SOME GLIMPSES OF UPPER CANADIAN POLITICS.
In the course of the years 1835, '6 and '7, I made many journeys to
Toronto, sometimes wholly on foot, sometimes partly by steamboat and
stage. I became very intimate with the Todd family and connections,
which included Mrs. Todd's brother, William P. Patrick, then, and long
afterwards, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly; his brother-in-law, Dr.
Thomas D. Morrison, M. P. P.; Thomas Vaux, Accountant of the
Legislature; Caleb Hopkins, M. P. P., for Halton; William H. Doel,
brewer; William C. Keele, attorney, and their families. Nearly all these
persons were, or had been, zealous admirers of Wm. L. Mackenzie's
political course. And the same thing must be said of my friend Mr.
Drury, of Bradford; his sister married Edward Henderson, merchant
tailor, of King Street west, whose father, E. T. Henderson, was well
known amongst Mackenzie's supporters. It was his cottage on Yonge Street
(near what is now Gloucester Street), at which the leaders of the
popular party used often to meet in council. The house stood in an
orchard, well fenced, and was then very rural and secluded from
observation.
Amongst all these really estimable people, and at their houses, nothing
of course was heard disparaging to the Reformers of that day, and their
active leader. My own political prejudices also were in his favour. And
so matters went on until the arrival, in 1835, of Sir Francis Bond Head,
as Lieutenant-Governor, when we, in the bush, began to hear of violent
struggles between the House of Assembly on the one side, and the
Lieutenant-Governor supported by the Legislative Council on the other.
Each political party, by turns, had had its successes and reverses at
the polls. In 1825, the majority of the Assembly was Tory; in 1826, and
for several years afterwards, a Reform majority was elected; in 1831,
again, Toryism was successful; in 1835, the balance veered over to the
popular side once more, by a majority only of four. This majority, led
by Mackenzie, refused to pass the supplies; whereupon, Sir Francis
appealed to the people by dissolving the Parliament.
What were the precise grounds of difference in principle between the
opposing parties, did not very clearly appear to us in the bush. Sir
Francis Head had no power to grant "Responsible Government," as it has
since been interpreted. On each side there were friends and opponents of
that system. Among Tories, Ogle R. Gowan, Charles Fothergill, and
others, advocated a responsible ministry, and were loud in their
denunciations of the "Family Compact." On the Reform side were ranged
such men as Marshall S. Bidwell and Dr. Rolph, who preferred American
Republicanism, in which "Responsible Government" was and is utterly
unknown. We consequently found it hard to understand the party cries of
the day. But we began to perceive that there was a Republican bias on
one hand, contending with a Monarchical leaning on the other; and we had
come to Canada, as had most well-informed immigrants, expressly to avoid
the evils of Republicanism, and to preserve our British constitutional
heritage intact.
When therefore Sir Francis Head threw himself with great energy into the
electoral arena, when he bade the foes of the Empire "come if they
dare!" when he called upon the "United Empire Loyalists,"--men, who in
1770 had thrown away their all, rather than accept an alien rule--to
vindicate once more their right to choose whom they would follow, King
or President--when he traversed the length and breadth of the land,
making himself at home in the farm-houses, and calling upon fathers and
husbands and sons to stand up for their hearths, and their old
traditions of honour and fealty to the Crown, it would have been strange
indeed had he failed.
The next House of Assembly, elected in 1837, contained a majority of
twenty-six to fourteen in favour of Sir F. B. Head's policy. This
precipitated matters. Had Mackenzie been capable of enduring defeat with
a good grace; had he restrained his natural irritability of temper, and
kept his skirts cautiously clear of all contact with men of Republican
aspirations, he might and probably would have recovered his position as
a parliamentary leader, and died an honoured and very likely even a
titled veteran! But he became frantic with choler and disappointment,
and rushed headlong into the most passionate extremes, which ended in
making him a mere cat's-paw in the hands of cunning schemers, who did
not fail, after their manner, to disavow their own handiwork when it had
ceased to serve their purposes.