was French Canadian. In the western province the matter was different. It must be remembered that at this date, by English law, no marriage was legal unless performed by a church of England clergyman; consequently, the children by other marriages were by law illegitimate.

In many cases, in the neighbourhood of the posts where no clergyman was present, the service had been read by the commanding officer or by an officer appointed by him. In other parts of the country, at the time of the first settlements, the justice of the peace had performed the ceremony. Many districts were imperfectly provided with clergymen, and in these cases laymen had officiated. A strong feeling had grown up, whatever the moral character of the relationship, that the children from these marriages had no legal right to the inheritance of the property of their sires. The relief asked was legislative authority to place the legality of these past marriages beyond the reach of dispute, and to provide a law for the future validity of all such unions.

What made the case more embarrassing was the few clergymen of any denomination in the province. Only a small proportion of the population belonged to the church of England; and it was expected that the increase of population from the United States would include numbers who belonged to the nonconformist forms of the protestant faith.*

Report on the subject of marriage and the state of the church of England. Richard Cartwright, junr., Newark, 12th October, 1792. [Can. Arch. report, 1891, Appendix, p. 86.] Mr. Cartwright thus describes the condition of the several churches: "In the Eastern Districts, the most populous part of the Province, there is no church clergyman. They have a Presbyterian Minister, formerly chaplain to the 84th Regiment, who receives from Government fifty Pounds p. ann. They have also a Lutheran Minister, who is supported by his Congregation, and the Roman Catholic Priest settled at St. Regis occasionally officiates for the Scots Highlanders settled in the lower part of the District, who are very numerous and all Catholics. There are also many Dutch Calvinists in this part of the Province, who have made several attempts to get a Teacher of their own sect, but hitherto without success.

"In the Midland District where the members of the Church are more numerous than in any other part of the Province, there are two Church Clergymen, who are allowed one hundred pounds stg. p. ann. each by Government, and fifty

1793]

THE FIRST NEWSPAPER.

349

The establishment of an official journal took place a few months after the prorogation of the first parliament. "The Upper Canada Gazette, or American Oracle," appeared on the 13th of April, 1793, and was published at Niagara until 1798. The printer was Louis Roy, who accompanied Simcoe from Quebec on November the 5th, 1792. Simcoe sent a requisition for what was required for the printing office of Upper Canada, a proof of the establishment of the printing press as coeval with constitutional government. *

It has been said that from a map of the river la Tranche obtained at Quebec Simcoe had formed decided views as to the eligibility of the district, both for settlement and as a channel of communication with lake Huron. Toronto, as a port in lake Ontario, also presented advantages nowhere to be obtained on that lake. The selection of Newark, as Niagara was then called, for the meeting of the legislature was simply a matter of temporary convenience. For the time it was under the protection of the fort; but if the posts were to be ceded, no place could be more exposed. Simcoe, accordingly, had formed the theory that the future capital should pounds each by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. There are here also some itinerant Methodist Preachers, the Followers of whom are numerous. And many of the Inhabitants of the greatest property are Dutch Calvinists, who have for some time past been using their endeavors to get a Minister of their own Sect among them. In the Home District there is one Clergyman, who hath been settled here since the month of July last. The Scots Presbyterians, who are pretty numerous here, and to which Sect the most respectable part of the Inhabitants belong, have built a Meeting House and raised a Subscription for a Minister of their own, who is shortly expected among them. There are here also many Methodists & Dutch Calvinists.

"In the Western District there are no other clergy than those of the Church of Rome. The Protestant Inhabitants here are principally Presbyterians."

+ A printed copy is extant of Simcoe's speech on the 18th of September, 1792, when the first parliament was opened: a publication to be regarded always with interest as the starting point of constitutional government in Ontario. The speech is followed by the replies of the council and assembly, with Simcoe's speech on prorogation, the 15th of October. There is a letter of Simcoe to King, the under secretary of state [Can. Arch., Q. 279.1, p. 217], in which he transmits an authentic copy of the speech at prorogation, on the ground that the first copy sent is inaccurate. Doubts have been thrown upon the paper above named as being a contemporary document. I do not myself entertain them, and consider it to be the earliest example of political printing in Ontario.

be placed inland, and from the reported fertility of the valley of the river la Tranche he had judged that some central spot upon its waters should be selected. He determined to examine the country himself, and on February the 4th, 1793, started on an expedition overland to Detroit. That fort was then held by the 24th regiment. As the party on their return reached the river, which by that time had received the name of the Thames, some writers claim it was first so called by Simcoe, a halt was made. Simcoe passed a day in the examination of a spot to which his attention had been directed, and formed the conclusion that the site was eminently calculated for the future metropolis of Upper Canada. The advantages it offered were "its command of territory, internal situation, central position, facility of water communication up and down the Thames into lakes St. Claire, Erie, Huron and Superior," and what is a matter of surprise at this day, it was declared to be navigable for boats to nearly its source. Simcoe returned to Niagara with the firm conviction that the future capital should be established at the spot he had visited.

In February, war was declared by France against Great Britain and Holland. The news of the commencement of hostilities was received at Niagara in May. The matter was of great significance, for it gave ground for belief that, Great Britain being now engaged in war, an attempt would be made by the United States to seize the posts by force, it being well known that Canada was garrisoned by a force insufficient for their defence.

The revolution in France had received much sympathy in the United States, as in the first instance it obtained countenance in England with liberals of the school of Fox. As he expressed himself in the house of commons during the debate on the Canada act, there was with many a sentiment of satisfaction that France had shaken off the harsh oppressive government of the days of Louis Quatorze. There was a contrary and more powerful feeling with the men who entertained no such views. They remembered that for a century

1793]

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

351

England had been engaged in a struggle with France for the preservation of her existence; and the very last war begun by France had no cause but in her desire to weaken and humiliate Great Britain. As a proof how frequently conclusions generally accepted are often based on error, a numerous class had formed the view that the revolution would take away both the strength and much of the desire on the part of France to persevere in this continual enmity. It had been so found in 1787, when Great Britain, in union with Prussia, prevailed against France in Holland. The following year France had not been in a position to accept the tempting offer of special commercial rights by Tippoo Sahib, contingent on the continuance of the support given to his father, Hyder Ali, by sending a corps d'armée of 3,000 men to his aid. I have related how France refused to support Spain in her pretensions as to Nootka Sound.*

The events which had taken place in France, the massacre of the royal guards, the king and queen brought in triumph from Versailles to Paris, the confederation meeting on the Champ-de-Mars, had in England led on one side to an unreasoning opposition to every project of reform and change. In another direction, it had encouraged advanced politicians to great activity in the demand for parliamentary reform, and for the introduction into their own government of the principles set forth in the declaration of rights. Strength was given to this feeling by the failure of the nonconformists to obtain any modification in the test and corporation acts. In 1789, Dr Price had preached his sermon before the revolutionary society, in which he foretold that the example was given for the dominion of kings and priests and all despotism to be swept away. The response made to this event in France brought the society into prominence, and clubs were established in most of the larger cities, which considered themselves to be affiliated with those in France. One of the dreams that arose was that henceforth war would disappear, and nations would enter into a comity of peace and *[Ante., pp. 296-299.]

brotherhood. In the early days of the revolution, Pitt in the house of commons used the most generous language towards France, in which he foretold that the establishment of freedom would result, as a consequence, in order and good government, and that France would become one of the most brilliant powers in Europe. In the same debate Burke affirmed the French had shewn themselves the greatest architects of ruin that had ever existed; and made the declaration that the principles of the French revolution were proselytising in their nature, and that the government being in the hands of reckless unscrupulous fanatics would daily extend in influence. Already it had gained partisans in every country in Europe, and particularly in England. On his part he had unceasingly declaimed against it. From the danger by which he considered the country was threatened, he advocated that Great Britain should give a moral support to the continental coalition, with the feeling that the country would be inevitably drawn into the conflict; and his efforts were directed to engaging his country in a war to stop the progress of the revolution he had learned so bitterly to hate.

After the attack of the Tuileries, on the 10th of June, the British ambassador had been recalled from Paris, and the French ambassador de Chauvelin, who remained in London, was still regarded as receiving his credentials from Louis XVI. In December, Maret, afterwards duc de Bassano, was sent on a secret mission to England, and in an unofficial interview with Pitt an attempt was made to examine into the grievances complained of on both sides. Great Britain contended that her allies had been threatened, and cited the injustice to Holland shewn by the declaration that the lower navigation of the Scheldt had been opened to the inhabitants of the low provinces. Complaint was especially made of the decree of the 15th of November, by which the national convention promised their aid to all peoples suffering under the yoke of tyranny; also, of the constant offensive declarations of hostility against all governments by the Jacobins; proceedings which encouraged revolt and