TORONTO OF OLD (continued 2)

The second extension of York westward included the Government Common. The staking out of streets here was a comparatively late event. Brock Street, to which we have now approached, had its name, of course, from the General officer slain at Queenston, and its extra width from the example set in the Avenue to the north, into which it merges after crossing Queen Street.

A little to the west of Brock Street was the old military burying-ground, a clearing in the thick brushwood of the locality: of an oblong shape, its four picketed sides directed exactly towards the four cardinal points. The setting off of the neighbouring streets and lots at a different angle, caused the boundary lines of this plot to run askew to every other straight line in the vicinity. Over how many a now forgotten and even obliterated grave have the customary farewell volleys here been fired!—those final honours to the soldier, always so touching; intended doubtless, in the old barbaric way, to be an incentive to endurance in the sound and well; and consolatory in anticipation to the sick and dying.

In the mould of this old cemetery, what a mingling from distant quarters! Hearts finally at rest here, fluttered in their last beats, far away, at times, to old familiar scenes "beloved in vain" long ago; to villages, hedgerows, lanes, fields, in green England and Ireland, in rugged Scotland and Wales. Many a widow, standing at an open grave here, holding the hand of orphan boy or girl, has "wept her soldier dead," not slain in the battle-field, indeed, but fallen, nevertheless, in the discharge of duty, before one or other of the subtle assailants that, even in times of peace, not unfrequently bring the career of the military man to a premature close. Among the remains deposited in this ancient burial-plot are those of a child of the first Governor of Upper Canada, a fact commemorated on the exterior of the mortuary chapel over his own grave in Devonshire, by a tablet on which are the words: "Katharine, born in Upper Canada, 16th Jan., 1793; died and was buried at York Town, in that Province, in 1794."

Close to the military burial-ground was once enacted a scene which might have occurred at the obsequies of a Tartar chief in the days of old. Capt. Battersby, sent out to take command of a Provincial corps, was the owner of several fine horses, to which he was greatly attached. On his being ordered home, after the war of 1812, friends and others began to make offers for the purchase of the animals; but no; he would enter into no treaty with any one on that score. What his decision was became apparent the day before his departure from York. He then had his poor dumb favourites led out by some soldiers to the vicinity of the burying-ground; and there he caused each of them to be deliberately shot dead. He did not care to entrust to the tender mercies of strangers, in the future, those faithful creatures that had served him so well, and had borne him whithersoever he listed, so willingly and bravely. The carcasses were interred on the spot where the shooting had taken place.

Returning now again to Brock Street, and placing ourselves at the middle point of its great width—immediately before us to the north, on the ridge which bounds the view in the distance, we discern a white object. This is Spadina House, from which the avenue into which Brock Street passes, takes its name. The word Spadina itself is an Indian term tastefully modified, descriptive of a sudden rise of land like that on which the house in the distance stands. Spadina was the residence of Dr. W. W. Baldwin, to whom reference has already been made. A liberal in his political views, he nevertheless was strongly influenced by the feudal feeling which was a second nature with most persons in the British Islands some years ago. His purpose was to establish in Canada a family, whose head was to be maintained in opulence by the proceeds of an entailed estate. There was to be forever a Baldwin of Spadina.

It is singular that the first inheritor of the newly-established patrimony should have been the statesman whose lot it was to carry through the Legislature of Canada the abolition of the rights of primogeniture. The son grasped more readily than the father what the genius of the North American continent will endure, and what it will not.

Spadina Avenue was laid out by Dr. Baldwin on a scale that would have satisfied the designers of St. Petersburg or Washington. Its width is one hundred and twenty feet. Its length from the water's edge to the base of Spadina Hill would be nearly three miles. Garnished on both sides by a double row of full grown chestnut trees, it would vie in magnificence, when seen from an eminence, with the Long Walk at Windsor.

Eastward of Spadina House, on the same elevation of land, was Davenport, the picturesque and chateau-like home of Col. Wells, formerly of the 43rd regiment, built at an early period. Col. Wells was a fine example of the English officer, whom we so often see retiring from the camp gracefully and happily into domestic life. A faithful portrait of him exists, in which he wears the gold medal of Badajoz. His sons, natural artists, and arbiters of taste, inherited, along with their æsthetic gifts, also lithe and handsome persons. One of them, now, like his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the army, was highly distinguished in the Crimea; and on revisiting Toronto after the peace with Russia, was publicly presented with a sword of honour. The view of the Lake and intervening forest, as seen from Davenport and Spadina, before the cultivation of the alluvial plain below, was always fine. (On his retirement from the army, the second Col. Wells took up his abode at Davenport.)

III.

FROM BROCK STREET TO THE OLD FRENCH FORT.

eturning again to the front. The portion of the Common that lies immediately west of the foot of Brock Street was enclosed for the first time and ornamentally planted by Mr. Jameson. Before his removal to Canada, Mr. Jameson had filled a judicial position in the West Indies. In Canada, he was successively Attorney-General and Vice-Chancellor, the Chancellorship itself being vested in the Crown. The conversational powers of Mr. Jameson were admirable: and no slight interest attached to the pleasant talk of one who, in his younger days, had been the familiar associate of Southey, Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In a volume of poems by Hartley Coleridge, son of the philosopher, published in 1833, the three sonnets addressed "To a Friend," were addressed to Mr. Jameson, as we are informed in a note. We give the first of these little poems at length:

The note appended, which appears only in the first edition, is as follows: "This sonnet, and the two following, my earliest attempts at that form of versification, were addressed to R. S. Jameson, Esq., on occasion of meeting him in London, after a separation of some years. He was the favourite companion of my boyhood, the active friend and sincere counsellor of my youth. 'Though seas between us broad ha' roll'd' since we 'travelled side by side' last, I trust the sight of this little volume will give rise to recollections that will make him ten years younger. He is now Judge Advocate at Dominica, and husband of Mrs. Jameson, authoress of the 'Diary of an Ennuyée,' 'Loves of the Poets,' and other agreeable productions."

Mr. Jameson was a man of high culture and fine literary tastes. He was, moreover, an amateur artist of no ordinary skill, as extant drawings of his in water-colours attest. His countenance, especially in his old age, was of the Jeremy Bentham stamp.

It was from the house on the west of Brock Street that Mrs. Jameson dated the letters which constitute her well-known "Winter Studies and Summer Rambles." That volume thus closes: "At three o'clock in the morning, just as the moon was setting on Lake Ontario, I arrived at the door of my own house in Toronto, having been absent on this wild expedition [to the Sault] just two months." York had then been two years Toronto. (For having ventured to pass down the rapids at the Sault, she had been formally named by the Otchipways of the locality, Was-sa-je-wun-e-qua, "Woman of the Bright Stream.")

The Preface to the American edition of Mrs. Jameson's "Characteristics of Women" was also written here. In that Introduction we can detect a touch due to the "wild expedition" just spoken of. "They say," she observes, "that as a savage proves his heroism by displaying in grim array the torn scalps of his enemies, so a woman thinks she proves her virtue by exhibiting the mangled reputations of her friends:" a censure, she adds, which is just, but the propensity, she explains, is wrongly attributed to ill-nature and jealousy. "Ignorance," she proceeds, "is the main cause; ignorance of ourselves and others; and when I have heard any female acquaintance commenting with a spiteful or a sprightly levity on the delinquencies and mistakes of their sex, I have only said to myself, 'They know not what they do.'" "Here, then," the Preface referred to concludes, "I present to women a little elementary manual or introduction to that knowledge of woman, in which they may learn to understand better their own nature; to judge more justly, more gently, more truly of each other;

Mrs. Jameson was unattractive in person at first sight, although, as could scarcely fail to be the case in one so highly endowed, her features, separately considered, were fine and boldly marked. Intellectually, she was an enchantress. Besides an originality and independence of judgment on most subjects, and a facility in generalizing and reducing thought to the form of a neat aphorism, she had a strong and capacious memory, richly furnished with choice things. Her conversation was consequently of the most fascinating kind.

She sang, too, in sweet taste, with a quiet softness, without display. She sketched from nature with great elegance, and designed cleverly. The seven or eight illustrations which appear in the American edition of the "Characteristics," dated at Toronto, are etched by herself, and bear her autograph, "Anna." The same is to be observed of the illustrations in the English edition of her "Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies;" and in her larger volumes on various Art-subjects. She had super-eminently beautiful hands, which she always scrupulously guarded from contract with the outer air.

Mrs. Jameson was a connoisseur in "hands," as we gather from her Commonplace Book, just mentioned. She there says: "There are hands of various character; the hand to catch, and the hand to hold; the hand to clasp, and the hand to grasp; the hand that has worked, or could work, and the hand that has never done anything but hold itself out to be kissed, like that of Joanna of Arragon, in Raphael's picture." Her own appeared to belong to the last-named class.

Though the merest trifles, we may record here one or two further personal recollections of Mrs. Jameson; of her appreciation, for example, of a very obvious quotation from Horace, to be appended to a little sketch of her own, representing a child asleep, but in danger from a serpent near; and of her glad acceptance of an out-of-the-way scrap from the "Vanity of Arts and Sciences" of Cornelius Agrippa, which proved the antiquity of charivaries. "Do you not know that the intervention of a lady's hand is requisite to the finish of a young man's education?" was a suggestive question drawn forth by some youthful maladroitness. Another characteristic dictum, "Society is one vast masquerade of manners," is remembered, as having been probably at the time a new idea to ourselves in particular. The irrational conventionalities of society she persistently sought to counteract, by her words on suitable occasions, and by her example, especially in point of dress, which did not conform to the customs in vogue.

Among the local characters relished by Mrs. Jameson in Canada was Mr. Justice Hagerman, who added some of the bluntness of Samuel Johnson to the physique of Charles James Fox. She set a high value on his talents, although we have heard her, at once playfully and graphically, speak of him as "that great mastiff, Hagerman." From Mrs. Jameson we learned that "Gaytay" was a sufficient approximation in English to the pronunciation of "Goethe." She had been intimately acquainted with the poet at Weimar.

In the Kensington Museum there is a bust, exceedingly fine, of Mrs. Jameson, by the celebrated sculptor Gibson, executed by him, as the inscription speaks, "in her honour." The head and countenance are of course somewhat idealized; but the likeness is well retained. In the small Boston edition of the "Legends of the Madonna" there is an interesting portrait of Mrs. Jameson, giving her appearance when far advanced in years.

Westward from the house and grounds whose associations have detained us so long, the space that was known as the Government Common is now traversed from south to north by two streets. Their names possess some interest, the first of them being that of the Duke of Portland, Viceroy of Ireland, Colonial Secretary, and three times Prime Minister in the reign of George the Third; the other that of Earl Bathurst, Secretary for the Colonies in George the Fourth's time.

Eastward of Bathurst Street, in the direction of the military burying-ground, there was long marked out by a furrow in the sward the ground-plan of a church. In 1830, the military chaplain, Mr. Hudson, addressed to the commander of the forces a complaint "of the very great inconvenience to which the troops are exposed in having to march so far to the place of worship, particularly when the weather and roads are so unfavourable during a greater part of the year in this country, the distance from the Barracks to the Church being two miles:" adding, "In June last, the roads were in such a state as to prevent the Troops from attending Church for four successive Sundays." He then suggested "the propriety of erecting a chapel on the Government reserve for the accommodation of the Troops." The Horse Guards refused to undertake the erection of a chapel here, but made a donation of one thousand pounds towards the re-edification of St. James' Church, "on condition that accommodation should be permanently provided for His Majesty's Troops." The outline in the turf was a relic of Mr. Hudson's suggestion.

The line that defined the limit of the Government Common to the north and east, (and west, of course, likewise), prior to its division into building lots, was a portion of the circumference of a great circle, "of a radius of a 1,000 yards, more or less," whose centre was the Fort. On the old plans of York, acres of this great circle are traced, with two interior concentric arcs, of radii respectively of eight and five hundred yards.

We now soon arrive at the ravine of the "Garrison Creek." In the rivulet below, for some distance up the valley, before the clearing away of the woods, salmon used to be taken at certain seasons of the year. Crossing the stream, and ascending to the arched gateway of the fort, (we are speaking of it as it used to be), we pass between the strong iron-studded portals, which are thrown back: we pass a sentry just within the gate, and the guard-house on the left. At present we do not tarry within the enclosure of the Fort. We simply glance at the loopholed block-house on the one side, and the quarters of the men, the officers, and the commandant on the other; and we hurry across the gravelled area, recalling rapidly a series of spirit-stirring ordinal numbers—40th, 41st, 68th, 79th, 42nd, 15th, 32nd, 1st—each suggestive of a gallant assemblage at some time here; of a vigorous, finely disciplined, ready-aye-ready group, that, like the successive generations on the stage of human life, came and went just once, as it were—as the years rolled on, and the eye saw them again no more.

We pass on through the western gate to the large open green space which lies on the farther side. This is the Garrison Reserve. It bears the same relation to the modern Toronto and the ancient York as the Plains of Abraham do to Quebec. It was here that the struggle took place, in the olden time, that led to the capture of the town. In both cases the leader of the aggressive expedition "fell victorious." But the analogy holds no further; as, in the case of the inferior conquest, the successful power did not retain permanent possession.

The Wolfe's Cove—the landing-place of the invader—on the occasion referred to, was just within the curve of the Humber Bay, far to the west, where Queen Street now skirts the beach for a short distance and then emerges on it. The intention had been to land more to the eastward, but the vessels containing the hostile force were driven westward by the winds.

The debarkation was opposed by a handful of Indians, under Major Givins. The Glengary Fencibles had been despatched to aid in this service, but, attempting to approach the spot by a back road, they lost their way. A tradition exists that the name of the Grenadier's Pond, a lagoon a little to the west, one of the ancient outlets of the waters of the Humber, is connected with the disastrous bewilderment of a party of the regular troops at this critical period. It is at the same time asserted that the name "Grenadier's Pond" was familiar previously. At length companies of the Eighth Regiment, of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, and of Incorporated Militia, made their appearance on the ground, and disputed the progress inland of the enemy. After suffering severely, they retired towards the Fort. This was the existing Fort. The result is now matter of history, and need not be detailed. As portions of the cliff have fallen away from time to time along the shore here, numerous skeletons have been exposed to view, relics of friend and foe slain on the adjacent common, where, also, military ornaments and fragments of fire-arms, used frequently to be dug up. Some of the bones referred to, however, may have been remains of early French and Indian traders.

The Loyalist newspaper of May 9, 1829, published at York, speaks of the re-interment on that day of the remains of an officer killed at the battle of York. The article runs as follows:—"The late Capt. McNeil.—It will be recollected by many of the inhabitants of York that this officer fell while gallantly fighting at the head of his Company of Grenadiers of the 8th Regiment, in defence of the place, on the morning of the 27th of April, 1813. His remains which so eminently deserved rites of honourable sepulture, were from unavoidable circumstances consigned to earth by the hands of the enemy whom he was opposing, near the spot where he fell, without any of those marks of distinction which are paid to departed valour.

"The waters of the Lake," the Loyalist then proceeds to say, "having lately made great inroads upon the bank, and the grave being in danger of being washed away, it may be satisfactory to his friends to learn, that on these circumstances being made known to Major Winniett, commanding the 68th Regiment at this Post, he promptly authorized the necessary measures to be taken for removing the remains of Capt. McNeil, and placing them in the Garrison Burial Ground, which was done this day. A firing-party and the band attended on the occasion, and the remains were followed to the place of interment by the officers of the Garrison, and a procession of the inhabitants of the town and vicinity."

The site of the original French stockade, established here in the middle of the last century, was nearly at the middle point between the landing-place of the United States force in 1813, and the existing Fort. West of the white cut-stone Barracks, several earthworks and grass-grown excavations still mark the spot. These ruins, which we often visited when they were much more extensive and conspicuous than they are now, were popularly designated "The Old French Fort."

It is interesting to observe the probable process by which the appellation "Toronto" came to be attached to the Trading-post here. Its real name, as imposed by the French authorities, was Fort Rouillé, from a French colonial minister of that name, in 1749-54. This we learn from a despatch of M. de Longeuil, Governor-in-Chief of Canada in 1752. And "Toronto," at that period, according to contemporaneous maps, denoted Lake Simcoe and the surrounding region. Thus in Carver's Travels through North America in 1766-8, in p. 172, we read, "On the north-west part of this lake [Ontario], and to the south of Lake Huron, is a tribe of Indians called the Mississagués, whose town is denominated Toronto, from the lake [i. e. Lake Simcoe] on which it lies, but they are not very numerous." This agrees with Lahontan's statements and map, in 1687.

What Carver says of the fewness of the native inhabitants is applicable only to the state of things in his day. The fatal irruption of the Iroquois from the south had then taken place, and the whole of the Lake Simcoe or Toronto region had been made a desert. Before that irruption, the peninsula included between Notawasaga Bay, Matchedash, or Sturgeon Bay, the River Severn, Lake Couchichin and Lake Simcoe was a locality largely frequented by native tribes. It was especially the head-quarters of the Wyandots or Hurons. Villages, burial-grounds, and cultivated lands abounded in it. Unusual numbers of the red men were congregated there.

It was in short the place of meeting, the place of concourse, the populous region, indicated by the Huron term Toronto.

In the form Toronton, the word Toronto is given by Gabriel Sagard in his "Dictionnaire de la Langue Huronne," published at Paris in 1636.

With Sagard it is a kind of exclamation, signifying "Il y en a beaucoup," and it is used in relation to men. He cites as an example—"He has killed a number of S. (the initial of some hostile tribe)." "Toronton S. ahouyo."

In the Vocabulary of Huron words at the end of Lahontan's second volume, the term likewise appears, but with a prefix,—A-toronton,—and is translated "Beaucoup." Sagard gives it with the prefix O, in the phrase "O-toronton dacheniquoy," "J'en mange beaucoup."

We are not indeed to suppose that the Hurons employed the term Toronto as a proper name. We know that the aborigines used for the most part no proper names of places, in our sense of the word, their local appellations being simply brief descriptions or allusion to incidents. But we are to suppose that the early white men took notice of the vocable Toronto, frequently and emphatically uttered by their red companions, when pointing towards the Lake Simcoe region, or when pressing on in canoe or on foot, to reach it.

Accordingly, at length, the vocable Toronto is caught up by the white voyageurs, and adopted as a local proper name in the European sense: just as had been the case already with the word Canada. ("Kanata" was a word continually heard on the lips of the red men in the Lower St. Lawrence, as they pointed to the shore; they simply meant to indicate—"Yonder are our wigwams;" but the French mariners and others took the expression to be a geographical name for the new region which they were penetrating. And such it has become.)

We can now also see how it came to pass that the term Toronto was attached to a particular spot on the shore of Lake Ontario. The mouth of the Humber, or rather a point on the eastern side of the indentation known as Humber Bay, was the landing place of hunting parties, trading parties, war-parties, on their way to the populous region in the vicinity of Lake Simcoe. Here they disembarked for the tramp to Toronto. This was a Toronto landing-place for wayfarers bound to the district in the interior where there were crowds. And gradually the starting-place took the name of the goal. The style and title of the terminus ad quem were usurped by the terminus à quo.

Thus likewise it happened that the stockaded trading-post established near the landing on the indentation of Humber Bay came to be popularly known as Fort Toronto, although its actual, official name was Fort Rouillé.

In regard to the signification which by some writers has been assigned to the word Toronto, of "trees rising out of the water"—we think the interpretation has arisen from a misunderstanding of language used by Indian canoe-men.

Indian canoe-men in coasting along the shore of Lake Ontario from the east or west, would, we may conceive, naturally point to "the trees rising out of the water," the pines and black poplars looming up from the Toronto island or peninsula, as a familiar land-mark by which they knew the spot where they were to disembark for the "populous region to the north." The white men mixing together in their heads the description of the landmark and the district where, as they were, emphatically told, there were crowds, made out of the expressions "trees rising out of the water," and "Toronto," convertible terms, which they were not.

As to the idea to which Capt. Bonnycastle gave currency, by recording it in one of his books on Canada, that Toronto, or Tarento, was possibly the name of an Italian engineer concerned in the construction of the fort,—it is sufficient to reply that we know what the official name of the Fort was: it was Fort Rouillé. Sorel, and Chambly, and it may be, other places in Canada, derived their names from officers in the French service. But nothing to be found in the early annals of the country gives any countenance to Capt. Bonnycastle's derivation. It was probably a mere after-dinner conversational conjecture, and it ought never to have been gravely propounded.

We meet with Toronto under several different forms, in the French and English documents; but the variety has evidently arisen from the attempts of men of different degrees of literary capacity and qualification, to represent, each as he best could, a native vocable which had not been long reduced to writing. The same variety, and from the same cause, occurs in a multitude of other aboriginal terms.

The person who first chanced to write down Toronto as Tarento was probably influenced by some previous mental familiarity with the name of an old Italian town; just as he who first startled Europeans by the announcement that one of the Iroquois nations was composed of Senecas, was doubtless helped to the familiar-looking term which he adopted, by a thought of the Roman stoic. (Pownall says Seneca is properly Sen-aga, "the farther people," that is in relation to the New England Indians; while Mohawk is Mo-aga, "the hither people." Neither of the terms was the name borne by the tribe. According to the French rendering, the Mo-agas were Agniés; the Sen-agas Tsonnontouans.)

The chivalrous and daring La Salle must have rested for a moment at the Toronto Landing. In his second expedition to the West, in 1680, he made his way from Fort Frontenac to Michilimackinac by the portage from the mouth of what is now the Humber to Lake Huron, accompanied by a party of twenty-four men.

In the preceding year he had penetrated to the Mississippi by the Lake Erie route. But then also some of his company unexpectedly found themselves in close proximity to Toronto. The Franciscan Friar, Hennepin, sent forward by La Salle from Fort Frontenac with seventeen men, was compelled by stress of weather, while coasting along the north side of Lake Ontario, to take shelter in the Humber river. It was then the 26th of Nov. (1678); and here he was delayed until the 5th of December. Hennepin speaks of the place of his detention as Taiaiagon: a word erroneously taken to be a local proper name. It means as we are assured by one formerly familiar with the native Indians, simply a Portage or Landing-place. So that there were numerous Taiaiagons. One is noted in particular, situated, the Gazetteer of 1799 says, "half way between York and the head of the Bay of Quinté:" probably where Port Hope now stands. It is marked in the old French maps in that position. (On one of them a track is drawn from it to "Lac Taronthé;" that is to the chain of Lakes leading north-westerly to Lake Toronto, i. e. Lake Simcoe.) The Taiaiagon of Hennepin is stated by him to be "at the farther end of Lake Ontario," and "about seventy leagues from Fort Frontenac:" too far, of course. Again: the distance from Taiaiagon to the mouth of the Niagara river, is made by him to be fifteen or sixteen leagues; also too far, if Toronto is the site of his Taiaiagon.

IV.

FROM THE GARRISON BACK TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING.

e now enter again the modern Fort; passing back through the western gate. On our right we have the site of the magazine which so fatally exploded in 1813; we learn from Gen. Sheaffe's despatch to Sir George Prevost, that it was "in the western battery."

In close proximity to the magazine was the Government House of the day, an extensive rambling cluster of one-storey buildings; all "riddled" or shattered to pieces by the concussion, when the explosion took place. The ruin that thus befel the Governor's residence led, on the restoration of peace, to the purchase of Chief Justice Elmsley's house on King street, and its conversion into "Government House."

From the main battery, which (including a small semi-circular bastion for the venerable flag-staff of the Fort) extends along the brow of the palisaded bank, south of the parade, the royal salutes, resounding down and across the lake, used to be fired on the arrival and departure of the Lieutenant-Governor, and at the opening and closing of the Legislature.

From the south-eastern bastion, overlooking the ravine below, a twelve-pounder was discharged every day at noon. "The twelve-o'clock gun," when discontinued, was long missed with regret.

At the time of the invasion of Canada in 1812, the garrison of York was manned by the 3rd regiment of York militia. We have before us a relic of the period, in the form of the contemporary regimental order-book of the Fort. An entry of the 29th of July, 1812, showing the approach of serious work, has an especial local interest. "In consequence of an order from Major-General Brock, commanding the forces, for a detachment of volunteers, under the command of Major Allan, to hold themselves in readiness to proceed in batteaux from the Head of the Lake to-morrow at 2 o'clock, the following officers, non-commissioned officers and privates will hold themselves in readiness to proceed at 2 o'clock, for the purpose of being fitted with caps, blankets and haversacks, as well as to draw provisions. On their arrival at the Head of the Lake, regimental coats and canteens will be ready to be issued to them." The names are then given. "Capt. Heward, Lieut. Richardson, Lieut. Jarvis, Lieut. Robinson. Sergeants Knott, Humberstone, Bond, Bridgeford."

In view of the test to which the citizen-soldiers were about to be subjected, the General, like a good officer, sought by judicious praise, to inspire them with self-confidence. "Major-General Brock," the order-book proceeds, "has desired me (Captain Stephen Heward) to acquaint the detachment under my command, of his high approbation of their orderly conduct and good discipline while under arms: that their exercise and marching far exceeded any that he had seen in the Province. And in particular he directed me to acquaint the officers how much he is pleased with their appearance in uniform and their perfect knowledge of their duty."

On the 13th of August, we learn from other sources, Brock was on the Western Frontier with 700 soldiers, including the volunteers from York, and 600 Indians; and on the 16th the old flag was waving from the fortress of Detroit; but, on the 13th October, the brave General, though again a victor in the engagement, was himself a lifeless corpse on the slopes above Queenston; and, in April of the following year, York, as we have already seen, was in the hands of the enemy. Such are the ups and downs of war. It is mentioned that "Push on the York Volunteers!" was the order issuing from the lips of the General, at the moment of the fatal shot. From the order-book referred to, we learn that "Toronto" was the parole or countersign of the garrison on the 23rd July, 1812.

The knoll on the east side of the Garrison Creek was covered with a number of buildings for the accommodation of troops, in addition to the barracks within the fort. Here also stood a block-house. Eastward were the surgeon's quarters, overhanging the bay; and further eastward still, were the commandant's quarters, a structure popularly known, by some freak of military language, as Lambeth Palace. Here for a time resided Major-General Æneas Shaw, afterwards the owner and occupant of Oak Hill.

On the beach below the knoll, there continued to be, for a number of years, a row of cannon dismounted, duly spiked and otherwise disabled, memorials of the capture in 1813, when these guns were rendered useless by the regular troops before their retreat to Kingston. The pebbles on the shore about here were also plentifully mixed with loose canister shot, washed up by the waves, after their submersion in the bay on the same occasion.

From the little eminence just referred to, along the edge of the cliff, ran a gravel walk, which led first to the Guard House over the Commissariat Stores, in a direct line, with the exception of a slight divergence occasioned by "Capt. Bonnycastle's cottage;" and then eastward into the town. Where ravines occurred, cut in the drift by water-courses into the bay, the gulf was spanned by a bridge of hewn logs. This walk, kept in order for many years by the military authorities, was the representative of the path first worn bare by the soft tread of the Indian. From its agreeableness, overlooking as it did, through its whole length the Harbour and Lake, this walk gave birth to the idea, which became a fixed one in the minds of the early people of the place, that there was to be in perpetuity, in front of the whole town, a pleasant promenade, on which the burghers and their families should take the air and disport themselves generally.

The Royal Patent by which this sentimental walk is provided for and decreed, issued on the 14th day of July, in the year 1818, designates it by the interesting old name of Mall, and nominates "John Beverley Robinson, William Allan, George Crookshank, Duncan Cameron and Grant Powell, all of the town of York, Esqs., their heirs and assigns forever, as trustees to hold the same for the use and benefit of the inhabitants." Stretching from Peter Street in the west to the Reserve for Government Buildings in the east, of a breadth varying between four and five chains, following the line of Front Street on the one side, and the several turnings and windings of the bank on the other, the area of land contained in this Mall was "thirty acres, more or less, with allowance for the several cross streets leading from the said town to the water." The paucity of open squares in the early plans of York may be partly accounted for by this provision made for a spacious Public Walk.

While the archæologist must regret the many old landmarks which were ruthlessly shorn away in the construction of the modern Esplanade, he must, nevertheless, contemplate with never-ceasing admiration that great and laudable work. It has done for Toronto what the Thames embankment has effected for London. Besides vast sanitary advantages accruing, it has created space for the erection of a new front to the town. It has made room for a broad promenade some two or three miles in length, not, indeed, of the far niente type, but with double and treble railway tracks abreast of itself, all open to the deep water of the harbour on one side, and flanked almost throughout the whole length on the other, by a series of warehouses, mills, factories and depôts, destined to increase every year in importance. The sights and sounds every day, along this combination of roadways and its surroundings, are unlike anything dreamt of by the framers of the old Patent of 1818. But it cannot be said that the idea contained in that document has been wholly departed from: nay, it must be confessed that it has been grandly realized in a manner and on a scale adapted to the requirements of these latter days.

For some time, Front Street, above the Esplanade, continued to be a raised terrace, from which pleasant views and fresh lake air could be obtained; and attempts were made, at several points along its southern verge, to establish a double row of shade trees, which should recall in future ages the primitive oaks and elms which overlooked the margin of the harbour. But soon the erection of tall buildings on the newly-made land below, began to shut out the view and the breezes, and to discourage attempts at ornamentation by the planting of trees.

It is to regretted, however, that the title of Mall has not yet been applied to some public walk in the town. Old-world sounds like these—reeve, warden, provost, recorder, House of Commons, railway, (not road), dugway, mall—like the chimes in some of our towers, and the sung-service in some of our churches—help, in cases where the imagination is active, to reconcile the exile from the British Islands to his adopted home, and even to attach him to it. Incorporated into our common local speech, and so perpetuated, they may also be hereafter subsidiary mementoes of our descent as a people, when all connection, save that of history, with the ancient home of our forefathers, will have ceased.

In 1804, there were "Lieutenants of Counties" in Upper Canada. The following gentlemen were, in 1804, "Lieutenants of Counties" for the Counties attached to their respective names. We take the list from the Upper Canada Almanac for 1804, published at York by John Bennett. The office and title of County-Lieutenant do not appear to have been kept up: "John Macdonell, Esq., Glengary; William Fortune, Esq., Prescott; Archibald Macdonell, Esq., Stormont; Hon. Richard Duncan, Esq., Dundas; Peter Drummond, Esq., Grenville; James Breakenridge, Esq., Leeds; Hon. Richard Cartwright, Esq., Frontenac; Hazelton Spencer, Esq., Lenox; William Johnson, Esq., Addington; John Ferguson, Esq., Hastings; Archibald Macdonell, Esq., of Marysburg, Prince Edward; Alexander Chisholm, Esq., Northumberland; Robert Baldwin, Esq., Durham; Hon. David William Smith, Esq., York; Hon. Robert Hamilton, Esq., Lincoln; Samuel Ryerse, Esq., Norfolk; William Claus, Esq., Oxford; (Middlesex is vacant); Hon. Alexander Grant, Esq., Essex; Hon. James Baby, Esq., Kent."

Another old English term in use in the Crown Lands Office of Ontario, if not generally, is "Domesday Book." The record of grants of land from the beginning of the organization of Upper Canada is entitled "Domesday Book." It consists now of many folio volumes.

The gravelled path from the Fort to the Commissariat Stores, as described above, in conjunction with a parallel track for wheels along the cliff all the way to the site of the Parliament Buildings, suggested in 1822 the restoration of a carriage-drive to the Island, which had some years previously existed. This involved the erection or rather re-erection of bridges over the lesser and greater Don, to enable the inhabitants of York to reach the long lines of lake beach, extending eastward to Scarborough Heights and westward to Gibraltar Point.

All the old accounts of York in the topographical dictionaries of "sixty years since," spoke of the salubriousness of the peninsula which formed the harbour. Even the aborigines, it was stated, had recourse to that spot for sanative purposes. All this was derived from the article in D. W. Smith's Gazetteer, which sets forth that "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."

So early as 1806 a bridge or float had been built over the mouth of the Don. In the Gazette of June 18, in that year, we have the notice: "It is requested that no person will draw sand or pass with loaded waggons or carts over the new Bridge or Float at the opening of the Don River, as this source of communication was intended to accommodate the inhabitants of the town in a walk or ride to the Island. York, 13th June, 1806."

In a MS. map of this portion of the vicinity of York, dated 1811, the road over the float is marked "Road from York to the Lighthouse." In this map, the lesser Don does not appear. A pond or inlet represents it, stretching in from the bay to the river. A bridge spans the inlet. There is a bridge also over the ravine, through which flows the rivulet by the Parliament Buildings.

Health, however, was not the sole object of all these arrangements. A race-course had been laid out on the sandy neck of land connecting the central portion of the peninsula with the main shore. Here races were periodically held; and we have been assured, by an eye-witness, that twelve fine horses at a time had been seen by him engaged in the contest of speed. The hippodrome in question was not a ring, but a long straight level stadium, extending from the southern end of the second bridge to the outer margin of the lake.

When invasion was threatened in 1812, all the bridges in the direction of the Island were taken down. An earthwork was thrown up across the narrow ridge separating the last long reach of the Don from the Bay; and in addition, a trench was cut across the same ridge. This cut, at first insignificant, became ultimately by a natural process the lesser Don, a deep and wide outlet, a convenient short-cut for skiffs and canoes from the Bay to the Don proper, and from the Don proper to the Bay.

On the return of peace, the absence of bridges, and the existence, in addition, of a second formidable water-filled moat, speedily began to be matters of serious regret to the inhabitants of York, who found themselves uncomfortably cut off from easy access to the peninsula. From the Gazette of April 15, 1822, we learn that "a public subscription among the inhabitants had been entered into, to defray the expense of erecting two bridges on the River Don, leading from this town towards the south, to the Peninsula." And subjoined are the leading names of the place, guaranteeing various sums, in all amounting to £108 5s. The timber was presented by Peter Robinson, Esq., M.P.P. The estimated expense of the undertaking was £325. The following names appear for various sums—fifty, twenty, ten, five and two dollars—Major Hillier, Rev. Dr. Strachan, Hon. J. H. Dunn, Hon. James Baby, Mr. Justice Boulton, John Small, Henry Boulton, Col. Coffin, Thomas Ridout, sen., W. Allen, Grant Powell, Samuel Ridout, J. S. Baldwin, S. Heward, James E. Small, Chas. Small, S. Washburn, J. B. Macaulay, G. Crookshank, A. Mercer, George Boulton, Thomas Taylor, Joseph Spragge, George Hamilton, R. E. Prentice, A. Warffe, W. B. Jarvis, B. Turquand, John Denison, sen., George Denison, John and George Monro, Henry Drean, Peter McDougall, Geo. Duggan, James Nation, Thomas Bright, W. B. Robinson, J. W. Gamble, William Proudfoot, Jesse Ketchum, D. Brooke, jun., R. C. Henderson, David Stegman, L. Fairbairn, Geo. Playter, Joseph Rogers, John French, W. Roe, Thomas Sullivan, John Hay, J. Biglow, John Elliot.

On the strength of the sums thus promised, an engineer, Mr. E. Angell, began the erection of the bridge over the Greater Don. The Gazette before us reports that it was being constructed "with hewn timbers, on the most approved European principle." (There is point in the italicised word: it hints the impolicy of employing United States engineers for such works). The paper adds that "the one bridge over the Great Don, consisting of five arches, is in a forward state; and the other, of one arch, over the Little Don, will be completed in or before the month of July next, when this line of road will be opened." It is subjoined that "subscriptions will continue to be received by A. Mercer, Esq., J. Dennis, York, and also by the Committee, Thomas Bright, William Smith and E. Angell."

By the Weekly Register of June 19, in the following year, it appears that the engineer, in commencing the bridge before the amount of its cost was guaranteed, had calculated without his host; and, as is usually the case with those who draw in advance on the proceeds of a supposed public enthusiam, had been brought into difficulties. We accordingly find that "on Friday evening last, pursuant to public notice given in the Upper Canada Gazette, a meeting of the subscribers, and other inhabitants of the town of York, was held at the house of Mr. Phair, in the Market-place, for the purpose of taking into consideration the circumstances in which the engineer had been placed by constructing a bridge, the charge of which was to be defrayed by voluntary subscription, over the mouth of the river Don."

Resolutions were passed on the occasion, approving of Mr. Angell's proceedings, and calling for additional donations. A new committee was now appointed, consisting of H. J. Boulton, Esq., Dr. Widmer, S. Heward, Esq., Charles Small, Esq., and Allan McNab, Esq.—The editor of the Weekly Register (Fothergill) thus notices the meeting: "It is satisfactory to find that there is at length some probability of the bridge over the Don in this vicinity being completed. We are, ourselves," the writer of the article proceeds to say, "the more anxious on this account, from the hope there is reason to entertain that these and other improvements in the neighbourhood will eventually lead to a draining of the great marsh at the east end of this town; for until that is done, it is utterly impossible that the place can be healthy at all seasons of the year. The public are not sufficiently impressed with the alarming insalubrity of such situations. We beg to refer our readers," the editor of the Register then observes, "to a very interesting letter from Dr. Priestly to Sir John Pringle in the Philosophical Transactions for 1777; and another from Dr. Price to Dr. Horsley in the same work in 1774; both on this subject, which throw considerable light upon it." And it is added, "We have it in contemplation to republish these letters in this work, as being highly interesting to many persons, and applicable to various situations in this country, but particularly to the neighbourhood of York."

The desired additional subscriptions do not appear to have come in. The works at the mouth of the Don proper were brought to a stand-still. The bridge over the Lesser Don was not commenced. Thus matters remained for the long interval of ten years. Every inhabitant of York, able to indulge in the luxury of a carriage, or a saddle horse, or given to extensive pedestrian excursions, continued to regret the inaccessibleness of the peninsula. Especially among the families of the military, accustomed to the surroundings of sea-coast towns at home, did the desire exist, to be able, at will, to take a drive, or a canter, or a vigorous constitutional, on the sands of the peninsula, where, on the one hand, the bold escarpments in the distance to the eastward, on the other, the ocean-like horizon, and immediately in front the long rollers of surf tumbling in, all helped to stir recollections of (we will suppose) Dawlish or Torquay.

In 1834, through the intervention of Sir John Colborne, and by means of a subsidy from the military chest, the works on both outlets of the Don were re-commenced. In 1835 the bridges were completed. On the 22nd of August in that year they were handed over by the military authorities to the town, now no longer York, but Toronto.

Some old world formalities were observed on the occasion. The civic authorities approached the new structure in procession; a barricade at the first bridge arrested their progress. A guard stationed there also forbade further advance. The officer in command, Capt. Bonnycastle, appears, and the Mayor and Corporation are informed that the two bridges before them are, by the command of the Lieutenant-Governor, presented to them as a free gift, for the benefit of the inhabitants, that they may in all time to come be enabled to enjoy the salubrious air of the peninsula; the only stipulation being that the bridges should be free of toll forever to the troops, stores, and ordnance of the sovereign.

The mayor, who, as eye-witnesses report, was arrayed in an official robe of purple velvet lined with scarlet, read the following reply: "Sir—On the part of His Majesty's faithful and loyal city of Toronto, I receive at your hands the investiture of these bridges, erected by command of His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, and now delivered to the Corporation for the benefit and accommodation of the citizens. In the name of the Common Council and the citizens of Toronto, I beg you to convey to His Excellency the grateful feelings with which this new instance of the bounty of our most gracious sovereign is received; and I take this occasion on behalf of the city to renew our assurances of loyalty and attachment to His Majesty's person and government, and to pray, through His Excellency, a continuance of royal favour towards this city. I have, on the part of the corporation and citizens, to request you to assure His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor that His Excellency's desire and generous exertions for the health and welfare of the inhabitants of this city are duly and gratefully appreciated; and I beg you to convey to His Excellency the best wishes of myself and my fellow-citizens for the health and happiness of His Excellency and family. Permit me, Sir, for myself and brethren, to thank you for the very handsome and complimentary manner in which you have carried His Excellency's commands into execution."

"Immediately," the narrative of the ceremonial continues, "the band, who were stationed on the bridge, struck up the heart-stirring air, 'God save the King,' during the performance of which the gentlemen of the Corporation, followed by a large number of the inhabitants, passed uncovered over the bridge. Three cheers were then given respectively for the King, for His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, for the Mayor and Council of the City of Toronto, and for Capt. Bonnycastle. The gentlemanly and dignified manner in which both the addresses were read did credit to the gentlemen on whom these duties devolved; and the good order and good humour that prevailed among the spectators present were exceedingly gratifying."

We take this account from the Toronto Patriot of August 28th, 1835, wherein it is copied from the Christian Guardian. Mr. R. B. Sullivan, the official representative of the city on the occasion just described, was the second mayor of Toronto. He was afterwards one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas.

The bridges thus ceremoniously presented and received had a short-lived existence. They were a few years afterwards, seriously damaged during the breaking up of the ice, and then carried away bodily in one of the spring freshets to which the Don is subject.

The peninsula in front of York was once plentifully stocked with goats, the offspring of a small colony established by order of Governor Hunter, at Gibraltar Point, for the sake, for one thing, of the supposed salutary nature of the whey of goat's milk. These animals were dispersed during the war of 1812-13. Governor Hunter may have taken the idea of peopling the island at York with goats from what was to be seen, at an early day, on Goat Island, adjoining the Falls of Niagara. A multitude of goats ran at large there, the descendants of a few reared originally by one Stedman, an English soldier, who, on escaping a massacre of his comrades in the neighbourhood of what is now Lewiston, at the hands of the Iroquois, soon after the conquest of the country, fled thither, and led, to the end of his days, a Robinson-Crusoe-kind of life.

V.

KING STREET, FROM JOHN STREET TO YONGE STREET.

fter our long stroll westward, we had purposed returning to the place of beginning by the route which constitutes the principal thoroughfare of the modern Toronto; but the associations connected with the primitive pathway on the cliff overlooking the harbour, led us insensibly back along the track by which we came.

In order that we may execute our original design, we now transport ourselves at once to the point where we had intended to begin our descent of King Street. That point was the site of a building now wholly taken out of the way—the old General Hospital. Farther west on this line of road there was no object possessing any archæological interest.

The old Hospital was a spacious, unadorned, matter-of-fact, two-storey structure, of red brick, one hundred and seven feet long, and sixty-six feet wide. It had, by the direction of Dr. Grant Powell, as we have heard, the peculiarity of standing with its sides precisely east and west, north and south. At a subsequent period, it consequently had the appearance of having being jerked round bodily, the streets in the neighbourhood not being laid out with the same precise regard to the cardinal points. The building exhibited recessed galleries on the north and south sides, and a flattish hipped roof. The interior was conveniently designed.

In the fever wards here, during the terrible season of 1847, frightful scenes of suffering and death were witnessed among the newly-arrived emigrants; here it was that, in ministering to them in their distress, so many were struck down, some all but fatally, others wholly so; amongst the latter several leading medical men, and the Roman Catholic Bishop, Power.

When the Houses of Parliament, at the east end of the town, were destroyed by fire in 1824, the Legislature assembled for several sessions in the General Hospital.

The neighbourhood hereabout had an open, unoccupied look in 1822. In a Weekly Register of the 25th of April of that year, we have an account of the presentation of a set of colours to a militia battalion, mustered for the purpose on the road near the Hospital. "Tuesday, the 23rd instant," the Register reports, "being the anniversary of St. George, on which it has been appointed to celebrate His Majesty's birthday, George IV., [instead of the 4th of June, the fête of the late King,] the East and West Regiments, with Capt. Button's Troop of Cavalry, which are attached to the North York Regiment, on the right, were formed in line at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, on the road in front of the Government House, and a Guard of Honour, consisting of 100 rank and file from each regiment, with officers and sergeants in proportion, under the command of Lieut.-Col. FitzGibbon, were formed at a short distance in front of the centre, as the representatives of the militia of the Province, in order to receive the rich and beautiful Colours which His Majesty has been graciously pleased to command should be prepared for the late incorporated Battalion, as an honourable testimony of the high sense which His Majesty has been pleased to entertain of the zeal and gallantry of the militia of Upper Canada."

The Register then proceeds: "At 12 o'clock, a Royal Salute was fired from the Garrison, and the Lieutenant-Governor with his staff having arrived on the ground, proceeded to review the widely-extended line; after which, taking his station in front of the whole, the band struck up the nation anthem of 'God save the King.' His Excellency then dismounted, and accompanied by his staff, on foot, approached the Guard of Honour, so near as to be distinctly heard by the men; when, uncovering himself, and taking one of the Colours in his hand, in the most dignified and graceful manner, he presented them to the proper officer, with the following address:—"Soldiers! I have great satisfaction in presenting you, as the representatives of the late incorporated Battalion, with these Colours—a distinguished mark of His Majesty's approbation. They will be to you a proud memorial of the past, and a rallying-point around which you will gather with alacrity and confidence, should your active services be required hereafter by your King and Country.'—His Excellency having remounted, the Guard of Honour marched with band playing and Colours flying, from right to left, in front of the whole line, and then proceeded to lodge their Colours at the Government House."

"The day was raw and cold," it is added, "and the ground being very wet and uneven, the men could neither form nor march with that precision they would otherwise have exhibited. We were very much pleased, however, with the soldier-like appearance of the Guard of Honour, and we were particularly struck by the new uniform of the officers of the West York, as being particularly well-adapted for the kind of warfare incident to a thickly-wooded country. Even at a short distance it would be difficult to distinguish the gray coat or jacket from the bole of a tree. There was a very full attendance on the field; and it was peculiarly gratifying to observe so much satisfaction on all sides. The Colours, which are very elegant, are inscribed with the word Niagara, to commemorate the services rendered by the Incorporated Battalion on that frontier; and we doubt not that the proud distinction which attends these banners will always serve to excite the most animating recollections, whenever it shall be necessary for them to wave over the heads of our Canadian Heroes, actually formed in battle-array against the invaders of our Country. At 2 o'clock His Excellency held a Levee, and in the evening a splendid Ball at the Government House concluded the ceremonies and rejoicings of the day." The Lieut. Governor on this occasion was Sir Peregrine Maitland, of whom fully hereafter.

The building on King Street known as "Government House" was originally the private residence of Chief Justice Elmsley. For many years after its purchase by the Government it was still styled "Elmsley House." As at Quebec, the correspondence of the Governor-in-Chief was dated from the "Château St. Louis," or the "Castle of St. Louis," so here, that of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Western Province was long dated from "Elmsley House." Mr. Elmsley was a brother of the celebrated classical critic and editor, Peter Elmsley, of Oxford. We shall have occasion frequently to speak of him.

On the left, opposite Government House, was a very broken piece of ground, denominated "Russell Square;" afterwards, through the instrumentality of Sir John Colborne, converted into a site for an educational Institution. Sir John Colborne, on his arrival in Upper Canada, was fresh from the Governorship of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands. During his administration there he had revived a decayed Public School, at present known as Elizabeth College. Being of opinion that the new country to which he had been transferred was not ripe for a University on the scale contemplated in a royal Charter which had been procured, he addressed himself to the establishment of an institution which should meet the immediate educational wants of the community.

Inasmuch as in the School which resulted—or "Minor College" as it was long popularly called—we have a transcript, more or less close, of the institution which Sir John Colborne had been so recently engaged in reviving, we add two or three particulars in regard to the latter, which may have, with some, a certain degree of interest, by virtue of the accidental but evident relation existing between the two institutions. From a paper in Brayley's Graphic and Historical Illustrator (1834), we gather that Elizabeth College, Guernsey, was originally called the "School of Queen Elizabeth," as having been founded under Letters Patent from that sovereign in 1563, to be a "Grammar-school in which the youth of the Island (juventus) may be better instructed in good learning and virtue." The temple or church of the suppressed Order of Gray Friars (Friars minors or Cordeliers), with its immediate precincts, was assigned for its "use," together with "eighty quarters of wheat rent," accruing from lands in different parts of the Island, which had been given to the friars for dispensations, masses, obits, &c. By the statutes of 1563 the school was divided into six classes; and books and exercises were appointed respectively for each, the scholars to be admitted being required "to read perfectly, and to recite an approved catechism of the Christian religion by heart."

In all the six classes the Latin and Greek languages were the primary objects of instruction; but the Statutes permitted the master, at his discretion, "to add something of his own;" and even "to concede something for writing, singing, arithmetic, and a little play." For more than two centuries the school proved of little public utility. In 1799 there was one pupil on the establishment. In 1816 there were no scholars. From that date to 1824 the number fluctuated from 15 to 29. In 1823, Sir John Colborne appointed a committee to investigate all the circumstances connected with the school, and to ascertain the best mode of assuring its future permanent efficiency and prosperity, without perverting the intention of the foundress. The end of all this was a new building (figured in Brayley) at a cost of £14,754 2s. 3d.; the foundation-stone being laid by Sir John in 1826. On August the 20th, 1829, the revived institution was publicly opened, with one hundred and twenty pupils. "On that day," we are told, "the Bailiff and Jurats of the Island, with General Ross, the Lieutenant-Governor [Sir John Colborne was now in Canada], his staff, and the public authorities, headed by a procession consisting of the Principal, Vice-Principal, and other masters and tutors of the school (together with the scholars), repaired to St. Peter's Church, where prayers were read by the Dean, Dr. Durand, and Te Deum and other anthems were sung. They then returned to the College, where, in the spacious Examination Hall, a crowded assembly were addressed respectively by the Bailiff and President-director [Daniel de Lisle Brock, Esq.], Colonel de Havilland, the Vice-President, and the Rev. G. Proctor, B.D., the new Principal, on the antiquity, objects, apparent prospects, and future efficiency of the institution."

Under the new system the work of education was carried on by a Principal, Vice-Principal, a First and Second Classical Master, a Mathematical Master, a Master and Assistant of the Lower School, a Commercial Master, two French Masters and an Assistant, a Master of Drawing and Surveying, besides extra Masters for the German, Italian, and Spanish languages, and for Music, Dancing, and Fencing. The course of instruction for the day scholars, and those on the foundation, included Divinity, History, Geography, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, English, Mathematics, Arithmetic, and Writing, at a charge in the Upper School of £3 per quarter; and in the Lower or Preparatory School, of £1 per quarter; for Drawing and Surveying, 15s. per quarter. The terms for private scholars (including all College dues and subscriptions for exhibitions and prizes of medals, &c.) varied from £60 annually with the Principal, to £46 annually with the First Classical Teacher.

The exhibitions in the revived institution were, first, one of £30 per annum for four years, founded by the Governor of Guernsey in 1826, to the best Classical scholar, a native of the Bailiwick, or son of a native; secondly, four for four years, of, at least, £20 per annum, founded by subscription in 1826, to the best scholars, severally, in Divinity, Classics, Mathematics, and Modern Languages; thirdly, one for four years, of £20 per annum, founded in 1827 by Admiral Sir James Saumarez, to the best Theological and Classical scholar; fourthly, one of £20 per annum, for four years, from 1830, to the best Classical scholar, given by Sir John Colborne in 1828. There were also two, from the Lower to the Upper School, of £6 per annum, for one year or more, founded by the Directors in 1829.

The foregoing details will, as we have said, be of some interest, especially to Canadians who have received from the institution founded by Sir John Colborne in Russell Square an important part of their early training. "Whatever makes the past, the distant and the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings." So moralized Dr. Johnson amidst the ruins of Iona. On this principle, the points of agreement and difference between the educational type and antitype is this instance, will be acknowledged to be curious.

Another link of association between Guernsey and Upper Canada exists in the now familiar name "Sarnia," which is the old classical name of Guernsey, given by Sir John Colborne to a township on the St. Clair river, in memory of his former government.

Those who desire to trace the career of Upper Canada College ab ovo, will be thankful for the following advertisements. The first is from the Loyalist of May 2, 1829. "Minor College. Sealed tenders for erecting a School House and four dwelling-houses will be received on the first Monday of June next. Plans, elevations and specifications may be seen after the 12th instant, on application to the Hon. Geo. Markland, from whom further information will be received. Editors throughout the Province are requested to insert this notice until the first Monday in June, and forward their accounts for the same to the office of the Loyalist, York. York, 1st May, 1829."

The second advertisement is from the Upper Canada Gazette of Dec. 17, 1829. "Upper Canada College, established at York. Visitor, the Lieutenant-Governor for the time being. This College will open after the approaching Christmas Vacation, on Monday the 8th of January, 1830, under the conduct of the Masters appointed at Oxford by the Vice Chancellor and other electors, in July last. Principal, the Rev, J. H. Harris, D.D., late Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Classical Department: Vice Principal, The Rev. T. Phillips, D.D., of Queen's College, Cambridge. First Classical Master: The Rev. Charles Mathews, M.A., of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Second Classical Master: The Rev. W. Boulton, B.A., of Queen's College, Oxford. Mathematical Department: The Rev. Charles Dade, M.A., Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, and late Mathematical Master at Elizabeth College. French, Mr. J. P. De la Haye. English, Writing and Arithmetic, Mr. G. A. Barber and Mr. J. Padfield. Drawing Master, Mr. Drury. (Then follow terms, &c.) Signed: G. H. Markland, Secretary to the Board of Education. York, Upper Canada, Dec. 2, 1829."

After Russell Square on the left, came an undulating green field; near the middle of it was a barn of rural aspect, cased-in with upright, unplaned boards. The field was at one time a kind of Campus Martius for a troop of amateur cavalry, who were instructed in their evolutions and in the use of the broadsword, by a veteran, Capt. Midford, the Goodwin of the day, at York.

Nothing of note presented itself until after we arrived at the roadway which is now known as Bay Street, with the exception, perhaps, of two small rectangular edifices of red brick with bright tin roofs, dropped, as it were, one at the south-west, the other at the north-west, angle of the intersection of King and York Streets. The former was the office of the Manager of the Clergy Reserve Lands; the latter, that of the Provincial Secretary and Registrar. They are noticeable simply as being specimens, in solid material, of a kind of minute cottage that for a certain period was in fashion in York and its neighbourhood; little square boxes, one storey in height, and without basement; looking as if, by the aid of a ring at the apex of the four sided roof, they might, with no great difficulty, be lifted up, like the hutch provided for Gulliver by his nurse Glumdalclitch, and carried bodily away.

As we pass eastward of Bay Street, the memory comes back of Franco Rossi, the earliest scientific confectioner of York, who had on the south side, near here, a depot, ever fragrant and ambrosial. In his specialities he was a superior workman. From him were procured the fashionable bridecakes of the day; as also the noyeau, parfait-amour, and other liqueurs, set out for visitors on New Year's Day. Rossi was the first to import hither good objects of art: fine copies of the Laocoon, the Apollo Belvidere, the Perseus of Canova, with other classical groups and figures sculptured in Florentine alabaster, were disseminated by him in the community.

Rossi is the Italian referred to by the author of "Cyril Thornton" in his "Men and Manners in America," where speaking of York, visited by him in 1832, he says: "In passing through the streets I was rather surprised to observe an affiche intimating that ice-creams were to be had within. The weather being hot, I entered, and found the master of the establishment to be an Italian. I never ate better ice at Grange's"—some fashionable resort in London, we suppose. The outward signs of civilization at York must have been meagre when a chance visitor recorded his surprise at finding ice-creams procurable in such a place.

Great enthusiasm, we remember, was created, far and near, by certain panes of plate glass with brass divisions between them, which, at a period a little later than Cyril Thornton's (Captain Hamilton's) visit, suddenly ornamented the windows of Mr. Beckett's Chemical Laboratory, close by Rossi's. Even Mrs. Jameson, in her book of "Winter Studies and Summer Rambles," referring to the shop fronts of King Street, pronounces, in a naive English watering-place kind of tone, "that of the apothecary" to be "worthy of Regent Street in its appearance."

A little farther on, still on the southern side, was the first place of public worship of the Wesleyan Methodists. It was a long, low, wooden building, running north and south, and placed a little way back from the street. Its dimensions in the first instance, as we have been informed by Mr. Petch, who was engaged in its erection, were 40 by 40 feet. It was then enlarged to 40 by 60 feet. In the gable end towards the street were two doors, one for each sex. Within, the custom obtained of dividing the men from the women; the former sitting on the right hand of one entering the building; the latter on the left.

This separation of the sexes in places of public worship was an oriental custom, still retained among Jews. It also existed, down to a recent date, in some English Churches. Among articles of inquiry sent down from a Diocesan to churchwardens, we have seen the query: "Do men and women sit together indifferently and promiscuously? or, as the fashion was of old, do men sit together on one side of the church, and women upon the other?" In English Churches the usage was the opposite of that indicated above: the north side, that is, the left on entering, was the place of the women; and the south, that of the men.

In 1688, we have Sir George Wheler, in his "Account of the Churches of the Primitive Christians," speaking of this custom, which he says prevails also "in the Greek Church to this day:" he adds that it "seems not only very decent, but nowadays, since wickedness so much abounds, highly necessary; for the general mixture," he continues, "of men and women in the Latin Church is notoriously scandalous; and little less," he says, "is their sitting together in the same pews in our London churches."

The Wesleyan chapel in King Street ceased to be used in 1833. It was converted afterwards for a time into a "Theatre Royal."

Jordan Street preserves one of the names of Mr. Jordan Post, owner of the whole frontage extending from Bay Street to Yonge Street. The name of his wife is preserved in "Melinda Street," which traverses his lot, or rather block, from east to west, south of King Street. Two of his daughters bore respectively the unusual names of Sophronia and Desdemona. Mr. Post was a tall New-Englander of grave address. He was, moreover, a clockmaker by trade, and always wore spectacles. From the formal cut of his apparel and hair, he was, quite erroneously, sometimes supposed to be of the Mennonist or Quaker persuasion.

So early as 1802, Mr. Post is advertising in the York paper. In the Oracle of Sept. 18, 1802, he announces a temporary absence from the town. "Jordan Post, watchmaker, requests all those who left watches with him to be repaired, to call at Mr. Beman's and receive them by paying for the repairs. He intends returning to York in a few months. Sept. 11, 1802." In the close of the same year, he puts forth the general notice: "Jordan Post, Clock and Watchmaker, informs the public that he now carries on the above business in all its branches, at the upper end of Duke Street. He has a complete assortment of watch furniture. Clocks and watches repaired on the shortest notice, and most reasonable terms, together with every article in the gold and silver line. N. B.—He will purchase old brass. Dec 11, 1802."

Besides the block described above, Mr. Post had acquired other valuable properties in York, as will appear by an advertisement in the Weekly Register of Jan. 19, 1826, from which also it will be seen that he at one time contemplated a gift to the town of one hundred feet frontage and two hundred feet of depth, for the purpose of a second Public Market. "Town Lots for Sale. To be sold by Auction on the Premises, on Wednesday the first day of February next, Four Town Lots on King Street, west of George Street. Also, to be leased at the same time to the highest bidder, for twenty-one years, subject to such conditions as will then be produced. Six Lots on the west side of Yonge Street, and Twenty on Market Street. The Subscriber has reserved a Lot of Ground of One Hundred Feet front, by Two Hundred Feet in the rear, on George Street, for a Market Place, to be given for that purpose. He will likewise lease Ten Lots in front of said intended Market. A plan of the Lots may be seen and further particulars known, by application to the Subscriber. Jordan Post. York, Jan. 4, 1826."

VI.

KING STREET, FROM YONGE STREET TO CHURCH STREET.

here Yonge Street crosses King Street, forming at the present day an unusually noble carrefour, as the French would say, or rectangular intersection of thoroughfares as we are obliged to word it, there was, for a considerable time, but one solitary house—at the north-east angle; a longish, one-storey, respectable wooden structure, painted white, with paling in front, and large willow trees: it was the home of Mr. Dermis, formerly superintendent of the Dock-yard at Kingston. He was one of the United Empire Loyalist refugees, and received a grant of land on the Humber, near the site of the modern village of Weston. His son, Mr. Joseph Dennis, owned and commanded a vessel on Lake Ontario in 1812. When the war with the United States broke out, he and his ship were attached to the Provincial Marine. His vessel was captured, and himself made a prisoner of war, in which condition he remained for fifteen months. He afterwards commanded the Princess Charlotte, an early steamboat on Lake Ontario.

To the eastward of Mr. Dennis' house, on the same side, at an early period, was an obscure frame building of the most ordinary kind, whose existence is recorded simply for having been temporarily the District Grammar School, before the erection of the spacious building on the Grammar School lot.

On the opposite side, still passing on towards the east, was the Jail. This was a squat unpainted wooden building, with hipped roof, concealed from persons passing in the street by a tall cedar stockade, such as those which we see surrounding a Hudson's Bay post or a military wood-yard. At the outer entrance hung a billet of wood suspended by a chain, communicating with a bell within; and occasionally Mr. Parker, the custodian of the place, was summoned, through its instrumentality, by persons not there on legitimate business. We have a recollection of a clever youth, an immediate descendant of the great commentator on British Law, and afterwards himself distinguished at the Upper Canadian bar, who was severely handled by Mr. Parker's son, on being caught in the act of pulling at this billet, with the secret intention of running away after the exploit.

The English Criminal Code, as it was at the beginning of the century, having been introduced with all its enormities, public hangings were frequent at an early period in the new Province. A shocking scene is described as taking place at an execution in front of the old Jail at York. The condemned refuses to mount the scaffold. On this, the moral-suasion efforts of the sheriff amount to the ridiculous, were not the occasion so seriously tragic. In aid of the sheriff, the officiating chaplain steps more than once up the plank set from the cart to the scaffold, to show the facility of the act, and to induce the man to mount in like manner; the condemned demurs, and openly remarks on the obvious difference in the two cases. At last the noose is adjusted to the neck of the wretched culprit, where he stands. The cart is withdrawn, and a deliberate strangling ensues.

In a certain existing account of steps taken in 1811 to remedy the dilapidated and comfortless condition of the Jail, we get a glimpse of York, commercially and otherwise, at that date. In April, 1811, the sheriff, Beikie, reports to the magistrates at Quarter Sessions "that the sills of the east cells of the Jail of the Home District are completely rotten; that the ceilings in the debtors' rooms are insufficient; and that he cannot think himself safe, should necessity oblige him to confine any persons in said cells or debtors' rooms."

An order is given in May to make the necessary repairs; but certain spike-nails are wanted of a kind not to be had at the local dealers in hardware. The chairman is consequently directed to "apply to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, that he will be pleased to direct that the spike-nails be furnished from the King's stores, as there are not any of the description required to be purchased at York." A memorandum follows to the effect that on the communication of this necessity to His Excellency, "the Lieutenant-Governor ordered that the Clerk of the Peace do apply for the spike-nails officially in the name of the Court: which he did," the memorandum adds, "on the 8th of May, 1811, and received an answer on the day following, that an order had been issued that day for 1500 spike-nails, for the repair of the Home District Jail: the nails," it is subjoined, "were received by carpenter Leach in the month of July following."

Again: in December, 1811, Mr. Sheriff Beikie sets forth to the magistrates in Session, that "the prisoners in the cells of the Jail of the Home District suffer much from cold and damp, there being no method of communicating heat from the chimneys, nor any bedsteads to raise the straw from the floors, which lie nearly, if not altogether, on the ground." He accordingly suggests that "a small stove in the lobby of each range of cells, together with some rugs or blankets, will add much to the comfort of the unhappy persons confined." The magistrates authorize the supply of the required necessaries, and the order is marked "instant." (The month, we are to notice, was December.)

At a late period, there were placed about the town a set of posts having relation to the Jail. They were distinguished from the ordinary rough posts, customary then at regular intervals along the sidewalks, by being of turned wood, with spherical tops, the lower part painted a pale blue: the upper, white. These were the "limits"—the certi denique fines—beyond which, détenus for debt were not allowed to extend their walks.

Leaving the picketted enclosure of the Prison, we soon arrived at an open piece of ground on the opposite (north) side of the street,—afterwards known as the "Court House Square." One of the many rivulets or water-courses that traversed the site of York passed through it, flowing in a deep serpentine ravine, a spot to be remembered by the youth of the day as affording, in the winter, facilities for skating and sliding, and audacious exploits on "leather ice." In this open space, a Jail and Court House of a pretentious character, but of poor architectural style, were erected in 1824. The two buildings, which were of two storeys, and exactly alike, were placed side by side, a few yards back from the road. Their gables were to the south, in which direction were also the chief entrances. The material was red brick. Pilasters of cut stone ran up the principal fronts, and up the exposed or outer sides of each edifice. At these sides, as also on the inner and unornamented sides, were lesser gables, but marked by the portion of the wall that rose in front of them, not to a point, but finishing square in two diminishing stages, and sustaining chimneys.

It was intended originally that lanterns should have surmounted and given additional elevation to both buildings, but these were discarded, together with tin as the material of the roofing, with a view to cutting down the cost, and thereby enabling the builder to make the pilasters of cut stone instead of "Roman cement." John Hayden was the contractor. The cost, as reduced, was to be £3,800 for the two edifices.

We extract from the Canadian Review for July, 1824, published by H. H. Cunningham, Montreal, an account of the commencement of the new buildings: "On Saturday, the 24th instant, [April, 1824,] his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, attended by his staff, was met by the Honourable the Members of the Executive Council, the Judges of the Court of King's Bench, and the Gentlemen of the Bar, with the Magistrates and principal inhabitants of York, in procession, for the purpose of laying the foundation-stone of the new Jail and Court House about to be erected in this Town.—A sovereign and half-sovereign of gold, and several coins of silver and copper, of the present reign, together with some newspapers and other memorials of the present day, were deposited in a cavity of the stone, over which a plate of copper, bearing an appropriate inscription, was placed; and after his Excellency had given the first blow, with a hammer handed to him for the purpose, the ceremony concluded with several hearty cheers from all who were present.—If the question were of any real importance," the writer adds, "we might have the curiosity to inquire why the deposit was made in the south-east, rather than in the north-east corner of the building?"—a query that indicates, as we suppose, a deviation from orthodox masonic usage.

In one of the lithographic views published in 1836 by Mr. J. Young, the Jail and Court House, now spoken of, are shewn. Among the objects inserted to give life to the scene, the artist has placed in the foreground a country waggon with oxen yoked to it, in primitive fashion.—Near the front entrance of the Jail, stood, to the terror of evil-doers, down to modern times, a ponderous specimen of the "parish stocks" of the old country, in good condition.

After 1825, the open area in front of the Jail and Court House became the "Public Place" of the town. Crowds filled it at elections and other occasions of excitement. We have here witnessed several scenes characteristic of the times in which they occurred. We here once saw a public orator run away with, in the midst of his harangue. This was Mr. Jesse Ketchum, who was making use of a farmer's waggon as his rostrum or platform, when the vehicle was suddenly laid hold of, and wheeled rapidly down King Street, the speaker maintaining his equilibrium in the meanwhile with difficulty. Mr. Ketchum was one of the most benevolent and beneficent of men. We shall have occasion to refer to him hereafter.

It was on the same occasion, we believe, that we saw Mr. W. L. McKenzie assailed by the missiles which mobs usually adopt. From this spot we had previously seen the same personage, after one of his re-elections, borne aloft in triumph, on a kind of pyramidal car, and wearing round his neck and across his breast a massive gold chain and medal (both made of molten sovereigns), the gift of his admirers and constituents: in the procession, at the same time, was a printing-press, working as it was conveyed along in a low sleigh, and throwing off handbills, which were tossed, right and left, to the accompanying crowd in the street.

The existing generation of Canadians, with the lights which they now possess, see pretty clearly, that the agitator just named, and his party, were not, in the abstract, by any means so bad as they seemed: that, in fact, the ideas which they sought to propagate are the only ones practicable in the successful government of modern men.

Is there a reader nowadays that sees anything very startling in the enunciation of the following principles?—"The control of the whole revenue to be in the people's representatives; the Legislative Council to be elective; the representation in the House of Assembly to be as equally proportioned to the population as possible; the Executive Government to incur a real responsibility; the law of primogeniture to be abolished; impartiality in the selection of juries to be secured; the Judiciary to be independent; the military to be in strict subordination to the civil authorities; equal rights to the several members of the community; every vestige of Church-and-State union to be done away; the lands and all the revenues of the country to be under the control of the country; and education to be widely, carefully and impartially diffused; to these may be added the choice of our own Governor."

These were the political principles sought to be established in the Governments of Canada by the party referred to, as set forth in the terms just given (almost verbatim) in Patrick Swift's Almanac, a well known popular, annual brochure of Mr. McKenzie's. It seems singular now, in the retrospect, that doctrines such as these should have created a ferment.

But there is this to be said: it does not appear that there were, at the time, in the ranks of the party in power, any persons of very superior intellectual gifts or of a wide range of culture or historical knowledge: so that it was not likely that, on that side, there would be a ready relinquishment of political traditions, of inherited ideas, which their possessors had never dreamt of rationally analyzing, and which they deemed it all but treason to call in question.

And moreover it is to be remembered that the chief propagandist of the doctrines of reform, although very intelligent and ready of speech, did not himself possess the dignity and repose of character which give weight to the utterances of public men. Hence, with the persons who really stood in need of instruction and enlightenment, his words had an irritating, rather than a conciliatory and convincing effect. This was a fault which it was not in his power to remedy. For his microscopic vision and restless temperament, while they fitted him to be a very clever local reformer, a very clever local editor, unfitted him for the grand role of a national statesman, or heroic conductor of a revolution.

Accordingly, although the principles advocated by him finally obtained the ascendancy, posterity only regards him as the Wilkes, the Cobbett, or the Hunt of his day, in the annals of his adopted country. In the interval between the outbreak or feint at outbreak in 1838, and 1850, the whole Canadian community made a great advance in general intelligence, and statesmen of a genuine quality began to appear in our Parliaments.

Prior to the period of which we have just been speaking, a name much in the mouths of our early settlers was that of Robert Gourlay. What we have to say in respect to him, in our retrospect of the past, will perhaps be in place here.

Nothing could be more laudable than Mr. Gourlay's intentions at the outset. He desired to publish a statistical account of Canada, with a view to the promotion of emigration. To inform himself of the actual condition of the young colony, he addressed a series of questions to persons of experience and intelligence in every township of Upper Canada. These questions are now lying before us; they extend to the number of thirty-one. There are none of them that a modern reader would pronounce ill-judged or irrelevant.

But here again it is easy to see that personal character and temperament marred the usefulness of a clever man. His inordinate self-esteem and pugnaciousness, insufficiently controlled, speedily rendered him offensive, especially in a community constituted as that was in the midst of which he had suddenly lighted; and drove, naturally and of necessity, his opponents to extreme measures in self-defence, and himself to extreme doctrines by way of retaliation: thus he became overwhelmed with troubles from which the tact of a wiser man would have saved him. But for Gourlay, as the event proved, a latent insanity was an excuse.

It is curious to observe that, in 1818, Gourlay, in his heat against the official party, whose headquarters were at York, threatened that town with extinction; at all events, with the obliteration of its name, and the transmutation thereof into that of Toronto. In a letter to the Niagara Spectator, he says:—"The tumult excited stiffens every nerve and redoubles the proofs of necessity for action. If the higher classes are against me, I shall recruit among my brother farmers, seven in eight of whom will support the cause of truth. If one year does not make Little York surrender to us, then we'll batter it for two; and should it still hold out, we have ammunition for a much longer siege. We shall raise the wind against it from Amherstburgh and Quebec—from Edinburgh, Dublin and London. It must be levelled to the very earth, and even its name be forgotten in Toronto."

But to return for a moment to Mr. McKenzie. On the steps of the Court House, which we are to suppose ourselves now passing, we once saw him under circumstances that were deeply touching. Sentence of death had been pronounced on a young man once employed in his printing-office. He had been vigorously exerting himself to obtain from the Executive a mitigation of the extreme penalty. The day and even the hour for the execution had arrived; and no message of reprieve had been transmitted from the Lieutenant-Governor. As he came out of the Sheriff's room, after receiving the final announcement that there could be no further delay, the white collars on each side of his face were wet through and through with the tears that were gushing from his eyes and pouring down his cheeks! He was just realizing the fact that nothing further could be done; and in a few moments afterwards the execution actually took place.

We approach comparatively late times when we speak of the cavalcade which passed in grand state the spot now under review, when Messrs. Dunn and Buchanan were returned as members for the town. In the pageant on that occasion there was conspicuous a train of railway carriages, drawn of course, by horse power, with the inscription on the sides of the carriages—"Do you not wish you may get it?"—the allusion being to the Grand Trunk, which, was then only a thing in posse.

And still referring to processions associated in our memory with Court House Square, the recollection of another comes up, which once or twice a year used formerly to pass down King Street on a Sunday. The townspeople were familiar enough with the march of the troops of the garrison to and from Church, to the sound of military music, on Sundays. But on the occasions now referred to, the public eye was drawn to a spectacle professedly of an opposite character:—to the procession of the "Children of Peace," so-called.

These were a local off-shoot of the Society of Friends, the followers of Mr. David Willson, who had his headquarters at Sharon, in Whitchurch, where he had built a "Temple," a large wooden structure, painted white, and resembling a high-piled house of cards. Periodically he deemed it proper to make a demonstration in town. His disciples and friends, dressed in their best, mounted their waggons and solemnly passed down Yonge Street, and then on through some frequented thoroughfare of York to a place previously announced, where the prophet would preach. His topic was usually "Public Affairs: their Total Depravity."

The text of all of Willson's homilies might, in effect, be the following mystic sentence, extracted from the popular periodical, already quoted—Patrick Swift's Almanac: "The backwoodsman, while he lays the axe to the root of the oak in the forests of Canada, should never forget that a base basswood is growing in this his native land, which, if not speedily girdled, will throw its dark shadows over the country, and blast his best exertions. Look up, reader, and you will see the branches—the Robinson branch, the Powell branch, the Jones branch, the Strachan branch, the Boulton twig, &c. The farmer toils, the merchant toils, the labourer toils, and the Family Compact reap the fruit of their exertions." (Almanac for 1834.)

Into all the points here suggested Mr. Willson would enter with great zest. When waxing warm in his discourse, he would sometimes, without interrupting the flow of his words, suddenly throw off his coat and suspend it on a nail or pin in the wall, waving about with freedom, during the residue of his oration, a pair of sturdy arms, arrayed, not indeed in the dainty lawn of a bishop, but in stout, well-bleached American Factory. His address was divided into sections, between which "hymns of his own composing" were sung by a company of females dressed in white, sitting on one side, accompanied by a band of musical instruments on the other.