart is a native of County Leitrim, Ireland, and was connected with the force in that country for seven years. He came to Toronto in 1861, and soon after joined the force as a constable; passing successively through the grades of patrol-sergeant, sergeant, sergeant-major and inspector, he was finally appointed to his present position in May, 1884.

Inspector Wm. Ward, of No. 2 Division, who is also drill-instructor to the force, was born in Devonshire, England. He is an old soldier, having seen ten years’ service in the Coldstream Guards. He was with his regiment in the Crimea, and was present at the memorable siege of Sebastopol. In 1861, being then a sergeant in his old corps, he was sent to Canada to assist in drilling the volunteers. He landed at St. John, N.B., and was stationed for three months at Quebec and for some length of time in Montreal. He was then ordered to the western division of this Province, going from place to place to drill the militia forces. In 1864, his term of service having expired, he was recalled to England and received his discharge, but immediately returned to Canada, and in December of the same year joined the Toronto police force, then under Captain Prince. Like Inspector Stuart he was rapidly promoted, and in 1876 received his inspectorship. Mr. Ward has been in charge of the police-drill since he joined the force, and is the author of a work on that subject.

Inspector David Archibald, of No. 4 Division, is a native of Tipperary. After serving for over four years in the Royal Irish Constabulary he came to Canada in 1865, and joined the city force in October of that year. Two years later he obtained special promotion to the rank of patrol-sergeant; was made sergeant in 1872, sergeant-major in 1876, and inspector in 1878. He has had charge of No. 4 station since 1877. Inspector Archibald is well known as a zealous and earnest worker on behalf of the temperance cause, his services in connection with which have been recognized by his fellow-workers by his election this year as lay representative at the First United Conference.

Inspector Joseph Johnson, of No. 5 Division, was born in 1842, near Armagh, Ireland. He came to Toronto in 1867, and in March, 1874, joined the Yorkville police force, of which he became chief constable two months later. He continued to hold this position until the annexation of Yorkville to the city in 1883, and was appointed inspector for that district in May of the following year.

The Detective Force consists of the following members:—John Newhall, chief; detectives, John Hodgins, John Reid, Stuart Burrows, Edward Brown, Henry Reburn and Philip Sheahan. The detectives’ headquarters are also in the Police Court building, of which James Woods is caretaker. The latter is a native of County Down, Ireland; he came to Canada in 1873, and was appointed to his present position in 1876.

Gas Works.—The gas supply of the city, although not strictly coming under the head of City Government, may be dealt with in this place, inasmuch as the relations of the city with the Gas Company are under the control of one of the committees of the City Council.

The Consumers’ Gas Company, which supplies all the gas used in the city, has its headquarters on the north side of Front Street East, the works and offices occupying a considerable area of ground on either side of Parliament Street. It also has an office for the convenience of the public at 19 Toronto Street. The company was formed in 1847, but it was seven years previous to this that gas was first introduced in the city. A movement with this object in view was set on foot in 1839, when a joint committee of citizens and members of the City Council was appointed to enquire into the feasibility of the scheme. It was not intended, of course, to light the whole city with gas, but merely the business portion; and that rather as an experiment than as a permanent arrangement. Upon the recommendation of the committee the Council despatched Mr. Cull, a civil engineer, to Montreal, in order to obtain information as to the practicability of the scheme. From Mr. Furniss, a gentleman largely interested in the gas works in that city, Mr. Cull received much assistance, and finally the former made an offer to supply the City of Toronto with the light it required for £7,500. At the same time other tenders were received from different quarters. These offers were submitted to a public meeting of citizens, at which Mr. Furniss was present by special invitation and entered into a full explanation of the necessary details. The upshot of the matter was that a private company was formed by Mr. Furniss, and the Council granted a site in the eastern end of the city for the erection of works. The following year the works were in operation, but on a limited scale only. In 1841 the company undertook the duty of supplying the city with water as well as with gas, and was incorporated under the style of “The Toronto Water and Gas Light Company.” Its operations in the matter of gas could not have been very extensive, as it only had twelve lamps to supply, and the quantity of gas manufactured in its first year was less than four million cubic feet. In 1845 the company entered into a twenty-one years’ contract with the Corporation, undertaking to light the streets at £6 13s. 4d. per light per annum, and to bear the expense of erecting the lamps and keeping them in order. Not very long after this Mr. Furniss became sole proprietor of the works, and in 1847 he sold out to the present company. The twelve lamps and four million feet of gas of 1841 have since increased to 2,540 public and private lamps, and nearly two hundred and forty million feet of gas per annum, with 110 miles of main pipes, supplying 5,600 consumers. The present price of gas is from $1.25 to $1.60 per thousand cubic feet, which is in marked contrast to the $5 which consumers were charged in 1848.

Mr. W. H. Pearson, sen’r, secretary of the Company, has been connected with that organization for the last thirty years. He is a native of London, England, and came to Canada with his parents in 1834, and to Toronto in 1839. For seven years he held a clerkship in the Post-office, the staff of which at that time consisted of the Postmaster, three clerks and one carrier. He subsequently entered the employment of the Gas Company as chief clerk, and in 1874 was appointed secretary—a position which is virtually that of manager. Mr. Pearson has been for many years a valued and esteemed member of the Richmond Street Methodist Church, and has devoted much attention to the Sunday School in connection with that congregation, having been class-leader for twenty-nine, and superintendent for twenty-seven, years. His son, W. H. Pearson, jun’r, holds the position of Superintendent of Works in the company which Mr. Pearson manages.

F. B. Whittemore, chief clerk since 1874, is Toronto-born, and has been in the employment of the Company since 1864.

THE CHURCHES.

Few cities of the same population are more liberally endowed in the matter of churches than Toronto. At a distance the city seems to bristle with spires, and in the streets they meet the eye at every turn. Of late years church-building has received a great impetus, and many congregations that were content to worship in modest edifices of wood or brick, have either been compelled by the narrowness of their accommodation and the increase of their membership to enlarge their quarters, or else, fired to emulation by the example of their neighbours, have launched out into building operations in order to keep pace with the times. Toronto is thus eminently a city of churches, counting within its limits upwards of a hundred places of worship. Some of these—such as are especially noticeable either for architectural beauty or historic association—will be briefly described in the following pages:—

I.—Episcopal.

The Anglican body have about a score of churches within the city limits, chief of these being St. James’ Cathedral, on the north-east corner of King and Church Streets. This metropolitan church—as a congregation, not an edifice—is the oldest in the city. Previous to 1803 services were held in a secular building, but in that year the first edifice, subsequently to be dedicated to St. James, was erected. It was an unassuming frame structure, but answered all the purposes of the then scanty congregation. In 1832 it was replaced by a plain stone structure with a square tower at its southern end. This was destroyed by fire in 1839, and in the same year a third edifice, also of stone, but with a wooden spire, was erected. The flimsy character of the spire subsequently proved fatal to the church, for, ten years later, during the conflagration of 1849, the spire was ignited by the showers of cinders from the burning houses and the entire church fell a prey to the flames. Thanks to the energetic efforts of Bishop Strachan, a new building—the present cathedral—was soon under way, and in 1853 the congregation of St. James’ once more worshipped under their own roof. At this time the cathedral presented a very different appearance to that with which the present generation is familiar. It was a plain, unadorned structure, without tower or spire, the former being only completed in 1867, and the latter, together with the pinnacles and porch, in 1874. Mr. T. W. Cumberland was the architect. The present building is about two hundred feet long, and has seating capacity for about two thousand persons. It is of white brick with stone facings, in style a modified Early English, and its entire cost, including that of the peal of eight bells, was $218,000. The tower is one hundred and forty feet high and the spire one hundred and sixty-six. The latter, with its illuminated clock, is visible far and wide, and forms a prominent feature in the distant view of Toronto. Internally the church consists of nave and transepts; the chancel, an apse in form, contains a richly-carved altar and reredos, erected by the congregation in memory of Bishop Strachan, and the choir is enriched with carved oak stalls. The rector of the cathedral is the Rev. Canon Dumoulin, who succeeded the late Dean Grasett in this high but, in view of recent litigation, onerous position. The Bishop of the diocese and President of the Synod is the Rt. Rev. A. Sweatman. In rear of the church, on the corner of Adelaide Street, is the Parochial School-house.

Holy Trinity Church, in Trinity Square, was for many years conspicuous among the Anglican places of worship in the city on account of the ornate character of its ritual and the beauty of its musical services. Under the present incumbent, however, the former has been considerably modified, the cathedral (or choral) service being alone maintained in its entirety. The building is in the so-called debased Gothic style, of white brick, and cruciform in shape, with a shallow chancel and two shallow transepts. Its western end is adorned with two battlemented turrets. The circumstances attending the foundation of the church are of more than usual interest, and as much doubt seems to exist on the subject it may not be out of place to give the correct version. In 1845 Bishop Strachan received a letter from the Rt. Rev. Dr. Longley, then Bishop of Ripon, informing him that £5,000 had been given by an anonymous donor—now generally supposed to be a lady—for the purpose of erecting a church in Toronto. It appears that the munificent founder had been so impressed by the statements made by the Rev. Geo. Hills—afterwards first Bishop of British Columbia—who had been deputed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to advocate the claims of the Church in the colonies, that he—or she—was led to devote £10,000 for the benefit of the Colonial Church. Half of this sum was appropriated by the donor for the purpose already mentioned, with the stipulation that the new church should be called “The Church of the Holy Trinity,” that it should be built in the form of a cross, and that the seats should be entirely free. The anonymous founder further carried her generosity to the extent of presenting the future church with a set of beautifully-worked altar linen and surplices and costly silver communion vessels. It was also provided that a money gift of £50 sterling, or $250, should be presented on the altar on the first occasion of the administration of the Holy Communion, and that three similar sums should be offered respectively for gifts for the poor, for an altar-cloth for the church, and for beautifying the font. The plans of the church were prepared by Mr. H. B. Lane, an English architect, who had settled in Toronto, and who also designed St. George’s and “Little” Trinity; and the building was erected on a site given by Col. the Hon. John Simcoe Macaulay, the corner-stone being laid by Bishop Strachan on July 1st, 1846. The opening and consecration service took place on October 27th, 1847. The first incumbent was the Rev. Henry Scadding, who was assisted by the Rev. Walter Stennett, these gentlemen, who were then engaged in scholastic work at Upper Canada College, having offered their services gratuitously. Subsequently the Rev. W. Stewart Darling was appointed assistant minister, and on the resignation of Dr. Scadding succeeded to the incumbency, with the Rev. John Pearson, of Fredericton, N.B., as assistant. In 1881 Mr. Darling gave up the entire parochial charge to Mr. Pearson, under whose administration it still continues.

St. George’s Church, on John Street, and of which the Rev. J. D. Cayley is incumbent, was built in 1845. It is of white brick, with Ohio stone dressings, and is surmounted by a spire one hundred and sixty feet in height. The seating accommodation is about eight hundred. This is one of the few Anglican churches in the city that possess a surpliced choir.

St. Stephen’s, on the corner of Bellevue Avenue and College Street, was built in 1857 by R. B. Denison, Esq., son of Col. G. T. Denison. It is one of the prettiest specimens of the Early English style of architecture that the city possesses; it is built of red brick with stone facings, and consists of a nave with shallow transepts and a deep chancel. The service is semi-choral. Rev. C. J. Broughall is the rector.

Grace Church, on the south side of Elm Street, between Teraulay and Elizabeth, is an outcome of the Low Church movement in the Anglican Church in the city. It is a handsome edifice in second-pointed Gothic, and consists of a large nave and transepts. The most noteworthy of its architectural adornments are the “wheel” window in the northern façade and the mediæval iron-work adorning the doors of the main entrance. Rev. J. P. Lewis is the rector.

Trinity Church—commonly known as “Little Trinity,” in contradistinction to Holy Trinity—is one of the oldest Episcopal Church edifices of the city. It is situated on the south side of King Street East, a little east of Parliament. It was erected in 1843 as a “chapel of ease,” to accommodate the overflow from St. James’, and was opened for service early in the following year. At that time it was a fine specimen of picturesque Gothic—the designs from which it was erected being by Mr. H. B. Lane, already mentioned in connection with Holy Trinity. Since then it has been twice improved and somewhat enlarged. The present incumbent is the Rev. Alexander Sanson, who has held office since 1852, and who is the oldest clergyman in charge of any city congregation of the English Church.

The other noteworthy Anglican churches are All Saints’, on the corner of Wilton Avenue and Sherbourne Streets, an edifice of a modified Early English Gothic; the Church of the Ascension (Baldwin Memorial Church) on Richmond Street, west of York; the Church of the Redeemer, corner of Bloor and Avenue Streets—both good specimens of early English Gothic; St. Paul’s, Bloor Street; St. Peter’s, corner of Carlton and Bleeker Streets, one of the prettiest ecclesiastical structures in the city; St. Luke’s, corner of St. Joseph and St. Vincent Streets, a handsome building of red brick; St. Philip’s, corner of Spadina Avenue and St. Patrick Street, another red brick building, but without any pretensions to architectural beauty; St. Matthias’, Bellwoods Avenue, the “ritualist” church par excellence; St. Bartholomew’s, River Street; St. John the Evangelist’s, Portland Street; St. Thomas’, Huron Street; St. Anne’s, in St. Mark’s Ward, formerly Brockton Village; and St. Matthew’s, in St. Matthew’s Ward, formerly Riverside.

II.—Roman Catholic.

This body owns eight churches and two chapels in the city, including the mother church or Cathedral of St. Michael. The latter is one of the finest Gothic edifices in Canada, and its graceful spire, surmounted by a huge gilt cross—said to enclose a portion of the true cross—is a prominent feature of the city from all approaches. The cathedral, which is built of white brick, stands on the north side of Shuter Street, between Church and Bond Streets, with its main façade on the latter. The interior of the building is highly decorated, and contains a beautiful painted window, representing the Crucifixion, over the high altar. The musical portion of the services, under the direction of the present rector, the Rev. J. M. Laurent, who is well known in Toronto musical circles, has of late years assumed a high character, and attracts large crowds to the evening offices. To the north of the cathedral, facing Church Street, is the archi-episcopal palace, standing amid spacious grounds; and further to the north, on Bond Street, is the Loretto Convent, also in connection with the cathedral. Thus nearly the entire block enclosed by Church, Shuter and Bond Streets and Wilton Avenue is occupied by the cathedral and its dependencies.

To St. Paul’s Church, on Power Street, belongs the honour of having been the first Roman Catholic church built in Toronto. It was erected in 1826, services having, previous to its construction, been held at the residences of private members of the Church. It has in connection with it a large separate school on Queen Street, and a hospital, orphanage and refuge for the aged—all three under one roof, and known as the House of Providence. The area occupied by this church and the buildings connected with it is even larger than in the case of St. Michael’s. St. Paul’s is under the charge of Bishop O’Mahoney.

The other Roman Catholic churches are St. Patrick’s, on William Street, served by the Redemptorist Fathers; St. Basil’s, in connection with St. Michael’s College, which is in the hands of the Basilian Fathers; St. Mary’s, on Bathurst Street; St. Peter’s, corner of Bloor and Bathurst Streets; St. Helen’s, in St. Mark’s Ward, and St. Joseph’s, in St. Matthew’s Ward. St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s each have a separate school attached. Besides the above are the Chapel of St. Vincent, attached to the archi-episcopal palace, and that of St. John, on Bond Street, opposite the Metropolitan. The latter was formerly a Baptist church, but was purchased by the Roman Catholics and dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

III.—Methodist.

The Methodists are, both numerically and financially, one of the strongest religious bodies in the city; and their importance has been materially increased by the recent consummation of the union of the various sub-divisions of the Church. They own twenty places of worship within the city limits, the chief of these being the well-known Metropolitan, the most happily situated of all the city churches. It is built of white brick, with cut stone dressings, and is in style a modernized Gothic. At the south end is a massive square tower one hundred and ninety feet high, which is flanked by numerous pinnacles and spirelets. To the north end is a pseudo-chancel, separated from the auditorium and containing lecture and class-rooms. The seating capacity of the church proper is about two thousand five hundred. The building stands in the centre of spacious grounds, between two and three acres in extent and occupying the entire space—formerly known as McGill Square—enclosed by Shuter, Bond, Queen, and Church Streets. Over $10,000 have been expended in laying out and beautifying the grounds, in addition to $150,000 spent upon the church building. The Metropolitan owes its existence largely to the energy of the Rev. William Morley Punshon, who was its first pastor, and who, on his arrival in Toronto in 1868, devoted much time to raising the funds for its construction. The task of preparing the plans was entrusted to Mr. W. G. Storm, the well-known Toronto architect, and the result was so satisfactory that Dr. Punshon himself pronounced the Metropolitan to be unequalled among the Methodist churches of the world. The present pastor is the Rev. H. Johnston. The choir of the Metropolitan is one of the best in the city, and the special musical services which from time to time are held in the church never fail to attract large and appreciative audiences.

The Elm Street Church, under the ministrations of Rev. W. H. Laird, is a handsome building in Early English Gothic style, built of white brick, faced with stone, and surmounted by a graceful spire. It was erected in 1861-2 to replace the church which previously stood on the same site, but was burnt down on October 29th, 1861.

The Sherbourne and Carlton Street churches, also belonging to this body, are specially worthy of notice as specimens of ecclesiastical architecture. The latter, Norman Gothic in style, is another of Mr. Storm’s productions, of which the city may be proud.

The other principal churches of this denomination are those situated on, and taking their names from, Bloor, Berkeley, Queen, and Richmond Streets and Spadina Avenue.

IV.—Presbyterian.

The first Presbyterian church in Toronto was erected in 1821, on the site of the present Knox Church, the land having been given for that purpose by Mr. Jesse Ketchum. At the present time the Presbyterians possess over a dozen church buildings, some of them among the foremost in Toronto for architectural beauty or boldness of conception. Especially noticeable is St. Andrew’s, on the corner of King and Simcoe Streets, a massive edifice in the Middle Norman style of architecture, with a battlemented tower and flagstaff, which, at a distance, give it the appearance of a feudal castle rather than that of a church. The material used in its construction is Georgetown rubble, with Ohio stone dressings. The northern façade of the building, with its three highly decorated arches, supported by polished red granite columns, and flanked at either side by a massive tower with pointed roof, is singularly imposing. This church, which is presided over by Rev. D. J. Macdonnell, is an outcome of the division of the congregation which used to worship in the Adelaide Street Presbyterian Church, on the corner of Church Street, also dedicated to Scotland’s patron saint. Of this congregation, one portion, under Mr. Macdonnell, moved to Simcoe Street, while the rest continued to worship on Adelaide Street under the ministrations of the Rev. G. M. Milligan, until the erection of their new church, known as “Old” St. Andrew’s, on the corner of Jarvis and Carlton Streets. The latter is built of reddish-grey freestone with Ohio stone dressings, in second-pointed Gothic style, but treated with an unusual simplicity that gives the building a severe character all its own.

St. James’ Square Church, on the north side of Gerrard Street east, is one of the purest specimens of Gothic architecture in the city. It is built of Georgetown rubble, with dressings of Ohio stone, and is surmounted by a massive tower one hundred feet high.

Knox Church, on the south side of Queen Street, near Yonge, was erected in 1847 to replace the church of the same name destroyed by fire in that year. The material is white brick, and the spire is highly decorated; but within the last few months the appearance of the church has been entirely altered—by no means for the better—by painting it an unlovely chocolate brown.

Erskine Church, on Caer-Howell Street, at the head of Simcoe, was partially destroyed by fire early during the present year (1884), but has since been restored according to the original plans of the architect, Mr. W. E. J. Lennox. It is a neat Gothic edifice, built of white brick, with Ohio stone dressings and Kingston stone base. It has a frontage of eighty-three feet, by a depth of ninety-seven feet—the latter including church and Sabbath-school room. The main feature of the building is a large and handsome tower on the south-east corner, nineteen feet square and one hundred feet in height, to balance the effect of which there is a small gable on the opposite corner. The roof is of slate, and the stone dressings of the façade are so arranged as to give the latter a very striking appearance. Within, the main building is divided into a vestibule, extending the whole width of the frontage, and the auditorium, which has a depth of about sixty feet, with seating capacity for about nine hundred people, though provision is made to increase the accommodation by three hundred by means of sliding seats. The auditorium is in form an amphitheatre, the floor having a gentle downward slope towards the platform and pulpit at the north end. The organ also occupies this end of the church, standing behind the pulpit, while a gallery, supported on iron columns continued to the roof, fills in the other three sides, the ceiling above the gallery being groined. Over the nave is one span ornamented with moulded ribs and bosses. Immediately in rear of the church, but under the same roof, are the Sabbath-school room and offices, this portion being thirty feet long by eighty-five wide, and consisting of two stories; of these the lower is divided off into lecture and class-rooms, library and vestry, and the upper into infant and Bible-class rooms, visitors’ gallery, and a large school room. The entire cost of the whole building was $28,000. The Rev. John Smith is pastor.

The Central Presbyterian Church stands on the corner of Grosvenor Avenue and St. Vincent Street, formerly the site of old Knox College, a building of historic interest as having been, as Elmsley Villa, the residence of Lord Elgin on the removal of the seat of Government to Toronto from Montreal, after the burning of the Parliament buildings in the latter city. The church is built in a modernized form of Gothic, and is an exceedingly handsome white brick structure, with the additional advantage of being situated in a commanding position. Other Presbyterian churches are Cooke’s, on Queen Street East, erected in 1857-8, and those on College, Charles, King, and Queen Streets and Denison Avenue.

V.—Baptist.

The principal of the half-dozen churches which belong to the Baptist denomination is the fine Gothic building on the north-east corner of Jarvis and Gerrard Streets, which owes its existence largely to the munificence of the Hon William McMaster.

The Alexander Street Baptist Church congregation was organized in 1866, and was composed chiefly of members of the old Bond Street Church, who resided in the northern portion of the city. Its present membership is 246, and its revenue for the year 1884 was $3,861. The church building is a modest but convenient brick structure, in which Rev. Joshua Denovan has ministered since 1878.

The Bloor Street Baptist Church, on the corner of North Street, was built from the plans of Mr. E. J. Lennox, architect. It is a neat modern Gothic structure of red brick, with Ohio stone dressings, and includes under the one roof the church proper, with a frontage of seventy-seven feet and a depth of seventy-five and a-half, and the Sunday-school, etc., in rear, measuring forty-three by seventy-nine feet. One of the principal features of the exterior is a handsome tower with a short spiral roof, and, on one side of it, a circular turret with mock winding-staircase-windows and short spiral roof. The effect of the tower is counterbalanced on the other side of the church by large buttresses and a wing. Leading to the tower and forming one of the principal entrances to the building is an open brick porch, with an open timbered roof and heavy projecting gables, and closed on the outside by a very fine pair of wrought-iron gates. The auditorium is in form an amphitheatre, fifty-eight feet in depth, and provides seating accommodation for about one thousand persons. Opposite the entrances is the platform, with the baptistry—entirely constructed of marble—behind, and above, a handsome choir and organ gallery, supported by carved columns. A gallery for the general accommodation of worshippers runs round the other three sides of the building. The ceiling is plastered, with groined ribs, dome-shaped in the centre and ornamented with carved capitals, bosses, etc. The Sunday-school building in rear contains the usual lecture and class rooms, which, by an ingenious arrangement of sliding doors, may be thrown into one large hall. The entire cost of the building, including organ, upholstering, heating, etc., will be about $30,000. Among the other Baptist churches the principal are those situated on Parliament, Beverley and College Streets.

VI.—Congregational.

The Congregationalists have five places of worship in the city, viz.: Bond Street Church; the Northern Congregational, on Church Street, between Alexander and Wood; Zion Church, on College Street, at the head of Elizabeth; and modest edifices on Spadina and Hazelton Avenues. The Bond Street Church, on the north-east corner of that street and Wilton Avenue, was designed by Mr. E. J. Lennox. It is a substantial modern Gothic building, of Georgetown stone, with Ohio stone dressings and slated roof, and has a frontage on Wilton Avenue of eighty feet, and on Bond Street of ninety feet. It has two towers, the principal one on the south-west corner, rising to a height of one hundred and thirty feet; the other, on the north-west corner, being about sixty-five feet in height. On the north and south sides, and between the towers on the west side, are gables with large tracery windows and a number of small ones beneath; the space between the gables and the towers is also filled in with windows. The roof forms an octagon from the cornice, and from that there is a second octagon, rising several feet and roofed to the same pitch as the church roof. This serves the double purpose of lighting the dome and ventilating the body of the church. The main entrances are through the towers, with additional doors through the old Sunday-school building to the east of the church. At the east end of the auditorium is the pulpit platform, with the organ and choir in a groined recess behind. A gallery with six rows of seats runs round the remaining three sides of the church, and is supported on columns which are continued to the groined ceiling. The centre of the ceiling forms a large dome of fifty feet span, terminating at its crown in a second ornamental stained glass dome eighteen feet in diameter and receiving its light from the external octagon lantern. The ordinary seating capacity of the church is one thousand four hundred, with additional accommodation by means of sliding seats for six hundred. The total cost of the building, including organ, upholstery, etc., was in the vicinity of $32,000.

In addition to the above denominations the Unitarians have a neat church on Jarvis Street, above Wilton Avenue; the Catholic Apostolic body, a handsome white brick edifice on the corner of Gould and Victoria Streets; and the Lutherans, an unpretending but commodious building on Bond Street. The Reformed Episcopal congregation have erected a white brick church, in the Byzantine style, on the corner of Simcoe and Caer-Howell Streets, and the Hebrews possess a red brick synagogue on the south side of Richmond Street, east of Victoria. The New Jerusalem Church and the Society of Friends each have a small place of meeting, and the Christadelphians hold services in the Temperance Hall, on Temperance Street, and in a private house on Alice Street. A purely undenominational organization, not possessing any distinctive appellation, meets in Jackson’s Hall, on the corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets. It is under the ministrations of the Rev. William Brookman, and was organized in June, 1881, when about thirty of the present members with their families, nearly all of whom had seceded from the Yorkville Baptist Church, formed a new congregation, unattached to any religious sect. Previous to the separation—which was based upon the rejection of the doctrine of endless life in misery being the punishment for sin—Mr. Brookman had been in charge of the above-mentioned church for about a year, and prior to that again had ministered in the Church of England for nearly a quarter of a century. The main features of the belief professed by this little congregation, which numbers only fifty-six members, are, in addition to that already mentioned, the adoption of the great central truth of life only in Christ; the acceptation of the Word of God as the sole rule of faith and practice, and, whilst holding alone to the immersion of believers as true baptism, practising loving fellowship with all who love the Saviour.

UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS.

In its wealth of educational institutions Toronto justly claims to be far and away ahead of any of its sister cities in the whole Dominion. In this even Montreal is eclipsed; and it is significant that Toronto’s progress in matters educational has been almost entirely made within the last forty years. In 1844 Upper Canada College and the Grammar School were the only institutions that made any pretence at training in the higher branches of learning. At the present time, in addition to the Provincial University, the city contains five denominational universities and colleges for advanced students, the Normal and Model Schools, three schools of medicine, and one each of pharmacy, chemistry, dental surgery, practical science and veterinary medicine.

At the head of the entire educational system of the Province stands the Provincial University, or, as it is commonly called, the University of Toronto. It is one of the most magnificent piles of buildings in the whole country—if not on the entire continent—and its architectural beauties are enhanced by its position in the midst of spacious and well-wooded grounds lying to the west of the Queen’s Park. The structure was completed in 1859 from designs by Messrs. Cumberland and Storm, architects, of Toronto. The style of architecture is Norman, and the material a gray freestone, for the most part undressed, which harmonizes admirably with the massive outlines of the edifice. The front of the pile faces to the south, is about a hundred yards in length, and is surmounted by a huge square tower, which adds greatly to the mediæval appearance of the building. The rest of the outline is rectangular, enclosing on three sides a quadrangle of some two hundred feet in width, but open to its north end. The central tower is one hundred and twenty feet in height, and from its summit an admirable view is obtained. On the east front is another, but smaller and pointed, tower. In the interior the entrance-hall and grand staircase are worthy of note, and the fine library will at once attract all lovers of literature. The present President of the University is Dr. Daniel Wilson, who succeeded Dr. McCaul, of Trinity College, Dublin. The University, in the first stage of its existence, was known as the University of King’s College; it owed its existence in great measure to the exertions of Dr. Strachan, later on Anglican Bishop of Toronto, and was entirely in the hands of that body. Its denominational character gave great offence, and its unpopularity on that account was so great that in 1850 this grievance was abolished and it became a purely unsectarian and State institution. For some years previously to the erection of the present edifice the University had its headquarters in the Parliament Buildings on Front Street. The present Chancellor of the University is the Hon. Edward Blake, and the Vice-Chancellor Mr. W. Mulock.

The University of Trinity College is a Church of England institution, and, like King’s College, was the outcome of the untiring energy of Bishop Strachan, in whose honour the avenue leading up to the College building from the south has been named. On the abolition of the sectarian character of King’s College, the Bishop, failing to secure the repeal of that measure, successfully appealed to the members of the Churches of England and Ireland for aid towards erecting a Church University in Toronto, and in April, 1851, the foundation of the present building was laid. In January of the following year the regular course of classes was thrown open, and six months later the University was constituted by royal charter and empowered to grant degrees in divinity, arts, law and medicine. To these have since been added music and theology, the first degree of “licentiate in theology” having been bestowed in the summer of 1884. Though a purely Church of England institution, it does not necessarily require its students, with the exception of those taking the divinity course, to be members of that denomination. The University building, which is situated on the north side of Queen Street West, immediately to the east of the Lunatic Asylum grounds, is a two-story white brick edifice in the Third-pointed style of English, with a frontage of two hundred feet, and surmounted by a handsome turret in the centre and similar turrets, one at each wing. A new chapel has just been erected in front of the east wing, which, by obscuring a portion of the main building, detracts considerably from its general appearance. The present Chancellor of the University is the Hon. G. W. Allan, D.C.L., and the Provost, who is also Vice-Chancellor, the Rev. C. W. E. Body, D.C.L.

Knox College is the theological training-school of the Presbyterian body in this Province. It was founded in 1844, but the present edifice at the head of Spadina Avenue was not erected until 1875, the College having previously to this had its headquarters in the old Elmsley Villa, which occupied the site of the present Central Presbyterian Church. It took its origin in the disruption of the National Kirk and the consequent formation of the Canadian branch of the Free Church of Scotland. The existing building is an extensive Gothic structure of white brick with stone dressings, and contains, in addition to the usual lecture-rooms, ample accommodation for eighty resident students. It has a frontage of two hundred and thirty feet to the south, and three wings, each of about one hundred and fifty feet, running to the north. Surmounting the main entrance is a massive tower one hundred and thirty feet in height. Rev. W. Caven, D.D., is Principal of the College, and is assisted by a staff of prominent clerical members of the Presbyterian Church as professors.

McMaster Hall, which occupies the same position in the educational system of the Baptist Church as Knox College does in that of the Presbyterian body, is situated on the south side of Bloor Street, on grounds that formerly formed part of the Queen’s Park. It owes its existence to the liberality of the Hon. William McMaster. It is a massive building of Credit Valley stone with dressings of red brick, forming a curious and unusual blending of colours.

To the south of the Provincial University, and on College Street, is Wycliffe Hall, or the Protestant Episcopal Divinity School, an institution organized in 1879 by the Evangelical branch of the Church of England, and affiliated with the University of Toronto, its professed aim being to impart “sound and comprehensive theological training, in accordance with the distinctive principles of evangelical truth as embodied in the Thirty-nine Articles.”

In connection with the educational institutions of Toronto a word may be said of the buildings of the Education Department and Normal and Model Schools, which stand in pleasant grounds of their own, occupying the entire block enclosed by Church, Gerrard, Victoria and Gould Streets. The main building, occupied by the offices of the Education Department, faces the last mentioned street. It is of brick faced with stone, and the style of its architecture is a Roman Doric. Its frontage measures one hundred and eighty-four feet, and the façade presents in the centre four pilasters of the full height of the building, with pediment, surmounted by an open Doric cupola ninety-five feet high. Within this building, in addition to the offices mentioned, is an interesting museum and art gallery, open to the public free of charge. The Normal and Model Schools are in the same block of buildings. The former, intended for the training of Public School teachers, dates from 1847, and owes its existence to the efforts of the late Egerton Ryerson, the father of the educational system of Ontario. It at first had its habitat in the Government buildings, but was subsequently, on the transfer of the seat of Government from Montreal to Toronto, removed to the Temperance Hall, and later on, in 1852, to the present building, then just completed. In the Model School, which is merely a complement to the Normal, the teachers who have received instruction in the art of teaching in the latter have an opportunity of putting their experiences to a practical test. The Principal of the Normal School is the Rev. W. H. Davies, D.D. The Ontario School of Art, which is doing good service in supplying much-needed instruction in the various branches of art, is also contained in these buildings.

Ontario School of Practical Science, or School of Technology, another Government institution, and in close connection with University College, is situated to the south of the Provincial University building. In its curriculum special attention is given to instruction in chemistry, engineering, mining and assaying, with important practical results to the Province.

Upper Canada College was founded in 1829 by Sir John Colborne, then Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. It was at first known as Minor College, and was intended to impart education of a class only inferior to that of the university type. It occupies, with its grounds, the entire square formed by King, Simcoe, Adelaide and John Streets; and is at present an imposing red brick building of a modified Elizabethan style, having been largely remodelled and added to within the last few years. Many of the most prominent public men in the Province received their early education at Upper Canada College.

Other educational institutions worthy of notice are the Collegiate Institute, on the east side of Jarvis Street, just south of Old St. Andrew’s Church; St. Michael’s College, on St. Joseph Street, a Roman Catholic Seminary in the charge of the Basilian Fathers; and the Bishop Strachan School, on the south side of the College Avenue, a high-class Anglican establishment for the education of young ladies. The latter institution is affiliated with the University of Trinity College, where some of its alumnæ have matriculated in the Arts course.

The Medical Schools of the city are:—Trinity Medical School, on Spruce Street, in affiliation with the Universities of Toronto, Trinity College, Halifax and Manitoba; the Toronto School of Medicine, on the corner of Gerrard and Sackville Streets, in affiliation with the Universities of Toronto and Victoria College; and the recently established Woman’s Medical College, on Sumach Street—all in the immediate vicinity of the Toronto General Hospital.

The Public Schools of the city are at present twenty-two in number, but the supply is scarcely equal to the demand, and many of the classes are unavoidably overcrowded. The latest school edifices are built in a uniform style of a modified Italian Renaissance. The class-rooms are large, lofty and well ventilated, and to each school are attached two spacious playgrounds, one for the boys and the other for the girls. The schools are managed by trustees elected annually in each ward. Within the last few years the Kindergarten system has been introduced in one or two of the Public Schools.

In addition to the Public Schools are the Separate Schools, eleven in number, for the education of Roman Catholic children. They are supported by the members of that faith, whose payments on account of school tax are not applied to the maintenance of the Public Schools. The Roman Catholics also have several educational institutions of a higher class, such as the Loretto Abbey, on Clarence Square; the Loretto Convent, on Bond Street; the Convent of St. Joseph, De La Salle Institute, St. Mary’s Institute, and others.

PARKS, PUBLIC SQUARES, AND CEMETERIES.

In the matter of what have been aptly termed “the lungs of a city,” Toronto is amply endowed. She has an abundance of open spaces, carpeted with green and canopied with welcome shade trees, scattered amidst the bricks and mortar. Of these the chief, because the best known, the most central, and the most frequented, is the Queen’s Park, which extends from College Street northward to Bloor Street. It is approached by two avenues which meet at its entrance. That from the east, which begins at Yonge Street, and which is variously known as College Avenue, College Street, and Yonge Street Avenue, although it is arcaded by umbrageous trees, and possesses all the possibilities for a noble avenue, is an unspeakably wretched thoroughfare. The roadway is continually being torn up for water-pipe laying, gas-pipe laying or drain construction, and in consequence it is emphatically the very worst in the city, its wretchedness being only equalled by that of the neighbouring sidewalk. The avenue which runs from Queen Street north to the park entrance, is, on the other hand, a thing of beauty—a broad, smooth road, edged by green boulevards, and fringed on either side by a line of stately chestnuts. On entering the park, the first object that meets the view is a mound, rockery and fountain, all of insignificant proportions, it is true, but forming a pleasant enough object on a hot summer’s day, for the grass is always of a vivid green, the miniature garden is scrupulously well kept, the flowers fill the air with perfume, and the plash of the fountain sounds cool and refreshing. In front of the enclosure are two Russian guns captured at Sebastopol. Originally the Park contained considerably more than one hundred acres of ground, but its area has been somewhat curtailed by the leasing of lots for building purposes. The road in front of the guns divides, and sweeping round on either side at the edge of the park the two roads unite again a little to the south of the Bloor Street entrance. The road on the eastern side is bordered by handsome public residences, while that to the west skirts the University Grounds. The two roads thus enclose an oval space, on the eastern side of which is a dilapidated old building—an eyesore to the place—used a few years ago as an asylum for the incurable insane. Nearly on a line with this, on the western side, and close to the University Grounds, is the “Soldiers’ Monument,” erected in memory of the volunteers who fell at Ridgeway in 1866; and close by, to the north, is a plain granite pedestal, upon which stands the monument recently erected to the memory of the late Honourable George Brown.

The “Soldiers’ Monument,” as we have already seen, was erected in 1870, and unveiled on the 1st of July in that year. It is from designs by Mr. Robert Reid, of the firm of Mavor & Reid, Montreal. It stands on a terrace of earthwork four feet high, and consists of a three-storied structure of Nova Scotia sand-stone, surmounted by a figure of Britannia in white-veined Italian marble, of the variety commonly used for garden statuary. Its total height is thirty-six feet. The first story contains a panel on each side, the front, or eastern panel bearing the Royal Arms, the southern the arms of Toronto, the northern those of Hamilton, and the western the following inscription:

In the second story are niches, surmounting the panels on the first, and each containing a statue of the same material as that of Britannia. The statue on the eastern side represents Grief, that on the western, Faith, while on each of the remaining sides is the figure of a rifleman. The third story is ornamented with wreaths and military insignia. Each story is surmounted by a cornice. The steps and base are of Montreal limestone. The monument is surrounded by a fence, consisting of a most unartistic grouping of piled rifles, bayonets and sabres.

The Horticultural Gardens occupy the greater part of the quadrangle enclosed by Gerrard, Sherbourne, Carlton, and Jarvis Streets, extending in the latter direction as far as the rear of the buildings on the east side of Jarvis Street. They contain ten acres of ground, beautifully laid out in lawns, flower-beds, and walks, and most sedulously cared for. They are plentifully provided with seats, and are a favourite resort—especially for children—Sunday and week days; and although visitors are allowed perfect freedom to roam where they will, it is very seldom that any act of vandalism is complained of. In the centre of the grounds is a fountain, the largest and finest in Toronto—which, however, is not saying much; and on the western side a handsome three-story pavilion, constructed chiefly of glass, and which is largely used for concerts and dramatic entertainments. The Gardens are the property of the Toronto Horticultural Society, to whom half the grounds were conveyed by deed of gift in 1856 by the Hon. G. W. Allan, and the other half were leased for ninety-nine years by the City Council, who had purchased them for that purpose.

The Island, although not a park in the strict sense of the term, is the most frequented of all the “breathing-places” of Toronto, and is rapidly developing into a summer colony. Perhaps a greater number of people visit the Island during a fine week in summer than are attracted in the same time to all the parks, inside and outside the city, put together. One of the greatest attractions of this resort are the free baths, established in 1882 by Mr. Erasmus Wiman, of New York, and named after him.

The other parks of the city are, Riverside Park, on the corner of Winchester and Sumach Streets, facing the Don, a well-laid-out plot of land, but lamentably destitute of trees; and High Park, at the western limits of the city. Outside the city are, Victoria Park, lying four miles and a-half to the east, on the lake shore; and Lorne Park, to the west, and also on the lake shore.

The public squares of Toronto are only two in number, namely, the Normal School grounds, of which mention has already been made, and Clarence Square, a large, sodded, open space in the west end of the city, on the east side of Brock Street.

There are four cemeteries in Toronto, of which two, St. James’ and the Necropolis, are beautifully situated in close proximity to each other on the right bank of the Don. The former—the Church of England cemetery—is much the larger, containing sixty-five acres, beautifully laid out and kept in admirable order. In the centre is a chapel in the florid thirteenth century Gothic style. The grounds slope downwards to the Don, opposite the declivity of Castle Frank. In this cemetery lie Chief Justice Powel, Chief Justice Morrison, and the late Hon. John Hillyard Cameron. The Necropolis lies to the south of St. James’, between Sumach Street and the Don, and contains about fifteen acres. It was opened in 1850, and is entirely undenominational. Many prominent actors in the history of the Province rest beneath its sod; among others, William Lyon Mackenzie; Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews, both officers under Mackenzie in 1837; and the Hon. George Brown. There is yet no monument to mark Mackenzie’s resting place. Beyond the city limits, on Yonge Street, is St. Michael’s—the Roman Catholic—cemetery, and still further north Mount Pleasant, an undenominational burying-ground, opened within the last few years. It covers fifteen acres of ground, and is tastefully laid out in parterres, lawns, and drives, with miniature lakes and rustic bridges.

Before quitting the subject of the cemeteries, a word must be said about the Old Military Burying Ground. It is situated to the west of Bathurst Street, in the vicinity of the Old Fort, and contains the remains of the British soldiers who died while their regiments were stationed in Toronto. The Potter’s Field, another old cemetery, used to be situated on the north side of Bloor Street, but its last vestiges have been obliterated, and the remains which were once interred there now lie in the Necropolis.

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

The House of Industry is a white brick building on the south side of Elm Street, between Elizabeth and Chestnut Streets. Its object is to supply an asylum to the indigent poor, but it is a very different kind of institution to the British workhouse. Here many a homeless waif obtains a night’s lodging, with supper and breakfast, to invigorate him for the coming day’s search for work. The superintendent is Mr. W. K. Nutt.

One of the most deserving institutions in the city is the Hospital for Sick Children, an unpretentious building—formerly occupied by a Protestant Sisterhood—on the corner of the College Avenue and Elizabeth Street. It is conducted by a number of charitable ladies, who depend entirely, for the support of the institution, upon voluntary, unsolicited contributions. It contains five wards, with an average of about six beds to each ward. The hospital is attended gratuitously by a staff of six physicians. In connection with it is the Lakeside Home, on the Island, where such of the little patients as can bear removal are taken for the summer months.

The Boys’ Home, on George Street, is intended for the reception and training in industrial pursuits of destitute boys who have not been convicted of any offence against the law. The Girls’ Home, on Gerrard Street, serves a similar purpose for destitute girls under the age of fourteen, but destitute little boys under four years of age are also admitted. The building is a handsome edifice in the Tudor Gothic style.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society, an association of benevolent gentlemen of the Roman Catholic faith, have their headquarters in the building on the south-east corner of Shuter and Victoria Streets. It is a benevolent society pure and simple, without respect to creed, its object being to relieve suffering wherever found. Another Roman Catholic institution, the House of Providence, has already been spoken of in connection with St. Paul’s Church. In addition to the above, the members of this faith also conduct the Notre Dame Institute, on Jarvis Street, where young ladies employed in the city, but without homes of their own, are provided with lodging at a small cost, or even gratuitously; and the St. Nicholas Home, a similar institution for young boys.

The Asylum for the Incurable affords a refuge to those to whom the General Hospital—which only admits cases supposed to be capable of improvement by treatment—is closed. The building, a large and commodious one, with cheerful rooms for the unfortunate sufferers who are past hope, is situated on Dunn Avenue, Parkdale.

Other public charities are the Toronto Dispensary, attended gratuitously by a staff of well-known city physicians; here the poor obtain advice gratis and medicine at a merely nominal rate, the institution being supported by private subscriptions aided by a small grant from the city; the News Boys’ Home, on Frederick Street; the Infants’ Home, on St. Mary Street; the Orphans’ Home, north of the Brockton Road; the Magdalen Asylum, on McMurrich Street, in St. Paul’s Ward; and the Catholic Magdalen Asylum, at Parkdale.

THE PRESS.

The oldest daily newspaper in the city is the Toronto Globe, the first number of which appeared on Tuesday, the 5th of March, 1844. Its founder, the Hon. George Brown, who was at that time twenty-five years of age, had originally emigrated with his father from Scotland to New York, but in 1843 the family removed to Toronto. Here father and son commenced the publication of the Banner, a weekly journal of a semi-secular, semi-religious character, but wholly devoted to the interests of the Free Church party. At the time of the memorable struggle between Sir Charles Metcalfe and Messrs. Baldwin and Lafontaine, the Messrs. Brown, who had strong political convictions, warmly espoused the cause of the latter, and to further that cause the Globe was brought into existence. At first it was a weekly sheet, but two years later it made its appearance twice a week. In 1849 a tri-weekly as well as a weekly edition was published, and in October, 1853, it became a daily, of four pages, six columns each. It gradually increased the size of its pages to ten columns, and then abandoned the “blanket” sheet style altogether and adopted its present form of eight pages, six columns each—just double the size of its first issues. It need scarcely be said that the Globe is the leading Reform organ in the country. It has always enjoyed a large advertising patronage; and, previous to the establishment of the Mail, was the only newspaper worth the name in the Province. Under the old regime the managing editor was the Hon. George Brown, who was shot in his own office on the 25th March, 1880, by an employé named George Bennett, and died six weeks later. Mr. Gordon Brown had superintended the editorial department, and on the death of his brother took the latter’s place, which he held until December, 1882. Since that time Mr. John Cameron, founder of the London Advertiser, has been chief editor and manager. The Globe office is at 26 and 28 King Street East. The original building, consisting of the south half of the present structure, was paid for by subscriptions, furnished by the Reform Party in Canada, and presented to the Hon. George Brown in recognition of his services to the party. The northern extension was added many years later when the premises were found to be too small for the business.

The Mail, the Liberal-Conservative organ, was started as a morning daily in 1872 by a joint-stock company with a paid-up capital of $100,000. It then occupied the three-story building on the north-west corner of King and Bay Streets, formerly known as the Metropolitan Hotel. Its manager, and subsequently proprietor, was Mr. T. C. Patteson, now Postmaster of Toronto. After a creditable display of enterprise and a brave struggle against adverse circumstances, the journal finally succumbed to its difficulties and came under the sheriff’s hammer in 1877, when it was purchased by the late Mr. John Riordan, the well-known paper manufacturer of St. Catharines. Shortly afterwards the present Mail Printing Company was organized, with Mr. C. W. Bunting as managing editor; the old offices were pulled down, and the present imposing edifice erected. The Mail building has the name of being the finest newspaper office on the continent outside of New York City. On the 24th May, 1884, it was considerably damaged by fire, but the damage was completely repaired before the end of the year, new additions and improvements being introduced. The special features of the Mail are its extensive exclusive cable despatches, its literary critiques, and its sporting intelligence.

The News is an off-shoot of the Mail, having been issued in May, 1881, from the same presses as its elder sister. In February, 1883, it severed its connection with the Mail, and in November of the same year removed to offices of its own on Yonge Street. Under the management of its present proprietor and editor, Mr. E. A. Sheppard, it has undergone a complete change of tone, and has become an advocate of Canadian independence and an exponent of democratic principles.

The first number of the Evening Telegram was issued on the 17th of April, 1876, from offices on the east side of Yonge Street, just below King. It is, and always has been, entirely independent in politics, and has devoted much attention to municipal affairs, subjecting the actions of the civic officials to the closest scrutiny, and unhesitatingly exposing and denouncing anything that savoured of jobbery or corruption. In 1881 the proprietor, Mr. John Ross Robertson, erected the handsome building on the south-west corner of King and Bay Streets, where the paper has since been published. The Telegram has a large local advertising patronage and circulation. It aims especially at avoiding long-winded articles of any kind, and supplies its readers with comments in the “paragraph” style.

The World made its first appearance as an evening paper, under the auspices of Messrs. Horton & Maclean, in February, 1880, but shortly afterwards the proprietors formed a joint stock company. This arrangement continued for nearly a year, and in October, 1881, the journal passed into the hands of the Messrs. Maclean. Soon after this it became a morning paper. Although always bright and chippy, it had a hard struggle for existence, and finally on the 14th of April, 1884, it was compelled to suspend publication. Its disappearance from the field was but a brief one, and it speedily resumed its place among the Toronto dailies, as an advocate of Canadian independence. The editor of the World is Mr. W. F. Maclean, one of a family of journalists.

Among the denominational weeklies, the Christian Guardian, the Methodist organ, stands foremost, as being the oldest journal of any description in Toronto. It was founded in 1829, and was long edited by the Rev. Egerton Ryerson. The other weekly church publications are the Dominion Churchman and the Evangelical Churchman, the former High Church, the latter Evangelical in tone; the Canada Presbyterian, a high class journal, edited with marked ability, and enjoying a large circulation; the Canadian Baptist; the Tribune, a Roman Catholic organ, with a tendency to the Reform side of politics; the Sentinel, the champion of the Orange body; and the Citizen, the organ of the Temperance cause.

Of the secular weeklies, the principal are:—The Monetary Times, the standard authority on financial and commercial questions; the Week, a high-class literary periodical; Truth, a family paper of a more popular type; the Canadian Sportsman; the Advertiser; Grip, an illustrated satirical paper, etc. Besides these there are several monthly periodicals.

BENEVOLENT AND SECRET SOCIETIES.

It would be impossible within the restricted limits of a work like this, to make anything more than the briefest reference to the Secret and Benevolent Societies of Toronto. The mere mention of the names of the different lodges, and of their officers, occupies eight pages of the City Directory. An exception may, however, be made in the case of the Masonic Order, an account of whose progress in the city will doubtless prove acceptable to many readers of this volume. At the present time the Order has fourteen lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Canada; seven Royal Arch Lodges, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Chapter; one Chapter of Royal and Oriental Freemasonry; two lodges of Cryptic Masonry; two lodges of the Ancient Scottish Rite, and four lodges of Knights Templar. Previous to 1820, the only lodge in the city was Rawdon Lodge, which worked from 1793 until 1800 under a military warrant, which it surrendered in the latter year, and received another from the Grand Lodge of England. Subsequently the lodge merged into St. Andrew’s Lodge, which in 1825 absorbed St. George’s Lodge. At this time the meetings were held in a frame building on what is now known as Colborne Street, and which was also used as a church, a school-room, and a public hall. From 1843 to 1854 the quarters of the lodge were shifted three times; in the year first mentioned to Turton’s Buildings (afterwards Lamb’s Hotel) on King Street West; then in 1848 to the upper story of Beard’s Hotel, on the north-west corner of Church and Colborne Streets; and finally, in 1854, to the third story of the St. Lawrence Buildings. King Solomon’s Lodge, which had been formed in the meantime, in 1845, at first met in the Tyrone Inn, on Queen Street West, and subsequently moved to the Ionic Lodge Room on King Street; and still later, in 1850, to the Odd-Fellows’ Hall, on the corner of Church and Court Streets. Three years later it moved to the hall over the Western Assurance Building, on the corner of Church and Colborne Streets. Finally, in 1857, Mr. A. Nordheimer, a member of the Craft, offered the upper part of the Canada Permanent Building, on Toronto Street, for the use of the Order, and in April, 1858, it was taken possession of. The building, which is now far better known as the Masonic Hall than by any other name, was erected in 1857-8 from designs by Mr. Wm. Kauffman. It is an imposing edifice of Ohio Freestone and iron, with a frontage of 101 feet. The Hall itself is on the third story, and is the meeting-place of nine lodges, one Chapter, and one Knights Templar Preceptory. Other Halls in the city are the Victoria Street Hall, in Victoria Chambers, used by two Chapters, one Preceptory, a Council of Cryptic Masonry, the Conclave of the Order of Rome and Constantine, and a Lodge of Royal Ark Mariners; the Hall of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, on King Street West, over Coleman’s; Occident Hall, on the corner of Queen and Bathurst Streets; and halls respectively in St. Paul’s and St. Matthew’s Wards, and at Parkdale.

Of the other orders the Odd-Fellows have eight lodges and two uniformed encampments; the Orange body three District lodges; the United Workmen, seven lodges and two legions of Select Knights; the Good Templars, eight lodges, and the Sons of Temperance three divisions; the Knights of Pythias, two lodges; the Foresters, twelve courts; the Sons of England, ten lodges; the Sons of Scotland, three camps; and the Knights of St. John and Malta, one commandery.

Of the purely Benevolent Societies, the principal are the St. George’s and St. Andrew’s Societies, the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society, the Irish Catholic Benevolent Union, and the Emerald Beneficial Association. In addition to these each trade has its own beneficial union.

MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

A word may be said here as to the volunteer military organizations which have their headquarters in Toronto. Foremost among these is the historical Queen’s Own, to whose experiences at Ridgeway reference has already more than once been made, and whose share in that unfortunate business has forever endeared them to their fellow-citizens. The Tenth Royal Grenadiers, since their reorganization two years ago, are a magnificent regiment, and at the time of their annual inspection last November, were the subject of most gratifying criticisms by the Major-General in command of the forces. Other military bodies are the Governor-General’s Body Guard—glittering warriors in scarlet coats and burnished helmets; the Toronto Field Battery, the Toronto Garrison Artillery, the Ontario Rifle Association, and the recently established School of Infantry.

THE CITY CLUBS.

The purely social clubs in Toronto are but three in number, but those devoted to special objects, as sporting, music, literature, etc., are legion. At the head of the former stands the Toronto Club, an exclusive institution, composed of wealthy members, situated on York Street, immediately south of the Rossin House. The National Club, on the west side of Bay Street, south of the Telegram office, is less exclusive and more political, being of a decided Reform stripe. Nearly opposite it is the Albany Club, on the west side of Bay Street, between Melinda and Wellington Streets. It was formed by the Liberal-Conservative party upon the suspension of the U. E. Club about two years ago.

THE CITY HOTELS.

With the thousand and one hostelries which are scattered over the length and breadth of the city we have nothing to do in this place. Since the change in the liquor license laws, which requires that every applicant for a license must provide accommodation for a certain number of guests, every tavern has become an “hotel.” But in dealing with the city hotels it will be unnecessary to go beyond the half-dozen or so which are known all over the country, and whose names are more or less familiar to travellers in the United States. Of such establishments there are four in the city especially deserving of notice, viz.: the Queen’s Hotel, the Rossin House, the American Hotel, and the Walker House. None of these have any pretensions to architectural beauty, but what they lack in this direction, they make up by the elegance of their internal fittings, and by the superior class of accommodation with which they furnish their guests.

The Queen’s Hotel stands on the north side of Front Street West, at the head of Lorne Street, and overlooking the waters of the bay and lake. Its situation from a purely business and matter-of-fact point of view, is an admirable one, being in close proximity, on the one hand, to the Union Station and the Parliament Buildings and Government offices, and, on the other, to the wholesale houses which cluster around the lower end of Yonge Street. Its reputation may be said to be continental, its American guests hailing from every part of the Union, from Portland to San Francisco, and from the Sault to New Orleans. It has also on several occasions been patronized by royalty, and has numbered among its guests Lord and Lady Dufferin, the Marquis of Lorne and the Princess Louise, H. R. H. Prince Leopold, the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, General Sherman and Jefferson Davis. Throughout Canada its name is familiar as a household word. The internal fittings of the hotel are of the most perfect and luxurious kind, and accommodation is provided for over three hundred guests, though on several occasions four hundred have been comfortably quartered beneath its roof. Previous to May the 1st, 1874, the Queen’s had been under the management of the late Captain Dick, but on the date mentioned it passed into the hands of Messrs. McGaw & Winnett. These gentlemen are also proprietors of the Queen’s Royal Hotel at Niagara—famous for its Saturday night “hops” during the summer; and they possess a controlling interest in the Tecumseh House, the leading hotel in London, Ontario.

The Rossin House has the most central position of all the hotels in the city. It is situated on the south-east corner of King and York Streets. It is a solid-looking building forming two sides of a quadrangle, and surmounted at each corner by a mansard-roof turret. The greater portion of the frontage of the ground-floor is occupied as stores, the hotel having two spacious vestibules leading from the office to King and York Streets respectively. The building contains two hundred sleeping-rooms, and can furnish accommodation for three hundred guests. It is so constructed as to be practically fire-proof, and the safety of the guests in the event of fire is further secured by the fact that every room in the house is provided with a fire-escape. The Rossin House, under the management of the present proprietor, Mr. Mark H. Irish, has become a great rendezvous for Americans, who there find all the comforts and conveniences to which they are accustomed in the great hotels of New York and Chicago.

The American Hotel, on the north-east corner of Yonge and Front Streets, is admirably situated for the convenience of business men, in the very centre of the wholesale trade quarter, opposite the Custom House, and almost within a stone’s throw of the wharf at which the Montreal, Niagara and Rochester steamers arrive. This proximity to the centre of lake travel has secured for it a large share of tourist patronage, and it is also a favourite resort for commercial travellers. The proprietor of the American is Mr. James H. Mackie, a well-known hotel man, formerly of New York and New Orleans, who succeeded his father a little over a year ago, the latter gentleman devoting his entire time to the management of his hotel at Port Hope, the St. Lawrence Hall. Mr. Mackie, jr., also manages the large hotel on the Island, erected, and until recently controlled, by Edward Hanlan, the famous oarsman.

The Walker House, on the corner of Front and York Streets, and of which Mr. David Walker, is proprietor, is another favourite hotel with the travelling public, its close proximity to the Union Station making it especially convenient for those who arrive by late, or depart by early trains. Other of the principal hotels are the St. James, opposite the Union Station; the Continental, on the corner of Wellington and Simcoe Streets, opposite the Parliament Buildings, and on this account much frequented by country members; the Revere, the rendezvous for members of the dramatic profession, on the south-west corner of King and York Streets; the Shakespeare, diagonally opposite the Revere; and the Albion Hotel, on the east side of the Market Square.

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.

Under this head three classes of institutions have to be considered—the Chartered Banks, Savings Banks, and Trust and Loan Companies. Of the first named class there are over a dozen in the city, the majority of them having their headquarters in Toronto, and occupying large and beautiful buildings.

The Bank of British North America, one of the oldest financial institutions doing business in Canada, has its headquarters in London, England, with branches in every city, and most of the larger towns throughout the Dominion. Its Toronto office is on the north-east corner of Yonge and Wellington Streets, an imposing building which forms one of the prominent features of the approach to the city from the wharf at which the lake steamers arrive. The capital of the bank is £1,000,000 sterling, and the Toronto Manager is Mr. William Grindlay.

The Bank of Montreal, whose name is familiar in almost every country where the English language is spoken, is the wealthiest and most influential bank in the Dominion. It is in fact to Canada pretty much what the Bank of England is to Great Britain. With the enormous subscribed capital of $12,000,000, and a rest fund of $5,750,000, its influence in financial and commercial circles is immense. Its headquarters are in Montreal. The Toronto office—a substantial stone building on the north-west corner of Front and Yonge Streets, opposite the Custom House—is managed by Mr. C. Brough.

The Bank of Toronto has its headquarters in a massive stone building on the north-west corner of Wellington and Church Streets—one of the stateliest edifices in the city. Its capital is $2,000,000, with a rest fund of $1,900,000. Mr. George Gooderham is its President, and Mr. D. Coulson Cashier. The Bank of Toronto, by aiding legitimate enterprise, has contributed in a very great degree to building up the commercial prosperity of the city whose name it bears, and with whose interests it is so closely identified.

The Canadian Bank of Commerce is another institution that has given substantial aid towards the promotion of the commercial and industrial interests of the city. It has a paid-up capital of £6,000,000, and a rest fund of $1,900,000. Its president is the Hon. William McMaster, and its general manager, Mr. W. N. Anderson. The offices of the Bank are at 59 Yonge Street.

The Central Bank is the latest addition to the chartered banks of Toronto. It has been in existence for over one year and occupies a fine new building on the east side of Yonge Street, a few yards north of Wellington Street.

The beautiful new building of the Dominion Bank, on the south-west corner of King and Yonge Streets—the very centre of activity and bustle—is one of the landmarks of the city, and is in keeping with the high reputation enjoyed and the unbroken success achieved by the institution it shelters. The Dominion Bank has a capital of $1,500,000, and a rest fund of $850,000; its President is Mr. James Austin, and its Cashier Mr. R. H. Bethune.

The Federal Bank, Nos. 17 and 19 Wellington Street West, is one of the younger banks of the city, having commenced business in 1874. Its present capital is $3,000,000, with a rest fund of $1,500,000. Mr. S. Nordheimer is President, and Mr. G. W. Yarker, formerly of the Bank of Montreal, Manager.

The Imperial Bank, on the corner of Wellington Street and Exchange Alley, has a capital of $1,500,000. It too has made a name and a standing by the liberal policy it has pursued towards the business interests of the city, under the judicious management of the Cashier, Mr. D. R. Wilkie. Mr. H. S. Howland is President of the institution.

The branch office of the Merchants’ Bank—which has its headquarters in Montreal—is on the south side of Wellington Street West, opposite Jordan Street; it is managed by Mr. W. Cooke. This bank has a subscribed capital of $5,798,330, with a rest fund of $1,150,000.

The Molsons Bank—another branch of a Montreal bank—at present occupies offices at No. 46 King Street West, but it is to be moved to the Arcade, now in course of erection on the north side of King Street, in rear of the Grand Opera House. This institution has a subscribed capital of $2,000,000, with a rest fund of $500,000.

The Ontario Bank Building is a beautiful structure of cut stone on the north-east corner of Wellington and Scott Streets. The President of the bank is Sir W. P. Howland, and Mr. C. Holland is its General Manager. Its capital is $1,500,000, with a rest fund of $335,000.

The Toronto agency of the Quebec Bank is housed under the same roof as the Bank of Toronto. The former is one of the oldest financial institutions in Canada, having been incorporated by Royal Charter in the year 1818. It has an authorized capital of $3,000,000. Mr. J. Walker is Manager of the local branch.

The Standard Bank—another institution closely identified with the commercial interests of the city—at present has its offices at 46 Yonge Street, but will shortly remove to the new stone-fronted building erected for its accommodation on the north-west corner of Wellington and Jordan Streets. Its capital is $2,000,000. President, Mr. W. J. Cowan; Cashier, Mr. J. L. Brodie.

In addition to the Government and Post-office Savings Banks—with offices respectively in the Inland Revenue and Post-office buildings—the city is amply provided with institutions where the thriftily inclined may make small deposits. Of this class are the Home Savings and Loan Company (Limited), 70 Church Street; the People’s Loan and Deposit Co., 26 Adelaide Street East; the Dominion Savings Bank, 429 Queen Street West; the Freehold Loan and Savings Co., 54 Church Street; the Union Savings Bank, 30 Toronto Street; the Western Canada Loan and Savings Co., 90 Church Street; and the Farmers’ Loan and Savings Co., 17 Toronto Street. Upon many of these depositors may draw by cheque, as in regular banks.

LOAN AND SAVINGS COMPANIES.

The British Canadian Loan and Investment Company, though a comparatively young organization—having only been in existence seven years—is doing a large and steadily increasing business. It was formed in July, 1877, and was incorporated under a special Act of the Dominion Parliament, with an authorized capital of $5,000,000. Its first President was Sir Alexander T. Galt, and its first Vice-President, Mr. A. H. Campbell. The Honourable D. A. Macdonald, formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, the Honourable John Simpson, the Honourable C. F. Fraser, Commissioner of Public Works, the Honourable S. C. Wood, ex-Provincial Treasurer, Major Greig, Messrs. William Ince, Donald McKay, John Burns, J. K. Kerr, Q.C., and other Toronto business men were among the organizers of the company, of which Mr. James Turnbull was appointed Manager. The company commenced operations by taking over the business of the Provincial Loan and Savings Company, amounting to about $350,000. On the appointment of Sir A. T. Galt to the position of Canadian High Commissioner in London, Mr. A. H. Campbell succeeded to the Presidency, and Major Greig was elected to the Vice-Presidency. Both these gentlemen were re-elected at the last annual meeting. On the 1st of May, 1881, a change occurred in the management; Mr. Turnbull having resigned, his place was filled by Mr. R. H. Tomlinson, the present Manager, who for eleven years had held a responsible position in connection with the Canada Permanent Loan and Savings Company. During the last financial year the company, under Mr. Tomlinson’s management, effected loans to the amount of $123,778, upon real estate valued at $376,725, making the total amount of loans on mortgage $1,015,574.32. The net revenue for the year, after paying expenses, was $27,764.92—equal to ten and two-fifths per cent. on the paid up capital. Since its formation the Company has paid a half-yearly dividend at the rate of six per cent., and has accumulated a reserve fund of $27,000. During the past year it has absorbed the business of the Canada Mortgage Company, involving mortgages to the amount of $365,248.51, and it has also considerably extended its operations in Manitoba. The solicitors of the Company are Messrs. Blake, Kerr, Lash & Cassels; and Messrs. Scott, Moncrieff and Traill, W.S., of Edinburgh, are its general agents in Britain.

The Building and Loan Association was established on the 1st of March, 1870. Its offices are at 13 Toronto Street. Dr. Larratt W. Smith is President, Mr. John Kerr, Vice-President, and Mr. Walter Gillespie, Manager. The capital of the association is $750,000, all paid up, and its assets amount to $1,614,000. During the fiscal year ending on the 31st of December, 1884, the earnings of the company amounted to $109,691.89, out of which sum, after all expenses and two dividends had been paid—the latter amounting together to $44,866.20—$15,000 were added to the reserve fund, making it $68,000, and $3,360.43 to the contingent account. The net cash value of the mortgages held by the association at the close of the year exceeded that of the preceding year by $137,124.44. This company has also of late years established an agency in Manitoba, with most satisfactory results. Mr. Walter Gillespie, the Manager of the Building and Loan Association, is a native of Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland. In 1852 he settled in the United States, but in 1877 removed to Toronto, where he held the position of Commissioner of the Trust and Loan Company. In 1881 he assumed the managership of the Credit Foncier, and in the following year he entered upon the position which he now holds.

The Canada Landed Credit Company was established in 1858, and is one of the oldest of its kind in the Province. The object specially aimed at in its formation was to aid the agricultural interests, then in an extremely depressed condition, by the introduction of the cheap money of England, and lending it to the farmers here on such terms as to repayments, as would enable them to avail themselves of the advantages offered by it without undue anxiety as to their ability of repaying the loan, and so of redeeming their farms; eight per cent. per annum was the uniform rate charged by the company from its inception, and the special feature as to repayment which distinguished it was the Sinking Fund, to which two per cent. per annum of the loan was payable, and on which interest at six per cent. per annum, compounded half yearly, was allowed, and which extinguished the loan in twenty-three years. While the borrower had the money from the company for that period, and so could not be unexpectedly called upon to repay it, he had, what has also been and is now a distinguishing feature of the company, the privilege of paying off his loan on giving six monthsr notice. For many years after its commencement all the loans made by the company were on this plan, which was well adapted to the circumstances of the country at the time, but latterly the principle of straight loans has been largely substituted for it. While the company has thus been of advantage to those who borrowed from it, it has also done well for its shareholders, and besides paying them liberal dividends has accumulated a reserve fund of $130,000. The company has throughout been characterized by its fair dealing with its borrowers. The President of the company is Mr. John L. Blaikie, who was elected to that office in 1871 upon the retirement of Mr. Lewis Moffatt. The present General Manager and Secretary, Mr. David McGee, succeeded Mr. John Symons in 1876.

The Canada Permanent Loan and Savings Company has its offices in the company’s building on Toronto Street. It has a subscribed capital of $3,000,000, of which $2,200,000 are paid up. Its total assets are $8,000,000, and it has a reserve fund of $1,100,000. The President is Mr. E. Hooper, and Vice-President Mr. Samuel Nordheimer. A feature in this Company is its Savings Bank branch. It also receives money for investment, for which debentures are issued in currency or sterling, with interest coupons attached, payable in Canada or in England. Mr. J. Herbert Mason is Managing Director.

The Farmers’ Loan and Savings Company has its office at 17 Toronto Street. It was established in 1872 with capital of $250,000, which has since been increased to $1,057,250; of this latter amount $611,000 are paid up. The net profits of the company’s business for the year ending April 30th, 1884, after deducting expenses of management, and all charges, commissions, etc., amounted to $51,242.11, out of which two half-yearly dividends—one of four and one of three and one-half per cent.—were paid, amounting together to $45,857.25, and leaving a balance of $5,384.86 to be added to reserve, making the sum of $87,768.25 now to the credit of that fund. At the last annual meeting of the Board of Directors, Mr. William Mulock, M.P., was re-elected President, and Mr. James Scott, Vice-President. The Secretary and Treasurer is Mr. George S. C. Bethune, who has held that position since the Company was formed. Mr. Bethune is a native of Canada.

The head office of the Freehold Loan and Savings Company is on the corner of Church and Court Streets. The company has been in existence a quarter of a century, and has a paid-up capital of $839,680, with a reserve fund of $364,250. Its President is the Honourable William McMaster; Vice-President, Mr. A. T. Fulton, and Manager, the Honourable S. C. Wood. The net profits for the last financial year were $98,724.62, from which have been paid two half-yearly dividends of five per cent. each, amounting to $78,330.75, and leaving a surplus of $20,393.87. Of this sum $10,000 were carried to reserve, and the balance transferred to contingent account. During the year the company effected loans on mortgages to the amount of $846,840.73, on property valued at $2,260,454; and at the present time it holds mortgages of the net cash value of $2,805,152.17. A portion of the company’s business is done in Manitoba, the oversight of which is attended to by a branch office at Winnipeg.

The London and Canadian Loan and Agency Company (Limited) commenced business in 1873. At the present time it has a paid-up capital of $560,000, and a reserve fund of $260,000; its investments, made almost entirely on mortgages, amount to $3,547,216.50. During the first two years of its existence it paid dividends of seven and eight per cent. respectively, but since then it has paid ten per cent. During the fiscal year ending on the 30th of August, 1884, it effected loans to the amount of $414,574.51, on property valued at $944,598, and the net result of the year’s operations showed a profit of $83,920.49. The President of the company is Sir W. P. Howland; Vice-Presidents, Col. Gzowski, and Mr. A. T. Fulton; and Manager, Mr. J. Grant Macdonald, formerly of Inverness, Scotland. The company’s head offices are at 44 King Street West, Toronto, but it also has an advisory board in Edinburgh.

The National Investment Company of Canada (Limited), which was established in 1876, is an off-shoot of the private investment business of the financial firm of Blaikie & Alexander, so well and favourably known both in Canada and in Great Britain. It is largely a Scottish company. The Manager is Mr. Andrew Rutherford.

Messrs. Osier & Hammond—General Managers in Canada for the North of Scotland Canadian Mortgage Company (Limited), home office at Aberdeen, Scotland—are also financial agents and dealers in stocks, municipal and railway debentures; and are members of the Toronto Stock Exchange. The agency of the first mentioned company was established some ten years ago under the management of the present firm, and now enjoys a full share of the public confidence.

The Union Loan and Savings Co., of which Mr. William Maclean is Manager, commenced operations in 1863. Mr. Maclean is a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, and was sent out to Canada in 1856 by the London Board of Directors of the Buffalo and Lake Huron Railway to take the positions of secretary, treasurer and director of the Company at Brantford, which he held, severally for twelve years. He has been seventeen years with his present company.

In connection with the financial institutions of Toronto it will not be out of place to refer to “The Institute of Accountants and Adjusters of Ontario.” The object of this association, which is to a great extent modelled on the same lines as a similar institute in England, is to improve the standing of those who are actively engaged in accountants’ work, or who may be looking forward to it. It includes in its ranks the majority of the leading financiers of the Province, and is steadily growing in numerical strength and in importance.

The Toronto Stock Exchange was incorporated in 1878. It meets at 24 King Street East, but none but members of the Exchange are admitted to its meetings, even members of the Press being excluded. The President is Mr. Henry Pellatt; Vice-President, Mr. H. R. Forbes; Treasurer, Mr. James Brown; and Honorary Secretary, Mr. H. L. Hime. There are in all about thirty-one members of the association.

The Toronto Corn Exchange was incorporated in the year 1872, but during the summer of 1884 was amalgamated with the Toronto Board of Trade, the united boards having their headquarters in the Imperial Bank building, on the corner of Wellington Street and Exchange Alley.

ACCOUNTANTS.

J. J. Pritchard, 28 and 30 Toronto Street, accountant, insurance and commission agent, has been engaged in his business since 1878. He has also had charge of R. W. Prittie’s real estate and emigration business. He was born in England, and came to Canada in 1871.

Lewis Reford, accountant, native of Belfast, Ireland. Came to Canada in 1845, settled at once in this city, and has been connected with its business interests to the present time. He is a brother of Robert Reford, of the firm of R. Reford & Co.

BROKERS.

J. Ick Evans, financial agent and patent right broker, 26, 27 and 28 Union Loan Buildings, is a native of Hereford County, England, and located in Toronto in 1863. He commenced in the hotel and restaurant business, afterwards establishing the well-known “Headquarters” in Post-office Lane. He became connected with the firm of Evans, Walker & Roe, wholesale shirt makers, and in the year 1880 commenced his present business, and in 1883 became Manager of the Union and Hand-in-Hand Ranching Colonization Company.

W. White, Stewart and Co., Managers of the Exchange and Mercantile Company of Canada, and Business Brokers, 58 King Street East, took over in 1884 the business established in 1881 by W. White & Co. They are engaged in buying and selling businesses, negotiating partnerships and organizing joint stock companies. Mr. White is a native of Aylmer, Ont., and has always been engaged in mercantile business. Mr. Sturgeon Stewart is a native of Simcoe County, Ont. He published for five years the Liberal newspaper at Richmond Hill, and has also extensive experience in professional and mercantile life.

A. R. Williams carries on at 36 and 38 Melinda Street the business of manufacturers’ agent and machinery broker. The business was established in 1877 by Morrison Bros., who were succeeded by Mr. Williams in 1883. He deals in all kinds of wood and iron-working machinery, both new and second-hand, handles all the iron-working machinery made by the London, Ont., Machine Tool Company, consisting of iron lathes, planes, drills, milling machines, etc. In woodwork machinery he is agent for Cant, Gorley & Co., of Galt, and in shingle machinery for Goldie & McCulloch, also of Galt. He keeps a full line of machine supplies, consisting of French band saw blades, band saw files, planer knives, “Sweetland lathe chucks,” twist drills, taps, dies, etc. He also holds the Toronto agency for J. C. McLaren’s oak-tan leather belting, which was awarded the only medal in 1883. An important feature of the business is the exchange of machinery—new for old and vice versa. An extensive import business is done on special lines of machinery not manufactured in Canada. Mr. Williams has lately purchased the Soho Machine Works in front of the Union Depot, on the Esplanade, whither he is about to remove.

INSURANCE.

The Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company of Canada has an authorized capital of $500,000. Its officers are:—Sir Alexander Campbell, President; John L. Blaikie, Vice-President; John Galt, General Manager; George C. Robb, Chief Engineer; and A. Fraser, Secretary-Treasurer. The head office of the company is in the Free Library Building, Toronto, and it has a branch office at 237 St. James St., Montreal. The company was formed about nine years ago under the name of “The Canadian Steam Users’ Insurance Association,” which name was afterwards changed to one more readily understood by the public. Its business is similar to that of companies in Britain, Germany and the United States, and consists of the regular periodical inspection of steam boilers, and the granting of policies of insurance, covering such loss or damage as may be directly caused by the explosion of steam boilers. The object aimed at is to assist owners of boilers in preventing accidents, and in diminishing the cost of steam power. The company not only makes regular inspections, but also sends to the owners written reports of the condition of the boilers inspected, with advice as to the proper means to adopt to remedy any defects affecting the safety or economy which may have been discovered. The system has proved of great benefit to owners of boilers and users of steam power. All the steam boilers in the various public buildings belonging to the Dominion and Ontario Governments are under the inspection of this company, and most of the large and important manufacturing establishments throughout the country have their boilers insured and regularly examined and reported upon. No better means have yet been found for the prevention of steam boiler explosions, and in addition to the increased safety ensured, it has been found that the directions given for the construction, arrangement, and management of steam machinery have resulted in reduced expenditure for fuel and maintenance. The company, in addition to the insurance and inspection of steam boilers, furnishes plans and specifications for steam machinery, iron roofs, etc., and also carries on business as general consulting engineers.

The Canada Life Assurance Company, which has its head offices in Hamilton, is represented in Toronto by Mr. J. D. Henderson. This gentleman’s identification with insurance dates back to 1869, and he has been a resident of Toronto since 1876. This company is the oldest and largest in the Dominion; their assets and capital are over $7,000,000, with an income of $1,200,000. Mr. A. G. Ramsay is President of the company as well as Managing Director, and has had a general supervision of the company since 1859. Mr. Henderson is a native of Scotland.

Mr. C. B. Boughton represents the Citizens’ Accident Insurance Company of Canada, the head office being in Montreal. This is one of the leading insurance institutions of this country, and has been doing business in Toronto since its incorporation some twenty years ago. Mr. Boughton was connected with the Travellers’ Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, for about five years, and joined the Citizens’ in November, 1883. He is General Agent for the Province and city.

Mr. Richard Wickens, of the firm of Wickens & Mitchell, at present represents the Commercial Union Fire Insurance Company in Toronto. He is an Englishman by birth; came to Canada in 1836, and arrived in Toronto in 1854. He was for nearly nineteen years connected with the British America Fire Insurance Company. He then in 1873, in connection with Mr. Westmacott, undertook the management of the first-mentioned company, and on the decease of Mr. Westmacott, five years later, he was joined by the late Mr. Mitchell, the firm being general agents for Ontario, and sole agents for Toronto. The agency enjoys a large share of the underwriting of the city.

The Confederation Life Association is a Home Company, having its head office in Toronto, with agencies in various parts of the Dominion. It was incorporated in 1871 by a special Act of the Dominion Parliament, and commenced to issue policies on the 1st of November of the same year. The company has made excellent progress, and stands high in the estimation of the public. Its popularity is well attested from the fact that for some years it has ranked second amongst the life companies operating in Canada in the matter of new business. The management has been careful and conservative, and the Directors have been more anxious to have a good strong balance-sheet than to do a large business, though it may be fairly claimed that both objects have been attained. At the time of writing its assurances have reached $12,500,000, and its capital and funds $2,250,000; $390,981.11 have been paid to the heirs of deceased policyholders; $25,348.63 to the holders of endowment policies; $63,670 for surrendered policies; $153,040.20 as profits to policyholders, in addition to which during the later years 10 per cent. has been paid as dividend to the stockholders. The directorate of the company is composed of the best known and most successful business men in the several Provinces. The President is Sir W. P. Howland; Vice-Presidents, Honourable William McMaster and William Elliot, Esq.; Managing Director, J. K. Macdonald, Esq.

The Equitable Life Assurance Society has its head office in Broadway, New York. The company first did business in Canada in 1868, and in Toronto shortly after. They are now carrying on the largest business of any company in the world, and are doing in Great Britain alone more than ten of the largest native companies there. They have general offices in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, and Halifax. Mr. W. J. Smyth, Manager of the Toronto office, is a native of Hastings, a descendant of a U. E. Loyalist of Teutonic origin. His grandfather came to Canada just one century ago.

The Guardian Assurance Company, of London, England, is represented in Toronto by Mr. Henry D. P. Armstrong. He is a native of Ireland, and was born at Holy Cross House, in the County of Tipperary. After his arrival in this country, he was for some six years with W. J. G. Whitney, the well-known real estate agent. The Toronto agency of the Guardian Company was established in 1869, Mr. Armstrong becoming connected with it in 1878. He is the sole agent for the city, and also places a large amount of business outside.

Mr. William Henderson, city representative of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, of Connecticut, U.S., was born in the County of Caithness, and educated at Thurso School, Scotland. He came to Canada in the year 1833, and first learned the business of a grocer, under Alexander Ogilvie, when he commenced business on his own account, and was for upwards of thirty years a wholesale and retail grocer. He represented the Ward of St. David for two years as an Alderman, and is also an ex-President of St. Andrew’s Society. He has been a member of the Board of Trade, and was for many years on the Board of Arbitration. He is a J.P. of the City of Toronto and County of York. Some sixteen years ago he turned his attention to insurance, and is now agent for the Hartford for the City of Toronto, as well as General Inspector for the Dominion. His son, Christopher M. Henderson, is connected with him in the business of the agency.

Mr. Joseph B. Reed, represents the Liverpool and London and Globe Fire Insurance Company, and the Lancashire Fire Insurance Company of Manchester, England; also the Dominion Plate Glass Insurance Company, of Montreal. Mr. Reed has been engaged in insurance for upwards of ten years. The companies he represents have been doing business in the city for from twenty to thirty-five years. Mr. Reed is a Canadian by birth, and is descended from one of the oldest settlers in York County, his grandfather coming from Staten Island at a very early day in the history of the county.

The Toronto agency of the London Guarantee and Accident Company (Limited), of London, England, of which Mr. Alexander Cromar is Local Manager, was established in 1880, A. T. McCord being Manager for Canada. Mr. Cromar is a native of Glasgow, Scotland, whence he came in 1882, to look after the interests of the company in Canada. He is now General Agent, Inspector and Superintendent of agencies in the Dominion.

Mr. R. N. Gooch represents the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and London, England. The company was first established in 1809, and is doing a large business both in Fire and Life. The Toronto agency was opened some twenty years ago, Mr. Gooch, who had been for some five years previously interested in insurance matters, taking the management. He filled the position of Chairman of the Board of Underwriters for two years.

The Northern Fire Assurance Company, for which Mr. E. P. Pearson is the agent for Toronto and vicinity, is one of the oldest and wealthiest of the British Fire Companies. The offices of the company are situate at No. 17 Adelaide Street East. Mr. Pearson now controls the business of many of the largest business firms in the country. There is no better company than the Northern, and no more experienced Manager than Mr. Pearson.

Mr. Alexander Dixon is the Manager for the Dominion of Canada of the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society, and the Norwich and London Accident Insurance Company, both of Norwich, England. The Toronto agency of the former Company was established in 1880, and that of the latter some three years later. Mr. Dixon is a native of Toronto, and previous to taking up insurance was connected with the Toronto Mail for about six years.

Mr. John Haldane, who was for many years general manager of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, now represents as special agent, the Ontario Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Waterloo, Ontario. He is also largely interested in North-West lands. He is a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1833. For nearly fifteen years he was Manager of the Connecticut Mutual, which company was the largest Life Company ever doing business in Canada, and the second in the world. The company discontinued business here on account of the Insurance Act, requiring conditions with which they could not constitutionally comply. Its annual income at that time was ten millions. Mr. Haldane’s brother, Bernard Haldane, was, during his lifetime, one of the most prominent insurance men in the city, and was for many years connected with the Western Insurance Company, which largely owes its present position to his efforts.

Mr. Lewis Moffatt, of the firm of Lewis Moffatt and Son, representatives of the Phœnix Fire Insurance Company, of London, England, for which they are the sole agents of this city and district, was born in Montreal in 1810, of English parentage. His father, the late Honourable George Moffatt, came to Canada in the spring of 1800, and in 1812 he became a partner in the leading mercantile firm of Parker, Gerrard & Ogilvy, with which he remained connected till his death, in February, 1865. Mr. Moffatt was the first President of St. George’s Society established in Montreal, a member of the Legislative and Executive Councils of Lower Canada, and a member of the Special Council under Lord Sydenham. He was instrumental in promoting the Union of Upper and Lower Canada, and represented the City of Montreal in the first United Parliament, which met at Kingston. Mr. Lewis Moffatt joined the firm of Gillespie, Moffatt & Co. in 1837, and came to Toronto in May, 1842, to establish a branch of the Montreal house, with which he remained connected until 1875, when he continued the branch of fire insurance that had been carried on by the late firm. His son, Lewis Henry Moffatt, came into the business in 1872, and another son, Frederick Covert Moffatt, is a barrister-at-law in the city.

The Phenix Insurance Company, of Brooklyn, N. Y., has a capital of $1,000,000, and its annual statement shows gross assets amounting to $3,759,035.98. It first opened an agency at Toronto in 1874, and Mr. L. C. Camp, the present Manager, was at that time appointed local agent. In 1881, he took charge of the management, and was succeeded in the local agency by his son. The Toronto offices of the company are at 26 Wellington Street East. Mr. Camp is a native of the County of Peel, and is the youngest surviving son of Garry Camp, a citizen of the United States, who came to Canada in 1810 and started business as a millwright at St. Catharines, where he died in 1880. Mr. L. C. Camp married, in 1855, Miss Adeline Hopkins, eldest daughter of Obadiah Hopkins, a farmer, of St. Catharines.

George Graham represents the Queen Fire Insurance Company, of Liverpool and London, England. It is one of the oldest agencies in this city, and has been doing business in Toronto about twenty-five years. Mr. Graham is sole agent for this city and district; he is a native of Toronto, and has been connected with its mercantile interests for upwards of twenty years.

Capt. Chas. Perry, sole agent for this city of the Royal Canadian Insurance Company, of Montreal, is a native of Somersetshire, England. He came to Canada in 1832, and was in steamboating on the rivers and lakes for twenty-four years. Since 1873 he has been identified with his present company and the insurance interests of the city.

Messrs. Maughan, Kay & Banks represent the Royal Fire and Insurance Company, of Liverpool, England, the city agency of which was established in 1852. They are general and sole agents for the city and county. The members of this firm have been engaged in the business of underwriting from twenty-five to thirty years. Mr. Maughan has been connected with insurance in Toronto for the past thirty-two years, and in 1880 joined the Royal; subsequently Messrs. Kay & Banks (who had represented the British America for thirteen years) entered the firm, and now have full control of the local interests of the company.

Messrs. Banks Bros. are the local agents of the Scottish Union and National Insurance Company, of Edinburgh, Scotland. They also do a real estate business in connection with underwriting. They have been identified with the above named company since the establishment of the agency here in 1882, and are its sole agents for the city. They have been connected with the insurance and real estate business for about sixteen years.

Mr. A. H. Gilbert is Manager for Western Ontario and General Agent for Toronto for The Sun Life Assurance Company, of Canada, who have been doing business about twelve years in the city. Mr. Gilbert commenced with this company in January, 1883, previous to which time he was engaged with the Canada Life. He is of U. E. Loyalist stock; his grandfather, Stephen Gilbert, having settled on the Bay of Quinté, where he was one of the earliest residents.

Mr. H. O’Hara, who does a general brokerage, estate and insurance business, was formerly, for several years, manager of the Toronto branch of the Sun Life Assurance Company, and at present takes an interest in the formation of the Temperance and General Life Assurance Company of North America, for which a charter has just been granted. Mr. O’Hara is a native of the Emerald Isle, and came to Canada in 1843, at the age of eight years; and after spending a year in Kingston he, with his parents, removed to Bowmanville. He has been over twenty years engaged in the insurance business, fifteen of which were spent in the Town of Bowmanville, where he carried on an extensive retail book, stationery and general merchandise establishment, and was the founder and first President of the Dominion Organ Company, of that place. He has held several offices of trust and confidence, among which were those of Councillor, member of the Board of Education, Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance of the Province of Ontario, etc., etc. He came to Toronto in 1879.

Mr. C. T. R. Russell is the city representative of the Travellers’ Life and Accident Insurance Company, of Hartford, Connecticut. The agency was established in the year 1868. Mr. Russell’s connection with the Company commenced in 1873, and he is now general agent for the Dominion and sole agent for the city. He is a native of the Province of Ontario, and came to Toronto in 1875. His father, William Russell, who came to the County of Lennox when a young man, is a pioneer, and still a resident of that county.

The city agency of the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Maine, U.S., is managed by Mr. R. K. Freeman, son of Isaac Freeman, a U. E. Loyalist, who settled in the County of Halton many years ago, and is said to be the only Loyalist now living in that neighbourhood. The son was born in Halton, where he resided and followed agricultural pursuits till 1875, when he engaged in insurance, and in 1883 accepted the management of the Union Mutual, having jurisdiction over the city and the greater part of the Province. The agency was established in the Province in 1850.

Mr. James Pringle is general city agent for the Western Fire Assurance Company, of Toronto. He has been engaged in the insurance business thirty years, twenty of which he has spent in this city. He has represented the Western for twenty-five years. He is a native of Roxburghshire, Scotland; came to Canada in 1853, and has been President of the Caledonia Curling Club for several years. He has always taken a great interest in the pastime of curling.

Wm. A. Lee & Son are city agents for the Western Assurance Co., of Toronto, and do in connection with the same a general real estate and loaning business. They also represent the Ontario Mutual Life Insurance Co., of Waterloo, Ont. Mr. W. A. Lee is a native of Canada, of Irish parentage. He has been engaged in underwriting since 1873, previous to which time he was a builder and contractor. He occupied the position of City Collector from 1873 to 1883, and served as Councillor for St. Patrick’s Ward for one year. His father, Patrick Lee, came to this country in 1826, was employed as a surveyor for the Canada Company, and surveyed the Township of Guelph. In 1843 he settled in Toronto, where he taught school for several years and had for his pupils many who are among the city’s most prominent men.

Mr. Isaac C. Gilmor represents the Caledonian Fire Insurance Company, and the Scottish Imperial. He is of Scotch descent, and was born in Quebec. He was for many years engaged in the wholesale dry goods business of the country; and in 1851 was one of the founders and heaviest shareholders of the Western Fire Insurance Company, and subsequently was for many years its President. He has been actively engaged in the business interests of the city since the year 1839.

Messrs. Medland & Jones are the city representatives of the Accident Insurance Company of North America, which has its home office in Montreal. This firm are general agents for Western Ontario, and sole agents for the city. The agency was established in 1872, and the firm took the same in 1881. They are also city agents for the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society, of Norwich, England. Mr. Medland is an Englishman by birth and came to Canada in 1867, since which time he has been engaged in insurance business. Mr. Jones is a native of the County of Halton, and has been connected with insurance matters since 1874. His father, Charles Jones, M.R.C.S., came to Canada in 1844.

Josiah Barnett, general accountant, auditor and insurance agent, acts specially for the Commercial Union Fire Insurance Company. He is auditor for the Toronto Paper Company, of Cornwall, and the Speight Manufacturing Company, of Markham. He is an Englishman by birth and came to this city in 1874, and has held the position of head bookkeeper for some of our leading merchants.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS.

E. W. D. Butler, real estate and financial agent, valuator and arbitrator, etc. The business of this firm was established in 1860, by the late Wilkin B. Butler, and since its commencement has been in active operation, enjoying its share of Toronto real estate transactions, and retaining the confidence of all doing business with it. The steady growth of the business shows the reliability of the firm in the transaction of confidential and general business, in the purchase, sale, valuation, rental and management of properties. The clients of this firm embrace a number of the most wealthy and influential citizens and land corporations of Toronto, besides a large number residing in the United States, England and other countries. Mr. Butler also transacts a large business in investment of private and trust funds, in real estate, mortgage security, municipal debentures, etc., negotiation of loans, securing investments, management of estates, etc., etc. Intending investors in Toronto, Parkdale, Rosedale and suburban real estate will consult their interests by securing reliable valuations, giving full particulars, plans, etc., special and personal attention being devoted to this important branch. A large list of city and suburban properties for sale, exchange, etc., is constantly on hand; printed catalogues containing all details and information are furnished free of charge to investors. The offices of this firm are complete and commodious and in keeping with the steady growth and requirements of the business, and are situated on the ground-floor of 66 King Street East.

James Hewlett was born in Somerset, England, on November the 13th, 1845, and settled in Toronto in 1871. He was a butcher on Yonge Street for nine years; but lately has been in the real estate business at 24 Toronto Arcade. In September, 1878, he married Elizabeth Margaret Carter, who was born in Toronto in 1858, being the daughter of John Carter, born in Toronto about 1820.

Robert Kidney, who carries on business as a real estate agent, on the corner of Victoria and Adelaide Streets, was born in the County of Elgin, and is the eldest son of Thomas Kidney, a native of Ireland, who came to Canada in 1844. Mr. Kidney carried on a hardware business until 1882, when he took up his present occupation.

Wm. McBean, real estate owner and dealer, 452 Yonge Street, has followed the business of property speculator for the past twenty years, during which time he has built about 200 houses for himself and a great number of other people. His real estate business is almost entirely confined to his own property, it being only occasionally that he acts for outsiders. He is generally considered as the pioneer of the north-eastern section of the city, though he has erected buildings in the other districts.

Richard McDonell, estate agent, Queen Street and Gladstone Avenue, is a native of Toronto, being the youngest son of the late Richard McDonell, of Scotch descent. Before taking to his present business Mr. McDonell was a railroad contractor, and constructed the Lake Simcoe Junction and other roads.

Pearson Bros., real estate brokers and valuators, are among the longest established and best known firms in the City of Toronto. They have been engaged in the purchase and sale of real estate for the past ten years. They number among their clients a great many of the largest property-holders and incorporated companies and associations in Toronto and the Province, also owners of Canadian property residents of other countries. The Real Estate Journal, Building and Insurance Record, published by this firm, contains an extensive list of properties for sale, and a number of useful and well written articles in connection with the real estate, insurance and building businesses. Each number of the Journal contains a most complete plan of a house, with estimated cost of erection. This firm have again extended their premises, and now occupy the entire ground floor of No. 17 Adelaide Street East. In the last number of their Journal, under the head of “Real Estate,” they say:—“There should be no difficulty in the mind of any one in determining where the safest investment and best security can be obtained. The issue in the past has been between stocks and real estate. The present appears to be essentially a panic in stocks, and their decline has been heavy and irresistible, the reason being that for the past few years they had been forced up beyond their true commercial value. There was no margin for a rise, as all the ‘rise’ had been taken out of them. Stock speculation in Canada is dull, but no duller than it ought to be. The market being so, many a hundred dollars of hard-earned money lies in the pockets of former stock speculators instead of in the speculation. The New York Herald says that speculation both in stocks and grain is knocked on the head. This follows: that the attention of investors will be more and more drawn to sound, solid investment in real estate. This will undoubtedly prove to be the case not only here but elsewhere. There can never be a panic or anything akin to a panic in real estate. There have been some severe collapses of prices where misplaced judgment has overreached itself, or too heavily discounted the future. In really desirable property there can be no such severe crisis as affect the financial markets, because it is not capable of being inflated with ‘water’ and other kite-flying expedients which are adopted for making a large portion of our securities worth par on one day and old paper the next. People with inclination to speculate in stocks are held back by the failures of some of the largest and boldest of the stock handlers and brokers. One day a card castle, believed to represent millions tumbles over, and is found to represent nothing. A few days more and another tumble comes, and several other supposed millions vanish like the baseless fabric of a dream. The turn in the tide of investment to real estate instead of stocks is rapidly going on. This is not surprising, for if we look around among our own citizens we cannot but observe the many men who have been ruined through stock speculating; and, on the other hand, it is apparent that our wealthiest and most independent men are our largest property owners. Some of our depressionists prophesied that the failure of the stock market would reduce the price of real estate, but the sales for the past summer show that the public took exactly the opposite and correct view, and acted on the belief that when stocks were unsafe then was the very time to invest in real estate. Instead of real estate weakening under the pressure, the contrary has been the effect. Torontonians have just reason to be proud of their city and its growth; they have no cause to look forward with fear to the outlook, for in every direction residences and stores for commercial purposes are rapidly going up and are to be occupied as soon as ready. The public must fall back on real estate as the most solid thing to ‘stick to.’ This view will be confirmed the more carefully it is considered.”

John Poucher, real estate and financial agent, No. 3 Court Street, has been largely engaged in the erection of houses, having built about sixty for himself. He retired from the building business about a year ago, after having been engaged in it for twelve years, and now devotes his entire attention to the real estate business. The style of the firm is “John Poucher & Co.”

Wm. B. Poulton real estate owner and house painter, has been in business since 1874, from which time he has been a resident of Toronto. During the past two and a-half years he has erected five stores on the Kingston Road, at the corner of Boulden Street, costing over $5,000. Mr. Poulton was born in Hertfordshire, England, 1857, and came to Canada in 1874.

Thomas Shortiss, broker and real estate agent, Imperial Bank Buildings, was born at Bristol, England, and is a son of Thomas Shortiss, a native of Clonmel, Ireland, who came to Canada with his family in 1826, being induced to do so by his personal friend, Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. Mr. Shortiss, jr., was one of a family of eleven children; he received his education at the Grammar School and Upper Canada College, and commenced the business of life in the mercantile profession. He has engaged successfully in lumbering and mining, adopting his present occupation of late years. Mr. Shortiss married, in October, 1855, Miss Hester Wakefield, of Toronto, whose parents came from England.

Thomas Uttley, J.P., real estate agent and general advertising agent. He has for some two years been connected with the real estate business in this city. His native place is Summitt, near Manchester, England, and he came to Canada, settled in this city in 1881, and was appointed by the Provincial Government in 1884 a Magistrate for the County of York.

A. L. Willson, M.A., real estate agent, 37 Arcade, is the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Willson, grandson of a U. E. Loyalist, who settled in the County of York at the period of Governor Simcoe’s Administration. On coming from the United States his great-grandfather first settled in New Brunswick; thence he went to Niagara, removing afterwards to his location on Yonge Street, in York Township. Mr. Willson was the fourth son of Captain Willson, and succeeded his father in the offices of Township Clerk and Treasurer for said municipality, which offices they held continuously for half a century. The Willson family are related by marriage to several of the pioneer families of Toronto.

AGENTS, FREIGHT AND STEAMSHIP, MERCANTILE, ETC.

Bradstreet & Co.’s mercantile agency was established in New York in 1849, and is under the Presidency of Chas. F. Clark. The Toronto office was opened in 1865. Thomas C. Irving became superintendent five years ago, when he succeeded Joseph Priestman, who is now manager of the company’s Canadian offices. This office has charge of all places west of Hastings County (inclusive), Ontario.

John Foy, general manager of the Niagara Navigation Company, who own a line of passenger boats plying between Toronto and Lewiston, N.Y., calling at Niagara. This line was taken from the upper lakes in 1877—Mr. Foy representing them for the past five years. He is a Director in the Home Savings Loan Company, and the Toronto Printing Company. Is a native of this city, and has been connected with its business interests nearly his whole life.

Sam Osborne, general passenger and freight agent, representing the famous Cunard Steamship Line, State S.S. Line, Dominion S.S. Line, North-West Transportation Company, Ocean Steamship, Niagara Navigation Company. Business established in 1882. For 1883 they sent out seven hundred and twenty-nine passengers, and from present indications expect to double that amount this year. He is a native of London, England, came to Canada in 1869, and has for thirteen years been connected with the steamship and transportation business.

Donald Milloy, financial agent, representing the Richilieu and Ontario Navigation Company. First established as the Canadian Inland Steam Navigation Company, with a line of steamers running from Montreal to Hamilton. About 1857 this amalgamated with the above company, and is the largest inland steamship company in the Dominion of Canada, with a business of a half million dollars per year. There are some twenty-five steamers in the fleet, six of which ply between Montreal and Toronto two are leased to the Owen Sound Steamship Company, and ply between Owen Sound and Lake Superior points, and the balance do a trade on the St. Lawrence River, with Quebec as a terminal point. These were all side-wheel steamers, upper cabin steerage, built of iron and steel, and are considered one of the best equipped steamship lines in the world.

Webster & Bain, general railway and steamship agents, representing the following railway lines: “National,” “Anchor,” Hamburg American Lines. Owen Sound S.S. Co.; Quebec S.S. Co.; Niagara and Canadian Pacific Railway and Steamship. The agency was originally established in 1860 by Charles E. Morgan, the present firm taking possession of the same in 1883. Mr. Bain has been connected with the railway and steamship business for twenty years, and Mr. Webster has had ten years’ experience as Great Western Ticket Agent, between Hamilton and Toronto.

White Star Line—Royal Mail Steamers. Mr.—T. W. Jones, general agent of this line, has filled various positions in the late Great Western Railway, and in 1875 became passenger agent of that company at Toronto. When that road became fused with the Grand Trunk he declined a similar position in London; preferring to accept from the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (Limited) (whose local agency he had held since 1875) their general agency for Canada. The launching of that company (usually known as the White Star Line) in 1870, came with all the effect of a startling surprise upon the commercial community of Liverpool. The manner in which it was introduced exhibited a boldness and energy which showed that a new enterprize of the most extraordinary character had been brought upon the scene. The shares of the company for £1,000 each, were taken up by the managers of the line, Messrs. Ismay, Imrie & Co., and their friends, including some of the best and most substantial names in Liverpool and elsewhere. It was an innovation also that the White Star Company should instead of resorting to the Clyde, upon which all the first-class American liners then existing had been built, betake themselves to Belfast, where they placed themselves in the hands of Messrs. Harland and Wolff, and instructed them to commence at once the construction of a fleet of powerful and magnificent vessels to be engaged in the trade between Liverpool and New York. The only stipulation made with the builders was that the ships were to be constructed of a strength, size and power to equal, if not to surpass, anything which had yet been seen upon the Mersey. The builders were not limited by any contract. They were left to themselves to fulfil the general instructions given, and no one acquainted with the vessels of the White Star Line can fail to admit that Messrs. Harland and Wolff have acquitted themselves in a manner which does the highest credit to British ship-building. The first admission which was made was that the vessels, whatever else they might do, would soon become remarkable for their speed. Subsequent events proved that the builders in designing these vessels have reached a high degree of perfection in speed, and what is more important, safety. No other transatlantic vessels afloat having proved better able to cope with the winter storms, so frequent in the North Atlantic than the White Star Liners, as their average passages in all weathers plainly demonstrate. The innovation of placing the saloon and state-rooms amidships was introduced by this company, and as there are none below the saloon deck, or within one hundred and thirty-three feet of the stern, every state-room is strictly first-class. The system by which they are ventilated is absolutely perfect. The Atlantic mail steamers between Liverpool and New York, via. Queenstown, are the Germanic and Britannic of 5,000; and the Baltic, Republic, Celtic and Adriatic, of 4,000 tons each. They are all four-masted vessels, full ship-rigged, i.e., carrying square canvass, and top-gallant sails on three masts, thus giving them an amount of sail-power fully equal to that of a first-class sailing ship, and rendering them entirely independent of machinery. The New Zealand fleet consists of Arabic, Coptic, Ionic and Doric, of 5,000 tons each, now regularly making the hitherto unprecedented time of forty-three days to the Antipodes; as against sixty days previous to their advent; while in the North Pacific, Oceanic, Belgic, and Gaelic, are making relatively fast time between San Francisco, Yokahama and Hong Kong. The “red burgee with a white star,” also flies at the main truck of a fleet of fast and powerful clipper sailing ships from Liverpool to all parts of the world. These vessels form an admirable training school for officers and men for the ocean steamers of the company. The marvellous success of the White Star Line is one of the most remarkable instances upon record, of what pluck and business ability will do under apparently adverse circumstances.

ARCHITECTS AND SURVEYORS.

Edward James Lennox, architect, was born in Toronto, 1856, being the son of Edward and Eliza (Smith) Lennox. His father was born in Ireland, near Belfast. Mr. Lennox, sen’r, emigrated to Canada when a young man, and after several years of prospecting in different parts of Upper Canada, settled in Toronto, and started business as a general produce merchant in partnership with a man named Bell; the firm also speculated in real estate, in which they became largely interested. Mr. Lennox afterwards engaged in the hotel business for about twenty years on Francis Street, and lastly in the grocery business on Church Street, whence he finally retired from business and is now living in Toronto. Mr. Lennox met and married his wife in Toronto. Mrs. Lennox was born in Ireland in the same neighbourhood as her husband. She emigrated to the United States with her parents, and settled in Rochester, N.Y., where to this day several of the family still reside. Our subject, Edward J. Lennox, when a very young boy, possessed strong artistic taste and originality. He attended the architectural drawing class in the Mechanics’ Institute in 1874, and carried off first prize and diploma at the head of about sixty pupils, although he was about the youngest pupil in the class, which was mostly composed of experienced mechanics. After this his father decided to allow him to study architecture, and placed him in the office of the lated William Irving, with whom he remained for five years. Mr. Lennox’s next step in life was to enter into partnership with Mr. McCaw for a term of five years. At the expiration of the partnership Mr. Lennox started for himself in offices on the corner of King and Yonge Streets, where he has had a continued success, his business steadily increasing every year, until at the present time it is one of the largest of the kind in Canada. Mr. Lennox has been very successful in competition against his fellow-professionals. The following are some of the many buildings his plans were accepted for on competition, and carried out under his supervision: Bond Street Congregational Church, Erskine Presbyterian Church, Bloor Street Baptist Church, Stratford and Owen Sound High Schools, and several City Public schools. His plans were also accepted, “although the competition was thrown open to Canada and United States,” for a large fire-proof hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, to cost about $350,000. Outside of competition Mr. Lennox has done, and is doing, a very extensive business, both in private and public buildings. He was also architect for Manning’s Arcade and Office Building, King Street West, which cost about $100,000. He has also under preparation plans for a large public hall, etc., for the Orange Association, which will probably cost complete $40,000; and has also been appointed architect to the Toronto Tenement Building Society, whose schemes, when carried out, will be in the neighbourhood of about $2,000,000. Mr. Lennox has about two years’ work ahead, so this speaks well for his skill, energy and perseverance. He never sought any Municipal or Government office. Mr. Lennox was married in 1881 to Emeline, second daughter of John Wilson, of Cobourg, Ontario.

James Smith, architect, 31 Adelaide Street East, was born in Macduff, Banffshire, Scotland, in 1834. He settled in Toronto in 1851, and commenced the practice of his profession in 1857. Since Mr. Smith has been in business he has designed many of the churches and colleges in Ontario. He is considered an adept at his calling.

William George Storm, architect, Toronto. The Storm family are of English origin. Thomas, the father of our subject, was born at Winteringham, Lincolnshire, Eng., in 1801. His mother, Mary (Hopkins) Storm, was a native of Horkstow, of the same shire. In early life Mr. Storm, sen’r, learned the trade of carpenter and joiner, and was extensively engaged as a master-builder at Burton-upon-Stather until 1830, when he came to York with his family of one son and two daughters. He took up his residence on Church Street, north of the present Mechanics’ Institute, where he resided only a few months, when he removed to Richmond Street and remained until 1848. In 1840 he went into partnership with the late Mr. Richard Woodsworth and the late Mr. Alexander Hamilton in a contract for the erection of the new garrison. At an early day he carried on business jointly with Mr. Sheldon Ward (a bricklayer), each conducting their own separate trades, until the death of the latter in 1844. Mr. Storm was for many years engaged contracting and building; during which time he erected a large number of the finest public and private buildings in the city. After the incorporation as a city he was chosen Councilman for St. David’s Ward. At the formation of the old “No. 3,” or British American Fire Company, he joined the old volunteer fire brigade. During the rebellion he carried his musket in connection with the company, was on duty at the Don Bridge, musket in one hand, working the engine with the other. In religion he was a Methodist, all his life being identified with that body, and the church he attended was situated on the south side of King Street, nearly opposite the present site of Thomas’ hotel. He passed peacefully away in December, 1871, universally respected by all, having contributed no small share to the substantial growth and present prosperity of Toronto. His only son, William George Storm, was born in Winteringham, England; came to York with his father, and received his early education here. When a young man he worked at the bench under his father’s instruction, where he served his apprenticeship. Step by step he acquired a thorough knowledge of every detail for the construction of public and private buildings, which laid the foundation of his success in after years. Nature seems to have endowed him with more than an average share of mechanical ingenuity, for before completing his apprenticeship he displayed rare ability and a strong desire for architecture. After a few years he discontinued the building business and devoted his entire attention to the latter profession. Many of the public buildings of the city have been constructed from designs prepared by him. In the spring of 1849 he had about closed arrangements to leave for California, but just before his departure a disastrous fire destroyed the old St. James’ Church, and the following day, while walking over the smouldering ruins, he met the late Col. F. W. Cumberland, who had just established himself in the city, and, through his intercessions, Mr. Storm was induced to remain in Toronto and assist in preparing the designs for the present St. James’ Cathedral. He accordingly entered his office, prepared the designs (competition, drawings and working plans), and remained until it was completed. In 1852 he entered into joint partnership with Mr. Cumberland, which existed for thirteen years, during which time they designed Osgoode Hall, the University of Toronto, the Normal School, the old Post-office, Mechanics’ Institute, and many other public and private buildings in the city, as well as throughout the Province of Ontario. As Toronto grew in importance as a manufacturing and a commercial centre, a demand for larger and better buildings rapidly increased. In 1857, with a view of meeting the wants of the public, he made a tour of inspection through the British Isles, devoting one year’s time to the thorough examination of public and private buildings in foreign countries, during which period he visited some of the principal towns of England, France, Germany and Ireland, returning home the following year. Mr. Storm is at present one of the ablest architects in Toronto, of which he has been a resident for more than half a century, having grown up with it from early boyhood. His great experience in designing and constructing the better class of public and private buildings throughout Ontario, has pre-eminently fitted him for the position he now occupies at the head of his chosen profession, and caused his services to be eagerly and widely sought.

Kivas Tully, architect and civil engineer, was born at Garrarucum, near Maryborough, Queen’s County, Ireland. He is a son of Commander John Tully, who figured conspicuously during the years when the “wooden walls” of England were gaining their reputation and adding to our country’s naval supremacy. In command of several vessels during the war with France in the beginning of the present century, his name is on the list of those who contributed materially to the subjection of the navy of that country. A complete record of his naval career will be found in the Official Gazette. Kivas Tully was educated at the Royal Naval School, Cumberwell, London, Eng., after which he spent four years with a Mr. W. H. Owen of Limerick, where he acquired a knowledge of his profession. After being appointed to a position and serving under the Irish Poor Law Commission he emigrated to Canada in 1844, and at once commenced the practice of his profession in this city. In 1856 he accepted a position in the Civil Service, and in 1868 he was appointed Architect and Engineer of the Public Works Governmental Department, in which office he still continues. The designs for Trinity College, Toronto, Town Hall, St. Catharines, Victoria Hall, Cobourg, Bank of Toronto in this city, are from his conception, and are architectural examples to all future students of this art. He celebrated the year of his arrival in Canada by marrying Elizabeth Drew, who died three years afterwards. In the year 1852 he married Maria Elizabeth Strickland, who died in 1883. He has a family of four daughters, two of whom are unmarried. He is a member of the Church of England, and also belongs to the Freemason body.

Unwin, Browne & Sankey, surveyors, engineers, etc., located at 17 Toronto Street. The firm consists of C. Unwin, H. J. Browne, V. Sankey, and W. A. Browne. Charles Unwin is of English birth, and came to Canada in 1843; Messrs. Browne are the same nationality, while Mr. Sankey comes from Ireland. Mr. Unwin for four years after his arrival attended the U. C. College, and has followed his profession since 1852. He became a member of the above firm in 1882.

Charles A. Walton, architect, 36 Toronto Street, was born at Leeds, England, January, 1845, and came to Toronto in 1856. He studied his profession with the late William Kauffmann, architect, of Toronto. He afterwards travelled through the United States, and returned to Toronto in 1876, where he commenced the practice of his profession. He is at present engaged on the Toronto “Arcade” Building, which is being erected between Yonge and Victoria Streets. He has attended strictly to his business, and has been very successful. He married Emily Walton, granddaughter of Matthew Walton, the first City Chamberlain.

Richard C. Windeyer, architect, 20 Masonic Hall, is a native of Chatham, Kent, England, being the youngest son of A. C. Windeyer, of Her Majesty’s Civil Service, who died in 1865. Our subject’s grandfather and great grandfather were both in their turn mayors of the City of Rochester, Kent, England. Mr. Windeyer came to Toronto in 1855, but immediately after left for United States, where he remained for seven years in the practice of his profession, returning again to Canada in 1862. The time from that year until 1871 he spent in Montreal, and on his return to Toronto he established himself at his present address.

BUILDERS AND CONTRACTORS.

William Adams, builder and contractor, 119 Bleeker Street. Native of Frogmore, Devon, England; came to Toronto in 1870, and after working at his trade, commenced business in 1875, which he still continues.

John Atkinson, builder and contractor, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1815, and in 1814 came to Canada, and at first located in Montreal, where he remained for some five years, then came to Toronto, and has followed building to the present time. In 1849, Mr. Atkinson married Miss Sarah Stringer, who died in 1863, leaving two children; he married for his second wife, Mary Jane Hurdle, by whom he has five children.

Frank Baby, stone merchant and contractor, 2 Victoria Street, is a native of Toronto, being the youngest son of James Francis Baby, whose family originally came from Marseilles, in the south of France. His quarries are situated on lots 2 and 3, in the second concession, King Township, York County, and produce mostly flags and foundation stone. Employs from five to twelve teams and seven to ten quarrymen.

William Baillie, builder and contractor, 80 and 82 Albert Street, is a native of Belfast, Ireland, and came to Canada with his parents in 1854. He learned his trade with Mr. John Greenleese, and then commenced business for himself. Private residence, 89 Walton Street.

Thomas Beaver, contractor and builder, born in England, and came to Canada with his parents at an early day. He has been engaged in his present business for many years, having served his time and been a resident of the city since. He was foreman for James Farrell five years, and for the last five years has been in business for himself, doing fine ornamental work and plastering.

William Brand, contractor and builder, was born in the County of York, and remained at home until 1862, when he went to the United States and engaged in the cattle and mining business till 1869, and afterwards to Kansas, continuing in the cattle trade there until 1869. Since his return to Toronto he has engaged in contracting and building, and erected some of the finest and largest structures in the city, and at one time was in partnership With William Thomas. Employs from thirty to fifty hands.

John W. Bowden, 38 Winchester Street, contractor, etc., was born in London, England, 1829, and is the son of John and Rachael (Wilson) Bowden. His father came to Toronto in 1842, having followed the business of builder and contractor in the Town of Holworth, Devonshire, England. After his arrival in York he carried on building business forty years, and died in 1884 at the age of eighty-three years. John is the eldest in a family of twelve children, and the only one living. He learned his trade with his father, and began contracting and building in 1850, and has been extensively engaged ever since, having in the eastern portion of the city erected a large number of private buildings. Mr. Bowden married a daughter of Mr. Purdy, one of the early settlers of York. Mr. Bowden is a member of the All Saints branch of the English Church.

Brown & Love, proprietors of steam stone saw mills and building contractors, occupy the old Bay Street Wharf. The business was established by John Worthington, about 1840, and is the oldest establishment of its kind in Toronto. Mr. Worthington was succeeded by Benjamin Walton, and Brown & Love took the place of the latter in 1875. The present firm since their advent have erected some of the finest structures in this city, among which we would mention the British American Assurance Company, the Western Assurance Company, the St. James Square Presbyterian Church, the Dominion Bank Building, North of Scotland Chambers Building, and Loan Chambers and Gas Offices on Toronto Street. In 1880 they erected the Mail Building, Jones Brothers’ Block, on Front Street West, Baldwin’s Chambers next Dominion Bank—since taken down for additions to the latter building. They have erected two fine buildings in Hamilton, viz.:—The Canada Life Assurance Company’s Offices, and are at present engaged on the Post Office and Custom House Buildings, and Examining Warehouses in this city, and Manning’s Arcade Building, King Street West. A great portion of Toronto’s finest buildings, justly celebrated for their architectural beauty, have been prepared at this establishment.

William Carlyle, contractor and builder, was born in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1820, and in 1850 he came to Canada and settled in Toronto, where he has resided ever since. In 1852 he engaged in contracting and building, and has erected houses in every ward of the city. Resides at 157 Seaton Street. In 1849 he married Miss Margaret McKay, by whom he has two children. Mr. Carlyle represented St. Thomas’ Ward for the past six years.

Arthur Coleman, builder and contractor, 11 Hayter Street, was born in Walton, England, in 1833, and came to Canada with his parents in 1846, settling one year afterwards in this city. He learned his trade with William Bell, and began contracting and building on his own account in 1857, since which time he has been principally engaged erecting private houses. He employs from eight to ten men.

William Coulter, 75 Jarvis Street, is a builder and contractor, born in Toronto in 1849. His father was George, his mother was McL. Henney, from York Mills. His father came to Canada at the age of twenty-one, about the time of the rebellion of 1837. He was a builder by trade, and sat in the Council in St. David’s Ward for many years. William learned his trade with Mr. Hathaway, Queen Street West; he was foreman for John Fletcher for a number of years. In 1880 he began contracting and building for himself. He married a Mrs. E. A. Doran. He belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

W. St. Croix, 7 North Street, Toronto. Among the many who have settled in Toronto in the past thirty years, and added to its substantial growth and prosperity, there are but few who have overcome greater difficulties in achieving an honourable success in business than the subject of this sketch. Mr. St. Croix was born on the Highlands of Jersey, in Scotland, in 1834, of French parentage. In early life he learned the trade of bricklayer and mason, and later travelled through France, England, and a portion of the United States, arriving in Toronto in 1854 with only one York shilling, which constituted his entire wealth, together with his scanty wardrobe. He not only struggled with poverty, but being in a strange country and wholly unable to comprehend the language of the people. For the first year after his arrival he worked as a journeyman during which time he improved his leisure hours in the study of the English language. He soon after began business for himself in a small way, which gradually increased until it assumed vast proportions, with honesty, industry, and frugality for his motto, his labours have been crowned with success. During the past thirty years he has erected many public and private buildings, among which were the present Police Station near the Post-office, Phœnix Block on Front Street, and several warehouse blocks on Yonge Street. In 1880 he purchased a portion of the Elmsley Estate, west of Yonge Street, consisting of one thousand feet frontage on Bloor Street North and St. Mary Street, upon which he has erected about seventy-five handsome two-storey brick residences, a portion of which he has sold and rented, besides many other private residences in various parts of the city. He has annually employed from sixty to seventy-five men. As an instance of the amount of labour performed in one branch of his business—plastering—in one year, his contracts amounted to $35,000. The average wages he has paid his men has been from $1.25 to $2.00 per day. More recently he has enlarged his business, and now contracts for the construction of buildings from the digging of the cellar to the finishing and turn of the key. At the present time he owns over fifty beautiful residences and stores in various parts of the city. In politics he is a Reformer; in religion, a member of the Bond Street Congregational Church, where he has acted in the capacity of a deacon for many years. Mr. St. Croix married a daughter of James Kerr, an old resident of Toronto, of Scottish extraction.

Thomas W. Cruttendon, builder and contractor, 380 Gerrard Street East, is a native of London, England, where he learned his trade. He came to Toronto in 1870, and four years later commenced business as contractor, which he has since carried on. He has erected several public and private buildings, including the masonry and brickwork of the new sugar refinery, and employs about twenty men. Mr. Cruttendon has had on hand about $80,000 worth of contracts during the late season.

Richard Dinnis, contractor and builder, 271 Simcoe Street, was born in Cornwall, England, and came to Toronto in 1856. For eleven years he was engaged with Worthington Bros., builders, and for two years on railway works in Ohio. He made the patterns for the cut-stone for the University, and worked on many of the chief buildings in Toronto. He erected the Industrial Exhibition Buildings in ninety days. His last year’s operations amounted to over $150,000. Being a contractor, Mr. Dinnis has avoided taking any part in municipal matters.

James Farquhar, contractor, 11 Wilton Crescent, was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 1813, married in England in 1838, and settled in Toronto in 1842. The City Hall and St. Michael’s Cathedral were among some of his first contracts in Toronto.

S. Fawkes, builder and contractor, was born in Gloucestershire, England, in 1829, and came to Canada in 1850. He first engaged in general grocery business on Queen Street West, afterwards removing to Yonge Street and went into the undertaking trade, which he carried on for some years, and is now living retired.

John Fletcher, builder and contractor, 526 Yonge Street, was born in County Down, Ireland, 1834, and is the eldest son of William Fletcher, a farmer, who came to Canada and settled in Simcoe County in 1844. John learned his trade with his brother Robert, who at present carries on contracting in Barrie, and after doing a little in the neighbourhood of his home came, in the year 1872, to Toronto and established the business he has since carried on. Among the buildings erected by Mr. Fletcher may be mentioned the Grand Opera Houses of Toronto and Hamilton, the Mail Building, Church of the Ascension, the Methodist Church on Yonge Street, and the Central Presbyterian, and a great many private residences, among which may be mentioned Mr. Northrop’s on Carlton Street, and Mrs. Cawthra’s, Jarvis Street, together with several Sunday school buildings, and is at present engaged on a new Chapel for Trinity College and an additional wing to Osgoode Hall. His contracts amount to over $200,000 annually and he employs from thirty to sixty men in winter, and sixty to ninety in summer. Mr. Fletcher is one of the most efficient builders in Ontario.

James Gaylard, builder, 340 Parliament Street, settled in Toronto in 1874, during which time he has superintended the building of Jarvis Street Baptist Church, Church of the Redeemer on Bloor Street, St. Andrew’s corner of Carlton and Jarvis Streets, Methodist Church corner Spadina Avenue and College Street, Mail Building on King Street, Jones’ wholesale store on Front Street and an addition to the Custom House warehouse, and now is superintendent of the Custom House and Post-office in Hamilton, also the Life Insurance building in this city.

George Hardy, contractor and builder, born in the Isle of Wight, England, where he remained until 1856, when he emigrated to Canada, afterwards going to the United States. In 1867 he came to Toronto and engaged in his present business, that of contractor, and for the past fifteen years, being largely engaged in real estate, erecting over one hundred houses in this city, employing about thirty hands.

John Herbert, contractor and builder, was born in the County of Tipperary, Ireland, 1831, and in 1849 came to Canada. Having previously learned the trade of bricklayer and mason he continued in that trade after his arrival here, working as journeyman until 1866. About this date he commenced contracting and building on his own account, and among the buildings erected by him may be mentioned the Equity Chambers, Girl’s Home, the tower and spire of St. Michael’s, the new Arcade, and many others. Employs from fifty to sixty hands. In 1851 Mr. Herbert married Ann Boyd, who died in 1852, leaving two sons and one daughter. Our subject has held the office of separate School Board Trustee for the past ten years.

William J. Hill, 85 Bloor Street West, builder and contractor. The business was established by his father, William Hill, in 1843, who retired in 1878, and is now conducted by William J. Hill. He employs from fifteen to forty men, and contracts for the entire completion of his structures. Has also been extensively engaged in block paving. Mr. Hill is a school trustee for the Ward of St. Paul.

William L. Huddart, contractor and builder, Davenport Road, was born in Cumberland, England, and came to Toronto in 1866. He commenced his business in Yorkville. He has been employed in connection with the manufacture of brick machines for E. & C. Gurney for a number of years, and does a large business in tile and drain pipes, and the construction of private drains. He made the interior fittings of the Mechanic’s Institute Buildings, now the Public Library. In connection with private drains he has had a large experience, and is always ready to advise and attend to same.

William Ireson, contractor and builder, was born in Northamptonshire, England, in 1822. In 1855 he came to Canada and settled in Toronto where he has resided ever since. Engaged in contracting and building, and has sometimes employed as many as eighty hands. In 1852 he married Elizabeth Wyles. His private residence is 9 Breadalbane Street.

Daniel Livingston, contractor and builder, was born in Scotland, 1830, and at the age of eighteen came to Canada in the year 1848; and worked at his trade of bricklayer and mason. After six years’ experience as a journeyman, in 1854, he commenced business on his own account, contracting, etc., and up to the present time has continued successfully in that line, and usually employs seven to twelve hands. In 1860 he married Miss Jeannette Bowman, from Peel County, by whom he has six sons and one daughter, of whom four sons are now living.

William Luney, contractor and builder, born in England in 1848, and in 1868 came to Canada, and for some years has been engaged in contracting and building all kinds of stone and brick work in this city, and employs about fifty hands. Mr. Luney was married in England to Miss Jeannette Cudlip, a native of same place, by whom he has five children. Resides on Armenia Street.

Martin & Harniman, builders and contractors, 14 Yorkville Avenue and Shaftsbury Avenue, North Toronto. This enterprising firm do a large and thriving business in general contracting, and make a specialty in the erection of private residences.

T. Y. Parker, contractor and builder, third son of James Parker, who came to Toronto in 1832, and engaged in the butchering business at the old log market. Since 1870 Mr. Parker has been engaged in contracting and building in all portions of the city. In 1868 he married Miss Sarah Jackson, by whom he has two sons. Resides at 405 Church Street, also owns property on Bleeker and Cumberland Streets and Yorkville Avenue.

Phillips & Lean, contractors and builders, Mr. Lean was born in Cornwall, England; came to Canada in 1869, and located in Toronto, where he first engaged as carpenter, and has been in the contracting and building trade since 1878. Mr. Phillips was also born in England, came to Canada in 1868, and was foreman on the building of Custom House, Western Assurance, and other buildings, and has been engaged in contracting and building for the past six years. The partnership has existed since 1851. Employs on an average twenty hands.

A. H. Rundle, builder and contractor, was born in Devonshire, England, and came to Canada in 1871, where he has resided ever since. Is engaged in building and largely interested in real estate. He has built nineteen houses on Sherbourne, Huntley and Selby Streets. Mr. Rundle married Miss Hockridge, of Toronto.

Charles R. Rundell, builder and contractor, was born in Devonshire, England, and came to Canada in 1871. He first landed in New York, and was at Buffalo for a short time, then came to Toronto and worked at his trade of plasterer for three years. Since then he has been engaged in contracting and building. He married Miss Sarah Tozer, native of England, by whom he has one son and daughter.

E. Stephenson & Co., 139 to 147 Queen Street East, contractors and builders. The business was established in 1854 by Thomas Storm, and came into the hands of the present firm in 1871. Employ from fifteen to fifty men. It is perhaps the oldest established business of the kind in Toronto. Among the edifices which have been built by Stephenson & Co., may be mentioned, Trust and Loan Company Office, Gas Company Office, McMaster’s residence and St. James’ spire, also oak work in the chancel.

Benjamin Tomlin, proprietor of the Lily of the Valley Hotel, Gerrard Street East, was born in Wellinborough, Northamptonshire, England, and came to Canada in 1870. Was a contractor on excavation and sewerage up to 1878, when he bought some land at his present location. He takes considerable interest in municipal affairs of the village and of the ward in which he lives; he was manager for some years for Sir Joseph Thornton on the Belfast Central Railway.

Thomas Tushingham & Son, builders and contractors, 84, 86 Adelaide Street West. Established, 1867. Employ from fifteen to twenty men. Commenced on a small scale and steadily increased, having done more than double his former business within the past two year.

Lionel Yorke, builder and contractor, and proprietor of Steam Stone works—office and wharf, foot of Jarvis Street. Business established about 1870. He is a native of Wisbeach, England, and came to America in 1859. Was one year in the Southern States, and ten years in Peterboro’, Ontario. At the latter town he engaged in contracting and stone quarrying. He has done a great amount of stone and brick work in this city, and has erected a number of its best buildings, including sixteen churches, prominent among which is St. Andrew’s, Church of the Redeemer, Grace Church, Mrs. Cawthra’s residence, Jarvis Street, the new Standard Bank building, and others. He also built the Lieutenant-Governor’s residence, which was his first contract in Toronto. Mr. Yorke employs from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five men, and uses for his work the Ohio and Credit Valley stone.

COMMISSION MERCHANTS, PRODUCE, AUCTIONEERS, ETC.

D. W. Alexander, dealer in sole leather and hides, 65 Front Street East. This business was established in 1877, and has assumed such dimensions that Mr. Alexander now does the largest sole-leather trade in Western Canada. He has tanneries located in Bracebridge and Port Elgin. His warehouse on Front Street has a frontage of forty-four feet, is one hundred and fifty feet deep, and four storeys high. Mr. Alexander was born in Scotland and coming to Canada in 1866, carried on a commission business until 1877.

William Barrett, produce and commission merchant, 81 Colborne Street. Mr. Barrett first opened out at 42 George Street, where he remained for five years. He then removed to Colborne Street and in 1883 purchased his present warehouse which is five storeys high, and has a frontage of twenty-five feet by ninety feet deep. Mr. Barrett was born in the County Cavan, Ireland. He came to Canada in 1858, where he engaged in the wholesale and retail liquor business at the corner of St. Urbain and Vitre Streets, Montreal, known as the “Royal Oak Inn.” He came to Toronto in 1870. Mr. Barrett is one of the oldest members of the Prince of Wales Rifles, and held for ten years a certificate issued by Col. Bond. He was to the front with No. 6 Company during the Fenian raid.

E. Bendelari (Vice Consul of Italy), was born in the City of Naples, Italy. He came to Canada in 1868, and commenced business in Toronto as a commission merchant and importer of Mediterranean and West Indian produce. Since 1878 he has devoted his energies entirely to the commission business, buying direct from places of growth for account of the leading wholesale houses throughout Canada. This business has grown to such importance of late years that the purchases from England and New York, which were the main sources of supply, have been almost entirely superseded by direct importations. In addition to his Canadian business Mr. Bendelari also imports for some of the leading houses in the Western States.

L. Coffee & Co., produce and commission merchants, 30 Church Street. The business was established in 1845, being first located on Front Street East, then known as Palace Street. In 1858 it was removed to 80 Front Street East. In 1873 the present premises on Church Street were first occupied. The firm, which is composed of Lawrence Coffee and Thomas Flynn, makes a speciality of grain and flour, and is the oldest one in this line in Toronto. Mr. Coffee was born in Ireland, and came to Toronto at an early date. Mr. Flynn is a Canadian, and became associated with Mr. Coffee in 1857.

G. S. Donaldson, commission merchant and grocery broker, representing Henry Chapman & Co., of Montreal. Mr. Donaldson was the senior member of the firm of Donaldson, Sinclair & Co., wholesale grocers, and for the past seven years has been engaged in the grocery brokers business. He is agent for a large number of Old Country houses. Mr. Donaldson travelled through the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, representing a hardware firm of Montreal as far back as 1850, and thinks at that time there were not more than a dozen travellers in Canada. He is a Canadian by birth, and has been a resident of Toronto for the past nineteen years.

Wm. Galbraith, commission merchant, flour and produce dealer, 80 Front Street East. This business was established in 1859 by the firm of Swan & Galbraith on Colborne Street, where it was continued for two years. It was then removed to Church Street. In 1866 Mr. Swan retired, leaving the business to be carried on by Mr. Galbraith. In the following year Mr. Galbraith removed to the Manning Block on Front Street East, and in 1870 he purchased the warehouse in which he is now located. This warehouse has a frontage of twenty-six feet and is ninety-eight feet deep. Mr. Galbraith has a flouring-mill at Allandale, Ontario, and makes a speciality of flour and grain. He was born in Scotland, and coming to Canada in 1856 located in Toronto.

J. Goodall, grain, seed and commission merchant, first located at 83 Front Street East, where he established his business in 1873, and remained ever since. He makes a specialty of grass seeds and grain, and exports barley, wheat and clover seed. The warehouse has a frontage of thirty feet and is one hundred feet deep. Mr. Goodall was born in Toronto.

Hagarty & Co., steamboat owners and commission merchants. Mr. Hagarty was formally a partner in the firm of Clarkson & Hagarty, which continued up to 1874, when it was known as Hagarty & Grasett. In March of the present year, Mr. Grasett retired from the firm. The firm of Hagarty & Co., own the Cuba and Armenia, both large steamers. Mr. John Hagarty is the son of Chief Justice Hagarty.

James & Furnace, general produce and commission merchants, 72 and 74 Colborne Street. This business was established in 1860 under the name of J. B. Boustead & Co. In 1870 Mr. James entered the firm, and on the retirement of Mr. Boustead in 1876, it was continued by Mr. Crawford and Mr. James, Mr. Furnace succeeding the former gentleman. The warehouse has a frontage of 50 x 120 and is three storeys high. For the last four years the business has been conducted by Mr. John James.

W. H. Knowlton, general commission merchant, 27 Church Street. This business was established in 1852 by S. A. Oliver, and was located at 317 Queen Street West. In 1860 Mr. Knowlton entered the employ of Mr. Oliver, and in 1866 was taken into partnership, the style of the firm being S. A. Oliver & Co. This continued up to 1872 when Mr. Oliver retired leaving Mr. Knowlton to continue the business which is now quite extensive. The warehouse has a frontage of thirty feet, is one hundred feet deep and five storeys high. Mr. Knowlton was born in Montreal and came to Toronto about 1848.

James Lobb, 56 Front Street East, Lloyd’s agent and commission merchant, was born in Plymouth, England, 1832, and is the eldest son of James Lobb, of that city. In 1855 he came to Canada and settled in Toronto. In 1857 he went to Oshawa and entered into partnership with Messrs. T. N. and W. H. Gibbs of that town under the style of Gibbs, Lobb & Co. He returned to Toronto in 1872, and established the present business, representing several eminent English exporters in teas, sugars, hops, etc. In 1880 and 1881 Mr. Lobb was elected to the City Council for St. David’s Ward. He then retired from municipal work, but in 1884 was brought out for St. Lawrence Ward, by an influential requisition, the result being that he was elected at the head of the poll. He is a member of the Finance, Railway, and other important committees of the Council.

P. McIntosh & Son, produce dealers and commission merchants, 93 Front Street East, established their business in 1875. Their warehouse has a frontage of 40 x 400 feet, and is composed of three flats. This firm makes a specialty of feed and grain and have a mill in connection with their warehouse. Mr. McIntosh is by birth a Canadian, and since 1875 has been a resident in Toronto.

W. D. McIntosh, general flour and produce merchant, 209 Yonge Street, established his business in 1857 at his present warehouse, which has a frontage of 25 x 80 feet, and is four storeys in height, part of which is occupied and known as the “Orange Hall.” Mr. McIntosh is a native of Roxburghshire, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1857, it being worthy of note that he is not located at the same place he commenced business thirty years ago. As a neighbour he is held in high esteem; as a trader his integrity is thoroughly recognized.

Oliver, Coate & Co. This business was established by Mr. Wm. Wakefield and Fred. Wm. Coate in 1834. The firm was first known as Wakefield, Coate & Co., which continued up to the retirement of Mr. Wakefield in 1868. Mr. Oliver then went into partnership with Mr. Coate as general auctioneers, commission merchants and real estate agents. This well-known firm still occupies the same store in which the business was started fifty years ago. Mr. Wakefield and Mr. Coate were both born in England. The former came to Canada in 1833, the latter in 1834. Mr. Oliver was born in Hamilton, Canada, in 1847; Mr. Coate retired from business in 1880, since which time Mr. Oliver has been the sole member of the firm under the name and style of Oliver, Coate & Co.

R. H. Ramsay & Co., wholesale produce and commission merchants, 68 Front Street East. The business was established in 1864 under the name of Gardner & Ramsay, and was continued up to 1874 when the former retired. Mr. Ramsay has since carried on the business. The firm deal largely in all kinds of country produce and provisions; also hops, baled and pressed. Their large warehouse has a frontage of thirty feet, is one hundred and thirty feet deep, and is four storeys high. Mr. Ramsay was born in Scotland, and came to Canada in 1859, when he located in Toronto.

Reford & Hughes, 28 Church Street, brokers and commission merchants, dealers in teas, sugars, and dried fruits. The firm is composed of William Reford, and J. W. Hughes. The business was established in 1875 at 76 Colborne Street. In 1881 it was removed to 65 Front Street East. In the present year Messrs. Reford & Hughes removed to the quarters they now occupy. Mr. Reford was born in Ireland, and came to Canada some thirty years ago, locating in Toronto. Mr. Hughes was born in the County of York, and has resided in Toronto since 1866.

William Ryan, produce, commission and provision merchant, 72 Front Street East. This business was established in 1870, being first located at 23 Church Street. In 1875, Mr. Ryan removed to his present warehouses, which have a frontage of sixty feet, is one hundred and twenty feet deep and four storeys high. Mr. Ryan was born in County Limerick, Ireland, and came to Canada in 1840. He has been in Ontario since 1855.

W. H. Smith, fruit dealer and commission merchant, 86 King Street East. Mr. Smith established his business in his present quarters in 1874. He does a large retail as well as wholesale business. The premises have a frontage of twenty-four feet and a depth of one hundred and ninety. Mr. Smith was born in the County Antrim, Ireland. He went to Australia, and after returning to Ireland, came to Canada.

J. H. Sproule, grain and commission merchant, and exporter of barley, 19 Wellington Street East. Business was established in 1867. Mr. Sproule was born in Toronto, and the eldest son of John Sproule, deceased, who came to Canada in 1824. At one time was one of the leading grocery-men in Toronto.

N. Weatherston & Co., dealers in grain, flour, hops, and imported malt. This firm is composed of N. Weatherston. The business was established in 1875, and was located on Church Street until 1879, when it was removed to its present quarters, No. 8 Exchange, Imperial Bank Buildings. Mr. Weatherston was previously engaged in railway management. For seven years he was general agent for the Great Western Railway Company. He was in their service for about eighteen years. He was afterwards General Superintendent of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway, and Grand Junction Railway, having the management of the last-named until it was sold to the Grand Trunk Railway. He also carried on a grain business, and was connected with steamship lines, representing the “White Star” and “Anchor” lines for passenger business and for freight traffic to Europe, on through Bills of Lading, before the present business had grown to such an extent that the despatch companies now have their own independent agents. Mr. Weatherston was born in Scotland, and came to Canada in 1834.

William Werden, general grain and commission merchant, 60 Front Street East. Established in 1883. His specialty is grain and flour, in which he does a large trade in Quebec and the Maritime Provinces. Mr. Werden is a native of Devonshire, England, and came to Canada with his parents in 1847. Before commencing business in this city he was engaged as buyer and seller for A. W. Oliver & Co., of Montreal, thirteen years, and for A. P. Howland five years.

James Young, commission merchant and broker, 32½ Church Street, came to Canada in 1837, in company with his father, Captain James Young. In 1845 he entered the employ of William P. Howland, and remained with him until 1852. He then went to Holland Landing to take charge of a store and a mill. In 1854 he returned to Toronto and established his present business in 1856.

John Young & Co., commission merchants, 60 Front Street East, and 23 Church Street. This firm makes a specialty of salt, sugar and cured meats. The business was established in 1873, and was first located on Colborne Street. Since 1877 it has been at the present quarters. Mr. Young was born in Scotland, and came to Canada in 1857. In 1867 he returned to Scotland and remained there until 1873, when he came back to Toronto.

WHARFINGERS.

Alfred Chapman, proprietor City Elevator, Esplanade, built in 1873. It was badly burned in January of this year (1884)—damage over $8,000—since which time he has very much improved his whole property. The capacity of the elevator is 120,000 bushels. Mr. Chapman was born in England, and came to Canada in 1859.

Geddes’ Wharf, located at the foot of Yonge Street, 240 x 150 feet front. This is a general merchandise and passenger wharf, and has been leased by Mr. W. A. Geddes since 1876. It is one of the oldest in the city. Mr. Geddes is a Canadian by birth and resident in Toronto since 1873.

Robert B. Hamilton, of 22 Earl Street, and George Street Elevator, is by birth a Canadian, and eldest surviving son of Sidney S. Hamilton, also a Canadian (Little York), of Scotch descent. Joined his father in business in 1878, in which he still remains. He was Alderman in 1879 for St. Lawrence Ward, and School Trustee in 1881-84 for St. Thomas’ Ward. Mr. Hamilton married Mary Kate, daughter of Henry Pellatt, broker, Toronto.

Sylvester Brothers, Church Street Wharf. This is more commonly known as Sylvester’s Wharf, and is nearly half a century old. The present firm have been proprietors since 1869, doing a large storage and general forwarding business. The firm is composed of Solomon and David Sylvester.

THE CATTLE TRADE.

The Live Cattle Export Trade.

This business, which now forms one of the principal branches of the general export trade of Ontario, is comparatively new, but of rapid growth—its inauguration only dating some ten years back. At an earlier date than this—somewhere about 1872—the tariff changes in the United States seriously interfered with the exportation of dead meat to that country, and Canadian exporters began to look about for another market. England was tried, and for a couple of years considerable consignments were shipped thither. The venture, however, proved unsuccessful, and in 1874 Mr. Garrett F. Frankland determined to attempt the exportation of live stock to Great Britain. Before maturing his plans, he took the precaution of visiting the Mother Country, and in the year mentioned he visited in turn London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Derby, Cardiff, Glasgow and Edinburgh. During this trip he became convinced of the profit to be derived from Canadian stock-raising for the purpose of exportation to England, and on returning to Canada lost no time in carrying out the idea he had originated. On the 1st of July in the following year (1875), Mr. Frankland shipped 190 head of live stock from Montreal—the first shipment of the kind made from any port on this continent. The industry, once started, assumed enormous proportions, Mr. Frankland and his associates exporting in some years as much as one and a quarter million dollars’ worth. He has also done the country a signal service by raising the price of cattle from $25 to $30 a head. He was also instrumental in causing the Corporation of Liverpool to expend over $200,000 for the accommodation of live stock upon arrival at that port, thus relieving the suffering caused by the exposure of the cattle during the twelve hours’ detention in quarantine required by the Imperial Government. In recognition of his valuable services, Mr. Frankland was entertained at a banquet at the Walker House in 1876, on which occasion he was presented with an illuminated address. He was also presented with a valuable clock at the City Arms Hotel, Toronto, and with a service of silver plate at Liverpool in 1879.

The following is a list of the principal Toronto firms engaged in the live cattle export trade:

Andrew Wallace Aikens, a native of Peel County, and a farmer by occupation, has been extensively connected with the export cattle trade from its first inception. From the year 1863 until he engaged in the European exportation of cattle, he had been engaged in shipping stock to the United States. Mr. Aikens is one of the few engaged in this line of business who has made a success of it. He is at present engaged in exporting to Europe and in the feeding of stock.

James Crawford, 86 Givens Street, cattle exporter, commenced to export cattle in 1876 on his own account, and has ever since been engaged in the same business, shipping in some years over six thousand sheep and four thousand cattle. He settled in Toronto in 1864; and has spent his entire life in the cattle trade.

Thomas Crawford, 97 Givens Street, cattle dealer and exporter, commenced his occupation while very young in connection with his father, and at present is a large dealer, sending to Montreal several car-loads weekly, as well as being engaged in exporting since 1877.

John Dunne, 106 Givens Street, cattle exporter, commenced to ship cattle to the U.S. in 1867, and to the Old Country ten years later. He is one of the pioneers of this industry, and is still engaged, along with others, in the exportation of cattle and sheep.

C. Flanagan was born in the County of Limerick, Ireland, in 1844, and settled in Toronto with his father’s family in 1848. He early learned his trade of butcher, and commenced on his own account in a small way in 1864. He has since been engaged, both as a wholesale butcher and live stock exporter, being connected with the firm of Thompson, Flanagan & Blong.

Wm. J. McClelland, 31 Dundas Street, cattle dealer, established his business in 1869. He exported stock to the U.S. in 1870 and 1871, and to England in 1877 in connection with Rogers, Lambert & Hallam, in which trade he has ever since been engaged. He also ships store steers to Buffalo.

G. D. Morse was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1834, and settled in Toronto in 1837. In partnership with his brother he commenced butchering in 1848, and continued the business for four years, after which he went to Australia, where he remained until 1859. On his return he resumed his old business, which he carried on for two years, afterwards entering into the more extensive undertaking of shipping to the United States. On the burning of Gooderham’s Distillery in 1869, Mr. Morse purchased the Chippawa Distillery and conducted the same for two years, feeding stock there. He sold out in 1871 and returned to this city, commencing the Morse Soap Works, which he operated until April, 1878. On Morrison & Taylor becoming proprietors of this establishment, Mr. Morse again commenced feeding, his shipments being, however, to the Old Country, and in connection with others he still continues in the trade. He owns a farm of two hundred and twenty-five acres on Yonge Street, where he feeds his cattle.

Frank Rogers, 57 Dundas Street, cattle dealer, commenced his business as early as 1859. In 1877 he was interested in the export trade in connection with Mr. McClelland and Alderman Hallam, and has been engaged, more or less, in that line ever since.

A. J. Thompson was born in the County of Armagh, Ireland, in 1842, and settled in Toronto in 1858. He has throughout his career been chiefly connected with the cattle trade, and from 1867 to 1870 was engaged in exporting cattle to the United States. In 1877, in connection with George Denoon, A. Reeve, Edward Lemon and William Williamson, he commenced exporting to England, and during the first year shipped about seven thousand head of cattle. The firm is at present known as Thompson, Flanagan & Blong.

The Local Cattle Trade.

Wm. Crealock, 28 Foxley Street, cattle drover, was born in Toronto, and has always been engaged in buying and selling stock. He was in the export trade in 1881-3, as dealer in sheep, with Mr. Grabtree.

P. J. Flanagan, cattle dealer, St. Lawrence Market, buys and sells stock of all kinds. He has generally been engaged in butchering and cattle dealing.

W. W. Hodgson was born in Toronto in 1844, and was early initiated in the butchering business. He is at present care-taker of the Toronto Cattle Market, and resides on Wellington Avenue. His father, William Hodgson, was a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, settled in Toronto in 1834, and died in 1848.

William Kinnar, cattle drover, 6 Dufferin Street, settled in Toronto in 1863. He started immediately to buy and sell stock, exported largely to the United States cattle, sheep and hogs, etc. He was engaged in shipping dressed hogs to Belfast in 1879. He now buys and sells.

William Levack, cattle dealer and wholesale butcher, 54 Givens Street, established his business in 1869. He buys and sells cattle in the country, and his business is principally butchering. He employs seven men for slaughtering cattle and sheep. They slaughter from ninety to one hundred and twenty cattle and from three to four hundred sheep a week, besides calves.

James Murton, cattle dealer and wholesale butcher, Dundas Street, established his business in 1870. He kills about forty head of cattle weekly, and does a local trade.

R. Pugsley resides at Davisville, being a drover and wholesale butcher. He kills about twenty head of stock weekly, and sells as many more on foot. He has been at times interested in the export trade.

Sidney H. Smith, cattle dealer, Avenue Road, was born in Toronto in 1857. His father, Henry Smith, was a native of Hull, Yorkshire, England, and settled in Toronto in 1849, and died April 19th, 1882. The latter was also engaged in cattle dealing. Sidney commenced business about 1875, and buys for the Toronto and Montreal markets.

J. E. Verral, commission merchant, deals in cattle, sheep, lambs and hogs. Stock bought and sold on commission. Commenced business 1875. Office, 615 King Street West. All orders promptly attended to.

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

Agricultural Implements.

The Massey Manufacturing Company, corner of King and Massey Streets, the largest manufacturing firm in Toronto. In 1847 Daniel Massey established the business in a small way at Newcastle. In 1852 he admitted as partner his son, H. A. Massey, who, in 1855, became sole proprietor. In 1857 Mr. H. A. Massey began the manufacture of the Manny Combined Reaper and Mower, and, in 1862, the celebrated Wood’s Rake Reaper, being its first introduction into Canada. In 1864 the entire establishment at Newcastle was destroyed by fire, but afterwards rebuilt. A Massey Mower and Self-Rake Reaper were selected by a Government committee, in 1866, to represent the manufacturing interests of Canada at the great Paris Exhibition held in the following year. In 1867 they were the first in Canada to manufacture and introduce the steel tooth wheel horse-rake with automatic dump. The business was incorporated in 1870 under its present name, with H. A. Massey as president, and C. A. Massey as vice-president and manager. In 1874 they commenced the manufacture of Sharp’s Rake, which won high honours at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, and in 1878 the manufacture of the celebrated Massey Harvester was commenced. In 1879 the entire business was removed from Newcastle to Toronto, where new and extensive buildings had been erected. In 1881 the business and good-will of the Toronto Mower and Reaper Company was purchased. In the same year the factory was enlarged and a knife and bar department added, thus making this the only firm in Canada that manufactured their own knives and sections. They also make their own special tools, employing five men for that purpose. There is a repair department and spacious show-rooms showing machinery in operation. The main building has a front on Massey Street of 492 feet, with a branch of 258 feet, making a total length of 750 feet, with a width of from fifty to sixty feet. The building is four stories high. There is also a foundry and blacksmith shop, 310 × 60 feet; an engine room and boiler house, 70 × 50; a tool room and pattern-makers’ department, 40 × 20; a knife, bar and tooth department, 115 × 36 feet and two storeys high. All these are brick buildings. Besides, these there are frame store-houses, stables and driving sheds, and an oil cellar, 27 × 33. All these buildings are heated by steam and accommodated by two private railroad sidings. The machinery is propelled by two engines, one of the Brown & Carliss pattern of 100 horse-power, being as fine an engine as can be found anywhere. Five large steam elevators are used for carrying goods from one flat to another, while all the rooms are supplied with the best tools and machinery. As an indication of the extent to which this business has grown, it may be noted that 4,939 reapers, mowers and binders and 4,000 horse-rakes were turned out in 1882, while in 1883 the output was 6,000 machines and 4,000 rakes, the work of 400 men. On February 12, 1884, Charles A. Massey died, and the 27th of the same month the following officers were elected: H. A. Massey, president and manager; C. D. Massey, vice-president; Geo. Medcalf, secretary and treasurer; M. Garvin, assistant manager; W. F. Johnston, superintendent. There is now completed an extensive office building, 52 × 65 feet, four storeys high. The basement is devoted to dining-rooms and janitor’s quarters; the first flat to offices; the second flat for reading-room and library, and the third flat for a lecture room and concert hall. The two upper flats are expressly for the accommodation of the operatives.

The Biscuit Manufacture.

A correspondent sends us the following touching the rise and progress of biscuit-making in Toronto:—My first acquaintance with biscuit manufacturing in Toronto was riding a lever called a brake in a building somewhere between Sherbourne and George Streets, on King Street East, in the year 1848. For some time previous to that date—how long I cannot say—Mr. Cubitt made and peddled hand-made crackers and “horse-cakes” around among the stores. I do not think that more than a hundred weight of flour was made into crackers a day in Toronto at that time. John Nasmith, corner of Adelaide and Jarvis Streets, made a few biscuits for his retail trade; and Daniel Cleal about that time bought a machine for biscuit making, but seldom used it, except for making what has since been known as “hard-tack.” A little later one Edward Lawson began the manufacture of biscuits on a rather more extensive scale, as did also Mr. Nasmith, Mr. Lawson finally selling out his Toronto business and removing to Bolton Village, where he proposed making flour and biscuits to supply the rising city. Dodgson, Shields & Morton bought out Mr. Lawson’s Toronto business in groceries, baking and confectionery, and pushed it with vigour. About that time Mr. Nasmith put in new and improved machinery, and did a good trade for the time. In the year 1858 a new aspirant appeared on the field, viz., William Christie. In the fall of that year an exhibition was held in the old Exhibition grounds, a few yards south-east of the Lunatic Asylum; they were then the new Exhibition buildings of which Toronto was justly proud. An effort was made by all the biscuit-makers in the city to carry off the much-coveted “First Prize” for “the best collection of biscuits,” offered by the “Arts and Agricultural Association of Upper Canada.” Mr. Christie was the fortunate winner, a fact which at once brought him into prominence, although he manufactured on a very small scale and did a small portion of the business of Toronto, dividing it with those mentioned above. In 1868 William Christie and Alexander Brown commenced biscuit-making on a rather more extensive scale than had heretofore been done by Mr. Christie alone, under the name of Christie, Brown & Co., at 626 Yonge Street (old number). William Hessin, a confectioner, concluded to add biscuit-making to his other business shortly after—about 1869 or ’70. A little later on Robertson Bros. also added biscuit-making to their confectionery manufacturing. I overlooked the mention of James Girvan, successor to David Maitland, who was a maker of biscuits in addition to bread-making. Mr. Girvan was contemporaneous with Mr. Nasmith, Dodgson, Shields & Morton, and G. S. & A. Wills who also tried their hands at the biscuit business, commencing about 1865, as well as a number of others, viz., George Coleman, George Constable, L. Gibb, Beaty & Sleiman, and Mr. Slatter, but all found more profitable occupation of their capital in other businesses, except William Hessin and William Christie. The former still continues the business along with his confectionery, etc., and the latter—under the name of Christie, Brown & Co.—devotes his attention exclusively to biscuit making. The progress of the business will be seen when the fact is known that the quantity of flour now used in the manufacture of biscuit is close on twenty thousand barrels per annum, finding sale from the Rocky Mountains to Prince Edward Island.

Blue Manufactory.

Michael A. Harper was born in the County Monaghan, Ireland, March 17, 1850. He early learned the business of a general storeman, and also filled the position of travelling salesman for a Belfast house for two years. In 1871 he came to Toronto, and in 1881 established the manufacture of blue, receiving a diploma at Toronto in the same year, a bronze medal in 1882 and a silver medal in 1883. He employs three men.

Boat Builders.

Wm. Goldring (of Goldring & Sons, boat owners), was born in Sussex, England, in 1812, and settled in Toronto in 1832. He has always been engaged in the boating business. At present he owns three boats. His office is on the Esplanade at the foot of Frederick Street.

George Wharin, boat builder, Esplanade and Front Street, was born in England, and came to Canada in 1831 with his brother James. He learned the trade of boat-building from Robert Rennardson (who was one of the first to follow that industry in Toronto) and worked for him about eighteen years. In the year 1872 George and his brother James commenced business for themselves, manufacturing boats, etc., and during their career had the honour of constructing those boats with which Edward Hanlan won his principal races, chief of which may be mentioned the “Canada”—the one used on the Thames in England—and the “George Wharin,” which he used at Philadelphia during the U. S. Centennial. In the beginning of the year 1884 James died, since which the business has been entirely in the hands of George Wharin. He usually employs six men, and constructs boats for exportation to all parts of the world. He manufactures a patent hollow oar, which is giving great satisfaction; also a patent rowlock and patent roller seat.

Boiler Makers.

Currie, Martin & Co., boiler makers, Esplanade, foot of Frederick Street. This business was started in 1852 by Neil Currie, being the first of the kind in Toronto. It came into the hands of the present firm in 1880. About twenty-five hands are employed.

Brewers.

John Ball, brewery, 129 Vanauley Street. The premises were erected and business established by Mr. Craig, in 1844, on land owned by Mr. Henry Sproat. Wm. Lennox & Co. and Charles Sproat succeeded the original founder until 1868, when the business was sold to Mr. Ball, who, since he has had possession, has largely extended the working capacity of the brewery to meet the requirements of increasing trade. Malting is carried on in addition to brewing and gives employment to from seven to ten men. The main buildings are 80 × 200 feet, with cellars under the entire premises. On St. Andrew Street the buildings are 14 × 200 feet, with shed accommodation for waggons, etc. Mr. Ball has been an alderman for six years, chairman of the Board of Works four years, and chairman of Markets, Health and License Committees. He settled in Toronto in 1849, and formerly did a large grocery and provision trade in the city, working three separate stores at one time.

The Copland Brewing Company of Toronto, Parliament Street, was established in 1830. President: H. L. Hime, Esq. Secretary and Treasurer, James E. Millett. Brewer, William Haldane. Assistant Brewer, H. C. Haldane. The travelling agents are Mr. John Millett and Mr. J. W. C. Bedson.

Cornnell’s Brewery, 737 Queen Street West. This brewery was first established by John Farr in 1819, being the first and oldest brewery in Toronto. It was called at that time the “Farr Brewery.” It was leased to John Moss and John Wallis, M.P.P., in 1854, who carried on the business until 1867, when Mr. Moss died. John Cornnell then entered into partnership with Mr. Wallis. Mr. Wallis died in 1872, when Mr. Cornnell obtained full control. He died in 1879, and the business was managed by his son, Jno. S. G. Cornnell, and A. Jardine, executor of the Estate. Mr. Cornnell was in the City Council for several years; also a Justice of Peace until his death. He settled in Toronto in 1847.

The East End Brewery, at the rear of River Street, was built in 1864 by Mr. Defries, and in 1868 was purchased by the present owner, Thomas Allen, who was born in the County Armagh, Ireland, in 1830, and settled in Toronto in 1851. Mr. Allen is now serving his fifth term as alderman from St. David’s Ward.

Ontario Brewing and Malting Co. The brewery (125 × 125 feet and elevator 120 × 45 feet, and seventy-seven feet high) is at from 281 to 289 King Street East. The business was established in 1882, under the style of the Queen City Malting Co. In 1884 the present extensive buildings were erected and the name changed to the Ontario Brewing and Malting Co. The elevator, which is entirely fire-proof, has a storing capacity of two hundred thousand bushels. Taken altogether, the building covers a space of ground two hundred and sixty feet square, and extending from King to Front Streets, facing on Ontario Street. Fifty men are employed in malting some three hundred thousand bushels annually. Three engines of ninety horse-power are used. As an indication of the extent of the business, it may be noted that, in 1883, two hundred and sixteen thousand bushels of malt were exported to the United States. The capital stock is $250,000, and the officers are: W. J. Thomas, President; T. B. Taylor, Vice-President; and Thomas Taylor, Secretary and Treasurer.

Reinhardt & Co., brewers, 87 to 93 Duchess Street. This brewery was established in 1859 by John Walz, and came into the hands of Mr. Reinhardt in 1881. He manufactures only lager beer, and employs fifteen men and two travellers. He was in the employ of Thomas Davis for five years before commencing business for himself, and is said to be the real introducer of the manufacture of lager beer into Toronto.

L. Reinhardt was born in Bavaria in 1843, and came to Canada in 1876. He was the first one who manufactured lager in the City of Toronto, and was first employed by Mr. J. Davis for some years. He then started in 1880 their business, known as the Reinhardt Brewery, located on Duchess Street. He ships his beer all through Canada, and has increased his trade from eight hundred gallons daily to two thousand five hundred. The firm is composed of L. Reinhardt and Ignatius Kormann.

George Severn, brewer and maltster, 815-819 Yonge (Yorkville brewery); established by his father, John Severn, in 1832, who died in 1880. George and Henry Severn became renters in 1854, continuing till 1864, then continued by their father till 1879, when George Severn became proprietor. There are from eight to nine acres in the property. The buildings occupy, brewery 80 x 225, five storeys; malt-house 35 x 115, containing three storeys. Cellar room the whole extent of the brewery. Employ five hands in the bottling department, five in brewery, three in malt department, two travelling salesmen, and one clerk. Does all his own malting. Brews annually about two hundred thousand gallons. His father, John Severn was born in Derbyshire, England, 1807; settled in Toronto in 1830.

Brick Manufacturers.

Thomas Beaty, proprietor of Beaty’s brick-yard, Leslieville, came to Canada with his people when young, and settled in St. Ann’s, New Brunswick. He resided there until 1850, and afterwards drove a horse and calèche in this city. He engaged first in the nursery business, and has had a varied career. He kept an hotel fourteen years, and ran a line of busses. It was in 1880 he established his present business, where he owns about eighteen acres of land, employs thirteen hands, and manufactures about one million bricks per year. He married Ellen Winnett, daughter of John Winnett, of London, Ont.

Booth & Pears, trading under the head of the Yorkville and Carlton Brick Manufacturing Company, brick-makers, Avenue Road, came into the possession of their business in 1880, it having been established thirty years before. They employ sixty men, and make four and a-half million bricks a year. They also have a brick-yard at Carlton, where they make two million bricks a year and employ twenty-five men.

H. Buttell, proprietor of the brick-yard near Clinton Street, where he employs about twenty-two hands, and turns out annually two million of bricks (common stock). Our subject is a native of Oxfordshire, England, and came out in 1857. He learned the business at home, following the same since his arrival here.

Central Prison Brick-Yard is one of the largest in this city; annual output about three millions per year; employing about sixty convicts.

George Cook, brick manufacturer, Leslieville, was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, and came to Canada in 1851. For several years he worked at his trade, and his first establishment in his present business dates from 1874. The yard at present gives employment to about ten hands, who turn out about eight hundred thousand bricks per year. Mr. Cook owns two farms to which he devotes the greater share of attention, and is about retiring from the brick-making in favour of his son—John Cook.

Patrick Horton, proprietor of the brick works located near Curzon and Clifford Streets, was born in Tipperary, Ireland, and came to Canada in 1847. He has been connected with the manufacture of brick for thirty-seven years, having been in business for himself since 1874. He commenced first on Leslie Street, but three years later he bought and took possession of his present premises, where he employs about ten hands and turns out about one million bricks per year.

Thomas Nightingale, brick manufacturer, is a native of Skipton, Yorkshire, England, where he was born in 1828. He came to Canada with his parents in 1831, they settling first on a farm at Willowdale. Thomas lived at home till the year 1855, when he commenced farming on his own account, and three years later commenced the manufacture of bricks. He began the latter industry in a small way, but the success he met with in that branch was such, that, he decided to give up farming, and devote his whole attention to it, which he did, and has since successfully carried on that business. Mr. Nightingale was the first in Toronto to make sewer pipes from clay, and now does a great trade in that line. He employs thirty-five hands, and his out-put has amounted to $50,000 annually. He married Margaret Townsley, daughter of James and Mary Townsley, who came to Canada in 1830.

Leonard Pears, brick manufacturer, is a native of Yorkshire, England, and came to Toronto in 1851. For the first two years after his arrival he laboured at brick making in the yard of Mr. Townsley. In 1856 he commenced to make brick by contract, which he continued for five years. He went to Quebec in 1865, where he remained two years, completing a contract for the making of brick for a firm there. He again returned to this city and opened out in a small way for himself, and by dint of perseverance and industry his business has increased to such an extent that the firm—the Yorkville and Carlton Brick Manufacturing Company—now turn out about six million bricks annually. Mr. Pears has been in the Yorkville Council, and is the owner of a fine property in North Toronto.

James Price, brick manufacturer, Leslie Street, is a native of England, where he learned his trade of brick-maker. On coming to Canada in 1869, he engaged first in farming, but eventually returned to his own trade at which he worked until 1878. About this time he took an interest in the firm of Price & Co., which continued under a company until January, 1884. Since that date Mr. Price has carried on the business by himself and employs from eight to ten men, who turn out from eight to nine hundred thousand bricks annually. Mr. Price visited the Old Country in 1874, bringing back with him his present wife.

Joseph Russell, proprietor of a brick yard on the Kingston Road, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, and brought up in Monaghan, Ireland, where he resided forty-one years. He came to this city in 1849, and in 1857 he established himself in brick-making, which he has since continued. He employs eight hands, and the yearly output of his yard aggregates upwards of nine hundred thousand.

John Sheppard was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1817, and came to Toronto in 1835. He learned the trade of a brick-maker, and in 1851 commenced to manufacture bricks at Yorkville. He has since added tile-making to his business, and in the summer season employs twelve men, turning out over a million tiles annually. He was married in 1843 to Sarah Stibbert.

William Townsley was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1827, and came to Toronto with his father’s family in 1829. In 1855 he commenced at Yorkville the manufacture of bricks and brick machines, the latter of which he patented. He died Nov. 22, 1877, leaving his business to be carried on by his wife, Forbes Ann Watt, to whom he was married in 1857.

David Wagstaff, brick-maker, Kingston Road, is a native of this city, being the son of Robert Wagstaff, who came to Canada a soldier in a regiment sent from England to assist in quelling the Rebellion of 1837-8. He remained here and followed the occupation he had been accustomed to in the early portion of his life—that of brick-maker—and continued at that until his death, in 1844. David also learned and followed his father’s trade until 1864, when he commenced business at his present location, which he has since continued successfully to conduct. He employs ten men, and turns out one million bricks annually. In 1865 Mr. Wagstaff married Matilda Sear, daughter of Charles Sear, of English birth. The handsome brick residence where our subject now resides was built in 1883.

Brush and Broom Manufacturers.

E. W. Barton, broom manufacturer, 848 Queen Street West, succeeded to the business established by his father in 1863. He became proprietor in 1870, and employs from fifteen to twenty hands in the manufacture of his goods, and in 1878 commenced to make brushes of all descriptions. He has one representative, who introduces his goods throughout the Provinces. Mr. Barton is alderman for St. Stephen’s Ward.

Chas. Boeck & Son, brush, broom and wooden-ware manufacturers, 80 York Street. The building where the business is conducted has a frontage of 30 x 200 feet and is four storeys high, the front premises being used for manufacturing and the rear for storage. The business was originally established, in 1856, for the making of brushes alone and was the first of its kind in Toronto, the broom and wooden-ware industry being added in 1878. The firm have full control of the Newmarket Pail and Tub Works. The manufacture of brooms is carried on at 150 Adelaide Street, where twenty hands are employed; seventy-five hands are engaged at the York Street factory. Four travellers look after the interests of this firm.

Ontario Brush Manufactory, 106 Front Street East, Sanderson, Bailey & Pillow, proprietors. Established in 1880. Employ from fifteen to twenty-five hands and one traveller, and introduce goods all over the Dominion.

James Wilson, brush manufacturer, was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England, and came to Toronto in 1863, when he established his present business. In 1882 he was burned out. He then employed fifteen hands; now he has only seven. Mr. Wilson is prospering in his business and attributes his success to the National Policy.

Carriage and Waggon Makers.

T. Brewer, waggon-maker and carpenter, No. 8 Gould Street. Business was established in 1882.

Wm. Briscoe, waggon and sleigh-maker, 139 Queen Street West, established his business in 1842 and now employs nine men. He was born in Staffordshire, England, 1816, and settled in Toronto in 1842.

Carriage Manufactory, 14 and 16 Alice Street, two doors west of Yonge. J. P. Sullivan, proprietor. Established in 1879, and employs from eighteen to twenty-two men. Makes all kinds of carriages and sleighs, as well as hook and ladder trucks for the Fire Brigade. His works are new and of brick, built in 1883, 52 x 85 feet in size and three storeys with basement. Mr. Sullivan was born in Prince Edward’s County, Canada, and has had extended experience in his calling, having worked several years in New York and New Haven, U. S.; returned to Canada in 1872.

Carriage Manufactory, W. Mahaffy & Son, proprietors, 130 Front Street East. Established in 1883, and employs from five to eight hands; does general waggon-making, horse-shoeing and blacksmithing.

Matthew Guy, steam carriage and waggon works, 103 and 105 Queen Street East, established his business in 1871. He employs about twenty men. His specialties are cartage, grocery, express and delivery waggons and railroad lorries.

F. Jobin, No. 93 Richmond Street West, manufacturer of carriages and waggons, etc., both light and heavy; established in 1879. Employs fourteen men; does custom work and repairing in the retail business. The wood and blacksmith shop is 100 x 30 feet. Paint and trimming shop, 60 x 37 feet.

Corset Manufacturers.

The Crompton Corset Company, 78 York Street. Incorporated on the 15th of March, 1880. President, F. Crompton; Vice-President, T. James Claxton; Secretary and Treasurer, John Walker. This establishment gives employment to about three hundred and fifty hands, who are engaged in the making of hoop-skirts, corsets, bustles, etc. The travelling department includes five representatives. The firm has a branch house in Montreal, the management of which is entrusted to T. J. Claxton & Co., who look after the interests of the company east of that city, while the Toronto office attends to the business west. They received a gold medal in 1881 and 1882, and also silver and bronze wherever their goods have been exhibited. They manufacture fourteen different lines of goods, their specialty being “The Coraline Corset,” for which they hold a Dominion patent.

Electricians.

Electric Light.—The first electric light machine in Toronto was constructed by J. J. Wright, in the summer of 1882, at the premises of the Rawbone Manufacturing Company, 81 Yonge Street. Mr. Wright now has three machines supplying light on King and Yonge Streets. He employs the arc system of lighting, devised by himself, and covered by patents. One of the advantages of this system is that the lights can be turned on and off independently of the machine. He has examined all the different electric light machinery in the United States, and experimented with Professor Thompson, of the Philadelphia High School.

T. J. Frame & Co., 120 King Street East, manufacturers of telegraph and electric goods, harness ornaments, and dealers in electric supplies, and opticians’ goods, etc. This firm was established in 1879 by T. J. Frame, who in 1883 admitted T. C. Elwood as a partner. The business is wholesale, and gives employment to fourteen men.

Furniture Manufacturers and Dealers.

Gilmour & Tweedie, manufacturers of furniture, 75 Richmond Street West. Established in 1883; employ five hands and do a wholesale business. Bedroom sets a specialty.

Robert Hay & Co., furniture manufacturers, 19 and 21 King Street West. This old established firm was originally known under the appellation of Jacques & Hay; but on the retirement of the former, in 1872, it became known by its present title. They employ on an average five hundred and seventy-five hands, most of whom are engaged in the manufacture of furniture. About three hundred thousand feet of lumber are annually used for this purpose, from which is manufactured about $500,000 worth of furniture. Charles Rogers, one of the partners connected with the above firm, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1816, and came to Canada in 1851, and entered the service of the firm under the old dispensation. He was a carver by trade, and took charge of that department. After the retirement of Mr. Jacques in 1872, Mr. Rogers became a partner of the firm. George Craig, another member of the above firm, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, 1819, and came to Canada in 1842. He was from the time of his arrival associated with the firm as machinist and in 1872 became a partner.

Iron Founders.

Edward Beckett, iron-founder, Queen Street West, is a native of Staffordshire, England, came direct to Toronto in 1843 and has been in business here ever since. At one time he did a large and extensive trade; but commercial panics and other causes led to a collapse from which he honourably issued, but with diminished capital. Mr. Beckett’s business motto is sound: “No man is ever exempt from the payment of a just debt when he is able to pay in the future.” At present he only employs eight men at his foundry.

Matthews & Bell, proprietor of cornice works, 30 Adelaide Street West. Firm composed of Asa Matthews and Walter Bell. They manufacture galvanized iron cornices, window caps, dormer windows, eavestroughs, and general tin and iron work.

Richard Rabjohn, iron and brass founder, Tecumseth Street. Established in Hamilton in 1874, with a Toronto agency. Moved to Toronto in 1880. Employs from twenty to fifty hands. Manufactures ornamental goods in bronze, brass and iron. Received thirteen first-class prizes in Hamilton in 1876 in ornamental bronze, brass and iron work, also in Toronto, London and other places has received first-class prizes.

St. Lawrence Foundry Company, 206 to 222 Front Street East. Established in 1851 by Wm. Hamilton, father of the present manager. In 1879 the present company was formed. John Leys, president; A. B. Lee, vice-president; Wm. Hamilton, manager and secretary. Employs about one hundred and fifty hands, with capital stock of $100,000. Water and gas-pipe and building and general casting specialties.

Jewellery Manufacturers.

P. W. Ellis & Co., manufacturing jewellers, 31 King Street East. This business was established at 4 Toronto Street in 1877, and was moved to its present location in 1880. Employment is given to one hundred hands and three travelling agents. Messrs. Ellis & Co. have the only factory of any importance in the Dominion. They also have a wholesale department, in which they handle watchmakers’ and jewellers’ tools and supplies, also lines of American and English Jewellery, Watches, Diamonds and Precious Stones.

Knitting Factories.

Joseph Simpson, proprietor of the knitting factory, Esplanade East, was born at Charlestown, South Carolina, United States, 1825. His father, M. M. Simpson, was of German extraction; his mother was a daughter of William Cohen, of Nova Scotia. Mr. Simpson’s parents died when he was but a mere lad, and he was thrown upon his own resource he attended the public school at Charlestown until he was sixteen years of age, then engaged in mercantile business in the State of Georgia until 1864, when he came to Toronto and embarked in the manufacture of woollen underwear, without having had any previous experience. He first purchased from Mr. Burton, on the Dundas Road, a carder and spinning-jack of one hundred and twenty spindles, and began business. His business rapidly increased, and a few years later he purchased the most improved machinery, and from time to time has added to the same until at the present time he has eighteen carding machines, seven spinning-jacks, and eighteen knitting machines, upon which he turns out from seventy-five to eighty dozen garments per day, of every grade and variety; his establishment is the only one of the kind in Toronto. He employs about one hundred and twenty hands, seventy-five of whom are ladies. He manufactures shirts and drawers of wool and union. His shop is situated at the foot of Berkeley Street. He takes the wool or raw material from the sheep’s back, and after being cleansed, it is carded, spun, coloured, and then knit upon the most improved form of spiral knitting machine into a long seamless sack, which is afterwards cut up into the desired length for the garment; sleeves are added, and it is then transferred to the shaping and drying room, where each garment is placed upon wooden forms and stretched to the proper shape and size, then dried and finished. His building is of brick, 55 x 145 feet upon the ground, and three storeys in height; the third floor is used for carding or working the raw material, the second floor for spinning and knitting, and the first floor for finishing, store-room and offices. He has the very best machinery manufactured. He has the pioneer establishment of Canada, being the oldest in the Dominion. He consumes about twelve hundred pounds of wool and cotton per day; the value of his manufactures for one year has exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Leather, Fancy Goods, etc.

Charles Chamberlain (American Novelty Works) was born at Richmond Hill, York County, 1845. His father, Ryal Chamberlain, was born in the United States in 1796; he came to Canada in 1814, and settled at Richmond Hill, where he engaged in the business of farming and building, which he carried on there until his death, August 5th, 1867. The mother of the subject of our sketch was a daughter of Colonel James Fulton, a U. E. L., who served in the War of 1812. He was born at St. John’s, and came to settle in York County in the year 1792. They were the first family who located on Yonge Street, a family of the name of Miller being the second Colonel Fulton first went to Elgin Mills, but eventually settled in Markham. He died in 1834. When twenty years of age, Mr. Chamberlain began business in Toronto as builder, of which trade he had acquired a knowledge from his father. He continued in this business until 1875, when he commenced as a property speculator. A great many buildings have been erected in various parts of the city by Mr. Chamberlain, notably the block where he at present resides, called Chamberlain’s Block. He has also built in the north-east part of the city one hundred houses, forty-three on Guildersleeve Avenue, of which he sold twenty-four to C. F. Guildersleeve, of Kingston. During the present year Mr. Chamberlain has entered upon quite a new line of business to that he has hitherto conducted. At the American Novelty Works, 90, 92 and 94 Duke Street, are manufactured children’s toys and useful domestic articles, baby carriages, velocipedes, express waggons, wheel-barrows, sleds, etc. A large amount of cane and willow is used in the construction of these articles, which is imported from the United States. The establishment is in charge of a most skilled workman, and the work turned out excels anything seen in this market, and equals any in the world. The American Novelty Works is the largest of its kind in Canada. Mr. Chamberlain married Esther, second daughter of Edward Smith, of Whitby Township.

A. R. Clarke & Co., leather manufacturers, 153 to 159 Eastern Avenue; office and salesroom, 28 Front Street East. This business was removed here from Peterborough in 1882, and employs forty-five hands. The factory is 40 x 90 feet and four storeys, and has a large storehouse attached, and engine-house 15 x 30 feet, with a fifty horse-power engine, Armington & Sims’ automatic cut-off pattern, made by Doty. As a specialty they manufacture black and coloured sheep, calf and morocco, as well as all kinds of fancy leathers. The firm has agencies in Montreal and Quebec cities.

Frederick E. Dixon, manufacturer of leather belting, 70 King Street East, is a native of Toronto, being the youngest son of Alexander Dixon, born in Carlow, Ireland, in 1792, and came to Toronto in 1830, commencing business as a saddlery hardware merchant. In 1840 he built the premises at 72 King Street East, where he afterwards conducted his business. This building was erected in front of the old Jail and Court-house block, and running through to Court Street, covered the spot where Lount and Matthews were executed for participation in the Rebellion of 1837. The late Mr. Dixon was for several years Alderman of St. George’s Ward. He died in 1855. F. E. Dixon, the present head of the firm of F. E. Dixon & Co., commenced business at 81 Colborne Street in 1872, under the style of Dixon, Smith & Co. In March, 1883, he removed to his present premises, 70 King Street East, the firm in 1877 having changed to F. E. Dixon & Co. Their principal manufacturing specialties are the “Star Revit Leather Belting,” also the “Patent Lap Joint.” Goods of all kinds and various sizes are sent by this firm to all parts of the Dominion, from New Brunswick to British Columbia, having three travellers constantly on these routes. The factory machinery is driven by steam-power, and they employ on an average about fourteen men. Mr. Dixon was formerly an officer in the Queen’s Own Rifles, and was gazetted Major in 1866, retiring in 1869, retaining rank.

Julian Sale & Co. Firm composed of Julian Sale and W. J. Somerville. Business established in 1874 by Mr. J. Sale. Manufacturers of pocket-books, satchels, bill cases, and all kinds of fancy leather and plush goods—exclusively for the wholesale trade throughout Canada. Employs about twenty hands. This was the first firm to engage exclusively in their line of goods in the Dominion. Address: 169 Bleeker Street.

P. Strauss, leather manufacturer, etc., 436 King Street East, is a native of Belgium, and came to America with his parents in 1845. In 1876 he located in this city and engaged in his present business, viz.: manufacturing mats from all kinds of skins, and including also the trade of wool-buying. Twelve hands are employed by Mr. Strauss in this business, which is the only one in the production of this class of goods in the city.

Lime and Stone.

D. D. Christie, proprietor of stone quarries and lime manufacturer. The works and quarries are situate three miles west of Milton Station, on the C.P.R., and there from thirty to forty men are employed. The material finds its chief market in Toronto and the surrounding districts, though considerable quantities are shipped to other localities. He has three lime-kilns, with a capacity of nine car loads (3,600 bushels) weekly. In the year 1883 the stone shipped from the quarries amounted to three hundred car loads.

J. & G. Farquhar, contractors and lime merchants, 70 Esplanade East. This firm manufactures lime and cement at “Limehouse,” near Guelph, and during the past year have sold over fifty thousand bushels of lime in Toronto alone, besides a similar quantity collectively to the other towns of the Province. They also import a vast deal of stone, and take up contracts for the making of roads, having paved several streets in the city.

Edward Terry, dealer in Portland and Thorold cements, fire-brick, sewer pipes, lime, plaster, etc., 23 and 25 George Street. This business was first established by T. W. Coleman, and was taken possession of by the present proprietor about twelve years ago. Mr. Terry was born in Kent, England, in 1839, and came to Canada in 1857 and located in Toronto, where he has since resided. He has the city agencies for Thorold cement and New Brunswick Plaster of Paris, the latter of which he makes a specialty.

Machinists.

James Findlay, 50 Esplanade, machinist, manufacturer of steam engines, shafting and general machinery, established business in 1871, and employs from six to eight men. Is the patentee of a car replacer, or railway dog; also of an improved hose fastener. Mr. Findlay was formerly an engineer on the Grand Trunk Railway.

Frederick Idenden, machinist, Duke Street, was born at Hythe, England, and learned his trade in Brighton. He came to Canada in 1870, and worked first as journeyman for Dickey, Neil & Co., with whom he stayed three years. He then entered the shop of Fensom & Co., elevator manufacturers, where he has charge of the mechanical department, comprising a force of twenty-eight men, where is turned out good and efficient work. Mr. Idenden was married in England. He is a member of St. George’s Lodge of Freemasons; attends the English Church; and his political views are Conservative.

James Martin, mechanical engineer and machinist, 15 Sorauren Avenue, Parkdale, was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1820, and is the son of Peter Martin. He came to Canada in 1848, and located in Toronto. He was sent out from Scotland to Montreal to fit up two locomotive engines, the second and third in Canada, on the Lachine Line, manufactured by Kinmond & Co., of Dundee, Scotland. He afterwards engaged in the St. Mary’s foundry for some time, and came to York in the fall of 1848, and entered the service of the late F. H. Medcalf, machinist, Queen Street East, Toronto, where he remained a considerable time, and then went to Brampton, Ontario, and entered the employ of Haggart Bros., foundrymen. After three years he came back to Toronto, and engaged in the Soho Foundry, from which he entered the service of the Grand Trunk Railway contractors, and remained there till near the completion of the line, when he went to the St. Lawrence Foundry, where he was some nine years; after which he started business for himself in the engine and machine line, and carried on in Toronto the works known as the Ontario Engine Works for some fifteen years, when he left the business in the hands of his son James. He represented the Ward of St. David in the Municipal Council, Toronto, for two years, 1874 and 1875. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and Independent in politics. After a married life of forty-four years, his wife, Mary Mudie, of Lochie, Scotland, died in Parkdale on the 19th of October, 1884. Of his family four sons and two daughters survive.

William Polson & Co., 81 Esplanade Street East, engineers, machinists and machinery brokers, makers of engines and boilers. Steam yacht machinery a specialty. Established in 1883, and employ from twenty to thirty hands.

Mineral Waters.

Clark Bros., mineral water manufacturers, 34 and 36 William Street. The business was established in 1879, and was first located at 229 Queen Street West, removing to their present premises in 1883. The property has a frontage of 41 × 126 feet, and the manufactory gives employment to sixteen hands.

John Verner, soda and mineral water manufacturer, 124 Berkeley Street. The business was established in 1867, the present owner purchasing in 1881 from A. Burns, and in 1883 from James Walsh. The factory is 40 × 100 feet, and two storeys high, and employ from ten to fourteen hands. Mr. Verner came to Canada in 1881.

Charles Wilson, manufacturer of aërated waters, 481 Sherbourne Street, was born in Ireland, and came to Canada with his parents in 1839. He was engaged in this business in Montreal previous to his settlement in Toronto in 1875. His place has a frontage of 30 × 86, three storeys in height, and gives employment to sixteen hands. Mr. Wilson has a medal from Philadelphia, and one from Sydney; his business extends from Port Arthur to Kingston.

Miscellaneous Manufactures.

James Adams, sail maker, Tinning’s wharf, is a native of London, England, where he learned his trade. He came to Canada in 1840, and first was engaged at his trade in Quebec, afterwards removing to Kingston, where he stayed seven years. He came to Toronto in 1851, and established himself in business on Tinning’s wharf, but was burned out after he had been there three years. He next removed to a tannery building which then occupied the site of the present Walker House, where he remained four years, returning again to Tinning’s wharf at the expiration of that time, where he has since been extensively engaged as a sail manufacturer, filling large contracts for Government, in tents, flags, etc. He is the only one in this line of business in Toronto.

Dominion Saw and Lead Works, 253 to 271 King Street West. Established in 1870 by Jas. Robertson, of Montreal. This firm has increased its business to such an extent that they now employ fifty hands. They manufacture all kinds of saws, white lead, putty, lead pipe, shot and colours. A. McMichael is Manager.

Messrs. T. Fane & Co., bicycle manufacturers and importers. Sole makers of the celebrated “Comet” bicycle, the only machine manufactured in the County of York. Also sole agents for the well-known “Invincible” and other first-class English bicycles and tricycles. Messrs. Fane have earned for themselves a wide and well-deserved reputation.

The Fensom Elevator Works, 34 to 38 Duke Street, John Fensom, proprietor, established in 1872, employs about twenty-five men; manufactures hand, hydraulic, and steam elevators. He does business not only in Toronto, but in adjoining cities. Mr. Fensom settled in Toronto in 1846, and for several years carried on the business of a machinist.

Graham & Co., proprietors of the Graham File Works, 73 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, manufacturers of files and rasps. The following list of awards at the exhibitions named testify to the reputation of the productions of this firm: First prize and bronze medal at Toronto, 1879 and 1882; first prize at Kingston, 1882; and at Guelph first prize in 1883. Sales last year $9,000. Give employment to ten hands. Mr. T. Graham, founder of the firm, was born near Sheffield, England, in 1834, where his ancestors had been engaged in the file trade for a century and a-half. Mr. Graham came to Toronto and established his business here in 1874, from which period to the present time he has devoted himself to the development of this trade.

Grosvenor, Chater & Co., paper makers. Their paper works are in England and Wales, and established as early as 1690. Their Toronto branch was established at 26 Church Street in 1882. Canniff Haight, manager, does exclusively a wholesale business, supplying jobbers.

George Ibbotson & Son, manufacturers of cutlery, 12 Francis Street, started business in 1868. Three men are employed. Mr. Ibbotson learned his trade in Sheffield, England, and came to Toronto in 1862.

Lauder Bros., 39 Adelaide Street West, manufacturers of steam gauges, vacuum gauges, engineers’ and plumbers’ brass goods, etc. Established in 1881; employ four men.

H. Sells & Son, manufacturers of apple cider and cider vinegar, established in 1881. They were located at 55 Adelaide Street; but they removed to their present quarters, 952, 954 and 956 Queen Street West, where they are also engaged in manufacturing Sell’s improved corn huskers and cider mills, controlling the trade in that line, having patents on five different mills, which they have managed for the past twenty years. They are also manufacturers of Sell’s patent friction clamp, which can be used for straps, ropes, etc. The factory has a frontage of fifty feet and is four storeys in height.

Julius Silverstein, manufacturers of tassels and fringes, being the only one in this line of business in the Province. Established in 1880 at No. 29 Front Street. Employs a staff of forty-one hands. Mr. Silverstein only sells his manufactured goods to wholesale houses. His trade has grown from the smallest dimensions, and is now doing a business of over $40,000 per year. Mr. Silverstein was born in Hungary, and came to Canada in 1880, since which time he has been resident in Toronto.

W. J. Sutton & Co., hair cloth manufacturers, 962 Queen Street West, was established in 1882, the firm being composed of W. J. Sutton, sen’r, and W. J. Sutton, jun’r, who are both of English birth. Previous to commencing business in this city they were for twelve years engaged in the States. Their factory is one of the first in the Dominion, where eight hands are employed, and five hundred yards of hair cloth is produced weekly, woven by seventeen of the finest improved American looms.

Taylor Brothers, paper manufacturers, warehouses and offices 30 West Market Square. In 1845 John Taylor & Bros. erected their first mill on the Don River, and from that modest commencement may be dated the connection of the name of Taylor with the manufacture of paper in this city. On the death of John Taylor the firm became Thomas Taylor & Bro., and on the retirement of Thomas and George, the business was assumed by the three sons of George, viz.: John F., George A. and William Taylor, who now compose the present firm. They at present own three mills and employ one hundred hands, their output being four tons every twelve hours.

R. Thorne & Co., 79 Richmond Street West, manufacturers of woven wire, spiral spring mattresses, and exclusive manufacturers of “Johnson’s” waggon gear and Newton’s patent shaft coupling. Established their business in 1880, being the first of the kind in the city. Employ from six to twelve hands, and three travelling agents. The firm received the highest award given in 1882, viz., a bronze medal.

The Toronto Gun and Climax Skate Manufacturing Company, 85½ Yonge Street, was established in 1883. Twelve men are employed. The goods are sold on commission all over Canada, besides which there is a good business done in the gun repairing line. The following are the officers:—Orlando Dunn, president and manager; John Hoskins, H. S. Strathy, John Dunn, and W. C. Adams, directors.

Elijah Westman, manufacturer of butchers’ tools, saws, etc., 177 King Street East. This manufactory is the only one of its kind in the city, and gives employment to six men. Mr. Westman also keeps general hardware, and superintends all work done in his shop.

Westman & Baker, printing press manufacturers, 119 Bay Street. This business was established in 1874 by James H. and Samuel R. Baker, both natives of Toronto. They are the only makers of this class of work in Canada, and turn out Gordon presses, Beaver’s cutting machines, Baker’s binding machines, and other work of a similar kind. Mr. Westman is a native of Toronto, was born in 1848, and learned the trade of machinist with John Fensom. Mr. Baker was born in Toronto in 1846, and learned his trade with Dickey, Neil & Co.

Mouldings and Picture Frames.

James Cash & Co., manufacturers of mouldings and picture frames, 11 Colborne Street. This business was first established on Gerrard Street by James Cash, in 1873. The present co-partnership was formed in the spring of 1884. They employ from ten to fifteen hands and do a wholesale business.

The Cobban Manufacturing Company, 47-61 Hayter Street. This business was established by C. G. Cobban in 1874, and came into possession of the present firm in June, 1881, being composed of the following: John Bacon and Frank J. Phillips. About one hundred and twenty-five hands are employed in the manufacture of mouldings, looking-glasses, frames and all kinds of cabinet work. The firm also imports plate, German and sheet-glass, making a specialty of plate-glass and silvering. In 1882, they received a silver medal for mirrors at the Industrial Exhibition, Toronto. The building has a frontage of 200 × 50 feet, and contains three storeys, besides which there is a large yard for the storage of lumber, etc. This firm ranks as one of the largest in the Dominion, having a trade which extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean.

Overalls.

Latham & Lowe, manufacturers of clothing, 35 Scott Street, established their business in 1881. They employ 100 hands, and two travelling salesmen, who traverse the counties from Halifax to British Columbia.

Paints and Oils.

McKenzie, Musson & Co., Toronto Varnish Manufactory, corner of Strange Street and Eastern Avenue. This business was established in 1873. Their manufactures include all kinds of varnish and japans, with a specialty of a high-class carriage, cabinet-makers’, musical and japanners’ instrument varnishes. Their producing capacity is from four hundred to five hundred gallons daily, and they are the sole firm in the city in this line. Two travellers introduce their goods over Ontario and a portion of the Lower Provinces. They were awarded extra prizes at the Provincial Exhibitions of 1874, 1878 and 1879; diploma in 1880; bronze medals in 1881, 1882, 1883 and 1884 at the Industrial Exhibition, being the highest prizes given at those exhibits.

The People’s Oil Company, 5 and 7 Church Street, was established in 1882 by W. J. Nichol. The building, which is of brick, is 100 × 40 feet. The specialties are N.P. engine machine oil, and gilt-edge burning oil. The business, which amounts to $25,000 annually, has doubled since it was started. Mr. Nichol contemplates enlarging it to a considerable extent.

A. G. Peuchen, paint manufacturer, corner of Front and Princess Streets. In the spring of 1879 this industry was commenced in a small way on the Esplanade. It attained such proportions that it was doubled each succeeding year. In 1883 Mr. Peuchen erected his present commodious factory, which is 64 × 100 feet and four storeys high. He employs from twelve to fifteen men and four travelling salesmen.

Queen City Oil Company, 30 Front Street East, was established in Toronto by Samuel Rogers & Co., in January, 1877, under the name of the Queen City Oil Works, which was changed to its present style in 1882, with Samuel Rogers as manager. The works were on the Esplanade till 1882, when they were removed to their present location. The manufactory is situated on Sherbourne Street, and is a brick structure 66 × 119 feet, with a wing 60 × 22. There are two brick warehouses on Princess Street, being respectively 60 × 22 feet and 40 × 80 feet, the latter having a wing 25 × 80 feet. There are also offices and cooper shops. Eighteen men are employed at the works; nine in the office, and twelve on the road in Ontario. At Montreal there is a branch warehouse, where a large quantity of oil is sold annually. The business has increased from time to time until at present it reaches fully half a million of dollars a year. All kinds of lubricating and refined oils are manufactured, and sold in every part of the Dominion. The company owns six tank cars, which are constantly kept busy on the road. In 1883 they received gold medals at Toronto, Guelph and London.

Pianos, Organs, etc.

Agency of the Speight Manufacturing Company, 501 Yonge Street, C. Chapman, manager. He is a native of Lincolnshire, England, and came to Canada in 1846. He has been manufacturers’ agent for the last twenty years, handling pianos, etc.

James Coleman, organ builder, 173 Dalhousie Street, is a native of the Isle of Wight, England, and came to Canada in 1848. He settled in Toronto in 1851, and commenced as carpenter and builder, which business eventually developed into the present firm of organ builders, trading under the name of Coleman & Sons.

Crossin Piano Manufacturing Company, 85½ Yonge Street. Established in 1883. Employ about thirty men, and turn out about three instruments per week.

The Daniel Bell Organ Company was established on King Street in 1875. In 1881 the business was removed to 56-64 Pearl Street, where the manufacture of the Excelsior Organ is carried on. Forty men are employed in turning out from fifteen to eighteen organs weekly. In 1884 Mr. Joseph Priestman became owner of the business. The factory is three storeys in height, and has every accommodation for doing good work.

Gerhardt Heintzman, piano manufacturer, 86 York Street. Mr. Heintzman first commenced business in 1878 on Little Richmond Street, where he made his first ten pianos, doing all his own work. In the following year he moved to 365 Queen Street, where he remained till 1881, when he removed to his present location. He has so extended his business that he now employs from fifty to sixty hands, and turns out eight pianos a week. He makes a specialty of the Upright Piano. At the Industrial Exhibition of 1881 he received a silver medal for producing a superior quality of tone in the Upright piano. This was repeated in 1882 when he also received a bronze medal for elaborate design and finish of case. In 1883 he received an illuminated address for excellent exhibit. Mr. Heintzman contemplates making still further enlargements to his factory. He employs a force of the very best workmen, among whom may be mentioned Jacob F. Quosig, tone and fine action regulator; O. Martin, foreman in the action department; Mr. Louis Schreiner, foreman in the varnishing and polishing department.

Theodore A. Heintzman, piano manufacturer, 117 King Street West, first established his business on York Street in 1860. In 1862 he moved to the corner of Duke and George Streets, and in 1861 located at his present place. He now employs about one hundred and fifty men, and makes from twelve to fifteen pianos weekly. Four travelling salesmen are employed, besides local agents throughout the Province. Mr. Heintzman was born in Berlin, Prussia, in 1817, and in 1850 settled in New York City, where he was foreman in Lichte & Newman’s piano manufactory for two years. He then removed to Buffalo where he remained till he came to Toronto. From his early youth he has been a practical piano-maker.

E. Lye, 18 St. Albans, manufacturer of pipe organs. Established his business in a small way in 1865 on Yonge Street, and moved to his present location in 1874. He does work principally to order for churches.

Octavius Newcombe & Co., manufacturers of square and upright pianos, 107 and 109 Church Street; warerooms corner of Church and Richmond Streets; piano-case factory, 15 Queen Street East. This business was established in 1871 by Mr. Newcombe and two others, and continued until 1878 when the present firm was formed, the present commodious factory being soon after erected. The leading upright styles are the Boudoir, the Salon and the Cabinet-Grand. The Square pianos are also made in different styles. The firm employs four travelling agents.

Wagner, Zeidler & Co., key-board manufacturers, and dealers in piano and organ materials, factory 59 to 63 Adelaide Street West, offices and warerooms 116 Bay Street. This business was established in 1879 by Carl Zeidler, and in May 1880 was first carried on by the present firm which now gives employment to forty-five men. Mr. Zeidler was the first in the Dominion to establish this particular line of business. He was born in Berlin, Prussia, in 1852, and settled in Toronto in 1878.

S. R. Warren & Son, manufacturers of church organs, etc., corner Wellesley and Ontario Streets. This business was established in 1836, by S. R. Warren, in Montreal, and was removed to this city in 1878. The main workshop is a building two storeys in height, measuring 80 × 100 feet; office and voicing rooms are 35 × 100, and thirty-seven feet in height. The establishment also contains engine and boiler house, store and dry rooms (operated by Patent Common Sense Dry Apparatus), this block being 40 × 30 feet. The buildings are heated by steam, thirty horse-power boilers, and fifteen horse-power engine, and the business gives employment to about thirty men. Their pipe organs received the gold medals in 1879, ’80 in Toronto; silver medals in Montreal in 1861; and ten diplomas at various fairs and different dates. There are nearly a thousand of the firm’s organs in use between Nova Scotia and British Columbia.

R. S. Williams & Sons, manufacturers of pianos; factory 31 to 41 Hayter Street; office and salesrooms, 143 Yonge Street. This business was established in 1854, in a small way, from twelve to fifteen hands being employed. It has been increased from time to time to such an extent that at present employment is given to about one hundred and fifty skilled workmen, who turn out about twenty pianos and six organs per week. In 1854 this firm was the first to introduce the making of melodeons, subsequently introducing harmoniums and organs, being the first in the Dominion in that line. Their factory is 40 × 230, and is six storeys high. They have sales-rooms at 229 Dundas Street, London, besides local agents in other places. Ten travelling salesmen are employed.

Pump Manufacturers.

Northey & Co., pump manufacturers, proprietors and sole makers of “Northey’s Patent Steam Pump,” patented in 1878. Thomas Northey first established his business in Hamilton and removed it to Toronto in 1878. John P. Northey, the son of the patentee, carries on business at the present time, and employs from twenty-five to fifty hands and two travellers. The works are situated at the corner of Front and Parliament Streets.

Ontario Pump Company, corner Spadina Avenue and Cecil Street; president, Mr. O. R. Peck. The business was established in 1873 for the manufacture of wooden pumps. In 1882 was commenced the manufacture of iron pumps also; and recently, in addition, the firm began to make automatic windmills of one to forty horse-power, for use in pumping or forcing water, grinding grain, cutting wood and running all kinds of machinery. They employ in all about twenty-five men at the works, and have about thirty-five agents in different parts of the Dominion, sending their machines, etc., to all districts between British Columbia and the Maritime Provinces. Size of the factory 200 × 30 feet, with two and three flats. Mr. O. R. Peck, President and Manager, is the eldest son of William Peck, a native of Windfarthing, Norfolk, England, who came to Canada about 1840, and commenced farming in Leeds County. Mr. O. R. Peck married Alice, fourth daughter of the late John Hitchcock, of Sudbury, Suffolk, England.

Planing Mills, etc.

W. Burke, manager of planing mill, 75 Richmond Street West. This mill was first built in 1869, was burned in 1873, and was partly rebuilt the same year. The present building is built of brick and stone, three storeys high, with basement, and extends 208 feet on Sheppard Street and 164 on Richmond. It contains twenty different shops, which are rented to various parties. The machinery is propelled by a one hundred horse-power “Corliss Engine,” built by Inglis & Hunter.

Henry Fox & Co., manufacturers of sashes, doors and blinds, and all kinds of building materials, 324 to 330 King Street West. The business was established in 1871. Messrs. Fox & Co. are also builders and contractors, and during the building season employ a much larger force than ordinarily, which is from twenty-five to fifty men. They also do an extensive business in the manufacture of show cases.

H. Joslin & Co., planing-mill, Severn Street, commenced business in 1878 on Ontario Street. They moved to their present premises in 1883. They make sashes, doors and blinds, employing fifteen to twenty-five hands. The machinery is propelled by a twenty-five horse-power engine.

Kennedy & Co., planing-mills, McDonnell Square, manufacturers of sashes, doors and blinds. The business was established by Mr. Walton in 1872, the present firm obtaining possession about three years ago. Thirty hands are kept employed in this factory, and amongst the various materials supplied, builders’ materials and supplies may be noted as a specialty. The firm uses annually about one million five hundred thousand feet of lumber, besides planing custom work to a like amount. In the year 1882 they dressed nearly five hundred thousand feet of lumber for the Manitoba market.

Moir & McCall, 26 Sheppard Street, manufacturers of sash doors, blinds, mouldings, flooring and sheeting, established their business in 1872, and employ in this department about twenty-five hands. The firm also conducts a building and contracting trade in which it employs from twenty-five to forty hands.

George Rathbone, 1038 Queen Street West, proprietor of planing mill, where are manufactured sashes, doors, blinds, etc. Established in 1881, and at present employs from twenty to thirty hands. Dresses custom lumber and keeps a general stock of house furnishing.

John Simmington, proprietor of planing mill and circular saw works, Esplanade, established his business in 1879; the machinery in his building being driven by a fifteen horse-power engine. He makes a specialty of the manufacture of cigar boxes. Mr. Simmington settled in Toronto in 1857, and was for many years engaged in ship-work.

The Toronto Planing Mill Company, corner Niagara and Tecumseh Streets, was established in 1879 on Lisgar Street, by Messrs. W. H. Essery & Reed, and formed into a joint stock company some four years later, under the Presidency of James Tennant, with a capital stock of $100,000. They employ fifty hands, who are engaged in the manufacture of sashes, doors, blinds, and hard and soft wood flooring. The size of the main building is 140 × 70 feet, and is two storeys high. In addition to a substantial boiler and engine room of brick, there is another shed 140 × 30 feet, and a dry kiln 19 × 70 feet (Rundell’s). The machinery is propelled by a two hundred horse-power engine, with three boilers. The yard is accommodated with two switches which connect with the railway. Lumber, kiln-dried, dressed and re-shipped, a specialty.

J. P. Wagner, contractor, etc., was born in Rhine Province, Prussia, 1825, and settled in Rochester, N.Y., in 1837. He early learned the trade of a builder, and subsequently became a contractor. He came to Toronto in 1855, and undertook the erection of the Rossin House, which he completed in 1857. Since then he has been steadily engaged as a builder and contractor, and has erected many of the better buildings and residences in Toronto, among which are the houses of Mr. Perkins on College Street, and of Mr. McMaster, Bloor Street, and Walker’s store, King Street; he also finished the Central Prison. In connection with his business Mr. Wagner has a manufactory of sashes, doors, blinds, etc., at 59 to 63 Adelaide Street West. He is also senior partner in the Dominion Piano and Organ Keyboard Company, and senior partner in the Dominion Show-case Manufacturing Company. In the three businesses there are on an average about one hundred and twenty hands employed.

John Wood was born in Kent County, England, in 1815. He early learned the use of tools, and became a thorough mechanic in different lines, principally as a carpenter and millwright. He settled in Toronto in 1844, and in 1870 started a planing-mill on the corner of Front and Erin Streets, 45 × 100 feet, the machinery of which is propelled by a thirty horse-power engine. The firm of John Wood & Sons also manufactures boxes and packing cases. In 1835 Mr. Wood married Elizabeth Steers, who was born in Kent, England, in 1815. Of his family three sons and three daughters are living, viz.: James, Philip, Amos, Emily, Sophia and Correna.

Scale Makers.

Ontario Scale Works, 123 Berkeley Street, S. E. Durnan, Proprietor; established, May, 1883. He manufactures all kinds of scales from counter to platform. Local trade.

C. Wilson & Co., Toronto Scale Works, 45 Esplanade. This is one of the oldest businesses of the kind in the Dominion, having been established in 1851. Employment is given to twenty-five men and eight travellers. Mr. C. Wilson was born in Co. Armagh, Ireland, in 1818, and settled in Ottawa in 1840, obtaining a position in the department of the Surveyor-General. He came to Toronto in 1849.

Stained Glass.

Dominion Stained Glass Company, Burke’s Block, 77 Richmond Street West. N. T. Lyon, President; John Harrison, Manager in cutting department; W. Wakefield, Manager in lead, glazing, etc., department. This business was established in 1882, and is at the present time one of the leading firms in the Dominion. They do a large business in cut glass, and an extensive amount of church work, and employ from fifteen to twenty hands. Mr. Lyon commenced the manufacture of stained glass in this city in 1863, having then entered the employment of Mr. J. McCausland, with whom he remained eighteen years.

Joseph McCausland, glass stainer, house, sign and ornamental painter, established his business in 1852, and added the stained-glass works in 1857, being the first of the kind in the city. He is now employing over fifty hands. Mr. McCausland was born in County Armagh, Ireland, in 1829, and came to Toronto in 1836.

Stone Works.

Toronto Stone Co., 95 Queen Street East. Campbell, O’Brien & Co., proprietors, manufacturers of all kinds of artificial stone, crocks, arches, keystones, etc. Concrete floors a specialty. Established 1870; came into the present hands in 1873. They received the first prize at the Ontario Industrial Exhibition in 1883 for concrete flooring.

Surgical Appliances.

Charles Cluthe, surgical machinist, inventor and sole manufacturer of the patent perfected Spiral Spring Truss for cure of rupture. Any invention tending to lessen human suffering, or assisting to ameliorate the unfortunate condition of those who are crippled or deformed, is deserving of patronage, and the inventor is worthy of being ranked among the benefactors of his day and generation. Toronto, in the fifty years of her existence, has produced many men of sterling worth, while others have taken up their abode within her boundaries and done work reflecting credit upon themselves and on the place of their adoption. Such a one is Mr. Charles Cluthe, the well-known surgical machinist of 118 King Street West. He is thoroughly acquainted with the business in all its details, having served his apprenticeship to it in his fatherland, Germany. He landed on this continent seventeen or eighteen years ago, and having worked at his trade for some time in several of the leading cities of the States—New York, Cincinnati, Indianapolis—he came to Canada in 1870, commencing business in a small way among his compatriots in Berlin. Here he acquired the reputation of being a conscientious, hard-working man, and his business increased in its proportion to such an extent that after three years he determined to remove to Hamilton. Mr. Cluthe’s good luck accompanied him there. Gradually he extended the field of his operations, making periodical visits to outside towns, and by judicious advertising, which is “the keystone of success,” from possessing a merely local reputation, he began to acquire a provincial one. Then it was that he recognized the necessity of locating at some central place, where he would have the best facilities for shipping goods and carrying on his operations. Accordingly about four years ago he located in this city, where he keeps seven men constantly at work in making different apparatuses for the relief or cure of deformities of the human frame. Chief among these is his patent Spiral Spring Truss for ruptured persons. The untold suffering from this complaint goes without saying; thousands are unable to pursue their daily toil, and endure tortures of a terrible nature from hernia or rupture. It has therefore been Mr. Cluthe’s object to invent an instrument which should relieve the suffering and restore them to health and strength. His long experience in treating cases of this kind, especially among farmers and working people, led him to experiment and make various improvements, so that he has been enabled to perfect a truss which challenges competition. The very best spring wire is used for its manufacture. The top plate, which revolves freely, and gives to every side motion, turns on a solid brass shoulder three-sixteenths of an inch, resting on a washer on either side in brass, nickel-plated, making the lightest, strongest, coolest, and most perfect truss pad in existence. In speaking the tongue acts as a valve in the mouth, which causes a pressure immediately on rupture. This pad is so perfect as to imitate instantly the motion of the tongue on rupture. It is so arranged as to have down-up pressure as holding with the finger. When pressure is brought to bear on it a perfect contraction of the opening made by the rupture is the result. For instance, press the hand with fingers and thumb extended over the rupture, then draw fingers and thumb together, bringing the flesh with them, and an exact illustration is afforded of what the spiral pad does. In addition to this the air can circulate freely under and around the pad; in fact, as regards ventilation, the pad is not to be excelled. The charge for this instrument is moderate—cheap, in fact, to the sufferer, as thousands of persons in this country and the States can affirm. Mr. Cluthe has agents all over the Dominion, and a branch office at Buffalo, N.Y. He pays periodical visits to London, Hamilton, St. Thomas, Peterboro’, Ottawa, Kingston, Belleville, Owen Sound, Stratford, Guelph, and other places, and at each of these does a large business. It is estimated that since he commenced operations in Canada, nearly 50,000 trusses have been made and sold by him. In speaking of the instruments he manufactures reference should be made to the machines for curing curvature of the spine, distorted or disjointed bones, bad arms, legs, club feet, etc. They are marvels of simplicity, and the benefit derived from them is incalculable. Those who are so fortunate as to possess sound bodies may perhaps question the fact that instruments such as these can fulfil the functions ascribed to them, but if they take the trouble to call at Mr. Cluthe’s establishment, opposite the Rossin House, that gentleman will doubtless be willing to exhibit his large and varied stock to the incredulous. Managing his business on legitimate mercantile principles, honourable and liberal in his policy, never refusing to afford substantial assistance to the suffering poor, it is a pleasure to refer to his establishment as a representative one in its line, and to the proprietor as a man of whom any place might be proud in calling him one of her citizens.

Tanneries.

Beckett & Wickett, tannery, corner Cypress and Front Streets, office and warehouse, 30 Front Street East. This business was established July, 1881. The size of the buildings is respectively 40 × 80 feet and 40 × 65 feet, all four storeys in height. They tan all kinds of common leather, and as a specialty make coloured bag leather. They have also secured Dobson’s patent for the manufacture of grain, upper and lace leather, which is considered the best wearing material made, the firm being the sole manufacturers of this kind in the Dominion. They were awarded a silver medal of merit in 1873. They employ about forty men and run fifty-five vats. The tannery was originally located in Whitby Township, being started there by Mr. Wickett in 1869, who was awarded a silver medal at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. J. B. Beckett, the first-mentioned name in connection with the above firm, was born in Devonshire, England, in 1828, and settled in Canada in 1846. He is a miller by trade, and for some years managed the mill of the Hon. John Simpson at Bowmanville, and while engaged there was awarded the first prize at the Exhibition held in London, England, in 1851, for the best barrel of flour. He subsequently owned mills at Whitby, and while there was awarded a silver medal and diploma at the Paris (France) Exhibition of 1867. He was Reeve of the Township of Whitby for twenty years, and was highly esteemed in that section as a friend and neighbour. He settled in Toronto in 1882, and joined Mr. Wickett in the above business.

Window Shades.

W. G. Black, manufacturer of tents, awnings, window blinds, etc., 8 King Street East, established his business in this city in 1880, having conducted a similar business in Hamilton several years. He is a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1851. Mr. Black employs six hands in his manufactory, and during last year cut over 4,000 yards of material for awnings alone.

MacFarlane, McKinlay & Co. (Union Window Shade Company), 31 and 33 St. Alban Street. This firm manufacture and deal largely in ornamental oil shades, shade cloth and spring rollers, tassels, cords, fringes, shade pulls and ornaments. The business was first established in Woodstock, Ontario, in 1878, by Mr. MacFarlane who removed to this city in 1880. They employ thirty-five hands, and two travelling agents, who secure orders from Halifax to Winnipeg. In the years 1882-3 the firm received a silver medal at the Toronto Industrial Fair; also bronze medal in 1882. They received two bronze medals and diploma at the St. John, New Brunswick, Exhibition in 1883. From a small beginning the business of this firm has rapidly increased, and at present they do fully $60,000 annually. Their specialty is the Hartshorn spring roller, of which they hold the sole agency in Canada. Their building is 45 × 200 feet, with a height of two storeys.

M. J. Ottman & Co., 417½ Queen Street West, trading under the name of “The Toronto Window Shade Company,” manufacturers and dealers in plain and decorated oil-finished hand-made cloth shades and spring rollers for stores and dwellings. The business was established in 1882, and has extended greatly since its commencement, doing a rapidly increasing trade in the rural districts. The members of the firm are practical decorators and designers—no small advantage in these days of competition. Mr. Ottman is a native of the United States.

John Wood, manufacturer of window shades, 464 Yonge Street.

THE WHOLESALE TRADE.

Booksellers and Stationers.

Brown Brothers, stationers, bookbinders, account book manufacturers, publishers of diaries, etc., 66 and 68 King Street East, and 7 and 9 Court Street, Toronto, commenced business in May, 1856, succeeding their father, who was established in the same line within a door or two of the present house, in the year 1846. The firm have now some binders’ tools that have been in use in the same family for over a century, their ancestors having been engaged in the same business for generations in Newcastle, England. Since their establishment, over twenty-eight years ago, the business has gradually increased, so that they now make use of every inch of room in the large premises they occupy. The business is divided into several separate departments; and in the manufacturing department alone they employ upwards of one hundred hands, many of whom entered the house when young and have grown up with the business. Their specialties are the manufacture of Account-books and Leather goods, Book-binding, Publishing of Diaries, which they have published for the past twenty-one years. They can well claim to be the premium manufacturers in these lines. They have exhibited at many exhibitions, and have always taken the lead in prizes: Medal, Exhibition opening of Victoria Bridge, Montreal, 1860; diploma at Dublin, 1865; Paris Exposition, 1867 and 1878; silver medal and diploma at Toronto Exhibitions. Their Stationery business has very largely developed. Their stock comprises everything in the general stationery line, made up from the principal markets in Britain, Europe, America and Canada. Another special feature in their business is the Book-bindersr material department, where are kept large supplies of leather, cloth, etc., for binders’ use. The book-binding department is very complete with steam power and the addition of every known new device in tools and machinery; it has grown in efficiency second to none on the Continent. They turn out large editions for publishers, for which they enjoy peculiar facilities. Almost every bank, insurance or loan company and merchant can testify to the superiority of the account books manufactured by this firm.

Copp, Clark & Co., 7 Front Street West, wholesale dealers in books, stationery and fancy goods. They are also manufacturers of stationery and pocket books, publish text-books for schools and colleges, law books, etc. In their manufactory they employ from seventy to eighty hands, and about the warehouse and office from sixteen to twenty hands. The business was originally established on King Street East as early as 1841, by Hugh Scobie, who died in 1853, and was succeeded by Maclear & Co. in 1854, who were followed by Chewett & Co. in 1857. In 1869 the present firm became the proprietors. Their manufactory is located at 67 and 69 Colborne Street.

The Toronto News Company, 42 Yonge Street, Mr. A. S. Irving, President and Managing Director. This business was established by Mr. Irving in 1864, their premises then being located on King Street West. In 1874 the firm took in the respective business of Copp, Clarke & Co., and W. E. Tunis, of Clifton, and since that date has been known as “The Toronto News Company.” They do a large wholesale trade (the bulk of the periodical business of Canada is in their hands), yielding a turn-over of about $250,000 yearly, employing four travellers, who visit all parts of the Dominion. They have branch houses in Montreal, Clifton and London, England, and act as agents for the large publishing firms of the latter city. The News Company make a specialty of Christmas and Easter cards, being agents for “Prang’s” celebrated goods in this line, and sold last year of that firm’s manufacture over $27,000 worth. The warehouse of the company has a frontage of 42 × 90 feet, and is five storeys in height. Mr. Irving, the Manager, may be said to be the father of the cartoon paper Grip, having commenced it. He is of Scotch descent, and in early life was a resident of the United States. He has lived in Toronto for the past twenty years.

Boots and Shoes.

Charlesworth & Co., boot and shoe manufacturers, 16 Front Street East, established their business in 1880. They employ one hundred and fifty hands and four travelling salesmen. They manufacture fine goods principally, and do an annual business of $250,000.

S. M. Sanderson, boot and shoe manufactory, 84 Bond Street, first established his business on King Street East, in 1857. About six years ago he moved to his present location, where he employs from eight to ten hands, manufacturing for the wholesale trade.

The Toronto Shoe Company, “Headquarters,” corner King and Jarvis Streets, is an old establishment. In 1882 the business was purchased by Joseph Tolfree, nephew of an old York pioneer of the same name. In 1883 the adjoining premises were added, making it the most complete shoe house in Canada. All sales are made for cash. Mr. Tolfree does a general jobbing trade and employs nine clerks. The house is known far and near as the original one-price establishment.

Brewers' Supplies.

Auguste Bolté, business established in 1880, as wholesale dealer in brewers’ supplies, some of which he manufactures himself. His trade extends from Halifax to British Columbia, and his premises have a frontage of 30 × 80 deep, located at 39 Colborne Street. This is the only house that makes a speciality of brewers’ supplies in Canada. Mr. Bolté was born in Montreal, and came to Toronto in 1880.

Butchers.

Edward Blong (of the firm of Thompson, Flanagan and Blong, cattle exporters, 21 and 23 St. Lawrence Market), was born in Queen’s County, Ireland, 1838. His father came to Canada and commenced business as butcher in 1841, which he continued until his death in 1861, being succeeded in his business by his sons. In 1874 Edward formed a partnership with James Walsh, and the two conducted a wholesale business for some time. In the spring of 1878, in connection with others, Mr. Blong commenced to ship live stock to England, which business he has since been engaged in. He owns and cultivates four farms outside the city, and is the owner of two thousand acres of land in the Province of Manitoba.

John Glenville, wholesale cattle dealer, 47 St. Lawrence Market, was born in Devonshire, England, 1833. He came to Canada in 1854, and engaged with P. Armstrong in the meat market until 1859, after which he entered into business for himself and continued for about five years. He then became manager of the pork-packing establishment of William Davis, with whom he remained until 1865, in which year he established the business he at present owns.

Clothiers.

W. E. Sanford & Co., wholesale dealers and manufacturers of ready-made clothing, 14 Wellington Street West. This firm was established in Hamilton in 1860, and has been represented in Toronto since 1875. They employ eighteen travellers, and the trade extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. From the Hamilton Spectator, August 31st, 1880: “This firm have transacted more business during the past eight months than in any year since they have been in business. It is a pleasure to pass through an establishment that is arranged in departments, the individuality of which is strictly maintained, as is the case in this instance. Our citizens will be pleased to learn of the continued advancement of this enterprising firm, and that the prospects for a further increase are most promising.”

Confectionery.

W. W. Park, confectionery, cigars and vinegar, 98 to 106 Adelaide Street East, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, 1850, and settled in Toronto in 1863.

Druggists.

Elliot & Co., drug merchants, manufacturing chemists, etc., 3 Front Street East. The senior partner, William Elliot, joined the house of Lyman Brothers & Co. in 1853, which became Lyman, Elliot & Co., until 1870, when William Elliot and his son established the present firm. They do an exclusively wholesale business, and manufacture at their factory, Beverley Street, white lead in oil, putty, linseed oil, pharmaceutical preparations, grind drugs, etc., and employ about thirty hands, clerks, etc. Mr. Elliot, sen’r, was President of the Board of Trade for two years; Director in the Northern Railway eight years; is at present Vice-President of the Bank of Commerce; President of the People’s Loan and Deposit Company; a Vice-President of the Confederation Life Association; Director of the Anchor Marine Insurance Company. He was born near London, England, 1812, and first came to Toronto in 1827, and made it his home in 1853.

Evans, Sons & Mason (Limited), late H. Sugden, Evans & Co., wholesale druggists and pharmaceutical chemists, 23 Front Street West, established their business in Montreal in 1864, a branch of which was opened in Toronto in 1877, the warehouse at the above address occupying 150 × 30 feet frontage, and in height having three flats in addition to basement. The business is managed in Toronto by Mr. James H. Pearce, who has been connected with the firm since his arrival in Canada twenty years ago. A staff of three travellers and ten men are employed by the company, who are engaged in the sale and despatch of goods throughout the Dominion. We may add that this firm makes a specialty of the celebrated “Montserrat Lime Fruit Juice.”

Lyman Brothers & Co., importers and general dealers in drugs, Nos. 71 and 73 Front Street East. This firm is composed of Henry Lyman, G. W. Lillie and John Henderson: a combination we have no hesitation in affirming the drug trade of this country is indebted to for its present stability. Their warehouse has a frontage of 45 × 200 feet, and is four storeys high. The building itself is a handsome one, the cost of erection reaching $50,000. Three travellers are employed by the firm, who push the trade through the Provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and the western districts.

Dry Goods.

B. A. Boas & Co.—This firm, we believe, are the oldest dry goods commission merchants in Canada. They commenced business in 1860 under the name of I. Meyer & Co., with Mr. B. A. Boas as managing partner in Montreal, with head-quarters in New York. In 1870 the firm became Meyer, Boas & Co., and in 1879 the New York partners were bought out by Mr. B. A. Boas, and the firm became B. A. Boas & Co. It now has its head-quarters in Montreal, with a branch in Toronto under the management of Mr. R. J. Tackaberry, and another branch in Minden, Prussia, under the management of Mr. M. Boas, jun’r. This firm shows the productions of some thirty to forty of the best manufacturers scattered over the continent of Europe. They take importation orders from the largest dealers in Canada for kid gloves (of which they are the largest importers in Canada). Thread gloves, hosiery of all kinds, mantle cloths, silks, velvets, laces, knitted goods, and all kinds of trimmings, etc., etc.

Boyd Brothers, wholesale dealers and importers of dry and fancy goods, 41 and 43 Yonge Street, was established in 1868, and was first located on Wellington Street. The warehouse has a frontage of 60 by 100 feet on Yonge, and 30 by 100 feet on Front Street. Employ six travellers and a staff of thirty-five in their warehouse. The trade is principally confined to the Province of Ontario. The firm is composed of Alexander, George, jun’r, and John Boyd. This firm makes a specialty of dry goods, fancy goods, and gents’ furnishing goods.

Bryce, McMurrich & Co., importers and wholesale dealers in dry and fancy goods, 34 Yonge Street. This business was first established on King Street East, in 1832, and is without doubt the oldest dry goods house in Toronto. The firm has also a house in Glasgow, Scotland, under the style Playfair, Bryce & Co.

Caldecott, Burton & Co., importers and wholesale dealers in dry goods. The firm is composed of S. Caldecott, P. H. Burton, W. C. Harris, and R. W. Spence, who established the business in 1879, locating first at 52 Front Street, from whence they removed to their present large building in 1883, which has a frontage of 52 by 120 feet, and is five storeys in height. Seven travellers and about thirty clerks are employed, and their trade extends from Montreal to Sarnia. The firm represent several French and German manufacturers. Messrs. Caldecott and Burton are English by birth, the remaining partners being Scotch.

W. H. Cross, wholesale dealer in general goods, 42 Scott Street. The business was established in 1872, and for seven years was located on Wellington Street East. In 1879 it was removed to its present site, the premises having a frontage of 30 x 100 feet, with a height of four storeys. Two travellers are employed, and the trade chiefly confined to the Province. Mr. Cross was born in England, and came to Canada in 1863, and spent some years in Hamilton before his settlement in this city.

Darling, Cockshutt & Co., wholesale dealers in imported and Canadian woollens and merchant tailors’ goods, 34 Wellington Street West. This firm comprises Robert Darling and Charles Cockshutt, the first named being formerly one of the partners in the firm of Wyld & Darling Brothers. The present business was established in 1879, and has been progressive from the commencement. There has been a continued increase in volume done from season to season, and by the combined ability and energy of both parties, they now stand at the head of this particular branch of trade. Their warehouse is five storeys high, occupying a frontage of 25 x 120 feet, and is well adapted for the woollen trade, being lighted on the north, west and south. The first floor is devoted to heavy Canadian woollens; second floor, to tailors’ trimmings, linings, etc., etc., and offices; third floor, to six-fourths imported woollens; fourth floor, to three-fourths imported woollens of Scotch, English, Irish, French, and German manufacture; fifth floor, to fine Canadian woollens. These goods find a ready market in the Provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec, five travellers being employed by the firm for their introduction, as well as a resident agent in Montreal. Mr. Darling is a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and has been a resident of Toronto since 1871. Mr. Cockshutt is a Canadian.

Forbes, Waugh & Co., 53 Yonge Street, wholesale dealers in gent’s furnishings, consisting of shirts, collars, scarves, ties, braces, silk handkerchiefs, umbrellas, rubber coats, underwear, etc. This business was established in 1881, under the name of Forbes, Roberts & Co., but towards the end of 1883 Mr. Roberts retired from the firm, and was replaced by Mr. W. J. Waugh, of Hamilton, who did a large and successful business in that city. The business extends throughout the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. The warehouse has a frontage of 30 x 80 feet deep, is four storeys high, and contains a large assortment of the above lines the year through.

J. W. Gale, wholesale dealer in staple and fancy dry goods, woollens, tailors’ furnishings, and gents’ furnishings, 24 and 26 Wellington Street West. Business established in 1839, by John Robertson, afterwards known as John Robertson, Son & Co. In 1881 Mr. Gale entered the partnership, under the name of Gale, Robertson & Co., which continued up to 1883, when Mr. Robertson retired, since which time the business has been continued by Mr. J. W. Gale, under the name and style of J. W. Gale & Co. His warehouse has a frontage of 36 x 80 feet in depth, and was built by Mr. Robertson. Mr. Gale employs five travellers, and a staff of sixteen clerks in the warehouse. His trade is confined principally to the Province of Ontario. Mr. Gale is also the manufacturer of the celebrated “Gale Shirt Collars and Cuffs,” and ladies’ underwear, in which he employs over one hundred and thirty-five hands. He is a Canadian by birth, and has been a resident of Toronto for the past fifty years.

John Macdonald & Co., wholesale dry goods merchants and importers, 21 to 27 Wellington Street East, and 30 and 32 Front Street East. This business is of extensive proportions, and was established in 1849 at 30 Wellington Street East, since which time the present premises have been occupied, and at stated periods enlarged to suit the requirements of increased trade. The warehouse has a frontage of 100 x 140 feet, and is the largest dry goods warehouse in Canada, and is furnished with all modern improvements in heating, lifts, etc. Some idea of the immensity of their trade may be gained when it is stated that they employ twenty men in their entering rooms alone, sending goods to all points in Canada between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Ninety to one hundred hands are engaged at the warehouse in the different departments. Appended hereto is the order in which goods are classed. First flat, entering, packing and shipping; second flat, imported and Canadian tweeds and staple dry goods; third flat, imported woollen stuffs, dress goods, hosiery, etc.; fourth flat, bonded ware-rooms, silks, satins, mantles, embroidered laces, etc.; fifth flat, haberdashery, small wares, and innumerable fancy goods; sixth flat, carpets, oil cloths, house furnishings, etc. Mr. Macdonald was born in Scotland, and came to Canada at an early day.

A. R. McMaster & Brother, importers and wholesale dealers in dry goods, 12 Front Street West. This business was established in 1844 by the Hon. W. McMaster, and to his energy, skill and care, may be attributed in a measure the high rank which the firm is enabled to take at the present day amongst the great wholesale houses of the Dominion. The success which attended each stage of its career repeatedly caused the firm to make alterations and extensive additions to their premises, and on the retirement of the Hon. Wm. McMaster from the business they erected the large and commodious warehouse on Front Street yet occupied by them. Up to 1881 the members of the firm were A. R., J. S., W. F., and S. F. McMaster, but on the death of A. R. McMaster in that year the business has since been conducted by the remaining partners. The frontage of the warehouse is 50 x 120 feet, with five flats, each being 6,000 square feet in area, access to which is gained by steam and water hoists. Adjoining the warehouse is the engine house, packing room and shipping office, 44 x 50 feet, and two storeys high. They employ about forty warehouse hands and seven travellers, who have charge of a trade which is confined principally to the Province. The first flat of the warehouse is devoted to staples, cottons and linens; second flat to tweeds, cloths, woollens and trimmings; third flat to dress goods, laces, silks, etc.; fourth flat to hosiery, gloves, haberdashery and furnishings; fifth flat to carpets, blankets and flannels. All the members were born in Ireland, the founder of the firm coming to Canada in 1835.

W. J. McMaster & Co., wholesale dry goods merchants, 41 Front Street. The business was established in 1867 at Montreal, and was removed to Toronto in 1878, being located at 54 Front Street until 1883, when they took possession of their present premises. The warehouse has a frontage of 30 x 200 feet, with four flats, the first of which consists of entry room, bonded warehouse, storage and packing rooms. The second flat is devoted to imported woollens, Canadian tweeds, heavy linens, flannels and cottons, and also the offices. Dress goods, prints, stuff goods, silks, velvets, mantles, carpets, haberdashery and fancy goods occupy the third flat, while the fourth is given up to lace curtains, Canadian, hosiery, fancy woollens, rubber clothing, and blankets. The working staff comprises eight travellers and twenty-five clerks, and the trade extends from Manitoba to St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Ogilvy & Co., importers and wholesale dealers in dry goods, corner of Bay and Front Streets. This business was established in 1850 at Montreal, and was located at the corner of St. Paul and St. Peter Streets of that city, where a large staple trade was carried on. In 1871 they opened a branch in Toronto; such success attended it that eight years afterwards they entirely closed the Montreal house and concentrated their energies on the business in this city. The building has a frontage of 35 x 200 feet, and is four storeys high. The first flat consists of entry and packing rooms; the second flat is devoted to prints, cottons, linens, flannels and carpets; the offices are also situated on this flat. On the third flat is the dress goods department, which represents the most celebrated English, French and German manufactures; this department also includes Canadian and Scotch tweeds, worsted coatings, Meltons, cloakings, muslins, lace curtains, etc. The fourth flat includes gloves, laces, hosiery, ribbons, parasols, umbrellas, gents’ furnishings and small wares. The firm employs six travellers, with a staff of thirty hands in the warehouse. The members of the firm are John Ogilvy, Thomas Ogilvy, Thomas O. Anderson and A. T. Ogilvy, all being of Scotch birth.

Simpson, Robertson & Simpson, wholesale dry goods merchants, 36 and 38 Colborne Street. This business was established in 1879 by the present members of the firm, and deal on general lines of Canadian and European goods. Mr. James Robertson is a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1866. He was three years in the establishment of John Macdonald & Co., and eleven years with Sampson, Kennedy & Gemmell, and on leaving the last-named house formed the present firm.

Tait, Burch & Co., wholesale dry goods merchants, 64 and 66 Yonge Street. The business was commenced in 1881 at the present premises, which are five storeys in height, the different flats being devoted respectively to linens and staples, silks, velvets, dress goods, mantles, mantle cloths, kid gloves, hosiery, umbrellas, etc., with the fourth flat set apart for packing. This firm has a large connection.

Fancy Goods.

James S. Russell, wholesale dealer in fancy goods, 122 Bay Street. This business was established in 1877. He does a large trade in specialties not kept by other houses, and deals extensively in native Indian goods, drawing his supplies from the Province of Quebec and from Lake Superior and the North-West. One of his specialties is agates from Lake Superior in all stages of manufacture; another is gold and silver lace and fringes, procured from France and Germany; and manufactures of cork from Austria. He also supplies curling stones, imported from Scotland, to all the Provinces of the Dominion, and largely to the United States. A visit to this store will prove interesting: there is always something strange and peculiar to be seen, and frequently one comes across articles of rare and unique interest.

Fruit and Oysters.

John McMillan, wholesale fruit and oysters, 70 Front Street East, established his business in 1871, as a retailer, but now has a large wholesale trade. He is agent for nearly one hundred of the principal fruit growers of the Province, and sells largely in the season on the wharves for the local trade. He distributes all over Ontario, Ottawa and Montreal, and does a large commission business, and is agent for D. E. Foote, and T. B. Schall, the Baltimore Oyster Packers. Handles large quantities of D. Wyer & Co’s Portland Finnan Haddies, averaging about one ton weekly, and deals in all kinds of smoked fish. Has three waggons, and employs from six to nine hands. Business returns $1,500 to $2,000 weekly.

Grocers.

Cramp, Torrances & Co., warehousemen, 45 Front Street East, were established in 1869. The firm is composed of Thomas Cramp and John and G. W. Torrance, the latter of whom is also manager of the Canada Vine Growers’ Association. The warehouse has a frontage of 30 x 180 feet, and is composed of four flats. Mr. Torrance is a Canadian by birth, being a grandson of John Torrance, deceased, of Montreal, who formerly carried on the oldest grocery concern in the Dominion.

Fitch & Davidson, wholesale grocers, 36 Yonge Street. The names connected with the firm are John C. Fitch, John I. Davidson and W. C. Fitch, the business having been in existence thirty-three years. It was only in 1881 that the firm adopted its present title, which it has since continued to bear, and it is doing a trade second to none in the city. The warehouse at the above address has a frontage of 40 x 195 feet, and is four storeys high. They employ five travellers and a staff of seventeen clerks. The Messrs. Fitch are Canadians, and their partner is a Scotchman.

Thomas Kinnear & Co., 47 Front Street East, wholesale grocers. Thomas Kinnear was born in the County Antrim, Ireland, and came to Canada in 1862 with his father, locating in Toronto. In 1863 he engaged with Henry Swan, grocer, King Street East, remaining there two years. He subsequently engaged as salesman with James Hutchinson, Yonge Street, and with Richard Dunbar, of West Market Square. In 1871 he entered into business with J. W. Laing. They carried on a grocery jobbing trade until 1880, when the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Kinnear then entered into the wholesale grocery trade exclusively, occupying the large and commodious warehouse where his business is now located. Mr. Kinnear’s trade has increased to such an extent that his house is now regarded as among the leading ones in the city—evidence of the ability of one of the successful young business men of Toronto.

James Lumbers, wholesale grocer, 67 Front Street East, first established his business in 1874, at No. 5 Manning’s Block. In 1876 he removed to his present large and commodious warehouse, which has a frontage of thirty feet, is one hundred and seventy feet in depth, and four storeys high. Mr. Lumbers does not send out travellers, but does his business by means of circulars. He imports a large quantity of goods direct. His trade extends over the whole Dominion, necessitating the employment of a staff of fifteen clerks. Mr. Lumbers was born in Toronto in 1843, and is the eldest son of William Lumbers, sen’r, who came to Toronto in 1837.

F. M. McHardy & Co., wholesale grocers, 69 Yonge Street. This firm first located at 70 Front Street, where they remained five years, and took possession of their present premises in 1877, and are at present doing a business which extends all through the Province. They employ two travellers and a number of hands, and the premises they occupy have a frontage of 25 x 160 feet. Mr. McHardy was born in Scotland, and after his arrival in Canada in 1853 was connected with several well-known firms ere his commencement in the above business. Mr. McHardy was a member of the Queen’s Own Rifles during the years between 1859 and 1867, and in the Fenian raid which culminated in the battle of Ridgeway was severely wounded, and also taken prisoner.

Perkins, Ince & Co., wholesale grocers, wines, liquors, etc., 41 and 43 Front Street East. The business was established in 1836, and for seven years was conducted under the name of Hart & Co. Upon the retirement of Mr. Hart in 1843, the firm was known as F. & G. Perkins, and remained so until 1855, in which year Mr. Ince, the senior member of the present firm, was taken into partnership, and Co. was added to the then title of the firm. In 1874 Mr. F. Perkins retired, and from that date up to the present time the business has been carried on under the name of Perkins, Ince & Co. This is without doubt the oldest grocery house in the city. They have a warehouse with a frontage of 60 x 180 feet, with a height of five storeys, and the extent of their trade may be calculated from the fact that among their staff are included four travellers and ten other employés. In 1875 Mr. G. Perkins died, and since then the business has been conducted under the old title by Messrs. Ince and Young.

W. J. Ramsay & Co., wholesale grocers and wine and liquor dealers, 29 Church Street, established their business in 1874, in the premises they at present occupy, which have a frontage of 30 x 90 feet, and have a height of four storeys. They do a large trade, which is almost wholly confined to the Province, and employ three travellers and a staff of seven clerks. Mr. Ramsay is a native of Toronto, and is the son of Mr. James Ramsay, an early settler.

Sloan & Mason. The firm is composed of John Sloan and Herbert D. Mason, who succeeded the firm of Sloan, Jardine & Mason in July last. Their premises are situated at the corner of Church and Front Streets, and are composed of three warehouses, 59, 61 and 63 Front Street, 75 x 140 feet, and four storeys high. This firm is chiefly engaged in importing and jobbing teas, and employs five travellers and a staff of fourteen men.

Hardware.

William Brown, importer of, and wholesale dealer in carriage hardware, woodenware and trimmings, 44 and 46 Wellington Street East, Toronto. This business was established in 1866, and has now become well known as the place for carriage and waggon-makers’ supplies. The stock is large and well assorted, and comprises full lines in all the departments, and well selected, and suitable for the wants of the trade, and at prices low as regards quality of goods. Auspicious circumstances have surrounded this house from its inception, and it sprang into prominence and became a favourite resort for buyers of these goods, from the very fact that they have found by experience that all goods coming from this establishment fulfil to the very letter every representation made for them.

A. & T. Darling & Co., wholesale hardware dealers, 5 Front Street East, where they have a large and commodious warehouse 40 x 180 feet, and four storeys high. The business was first established in Montreal in 1839, and it was only in 1878 they opened a branch in this city. Five travellers are attached to the Montreal house, and four to the branch in Toronto, in addition to a staff of thirty clerks. They do a very extensive trade, all the Provinces of the Dominion being included. The members of the firm are by birth Canadians.

C. Davidson & Co., importers and wholesale dealers in carriage and saddlery hardware, 13 Front Street West. This business was first commenced in 1866 by Davidson, McVittie & Co., at 18 King Street East, and was changed to Davidson & Co., in 1876. In 1880 the firm removed to their present address, where their warehouse occupies a frontage of 30 x 165 feet, and is four storeys in height. Their trade covers a large area, including Ontario and Manitoba, and gives employment to two travellers, and a staff of seven hands at the warehouse. Mr. Davidson was born in Scotland, and came to Canada in 1853.

H. S. Howland, Sons & Co., wholesale hardware merchants, 37 Front Street West. This firm includes H. S. Howland, sen’r, H. S. Howland, jun’r, and Peleg Howland, who established their business in 1877. The articles which constitute their chefs-d’œuvre are builders’ hardware, mechanics’ tools, cutlery, house-furnishings, fire-arms, garden and farming tools, lumbermen’s supplies, chains, etc. Their trade employs three travellers, who introduce the goods of the company throughout the Province. The warehouse has a frontage of 30 x 180 feet. Mr. Howland is an American by birth, and came to Canada in 1840. He has been a resident of this city for the past twenty years.

Rice Lewis & Son, wholesale and retail hardware merchants, 52 and 54 King Street East. This business is a very old one, its origin dating from the earlier years of the city (1844). It was first established by Rice Lewis, and up to the time of his death in 1871, was composed of G. W. Lewis, Arthur B. Lee, and John Leys. For seven years after the latter date, G. W. Lewis continued a member of the firm, and on his retirement in 1878 Messrs. Lee and Leys have since managed the business. Their King Street warehouse has a frontage of 50 x 80 feet, and is four storeys in height, and their trade is of such proportions as to necessitate the employment of twenty-five clerks. Messrs. Lee and Leys are also proprietors of the St. Lawrence Foundry, where are manufactured gas and water-pipes, and general castings, giving employment to about one hundred and fifty men. They have a large warehouse in Globe Lane, three flats, 60 x 160 feet, in which they do their iron and heavy hardware business—average stock over one thousand tons in iron, besides steel, iron pipe, rope and other heavy goods. Both members of the firm are Canadian by birth.

G. V. Martin, wholesale manufacturer of saddlery hardware, 16 and 20 Sheppard Street, is the only one in Canada who has established this line, having commenced the business in 1880. He employs twenty-five hands, and his goods have a market from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia. Mr. Martin is from the United States, his residence in Toronto having only covered the last four years.

Risley & Kerrigan, wholesale dealers and importers in light hardware, No. 30 Front Street West. This is quite a new firm, but the energy and business qualifications of its two members have been the means of accumulating a fair share of the trade of the western Provinces. The warehouse occupies a frontage of 30 x 120 feet and is six storeys in height. They employ seven travellers, and a staff of thirty-five hands. The firm is composed of John T. Risley and James Kerrigan, Canadians by birth, who established the business in 1883.

M. & L. Samuel, Benjamin & Co., wholesale importers of hardware, metals, house-furnishing goods, etc., 56½ and 58 Yonge Street; lamp and lamp goods department, No. 9 Jordan Street. This firm carries a large and well-assorted stock, and do one of the most extensive businesses in their particular line in the Dominion. This business has been a growing one since their establishing themselves in this city in 1856, when the style of the firm was M. & L. Samuel. They now employ some forty hands, which include five representatives on the road. They have a house in Liverpool, England (Samuel, Sons & Benjamin), which places them in a position to purchase to the best possible advantage.

William Thomson & Co., hardware merchants, 18 and 20 Front Street West, have been established since 1855, their occupation of the present premises taking place in 1868. The warehouses have a frontage of 90 x 180 feet, and are four storeys in height. In addition to general hardware, the firm deals in china, glass and earthenware; four travellers are employed, who cover the territory between Belleville and Thunder Bay; the warehouse staff is composed of thirty-five hands. The members of the firm are William Thomson, George Hutchinson and F. J. Menet, The first-named is of Scotch birth, the remaining two being Canadians.

Hats, Caps and Furs.

A. A. Allan & Co., wholesale dealers in hats, caps, hits and robes, and manufacturers of cloth caps and furs. This business was established in 1877 at 32 Wellington Street West, where it is still being carried on. The warehouse has a frontage of 25 feet, is 110 feet deep and five storeys high. The cap factory is at 49 King Street West. This well-known firm employs five travellers, and has a staff of nine clerks, besides employing about sixty hands in the manufacture of hats, caps and furs. Mr. Allan was born in Scotland, and came to Canada with his parents, locating in Toronto in 1860.

T. Christie & Co., wholesale dealers and manufacturers in hats, caps and furs, and straw goods, 20 and 22 Wellington Street. This firm established their business in 1866 at Hamilton, removing to Toronto ten years afterwards. They were for some time located on Front Street, but took possession of their present commodious warehouse in 1878, which is four storeys high, and has a frontage of 40 x 80 feet, and where forty hands are engaged in the manufacture of furs. They employ four travellers, and have a trade which extends from Montreal to the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Christie is a Canadian by birth.

Gillespie, Ansley & Martin, wholesale dealers in hats, caps and furs, 28 and 30 Wellington Street. This firm was established in 1864, under the title of J. Gillespie and Co., who carried on business first at No. 39 and afterwards 64 Yonge Street. The re-arrangement of the firm under its existing title was consummated in 1882, and is composed of George E. Gillespie, A. Ansley and John Martin. The warehouse has a frontage of forty-five feet on the ground floor, the flats above being 85 x 135 feet. Six travellers are employed by the firm, and seventy-five hands in the manufacture of furs.

Leather and Shoe Supply Merchants.

P. Jacobi, wholesale leather-dealer and importer of shoe findings, 5 Wellington Street East, established the business in 1869 at 103 Yonge Street. In 1877 he removed to his present locality, the building occupying a frontage of 30 x 90 feet, having a height of four storeys. He does a large and extensive trade, in which two travellers cover the Provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. Mr. Jacobi is of German birth, and came to Canada in 1854.

King Brothers, tanners, curriers, and leather-dealers, warehouse situate at 44 Colborne Street. The tannery is at Whitby, where the business was first established in 1863. About forty men are constantly employed. To meet the requirements of a rapidly-growing business, the Toronto branch house was opened in 1878. Their trade is largely confined to the supply of wholesale houses with their staple manufactures.

Charles Parsons & Co., wholesale leather and shoemakers’ oil and findings, 79 Front Street East, established their business in 1876 at the above address, where they have a warehouse frontage of 32 x 200 feet. The business carried on is one of the largest in the city, employing three travellers and seven clerks. Mr. Parsons is the son of William Parsons, who came to Canada in 1814, and originated a milling business at Thornhill.

James Pepler & Son, dealers and importers of leather and tanners’ supplies, 51 Front Street. This firm is composed of James Pepler and T. S. G. Pepler, who established their business in 1877 at 86 Front Street East, removing to their present place in 1883. The warehouse has a frontage of 30 x 100 feet, and in addition to a basement there are three flats. They employ two travellers, and have a trade which extends through Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba.

Liquors, Wines and Spirits.

C. W. Brown, commission merchant, dealer in wines and spirits. This business was established in 1872, and was first located at 32 Church Street until 1878. It is now located at 2 Leader Buildings. Mr. Brown represents the firms of J. Guest, L. Huot, Green & Houston, Dufresne & Mongenais, of Montreal. He was born in England, and came to Canada in 1871.

Burns & Co., wines, liquors and cigar merchants, 62 Front Street East. The leading partner in this firm, Mr. George A. Burns, is a native of Ballamard, Ireland, and came to America in 1865, landing in New York. Subsequently he came to Toronto, and in 1868 in partnership with his cousin engaged in the wholesale grocery and liquor trade, under the title of G. A. Burns & Co. This dispensation lasted two years, and on the retirement of his cousin, Mr. Burns conducted the business alone until the fall of 1871, when he and Mr. Adams formed a company partnership under the style of Adams & Burns. This well-known firm existed until 1882, when Mr. Burns removed to Winnipeg, and, returning again to this city in 1883, he again engaged in his old business, and continues to push trade with characteristic vigour. The business extends over the entire Province, and few names are more widely or favourably known than the genial head of this firm.

W. Kyle & Co., importers and shippers of wines and liquors, 38 Wellington Street East. The business was established by W. J. Shaw in 1860, and was afterwards taken by Charles Hutchinson until 1878, when Mr. Kyle and C. Monroe took possession, and have since conducted the business. They employ three travellers, and their trade extends through Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. The firm also ships largely to the cities of Chicago, St. Paul, Detroit, and other parts of the United States. Their warehouse has a frontage 30 x 175 feet, occupying two flats.

Lumber Merchants.

T. & S. Baldwin, 4 and 6 Dundas Street, lumber dealers, established in 1882. Handle over three million feet annually, employing from six to eight men and eight to ten horses. Deal principally in pine lumber.

Joseph Davidson, lumber merchant, corner Queen and Dufferin Streets, was born near Toronto, November 24th, 1829. He early engaged in lumbering and farming, and has built a number of saw-mills, two of which he yet owns. He also constructed the telegraph line from Thunder Bay to Fort Garry. In 1866 he established a lumber yard at Spadina Avenue, and in 1879 moved to his present premises, where he disposes of about three million feet of lumber annually.

Thomas Downey, lumber merchant and builder, succeeded to the business of his father, Thomas Downey, sen’r, on his retirement in 1869. Thomas Downey, sen’r, came to this country from Ireland in 1842, and after following his trade as carpenter and joiner for some years, commenced business as a builder in 1852. By close attention to his affairs he amassed a competency and retired in favour of his son, the subject of this notice. Mr. Downey, sen’r, was Alderman for St. John’s Ward for five years successively, retiring in 1876. He died in 1879. His son, Thomas Downey, is still carrying on the business, and gives employment to a large number of men. He was also elected Alderman for St. John’s Ward for 1882-3, and then retired. He is a brother of John Downey, a member of the well-known legal firm of Mowat, MacLennan, Downey & Biggar, of this city.

Estate of W. & R. Henry (lately deceased). This firm has mills at Randwick, County Dufferin, and at Kagawong, Manitoulin Island, which annually cut about six millions of lumber, one-half of which finds its way to Toronto. James McGee, financial agent, 10 King Street East, is attorney and manager for the estate.

McCraken, Gall & Co., lumber merchants, Victoria Street. This firm does a large business in lumber, and also in manufacturing, hardwoods being a specialty. The main building of the factory is 176 x 40 feet, and with engine house and other buildings, and their large yard at Strachan and Wellington Avenues, occupies about four acres. They employ about ninety hands, and handle upwards of ten million feet of lumber annually. At the factory is kept in stock dressed lumber for building and other purposes. Thomas McCraken, of the above firm, was born at Bonaventure, Bay de Challeurs, September, 1835. His father was a native of Ayr, Scotland, and followed the business of lumber merchant, and was one of the pioneers of the Ottawa Valley. In the early part of his career, Thomas entered the lumber trade, but from 1869 to 1876 he occupied the position of Cashier of the Royal Canadian Bank, the head office of which was in Toronto, afterwards resuming his former occupation. George Gall is a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and came to Toronto in 1874. He first established himself on Richmond Street East, as a builder, subsequently entering the above lumber firm.

John Oliver, lumber merchant, Esplanade, is a native of Ireland, and on leaving there in 1849 settled in Philadelphia, where he remained one year, finally locating in Toronto, where he learned the trade of carpenter and builder, which business he carried on from 1856 to 1870, when he commenced the wholesale lumber business, together with a planing-mill, but the latter being burned he has since confined himself to the lumber trade.

George Reid, sen’r (of Reid & Co.), lumber merchants, offices and docks, foot of Sherbourne and Berkeley Streets, Esplanade Street. Son of James and Anne Reid, Sligo, Ireland. He was born in the year 1826, and came direct to Toronto in 1849. He worked the first three years as a mechanic, and afterwards carried on a building business. He did not commence the lumber business till the year 1880, and now the firm turn over about eight million feet of lumber per annum.

J. & F. N. Tennant (lumber merchants, Dovercourt Road). Established in 1880 in this city. James Tennant was formerly in the lumber business at Barrie. F. N. Tennant was Principal of the Canada Business College at Hamilton, for ten years. The firm now handles about forty million feet of lumber in the year, and by strict attention to business have been more than usually successful. Mr. James Tennant occupied the position of J.P. in his native county (Brant), but neither of the brothers takes rank as a general office seeker.

Millinery and Laces.

G. Goulding & Sons, wholesale millinery, 38 Yonge Street. This business was commenced in 1869, by Peach & Goulding, at 40 Yonge Street, where they carried on a general wholesale trade up to 1877, when Mr. Peach retired. Mr. Goulding then continued the business with his sons under the present name. They subsequently removed to the commodious building at 38 Yonge Street, occupying the whole of it. They have a very large trade, extending all over the Province. They employ three travellers and a large force of salesmen. The firm is now composed of George Goulding, W. Goulding and H. Goulding.

D. McCall & Co., 12 and 14 Wellington Street West, wholesale dealers in millinery, mantles and fancy dry goods. This business was established in 1880, and located at 51 Yonge Street. Their trade increased so rapidly that the firm was obliged to remove to its present handsome and commodious warehouse, which has a frontage of eighty-five feet, is eighty-five feet in depth and five storeys high. This enterprising firm employs eight travellers and a staff of thirty clerks, besides from one hundred to one hundred and fifty girls in the manufacturing of millinery goods. The firm is composed of D. McCall and Wm. Blackley. The latter was born in Inverness, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1860, remaining in Montreal until 1866, when he removed to Toronto.

McKinnon, Proctor & Co. In the year 1871, Mr. McKinnon, who was born in Halton County, came to Toronto, and in 1873 he established this business. In the following year he was joined by Messrs. Proctor and McCall, who, with himself, continued the business up to 1880, when Mr. McCall retired, leaving the business to be carried on by the two remaining partners. This well-known firm employs nine travellers, whose routes extend over the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. A staff of twenty-seven salesmen, clerks, etc., is employed in their wholesale house, which is situated on Front Street. It has a front of 32 feet, is 110 feet deep and five storeys high. Arrangements are being made for the erection of another warehouse as the present premises are too small for the growing trade.

Paterson, McKenzie & Co., wholesale dealers and importers of millinery, Berlin and other wools, dress trimmings and fancy dry goods. The business was established in 1872, and was first located at 58 and 60 Wellington Street West, where they remained until the present year, when they removed to their present warehouse, 11 Wellington Street West. The building has a frontage of 26 feet, depth 125 feet, and is four storeys high. Five travellers and a staff of fifteen clerks and salesmen are employed. The firm is composed of L. Paterson and G. McKenzie. Mr. Paterson was born in Scotland, and came to Canada in 1848, locating in Toronto in 1868. Mr. McKenzie is a Canadian by birth.

Photographers’ Supplies.

Lyon & Alexander, importers of photographers’ goods, manufacturers of mouldings, frames, etc., 110, 112 and 114 Bay Street. This business was established by E. J. Palmer in 1851, and was purchased and taken possession of by the present firm in 1878. They employ ten hands.

Provision and Commission Merchants.

H. W. Cuff, 48 to 52 St. Lawrence Market, pork and provision dealer, packs a large amount of pork, cures hams and bacon, which he was the first to ship to the old country, in 1854, which he continued until 1865. He also deals in butter, cheese and eggs. He was born in Bath, England, and settled in Toronto in 1848; and took a lively interest in starting cheese manufacturing in Canada, and inducing farmers to embark in the enterprise.

Francis Gallow (of the firm of Gibb & Gallow, wholesale merchants) is a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He came to Canada in the year 1857 and settled in the City of Toronto. He assisted his father (William Gallow) in the market gardening for two years, and the following eight years he spent in the wholesale grocery business. In 1869 he entered upon his present career in conjunction with Mr. Lawrence Gibb, in the wholesale provision trade and commission, which is carried on at their premises, 83 Colborne Street.

John Garton, dealer in smoked and cured meats, 406 Queen Street East, is a native of Yorkshire, England, and came to Canada in 1861. He located in Hamilton one year before his settlement in Toronto. He is engaged in smoking and curing meats for the trade, his property having a frontage of 100 x 217 feet.

Mr. Lawrence Gibb (firm of Gibb & Gallow, wholesale merchants) was born in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, February 27th, 1832. He emigrated to Canada in 1857, and came direct to Toronto. He commenced first as grocer and baker on Queen Street West, which business he continued for several years. In 1869 he formed a partnership with Mr. Francis Gallow, and the present prosperous business at 83 Colborne Street is the result. In 1862 Mr. Gibb married Mary Gallow, sister of his partner in business.

William Hague, provision dealer, 174 Queen Street East. Is a native of Stillbridge, Cheshire, England. His father, John Hague, was a cotton-spinner in that town. In 1856, Mr. Hague came to Toronto, and established business at 202 Queen Street East, in a small way, and in one of the only two shops then east of Sherbourne Street; and about 1877 removed to his present stand, where he does a business of about $50,000 annually.

G. L. Kavanagh & Co., 22½ Church Street, produce and commission merchants. This business was established in 1878 at 63 Colborne Street, and was carried on there until 1881, when the firm moved to their present quarters. This firm make a specialty of pork-packing and brokerage. Mr. Kavanagh was born in Toronto.

James Park (pork packer, etc.) was born in Glasgow, Scotland (1831), emigrated to Canada in 1853 and came direct to Toronto. He began in the grocery business with Mr. William Hogg (son of the founder of Hogg’s Hollow) on Yonge Street, with whom he remained about two years. On leaving Mr. Hogg, he commenced a grocery business for himself at the corner of Agnes and Chestnut Streets (then called Sayer Street), at which place he continued for five or six years. He then removed to St. Lawrence Arcade, Nos. 41 to 47, where he is located at present, carrying on a flourishing business as pork packer and general provision merchant. Added to this he has another store at 95 Front Street, where pork packing is carried on under the name of James Park & Son, and also another store at 161 King Street West. Mr. Park was married before he left Scotland.

Seed Merchants.

J. A. Simmers, (Anton and Hermann Simmers) importers, growers and dealers in seeds and farmers’ supplies, 147 King Street East. In 1856 this business was started by J. A. Simmers, who, born in Saxony, Prussia, in 1827, settled in Toronto in 1854. In 1873 he was appointed Consul for the German Empire, and died in 1883. The business is now conducted by his sons, Anton and Hermann, who employ eight clerks and one travelling salesman. They have a seed garden consisting of five and a-half acres, situated just outside the city limits, where are grown all kinds of seed, which are tested before being offered for sale.

Steele Bros. & Co., importers, growers, dealers and exporters of all kinds of field, flower and garden seeds, corner of Front and Jarvis Streets. This business was established in 1873, at 23 East Market Square, and increased so rapidly as to necessitate removal to more commodious quarters at the present location. During the working season employment is given to about one hundred hands. Goods are shipped to all parts of the Dominion as well as to the United States and to England. The firm imports seeds from Europe and the United States. The bulk of their staple, agricultural and vegetable seeds, are grown specially for themselves by experts in seed culture, and are tested in a hot-bed in their establishment before being sent out. They export clover seeds to a large extent to Britain and the Continent, where they command a high price. The building, which is 34 × 120 feet, and four storeys high, is accommodated by engine-power, elevator, etc. They have their own materials for manufacturing and printing all requisites for their trade in coloured work, etc.

Shirts, Collars and Cuffs.

A. H. Sims & Co., 27 Front Street West, manufacturers of shirts, collars and cuffs. This is a branch of the Montreal house, which is one of the largest shirt manufacturing firms in Canada, employing over three hundred hands. The Toronto branch was established in 1877. Their goods are sold only to the trade.

Tea and Coffee.

John W. Cowan & Co., importers and wholesale tea and coffee merchants, 52 and 54 Front Street East, first located at 25 Church Street, where they established their business in 1876. The present warehouse has a frontage of 60 × 60 feet, and the business employs three travellers who solicit orders in every district of the Province. The firm is composed of John W. Cowan and A. R. McFarlane, the former of whom is a native of Ireland. Mr. Cowan is also connected with a firm engaged in the manufacture of chocolate, trading under the name of Cowan, Musgrave & Co. This place is situate at 7 and 9 Temperance Street, and employs from twelve to fifteen hands.

J. Keer (Major-General H. M. S.), tea merchant, 58 Church Street, commenced this business in 1883, and imports direct from India, the choicest brands only passing through his hands.

James Laut, wholesale and retail tea merchant, 281 Yonge Street, established his business in 1878, in London, Ont., removing to Toronto to the above premises in 1881, where a frontage of 30 × 80 feet and a building of four storeys high attracts public attention. An agency of 300 members have charge of Mr. Laut’s trade, which, through their energy and perseverance, has been extended from Montreal to Sarnia.

Minto Bros., wholesale tea merchants, 73 Colborne Street. This firm is composed of John and William Minto, who commenced their business in 1874, five doors higher than their present location. They import stock direct, and their goods find a market all over the Province. Both brothers are natives of Scotland, and after their arrival in Canada spent several years in Montreal previous to their settlement in this city.

W. Montgomery, wholesale dealer in teas, coffees, etc., 108 Front Street East; business established in 1883. Trade principally confined to city. Mr. Montgomery was born in Ireland and came to Canada in 1873, and has been resident in Toronto for the past eleven years.

James Watson, coffee and spice manufacturer, 121 Bay Street, started business in 1867. He employs eight men. Mr. Watson was born in Scotland in 1833, and came to Toronto in 1853.

R. S. Watt & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in teas, etc., 878 Queen Street West. This business was established in 1879, on the corner of Yonge and Elm Streets, from which place they removed to Adelaide Street, and from thence to York Street, where they carried on business until the early part of the present year. Their travelling staff is composed of sixteen members, and the warehouse gives employment to eight men, who ship goods throughout the Province. Mr. Watt was born in Scotland and came to Canada in 1869.

Wall Paper.

Faircloth Bros., importers of English, French and American wall papers, artists’ materials, etc. Business established in 1857 as G. S. Faircloth & Son. They first located on Adelaide Street, afterwards removed to Victoria Street, at this time carried on house painting, decorating, etc. In December, 1881, the firm moved to their present quarters, 256 Yonge Street, and added the paper trade to their business, since which time they have been known as Faircloth Bros. The firm is composed of J. M. & G. W. A. Faircloth. The store has a frontage of 13 × 100 feet, and is three storeys in height. Employs a staff of fifteen to twenty hands in the business.

Wool and Hide Dealers.

T. Heinrich & Son, wool and hide dealers. This firm is composed of Tobias Heinrich and his son George, the last-named entering the business in 1879. The business was first established in 1869 by the father, who is a native of Germany, and came to Canada in 1854. He located in several places before he finally settled in Toronto in 1860, and from this date to the period of his commencement in business he acted as foreman for Mr. E. Leadley.

E. Leadley & Co., wool and hide dealers, corner of Front and West Market Streets. On this business being commenced in 1863, it was located at 758 Queen Street West, but was removed to the present site in 1866. The warehouses have a frontage of 35½ × 135 feet with a height of four storeys. The firm deals largely in wool, hides, skins and grain, and own also a pulling factory situate on Queen Street West, and an additional store-house on George Street. The whole establishment provides employment for twenty-five men. Mr. Leadley is an Englishman by birth, and came to Toronto in 1856, where he has since remained.

RETAIL AND GENERAL.

Bakers, Confectioners, etc.

John Bain, proprietor of steam bakery, located at 339 Queen Street West. He is a native of Glasgow, Scotland, where he learned his trade and worked for several years. Soon after his arrival here he established himself in the premises he now occupies, where he is doing a constantly increasing trade, using two waggons to distribute his goods around the city, and employing three men. His trade is mostly confined to supplying private families with bread and cakes, of which he manufactures a considerable variety.

G. H. Bowen, proprietor of the bread, cake and confectionery establishment, 84 Queen Street West, has been connected with the business since 1875. In 1879 he commenced business on his own account on Yonge Street where he only remained one year, removing afterwards to Sullivan Street. In 1883 he changed his address to his present location, where by energy and perseverance he has built up a respectable and increasing trade.

A. W. Carrick, baker and confectioner, corner of Bay and Richmond Streets, is the son of A. W. Carrick, a native of Ireland, who came to Canada in 1847. The father had learned the trade of baker in Armagh, and on his arrival in this country, after working a period as journeyman, commenced business on his own account in this city, which he conducted until his death in 1862. After his demise the business was carried on by the family, the subject of our sketch taking entire possession in 1882. He runs two waggons, and employs five men, and is doing a prosperous wholesale and retail trade.

James Cox & Son, pastry cooks, confectioners, etc. Refreshment Rooms, 83 and 441 Yonge Street. The head of the firm is a native of Devizes, Wiltshire, England, and learned his trade, working at the same in his native town for fifteen years afterwards. He came to Canada in 1857, and a little later established himself in business in this city. He began only in a small way, but by perseverance, thrift and integrity the present magnificent business is the result; an illustration of what may be accomplished in a growing city like Toronto by the aid of these qualifications.

William Carlyle, baker, confectioner, and proprietor of the elegant and commodious refreshment parlours, situate at the corner of Queen and Simcoe Streets, was born at Stranraer, Wigtonshire, Scotland, where he learned his trade. In 1868 he came to Canada, and for two years worked at his trade as journeyman, afterwards establishing himself in business at 149 York Street. He remained there seven years, and in 1877 purchased and removed to his present premises, which have a frontage of 26 × 74 feet. He employs in all six hands, and manufactures goods both for wholesale and family trade, making a specialty of a superior class of confectionery for his own retail business.

George Coleman, proprietor of ladies’ and gents’ refreshment rooms, 111 King Street West, is a native of Suffolk, England, and came to Canada in 1846. He stayed in Montreal the first five years, and then settled in this city where he has since lived. He learned in England the trade of baker, and worked at the same until 1851 when he commenced in this city on his own account. He was first for thirteen years at 69 King Street West, and nine years at 99 King Street West, and commenced business at his present location in 1874, where he has one of the finest business stands in this line in the city.

George Constable, proprietor of steam bakery, 450 Queen Street West, was born in Blair Gowrie, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1853, having previously learned the trade of baker. He worked at his trade in this city for some time, and in 1857 commenced business for himself. He manufactures for both wholesale and retail trade, employs six hands, and keeps three waggons for the delivery of his goods. Every variety of bread, cakes, confectionery and pastry are made in this establishment, and its proprietor was the first in this country to manufacture common bread by steam; having made four trips to the old country, he has all the modern appliances used in the manufacture of his line of goods.

The Co-operative Union Baking and Milling Society. This is an outgrowth of the Bakers’ Union, established in 1880, John MacMillan, President, James F. Crait, Secretary; have lately leased the buildings on Parliament Street and Wilton Avenue, where they expect to establish an extensive baking business. They are now employing five men and require three waggons to distribute their goods.

J. F. Craig, baker and confectioner, was born in Toronto, where he has always resided, and has been engaged in the confectionery business for the past twenty years. He first located on Church Street, afterwards removing to Berkeley Street, and finally locating at 262 King Street East, where he is engaged in the manufacture of confectionery exclusively for the trade.

Robert Currston, proprietor of bakery and confectionery at 324 Queen Street West, is a native of Glasgow, Scotland; came to Canada with his parents when a child, who settled and lived in Quebec, where he learned his trade, and has worked at the same ever since. He started himself in business at his present location in 1882. Employs three hands in the bakery and one to drive a waggon around town to supply his customers.

R. F. Dale, proprietor of bakery located at the corner of Portland and Queen Streets. The quality of his goods is demonstrated by the fact that he received the first prize awarded for the best bread, at the Toronto Exhibition in 1882. He is a native of the “Braes of Bonnie Doon,” Scotland, and came to Canada in 1854. He learned his trade in this city, and in August, 1878, bought out a baking business at 93 Queen Street West, where he remained, somewhat over two years, afterwards removing to his present quarters, where he manufactures goods for both the wholesale and retail trade, and employs five hands. His business requires two waggons for the delivery of his goods. The growth of this business can be summed up from the fact, that his weekly output of loaves in 1881 was two thousand, and for a corresponding week in 1884 was three thousand two hundred.

H. M. Devlin, proprietor of bakery, ice-cream and confectionery parlours, 483 Yonge Street. Does a large trade, both wholesale and retail. Employs five hands, and uses two waggons for the distribution of his goods in and around the city. He manufactures every variety of bread, cakes, confectionery and pastry, his chief aim being to supply only a first-class article. Mr. Devlin is a native of Simcoe County, but has lived in York the greater portion of his life. He carried on business in London, Ontario, for two years and a-half, and on his return to this city, commenced business on Church Steeet, where he remained one year, and in 1882 leased and took possession of his present premises.

C. J. Frogley, proprietor of bakery store, corner of Yonge and Yorkville Avenue, is a native of London, England, where he learned his trade, and continued at the same nine years. He came out in 1872, and in 1874 established himself in business at 497 Yonge Street, where he remained five years, he then moved to 768 Yonge, doing business for another five years, when he bought and took possession of the large and commodious bakery and store at the above location, where he does a large wholesale and retail trade. Runs three waggons, employing five men, also keeps ice-cream and confectionery rooms.

David Galloway, baker and confectioner, 101 Church Street, is a native of Falkland, Scotland, where he learned his trade, and coming to Canada in 1871, he worked in this city as journeyman two years. In 1873 he removed to Acton West, and commenced business on his own account, from thence to Shelburne, where he remained for five years. In 1883 he returned to Toronto and established himself at the above-mentioned address, employing three hands in the manufacture of several kinds of bread, confectionery and pastry, and using waggons for delivering to his customers.

Thomas Gardiner, proprietor of the Lorne Bakery, 6 Queen Street West, is a native of Scotland, and came to Canada in 1870. He acquired a knowledge of his trade in Dundee, Scotland, in which town he worked six years as journeyman. On his arrival in this city he worked as journeyman two years, afterwards establishing himself in business at 316 Yonge Street, where he remained three years. About this time he emigrated to Streetsville, Ontario, and carried on baking business there until 1879, when he returned to this city and opened the premises he at present occupies. He makes a specialty in superior pastry and manufactures only for his retail trade. His confectionery parlour is tasteful and elegant, and is one of the attractions of its kind in Toronto.

N. Gardiner, baker and confectioner, store, corner of King and Sherbourne Streets, was born in Scotland, and came to Canada in 1871. He learned his trade with his brother, J. Gardiner, and afterwards worked for him a considerable time. He established his present business in 1879, and now employs two hands, manufacturing a variety of goods for his own retail trade. Although only recently commenced in business, Mr. Gardener is fast gaining a fair share of the trade.

R. Jose, proprietor of pastry and fancy cake bakery, 559 Queen Street West, was born in Quebec, April 5th, 1848, and came to Toronto with his parents two years later, where he has since resided. He served his apprenticeship with Mr. J. Cox, who now carries on business on Yonge Street, and worked with him one year after his time was out. In 1869 he started business on his own account, on Queen Street, four doors east of Peter Street, and remained there about three years; he then removed to Yonge Street and did business there for over two years, and in 1875 removed to his present place of business, when that locality was nothing more than open fields. Mr. Jose employs three men, and manufactures a variety of fancy goods in his line of business for his own retail trade.

Edward Lawson, importer of teas and groceries, and manufacturer of confectionery, wholesale and retail, 93 King Street East, first established his business on Yonge Street in 1843. In 1860 he moved to his present location where he employs fifteen hands. Mr. Lawson was born in Cumberland, England, in 1819, and settled in Toronto in 1830.

J. D. Nasmith, proprietor of the steam bakery, corner of Adelaide and Jarvis Streets, is the son of John Nasmith, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who formerly conducted a bakery for many years in Greenock, Scotland, and by industry and economy was enabled to retire from business. Speculation combined with the great fundamental changes effected through the repeal of the Corn Laws, absorbed his capital, and in 1844 he came to Canada to attempt the restoration of his broken fortunes. He remained a short time in Montreal, removing afterwards to this city and rented what was then known as the old Herald building, corner of Newgate and Nelson Streets, now Adelaide and Jarvis, where the present proprietor, J. D. Nasmith, was born. He commenced with a very limited capital, and once more as he thought had laid the foundation of future prosperity. His hopes on this occasion were doomed to disappointment. In 1849 he was burned out, losing nearly everything he possessed. Through the encouragement and substantial assistance of the Hon. John McMurrich, he was induced to build again and from that time forward fortune favoured his efforts, and in 1870 he retired in favour of his son, to enjoy that ease which his years of labour and mental trials certainly entitled him. His death occurred four years later. J. D. Nasmith, his third son and successor to the business, owns now one of the largest baking establishments in the city, and being on a recent tour through Great Britain was astonished to find among all the large bakeries he visited, that few could compare with his own in Toronto in variety of mechanical appliances for use in his line of business. He employs fifteen hands and three delivery waggons. He recently opened a branch store and lunch counter at 51 King Street West.

Franklin Reynolds, baker and confectioner, 164 Queen Street West, is a native of this city, being a son of William Reynolds, one of the first bakers in Toronto. Our subject acquired a knowledge of the business from his father—whose store was situate at the corner of Gould and Yonge Streets—and continued with him until 1860. On the retirement of his father in that year Franklin succeeded to the business, which he continued to conduct at the “old place” six years longer. He then moved to Victoria Street, remaining there but one year, however, before he bought and took possession of his present premises. Mr. Reynolds does a large wholesale trade, employing three men and sending out two waggons. He manufactures all kinds of bread and cakes, and the large yearly increase of his sales is the result of careful attention to all the details of his business.

Richard Reeves, baker, 52 Centre Street, was born in Dublin, Ireland, 1817, where he learned the trade of baker, afterwards working at the same in the City of Wexford. He came to Canada in 1837, and soon after his arrival joined the militia in Kingston, under Colonel Benson. He came to Toronto in 1839, and established himself on York Street in the business to which he had been brought up, and which he carried on for thirteen years. In 1864 he located at his present address, where he has since continued to conduct his trade. He employs three men and manufactures every variety of bread.

Robertson Brothers, manufacturers of and wholesale dealers in confectionery, 83, 85 and 87 Queen Street East, established their business in 1862. They employ one hundred hands and use five thousand barrels of sugar annually. They have five travellers.

George Robertson, proprietor of confectionery and refreshment parlours, 253 Yonge Street, is a native of Scotland, and came to Canada when a boy. He has resided in this city since 1851, and learned his trade with Dodson, Shields & Morton, with whom he continued to remain as manager some years after the completion of his apprenticeship. He has carried on his present line of business for twenty-one years at various places in the city, and in 1880 he took possession of and opened his present elegant store and parlours.

Charles Schmidt, proprietor of the bakery, 90 Queen Street West, does a large wholesale and retail trade, employing six men, and owns two delivery waggons. He is a native of Germany, and learned his trade in London, England. He worked as a journeyman twenty-four years, during that period travelling through France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, England, and the United States. He came to Toronto in 1876, and for four years worked at his trade in this city, commencing business for himself at his present address in 1880, where he manufactures all kinds of bread, cakes, confectionery and pastry. He makes a specialty of the “Toronto Brown Bread,” for which he has a patent.

Joseph Tait, 660 Yonge Street, baker, confectioner and grocer. Established business in 1872. Employs thirteen hands and runs five waggons. Deals in all kinds of flour and feed, canned goods, and everything in the grocery line.

Henry Tomlin, proprietor of bakery at 320 Queen Street West, and retail store at 514 Queen Street West. He is a native of Hampshire, England, and came to Canada in 1870, having previously learned his trade at Peckham, England, and worked at the same for several years. Mr. Tomlin has been connected with the baking business since his arrival here, and the extent of it is now such as to require two waggons to distribute his goods. Employs four hands in the manufacture of bread and cakes. He also carries on a milk business in connection with the same.

Harry Webb, caterer and confectioner, 447 Yonge Street, established his present business in 1876. He was born in Toronto, and is the second son of Thomas Webb, a native of Hampshire, England, who came to Toronto in 1841. It was after several years’ absence from his native city Mr. Webb returned in 1876 and commenced his present successful business. He married in 1871 Miss Mary Hartman, second daughter of the late Mr. William Hartman, Vaughan.

James Wilson, baker and confectioner, 497-9 Yonge Street, is a native of Inverness, Scotland, being the second son of James Wilson, a schoolmaster in that district. Our subject came to Toronto in 1868, but it was not till 1881 that he established his present business. His specialty is Vienna bread and rolls.

Booksellers and Stationers.

J. S. Robertson & Bros., booksellers, stationers and newsdealers, corner of Toronto and Adelaide Streets. Also subscription book publishers, and proprietors of the Chronicle, Whitby, Ont. The business was established at Whitby in 1874. In 1882 Messrs. Robertson purchased the Post-office Book Store of this city, the firm being represented by Mr. Charles Robertson. The store has a frontage on Toronto and Adelaide Streets of sixty feet. This firm employs over one hundred agents in their subscription book business, which is controlled from Whitby. The Messrs. Robertson are Torontonians by birth.

Winnifrith Bros., booksellers and stationers, 6 and 8 Toronto Street. The business was established in 1856 by Mr. C. A. Backas, in a part of the premises at present owned by the firm. In 1883 the present proprietor added to the building, and now has one of the finest store frontages in the city. They keep a large and varied stock of English and American works, and import direct. Mr. Winnifrith is a native of the County of Kent, England, and came to Canada in 1871. He located in Hamilton four years before he settled in Toronto.

Bookbinder.

Carswell & Co., 28 Adelaide Street East, bookbinders and publishers of law books. Established in 1870 by R. Carswell, who in 1878 took in three partners; the firm being now composed of R. Carswell, W. E. Collins, and Arthur Poole. They employ about twenty hands.

Boots and Shoes.

H. & C. Blachford, 87 and 89 King Street East, manufacturers and retail dealers in all grades of boots and shoes, make a specialty of the finer classes, and are importers of French, English and American goods. The house was first established in 1864, at 131 King Street East, under the name of A. Blachford, and at the end of two years, the room becoming too small for the increased business, they moved to 107 King Street East; eleven years after, their largely-increasing trade necessitated their removal to their present commodious premises. Their trade is not confined to this city, but extends from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. They carry, in ladies’ and children’s fine goods, the largest stock in the Dominion, employing at the present time over twenty hands.

E. Dack & Son, 73 King Street West, is the oldest and best shoe house in Canada, having been established over half a century ago, by the late Matthew Dack, and during that time has gradually increased its business year by year, and now counts as its customers almost all the prominent men of the Dominion, and sends goods from one end of the country to the other, and throughout the United States. They manufacture and devote their whole attention exclusively to gents’ fine hand-made custom shoes, and thereby have attained perfection in that line, and have gained an enviable reputation as makers of the best wearing and fitting goods on the Continent.

Alexander Gemmell, dealer in boots and shoes, 115 King Street West, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. In 1851 he came to Toronto, and in 1854 commenced his present business in a shop on King Street, near Yonge Street, having had thirteen years’ experience in Scotland. He afterwards moved to his present location, where he is doing a fine trade. In 1849, in Scotland, Mr. Gemmell won the first prize for the best essay by one of the working classes, on “The Temporal Advantages of the Sabbath.”

John Green, manufacturer of fine shoes and general dealer in all classes of boots and shoes, No. 103 Yonge Street. He commenced business in 1883 at his present place, which remains about one of the oldest stands for boots and shoes in this city, having been occupied previously by Mr. John Smith, for some time Reeve of Bracebridge, and before him by William Guinane, who carried on business there for several years. Mr. Green is a native of Brampton, and has resided in Toronto for the last ten years; his father, John Green, sen’r, was a native of Norfolk, England, and for many years a resident of the County of Peel in this Province.

S. R. Hanna, boot and shoe dealer, 428 Yonge Street. The business was established by his brother in 1878, and came into Mr. S. R. Hanna’s hands in 1882. He was formerly with the firm of J. D. King & Co., and is a native of the north of Ireland, emigrating to this country in 1872.

Patrick Higgins, wholesale and retail boot and shoe merchant, 144 Yonge Street, is a native of Roscommon, Ireland, being the only son of Charles Higgins, who came to Toronto in 1838, and died in 1874. Mr. Higgins commenced business in 1859, near Richmond Street West, and in 1864 removed to the premises he yet occupies.

Thomas Langton, boot and shoe maker and dealer, 307 Yonge Street, is a native of Sligo, Ireland, and came to Montreal in 1849. He removed to Toronto in 1854, and commenced business in the above line on King Street, north-east corner of George, removing to his present stand in 1875. He is a P. M., A. F. & A. M., King Solomon Lodge, No. 22 G. R. C.

Wm. Moseley, boot and shoe dealer, corner of Yonge Street and Bismarck Avenue. He established his business in 1873, and since that time has done a constantly increasing trade. He was born at Stafford, England, and came to Canada in 1866. He was connected with the firm of Sessions, Turner & Cooper, as cutter in their manufacturing establishment.

John B. Thompson, boot and shoe dealer, 142 King Street East, is a native of this city, born in 1830; his father, the late Thomas Thompson, being a native of Yorkshire, England, came out and settled in this city, the year of our subjects’ birth. Soon after his arrival he engaged in school teaching, and afterwards, through the encouragement of friends, established the first store for the sale of ready-made boots and shoes in this city on King Street near Yonge. He afterwards sold out, and erected the Mammoth House, where our subject, the father, and brother engaged for some years in the dry goods and clothing business. In the year 1870 our subject separated himself from the business, and taking the boot and shoe part of the trade, established himself at the above address, where he is making extensive sales. The death of his father occurred in 1868.

The Butchers and the Markets.

The present St. Lawrence Hall building was erected in 1849 in place of a brick structure which had to be pulled down in consequence of the damage it received by the great fire of that year. The edifice is said to be a copy of the Temple of Jupiter Stator, at Rome, the façade consisting of a portico of fluted columns supporting a pediment, upon which the arms of Toronto are sculptured, the whole surmounted by an open cupola. The market proper is approached from King Street by an arcade, and lined by butchers’ stores, while the outer portion is set aside for the sale of farmers’ and garden produce. Among the principal butchers who do business in this market are the following:—

Britton Brothers, butchers, 13 and 15 St. Lawrence Market. This firm was established in 1854 by James Britton, father of the present members of the firm, and who now resides at 221 George Street. The Britton Brothers came into possession of the business in 1881. They buy their stock in the country and do their own killing.

Thomas J. Campton, butcher, in stall No. 5, St. Lawrence Market. The business was established first on York Street in 1873, and was moved to its present location in 1882. Mr. Campton runs one waggon. He was born in Maroon Town, Jamaica, June 3rd, 1841, being the son of Thomas Campton, a serjeant in the 68th Light Infantry, and came to Toronto in company with his father in 1842.

George B. Cann, 28 St. Lawrence Market, was established on Yonge Street in 1870, and moved to his present location in 1883. He kills his own meat and keeps poultry in season. He runs two waggons.

Henry R. Frankland, son of G. F. Frankland, was born in York Township in 1858. He does a wholesale and retail business in St. Lawrence Market, 22 and 24. He is serving his second term as Deputy-Reeve for York Township.

John Gallagher’s meat market is at 17 and 19 St. Lawrence Market. The stand was formerly occupied by the late Samuel Toy, who commenced at a very early date. Mr. Gallagher worked with Mr. Toy from 1860 to 1880, and on his death assumed the control of the business. He does mostly his own killing, and runs two waggons.

John Mallon & Co., 12, 14 and 16 St. Lawrence Market; who are also exporters of cattle. They do a large business in mess beef and beef hams with the Lower Provinces; also a wholesale and retail business. They find a great drawback to the shipment of meat to the Lower Provinces in the strong competition with American dealers, who ship in bond, store on vessels, and thus evade the duty of $2.00 per barrel.

St. Patrick’s Market, on Queen Street West, is much smaller than St. Lawrence, and has no pretensions to architectural beauty.

Crealock & Brown, 7, 9 and 10 St. Patrick’s Market, established in 1874. They keep pickled and fresh meats and run two waggons.

St. Andrew’s Hall and Market building, also on Queen Street West, but further west than the preceding, is a handsome white brick structure in the French Renaissance style. It is occupied, among others, by the following butchers:

J. H. C. Brown, butcher, 2 St. Andrew’s Market, does a wholesale and retail business; he buys his stock in the country and does his own killing. He employs four hands, runs two waggons, and deals in all kinds of fresh meats, also hams, tongues, poultry, and vegetables in season. He first established business at 336 Queen Street West in 1874, moving to the market in 1876.

John Chantler, butcher, first established on Queen Street, in 1867, and upon the opening of St. Andrew’s Market he removed to his present location, 11 St. Andrew’s Market. He runs one wagon. He was born in Manchester, England, in 1815, and settled in Toronto in 1866.

William Oxenham, butcher, 12 St. Andrew’s Market, first established his business at St. Patrick’s Market in 1855, and in 1861 removed to the corner of Chestnut and Queen Streets, and in 1876 established himself at his present location, He runs one waggon. He was born in Devonshire, England, in 1815, and settled in Toronto in 1848.

The following butchers do business in their own stores in various parts of the city:

William H. Arksey, meat market at 112 Queen Street West, established his business in 1876, and runs one waggon. The business was formerly conducted by the late James Brown. Previous to embarking in the meat business Mr. Arksey was engaged in the grocery and liquor trade at 172 Queen Street West.

W. J. Ayles, butcher, 91 Agnes Street, has been employed in the business since 1878. He moved to his present place in 1883.

G. P. Bezley, meat market at 387 Yonge Street, established the business at Yorkville in a wholesale way in 1860, and at his present location on Yonge Street in 1870. He kills all his own stock, going to the country for it. He does a retail as well as a wholesale business, and runs two waggons.

T. H. Bills’ meat market, 66 Queen Street West, was established in 1863. He does most of his own killing, and keeps all kinds of poultry and vegetables. He runs two waggons.

J. H. P. Bonnick, meat market, 393½ Yonge Street, was established on Yonge Street as early as 1857. He has ever since been in the trade, and is one of the oldest butchers in the city. He was born in the County of Kent, England, in 1813, and settled in Toronto in 1857.

G. H. Boulton, 237 Yonge Street, established business by himself in 1874, but the stand had been occupied previously by others in the same line. He does part of his own killing, and buys part at the market. He runs two waggons.

John Brown, meat market, 222 King Street East, established business on King Street in 1877, and moved to his present location in 1881. He keeps a general line of meats, poultry, vegetables, etc., and runs one waggon.

T. Chantler, son of John Chantler, has a meat market at 581 Queen Street West, which was established in 1876. He runs one waggon.

John Dancy, meat market, 233 Church Street, first established his business at the corner of Chestnut and Edward Streets in 1868. He moved in 1870 to 231 Yonge Street, thence to 453 Yonge Street, and to his present location in 1882. He kills his own cattle, deals in poultry and vegetables, wholesale and retail, and runs three waggons.

J. B. Davison, butcher and provision dealer, 451 Yonge Street, established business in 1870 on Parliament Street, moved to 384 Yonge Street in 1872, and to his present location in 1875. He deals in game, poultry, and vegetables in season, and runs two waggons.

C. H. Dunning, 359 Yonge Street, commenced business in Toronto in 1857 on Queen Street West, and is one of the oldest butchers in the city at present in business. In 1865 he removed to the St. Lawrence Market, and in 1870 opened a shop on Yonge Street in connection with his stall in St. Lawrence Market. In 1877 he located in his present commodious premises. Mr. Dunning has made a specialty of meat curing, in which branch of his business he has long held first place in the city; his corned and spiced rounds of beef, sugar-cured hams and bacon especially are purchased by private families over a great part of Ontario.

Joseph Emery, meat market, 597 Queen Street West, established business on Centre Street in 1857, and moved to Queen Street in 1859. He is one of the oldest butchers in the city. He runs two waggons.

T. Foster, 260 Queen Street East. Established in 1872. Wholesale and retail fresh meats and provision merchant. A large supply of smoked hams, bacon, pickled pork, lard, sausages and vegetables of all kinds, poultry, and other things too numerous to mention. One waggon and one cart.

Henry Haynes, 101 Grosvenor Avenue, corner of Oxford Street, butcher, established in 1882, keeps all kinds of fresh and salt meats, vegetables, fruit and poultry in season.

A. J. Mannell’s meat market, 101 Queen Street West, was first established at an early date by H. Jones, who sold to George Griffin in 1880. Mr. Mannell obtained possession in 1883. He runs one waggon.

William Henry Miller, meat market, 206 Queen Street East, established in 1879, keeps a general assortment of fresh and salt meats, poultry, vegetables in season, etc. He runs one waggon.

James Mumford, proprietor of the Baldwin Street Market, known as No. 1 Baldwin Street, first established on Yonge Street in 1857, and moved to his present location in 1880. He runs two waggons, and keeps a constant supply of fresh and salt meats, poultry and vegetables in season. He kills small stock, cures his own hams and bacon, and manufactures sausages.

Henry Norris’ central meat market, 333 Yonge Street, was established by James Ward in 1861, and came into Mr. Norris’ hands in 1872. Mr. Norris purchases stock amongst others from Thompson, Flanagan, Blong and R. Pugsley, and runs two waggons.

John R. Outhet, family butcher, 45½ Grange Avenue, established in 1881, keeps salt meats, hams, bacon, and sausages; also poultry and vegetables in season. He runs one waggon.

F. H. Pearce, meat market, 233 Yonge Street, established in his present location in 1856, being the oldest active butcher on Yonge Street. He also does a general trade in fresh and corned meat and general provisions. He runs two waggons.

James E. Pitts, meat market, 327 Yonge Street, established in 1875 at 381 Yonge Street, and moved to his present location in 1876. He runs two waggons.

F. L. Prior, 324½ Spadina Avenue, meat market and family butcher. The business was established by J. & J. Woollings and managed by Mr. Prior, who became owner of the establishment in 1882. He runs one waggon, and keeps poultry and vegetables in season.

William Robinson, butcher, 207 Gerrard Street East, established in 1876, kills his own cattle, and runs two waggons. He deals in poultry and vegetables.

Samuel T. Rosenberg, 116 Lumley Street, butcher, established on Claremont Street in 1882, and in his present place in 1883. He keeps all kinds of fresh and salt meats and vegetables, and runs one waggon.

William Schubait, 174 Brunswick Avenue, family butcher, established in 1878, keeps fresh and salt meats, poultry, vegetables in season, and he runs one delivery waggon.

D. C. Shaefer, meat market, 112 Church Street, established business in 1874. He keeps poultry and vegetables, and runs one wagon.

M. J. Stack, corner of Lippincott and Nassau Streets, butcher, keeps all kinds of fresh and salt meats. Established in 1880. He kills his small stuff.

F. B. Stephens, 53 Oxford Street, family butcher, established in 1883, keeps all kinds of fresh and salt meats, vegetables and poultry in season.

R. Stone, meat market, 379 Parliament Street, established on Yonge Street in 1871, and moved to his present location in 1883. He runs two waggons, and keeps poultry and vegetables in season.

John Symons, meat market, 231 Yonge Street, occupies an old stand established as early as 1859, having come into possession in 1877. He purchases at the market, and runs two waggons.

Thomas Taylor, 204 St. Patrick Street, butcher. Established in 1884. Keeps poultry, bacon, etc.

Thomas Watts, meat market, 331 King Street East, keeps a general stock of provisions, game, poultry, flowers and vegetables in season. He runs one waggon.

J. & J. Woollings, McCaul Street Market, at 163 and 165 McCaul Street, established in 1873. They kill all their own stock. Joseph Woollings, the elder brother, lives on a farm at Islington, butchers and comes to town three times a week; he does a wholesale and retail trade. The firm deals in poultry and vegetables in season, also hams, bacon, and pickled meats. They employ ten hands, and run three waggons.

William Wordley, butcher and pork-packer, corner of Church and Carlton Streets, was established first at 325 Church Street in 1871, and removed to his present location in 1872. He does all his own killing, runs six waggons, and employs eleven men. He first started in a small way and now does fully $75,000 annually, packs about $10,000 of pork annually, corns beef extensively, and does a large business in game and poultry in season, etc.

Carpets.

John Kay, importer of carpets and house furnishings, 34 King Street West, first commenced his business in 1847, and located in his present premises in 1880. The building is 205 x 26 feet, and is four storeys high. Fifty hands are employed in a business that amounts to a quarter of a million annually. Mr. Kay’s carpet sewing factory is on Queen Street West.

Coal and Wood.

Robert Allingham, coal and wood merchant, 179 and 181 Bathurst Street, was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, and came to Toronto in 1874 with his parents, both of whom are still living here. He commenced his present business in 1883, and keeps two teams.

Bell Bros., coal and wood merchants, 166 Simcoe Street. This business was established twenty years ago by Thomas and James Bell, who were born in the County Fermanagh, Ireland, and came to this country in 1858. It is now carried on by James Bell. The sales average $60,000 yearly.

William Bell, coal and wood merchant, and real estate agent, 83 Dundas Street, is a native of Woolwich, England, and came to Canada with his parents during the Rebellion in 1837. He served his time to a machinist in Montreal, and for a number of years afterwards travelled in the United States. He finally settled in Toronto, and in 1879 was elected School Trustee for St. Stephen’s Ward, a position he held for four years. He was elected Alderman for the same ward in 1881, by a large majority, and continued to represent the constituency until 1883, when he resigned, having been appointed Tax Collector. On the annexation of Brockton to the city (now St. Mark’s Ward), he was elected School Trustee, and is still on the Board. His business which has been established now two years is very extensive, especially in the coal and wood department, and his real estate business is greatly on the increase. He is a man highly respected in his vicinity, and the public offices he has and is at present filling is sufficient testimony that he is fully deserving of public confidence.

Patrick Burns, coal and wood dealer, Bathurst and Front Streets, established his business in the year 1856. He handles about thirty-five thousand cords of wood, and one hundred and fifty thousand tons of coal annually, and employs about three hundred men, and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred horses and carts for delivery. His wood comes to the city by all railways, and his coal both by lake and rail. He has several offices in different parts of the city for the receiving of orders, which are connected with the yard by telephone. As an instance of Mr. Burns’ great success in this line of business, it is only necessary to say that at the commencement two horses were requisite for delivering purposes. Mr. Burns is a native of County Fermanagh, Ireland, and came to Toronto the same year in which his trade was established.

John Chisholm, coal and wood merchant, hay, straw, and seed store 447 King Street East, was born at Kingston, Ontario, and established business here about 1876. Works two horses and carts, and handles about 1,000 tons of coal and an equal number of cords of wood annually.

Dennis Daniels, coal and wood merchant, 628 Yonge Street, was born in England, and came to Canada with his parents in 1836. In 1854 he commenced his present business in Yorkville on a small scale. He now handles about five thousand tons of coal, and five thousand cords of wood yearly.

William Hale Howard, coal and wood merchant, 25 Victoria Street, is the eldest son of William Howard, of Devonshire, England. He married Susannah Wotton, of the same place, and in 1872 came to Toronto, where in 1879 he opened his present business. His sales of coal average eight thousand tons, and those of wood five thousand cords annually. He keeps three teams of horses.

Samuel Hunter, coal and wood, 245½ Spadina Avenue, and 321 Queen Street West, was born in the County of “Green Bushes,” Tyrone, Ireland, May 3rd, 1831. On emigrating to Canada in 1852 he came direct to Toronto. He has now been in business here twenty-one years. When the vessel “Maggie Hunter” (Captain Frank Nixon) was lost Mr. Hunter was left behind to the extent of $13,000, there being no insurance. In spite of this drawback however Mr. Hunter has accumulated by strict business attention considerable property, and may be justly spoken of as a man of independent means.

Neavin McConnell, coal and wood merchant, 78 Queen Street East, was born in the County of Peel, Ont. After farming for some years in his native county he came to Toronto in 1875, and established his present business which has proved very successful. He sells about two thousand tons of coal, and fifteen hundred cords of wood annually.

William McGill & Co., coal and wood merchants, 146 Bathurst Street. Mr. McGill was born in Berwickshire, Scotland, and came to Canada with his parents in 1837. His father settled at Springfield, Dundas Street, where he had a grist and saw mill, and where William remained till he was twenty years of age. We may incidently add that soon after their arrival in Toronto the father was called out by the Government to aid in suppressing the Mackenzie revolt. On leaving home, William removed to Oakville and carried on a grocery business for some years, afterward conducting a similar business in Guelph for five years. In 1872 he came to Toronto and established himself in the coal and wood trade, which has proved very successful. They imported direct from the mines by rail last year twelve thousand tons of anthracite coal, and received one thousand, three hundred and eighty-five car loads of wood of all kinds by Northern Railroad. Mr. McGill married in 1863 Eliza Jane Bullock, by whom he had a family of seven children, six of whom are still living. His wife died February 28th, 1884, and in her he lost, at once, a cheerful helpmate and a wise and faithful councillor.

Elias Rogers & Co. The firm whose card appears on the next page opened an office in Toronto in 1876. Mr. Rogers had previously been interested in coal mines in Pennsylvania which he continued to operate. His partner Mr. F. C. Dinniny, a wealthy gentleman residing in Elmira, N.Y., is president of two large coal mining companies. The firm have always been in a position to procure their coal at first cost, and have supplied their customers with the best grades at the lowest prices. This together with their strictly honourable course, and careful attention to business, has rapidly won for them a first place in the coal business of this province. They supply the wholesale trade direct from the mines, and their facilities for doing a retail business in Toronto are unsurpassed. Their sheds for storing coal on Esplanade Street are the largest in Canada. They also do a large wood business, and keep two steam sawing and splitting machines constantly running. Mr. Rogers was born in North York, near Newmarket, he is a comparatively young man, and it is gratifying to note his success. His father who bore the same name was one of the early settlers, and a man of sterling qualities.

William Spence, coal and wood merchant, 486 King Street West, is a native of County Donegal, Ireland, being the youngest son of William Spence, farmer. Mr. Spence came to Toronto in 1864, and after farming for ten years, commenced his present business. He has three horses and carts, and handles about one thousand cords of wood and one thousand tons of coal annually.

Stinson & Sons, coal and wood merchants, and proprietors of express and furniture vans, 96 Terauley Street. This business was established in 1873. Ten teams exclusive of those hired, and ten men are employed, while six thousand tons of coal, and four thousand cords of wood are handled annually. The firm is composed of James Stinson, who was born in Ireland, and came to Canada in 1842, and his sons Alexander A., and Edward Stinson.

James H. Titus, coal and wood merchant, 12 Queen Street, Parkdale, was born in Nova Scotia in 1846, and came to Toronto with his parents in 1849. For some time he was engaged as captain on lake vessels, and in 1872 commenced his present business. He keeps four teams and handles about three thousand tons of coal, and one thousand cords of wood annually.

Thomas R. Whiteside, coal, wood, flour and feed merchant, 102 Sherbourne Street, was born in Toronto in 1844. In 1867 he established a store in the Township of Brock, and in 1875 commenced his present business, which averages $25,000 per annum. For some time he was School Trustee for St. Thomas’ Ward.

Crockery, Glassware and Pottery.

A. Borrowman, Staffordshire House, 289 Yonge Street, importer and dealer in china, glassware, fruit-jars, plated and fancy goods, cutlery, lamp fixtures, etc. This business was established by John Oulcott in 1869, and was taken possession of by Richard Moyer, subsequently by its present proprietor in 1881. He imports most of his goods from Staffordshire, England, France and Germany, and keeps constantly on hand one of the largest stocks in the city; all for cash.

James R. Burns, proprietor of the Toronto Stoneware Pottery, located on Scadding Street, is a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, and came to Canada in 1879. He had learned his trade in the land of his nativity where in conjunction with his brother he had carried on a pottery for fifteen years. For some little time after his arrival on this continent he worked as journeyman, eventually purchasing his present business, where he has six hands employed in the manufacture of all kinds of stoneware, turning out about $10,000 worth of goods annually.

Hutchinson & Peterson, 100 Front Street East, manufacturers of bottles, stoppers, and soda water supplies, patented by Hutchinson. Established business in 1881, and supply the trade. They employ four men.

John Sinclair, dealer in earthenware, glass and fancy goods, 245 Yonge Street, is a native of Scotland; came to America in 1850. He spent three years in New York, and two years in Montreal previous to settling in this city. He first commenced business at No. 315 Yonge Street, where he stayed five years, afterwards removing to his present address, where he does a large business in articles as above described.

Druggists.

Arthur W. Abbott, chemist and druggist, Rossin House, 131 King Street West, is a native of Toronto, being the second son of Isaac and Jane Hutchinson Abbott, of English extraction. Mr. Abbott is a graduate of the Ontario College of Pharmacy (1883), and established his business in 1882, succeeding Elliott & Co.

R. G. Bredin, druggist, 326 Spadina Avenue, was born in Cobourg, 1850, being the second son of Rev. John Bredin, D.D. His early education was received in the Common School, finishing with two years at the Victoria University. He took a special course in chemistry and obtained a diploma in 1871 from the Ontario College of Pharmacy. Mr. Bredin began business in Belleville, continuing the same in Buffalo and New York, and locating and commencing business in this city in 1882 at the present address, where he does a flourishing business in drugs and chemicals, his specialty being the filling of our leading physicians’ prescriptions. Mr. Bredin married in 1875, Miss Augusta Moore of this city, daughter of Mr. Rodney Moore, a U. E. Loyalist; her mother is a descendant of Sir Walter Raleigh.

F. T. Burgess, druggist and manufacturing chemist, 364 King Street East and Kingston Road, is a native of Markham, and established his business in 1883. In addition to general dispensing, the following specialties should be mentioned: Burgess’ Magnetic Oil, Burgess’ Blackberry Cordial, Burgess’ Jersey Lily Tooth Powder, Burgess’ Worm Powders, Burgess’ Liver Pills, all being in universal demand by the trade. He employs ten hands. Mr. Burgess is of Irish descent.

R. M. Dickson, druggist, corner Church and Queen Streets, was born in Ottawa in 1860. In 1881 he passed the final examination at the Ontario College of Pharmacy, and commenced the drug business at the corner of Queen and Sumach Streets, the firm then being under the name of R. M. Dickson & Co. In the same year he moved to his present quarters, having bought out the old-established business of C. A. Mitchell, which he is now carrying on successfully.

A. B. Eadie, chemist and druggist, 237 King Street East, is a native of Brantford, Ontario, and an undergraduate of Toronto University. In 1832 he acquired the business formerly conducted by Mr. D. S. Thompson. He is of Scotch descent, his grandfather, Andrew Eadie, having emigrated from Paisley, Scotland, about the year 1815. His father, Robert Eadie, formerly carried on business as a general merchant at Mount Pleasant, but is now living retired.

S. Nelson Erbe, druggist, Queen Street East, was born in the County of Waterloo in 1860. In 1882 he passed the final examination at the Ontario College of Pharmacy, and started business in his present location.

Albert Harwood, 316 Queen Street West, dealer in drugs, chemicals, and general toilet additions, dispenser of physicians’ prescriptions, etc. This business was organized by its present proprietor in 1867, and at that time he was but the second druggist in the west end of the city. Since his establishment he has considerably improved his position, and is at present doing a large and prosperous trade.

George Hodgetts, druggist, 305 Yonge Street, of English parentage, was born in Ireland, 1826, being the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Hodgetts, who came to Canada in 1829 with the 24th Regiment. His parents returned to England in the spring of 1837, where, the subject of this sketch, after having received his education at a private academy, was apprenticed to the drug business for seven years. Subsequently he purchased the business where he served his apprenticeship, which he carried on till 1857, when he returned to Canada, and after fulfilling a bookkeeper’s engagement, resumed the drug business, which he has since continued to conduct, and is at present doing a large and lucrative trade. Mr. Hodgetts was one of the organizers of the Canadian Pharmaceutical Society, which has since been incorporated as the Ontario College of Pharmacy. He was also W. M. of St. Andrew’s Lodge, A. F. & A. M.; also Grand Steward of the Grand Lodge of Canada, and Grand Scribe N. of the Grand Chapter. Since 1873 he has been Registrar and Treasurer of the Ontario College of Pharmacy, and was also one of the Council of the College for three years. Mr. Hodgetts married, in 1850, Miss Gittoes, of Westbromwich, England, by whom he has four children, all sons, as follows: George, Thomas, Charles, and Albert.

Edward Hooper, 43 and 45 King Street West, was born in London, England, in 1808. He served his apprenticeship as druggist in his native city, and emigrated to Canada in 1832, living at Kingston and other places for several years. He finally settled in Toronto in 1838, entering into the employ of Mr. Beckett, then the leading druggist of Toronto. Mr. Hooper continued this connection until the year 1850, when he bought the business himself, since which time he has been the senior partner. The business has grown to immense proportions, but notwithstanding the heavy duties devolving upon him in connection with this large business he has devoted a great deal of his time to other important business and financial institutions. Was elected President of the Canada Permanent Company last year, a company he has served in different capacities for the past twenty-five years. Has also been connected with the Confederation Life Assurance Company since its commencement. He is at present Chairman of the Insurance Committee. Although now in his 76th year, his energies do not seem in the least impaired, but he is hearty and strong, with indications of many years yet of usefulness.

Henry A. Knowles, druggist, was born at Guelph, August 29, 1839, his father being Thomas Knowles. In 1860 he came to Toronto, where he has since resided. He has been in his present place of business since 1869. He married Mary Matilda Playter, daughter of James Playter, by whom he has had six children.

J. R. Lee, chemist and druggist, corner of Queen and Seaton Streets, also at 339 King Street East. Mr. Lee first commenced business at 339 King Street East in 1868, and in 1872 opened a branch store on Queen Street, and is now doing one of the largest dispensing businesses in the city. The business is retail, giving employment to six clerks.

Neil C. Love, chemist and druggist, 166 Yonge Street, is a native of Saltcoats, parish of Anderson, Ayrshire, Scotland, being the youngest son of Robert Love, manufacturers’ agent of that town. Mr. Love was partially educated in Scotland, afterwards completing his studies at Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland. He came to Toronto in 1842, and finished his business education with Lesslie Brothers, King Street. In 1845 he became assistant to his brother Robert, a druggist on Yonge Street, with whom he remained five years, subsequently commencing business for himself on the same street, but three months had barely expired ere he was burnt out. He removed to a store opposite, remaining there till 1870, when, having purchased 155 Yonge Street, he took possession and conducted business there till 1881, since which year he has been located at his present premises. Mr. Love has been for many years a J.P. for both city and county. He has taken an active and important part in municipal affairs for many years, and still represents St. James’ Ward as Alderman. He has for many years been Manager of the House of Industry, and has been Chairman of the same Institution since 1881. Mr. Love is a man highly respected both in his public and private capacity. As a magistrate he is conscientious in the discharge of a grave duty, and as a private citizen he is ever ready to bestow advice and counsel on those who need it.

Angus Matheson, chemist and druggist, 136 King Street West, was born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1813. He early enlisted in the 93rd Regiment, and was for several years Depot Hospital Sergeant. He came with the regiment to Toronto in 1838, and received his discharge at home in 1852. He then took up the drug business, which he has since continued, having been educated for the medical profession.

John P. May, druggist, 212 Queen Street East, was born in Toronto in 1852. He is the son of Dr. S. P. May, well known in medical and educational circles. He first began the drug business in 1867, serving with Henry J. Rose. He is now manager for J. R. Lee.

O. H. Phillips, chemist and druggist, 38 Queen Street West, is a native of Schomberg, Ontario, his father being the first white child born there. Mr. O. H. Phillips was educated at the Ontario College of Pharmacy.

H. Sherris, druggist, 444 Queen Street West, was born in London, England, 1849. He was educated in Cornwall, England, and came to Toronto in 1873. For three years he was the manager of the drug store which he now occupies. At the expiration of that time he bought it, and since then has conducted a very successful trade.

D. L. Thompson, chemist and homœopathic pharmacist, 394 Yonge Street, was born in Cavanville, Durham County, Ontario. He first established his business in Huron County, Ontario, in 1859, and ten years later commenced in this city. He deals in general drugs and dispensing; also a specialty in homœopathic medicines. His father was by trade a tanner, and was born in the Town of Lancaster, England, and came to Cavanville, Canada, in 1819.

Henry Algernon Turner, chemist and druggist, 568 Yonge Street, was born in Toronto, and is the son of Henry Turner, a native of Bath, England, who came to this country in 1849, and died in 1857. Mr. Turner is a graduate of the Ontario College of Pharmacy, and established his business in 1877. He is Secretary to the Toronto Royal Arcanum Council, No. 263.

W. C. Wild & Co., 462 Queen Street. This business has been established a great number of years, the present firm buying it during the present year. They are doing a large and thriving business in drugs, medicines, chemicals, etc., making a specialty of filling physicians’ prescriptions. Mr. Wild, the senior partner, is the son of the Rev. Dr. Wild, our popular preacher, of the Bond Street Congregational Church. The College of Pharmacy of Ontario granted Mr. Wild his diploma in 1884 with honours.

Joseph Wright, chemist and druggist, 100 Queen Street West. This business was established first by Mr. Samuel Howarth, who continued up to 1862, when he was unfortunately burnt out, the building being entirely destroyed. The present building, now occupied by Mr. Wright, was moved to the vacant lot by Dr. Howson, who opened a drug store, which he conducted until 1871. Mr. J. Wright then joined him in the business, the firm being known as J. Wright & Co., until the death of Dr. Howson in 1873, since which time it has been wholly in the hands of Mr. Wright. He is a native of Lincolnshire, England, and came to Toronto in 1853. Since becoming a resident of the city he has taken great interest in municipal affairs.

Dry-Goods.

Armson & Stone, select dry goods merchants, 49 King Street West. The business was established in 1881 under the title of Armson & Floyd, the latter retiring in 1883, being succeeded by Mr. Stone. The firm deals largely in foreign silks, dress goods, fine dry-goods, mantles, etc., and employs a staff of twenty-five salesmen and ladies, and hands engaged in manufacture. Both members of the firm are of English birth.

J. S. Boddy, dry-goods, 256 Queen Street East, established his business in 1878, which was first located a few doors west of his present situation. The store has a frontage of 22 × 50 feet deep, and is two storeys high. He employs three clerks, and does a fair business in millinery and fancy goods. Mr. Boddy is a Canadian by birth, and has been a resident of Toronto since 1872.

Chas. S. Botsford, retail dry-goods merchant, 486 Queen Street West. Business established in March, 1878. It was first located at the corner of Queen and Portland Streets, and removed to its present quarters in 1883. The store has a frontage of 35 × 85 feet, and is three storeys in height. This is doubtless the finest store of its class on the street, the establishment giving employment to a staff of seventeen clerks. The materials supplied are dress goods, staples, prints, fancy goods, gents’ furnishings, carpets, oil cloths, tweeds and woollens, silks, window shades, lace curtains, window cornices, cornice poles, and general house-fittings.

Broom & Son, dry-goods, 283 Yonge Street. This business was established in 1866 at 246 Yonge Street, and was removed to its present locality in 1882. The store has a frontage of 25 × 100 feet, and is four storeys high. Firm is composed of Mr. James Broom and his son, Mr. Walter Broom; the former being born in England, and having settled in Canada in 1853.

J. Brown, 95 King Street East, dealer in dry and fancy goods, is successor to Mrs. M. Pollard, who established this business in 1854, having occupied at stated periods stores on Bay, King and Yonge Streets. Mr. Brown, her nephew, took possession in 1879, and is now located at the above address. The store has a frontage of 30 × 140 feet, and is known as “Kensington House.” He employs a staff of fifteen hands, and is doing an extensive trade. Mr. Brown is a native of London, England, and came to Canada with his parents in 1858.

John Catto & Co., dry-goods merchants, King Street. This business was established in 1864 at the present address, which has a fine frontage, facing the Post-office. They make a specialty of silks and household napery, and are direct importers, employing a staff of sixteen hands. Mr. Catto is a native of Scotland, and came to Canada in 1854, since which time he has been a resident of this city.

J. Collins & Co., 3 Crocker’s Block, Queen Street West. Business established in 1875. They deal largely in dry-goods, gents’ furnishings, clothing, carpets, oilcloths, etc. The dry-goods interest of Toronto is one of such vital importance to the sum total of our commercial wealth, and a factor of such powerful influence in the development and welfare of every other branch of trade, as to demand special recognition by any work bearing upon the resources of this city. Prominent among the most important houses engaged in this branch of trade, is that of J. Collins & Co. The building occupied is 20 × 80 feet, and four storeys high, provided with all the modern facilities for exhibiting and handling goods. The immense stock constantly kept on hand is systematically located in proper apartments, each under experienced and competent persons, and the whole is managed with judgment and order. Personally Mr. Collins has been long known in Toronto as a man of business integrity and reliability. He is a son of the late Captain Collins, of Her Majesty’s navy. Mr. Collins was born in Liverpool, England, and came to Canada with his parents when seven years of age. He has since been a resident of Toronto, and we cheerfully accord him a place in these pages.

A. W. Cooper. Business established in 1883 at his present location, 216 Yonge Street, where he has a frontage of twenty-five feet by ninety. Carries staples and fancy dry-goods, dress and mourning goods. Trade principally confined to the city. Employs a staff of five ladies and salesmen. Mr. Cooper was born in Canada, and has been a resident of the city for the past year.

E. H. Dent, dry-goods merchant, 330 Yonge Street, established his business in 1881. The store has a frontage of 32 × 60 feet, and is three storeys high. Conducts a staple and fancy dry-goods, gents’ furnishings, etc., trade. Mr. Dent is of English birth, and came to Canada in 1842, and has been a resident of this city since 1860.

G. W. Dunn & Co., “Golden Crown” dry-goods house, 240 and 242 Yonge Street. Business established in 1864. The building has a frontage of 32 × 110 feet, and is four stories high. The firm employs a staff of fourteen salesmen and ladies, and about forty hands in dress-making department. They carry ladies’ furnishings, millinery and mantles, and do one of the largest fancy goods business in the city.

T. Eaton & Co., general dry-goods merchants, 190-196 Yonge Street. This well-known firm established their business in 1857, at Kirkton, Huron County, under the title of T. Eaton, where they remained until 1869, when they opened in St. Marys, and remained there till 1869. Removing to Toronto, they located for a short time on Front Street, afterwards taking up the premises at 178 Yonge Street. In 1883 they opened the extensive store they now occupy, where are offered fashionable dry-goods, millinery, mantles, ladies’ and children’s fine shoes, carpets, house-furnishings, etc. The store has a frontage of 52½ × 125 feet, and is three storeys high. The employés number ninety-two salesmen and ladies. The business has improved wonderfully since its commencement, and now ranks as one of the largest in the city. The building is fitted with all modern appliances, including elevators, steam-heating apparatus, etc. Mr. Eaton is a native of Ireland and came to Canada in 1856.

Farley & Co., “The Bon Marché” dry-goods and millinery establishment, Nos. 7 and 9 King Street East. In 1855 Mr. Arthur Farley began business in a store on Queen Street West, opposite Peter Street, removing from thence to the corner of the two streets, where he remained until 1880 and then retired. The present firm comprises W. W. Farley and James C. Farley, the eldest and the youngest sons respectively of the original promoter of the business. Their premises front 30 × 100 feet; the class of goods dealt in include every description of dry and fancy goods, millinery, mantles, etc., their extensive sales necessitating the employment of a large staff of clerks, etc. Mr. W. W. Farley, the eldest son of Mr. A. Farley, was born in Toronto, and during his career has taken an active part in municipal affairs, having at one time represented St. Andrew’s Ward as alderman. He has also identified himself closely with the Temperance Societies of the city, and other societies organized for benevolent and charitable purposes. Mr. J. C. Farley was also born in Toronto in 1863, and is a younger brother of the above. In his care is placed the management of the office of the firm. Like his elder brother, he is an ardent advocate of temperance reform, and holds the position of Hon. President of the West End Christian Temperance Association.

Mrs. Halliday, dry-goods, 508 Queen Street West. Business was established in 1861, and is at present the oldest dry-goods business on Queen Street. The store has a frontage of 28 × 60 feet, in which is done a general dry-goods trade. Mrs. Halliday has been a resident of Toronto since 1860, and has two sons associated with her in the business, Mr. Alex. and Mr. John Halliday.

J. M. Hamilton, dry-goods merchant, 184 Yonge Street, established his business in 1878 at 246 Yonge Street, and removed to his present situation in February, 1883. His stock includes silks, satins, brocades, velvets, gloves, hosiery and underclothing. The store has a frontage of 26 x 80 feet. A staff of clerks is employed, also hands engaged in the manufacturing department. A large letter order trade is done in connection with this business. Mr. Hamilton is a Scotchman by birth and came to Canada in 1868, and has been a resident of the city for the last six years, previous to which he had conducted a successful business in Hamilton.

Husband & Co., dry-goods merchants, 352 Yonge Street. The business was established in 1875, under the title of Summers & Husband, the latter retiring from the firm in the year 1880, and commencing at the above address. The building has a frontage of 25 x 84 feet and is five storeys high, including basement. Carries a general stock of dry-goods, carpets, house-furnishings, and does both city and country trade, which gives employment to a staff of eleven clerks, etc. Mr. Husband is a native of England and came to Canada in 1879, having been a resident of Toronto since that time.

Lailey & Co., dry-goods, etc., 582 Queen Street West. Business, established in 1872. The firm carries on a general trade in dry-goods, clothing, shirts, overalls, etc. Their store has a frontage of 18 x 75 feet in depth. Mr. Lailey was born in London, England, and came to Canada in 1832, since which time he has been a resident of the city.

Lukes, Dagge & Co., dry-goods merchants, corner of Yonge and Adelaide Streets. The business was established in 1882, the firm having taken up the stock of J. W. Gale & Co. They deal in dress goods, silks, velvets, laces, staple and fancy goods, and make a specialty of gents’ furnishings and ordered shirts. The store has a frontage of 25 x 200 feet, and is four stories high. Mr. Lukes is of English birth and came to Canada in 1869. Mr. Dagge is a native of Ireland and came to Canada in 1866.

Thos. McIlroy, retail dry-goods, 385 King Street East. Established in 1878. The store has a frontage of 18 feet by 34 feet, two storeys high. He carries a stock of dry-goods and fancy goods, tweeds, carpets, etc. Mr. McIlroy was born in Ireland and came to Canada in 1862, since which time he has been resident in Toronto.

Robert McKay, dry-goods merchant, 250 and 252 Queen Street East. Business established in 1874. The frontage of the premises occupies thirty-one feet, and the staff engaged numbers eight hands. Carries dry, staple and fancy goods, gents’ furnishings, carpets, etc. Mr. McKay is a Canadian by birth, and has been a resident of this city for twenty years.

McKendry & Farrar, dry-goods merchants, 278 Yonge Street. Business established in 1883. Deals in staple and fancy dress goods, millinery, ladies’ and children’s underclothing. The store has a frontage of 26 x 100 feet, with a height of five stories. They employ a staff of twenty-five hands in connection with the business, which is principally confined to the city. Mr. McKendry is a native of Ireland and came to Canada in 1878, and previous to his commencement in business was buyer for T. Eaton & Co. The store of this firm is fitted with plate glass windows thirty-five feet in width.

Edward McKeown, 182 Yonge Street. Business established in 1875. Deals largely in dry-goods, and has recently added dress and mantle-making to his business. The store has a frontage of 30 x 150 feet, with four flats. Employs a staff of sixty hands, including clerks, and does a large letter order trade. Mr. McKeown is a native of Ireland and came to Canada in 1866, having since that time been a resident of this city.

James Mitchell, dry-goods, 218 College Street, is a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1854. He was sixteen years in Bryce, McMurrich & Co.’s, and in 1872 opened a dry-goods store on Queen Street West, and in 1878 moved to the present stand.

W. A. Murray & Co., dry-goods merchants, 21 King Street East. This business was established in 1854, by Wylie & Murray, at the above address, which at that time occupied but a frontage of twenty-five feet; Mr. Wylie occupying the top flat as a residence. In 1858 Mr. Wylie retired from the firm, and from that date until 1872 Mr. Murray conducted the business alone. Mr. Drynan then entered the firm, which is at present composed of Messrs. W. A. and W. T. Murray and himself. The store now has a frontage of 82 x 100 feet, and is five storeys in height. A large business is conducted in dry-goods, millinery, house-furnishings, carpets, etc. The staff employed includes over 300 clerks and hands engaged in the manufacture of clothing. From small proportions the volume of trade accumulated by this firm now reaches $500,000 yearly. Mr. W. A. Murray is of Scotch birth, and came to Canada at an early day, and during the last thirty years has made 119 trips across the Atlantic. Mr. Drynan is also Scotch by birth and came to Canada in 1857. With regard to the goods dealt in by this firm, we may add, special attention is given to silks, mantles and velvets; the trade being chiefly confined to the city and adjoining towns. The letter order department finds continuous employment for three hands. This establishment is conducted on the regular departmental system, each having to recognize its own profit or loss. The parcel delivery department is very methodical and well arranged, reflecting great credit on the management. There are six deliveries daily.

George Noble, dry-goods, 701 Yonge Street, was first established at 214 Yonge Street in 1867, where he remained till 1874, afterwards locating at No. 349 for seven years, taking possession of his present premises in 1881. The store has a frontage of 25 x 40 feet, and carries a general stock of dry-goods. Mr. Noble is of Caledonian birth and came to Toronto in 1862.

Page & Page, retail dry-goods, 202 and 204 Yonge Street. This business was established in 1857 by Mr. Chas. Page, who retired in 1882 from the firm, which is at present composed of C. J. and J. H. Page. Their store has a frontage of 26 x 107 feet, with a height of five storeys. They make a specialty of fancy dry-goods, including ladies’ and children’s wear. The firm employs a staff of forty clerks and other hands. Messrs. Page are of English birth and came to Canada at an early day.

Henry Parry, fancy goods merchant, Kingston Road. Business established in 1877, and includes dry and fancy goods, stationery, etc. The premises have a frontage of 60 x 90 feet, and are two storeys in height. Mr. Parry is a native of Manchester, England, and came to Canada as early as 1842, and has been a resident of Toronto since that year, being until of recent years in the contracting and building business.

Petley & Petley, dry-goods merchants and clothiers, 128 King Street East. This business was established in 1854 by Hughes Bros., and affords a striking example of the progressiveness of this branch of trade in Toronto. In 1872 the business came into the possession of Petley & Co., whose energy, combined with commercial knowledge, laid the groundwork of that success which at present marks the career of the firm. In 1883 they found it necessary, in consequence of the rapidity with which the business had grown, to greatly enlarge their premises, and in so doing pulled down the old store and rebuilt on an extensive scale: the present store having a frontage of 55 x 130 feet, with a height of five storeys. The staff employed consists of salesmen and ladies, and one hundred and fifty hands in the tailoring, millinery and carpet thirty manufacturing departments. In addition to a good city trade, they gain a fair share of country custom also, and have built up a wide-spread reputation for cheapness and durability in their class of goods. The members of the firm are Canadians by birth, Mr. Wm. Petley having been a resident of this city for seventeen years.

Phœnix Hall. Opened in 1883 at Queen Street West. Manager: Mr. H. Hutchinson. This store has a frontage of twenty-five feet by ninety deep. Does a general dry and fancy goods trade, including mantles, etc. Mr. Hutchinson was born in Yorkshire, England, and came to Canada in 1881.

Robert H. Platt, dry-goods, 288 King Street East, established himself in business in 1866, at Phelpston, Simcoe County, where he conducted a general store and performed the duties of postmaster till 1881. The following year he opened his present store, and continues to carry on a good trade in staple and fancy goods. He is agent for Bazaar patterns. Mr. Platt was born in Toronto in 1835, and is the eldest son of Thomas Platt, deceased.

A. F. Rocque, general dry-goods merchant, 242 Queen Street East. Business established in 1869 by P. McGraw, who conducted it in connection with a boot and shoe trade until 1876, when Mr. Rocque took charge of the business.

J. Rowland, retail dry-goods, 173, N. E. corner of Yonge and Queen Streets. Business established 1854. Carries general dry-goods, carpets, oil cloth, house-furnishings, etc. The store has a frontage of 25 x 90 feet, and is five storeys high, including basement. He employs a staff of six salesmen, the trade extending both through city and country. We may mention that Mr. Rowland counts among his customers the third generation of families who trade with him. He was born in the Island of Jersey and came to Canada with his parents in 1840. He has been a resident of the city since 1842.

J. H. Shearer, dry-goods merchant, 226 Yonge Street, established his business in 1872. The store has a frontage of 40 × 85 feet. Does a general dry-goods and furnishing trade, which is confined principally to the city. Employs a staff of eight salesmen and ladies. Mr. Shearer came from Scotland in 1866 and has since been a resident of Toronto.

R. Simpson, dry-goods, 174, 176 and 178 Yonge Street, established his business in 1873, and continues to conduct a large and successful trade in dry-goods, millinery, mantles, carpets, and all kinds of house-furnishings. His store has a frontage of 75 × 100 feet, and is three storeys high, the business giving employment to fifty-seven clerks, etc.

Thomas Thompson & Son, “Mammoth House” dry-goods establishment, 136-140 King Street East. This business was commenced as early as 1834, and is now in its third generation. The commodious premises have a frontage of 57 × 120 feet, and four storeys high, also a capacious warehouse used for reserve stock. They employ a staff of two hundred hands in the store and manufacturing department. The first flat is devoted to fancy goods, hosiery and gloves, staple and dress goods, ready-made and ordered clothing, gents’ furnishings, etc. The second flat to millinery and mantles, carpets and house-furnishings. The third to manufacturing clothing, millinery, shirts, etc. The returns are now $250,000 yearly. The firm is composed of Thomas Thompson, Boyce Thompson and W. A. Thompson, who are all Canadians by birth; and amongst the firm, we may add, one hundred and fourteen journeys have been made to England for purchasing purposes. The trade is about equally divided between city and country. There are thirty-seven thousand, six hundred and twenty square feet of flooring to the premises, which are heated by steam.

George Vennell, dry-goods and stationery, 115 Kingston Road. Business established in 1880. The store has a frontage of 18 × 50 feet, and is two storeys high. Mr. Vennell was born in England in 1840 and came to Canada in 1870. He has been local correspondent for one of our city daily papers for the past five years, and has the largest newspaper trade in the east end of the city.

R. Walker & Sons, dry-goods merchants, “Golden Lion” Buildings, 33-37 King Street East and 18 Colborne Street. This is one of the oldest business houses in the city, and, as such, deserves more than a passing notice. In the year 1835 Wm. Lawson occupied the premises at No. 9 King Street East, where he carried on a clothing business, which was purchased during that year by R. Walker, who took possession of and conducted the business until 1848. He then removed to the east half of the present premises, which were built by Mr. Patterson and himself, this being the first cut-stone building in the city, the firm at the same time being joined by Mr. T. Hutchinson, who, however, retired in 1855, when the eldest son of Mr. Walker entered the company, which was hereafter known as R. Walker & Son. In 1862 two other sons entered the firm, and about this time was purchased the west half of the lot on which the present building stands. In 1866 was erected the “Golden Lion” Buildings, which have a frontage of 52 × 200 feet and a height of seventy-six feet. The whole building is lighted by a magnificent centre dome, one hundred and thirty-five feet in circumference, rising fifty-five feet from the floor, containing two thousand square feet of glass. This pile of buildings was erected at a cost of $45,000. In 1875 Mr. R. Walker retired from the firm, and the business has since been carried on by Mr. Robert Irving Walker and Mr. Frederick W. Walker, Mr. H. Walker, a nephew, becoming a partner in 1884. The goods dealt in by the firm include clothing, dry-goods, mantles, millinery, carpets, house-furnishings, etc.

T. H. Waters, dry-goods and millinery business. Established in 1882 at No. 138 Kingston Road, where he has a frontage of sixteen feet by twenty-eight feet. Carries a stock of general dry-goods and millinery. Mr. Waters is an American by birth and has been resident in Toronto since 1877.

Charles Welsman, dry-goods merchant, was established in 1881, at No. 132 Kingston Road, where he does a general dry-goods trade. His store has a frontage of 26 × 34 feet deep. He also owns the boot and shoe store adjoining. Mr. Welsman was born in Devonshire, England, and came to Canada in 1865, and has been a resident of Toronto for the past fourteen years. He was a car inspector on the Grand Trunk at the Union Station for eight years.

T. Woodhouse, dry-goods merchant, 123, 125 and 127 King Street East. Established in 1871. The store has a frontage of 55 × 150 feet, and is four storeys high. The trade carried on is in dry-goods, clothing, millinery, mantles, carpets, oil cloths, etc. He employs a staff of twenty-six salesmen, and has one hundred hands engaged in the manufacture of millinery, clothing, etc. Originally the store of Mr. Woodhouse was only 13 × 30 feet, the business being conducted by himself and a boy. He is a native of Ireland and came to Canada in 1866, and has since been a resident of Toronto.

Dyers.

A. M. Denovan, 329 Yonge Street, proprietor of the Perth steam dye-works. They were first established in 1877 by J. Eyres & Son, and came into the hands of the present owner in 1883. Employs four hands.

George N. Lucas, 388½ Yonge Street, proprietor of steam dye-works. Does all kinds of dyeing, cleans and dyes kid gloves, feathers, etc. Established his business in 1870, and employs six hands. Mr. Lucas is a tailor by trade, and makes, turns, alters and repairs all gentlemen’s clothing. All clothing dyed warranted not to stain. First-class tailors employed to finish gentlemen’s clothing.

Robert Parker, 824 Yonge Street, proprietor steam dye-works. Established in 1876. Does all kinds of colouring, cleans and dyes gloves, feathers, piece-goods and wholesale dry-goods. Employs thirty-four hands, thirteen male and twenty-one female. Has three offices in Toronto and one in Hamilton. It is probably the largest establishment of its class in Canada.

Thomas Squire, proprietor of the Ontario steam dye-works, located at Parkdale; offices: 306 Yonge Street, City. The present works were erected in 1883 (size of building, 30 x 70 feet), and give employment to four hands. Silks, damasks, kid gloves, feathers and other articles are dyed at this establishment. Mr. Squire commenced his business in 1869, and has been a practical dyer for forty years.

Engravers.

Alexander, Clare & Cable, engravers and lithographers, Mail Building. This firm was organized in 1880. They do all kinds of wood and steel engraving and general lithography, making a specialty of fine commercial, card and invitation work, and employ from twenty to thirty hands. They are all practical men and Torontonians, but spent considerable time with the best American lithographic establishments in order to perfect themselves in their particular branches.

George E. Patterson, manufacturer of bookbinders’ stamps and general engraving, 31 Adelaide Street East, was born near Kingston in 1862, and settled in Toronto in 1871.

Express Companies.

A. E. Fisher, proprietor of improved furniture and moving vans and cartage agent, 62 Gerrard Street East, is a native of Kent County, England, and came to Canada in 1870. He settled in this city two years later, and in 1874 started his present business with one single waggon, and now owns four single and double waggons.

Thomas Fisher, proprietor of Fisher’s Express, 539 Yonge Street, is a native of Hampshire, England, and came to Canada in 1870. He soon after established his present business, the extent of which can be summed up in the fact that he keeps six waggons on the street—moving furniture and express goods. He is also agent for the “Thomas” piano, manufactured at Hamilton, and the “Thomas” organ, manufactured at Woodstock; and also for Stewart’s furniture.

John D. Irwin, agent in this city for the Canadian and American Express Companies, is a native of Colborne, Ontario, and has been identified with the Express Company for thirty years, fifteen of which were spent at Hamilton, and the remainder in this city.

J. J. Vickers, “Vickers’ Express.” This enterprising citizen’s first connection with this business was in 1852, when, on his arrival in this city, he entered the service of the American Express Company, with whom he remained two years. On the completion of the Northern Railroad he embarked in the business on his own account, and from a small beginning has, by perseverance and honourable exertion, built up the present extensive concern, which employs a great number of people. He has had control of the Express Department of the Northern Railroad since 1854, also that of the T. G. & B. since its opening, and in connection with the service nine messengers arrive and leave Toronto each day. His eldest son, J. A. D. Vickers, is acting superintendent. (For further particulars of Mr. Vickers’ life, see Miscellaneous Biographies.)

Florists.

W. Hill, 461 Yonge Street, florist, established in 1880, keeps a general assortment of cut flowers and choice table plants, floral designs, has a hot-house on the premises, and buys largely from outside parties. He also deals in all sorts of foreign and domestic fruit, fish, game, poultry and confectionery.

Thomas Vaughan, Seaton Village, florist and market gardener, settled in Toronto in 1856, and has always been engaged in the same business. Has one green-house and one forcing-house. Wholesale and retail trade. Employs from two to five men, and runs two delivery waggons.

Flour and Feed.

John Lumbers, dealer in flour, grain and produce. In 1869 Mr. Lumbers established his business at 17 Francis Street with a very small capital, but, with perseverance and close attention to business, through increasing trade he was obliged to remove from Francis Street and took possession of 101 Adelaide Street East. While there, and in the year 1876, Mr. Lumbers added to his business the “Great Devonshire Cattle Food,” of which he is the sole proprietor and manufacturer. This preparation has achieved great success, the food being shipped to all parts of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In 1879 Mr. Lumbers again removed and purchased from Mr. John Irwin the premises 97 and 99 Adelaide Street East, which he now occupies, the building commanding a frontage of nearly fifty feet on one of the principal streets of the city. Mr. Lumbers is by birth a Canadian, having been born in Toronto.

E. G. Rust, 311 Yonge Street, is the manager for T. & J. N. Andrews, who are large flour manufacturers at Thornbury, Ontario, where they have for twenty years been engaged as general merchants. The Toronto branch was opened in 1879, and is doing a business of about two hundred dollars a day.

J. Williams, flour and feed merchant, 336 Queen Street West, was born in Toronto in 1851. His father, Joshua Williams, was an upholsterer, and died in 1878, aged fifty years. Mr. Williams has been engaged in his present business some years, and is now handling about $30,000 worth of flour per annum. He is a Reformer, and a member of the Queen Street Methodist Church. In 1873 he married Miss Kate E. Woodhouse.

Isaac Williamson, flour and feed merchant, 136 Front Street East, was born in Toronto in 1848. His father, Matthew Williamson, was born in Cumberland, England, and in 1813 came to York, where he worked at his trade, that of a carpenter. In 1851 he removed to a farm of one hundred acres, being lot 17, in the 3rd concession of East York, where he died in 1877, aged sixty-seven years. His wife was Sarah Pearson. The subject of this sketch spent the first three years of his life in Toronto. From 1851 to 1879 he lived on his father’s farm. In the latter year he came to Toronto and began business life with Messrs. Chapman & Sons, flour and feed and commission merchants, with whom he remained for four years. In 1883 he began business for himself at his present location. He is married to Lydia, second daughter of Thomas Clark. Mr. Williamson is a Reformer in politics, and is a member of the A. F. and A. M.

Fruit and Vegetables.

Mrs. Bilton, fruit dealer, 188 Yonge Street. This well-known establishment, which takes high rank of its class in the city, was founded by the late William Bilton in 1862. Mr. Bilton was born in Kingston in 1833, and came with his parents to Toronto at an early day. His father conducted the only first-class tailoring establishment then in Toronto. Mr. Bilton died in 1869, the business being still successfully carried on by his widow and two sons.

Charles Daldry, dealer in fruits and vegetables, 123 Kingston Road. He is a native of Ipswich, England, came to Canada in 1871, and has been a prominent dealer in his line since that time.

Furniture Dealers.

Robert Leslie was born in Sutherlandshire, Scotland, August, 1812. Settled in what is now Toronto in 1826. His father, William Leslie, died in Scotland in 1813, after which his mother married John Leslie, who died in Toronto in 1879. When they settled in Toronto the combined family consisted of eight children. Robert Leslie, the subject of this sketch, served his time at carpenter work; subsequently lived in the State of New York for six years, where, in 1837, he married Mary Ann House, and returned to Toronto in 1840, and engaged in contracting and building. In 1883 he added to his business furniture sale-rooms, at the corner of Strange Street and Kingston Road. He has had six sons and four daughters, all alive but one.

A. Robert Piper, furniture maker, 59 Adelaide Street West, started his business in 1880, and manufactures principally office furniture. He employs six men.

William Roberts, 83 Yonge Street, manufacturer of office, library and all kinds of furniture, started his business in 1881. He employs four men.

James H. Samo, 189 Yonge Street, manufacturer of furniture in every style, parlour sets, bedroom wardrobes, makes a specialty of fitting up banks and offices. Established first at Whitby in 1863, and in Toronto in 1871. His manufactory and warerooms are all on the same lot. Size of the cabinet shop is 50 x 30, two storeys high, and his upholstery rooms 80 x 30 feet; finishing rooms, 86 x 50 feet; warerooms, 100 x 22 feet; two storehouses, 60 x 30 and 80 x 30. Employs thirty to forty hands in wholesale and retail.

H. A. Schomberg & Co., 635, 637, 639 Yonge Street, manufacturers of furniture and upholstered goods. The senior partner, H. A. Schomberg, was born in London, England, in 1824, and settled in Toronto in 1842. He established the business in 1863, previous to which time he had been foreman for Jacques & Hay for seventeen years. The junior partner, John Weston, was born in the City of Oxford, England, and served his time with the celebrated firm of Wm. Roddis & Co., of that city. He came to this country in 1866, and was engaged with Frank Holmes & Co., of Boston, Mass., and J. Jung & Co., of Brooklyn, N.Y.; was admitted to partnership in the above firm in 1878. The firm employ twelve hands, and purchase largely from other manufacturers.

Gents’ Furnishings.

F. Cooper, gents’ furnishings and manufacturer of shirts, 517 Queen Street West, established his business in 1871 at 129 Yonge Street with his brother. In 1876 he opened a store at 493 Queen Street West, and remained there until 1880, when he removed to his present place of business. He was born in England and came to Toronto in 1871.

I. J. Cooper, shirt manufacturer, men’s furnishings, etc., 109 Yonge Street, Toronto. In 1870 Mr. Cooper commenced business at 129 Yonge Street, opposite Temperance Street, where he remained six years, but the premises being too small for his increasing trade he removed to the large and very prominent stand on the corner of Yonge and Adelaide Streets. Mr. Cooper makes specially the perfect-fitting “Imperial Shirt,” carries one of the finest stocks of men’s furnishings in Toronto, and imports his goods from the best manufacturers. Mr. Cooper was born in England, and came to Canada in 1860; settled in Toronto 1865.

Hugh Matheson, merchant tailor and gents’ furnishings, 283 Yonge Street. This business was established in 1848, by the firm of McKay & Matheson, and was continued to 1861, when the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Matheson then continued the business. In 1866 he removed to 16 King Street East, and in 1882 to his present quarters. Mr. Matheson was born in Scotland in 1826, and came to Canada in 1842. He studied medicine for three years at Hartford, and one year at Trinity College, and has practised more or less since 1848. In 1843 Mr. Matheson went to Connecticut and remained there for five years. He afterwards returned to Toronto, where he has since resided. He expects to relinquish his present business this year, and will then devote the whole of his time to the practice of medicine. Mr. Matheson is also the patentee of the following articles: Matheson’s system of cutting coats, vests and pants without patterns, and takes less cloth to draft on; Matheson’s Vital Magnetic Medicines, solids and liquids; Matheson’s Improved Compound Oxygen, etc.

Robert Platt, gents’ furnishings, and merchant tailor, 181 Yonge Street, was born in Kent, England, and came to Toronto in 1864. In 1871 he was engaged in his present business at 165 King Street East. In 1878 he retired from the trade and entered Thompson & Sons’ “Mammoth House” as manager, which position he held until 1881. He then commenced business for himself in his present premises.

J. M. Treble, gents’ furnishings and ladies’ underwear. This business was established at Windsor in 1865. In 1870 Mr. Treble removed to Toronto, and located at 53 and 53½ King Street West. He makes a specialty of manufacturing shirts and ladies’ underwear. His shirts are known as Treble’s perfect-fitting French yoke shirts. Mr. Treble was born in England, and came to Canada in 1850. Before coming to Toronto he spent most of the time in London and St Thomas.

William Wilson, 563 Queen Street West, merchant tailor and gents’ furnishings. This business was established in 1874 at 551 Queen Street West. Two years later Mr. Wilson removed to 553, and in 1883 to his present quarters, and is now opening a branch store at West Toronto Junction. He was born in Scotland in 1841, and came to Canada in 1868. In 1874 he settled in Toronto.

Grocers, Retail.

A. G. Booth, 379 Yonge Street, grocer and provision dealer, established in 1881. Employs one man, and one to run waggon.

H. T. Brown, groceries, crockery, glass, fruit, etc., 752 Yonge Street, corner of Yorkville Avenue, commenced business in 1878 at 47½ Yonge Street, Yorkville, removing subsequently to his present address. Drives two waggons and employs six hands. Size of store and warehouse, 25 x 200 feet.

John Burrows, grocer, 226 Front Street, was born in Halton County, 1834, being the son of Henry and Ann Burrows of the same county. He followed farming until 1872, locating in Toronto the year following, where he opened the above store, and does a nice steady business. Mr. Burrows married Miss Eliza Clark, also a native of Halton County, by whom he has five children.

The Central Co-operative Society (limited), 369 Yonge Street, established September, 1880. John W. Carter, Esq., President; A. E. Whinton, Esq., Secretary; George Welsh, Esq., Treasurer; and five Directors, compose the Board. The business is managed by Mr. William Davis, and a large trade is done in groceries, cutlery, crockery, sewing machines and general supplies. They have had, and are having, a healthy growth both as regards membership and sales, which in 1883 amounted to over $20,000. They have federated with the Manchester, England, Co-operative Wholesale Society, who have branch houses over the world, and do annually about $140,000,000 in business.

John Charters, corner of Alexander and Yonge Streets, dealer in general groceries, provisions, flour and feed, fruit, vegetables, oysters, etc. He commenced on the corner of Wood Street in a small way in 1872, removing afterwards to his present locality, the store being four storeys high and 30 x 80 feet. Employs three clerks and runs two waggons.

James Duff, corner of Howard and Bleeker Streets, dealer in groceries, provisions and teas. Born in Toronto in 1838. Commenced the manufactory of boilers with Neil Currie & Co., on the Esplanade in 1871, and in 1877 commenced the grocery business, in which he is still engaged. Runs a delivery waggon, and does a good business.

H. A. Eastman, grocer, etc., 451 Queen Street West, established in 1880 his present business, which is rapidly improving. He does a good retail business in all articles connected with the trade.

Louis Equi, 267 and 269 Yonge Street, general grocer and liquor dealer, also deals in flour and feed; first established business on the corner of Bay and Richmond Streets in 1858, and in 1863 moved to his present location, where he employs five men and two waggons. He settled in Toronto in 1854.

James Good & Co., wholesale and retail grocers, wines and liquors, 220 Yonge Street. The business was established in 1869 by Mr. James Good, and employs one traveller and a staff of fourteen hands. The warehouse and store has a frontage of twenty feet, with a depth of one hundred and nine feet. The firm are also agents for “Labatt’s,” of London, Ontario, celebrated ales, in which they do a large trade. Mr. Good is a native of Fermanagh, Ireland, and came to Toronto in 1868.

Walter Grant, grocer and liquor merchant, corner of York and Adelaide Streets, commenced business in 1871 in a small way, which has since so greatly increased that at the present time he employs six men and runs two waggons. He is sole agent for George Sleemin, ale, porter and lager brewers, Guelph; and also deals in Pelee Island wine. He bottles his own beer.

James H. Greenshields, grocer, was born in Scotland in 1853. He emigrated to Canada in 1868, and entered the employment of Messrs. Swan Brothers, Toronto, and remained with this firm about nine years, after which he embarked in the grocery business on his own account, 1877. Mr. Greenshields’ store is 300 King Street East, where he keeps a nice stock of goods and does a good family trade.

David Hunter, proprietor of the grocery and provision store, corner of Leslie Street and Kingston Road. His first start in business was in market gardening; he carried on both businesses for two years, and in 1884 rented out the garden and devoted his attention to the grocery business. He married Catherine Ross, daughter of the late John Ross, an early settler in this county, and one of the victims of cholera.

Morgan J. Kelly, grocer and liquor dealer, was born in Toronto, being the youngest son of the late Morgan Kelly, a well-known hotel keeper in Toronto. Mr. Kelly, jun’r, received his early education at the De La Salle Institute. He took up the business formerly owned by Thomas Lee & Co., and by his diligence and industry works a profitable undertaking. Mr. Kelly married, in 1881, Elizabeth Ryan, also a native of this city.

E. J. Kingsbury, grocer and provision dealer, 103 Church Street, was born in New York State, and commenced business in 1882, taking over the stock of J. J. Powell. Does a general trade; has one waggon, and employs three hands. Trade returns about $30,000 annually.

J. W. Laing (J. W. Laing & Co., grocers) was born in Ireland, 1848. When only a few months old he came with his parents to Canada and settled in Toronto. He served his apprenticeship with J. Fleming & Co., and by degrees worked himself up to the position of manager. In 1865 he moved across the line and filled situations in Toledo and Philadelphia, remaining a few years and eventually returning to his old position of manager to Fleming & Co., Toronto. Not long after he commenced a grocery business in conjunction with Mr. Kinnear, which continued for nine and a-half years. In 1881 the firm was dissolved, Mr. Kinnear retiring. Mr. Laing held to the business, however, and its rapid increase rendering his premises inadequate for his requirements, he has recently taken possession of one of the largest and most commodious grocery warehouses in the city, 33 Front Street East.

The Li-Quor Tea Company, 446 and 448 Yonge Street, was established in Toronto in 1879. They have branch houses in Halifax and Winnipeg, and employ two travellers, who visit the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The Toronto house is under the management of Mr. George Clark, a native of England, who came to Canada in 1881.

Thomas Lumbers, grocery and liquors, was born in the City of Toronto in 1850. From 1864 to 1875 he, in partnership with his brother, carried on a grocery business at 146 King Street East, and on a dissolution at the latter date, Mr. Thomas Lumbers continued the business on the same premises until 1881, when he removed to 152 King Street East, where, by earnest attention to a business conducted on cash principles, he has built up a good and increasing trade.

Peter Macdonald, grocer, 114 Church Street, was born in Argyleshire, Scotland, in 1838, and settled in Toronto in 1850. In 1859 he commenced his present business.

Ira Marks, corner of Grosvenor and Oxford Streets, dealer in groceries, provisions, fruits, flour and feed. Established at 575 King Street West in 1883, and came to his present location late in the same year.

C. Marsland, corner of McCaul and D’Arcy Streets, general dealer in groceries, provisions and liquors. Employs three clerks and runs a waggon. As specialties, is agent for Sleemin’s ale, of Guelph, and Little’s Stilton cheese, manufactured in Renfrew, Perth County.

William Joseph McCormack, (McCormack Brothers, grocers and liquor dealers, 431 Yonge Street,) was born in Eglinton Village, and served a five years’ apprenticeship to the carpentering and building. In 1861 he opened a grocery store in Yorkville, but at the end of twelve months, being attacked with the gold fever, he emigrated to British Columbia and afterwards to San Francisco, spending upwards of seven years on the Pacific Coast. In 1869 he returned to Toronto and entered into partnership with his brother, the late Thomas G. McCormack, in the business which is still carried on under the name of McCormack Brothers. Their first premises were on the corner of Yonge and Elm Streets, but after a lapse of two years they erected the building in which the business is still carried on. In addition to their ordinary grocery and liquor trade a considerable business is done in the bottling line, for which the firm is specially noted. Mr. McCormack married, in 1872, Miss Barker, daughter of Captain Barker of Niagara, by whom he has three children.

Andrew McFarren, grocer, corner of Queen and Sherbourne Streets, was born in Ireland in 1826, being the son of Andrew and Mary (Dougan) McFarren. He came to Canada alone in 1847 and located at York, where he attended the Normal School for one year. The next two years he spent teaching school: one year on Yonge Street above the old Golden Lion Hotel, and one year in Scarboro’ Township. Then, having laid by $200, he opened for himself in 1850 a small grocery store on King Street, where he remained until 1870, when he removed to his present location, where he has a good business. He also deals largely in flour and feed. In 1850 Mr. McFarren married Martha Mulligan, from Bonbridge, County Down, Ireland, by whom he has three sons and one daughter. Two of his sons are in the grocery business with him. He is a Conservative, and a member of the Baptist Church.

Richard Nurse, 376 Church Street, general dealer in groceries, provisions and liquors. Established on Yonge Street in 1861, and moved to his present location in 1867. Requires two delivery waggons and four men to do his business.

Walter Page, 704 Yonge Street, grocer, is a son of Charles Page, and was born in Toronto in 1861. He began business in 1884, previous to which time he was employed with Smith & Gemmel, architects. He married a daughter of Alexander Chisholm.

Adam Reddock, 279 Gerrard Street East, grocery and provision dealer, established on River Street in 1880, and came to his present location in 1884. Has been engaged in the milk business since 1877.

Edward Kent Scholey, provision merchant, 35, 37 and 39 St. Lawrence Market, is a native of Lincolnshire, England, and emigrated to Canada in 1853. For five years he resided in Montreal, after which he came to Toronto and worked seven years with William Ramsay & Co. Commenced on his own account in 1865 in his present premises, where he does a good trade. Mr. Scholey was married in 1866 to Miss Piggott, a native of Toronto.

Francis Sheriff, dealer in groceries and liquors, was born in Huntingdon, Province of Quebec, in 1848. He came to Toronto in the fall of 1870, and for five years was employed in the establishment of Fitch & Eby. He commenced a grocery business on his own account at the Haymarket, which he conducted for five years. He afterwards removed to his present address, 60 Front Street East, where he carries on a successful trade.

James Shields & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in groceries, wines, liquors and cigars. This business was established thirty years ago, the present members of the firm being John and James Shields, and has always been known under its present title. They employ two travellers, who visit every portion of the Province, and a staff of eleven men in the store and warehouse. They have a frontage of thirty feet on Yonge Street and a rear width of ninety feet, with a depth of one hundred and sixty feet, with three flats. They are sole agents for Holland & Co., of Fergus, and Taylor & Bates’, of St. Catherines, celebrated ales.

W. J. Sylvester, Atlantic Tea House, 213 King Street East, commenced business in the St. Lawrence Market, 1881, and removed to his present store in 1883. Deals largely in tea—this being a specialty. He has one waggon and employs four hands, and does a trade of about $30,000 annually. Mr. Sylvester is a native of York County, and has resided in the city for the past eight years.

Gunsmiths.

George F. Oakley was born in England in 1846, and settled in Toronto in 1854. Being a gunsmith by trade he engaged with W. P. Marston, 132 Yonge Street. In 1883 he established a business for himself at 9 Adelaide Street East. He was married to Annie Jeffers, November 12, 1867, and has one child, Henry Walter, born July 8, 1870.

Hair Works.

Joseph Copley, dealer in hair goods, 238 Yonge Street, was born in Yorkshire, in England, 1816, and came to Toronto in 1862, with a little means, and established himself in business on Yonge Street in the manufacture of wigs and hair goods. He had previously learned the trade in Yorkshire, England. After his arrival in Toronto, he rented the building he at present occupies at 238 Yonge Street, and has built up a good business as an importer and manufacturer of all kinds of hair goods. Most of the raw material is brought from England. He is assisted by his wife, who was a Miss Midgley, from England, and by their united efforts they have been very successful in supplying the wants of a large class of customers, among the best people of Toronto and York.

Jahn & Schwenker, 75 King Street West. Proprietors of hair works. Have a full assortment of hair goods, Saratoga Waves, Star Waves, curls, switches, ladies’ and gents’ half and full wigs, ladies’ head jewellery, etc. Established in 1882. Employ from five to eight hands; the business was formerly conducted by Mrs. Ellis.

Hardware.

James Aikenhead, of the firm of Aikenhead & Crombie, hardware merchants, was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1817, being fourth in a family of eleven children. His father, Thomas Aikenhead, was born in Kilkenny; he was a bookseller and stationer, and died in 1859. His mother was Eliza Beal, born in Thomastown, County Kilkenny; she died in her native county. Mr. Aikenhead learned the trade of a cabinet-maker, and worked at it for ten years; then he learned the hardware business in his uncle’s establishment in Kilkenny. In 1849 he came to Canada and settled in Toronto, where he became employed in the establishment of Ridout, Bros. & Co. He afterwards became a partner in the business with Joseph and Percival Ridout, and A. T. Crombie. The Ridouts ultimately retired, leaving the business in the hands of Messrs. Aikenhead & Crombie. In 1858, Mr. Aikenhead was married to Eliza, daughter of Robert Higginbotham.

A. F. Crombie, of the firm of Aikenhead & Crombie, wholesale and retail hardware merchants, was born in the City of Aberdeen, Scotland. He acquired his first knowledge of business in the hardware establishment of Hugh Gordon & Co., better known as the “Copper Company,” established in 1769, one of the most widely known manufacturing and importing houses in the north of Scotland. He emigrated to Toronto in 1856, and was in charge of one of the departments in the firm of Thomas Haworth, in the building afterwards occupied by the Leader. He left him in 1858, and went into the Birmingham, Sheffield and Woolverhampton warehouse of Ridout Brothers & Co., and remained there until he became a partner with Mr. J. D. Ridout and Mr. James Aikenhead on the retirement of Mr. Percival Ridout in 1867. The present partnership was formed in 1876 on the retirement of the late respected Mr. J. D. Ridout. This business was established in 1830 by Geo. P. and J. D. Ridout, in the building then known as the “Wakefield Auction Mart,” which was found to be too small for their business, and in 1833 the present premises were erected and occupied in the following year.

John R. Barron, dealer in house-furnishings, etc., 241 Parliament Street, was born in Bowmanville, and is a son of Mr. John Barron, King Street East.

John L. Bird, hardware dealer, 313 Queen Street West, is an Englishman by birth, having first seen the light of day at Bury St. Edmunds, in the County of Suffolk. He came to Canada in 1851, and settled in Toronto, where he has resided ever since. Since that time he has seen something of the ups and downs of life in this city; and now that Toronto is on the high tide of prosperity, it is something for him to say that he has joined in it. He commenced in the hardware business in 1880, and notwithstanding the great amount of competition in this line it has proven a successful venture with him. The first year his turn-over far exceeded his expectations, the second year it was doubled, while the third year it was doubled again, until now it stands as the leading retail hardware business in the west end of the city. Entering the commodious store one cannot but be struck with the large and well-selected assortment of goods there visible. Builders’ general hardware, paints, oils, glass, cutlery, plated goods, wheelbarrows, grindstones, contractors’ supplies, wire fencing, in fact everything from a needle to an anchor, as Mr. Bird himself tersely put it. In all branches of the business he keeps his stock replenished, never allowing it to run down. His trade is chiefly confined to the city, although he does not want for country custom. The people of the west end are fortunate in having a store with such a well-selected stock of hardware to choose from right in their midst. In his charges Mr. Bird will be found reasonable, and no purchaser can complain that he does not get fair value for his money.

G. Bottom, hardware, etc., 258 Queen Street West, was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, in 1833. After spending twelve years in New Zealand, his adventurous spirit brought him to Canada in 1872. He remained in Montreal some eight or nine months, when, desirous of a change, he went to Ottawa. In 1874 he came to Toronto, and entered upon the business he at present successfully conducts at the above address.

W. M. Cooper, hardware merchant and manufacturer, 69 Bay Street, is a native of Newcastle, England, being the son of a large farmer who lived in that district until his death in 1846. He had joined the reserve militia during the French war, in which he held the rank of captain and adjutant. Mr. Cooper was apprenticed and had eighteen years’ experience in Birmingham, England, part of which time he was partner in a large hardware manufacturing establishment. He came to Canada in 1870, and established himself in business in Toronto, in the above line, where he is also engaged in manufacturing specialties and importing a superior class of fire arms for the Canadian market. He has been since 1875 a volunteer officer, being gazetted ensign, and in 1878 was placed in command of No. 9 Company, 10th Royals, as first lieutenant. He retired in 1880, retaining his rank, and in 1882 was gazetted captain of No. 1 Company, 12th battalion, York Rangers, Head Quarters, St. Matthew’s Ward. In 1875 and 1879 Mr. Cooper was selected as a member of the Wimbledon team. He was a member of the 1st Warwickshire Rifle volunteers before he came to Canada for about nine years, and was six times a representative of that corps at Wimbledon.

William J. Knowles, house-furnishings and general hardware, 430 Yonge Street, was born in Guelph Township, and commenced a successful and increasing business at the above address, which he has carried on for seven years.

W. H. Sparrow & Co., house-furnishings, hardware, etc., 87 Yonge Street. The father of the present head of this firm was from Clonmel, Ireland, and when he settled in Toronto, initiated the present business, which he successfully conducted until his death, about one year ago. His son continues the business under the able and efficient management of Mr. Charles S. McDonald, together with a staff of workmen for the manufacture of tinware. The firm import saleable articles from England, including mangles and water filters, and their average yearly sales of goods amount to from $30,000 to $40,000.

F. W. Unitt, general hardware merchant, 362, 364 and 366 Queen Street West, was born at Newcastle, Ontario, in 1845, and commenced business as above in 1868. He has taken great interest in volunteer matters, and was gazetted ensign in the “10th Royals” in April, 1873, lieutenant in April, 1874, adjutant, December, 1875, and captain in July, 1878; retiring with his rank in 1880. In municipal matters he has also taken a prominent part, having been Alderman for St. Stephen’s Ward in 1876-7. He was School Trustee for St. Patrick’s Ward in 1875-6.

Harness Makers.

John C. Albery (late of Horsham, Sussex, England), 802 Yonge Street, harness-maker and saddler, established in 1875, being the oldest in North Toronto. Employs two men. Keeps on sale complete assortment of all kinds of harness, collars, whips, brushes, etc. Settled in Toronto in 1870.

William Christie, harness and saddle maker, 211 King Street East, established his business during the present year and employs two hands. The premises have a frontage of 16 x 100 feet deep. Mr. Christie has been a resident of the city for two years. His trade is confined principally to Toronto.

W. P. Kearns, saddle, harness and collar manufacturer. Business established in 1870, first located at King and George for several years, then removed to his present location, No. 63 George Street, where he employs five hands. Mr. Kearns was born in Ireland, and has been a resident of Toronto for the past twenty-nine years.

W. A. Kirkpatrick & Son, saddle and harness manufacturers. Business established in 1856 at Thornhill, where they remained until 1880, then removed to this city, and are now located at 181 King Street East. Their show rooms have a frontage of 25 x 130 feet in depth. Employ a staff of from eight to ten hands. Mr. Kirkpatrick was born in Ireland, and came to Canada in 1854, and has been a resident of Toronto for the past four years.

Lugsdin & Barnett, saddle, harness and trunk manufacturers, 115 Yonge Street. This business was established in 1868. Their show rooms have a frontage of 35 x 140 feet in depth and five storeys high. They employ twenty-five hands, and import a fine class of riding and driving goods, making a specialty of sole leather trunks, for which they have taken the first prize for three years in succession. They also hold two medals for ladies’ and gents’ saddles, one received at the “Centennial” at Philadelphia, and one at Paris in France. The firm manufacture largely in saddles and harness, and do an extensive export trade to the United States and other ports. Mr. Lugsdin is of English birth, and came to Canada at an early day. Mr. Barnett was born in Scotland, and came to Canada and took up his residence in Toronto in 1856.

John Saunders, manufacturer and dealer in saddles, harness and trunks, 485 Queen Street West. The business was established in 1880, and at present he employs three hands. His store has a frontage of 16 x 100 feet, with three flats, his trade being chiefly confined to the city. Mr. Saunders has been a resident of Toronto for the past twenty years.

S. G. Saywell, manufacturer of saddles and harness, trunks, etc., 165 King Street West, established his business in 1879. He employs four men.

Andrew Smith, manufacturer and dealer in saddlery, harness and trunks, 690 Queen Street West. Established in 1857, and has occupied his present premises since 1859. His store has a frontage of 23 x 44 feet deep; and he employs five hands in the manufacture of harness. Mr. Smith is a Canadian by birth, having been a resident of the city since 1847.

J. Swallow, manufacturer of collars and harness; business established in 1882, in Mallandine’s Block, Riverside. Employs three hands. The store has a frontage of twenty feet. Mr. Swallow was born in Pickering, Ontario, and has been a resident of Toronto and vicinity for the last fifteen years.

Hatters and Furriers.

James Lugsdin, wholesale and retail dealer in hats, caps and furs, 39 Yonge Street, established himself in 1867 at 101 Yonge Street, removing afterwards to 74 King Street West, where he remained until his occupation of the present premises. The warehouse has a frontage of 52 x 45 feet, and is five storeys high. He employs three travellers, who visit Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces. He also employs some sixty hands in the fur manufacture, and a staff of ten clerks. Mr. Lugsdin was born in England, and came to Toronto in 1852.

J. & J. Lugsdin, hatters and furriers, 101 Yonge Street. This firm is composed of John and Joseph, who have carried on business as practical hatters and manufacturing furriers in this stand for upwards of seventeen years. They are the oldest firm now doing business in the block from Adelaide to King Street, and, strange to say, this is the only one that has stood the “ups and downs” of trade during that time. All the furs they offer for sale are of their own manufacture, personally supervised by the senior partner, who has had twenty-five years’ experience. They employ about twenty-five hands all the year round for this branch of their business. Having established a reputation for making a first-class article, their trade has steadily grown, and for some years past they have done one of the leading businesses in their line. They secured first prize medals for ladies’ and gents’ fine furs at the Industrial Exhibition, against all competitors. The partners are both popular men, and are always to the front with open hand, whenever called upon to aid deserving ones, less fortunate than themselves. Their store does not present the most imposing appearance from the front, and the amount and quality of the goods turned out of their place would lead one to suppose their premises were much larger; but appearances are deceitful, as most of their room lies at the back, where they have a large building four storeys high, in which are their work and store rooms.

Joseph Rogers, manufacturer and retail dealer in hats, caps and furs, located at 141 King Street East. Manufactures goods solely for his retail trade, employing seven hands. This business was established in 1830 by his father, C. K. Rogers, who is also a native of this city. The grandfather, Joseph Rogers, came to Canada from Ireland about 1805. He was one of the early pioneers and was the first hatter here, establishing himself in the business about 1815. He controlled this line of trade many years, and started his business on the smallest beginning, and it has increased steadily to the present time. This is, without doubt, the oldest business house in this city.

Hides and Skins.

James Lowdon, 69 Cameron Street, dealer in hides. He commenced to deal in 1872, and has been very successful in his business.

Hotel-Keepers.

R. W. Abell, proprietor of the popular hotel known as the “Elephant and Castle,” corner of Queen and Parliament Streets, is a native of Longhope, Gloucestershire, England, and came to this city in 1871. He was engaged at his trade, that of wood-turner, for some time, and later on carried on a wood-yard near his present location. He was afterwards burned out, and he bought the hotel business near his present stand. He has been Returning Officer of St. David’s Ward for the past ten years.

John Ayre, proprietor “Lake View House,” corner of Winchester and Parliament Streets. This is one of the pleasantest public resorts in the east end of the city, and is deservedly well patronized. Mr. Ayre has lately built in connection with the hotel a large and commodious lodge-room and public hall, in which several Friendly Society Lodges hold meetings. The hall is 75 x 25 feet, and the size of the whole building is 125 x 125 feet. An additional attraction in the shape of a pleasant summer garden is much appreciated. There are also a fine billiard-room and bowling-alleys in connection with the hotel.

Elijah Bailey, hotel proprietor, was born in Manchester, England, in 1832. He emigrated to Canada in 1852, and settled first in Kingston, and for some time was employed on the Grand Trunk Railway as locomotive fireman, receiving promotion afterwards to the position of engineer, which he filled for eight and a-half years. He was appointed foreman in the Grand Trunk Round-house at Toronto, a position which he satisfactorily filled for two and a-half years. During a portion of the time he was employed by the Grand Trunk he kept an hotel called “The Manchester House,” King Street West. He afterwards occupied “The Old Ship,” corner Douro and Tecumseth Streets, and “The Golden Kite” on Front Street. In 1877 he opened “The Lady of the Lake” Hotel, 21 George Street, where he still remains. Mr. Bailey was twice married; his present wife’s maiden name was Agnes Hart.

Francis Summerville Berry, hotel proprietor, was born near Cullendar, Perthshire, Scotland, December 23rd, 1843. He came to Canada in 1853, and stayed three years in Quebec, where he was employed for a few months at a shingle machine, afterwards taking a butler’s position. He gave the latter up at the end of nine months, and betook himself to Andersonville, and there learned the trade of rope-maker. The firm failing in the year 1856, he came to Toronto, which place he made his point of departure to different towns in the neighbouring counties, putting his hand to a variety of industries. In 1868 he was again in Toronto, and worked for a short time as bar-keeper. From 1871 until 1880 he kept hotel on King Street. After another short absence he returned to the city and commenced a grocery business near John Street, from which he migrated to an hotel in the Haymarket. In 1882 he moved to the “Prince Arthur Hotel,” 609 King Street West, where he still remains. In 1871 Mr. Berry married a daughter of Mr. Wm. Brandon, Simcoe County, a native of the north of Ireland.

Thomas J. Best, proprietor of “The Woodbine Park Club House.” Mr. Best has been in the hotel business all his life; his father, Thomas Best, having been for many years proprietor of “The Bay Horse Hotel,” Mr. Best, jun’r, succeeded him on his retirement. T. J. Best afterwards took the “Globe Hotel,” changing its name to the “Bay Horse”; this he ran a year and a-half, when he leased and took possession of the handsome and commodious place above mentioned.

Charles Brewer, “The Canadian Hotel,” Maud Street. This house was erected in 1876, and in 1883 was taken possession of by the present proprietor, who is a native of Bristol, Somersetshire, England, and came to America in 1856. Previous to his settlement in Toronto in 1875, he had spent the time conducting hotels in the United States. He established himself at his present location in 1883, and is prepared to attend to the wishes and comforts of the travelling public.

R. Dissette, hotel proprietor, was born at Newmarket, York County, in 1848. His commencement in business was at Orillia, in partnership with Mr. Robert Hay, where after nine years’ successful career he accumulated a considerable competency in the harness trade. He came to Toronto in 1875, and for a time was engaged in property speculations. In 1875 he opened the hotel known as the “Crosby Hall,” on the Esplanade, opposite the Union Station. Here his attention to the comfort and requirements of his patrons has necessitated a considerable enlargement of his premises to meet the wants of his increasing business, and the hotel is now capable in ordinary times of accommodating ninety guests; and on special occasions is prepared to receive almost double that number.

James Emaney, hotel proprietor, was born in the English metropolis in 1831, and served his time in the carriage department of Woolwich Arsenal. When only eighteen years of age he was despatched to the Barbary Coast, to superintend the erection of gun-carriages and batteries, and on his return home in 1853 was at once detailed on the siege train department for service in the Crimea. The transport in which he sailed was attacked with cholera at Gibraltar, and after losing half its complement in the journey from that port to Malta, eventually landed its men and stores at Varna, only to swell the list of victims who perished there from that terrible scourge. The heroism of our soldiers during those calamitous months is immortalized in the pages of history. After encountering the difficulties of Alma, and the more heavy work and danger connected with the siege of Sebastopol, and the capture of Kertch, in the Sea of Azov, Mr. Emaney was able to return home at the close of the war, to receive at the hands of his countrymen in after-life that respect which is always accorded to those whose lives have been imperilled in the defence of their country’s honour. He subsequently came to Canada, and for twenty years conducted a carriage business at Prince Albert, in North Ontario, after which he moved to Toronto, 1881, and commenced hotel-keeping on the premises he at present occupies, 172 King Street, where by attention to the wants of his patrons he secures a fair amount of custom.

Alexander Gibb, hotel proprietor, was born on Yonge Street, in York Township, in 1840, being the eldest son in the family of the late John Gibb. He was brought up on his father’s farm, and after arriving at years of maturity he embarked in the business of dairyman. During this period he was elected to and accepted the Deputy-Reeveship of York Township, in which office he continued for five years. Mr. Gibb is at present proprietor of the “Bay Horse” Hotel, 163 Yonge Street, where seventy-five to eighty guests can be comfortably housed.

William Green, “Simcoe House,” corner of Front and Simcoe Streets, is a native of Oxfordshire, England, and came to Canada in 1857, settling first in Belleville, afterwards removing to Quebec, and thence to Ottawa, where he took charge of the Ottawa Citizen, which he conducted for ten years, and was manager of the Government Printing Office for five years. He then removed to St. Catharines, and kept the “Russell House” for four years, eventually taking possession of his present hotel. Mr. Green is a printer, and learned his trade in Birmingham, England.

John Gregg, hotel proprietor, owns the “Gregg House,” corner of Queen and McCaul Streets. He opened the house in 1875, and has since carried on a good business. The “Gregg House” has accommodation for twenty-five guests. Mr. Gregg was born in Ireland, and when twenty-two years of age went to New York, where he remained a short time, finally coming to Canada. He first settled in Kemptville, and then removed to Toronto.

William Hall, hotel proprietor, was born at Deptford, England, in 1853, and came to this country with his parents in 1858. Before embarking in the hotel business he had occupied responsible positions in the leading hotels in Toronto, Niagara, and Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. His hotel is situate at 170 Queen Street West, formerly known as Jones’ Hotel, where he does a good trade. In 1876 Mr. Hall married Georgina Jones, a daughter of his predecessor in the business.

William Hancock, hotel proprietor, was born in 1843 at Bosworth, Leicestershire, England, within two miles of the historic battlefield where the English King, Richard III., was killed. Mr. Hancock came to Canada in 1871, and was employed in the household of the then Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario (Sir William Howland) as butler. Leaving this position he went to work in the mechanical department of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway. He was afterwards steward of the Royal Canadian, U. E., and Toronto Yacht Clubs, remaining with the latter club two years. He commenced in the hotel business first on East Market Square, afterwards removed to the “Simcoe House,” corner of Victoria and Richmond Streets, and eventually settled down at his present premises, 252 King Street East. Mr. Hancock married before he came to Canada, his wife being also from Leicestershire.

John Holderness, proprietor of the “Albion Hotel,” was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England, in 1834. He engaged in farming there, and on his arrival in Canada in 1866 followed the same occupation for a short time. Afterwards he worked as hostler at the Black Horse Hotel for six years, and then embarked in the hotel business at Woodbridge. Returning to Toronto at the end of about three years he bought out the Black Horse Hotel, and successfully ran that for nine years. In 1880 Mr. Holderness purchased the property of the “Albion,” and after laying $95,000 out in enlarging, fitting and furnishing, has an hotel which for comfort and convenience is equal to any in Toronto. He can accommodate three hundred and fifty guests, and has excellent facilities for dining a great number.

Thomas Holmes, “Red Lion” Hotel, Yorkville, is a native of Ireland, and came to Canada in 1840, settling in the Gore of Toronto, where for eleven years he worked at farming. About this time he married Mary McCourt, also from Ireland, and then opened an hotel at Thistleton, in the Township of Etobicoke. He afterwards kept the “Albany House” for over twenty-two years, removing in 1852 to his present establishment, which he bought from Robert Nixon. The “Red Lion” Hotel is one of the oldest in Yorkville, and under the efficient management of Mr. Holmes is well patronized.

W. J. Howell, hotel proprietor, was born in New York City in 1844. He came to Toronto in 1872, previous to which time he had conducted an hotel in the city of his nativity. He purchased the “Woodbine” on Yonge Street, which place he kept for four years. He then, in conjunction with Mr. Pardee, laid down the Woodbine Race Track, Kingston Road, sinking about $19,000 in the enterprise. It proved a failure, however, the public interest in the affair being small. Disposing of the track to Mr. Joseph Duggan, Mr. Howell remained out of business for some time, but in September, 1883, commenced hotel again at his present premises, 448 Yonge Street, the “Avenue House,” where he can accommodate thirty guests. He was married in Toronto in 1871.

Robert Irving, proprietor of the “Pioneer Hotel” at Seaton Village, is a native of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. He came out in May, 1873, and at once settled in Toronto. He learned in his youth the trade of blacksmith, and followed the same here up to September, 1883, when he leased and took possession of the above-named house, where he is doing a good local and constantly improving business. This is one of the oldest houses in this location, having been established over thirty years ago.

E. A. Jones, proprietor of the “Morin House,” 483 Kingston Road, is one of the few individuals who, in spite of all obstacles that misfortune places before them, have by resolution, courage and energy, emerged from times of difficulty and failure that would have disheartened most men. He was born in Vermont, his people having originally come from Wales. His grandfather was killed in the “Revolutionary War;” and when he was thirteen years of age his mother died, and he at once started out to face the trials and discomforts of the world alone. He went to Livonia, N.J., and remained there five years; from thence to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he was engaged in an hotel; then returned to New York State, and drove a stage about fourteen years. He came to Canada in 1855, and commenced as omnibus proprietor, owning twelve ’busses and twenty-four horses, but about two years afterwards was burned out, and raided on the corner of Duke and George Streets by cabmen and carters. By this outrage he lost the whole of his vehicles. He managed, however, to continue his business until the introduction of Street Railways, but on their advent he found his occupation in this direction gone, and from that time forward until 1881 he was variously engaged, subsequently renting his present place of business.

John Kemp, proprietor of the “Commercial Hotel,” Jarvis Street, was born in England in 1835. He emigrated to Canada when twenty years of age, settled in Toronto, and for a number of years followed farming and hostlering. In the year 1860 Mr. Kemp commenced hotel-keeping, first at Weston for nine years, then at Yorkville for eight years; quite recently he removed to his present locality, where he does a large and lucrative business. His accommodation both for “man and beast” is excellent, his stables surpassing any in the city. He is also greatly interested in the importation of draught stallions, having sold lately the famous Clyde stallion “Norseman,” which he considers one of the best horses of its kind in Canada.

H. U. Layton, proprietor of the “Caer Howell Hotel,” was born in the building in which he still resides, his father, the late Henry Layton, having been proprietor from 1844 until the time of his death. The house is well-known and popular as a summer resort. Mr. Layton married in 1878, his wife being Florence Jane Mitchell.

William Ledley, hotel proprietor, was born in Stockport, Cheshire, England, in 1832. He emigrated to Canada in 1870, and came direct to Toronto, where he at once entered upon the hotel business, having had previous experience in Manchester, England. Mr. Ledley occupies the same premises now as when he first commenced, 493 Yonge Street, the house bearing the name of its present proprietor, and having accommodation for twenty-five guests. Mr. Ledley married before he left England, and a son and daughter, the issue of his marriage, remain in England.

Thomas Lee, hotel proprietor, 423 Gerrard Street, is the step-son of the late Morgan Kelly (one of the old hotel-keepers of the city) who opened out on Jarvis Street in 1851, subsequently building, on the corner of Gerrard and River Streets, the hotel known as the “Shamrock.” He died in 1860, and for two years the place was carried on by his widow, but her death taking place in 1862, the business has since been carried on by the present proprietor. The hotel has a frontage of sixty-six feet.

Henry Lemon was born in England, in 1834, and came with his father and family to Toronto in 1841. His father conducted an hotel on Yonge Street, and the son remained at home till 1857, when he went to Thornhill, and commenced hotel-keeping on his own account. At this he remained until 1879, when he returned to this city and opened the hotel he at present occupies, 158 King Street. Mr. Lemon married in 1857 Sarah Miller, daughter of the late Nathan Miller, who was well-known in his section.

William Lush, hotel proprietor, is a native of Dorsetshire, England, where he was born in 1847. He came to Canada with his family in 1875, and at once entered the service of the Hon. D. L. Macpherson, as butler, having previously occupied similar positions in England. After a few months he was employed at the “Toronto Club,” first as head waiter, but afterwards was promoted to the position of steward, which he occupied for three and a-half years. In 1882 he embarked in the hotel known as “Marble Hall,” 66 Jarvis Street, where he is working up a respectable trade. Mr. Lush married in England Maria Louise Southgate.

John McCaffrey, hotel proprietor, is a native of Ireland, and was brought up on his father’s farm in Fermanagh, Ireland. He emigrated to Canada in 1865, and on his arrival in Toronto joined the 10th Royals, and was present at the skirmish with the Fenians at the time of the raid. He afterwards followed the employment of a baker, and also entered the service of the Street Railway Company for six years, and then went to Ireland for a brief trip. Upon his return to Toronto he opened the “Rose and Crown,” 148 Front Street East, where he can room forty guests and at the present time averages seventy daily at dinner. He married in 1870 Ann Jane Johnstone, a native of Enniskillen.

Andrew McCully, hotel proprietor, was born in North Augusta, near Brockville, 1851. He was the youngest son of Henry McCully, who removed his family from Augusta to Bishop’s Mills in 1857, where they still reside. At the latter place Andrew learned the trade of shoemaker, which he continued to follow until he entered upon the hotel business. In 1871 he came to Toronto, and in 1873 he married Amelia Marsh, daughter of Leonard Marsh. The hotel which Mr. McCully conducts is situated on the corner of Jarvis and Front Streets, and has accommodation for thirty guests. He has succeeded in working up a very good and paying business, and tries in every way to make his guests comfortable.

James McFarland, deceased, was a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, and while yet young sought a prospective fortune in Canada. In 1870 he married and subsequently entered the hotel business. He opened the “Royal Arms,” which he ran for twelve years until his death. His widow, Christiana McFarland, still carries on the business; the house being able to accommodate from thirty to forty guests.

Francis McGarry, proprietor of the “Duke of Connaught” Hotel, 200 Front Street East, was born in the County of Leitrim, Ireland, in 1834. His father was a farmer, and young McGarry’s early days were spent upon the farm. Probably not appreciating the monotonous life of rural labour, he entered the service of the “Irish Constabulary,” and for seven years formed one of that body, whose achievements are closely connected with the political history of Ireland. Mr. McGarry emigrated to Canada in 1861, and for a short time took up his residence near Guelph, but on coming to Toronto he immediately joined the police force, and continued in that body during five and a-half years as constable and detective. He then removed to Ottawa and joined the police there, but owing to poor health returned to Toronto and opened a grocery and liquor store at the corner of Dorset and King Streets. He remained here about one year, and then opened an hotel on Church Street, stayed three years; and at the end of that time moved to the Esplanade, where he remained five years. In October, 1877, Mr. McGarry purchased his present premises, and has accommodation for twenty guests. In 1869 he married Mary Kehoe, by whom he has six children.

James McGinn was born in the County Armagh, Ireland, in 1835, and settled in Toronto in 1845. In 1861 he went to California. After remaining there three years he returned to Toronto and commenced the hotel business in the “Golden City Hotel,” King Street West. In 1871 he went into the cigar trade, in which he continued until 1875, when he opened the “Royal Billiard Rooms,” 79 King Street West. In 1879 he again went into the hotel business at 102 Bay Street, where he still remains.

John Mallindine, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1837, and came to Canada in 1859. He located in Toronto, and engaged in the upholstery business on King Street East, which he carried on up to 1873. He purchased vacant lots on the corner of Grant Street and Kingston Road, and erected his present block, comprising an hotel and three stores. Mr. Mallindine carries on the hotel business, as well as a shoe store and butcher trade. He has been identified with the improvements in St. Matthew’s Ward, having built several fine houses in this locality. In the rear of his hotel he has an Armoury 28 × 16, and a Hall of 22 × 50 feet. His buildings have a frontage of 200 feet on the Kingston Road and Grant Street.

James Melrick, proprietor of the “Alexander Hotel,” 102 Queen Street West, was born in Toronto, 1846, and is the eldest son of the late James Melrick, who was one of the first to run the stage from Toronto to Holland Landing. Mr. James Melrick, jun’r, has been in the hotel business since a boy, and was employed at the Rossin House at the time of the fire, on that occasion having a narrow escape, only being saved by leaping from one of the upper windows. He next went to the Queen’s Hotel, remaining there three years. He was in Chicago from 1865 to 1877, and on his return to Toronto during the latter year he engaged as manager for Edward Hanlan (the famous oarsman) at his hotel on the Island, remaining with him until he began on his own account in 1882. Mr. Melrick’s experience enables him to conduct his business with success, at the same time paying every attention to the comfort and requirements of his patrons. He has accommodation for forty guests.

James Nealon, grocer and liquor dealer, was born at Newmarket, in the County of York, in 1850. He was the youngest in a family of ten children, and the only one of the family born in Canada. In early life he was apprenticed with Henry Mintern, of Newmarket, to learn the business of carpenter. At the expiration of his term he worked at his trade in Toronto for three years, and afterwards for two years in Rochester, U.S. Returning again to Toronto in 1875, he commenced the grocery and liquor business on the north-east corner of Wilton Avenue and Sumach Streets. He remained here eighteen months, and then embarked in his present prosperous business at 197 and 199 King Street East, which is the largest of its kind in Toronto. In 1876 Mr. Nealon married Mary Riordan, adopted daughter of Mr. Thomas O’Connor, of Balmy Beach, east of the Woodbine race-course.

Patrick O’Connor, hotel proprietor, was born near the Village of Nobleton, in King Township, York County, in 1848. His first commencement in business was as junior clerk in O’Hagan & Company’s grocery establishment at Stratford, where he only remained six months. His next employment was with William Munsie, of Nobleton, and on the latter removing to Woodbridge, he went to that place with him. In April, 1875, Mr. O’Connor came to Toronto and entered the employment of Mr. Thomas O’Connor, King Street East, with whom he remained about four years. He afterwards commenced business for himself on Front Street, near the Haymarket. “The O’Connor House” is well-known, and in its line of business is unsurpassed in the city. Mr. O’Connor married, in 1877, Mary Ann Cahill.

M. O’Halloran, proprietor of the “Deer Park Hotel,” is a native of this city, being the son of Michael O’Halloran, who emigrated from Ireland in 1832, and for many years kept an hotel on the present site of the Ontario Bank, which was known as the “Cove of Cork.” He afterwards bought some land on which he built the “Deer Park Hotel” in 1862. He died in August, 1865; the place was then leased and the family removed to the city. In 1878 Mr. O’Halloran returned to the hotel which his father had erected, where he has since continued to reside.

Joseph O’Hara, hotel proprietor, was born in the City of Toronto, in 1853. His early education was received at the School of the Christian Brothers. He commenced business in the dry-goods trade, but left it for a few months’ experience in the lumbering districts. He returned again to Toronto, when he entered the firm of T. Walls & Co., where he remained six years. He afterwards took a position in the establishment of Hughes Bros., and stayed there five years. Leaving Toronto, he commenced to travel for Messrs. Skelton Bros., of Montreal, and continued to do so until 1884, when he started the “Continental Hotel,” corner of Simcoe and Wellington Streets. This property Mr. O’Hara owns, and its close proximity to the Union Station renders it very convenient for travellers. It is a well conducted and comfortable house, entirely new, with all the latest appliances, heating apparatus, etc., and should be well patronized.

T. H. O’Neil, hotel and restaurant, 60 Adelaide Street East, is a native of County Mayo, Ireland, being the fifth son of James O’Neil, land agent. T. H. O’Neil came to Canada in 1841, and in 1848 established his present business.

John Orbison, proprietor of the “Ulster House,” 90 Esplanade Street, was born in Philadelphia, U. S. His parents were natives of the Emerald Isle, and at the age of eight years he accompanied them back to their native land. In County Down he received his education and, later, was instructed in the trade of a machinist. In 1873 he returned to this continent and worked in various places at several branches of industry. He was employed for six years on the Nipissing Railway, on leaving which he entered into the hotel business, having previously married Elizabeth Leslie, daughter of Joseph Leslie, Highland Creek, Scarboro’ Township. On a pressure Mr. Orbison can well accommodate fifty guests, and generally his success in business is to be attributed to the comfort with which he always provides his patrons.

John Oulcott, proprietor of the “Eglinton House,” Yonge Street, is a native of Staffordshire, England, and came to Canada in 1863. He was with Thomson & Burns as china packer seven years, after which he opened a crockery store on Yonge Street, and continued in the business until 1872. He kept the “Globe” hotel at Carlton about five years, subsequently taking charge of the “Dovercourt Road Hotel” and keeping the same until 1882. In 1883 he built the large and commodious three-storey brick hotel, which has a frontage of forty-eight feet and a depth of one hundred feet, with large sheds and stables, and took possession the same year. This house is a credit to the locality in which it is situate, and stands on the site of “Montgomery’s Hotel,” one of the most historic spots in this vicinity.

Joseph Power, proprietor of the “Power House,” corner of King and Brock Streets, was born in Halifax, N. S., and has been a resident of Toronto since 1854. He first kept the hotel known as the “Royal George,” corner of Queen and Bathurst, subsequently removing to the “Hamilton House,” King Street, and in 1879 he erected his present large and commodious hotel, which has a frontage of 25 x 125 feet, and is three storeys in height.

Alex. Purse is a native of the North of Ireland and came to Canada with his father, Wm. Purse, in 1845. He has been identified with hotel interests in this city for the last twelve years. His place of business is located on Adelaide Street West, and is known as “Purse’s Hotel.” Retired in 1881.

R. H. Reid, proprietor of the “City Hotel,” is the eldest son of Joseph Reid, who came to Toronto in 1837. He was colour-sergeant in the 66th Regiment, and was in the hotel business from 1854 to 1870. He died in 1873. R. H., his son, has been engaged in the hotel business for the past five years. His hotel is situate at the corner of Front and Simcoe Streets, has a frontage of 40 x 75 feet, and is three storeys in height.

Samuel Richardson, hotel-keeper, is from the County of Antrim, Ireland, being the eldest son of Robert Richardson, a man well-known in that county. Samuel served in the 13th Hussars from 1858 to 1869, having during that time seen a great deal of foreign service. His regiment came to Canada in 1866, and on its being ordered home again two years later, through the medium of friends in Toronto (his period of service not having expired) he was allowed to remain in Canada as a military settler. The first position he obtained was in connection with the survey party on the Nipissing Railway, with whom he continued until the running of the first train. In 1871 he returned to Toronto and commenced the hotel business on Teraulay Street, where he remained two years. He then purchased the property on which his present hotel stands, corner of King and Brock, known as the “Richardson House,” where, when necessity arises, he can room nearly one hundred guests. To industry and perseverance Mr. Richardson owes his continued success: possessing nothing on his arrival, he is now worth $40,000. He was married in 1872 to Emma Moore, who was born in the County of Grey, though of English parentage; her father still living in that district.

Wolstan Riley, proprietor of the “Victoria Hotel,” at the corner of Caer Howell Street, was born at the Cape of Good Hope. His father, William Riley, was for many years a cattle dealer at that port during the Kaffir war. The son visited England in 1856, and soon after came to America and was three years in Buffalo; in 1859 he came to this city and carried on the butcher business for two years. He was one year at sea on the “Anglo-Saxon,” and was shipwrecked and washed ashore at Cape Blaght, Newfoundland. He then came back to Ontario and engaged in the hotel business. He has kept seventeen different hotels, thirteen of which were in this city. He established himself at his present location in 1882.

Susanna Robinson, proprietress of the hotel known as the “Gladstone House,” situated at 1068 Queen Street West, was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1825, and came to Canada with her grandfather in 1837. She lived with her grandfather until her marriage with Mr. Nixon Robinson, brewer, of Toronto, which took place in 1846. Mrs. Robinson has had considerable experience in the hotel business, her husband having kept an hotel at Kleinburg, “The Red Lion Hotel,” Yorkville, “Globe Hotel,” city, and the house occupied by her at present. Her husband died some time ago, leaving her with a family of thirteen children. Mrs. Robinson has accommodation in busy times for fifty guests.

Thomas E. Scholes, proprietor of the “Scholes Hotel,” situated at 864 Queen Street West, Dundas Street corner. He was born in Quebec, but came to Toronto with his father and family in 1857, then being only three years of age. He served his apprenticeship at Gurney & Co.’s at the trade of a moulder, and after leaving there worked for four years with his brother on Albert Street, after which he commenced business at the hotel above mentioned. His success has been marked, and his strict attention to the requirements of his patrons is well known. Recently Mr. Scholes built the large hotel at Parkdale (plans by Mr. James Davis), on the corner of King and Queen Streets, which was only opened in December last, and at the present time an addition of fifty rooms is being made to it. In 1877 Mr. Scholes married Ann Jane Scholes, daughter of the late Richard Scholes.

John Shannessy, proprietor of the “Royal Hotel,” Yonge Street, is a native of Ireland, and was born in 1834, in the County of Limerick. He came with his father and family to Canada in 1840 and settled in Toronto, and for twenty-five years navigated the lakes in different steamers. About eighteen years ago Mr. Shannessy commenced the hotel business at the “Niagara House,” Yonge Street, and afterwards removed to the “Royal Saloon” on King Street. In 1876 he opened his present premises, which he owns, and conducts a prosperous business. As President of the Toronto Branch of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association, Mr. Shannessy is deservedly popular, his energy and perseverance being of material assistance to that society. In 1862 he married Jane Thompson, by whom he has four children.

Richard Slees, proprietor of “Slees’ Hotel,” 789 Yonge Street, is a native of Devonshire, England, and came to Canada in 1872. He was engaged in the brewing business about ten years, and in 1882 bought the suburban hotel where he is at present located, and is doing a good local and country trade.

Daniel Small, hotel proprietor, was born in Adjala, Simcoe County, 1843. About ten years ago he came to Toronto and commenced business at an hotel on Queen Street West, which he conducted for about five years. At the end of this period he entered on his present venture—the “Grand Opera House Saloon,” 13 Adelaide Street West, where he has excellent accommodation for fifteen guests. Mr. Small married in 1862 Ellen Brazell, whose family were residents of Bond Head.

William Smith, “Osgoode Hotel,” corner of Chestnut and Queen Street West. The proprietor of this establishment has been in the hotel business about ten years, his first venture being as caterer at the Union Station, where he remained until 1879, taking possession of the “Osgoode Hotel” in that year. The premises have a frontage of 50 x 150 feet, and are three storeys high.

John Somers, proprietor of the “Sportsman Hotel,” No. 11 and 13 Albert Street, is a native of Ireland and came to Canada in 1842. He first located in Quebec, where he remained until 1850, and afterwards coming to Toronto worked at his trade, that of a cabinet-maker, until 1853. He engaged in the cab business for nine years, and, on giving up that vocation, commenced an hotel at the corner of Elm and Elizabeth Streets known as the “Dove Hotel,” continuing there for two years. He next took charge of the “Prince of Wales’ ” hotel, Yonge Street, and before he opened his present premises had charge of the “Durham House.”

S. Stroud, hotel-keeper, 54 Bay Street, was born in Kent, England, in July, 1821, and settled in Toronto in 1837. In 1844 he commenced the hotel business at the corner of King and Sherbourne Streets. In the same year he married Sarah Wilson, the daughter of a U. E. Loyalist.

Arthur Gerard Taylor, proprietor of the “Taylor House,” corner of Agnes and Elizabeth Streets, is a native of Banffshire, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1873, taking up his residence in this city. He was four years on the Scotch police, and was eight years on the police force of this city. In April, 1882, he succeeded Mr. Patterson in the above popular hotel and restaurant.

Charles Walker, proprietor of the “Crown Hotel,” 81 Bay Street, was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, 1847. When quite young he was employed by a firm of tube-makers in Glasgow, with whom he remained ten years, afterwards working for a Mr. Richmond in the same business. He emigrated to Canada in the year 1871 and came direct to Toronto, remaining but a short time however, Port Hope being his next destination. There he was engaged with Mr. Smart, postmaster; but ultimately he returned to Toronto and served for eleven years at the “Walker House” under Mr. David Walker, his half-brother. He commenced hotel-keeping on his own account in 1882 at the premises he at present occupies, where he has good accommodation for twenty-five guests; including also a fine billiard room. Mr. Walker married, in 1872, Elizabeth Moore, from Southampton, England. He intends shortly to enlarge his hotel; his increasing business necessitating this outlay.

David Walker, proprietor of the well-known and high-class hotel named after its owner. This building was erected by James Smith in 1873, and since that time has been enlarged on two occasions, viz., 1875 and 1878, the alterations at the latter date doubling its accommodating capacity. Since its erection the hotel has been entirely under the proprietorship of Mr. Walker, who in the management has the able assistance of Mr. Wright, whose connection with the travelling community is well-known. There are one hundred and twenty-five rooms at the “Walker House,” and excellent accommodation for three hundred guests.

John Henry Westman, hotel-keeper, was born in Toronto, January 10th, 1856. His father (the late Samuel Westman) was a York pioneer, and in the early days of the city kept hotel on Adelaide Street, Church Street and Market Square. Mr. Westman learned the trade of machinist with Mr. John Fensom, which occupation he followed up to the time of his father’s death. His first venture in the hotel business was on Colborne Street, from which (after a trial of eighteen months’ duration) he removed to his present hotel on Jarvis Street, “The Westman,” where he does a good trade. Mr. Westman married in 1879 Anna Williams, daughter of the Inspector of the Esplanade.

E. W. Williams, hotel proprietor, was born in Newcastle, England, in 1833. In 1861 he came to Canada and located in Toronto, where he engaged in the hotel business, having built the house on Front and Bathurst Streets. Three years later he purchased the “Algeria Hotel,” corner of Niagara and Bathurst Streets, which he is carrying on at the present time. His hotel has a frontage of 104 × 105, and is three storeys in height, built of brick.

George Williams, Esplanade Inspector, was born at Petty Harbour, Newfoundland, July 31st, 1831. He came with his parents to Toronto when only seven years of age. Brought up to no particular business, he engaged in various occupations during the early portion of his life, some time of which he spent on the lakes, owning a trading schooner, which he ran for some years. He entered the hotel business at No. 6 West Market Street, “Williams’ Hotel,” which he conducted successfully for twenty-one years. Discontinuing the hotel business he still retains his office of Esplanade constable (to which he had some time previously been appointed), and by his urbanity and general kindliness of disposition earns the respect of all who know him. Mr. Williams was twice married, first in 1855 to Eliza Boyd, and secondly to Jane, widow of the late Samuel Westman.

John Wilson, proprietor of the “Wilson House,” 111 York Street, was born in Dublin, Ireland, 1846. He came with his father and family to Canada in 1850 and settled in Toronto. He early learned the trade of a machinist with F. H. Medcalf, after which he followed his business in New York State, U. S. Again he came to Toronto and became foreman for Joab Scales, tobacconist, till 1875, when he embarked in the hotel business at the above mentioned house, where he can accommodate sixty guests. In 1870 Mr. Wilson married Barbara Murray, daughter of Peter Murray, one of the first settlers in the Township of Mono.

John R. Wilson, “Durham House,” 624 Yonge Street, was born at Thornhill Village, York County, 1848. Served an apprenticeship to harness making at his birthplace, but did not follow it up. He travelled for the firm of Taylor & Wilson about nine years, and was agent for Thomas Davies & Co. about one year. In the year 1880 he entered upon his present business at the above mentioned address, where he has accommodation in crowded times for twenty-five guests. He married, in 1875, Diana Hardy, who is a native of this county.

Thomas Wilson, hotel proprietor, was born in Yorkshire, England, 1834. His father, George Wilson, emigrated to the United States in 1837 and settled in the Village of Antwerp, Jefferson County, N. Y. At the end of one year’s residence he removed from there to Guelph in Canada. Mr. Thomas Wilson, served his apprenticeship in Galt at carriage-making, and on completing his term returned to Guelph, where he worked at his trade for Scott & Watson. Eighteen months afterwards he commenced business on his own account at Wilson’s Corners (the place being named after him), where he remained from 1856 to 1860. Subsequently he removed to Mount Forest, staying there about eleven years, conducting during that period first the “Anglo-American” and afterwards the “Palmerston” hotels. The enterprise of Mr. Wilson next took him to Durham, the “British” hotel falling to his management for two years, after which he went to Orangeville and secured the control of the Toronto, Grey & Bruce Refreshment Rooms, where he remained until burnt out six years later. In 1879 he came to Toronto and opened the well-known “Wilson’s Hotel,” 151-153 Bathurst Street, where he accommodates thirty guests. Mr. Wilson married, in 1854, Mary Channing, whose relatives belong to Devonshire, England.

William Woods, proprietor of the “Leslie Hotel,” Kingston Road, was born in King’s County, Ireland, and came to Canada in May, 1853. For seven years he occupied a position in the warehouse of Robert Reford, establishing himself in the grocery and liquor business at the corner of Caroline and King Streets afterwards. From this locality he removed to the corner of Sackville and King Streets, remaining there till he bought and took possession of the above hotel in 1876. In connection with this hotel he has a garden and conservatory, and also owns a lot near the lake for the use of guests desirous of boating or fishing. His premises have a frontage of 81 × 230 feet.

Jethro Worden, hotel proprietor, was born in Kingston Township, Addington County, the birthplace also of his parents. His father, John Worden, was a prominent farmer in that neighbourhood and in the early days owned a large amount of property. His son, Jethro, adopted the trade of a machinist, and was the first to establish an organ reed manufactory in the Dominion. He selected Toronto for his venture, and in 1878 opened the place on Adelaide Street West, now known as Augustus Newall & Co.’s. In 1881 Mr. Worden purchased his present premises and embarked in the hotel business—17 and 19 Adelaide Street West, “Grand Opera Hotel,” where twenty guests can be made comfortable. He married in 1867 Sarah Hudson, whose family originally came from Devonshire, England.

House-Furnishings.

William Cottrell, manufacturer and dealer in copper, iron and tin-plate hardware. Established in 1866.

Robert M. Larter, house-furnishings, etc., 433 Yonge Street, was born in the County of Wellington, and served twelve years in the stove manufacturing business, commencing for himself in the early part of 1882 at the above address where he does a general and increasing trade in stoves, tinware, etc.

Thomas J. Spink, house furnishings, stoves, etc., 92 Queen Street West, was born in the Town of Dundas, and came to Toronto in 1878. He has been four years in his present business, and by close application and earnest attention thereto has made it successful. Mr. Spink employs from five to seven hands.

Ice Dealers.

Dominion Ice Delivery, 320 and 322 King Street East, Charles Burns, proprietor. Established in 1866. Mr. Burns has two ice-houses on King Street East, 50 × 100 feet each; four on Water Street, three of which are 40 × 60 feet, and one 40 × 96 feet; one on Carlaw Avenue, 30 × 135 feet. Stores from thirteen to fourteen thousand tons annually, and runs six double and several single waggons. Employs about fifteen men in the summer time; in the winter time, eighty men and twenty-five teams. He secures his ice mostly from the lake, and has testimonials from Thomas Heys, Professor of Chemistry in the Toronto School of Medicine, as to the purity of his ice for 1884. Mr. Burns was Grand President of the Emerald Beneficial Association of Ontario, assembled at St. Catharines in 1884; also President of the Toronto Ice Association, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Separate School Board of Toronto, of which he has been a member for twenty-four years, and a Justice of the Peace for the County of York. He was born in the County Wicklow, Ireland, in 1840, and settled in Toronto in 1849. He first engaged in the flour and feed business, subsequently in grocery and liquors, both of which he is still engaged in together with his ice business.

John C. Graham, 81 Esplanade East, proprietor of ice delivery, established in 1874. Ice-house, 87 Esplanade (Metropolitan Ice-house), 63 × 152 feet and 30 feet high, capacity, six thousand tons; one on Cecil Street, 96 × 43 feet, and 20 feet high, capacity one thousand, eight hundred tons; one on Lake Street 110 × 50 feet and 18 feet high, capacity two thousand, two hundred tons. Employs eight delivery waggons; and in summer eleven hands. In winter he elevates by horse-power and runs two gangs of men, eighteen each and six horses. Puts up about tons annually. Settled in Toronto in 1857, and is an iron founder by trade, in which capacity he was engaged for twelve years.

Mrs. Catherine Greenwood, Kingston Road, ice dealer and hotel proprietor, established in 1864 by John Greenwood, who was also a carriage-maker and painter.

Jewellers and Watchmakers.

Benjamin Chapman, watchmaker and jeweller, 261 Yonge Street, is a native of Belfast, Ireland, where he learned his trade and carried on business for sixteen years. He came to Canada in 1864, and ten years later established himself in business at his present store, where he has a first-class connection, his specialty being fine work.

J. E. Ellis & Co., jewellers, etc. 1 King Street East. This business was established in 1836, and does a large retail trade in all kinds of jewellery, watches, clocks, etc. The firm is composed of James E. Ellis and M. T. Cain.

G. Gowland, watchmaker and jeweller, 174½ King Street East, established his business in 1874, and does a general retail trade, repairing, etc.

John Marshall Parkinson, manufacturing jeweller, 13½ Richmond Street East, was born in Toronto, being the eldest son of Reuben Parkinson, a native of the United States, who came to Toronto in 1819 and died here in 1879, aged eighty-six years. Mr. Parkinson commenced business in 1860 at his present address, where he does all kinds of solid work for the trade.

J. Segsworth & Co., importers of Swiss and American watches and English and American fine gold jewellery, 23 Scott Street. The business was established on Yonge Street in 1860, and removed to its present location in 1874. It is exclusively wholesale, two travelling agents being employed. Mr. Segsworth was born in Toronto in 1837. His father, John Segsworth, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1806, and settled in Toronto in 1831; he died in 1872.

Charles Ward, 223 Queen Street East, is a manufacturing jeweller and electro-plater, conducting business at this address. He first commenced business on Queen Street West in 1856, removing in 1876 to his present premises. Mr. Ward is a native of New York City, and came to Toronto in 1841.

George Ward, manufacturing jeweller, 27 Colborne Street, is a native of New York State, and first commenced business in this city on Toronto Street in 1853. He remained here five years, subsequently removing to King Street, and in 1876 occupied his present place of business, 27 Colborne Street, Toronto, Ontario. He treats with the trade wholesale, but does a retail trade as well.

Henry T. Windt, gold chain manufacturer, 38 Scott Street, is a native of New York City, and in 1881 commenced business in Toronto in the above line.

Law Stationers.

David H. Doust, manager for the Toronto Law Form Company, lithographers, printers and law stationers, 326 Adelaide Street East, is a native of London, England, having there learned his business. He came to Canada in 1868 and soon afterwards commenced business at the Masonic Hall, Toronto Street. He was with Mr. Carswell for about five years, and in 1877 took the law stationery part of the business, which he continued for a time. He established himself in business at his present location in 1883.

J. M. Dransfield, law book and law form stationer, 28 Front Street East, was born in Manchester, England, and came to Canada in 1862, but two years later returned to England, and on coming back to Canada in 1866 travelled for a Montreal firm. On his settlement in Toronto he opened a wholesale fancy goods store on Yonge Street. He moved to Kingston and took charge of the Bonded Vinegar Works at that place, staying but a short time however, and returned to Toronto and became connected with Mr. Carswell in the law book and law form stationery business. In 1877 Mr. Dransfield took possession of the business of James G. Owen, in which line he has since continued.

Livery Stables.

Allan Bolton, proprietor of the cab, coupé and livery stable at 331 Yonge Street, is a native of London, England, and came to this city in May, 1884. Established himself at once in this business. Keeps twelve horses, runs five cabs and a variety of new and tasty turn-outs, and trusts by attention to his customers to merit a fair share of the trade.

Frank Campbell, veterinary surgeon and proprietor of sales and boarding stables, 30, 32 and 34 Richmond Street West. This gentleman graduated in 1874 at the Ontario Veterinary College, and practised his profession at Rochester and Canandaigua, N.Y., up to 1878. His father, Duncan Campbell, President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Ontario, dying that year, Mr. Frank Campbell came to Toronto and located at the address above, and at present is in the possession of a large city practice.

Frederick Doane, proprietor of livery, cab and boarding stables, 619 to 623 Yonge Street, is a native of this city, being the son of the late Henry Doane, who came from England to this country in 1851, and followed the occupation of blacksmith for several years in this city. In 1866 he started the livery stable business, subsequently building the premises where the trade is now carried on. At his death, which occurred in 1868, Frederick assumed control of the business, which he still successfully conducts. He owns thirty horses and runs six cabs.

Grand & Walsh, proprietors of the extensive sale stables, 47, 49, 51 and 53 Adelaide Street West. This justly celebrated firm has established a world-wide reputation, and is fast becoming one of the prominent institutions of this country—being the largest business of its kind on this continent. They sold over four thousand horses by auction last year, the sales taking place every Tuesday and Friday. They buy and sell large numbers of horses, aside from doing an extensive commission business; they also do a large business in selling blooded horses on commission, and this branch, though lately established, is becoming one of the important features of their trade. They also run in connection with their business twenty-five horses in livery and twenty-five one-horse cabs, running night and day. They have telephone communication with all parts of the city. The business was established by the late Joseph Grand in 1855, who was an Englishman by birth, and came to Canada about the above date, doing a business on a small scale at the start, his attention being devoted to the sales business. His death occurred in 1877, W. D. Grand taking the business soon after; the firm of Walsh & Grand was formed in 1879. Their trade extends throughout the Dominion, United States and England. They have supplied, and continue to supply, the garrison at Halifax. Capacity of their stable is for one hundred and fifty horses. Their buildings have a frontage of 90 × 250 feet. Mr. Grand is the auctioneer and manages the office department; Mr. Walsh doing the buying outside. The sale business is carried on after the plan of the famous “Tattersall” stables in England; horses are sold by guaranteed catalogue.

C. G. Longbottom, proprietor of livery and boarding stables, 16 Adelaide Street West, has been a resident of this city since he was three years of age. In the year 1884 he bought out the livery business where he is at present located, and he is now prepared to give satisfaction to the general public.

James McCarron, Jr., proprietor of livery, cab, sales and boarding stables, 19 to 21 Queen Street East, is the son of the late James McCarron, a native of Ireland, who took up his residence in this city in 1852, and engaged in various occupations, finally entering the hotel business which is yet in the hands of the family. His son James was born in Toronto, and started his present business in 1880. He owns nine horses and two cabs, and is doing a largely increasing business.

John Mitchell, proprietor of livery, sales and boarding stables, 16 and 18 Duke Street, is a native of Clare County, Ireland, and came to Canada with his parents when very young. His father died of cholera soon after his arrival here in 1832. Mr. Mitchell, during his long residence in the city, has in turns adopted other branches of business besides the one he is at present engaged in, having been in the grocery and also hotel line. He commenced as livery stable proprietor in 1855, and has done a continuous business for nineteen years. He owns from twenty to thirty horses, and does a large trade.

J. L. Scott & Co., proprietor of boarding, livery and sales stables, 8 and 10 Duke Street. Business established by the above firm in 1880, where they keep about twenty horses for the use of their customers, and are prepared to give the best accommodation in their line.

Isaac Stutten, proprietor of hack and coupé business, 550 Yonge Street, was born in Perth, and came to this city in 1864. He was connected with the hosiery business for several years, and in 1880 retired from the same and started his present business. He runs a hack, coupé, and rockaway, owns the building, and is about to increase his stock.

George C. Tumlin, proprietor of sales and commission stables, 56 George Street, is a native of the State of Maryland, and came to Canada in 1865, settling at once in this city, and starting the business he still successfully carries on. In 1868 he established himself at his present location, where he does an extensive horse trade, having large contracts with Michigan lumber firms, and also with the Buffalo Street Car Company.

George Verrall, cab, coupé, and boarding stable proprietor, 11 to 19 Mercer Street, was born in Sussex, England, and came to Canada in 1846, settling at once in this city. Before commencing in his present business he was in the employ of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, first in connection with the survey party, afterwards as an official. His livery business is one of the oldest in the city, and as an instance of what may be accomplished by perseverance and energy we may mention that he started business with a single one-horse cab, while at the present time he owns thirty-two horses and fifteen cabs and coupés. Mr. Verrall is Alderman for St. George’s Ward.

Locksmiths.

Thomas Hicks, locksmith and bell-hanger, 11 Richmond Street East, was born in England, and came to Canada in 1867. He had before this worked at his trade of locksmith in New York for two years, and on his arrival in Toronto he located on Yonge Street, removing four years later to his present address. Mr. Hicks has the sole agency for the Province of Ontario of Zindar’s patent pneumatic bell, which has a large and increasing sale. He has done most of the bell-hanging in Toronto for this patent, which has given great satisfaction. During the last three years he has taken the prize for locks at the Exhibition.

John & E. H. Roberts, proprietors of the “Beaver Lock Works,” established 1868, manufacture keys and locks to order. Locksmiths to Toronto Post-office, Dominion Postal Service, Central Prison, Mercer Reformatory, Toronto Jail and Public Schools. Also manufacture white metal, house door numbers and street corner tablets, for which they are contractors to the City of Toronto. Employ six men. At the Industrial Exhibitions of 1883-4 they were awarded four first prizes, two diplomas and two bronze medals.

Marble Works.

J. G. Gibson, proprietor of steam marble works, 417 to 425 Parliament Street. Established in 1868. He imports from Italy and the United States, and supplies to smaller dealers in the rough. He makes a specialty of marble mantels. This is the only steam works in the city, and gives employment to twelve men. Mr. Gibson received the first prizes at the Toronto Exhibitions of 1876, 1880 and 1882 for mantels, those being the only years he exhibited. He deals largely in slate also.

Frederick B. Gullett, granite and marble works, 100 and 102 Church Street, was born in Devonshire, England, in 1842, and came to America in 1857. He remained in New York until 1868, and removed in that year to Toronto, and commenced business at the above location. He executes monuments, sculpture and carved work of all descriptions in marble, granite and stone. He first introduced the celebrated Bay of Fundy red granite, for monumental and building purposes, and is also wholesale dealer in all kinds of granite and foreign marble. He employs from fifteen to twenty men, and distributes his work over Ontario, and various parts of the United States. The carved work of the New Post-office, Queen City Insurance Company’s office, McMaster’s warehouse, and numerous public buildings of the city was executed by Mr. Gullett.

J. E. Pearen, 535 Yonge Street, importer of marble and granite. Imports marble largely from Italy, having the chief share of this business in the city. He makes a specialty of furniture tops, mantels and building class works. Established in 1875, and employs six hands. Received first prize at Toronto Exhibition for mantel works in 1881. Sells to the trade wholesale marble, in the raw.

Millers.

Alexander Barclay, oat and corn meal mill, 192 King Street East, established his business in 1879. In connection with this he has a flour and feed mill, which was established in 1873.

Milk Dealers.

Fred. Sole, 481½ Yonge Street, Oakville Milk Depôt. Established in 1877, and deals exclusively in country milk. Runs three waggons, and supplies two hundred gallons of milk to his customers daily.

Miscellaneous.

William Armstrong, general smith, 53 Sherbourne Street, is a native of Roxburghshire, Scotland, being the eldest son of George Armstrong, of Newcastleton, also a general smith, who died at Whitby, Ontario, in 1878. Mr. William Armstrong came to Canada in 1862, and established business at Darlington, Ontario, and in 1872 removed to his present place of business.

George F. Bostwick, 50 Church Street, agent for Goldie & McCulloch, safe manufacturers, Galt, commenced business in Toronto in 1874 as a coal merchant, and in 1884 took charge of his present business. He is a native of Toronto, and only son of Mr. George Bostwick, of this city.

N. P. Chaney & Co., feather and mattress renovators, 230 King Street East, established their business in 1880. In 1882 they received a diploma for superior mattresses, feathers and pillows.

A. H. Dixon & Son, 305 King Street West, Catarrh specialists. The head of the firm is a native of Jedburgh, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1857. Previous to establishing his present business he had for a short period followed the profession of accountant, afterwards doing a large trade in wholesale picture dealing.

W. H. Ferguson, builder and contractor, 81½ Bay Street.

James W. Ingham, modeller and designer, 28 Victoria Street, was born in London, England, and came to Canada in 1871. He first located on Wood Street in this city, and engaged in his profession. The ornamental work of the Metropolitan Church, together with several other buildings in Toronto, are the product of his skill. In 1879 Mr. Ingham married Miss Jane Beamish, of this city, by whom he has one daughter.

Addison Norman, proprietor of Norman’s electro-curative appliances and curative baths, 4 Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario. Mr. Norman is a native of Yorkshire, England. He emigrated to Canada in 1863, and for the past twenty years he has been actively engaged in the application of electricity as a curative to the human system. He has also invented several appliances, among which are the Norman Truss and the Acme Electric Belt, brought out in 1879, the only appliance in use that combines galvanism with magnetism consecutively. This appliance transmits two kinds of currents to the body—galvanic and magnetic. The first strengthens, rebuilds and heals the weak and suffering organs; the other charges the iron particles of the blood and causes it to resume its proper circulation; and both have a soothing, strengthening effect upon the nerves. He has also invented a variety of galvanic belts, which have been used with great success in thousands of cases. His magneto-electric belts are manufactured of silk, satin and flannel, the magnets being hermetically sealed and scientifically arranged with appliances. The electrical condition of the blood is now a well-established fact; also in proportion to its electrical condition is the circulation vigorous, and all the functions of life efficiently performed. He has also in connection with his business established electric, sulphur, vapour, steam, herbal, mercurial, hot, cold and shower baths, which are well adapted to the various diseases that the human family are heir to. The utility of these baths has become so general that there is scarcely a large city without one or more. The effect is so marked and permanent that no person can fail to appreciate their value.

Thomson & Sons, dealers in wall paper, etc., 364 Yonge Street. The firm is composed of James Thomson, sen’r, James B., and John G. Thomson.

Music Dealers.

Thomas Claxton, importer and dealer in sheet and book music, band instruments, violins, guitars, etc., and all kinds of musical merchandise, located at 197 Yonge Street. Business established in 1869, first located at 24 Adelaide Street East, where he remained a short time; then removed to his present location. His show-rooms have a frontage of 25 × 125 feet and occupy three flats. Mr. Claxton is one of the oldest music dealers in the city; born in England; came to Canada in 1850.

Nurserymen.

Henry Slight, city nurseries, 407 Yonge Street, is a native of Lincolnshire, England, and came to Canada in 1862, soon after settling in this city. He established himself in his present line of business in 1876. He has conservatories and sales yard at the above location, where he keeps on hand a full assortment of fruit and ornamental trees, plants and shrubs, including a choice variety of roses, vines, cut flowers and decorative plants.

Painters, etc.

Alexander & Son, painters and sign painters. This firm does a good business, employing from ten to twenty hands during the year. It is composed of Henry S. Alexander, who was born in County Armagh, Ireland, and came to Toronto in 1857, and his son, John Alexander.

E. H. Boddy, painter, 245 Queen Street East, is the son of James S. Boddy, a native of County Leitrim, Ireland, who came to Canada in 1830, and followed his trade of carpenter and builder for many years. He died in 1872. His son learned the trade of painter with the late Mr. Alexander Hamilton, and worked for nineteen years after as journeyman. He then established himself in business, which up to the present time he has worked successfully.

George H. Clayton, house painter and decorator, 57 Yorkville Avenue, is a native of Lancashire, England, and came to Canada in 1864; settled in this city and commenced his present business, which he has since successfully carried on.

Charles D. S. Corin, sign painter, was born in Devonshire, England, in 1834. He is the eldest in a family of ten children, and came to Canada with his parents when only ten years of age. He received his early education in this city, and on leaving school decided to follow the same trade as his father—that of a painter; accordingly he was put under the care of Mr. Charles March, from whom he learned his business. In 1861 he married Miss Rebecca Allen, of Scarboro’ Township. Mr. Corin belongs to the Orange body, and is a Conservative in politics; he is a member of the English Church.

M. O’Connor, painter and decorator, 95 Church Street, was born in Ireland in 1830, and at the age of ten years came to Canada with his parents. He learned his trade with Hart & March, of this city, and at the expiration of his apprenticeship commenced business for himself, which he has since carried on. During his business career he has done the painting and decorating of some of the largest buildings in the city, among which may be mentioned the new Post-Office, Central Prison, Inland Revenue Office, Grand Opera House, All Saints’ Church and the New Arcade. He also does a large business in the importation of plate glass, and we may safely say that his trade in this line fully equals that of any one else in the city. Mr. O’Connor is a J.P. for the County of York, and besides fulfilling this public duty with conscientious care, likewise takes a deep interest in the temperance cause. In his business he employs from forty to sixty men.

T. E. Phillips, house decorator, 115 Church Street.

Jeremiah Sears, painter and decorator, 139 Church Street and 22, 24 and 26 Dalhousie Street, was born in Kent, England, in 1823, and came to Canada in 1842. He first located in Quebec, where he worked at his trade, and in 1850 removed to Toronto, commencing the business which he has since successfully conducted. Mr. Sears has done some of the finest work in the city, and is the only one who produces the enamelled white letter signs. He employs from eight to ten hands. He was an officer of the first Painters’ Union, established in 1854, and later on in conjunction with Mr. Fairclough organized a second Union.

R. J. Stanley, painter and decorator, 410 Yonge Street, was born in Toronto in 1844, and is the son of Robert Stanley, of Irish birth, who emigrated to Canada in 1832, and followed his trade of mason in this city for a number of years; he is still living on Seaton Street, being seventy-nine years of age. R. J. Stanley learned his trade with his brother William (late Alderman for St. John’s Ward), with whom he worked as journeyman until they formed the partnership which continued till the death of Alderman Stanley in 1877. Since that date Mr. Stanley has conducted the business alone, and the possession of a thorough practical knowledge of his trade enables him to give every satisfaction in all contracts he undertakes.

Andrew Widdowson, painter and decorator, 89 Wilton Avenue, is a native of Nottinghamshire, England, and came to Canada in 1842. He first located at Kingston, where he worked at his trade, afterwards removing to Toronto. In 1854 he established himself in the grocery business on the corner of Yonge and Shuter Streets, and continued the same for five years, subsequently returning to his original business, which he has since continued to follow.

Paints, Oils and Varnish.

William Elliott, dealer in plate glass, etc., commenced business in Toronto in 1859 as a painter and glazier. In 1878 he began importing British plate glass, and about the same time began the business of staining and enamelling on glass, sand cutting and embossing, figure painting on glass for church and other purposes, which he sends to all parts of the Dominion. Fresco painting, and all kinds of decorative work, etc., are also executed at this establishment, which had heretofore been done by foreign labour. The name of the firm is now Elliott & Son, and they employ on an average from seventy to eighty men, and transact business to the amount of about $60,000 annually. Office address: 94 Bay Street.

The E. Harris Company (Limited), 44 King Street East, importers and dealers in paints, oils, varnishes, window glass, artists’ materials, etc., etc. In 1852 the business was established by Dr. F. H. Simpson, who, a year or two later, admitted W. H. Dunspaugh as partner. On account of ill-health Dr. F. H. Simpson sold his interest to his brother, Dr. E. Simpson. A few years later Dr. E. Simpson sold his interest to James Watson, the style of the firm being Dunspaugh & Watson. Some years after J. L. Margach bought Dunspaugh & Watson out, and he in turn sold to E. Harris. In 1875 E. Harris formed a co-partnership with Henry Burden and E. B. Taylor. In 1878 E. B. Taylor died, and in 1881 E. Harris died, leaving Henry Burden, who formed the present company, of which he is President.

Andrew Muirhead, importer of paints, colours, varnishes, glues, chamois skins, brushes, sponges, bronze powders, etc., 96 Bay Street.

Patent Medicines.

G. G. Green, sole manufacturer of “Boschee’s German Syrup,” Green’s August Flower and Ague Conqueror, at Woodbury, New Jersey. Branch House, 37 Front Street East, Toronto. Established in 1878. M. M. Pitcraft, manager. Sold by wholesale, and by travelling agents.

Northrop & Lyman Co. (Limited), general agents and dealers in patent medicines, 21 Front Street West. The business was established in 1854, and was located in Newcastle, Ontario, for twenty years, being then removed to Toronto, where they at first occupied premises on Scott Street, and in 1879 removed to their present building. The warehouse has a frontage of 30 × 160 feet, with four flats. The firm employ four travellers and about thirty employés in the house, and do a very extensive business. Their trade extends from British Columbia to Halifax.

The Charles A. Vogeler Company, of Baltimore, Md., U. S. A., sole proprietors of “St. Jacob’s Oil,” the “Hamburg” medicines, and other standard specialties. Canadian branch established in Toronto in 1881, of which E. H. Woolley is the manager.

Photographers.

Thomas Adams, 145 and 147 Yonge Street, photographer. Established on King Street East in 1880, and removed to his present location in 1883. Makes a specialty of life-sized portraits. He has been an artist for fourteen years, and worked with Stanton and Vicars in Toronto, and with the Centennial Photograph Company, Philadelphia.

S. J. Dixon, photographer, corner of King and Yonge Streets. Established in 1872, and at present employs ten hands. He exhibited at the Photographers’ Convention at Indianapolis in 1882, and at Milwaukee in 1883, and has received favourable notices in all the journals of art. Received “First Prize” in Toronto in 1883. Mr. Dixon was the first to successfully produce pictures by the Electric Light. He is a member of the Photographers’ Association of America.

Eldridge Stanton, photographer, 134 Yonge Street. This business was established by Stanton and Vicars, in 1877, on King Street East, and was moved to its present location in 1881. Mr. Stanton commenced as a daguerrotypist as early as 1855, and for some years was in business in the United States, being a member of the firm of Stanton & Butler, of Baltimore. Amongst the work executed by them may be mentioned portraits of Generals Grant, Hancock, and Sherman, for which they received $1,000 each. The present firm is doing a good business, and employ five hands. Mr. Stanton is a lineal descendant of Thomas Stanton, of England, who settled and founded “Stonington,” Conn., in 1620. The grandfather of Eldridge settled in what is now Cobourg, Ont., in 1794, and took up a large tract of land. His father, Oliver Stanton, was born at Cobourg in 1801, and is still living.

Picture Frames, etc.

Cook & Bunker, manufacturers of mirror and picture frames, 36 King Street West, established their business in 1879, and do a good local trade. They have also commenced the manufacture of rubber and metal stamps of all descriptions for banks, railroads, business offices, etc. They are doing well in this new line, and are getting in all the latest machinery for the purpose of giving the public the very best kind of stamps that it is possible to manufacture. Operations in this branch of the business were begun on the 1st of October last, and the department is now in full working order.

W. J. Huston, picture frame maker, 18 Adelaide Street West, was born in Toronto in 1851. In 1867 he went to the United States, where he remained until 1880, when he returned to Toronto. He established his business about two years ago.

Plasterers.

Edwin Butt, plasterer, was born in Gloucester, England, in 1812, and emigrated to Canada in 1832, taking up his abode in Toronto, where he has since remained following his trade. In 1846 he married Miss Sarah Davitt, of County Fermanagh, Ireland, by whom he had three children, two of whom are living.

Plumbers.

Bennett & Wright, plumbers and gas-fitters, 72 Queen Street East; established in 1875. This firm do all classes of work in connection with their trade, and employ from fifty to sixty men, and make a specialty of steam and hot-water heating. Mr. Bennett died in 1878, and since then the business has been conducted by his surviving partner, Joseph Wright. He has taken first prize for plumbers’ and engineers’ brass work, silver medal for best sanitary arrangement of water-closets, and bronze medal for hot-water heating.

W. J. Burroughs, plumber and gas-fitter, 315 Queen Street West, established in 1878, employs from twenty-five to forty-five hands; works about equally in plumbing and steam-heating; makes a specialty of fine sanitary plumbing.

James Crapper, plumber and brass founder, 32 Duke Street, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1808. He learned his business in London, England, and became a sub-contractor with one of the largest gas and water-works contractors of the time, by whom he was sent to Montreal to construct gas and water-works. In 1841 he was sent to Toronto with a cargo of pipe and machinery, being under a three years’ contract with Turner, Mason & Co., and having the entire control of the machinery until disposed of to a new firm. He then commenced his present business on what is now called Jarvis Street, and continued it there until he was burned out by the great fire of 1848, after which he located at his present stand.

Samuel Hobbs, 184 Queen Street (Parkdale), plumber, tinner, etc. Established on Agnes Street in 1877, and moved to present location in 1878. In connection with plumbing he manufactures tin and copper-ware, of which he keeps a general stock, as also of house-furnishings and hardware. He employs from three to five men.

R. H. Lear, sanitary plumber and noted Gas-fixture Emporium, 15 and 17 Richmond Street West, first commenced business in Toronto on Victoria Street in the year 1874, and in 1875 moved to Bay Street, and in 1877 moved to what soon took the lead as the noted Gas-fixture Emporium, 171 Yonge Street. Early in 1884 he bought the old Catholic Apostolic Church, Richmond Street, on which he has built his present factory 50 × 100 feet, which with a splendid plate glass front makes one of the most attractive stores in his line of business in the Dominion.

W. B. Malcolm, plumber, 89 Church Street.

Quigley and Sim, plumbers, 124 Bay Street. Firm composed of W. G. Quigley and John Sim.

J. & N. Richards, 248 Queen Street East, plumbers, tinners, and house-furnishers, established in 1874, employ from seven to ten men, and do a general business in their line; manufacture all kinds of tin-ware, such as eave-troughing, cornice-work, etc.

John Ritchie, Jun’r, plumber, Toronto, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, October 9th, 1849. His father, ex-Alderman John Ritchie, is still living in Toronto. His mother, Margaret Hanan, died when he was three years old. He first learned the plumbing trade, and afterwards engaged in the piano and organ business for some time. He is now largely interested in real estate. On January 8th, 1875, he married Lillie Dunn, whose parents, Jonathan and Jane (Wallis) Dunn, are both dead; she was born in Toronto, September 5th, 1854. By his marriage he has had five children, John Harrow, Lillie Dunn, Irene Louise, Herbert Percy, and Edith Laura. Mr. Ritchie is a Presbyterian, and a Reformer.

Stewart Wells, plumber, steam and gas-fitter, 173 King Street West, was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1822, emigrated to Montreal in 1841, and came to Toronto in 1850.

Restaurants.

Jewell & Clow, proprietors of restaurant, 56, 58 and 60 Colborne Street; established in 1874. This is the largest establishment of its kind in the city, where five hundred meals are served daily. The building is five storeys high, and has a frontage of 80 × 100 feet, and the staff of hands in connection with the business numbers nineteen. Mr. Jewell was born in England, and came to Canada in 1854, and has been engaged in the restaurant business for twenty years. Mr. Clow was also born in England, and came here in 1867, since which time he has been engaged in the hotel and restaurant trade.