TORONTO CIVIC AFFAIRS.
My first step in public life was in 1848. I had leased from the heirs of
the late Major Hartney (who had been barrack-master of York during its
siege and capture by the American forces under Generals Pike and
Dearborn in 1813) his house on Wellington street, opposite the rear of
Bishop Strachan's palace. I thus became a resident ratepayer of the ward
of St. George, and in that capacity contested the representation of the
ward as councilman, in opposition to the late Ezekiel F. Whittemore,
whose American antecedents rendered him unpopular just then. As neither
Mr. Whittemore nor myself resorted to illegitimate means of influencing
votes, we speedily became fast friends--a friendship which lasted until
his death. I was defeated after a close contest. Before the end of the
year, however, Mr. Whittemore resigned his seat in the council and
offered me his support, so that I was elected councilman in his stead,
and held the seat as councilman, and afterwards as alderman,
continuously until 1854, when I removed to Carlton, on the Davenport
Road, five miles north-west of the city. The electors have since told me
that I taught them how to vote without bribery, and certainly I never
purchased a vote. My chief outlay arose from a custom--not bad, as I
think--originated by the late Alderman Wakefield, of providing a hearty
English dinner at the expense of the successful candidates, at the
Shades Hotel, in which the candidates and voters on both sides were wont
to participate. Need I add, that the company was jovial, and the toasts
effusively loyal.
The members of the council, when I took my seat, were: George Gurnett,
Mayor, who had been conspicuous as an officer of the City Guard in
1837-38; aldermen, G. Duggan, jr., Geo. P. Ridout, Geo. W. Allan, R.
Dempsey, Thos. Bell, Jno. Bell, Q.C., Hon. H. Sherwood, Q.C., Robt.
Beard, Jas. Beatty, Geo. T. Denison, jr., and Wm. A. Campbell; also,
councilmen Thos. Armstrong, Jno. Ritchey, W. Davis, Geo. Coulter, Jas.
Ashfield, R. James, jr., Edwin Bell, Samuel Platt, Jno. T. Smith, Jno.
Carr and Robt. B. Denison. My own name made up the twenty-four that then
constituted the council. The city officers were: Chas. Daly, clerk; A.
T. McCord, chamberlain; Clarke Gamble, solicitor; Jno. G. Howard,
engineer; Geo. L. Allen, chief of police; Jno. Kidd, governor of jail;
and Robt. Beard, chief engineer of fire brigade.
During the years 1850, '1, '2 and '3, I had for colleagues, in addition
to those of the above who were re-elected: aldermen John G. Bowes, Hon.
J. H. Cameron, Q.C., R. Kneeshaw, Wm. Wakefield, E. F. Whittemore, Jno.
B. Robinson, Jos. Sheard, Geo. Brooke, J. M. Strachan, Jno. Hutchison,
Wm. H. Boulton, John Carr, S. Shaw, Jas. Beaty, Samuel Platt, E. H.
Rutherford, Angus Morrison, Ogle R. Gowan, M. P. Hayes, Wm. Gooderham
and Hon. Wm. Cayley; and councilmen Jonathan Dunn, Jno. Bugg, Adam
Beatty, D. C. Maclean, Edw. Wright, Jas. Price, Kivas Tully, Geo. Platt,
Chas. E. Romain, R. C. McMullen, Jos. Lee, Alex. Macdonald, Samuel
Rogers, F. C. Capreol, Samuel T. Green, Wm. Hall, Robert Dodds, Thos.
McConkey and Jas. Baxter.
The great majority of these men were persons of high character and
standing, with whom it was both a privilege and a pleasure to work; and
the affairs of the city were, generally speaking, honestly and
disinterestedly administered. Many of my old colleagues still fill
conspicuous positions in the public service, while others have died full
of years and honours.
My share of the civic service consisted principally in doing most of the
hard work, in which I took a delight, and found my colleagues remarkably
willing to cede to me. All the city buildings were re-erected or
improved under my direct charge, as chairman of the Market Block and
Market committees. The St. Lawrence Hall, St. Lawrence Market, City
Hall, St. Patrick's Market, St. Andrew's Market, the Weigh-House, were
all constructed in my time. And lastly, the original contract for the
esplanade was negotiated by the late Ald. W. Gooderham and myself, as
active members of the Wharves and Harbours committee. The by-laws for
granting L25,000 to the Northern Railway, and L100,000 to the Toronto &
Guelph Railway, were both introduced and carried through by me, as
chairman of the Finance committee, in 1853.
The old market was a curiously ugly and ill-contrived erection. Low
brick shops surrounded three sides of the square, with cellars used for
slaughtering sheep and calves; the centre space was paved with rubble
stones, and was rarely free from heaps of cabbage leaves, bones and
skins. The old City Hall formed the fourth or King Street side, open
underneath for fruit and other stalls. The owners of imaginary vested
rights in the old stalls raised a small rebellion when their dirty
purlieus were invaded; and the decision of the Council, to rent the new
stalls by public auction to avoid charges of favouritism, brought
matters to a climax. On the Saturday evening when the new arcade and
market were lighted with gas and opened to the public, the Market
committee walked through from King to Front Street to observe the
effect. The indignation of the butchers took the form of closing all
their shutters, and as a last expression of contempt nailing thereon
miserable shanks of mutton! Dire as this omen was meant to be, it does
not seem to have prevented the St. Lawrence Market from being a credit
to the city ever since.
There is a historical incident connected with the old market, of a very
tragic character. One day towards the latter end of 1837, William Lyon
Mackenzie held there a political meeting to denounce the Family Compact.
There was a wooden gallery round the square, the upright posts of which
were full of sharp hooks, used by the butchers to expose their meat for
sale, as were also the cross beams from post to post. A considerable
number of people--from three to four hundred--were present, and the
great agitator spoke from an auctioneer's desk placed near the western
stalls. Many young men of Tory families, as well as Orangemen and their
party allies, attended to hear the speeches. In the midst of the
excitement--applauding or derisive, according to the varying feelings of
the crowd--the iron stays of the balcony gave way and precipitated
numbers to the ground. Two or three were caught on the meat-hooks, and
one--young Fitzgibbon, a son of Col. Fitzgibbon who afterwards commanded
at Gallows Hill--was killed. Others were seriously wounded, amongst whom
was Charles Daly, then stationer, and afterwards city clerk, whose leg
was broken in the fall. I well remember seeing him carried into his own
shop insensible, and supposed to be fatally hurt.
The routine of city business does not afford much occasion for
entertaining details, and I shall therefore only trouble my readers with
notices of the principal civic events to which I was a party, from 1849
to 1853.