William, the People's Friend:" on the reverse, "Presented to William L. Mackenzie, Esq., by his constituents of York, U. C., as a token of their approbation of his political career, Jan. 2d, 1832."

But the majority of the Assembly had as yet learned nothing from experience. A vast crowd accompanied Mackenzie to the Parliament building, into which not a few forced their way, to hear a motion made for the second expulsion of Mackenzie, while he still waited below the bar of the House to be sworn in. But the motion was lost by a majority of four. New cause for expulsion was found, three days afterwards, in an article in the Colonial Advocate, and which cause was simply an almost naked recital of facts. After a hurried and scandalous trial, Mackenzie was now expelled a second time, and declared ineligible to sit in the existing Assembly. The excitement increased, and the Legislative Council also declared itself libelled by the Advocate, and prayed the protection of the Lower House.

Public meetings were now held in every direction, at which resolutions were passed favourable to the liberty of the press, and condemning the course of the majority in the Assembly. The Reform party were thoroughly aroused, became willing to acquire all the support they could, and exhibited a decided inclination to incorporate as many of the recent emigrants into their ranks as possible.

Towards the close of the session, a message from the Governor stated that the Home Ministry admitted the Church of Scotland in Canada had a right to share in the Clergy Reserve lands. But no action was taken upon it, and the Legislature was prorogued on the 28th of January. Seven days afterwards Mackenzie was again elected for the county of York, by an immense majority over two other candidates. He was now decidedly the most popular man in the province, and was chosen to act as agent by a large meeting held at Toronto to support the petition for the redress of grievances to be laid before the King. Some of these prayed that a new Provincial Parliament might be called, as the present members did not represent the people, that the Legislative Council might be made elective, the Lieutenant-Governor removed, the Bank of Upper Canada prevented from becoming a moneyed monopoly dangerous to popular liberty, and that a favourable answer might be returned to previous petitions asking for a more equal representation, many of the borough towns being very small. The promotion of education was also requested, the proper expenditure of the public revenue, and the regulation of the land-granting department. All these evils

complained of were capable of constitutional settlement, and afforded slender pretext for revolution. Unlike the Papineau faction, the Reform party of Upper Canada had no disposition to hunt up new grievances as old ones were removed; and had no desire, as a general rule, to push matters to an extreme point, with an ulterior aim to a total independence of the mother-country. Mackenzie, after a narrow escape from being murdered, sailed for England in the month of April, and arrived there safely on the 1st of May.

The summer of this year was not distinguished by much political agitation. A numerous immigration crowded up the St Lawrence to establish itself in the new townships, and swell the population of the province. It was a sad season for the poor fugitive from fatherland. The Asiatic Cholera was sweeping with its deadly plaguebreath over affrighted Europe, and decimating the terror-stricken passengers of the crowded and ill-ventilated emigrant ships. With the first sunny days of spring it established itself in Quebec and Montreal, the great outlets of Canadian commerce, and from thence passed up the St Lawrence, and round the shores of Ontario and Erie, carrying death and dismay into all the frontier towns and hamlets of the country. Until the scourge passed almost entirely away with the cool days of October, the terrible word "cholera " stared at one continually from all the public prints, and mingled with the matin and vesper orisons of the prayerful.

The Legislature assembled on the 31st of October. In his opening address, the Governor alluded to the rapid increase of population by immigration,* the completion of the Rideau canal, and the almost complete disappearance of cholera. Mr Mackenzie still continued absent in England, and was busily engaged in attracting the attention of the Colonial Office, now controlled by Lord Goderich, to the affairs of the province. One of the first measures of the session was his third expulsion from the Assembly. But he was again reelected by acclamation, no other candidate presenting himself, and the same day the first political Reform union of Upper Canada was organised, on a basis proposed by Dr Morrison.

Five times, altogether, was Mackenzie expelled by the Family Compact majority of the Assembly, to be as often re-elected. The Home Government disapproved of their conduct in this respect. It was decidedly opposed to its Whig policy, to the principles of Reform professed by the Imperial Parliament, and

1833.

*As a proof of the respectability of this immigration 300,000 sovereigns were deposited during the summer in the Bank of Upper Canada.-New York Albion, October 1832.

although averse to complying with all the prayers of the petitions, for which Mackenzie acted as agent, the latter had the satisfaction of seeing Attorney-General Boulton and Solicitor-General Hagerman deprived of their situations for aiding prominently in his frequent expulsion. Hagerman, however, proceeding promptly to England, soon procured his own restoration to office, while Boulton 1834. got a judgeship in Newfoundland, where he soon embroiled himself with a large section of the population, and was finally dismissed from all employment by the Imperial Government.

These occurrences added largely to the intensity of party spirit, and the agitation which they aroused reacted to some extent on the Legislature, which this year passed the long and much desired act making the judges independent of the Crown, and enabling them to hold their office for life, provided they behaved themselves properly. This act also declared both branches of the Legislature a competent court to try impeachments against judges, giving, however, a right of appeal to the King in Council. Thus one serious and long-standing abuse was removed, and the flagrant case of a Thorp or a Willis could never again occur in Upper Canada. In the November of this year Mackenzie discontinued the publication of his Colonial Advocate.

The approaching election was productive of a larger amount of political excitement, than any similar event had hitherto produced in the province. The almost unlooked-for majority which the Family Compact had acquired in the late Assembly, led them to make great exertions to secure the same preponderance in the ensuing one. But their arbitrary course with regard to Mackenzie had lost them many friends. Nor did their conduct otherwise satisfy many of the new immigrant electors, and it was evident, as the struggle drew near, that their prospects of success were extremely slight. Taught by experience, the Reform party sedulously courted the support of the Irish Roman Catholics, as well as of all those whom they imagined were most likely to assist them, and exerted themselves so effectually that they secured a majority of ten in a House of fifty-eight members. Mackenzie was again returned triumphantly for the county of York, and Marshall S. Bidwell, when the 1835. Legislature assembled on the 14th of January, was a second time elected Speaker of the Assembly. The result of this election may be regarded as the last knell of the Family Compact. A new party, who disclaimed its extreme political doctrines, denied its exclusive right to office, maintained that preferment should be open to

* Seventh Grievance Report, p. 31.

all men of talent, and was not opposed to measures of necessary Reform, while, at the same time, it was sincerely attached to British connexion, was now rapidly springing into political importance. This party disclaimed alike the name of Family Compact or Tory, and called itself Conservative. Its principles differed as widely from those of the Family Compact as the principles of the Reform party of the present day, and whose existence commenced in 1831, differ from the extreme Radical and revolutionary theories of the Rolph and Bidwell school of 1837-8.

The first session of the twelfth Parliament of Upper Canada is particularly distinguished for its famous "Seventh Grievance Report," concocted chiefly by Mackenzie and Dr Morrison. This report is a temperate and truthful document, in which the impartial reader can find very little to quarrel with. After making due allowance for the natural desire to reduce political foes in public estimation, all lovers of rational liberty will admit that many grievances are therein set forth, which required constitutional remedy; and a feeling of regret must arise, that any other than constitutional means were ever resorted to by way of obtaining redress. Twenty-one out of its forty-eight pages were devoted to the question of responsible government, to procure which the members of the Reform party were now concentrating all their exertions, sensible that if they once could control the Executive Council the Legislative Council must speedily adapt itself to their views.

*

The great change in the political opinions of Great Britain, and the moderate and more rational tone which now began to pervade parties there, led to the supposition in Upper Canada, that the High Church party could not much longer maintain its exclusive claims to the Clergy Reserve lands; and that, agreeable to the original statute setting them apart, they must be soon divided among other Protestant denominations, or diverted to the purposes of education. The executive accordingly determined, while they had yet the power, to make provision for the maintenance of the Church of England. Fifty-seven rectories were set apart from the Clergy Reserves, and put in possession of ministers, with the view of giving them a personal interest in the lands, and thus, as it was supposed, preventing them from being ousted by legal enactment.†

This is the extent of the report proper. It is accompanied, however, by a large mass of other and very useful information of some 450 pages.

+ The Trinity Episcopal Corporation of New York acquired their property also from the Crown before the American Revolution, and still retain possession of it owing to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.

This procedure produced a large amount of ill feeling towards the executive among the opposition, and a very violent spirit manifested itself on different occasions. In Toronto, which had now expanded into a city, of which Mackenzie moreover was mayor, quarrels took place between the military and the refuse of the Reform party, which created a good deal of unpleasantness. The soldiers, too, were tampered with,* but evidently more with the view of annoying the Governor, than with any ulterior design to rebellion. Such was the unpleasant condition of Upper Canada, when the Colonial Office, now pledged to a policy of conciliation, and satisfied that Sir John Colborne would not compromise himself by carrying it out, determined to recall him, agreeable to his own request, and appoint Sir Francis Bond Head as his successor.

* Canada as it Was, &c., vol. i. p. 188-190.