After the name of Mr. Baby, on the early plan of the park-lots, comes the name of Mr. Grant—"the Hon. Alexander Grant." During the interregnum between the death of Governor Hunter and the arrival of Governor Gore, Mr. Grant, as senior member of the Executive Council, was President of Upper Canada. The Parliament that sat during his brief administration, appropriated £800 to the purchase of instruments for illustrating the principles of Natural Philosophy, "to be deposited in the hands of a person employed in the Education of Youth;" from the débris of which collection, preserved in a mutilated condition in one of the rooms of the Home District School building, we ourselves, like others probably of our contemporaries, obtained our very earliest inkling of the existence and significance of scientific apparatus.
In his speech at the close of the session of 1806, President Grant alluded to this action of Parliament in the following terms: "The encouragement which you have given for procuring the means necessary for communicating useful and ornamental knowledge to the rising generation, meets with my approbation, and, I have no doubt, will produce the most salutary effects." Mr. Grant was also known as Commodore Grant, having had, at one time, command of the Naval Force on the Lakes.
After Mr. Grant's name appears that of "E. B. Littlehales." This is the Major Littlehales with whom those who familiarize themselves with the earliest records of Upper Canada become so well acquainted. He was the writer, for example, of the interesting journal of an Exploring Excursion from Niagara to Detroit in 1793, to be seen in print in the Canadian Literary Magazine of May, 1834; an expedition undertaken, as the document itself sets forth, by the Lieut.-Governor, accompanied by Captain Fitzgerald, Lieutenant Smith of the 5th Regiment, and Lieutenants Talbot, Grey and Givins, and Major Littlehales, starting from Niagara on the 4th of February, arriving at Detroit on the 18th, by a route which was 270 miles in length. The return began on the 23rd, and was completed on the 10th of the following month.
It was in this expedition that the site of London, on the Thames, was first examined, and judged to be "a situation eminently calculated for the metropolis of all Canada." "Among other essentials," says Major Littlehales, "it possesses the following advantages: command of territory—internal situation—central position, facility of water communication up and down the Thames into Lakes St. Clair, Erie, Huron, and Superior,—navigable for boats to near its source, and for small craft probably to the Moravian settlement,—to the southward by a small portage to the waters flowing into Lake Huron—to the south-east by a carrying-place into Lake Ontario and the River St. Lawrence; the soil luxuriantly fertile,—the land rich and capable of being easily cleared, and soon put into a state of agriculture,—a pinery upon an adjacent high knoll, and other timber on the heights, well calculated for the erection of public buildings,—a climate not inferior to any part of Canada."
The intention of the Governor, at one time, was that the future capital should be named Georgina, in compliment to George III. Had that intention been adhered to, posterity would have been saved some confusion. To this hour, the name of our Canadian London gives trouble in the post-office and elsewhere. Georgina was a name not inaptly conceived, suggested doubtless by the title "Augusta," borne by so many places of old, as, for example, by London itself, the Veritable, in honour of the Augustus, the Emperor of the day. We might perhaps have rather expected Georgiana, on the analogy of Aureliana (Orleans), from Aurelius, or Georgia, after Julia, a frequent local appellation from the imperial Julius.—Already, had Georgius, temp. Geo. II., yielded Georgia as the name of a province, and later, temp. Geo. III., the same royal name had been associated with the style and title of a new planet, the Georgium Sidus, suggested probably by the Julium Sidus of Horace. We presume, also, that the large subdivision of Lake Huron, known as the Georgian Bay, had for its name a like loyal origin. (The name Georgina, is preserved in that of a now flourishing township on Lake Simcoe.)
An incident not recorded in Major Littlehales' Journal was the order of a grand parade (of ten men), and a formal discharge of musketry, issued in jocose mood by the Governor to Lieut. Givins; which was duly executed as a ceremony of inauguration for the new capital.
The capture of a porcupine, however, somewhere near the site of the proposed metropolis is noted by the Major. In the narrative the name of Lieut. Givins comes up. "The young Indians who had chased a herd of deer in company with Lieut. Givins," he says, "returned unsuccessful, but brought with them a large porcupine: which was very seasonable," he remarks, "as our provisions were nearly exhausted. This animal," he observes, "afforded us a good repast, and tasted like a pig." The Newfoundland dog, he adds, attempted to bite the porcupine, but soon got his mouth filled with the barbed quills, which gave him exquisite pain. An Indian undertook to extract them, he then says, and with much perseverance plucked them out, one by one, and carefully applied a root or decoction, which speedily healed the wound.
From Major Littlehales' Journal it appears that it was the practice of the party to wind up each day's proceedings by singing "God save the King." Thus on the 28th Feb., before arriving at the site of London, we have it recorded: "At six we stopped at an old Mississagua hut, upon the south side of the Thames. After taking some refreshment of salt pork and venison, well-cooked by Lieutenant Smith, who superintended that department, we, as usual, sang God save the King, and went to rest."
The Duke de Liancourt, in his Travels in North America, speaks of Major Littlehales in the following pleasant terms: "Before I close the article of Niagara," he says, "I must make particular mention of the civility shewn us by Major Littlehales, adjutant and first secretary to the Governor, a well-bred, mild and amiable man, who has the charge of the whole correspondence of government, and acquits himself with peculiar ability and application. Major Littlehales," the Duke says, "appeared to possess the confidence of the country. This is not unfrequently the case with men in place and power; but his worth, politeness, prudence, and judgment, give this officer peculiar claims to the confidence and respect which he universally enjoys."
In the Oracle of Feb. 24, 1798, a report of the death of this officer is contradicted. "We have the pleasure of declaring the account received in December last of the death of Col. Littlehales premature. Letters have been recently received from him dated in England." He had probably returned home with Gen. Simcoe. In the same paper a flying rumour is noticed, to the effect "that His Excellency Governor Simcoe is appointed Governor General of the Canadas."