rambles in the woods in search of game. Once he was so long missing that
foul play was suspected; and some human remains having been found under
a heap of logs on the property of Peter Ernest, Peter Ernest was
arrested; and just as the evidence was all going strongly against him,
Mr. Weekes appeared on the scene alive and well.
One more of these inhuman and unchristian encounters, with fatal result,
memorable in the early annals of York, we shall have occasion to speak
of hereafter when, in our intended progress up Yonge Street, we pass the
spot where the tragedy was enacted.
Mr. Weekes was greatly regretted by his constituents. "Overwhelmed with
grief," they say in their address dated the 20th September, 1806, to the
gentleman whom they desire to succeed him, "at the unexpected death of
our late able and upright Representative; we, freeholders of these
Counties of York, Durham and Simcoe, feel that we have neglected our
interests in the season of sorrow. Now awake, it is to you we turn;
notwithstanding the great portion of consolation which we draw from the
dawning of our impartial and energetic administration. (The allusion is
to Gov. Gore.)
"Fully persuaded that the great object of your heart is the advancement
of public prosperity, the observance of the laws, and the practice of
religion and morality, we hasten with assurances of our warmest support,
to invite you from your retreat to represent us in Parliament. Permit
us, however, to impress upon you, that as subjects of a generous and
beloved King; as a part of that great nation which has for so long a
time stood the bulwark of Europe, and is now the solitary and
inaccessible asylum of liberty; as the children of Englishmen, guarded,
protected and restrained by English laws; in fine, as members of their
community, as fathers and sons, we are induced to place this confidence
in your virtue, from the firm hope that, equally insensible to the
impulse of popular feeling and the impulse of power, you will pursue
what is right. This has been the body of your decisions; may it be the
spirit of your counsels! (Signed by fifty-two persons, residing in the
Town and Township of York.)" The names not given.
These words were addressed to Mr. Justice Thorpe. His reply was couched
in the following terms: "Gentlemen: With pleasure I accede to your
desire. If you make me your representative I will faithfully discharge
my duty. Your confidence is not misplaced. May the first moment of
dereliction be the last of my existence. Your late worthy representative
I lament from my heart. In private he was a warm friend; at the Bar an
able advocate, and in Parliament a firm patriot. It is but just to draw
consolation from our Governor, when the first act of his administration
granted to those in the U. E. list and their children, what your late
most valuable member so strenuously laboured to obtain. Surely from this
we have every reason to expect that the liberal interests of our beloved
sovereign, whose chief glory is to reign triumphantly enthroned on the
hearts of a free people, will be fulfilled, honouring those who give and
those who receive, enriching the Province and strengthening the Empire.
Let us cherish this hope in the blossom; may it not be blasted in the
ripening." A postscript is subjoined: "P. S. If influence, threat,
coercion or oppression should be attempted to be exercised over any
individual, for the purpose of controlling the freedom of election, let
me be informed.--R. T."
In 1806 Judges were not ineligible to the Upper Canadian Parliament. Mr.
Justice Thorpe and Governor Gore did not agree. He was consequently
removed from office. Some years later, when both gentlemen were living
in England as private persons, Mr. Thorpe brought an action for libel
against Mr. Gore, and obtained a favourable verdict.
We now proceed on our prescribed course. So late as 1833, Walton, in his
"York Commercial Directory, Street Guide, and Register," when naming the
residents on Lot Street, as he still designates Queen Street, makes a
note on arriving at two park lots to the westward of the spot where we
have been pausing, to the effect, that "here this street is intercepted
by the grounds of Capt. McGill, S. P. Jarvis, Esq., and Hon. W. Allan;
past here it is open to the Roman Catholic Church, and intended to be
carried through to the Don Bridge."
The process of levelling up, now become so common in Toronto, has
effectually disposed of the difficulty temporarily presented by the
ravine or ancient water-course, yet partially to be seen either in front
of or upon the park lots occupied by the old inhabitants just named; and
Queen Street, at the present hour, is an uninterrupted thoroughfare in a
right line, and almost on a level the whole way, from the Don in the
east to the Lunatic Asylum in the west, and beyond, on to the gracefully
curving margin of Humber Bay.--(The unfrequented and rather tortuous
Britain Street is a relic of the deviation occasioned by the ravine,
although the actual route followed in making the detour of old was
Duchess Street.)
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XIX.
QUEEN STREET--DIGRESSION AT CAROLINE STREET--HISTORY OF THE EARLY PRESS.
A little to the south of Britain Street, between it and Duchess Street,
near the spot where Caroline Street, slightly diverging from the right
line, passes northward to Queen Street, there stood in the early day a
long, low wooden structure, memorable to ourselves, as being, in our
school-boy days, the Government Printing Office. Here the _Upper Canada
Gazette_ was issued, by "R. C. Horne, Printer to the King's Most
Excellent Majesty."
We shall have occasion hereafter to notice among our early inhabitants
some curious instances of change of profession. In the present case, His
Majesty's Printer was in reality an Army Surgeon, once attached to the
Glengary Light Infantry. And again, afterwards, the same gentleman was
for many years the Chief Teller in the Bank of Upper Canada. An incident
in the troubles of 1837 was "the burning of Dr. Horne's house," by a
party of the malcontents who were making a show of assault upon the
town. The site of this building, a conspicuous square two-storey frame
family residence, was close to the toll-bar on Yonge Street, in what is
now Yorkville. On that occasion, we are informed, Dr. Horne "berated the
Lieutenant-Governor for treating with avowed rebels, and insisted that
they were not in sufficient force to give any ground of alarm."
The _Upper Canada Gazette_ was the first newspaper published in Upper
Canada. Its first number appeared at Newark or Niagara, on Thursday,
the 18th of April, 1793. As it was apparently expected to combine with a
record of the acts of the new government some account of events
happening on the continent at large, it was made to bear the double
title of _Upper Canada Gazette, or American Oracle_. Louis Roy was its
first printer, a skilled artizan engaged probably from Lower Canada,
where printing had been introduced about thirty years previously, soon
after the English occupation of the country.
Louis Roy's name appears on the face of No. 1, Vol. I. The type is of
the shape used in contemporaneous printing, and the execution is very
good. The size of the sheet, which retained the folio form, was 15 by 91/2
inches. The quality of the paper was rather coarse, but stout and
durable.
The address to the public in the first number is as follows:--"The
Editor of this paper respectfully informs the public that the flattering
prospect which he has of an extensive sale for his new undertaking has
enabled him to augment the size originally proposed from a Demy Quarto
to a Folio.
"The encouragement he has met will call forth every exertion he is
master of, so as to render the paper useful, entertaining and
instructive. He will be very happy in being favoured with such
communications as may contribute to the information of the public, from
those who shall be disposed to assist him, and in particular shall be
highly flattered in becoming the vehicle of intelligence in this growing
Province of whatever may tend to its internal benefit and common
advantage. In order to preserve the veracity of his paper, which will be
the first object of his attention, it will be requisite that all
transactions of a domestic nature, such as deaths, marriages, &c., be
communicated under real signatures.
"The price of this _Gazette_ will be three dollars per annum. All
advertisements inserted in it, and not exceeding twelve lines, will pay
4s. Quebec currency; and for every additional line a proportionable
price. Orders for letter-press printing will be executed with neatness,
despatch and attention, and on the most reasonable terms."
An advertisement in the first number informs the public that a Brewery
is about to be established under the sanction of the
Lieutenant-Governor. "Notice is hereby given, that there will be a
Brewery erected here this summer under the sanction of His Excellency
the Lieutenant-Governor, and encouraged by some of the principal
gentlemen of this place; and whosoever will sow barley and cultivate
their land so that it will produce grain of a good quality, they may be
certain of a market in the fall at one dollar a bushel on delivery. W.
Huet, Niagara, 18th April, 1793."
The number dated Niagara, May 2, 1793, "hath" the following
advertisement:--"Sampson Jutes begs leave to inform all persons who
propose to build houses, &c., in the course of this summer, that he hath
laths, planks and scantlings of all kinds to sell on reasonable terms.
Any person may be supplied with any of the above articles on the
shortest notice. Applications to be made to him at his mill near Mr.
Peter Secord's."
In the Number for May 30, 1793, we have ten guineas reward offered for
the recovery of a Government grindstone:--"Ten Guineas Reward is offered
to any person that will make discovery and prosecute to conviction, the
Thief or Thieves that have stolen a Grindstone from the King's Wharf at
Navy Hall, between the 30th of April and the 6th instant. John McGill,
Com. of Stores, &c., &c., for the Province of Upper Canada. Queenstown,
16th May, 1793."
The Anniversary of the King's Birth-day was celebrated at Niagara in
1793, in the following manner:--"Niagara, June 6. On Tuesday last, being
the Anniversary of His Majesty's birthday, His Excellency the
Lieutenant-Governor had a Levee at Navy Hall. At one o'clock the troops
in garrison and at Queenston fired three volleys; the field-pieces above
Navy Hall, under the direction of the Royal Artillery, and the guns of
the Garrison, fired a Royal Salute. His Majesty's schooner, the
Onondago, at anchor in the river, likewise fired a Royal Salute. In the
evening His Excellency gave a Ball and elegant Supper at the Council
Chamber, which was most numerously attended."
In the second volume (1794) of the _Gazette and Oracle_, Louis Roy's
name disappears. G. Tiffany becomes the printer. In 1798 it has assumed
the Quarto form, and is dated "West Niagara," a name Newark was
beginning to acquire.
No _Gazette_ is issued April 29th, 1798. An apology for the omission
constitutes the whole of the editorial of the Number for May 5. It says:
"The Printer having been called to York last week upon business, is
humbly tendered to his readers as an apology for the _Gazette's_ not
appearing."
In 1799, the _Gazette_ being about to be removed across permanently to
York, the new capital, whither also all the government offices were
departing, Messrs. S. and G. Tiffany decide on starting a newspaper on
their own account for Niagara. It is called the "_Canada
Constellation_," and its terms are four dollars per annum. It is
announced to appear weekly "opposite the Lion tavern." The date of the
first number is July 20. In the introductory address to the public, the
Messrs. Tiffany make use of the following rather involved language:--"It
is a truth long acknowledged that no men hold situations more
influential of the minds and conduct of men than do printers: political
printers are sucked from, nursed and directed by the press: and when
they are just, the community is in unity and prosperity; but when
vicious, every evil ensues; and it is lamentable that many printers,
either vile remiss in, or ignorant of, their duty, produce the latter or
no effect; and to which of these classes we belong, time will unfold."
The public means of maintaining a regular correspondence with the outer
world being insufficient, the enterprising spirit of the Messrs. Tiffany
led them to think of establishing a postal system of their own. In the
_Constellation_ for August 23, we have the announcement: "The printers
of the _Constellation_ are desirous of establishing a post on the road
from their office to Ancaster and the Grand River, as well as another to
Fort Erie; and for this purpose they propose to hire men to perform the
routes as soon as the subscriptions will allow of the expense. In order
to establish the business, the printers on their part will subscribe
generously, and to put the design into execution, but little remains for
the people to do."
We can detect in the _Constellation_ a natural local feeling against the
upstart town of York, which had now drawn away almost every thing from
the old Newark. Thus in the number for November the 14th, 1799, a
communication from York, signed _Amicus_, is admitted, written plainly
by one who was no great lover of the place. It affords a glimpse of the
state of its thoroughfares, and of the habits of some of its
inhabitants. _Amicus_ proposes a "_Stump Act_" for York; _i. e._, a
compulsory eradication of the stumps in the streets: so that "the people
of York in the space of a few months may" as he speaks. "relapse into
intoxication with impunity; and stagger home at any hour of the night
without encountering the dreadful apprehension of broken necks."
The same animus gives colour to remarks on some legal verbiage recently
employed at York. Under the heading "Interesting Discovery" we read: "It
has been lately found at York that in England laws are made; and that a
law made in England is the law of England, and is enforced by another
law; that many laws are made in Lower Canada and follow up, that is,
follow after, or in other words are made since, other laws; and that
these laws may be repealed. It is seldom," continues the writer in the
_Constellation_, "that so few as one discovery slips into existence at
one birth. Genius is sterile, and justly said to be like a breeding cat,
as is verified in York, where by some unaccountable fortuity of events
all genius centres; at the same time with the above, its twin kitten
came forth, that an atheist does not believe as a Christian."
In another number we have some chaffing about the use of the word
_capital_. In an address on the arrival of Governor Hunter, the
expression, "We, the inhabitants of the Capital," had occurred. "This
fretted my pate," the critic pretends to complain. "What can this be?
Surely it is some great place in a great country was my conclusion; but
where the capital is, was a little beyond my geographical acquaintance.
I had recourse to the books" he continues: "all the gazettes and
magazines from the year One I carefully turned over, and not one case
among all the addresses they contained afforded me any instruction: 'We,
the inhabitants of the cities of London and Westminster, of Edinburgh,
Dublin, Paris, &c.,' only proved to me that neither of these is the
Capital. But as these are only _little_ towns in young countries, and
cannot be so forward as to take upon themselves the pompous title of
_capital_, it must be in America." He then professes to have consulted
the _Encyclopaedia Eboretica_, or, "A Vindication in support of the great
Utility of New Words," lately printed in Upper Canada, and to have
discovered therein that the Capital in question "was, in plain English,
York." He concludes, therefore, that whenever in future the expression
"We, the inhabitants of the Capital" is met with, it is to be translated
into the vernacular tongue, "We, the inhabitants of York, assembled at
McDougall's, &c."
There is mention made above of a Stump Act. We have been assured that
such a regulation was, at an early day, in force at York, as a deterrent
from drunkenness. Capt. Peeke, who burnt lime at Duffin's Creek, and
shipped it to York in his own vessel, before the close of the last
century, was occasionally inconvenienced by the working of the Stump
Act. His men whom he had brought up with him to assist in navigating his
boat would be found, just when especially wanted by himself, laboriously
engaged in the extraction of a great pine-root in one or other of the
public thoroughfares of the town, under sentence of the magistrate, for
having been found, on the preceding day, intoxicated in the streets.
The _Constellation_ newspaper does not appear to have succeeded. Early
in 1801 a new paper comes out, entitled the _Herald_. In it, it is
announced that the _Constellation_, "after existing one year, expired
some months since of starvation, its publishers departing too much from
its constitution (advance pay)." The printer is now Silvester Tiffany,
the senior proprietor of the _Constellation_. It is very well printed
with good type; but on blue wrapping paper. In little more than two
years, viz., on the 4th June, 1802, it announced that the publication of
the _Herald_ is suspended; that it will appear only "on particular
occasions;" but Mr. Tiffany hopes it "will by and by receive a revival."
Other early papers published at the town of Niagara were the _Gleaner_,
by Mr. Heron; the _Reporter_; the _Spectator_. The _Mail_ was
established so late as 1845. Its publication ceased in 1870, when its
editor, Mr. Kirby, was appointed to the collectorship of the Port of
Niagara. Down to 1870 Mr. Tiffany's "imposing stone," used in the
printing of the _Constellation_, did duty in the office of the _Mail_.
In 1800, the _Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle_ is issued at
York, weekly, from the office of William Waters and T. G. Simons. In the
number for Saturday, May the 17th, in that year, we read that on the
Thursday evening previous, "His Excellency Peter Hunter, Esq.,
Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province, arrived in
our harbour on board the Toronto; and on Friday morning, about nine
o'clock, landed at the Garrison, where he is at present to reside."
We are thus enabled to add two items to the table of dates usually
given, shewing the introduction of Printing at different points on this
Continent: viz., the dates 1793 and 1800 for Niagara and York
respectively. The table will now stand as follows:--
1639, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Stephen Day and Samuel Green; 1674,
Boston, John Foster; 1684, Philadelphia, Wm. Bradford; 1693, New York,
Wm. Bradford (removed from Philadelphia); 1730, Charleston, Eleazer
Phillips; 1730, Bridgetown, Barbadoes, David Harry and Samuel Keimer;
1751, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Bartholomew Green, jun., and John Bushell;
1764, Quebec, Wm. Brown and Thos. H. Gilmore; 1771, Albany, Alex. and
Jas. Robertson; 1775, Montreal, Chas. Berger and Fleury Mesplet; 1784,
St. George's, Bermuda, J. Stockdale; 1793, Newark (Niagara), Louis Roy;
1795, Cincinnati, S. Freeman; 1800, York (Toronto), Wm. Waters and T. G.
Simons.
As at York and Niagara, the first printers in most of the places named
were publishers of newspapers.
It may be added that a press was in operation in the City of Mexico in
1569; and in the City of Lima in 1621. The original of all the many
Colonial Government _Gazettes_ was the famous royal or exclusively court
news sheet, published first at Oxford, in November, 1665, entitled the
_Oxford Gazette_, and in the following year, at London, and entitled
then and ever afterwards to this day, the _London Gazette_.
In 1801, J. Bennett succeeds Messrs. Waters and Simons, and becomes the
printer and publisher of the _Gazette or Oracle_. In that year the
printing-office is removed to "the house of Mr. A. Cameron, King
Street," and it is added, "subscriptions will be received there and at
the Toronto Coffee House, York." From March 21st in this year, and
onward for six weeks, the paper appears printed on blue sheets of the
kind of material that used formerly to be seen on the outsides of
pamphlets and magazines and Government "Blue-books." The stock of white
paper has plainly run out, and no fresh supply can be had before the
opening of the navigation. The _Herald_, at Niagara, of the same period,
appeared, as we have already noticed, in the like guise.
On Saturday, December 20th, 1801, is this statement, the whole of the
editorial matter: "It is much to be lamented that communication between
Niagara and this town is so irregular and unfrequent: opportunities now
do not often occur of receiving the American papers from our
correspondents; and thereby prevents us for the present from laying
before our readers the state of politics in Europe." In the number for
June 13th, the editorial "leader" reads as follows:--"The _Oracle_,
York, Saturday, June 13th. Last Monday was a day of universal rejoicing
in this town, occasioned by the arrival of the news of the splendid
victory gained by Lord Nelson over the Danes in Copenhagen Roads on the
2nd of April last: in the morning the great guns at the Garrison were
fired: at night there was a general illumination, and bonfires blazed in
almost every direction." The writer indulges in no further comments.
It would have been gratifying to posterity had the printers of the
_Gazette and Oracle_ endeavoured to furnish a connected record of "the
short and simple annals" of their own immediate neighbourhood. But these
unfortunately were deemed undeserving of much notice. We have
announcements of meetings, and projects, and subscriptions for
particular purposes, unfollowed by any account of what was subsequently
said, done and effected; and when a local incident is mentioned, the
detail is generally very meagre.
An advertisement in the number for the 27th August, 1801, reminds us
that in the early history of Canada it was imagined that a great source
of wealth to the inhabitants of the country in all future time would be
the ginseng that was found growing naturally in the swamps. The market
for ginseng was principally China, where it was worth its weight in
silver. The word is said to be Chinese for "all-heal." In 1801 we find
that Mr. Jacob Herchmer, of York, was speculating in ginseng. In his
advertisement in the _Gazette and Oracle_ he "begs leave to inform the
inhabitants of York and its vicinity that he will purchase any quantity
of ginseng between this and the first of November next, and that he will
give two shillings, New York currency, per pound well dried, and one
shilling for green."
At one period, it will be remembered, the cultivation of hemp was
expected to be the mainstay of the country's prosperity. In the Upper
Canada Almanac for 1804, among the public officers we have set down as
"Commissioners appointed for the distribution of Hemp Seed (gratis) to
the Farmers of the Provinces, the Hon. John McGill, the Hon. David W.
Smith, and Thomas Scott, Esquires."
The whole of the editorial matter of the _Gazette and Oracle_ on the 2nd
of January, 1802, is the following: "The _Oracle_, York, Saturday,
January 2, 1802. The Printer presents his congratulary compliments to
his customers on the New Year." Note that the dignified title of Editor
was yet but sparingly assumed. That term is used once by Tiffany at
Newark, in the second volume. After the death of Governor Hunter, in
September, 1805, J. Bennett writes himself down "Printer to the King's
Most Excellent Majesty." Previously the colophon of the publication had
been: "York, printed by John Bennett, by the authority of His Excellency
Peter Hunter, Esq., Lieut.-Governor."