Note 172 — Chapter XLVI

"During Colonel Simcoe's administration he had been exceedingly careful with regard to the distribution of lands; but immediately on his departure, irregularities began to creep into the Crown Land Department, just as it had in Lower Canada, and great injustice was done to the actual settlers. Large tracts of the most eligible sites were seized upon by Government officials and speculators, and the actual settlers found themselves in many instances thrust into out-of-the-way corners, and cut off from intercourse with any near neighbours for want of roads." (Tuttle's History of the Dominion of Canada, Chap. lxxxiii., p. 387.)

"On the removal of Governor Simcoe,[173] of his wise schemes fell through. Land designed for settlements was seized by speculators, especially in the vicinity of Toronto, and the general development of the country was greatly retarded." (Withrow's History of Canada, Chap, xvi., p. 293.)

Scarcely any—if any—of these early land speculators had served as United Empire Loyalists during the revolutionary war; and their descendants, if existing, are as little known as if their fathers had never lived.