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 Encyclopædia 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.