trying year, 1829, when the public temper was highly roused, Baldwin was returned as one of the representatives from York. Called into the Executive Council by Sir Francis Bond Head, he was too high-minded to occupy a seat while the Governor consulted others than his constitutional advisers. During the time of the outbreak the dignified position taken by Robert Baldwin, and his subsequent wisdom, made him one of the most valuable men Canada has ever known. One of the most subtle-minded and diplomatic of the opponents of the oligarchy was Dr. John Rolph. Rolph. He was born in Gloucestershire in England in 1793, and, as we have seen, took up his abode as a physician in the Talbot settlement. In 1821, having studied law, he was called to the bar, and seems to have practised both law and medicine. He was among the new members in the popular Assembly elected in 1824, being chosen for Middlesex. Rolph took a prominent place in the House, as was to have been expected from his high scholastic attainments, finished eloquence, and smoothness of manner. He The rebellion era was a time of special trial for Rolph. There seems little doubt that while apparently against the insurgents, he secretly encouraged them. remained until 1857 in public life, but retired from it to practise his profession of medicine. This father of reform became in time the founder of a medical college, and many hundreds of the physicians of Canada still speak of the erudite and accomplished lecturer who led them into Esculapian mysteries. The doctor remained a wellknown feature of Toronto for many years, and died in 1870. Small in stature, but large in energy, honest in purMackenzie, pose, but hasty in temper, keen in intellect, but unsafe in council, a hater of wrong, but a bitter antagonist, pitying the poor or unfortunate, but not of humble disposition, a warm friend, but a dangerous enemy, was William Lyon Mackenzie. In distinct per sonality, perhaps, he was the only man of his time who might dispute the palm with Bishop Strachan. He was born of humble parents near Dundee, Scotland, in 1795. Possessed of a thirst for knowledge, he had, by his own exertions, on his arrival in Canada, in 1820, become a man of marked intelligence. After certain moderately prosperous ventures in that memorable political year, 1824, he began the publication of a newspaper, The Colonial Advocate. This, after November, 1824, was issued in York, the provincial capital. Now began his work of ferreting our Canadian grievances. Many were the trials of the irrepressible Radical. In 1828 he entered Parliament, but time and again was expelled by the dominant majority in the Assembly. He became the father of the Upper Canadian rebellion, was estranged for a time from his old friends, was an exile, but returned to spend his last days in the province, which, after all, he loved, and died in 1861. There are those who would drag to light the differences between Rolph and Mackenzie. The advocates of both will find in their respective heroes a character a long way indeed from perfection, but our counsel would be "Nil nisi bonum de mortuis." Section III.-The Struggle for Freedom The trial of Gourlay sent a thrill through the breasts of the people of Upper Canada. The Family Compact had chosen their ground well. Niagara had been settled by Butler's Rangers, who had done bloody work in the war of the revolution, and what neither Brockville nor Kingston had ventured to do, Niagara permitted, viz., the absolute destruction of personal liberty. The persecution of Lord Selkirk by the Family Compact was a similar wrong. But the cabal was all-powerful. It was only in 1824 that the voice of the people spoke out loudly against the junto. In that year was elected, amidst much excitement, an Assembly, which may be called the People's Assembly. It contained a majority against the Family Compact, and the opposition succeeded in electing the speaker. But the Government was not responsible to the Assembly. The Executive could defy the will of the Assembly, though it should be a unit. The Governor, instead of being an arbiter between contending parties, found association with the Family Compact most congenial. Governor The name of Governor Maitland will ever remain one little favoured in Canada. Born in Hampshire in 1777, young Peregrine Maitland entered the army as ensign in 1792. He gained distinction in the Napoleonic wars, and rose to the rank of majorgeneral. On the retirement of Francis Gore, who had returned to Upper Canada after the war of defence in 1815, and had continued in office until 1818, Sir Peregrine came as his successor. Governor Maitland was the sonin-law of the Duke of Richmond, the Governor-General, having married, as his second wife, after eloping with her from Paris, the Lady Sarah Lennox, the duke's daughter. As seems to have been usually the case in our provincial struggles, the newspaper press took a chief part in the troubles. A monument to Sir Isaac Brock was being reared on Queenston Heights. In the base of the structure a copy of the Colonial Advocate had been placed, and William Lyon Mackenzie had taken part in Advocate." the ceremonies of the occasion. Sir Peregrine Maitland ordered the cavity to be reopened and the Radical newspaper to be taken out, and it was done. The Advocate next attacked fiercely the action of Judge Boulton and his son, the Solicitor-General, in a case before the court-calling it the Star Chamber, and suggesting parallels with the detested names of Scroggs and Jeffries. The opposition majority in the Assembly in 1825 was thus urged on to severe criticism of the Governor and Council. The "Colonial And yet the Colonial Advocate, not basking in the smile of Government patrons, was unremunerative, and its editor, Mackenzie, was in financial difficulties. At this juncture a band of the younger members of the Family Compact, in open day, on June 8th, 1826, entered the printing-office of the Advocate, tore the furniture to shreds, and threw the type into Toronto Bay. The nine culprits were brought to trial, and compelled to pay £625 as damages to the agitator Mackenzie. Subscrip tions were taken up among the official class to pay the fine, but the receipt of the amount named gave new life to the Colonial Advocate. The Governor and Council were now roused to counterwork the agitators. Spies were employed to watch the anti-ministerialists. The weight of the Family Compact wrath fell upon Captain Matthews, an outspoken The British half-pay officer, representative of Mid- Matthews dlesex, who had thrown in his lot with the Case. opposition. In 1825 the captain, in company with others in a hilarious mood, had attended a theatrical performance given by a band of strolling American players in York, and called upon the orchestra to render certain American airs. This was charged as the most flagrant disloyalty. The most of the party having been in an oblivious state of mind, it was difficult to ascertain the truth, but Captain Matthews was summoned by the British Government to repair to England, and though a Committee of the Assembly cleared him of disloyalty, his half-pay was stopped by the War Department. In 1827 there arrived in Canada a querulous and somewhat pompous English lawyer, who had been The Troubles appointed to be Judge of the King's Bench, in of Judge the expectation that an Equity Court would Willis. be established, over which he would preside. This was John Willis. He was married to Lady Mary Willis, daughter of Lord Strathmore. Judge Willis seems to have taken a dislike to Beverley Robinson, AttorneyGeneral, and Lady Mary Willis was no admirer of Lady Maitland. It was evident that the Belgravian circles of York would soon be in a state of torrid temperature. In a libel suit against a troublesome printer, Collins, Attorney-General Robinson was engaged in conducting the case. Judge Willis took the opportunity to administer a rebuke to the Attorney-General for neglecting to prosecute other cases which involved injury to certain friends of the Family Compact. The scene in court was most unbecoming to all parties. It was now announced in the press of the time that Judge Willis was preparing a treatise on the system of jurisprudence in Upper Canada, and the motto chosen, "meliora sperans,' was supposed to reflect upon the code then in vogue. But the crisis came when Judge Willis professed to have discovered that, in the absence of the Chief Justice, who had gone to Britain, the sitting of the court was illegal, and he announced this to the assembled Bar, refusing at the same time to sit. The relations between the two ladies already mentioned, who both desired to be leaders of York society, had also become very unhappy. The Governor and Council decided to remove Judge Willis. This was done, and Justice Hagerman was appointed his successor. The contention of Judge Willis was shown afterwards to be wrong, and his temper and mien were far from commendable, but the opposition regarded his as a case of persecution, and this also did much to render the Family Compact unpopular in the country. The Another unfortunate occurrence soon took place. A Affair. greedy innkeeper at Niagara Falls, named ForForsyth syth, in order to prevent visitors to that interesting locality from seeing the Falls without passing through his hostelry, built a high fence along the front of his property, thus shutting in the Government reserve of one chain in width along the river, and hiding the view of the Falls. Ordered by Sir Peregrine Maitland, as Commander of the Forces in 1828, to remove the barrier, he refused. A sergeant and a fatigue party soon after appeared, threw down the fence, demolished one of Forsyth's houses, which was built on his own property, and threw the materials over the bank into the river beneath. Though Forsyth was in the wrong, yet the employment of military and the high |