No redress was to be had. The Executive Council reported in regard to this letter that upon mature consideration they could not advise that the Government should interfere to give any direction to the Crown Officers, as therein solicited. Sir Peregrine Maitland was removed from the Government in the same year. Sir George Murray, who in that year succeeded Mr. Huskisson as Colonial Secretary, severely censured him for the line of action adopted in relation to the Forsyth grievance.
Colonels Givins and Coffin afterwards brought an action against the Speaker of the House for false imprisonment, but they did not recover: for the legality of the imprisonment, that is the right of the House to convict for what they had adjudged a contempt, was confirmed by the Court of King's Bench, by a solemn judgment rendered in another cause then pending, which involved the same question.
Although its hundred-acre domain is being rapidly narrowed and circumscribed by the encroachments of modern improvement, the old family abode of Col. Givins still stands, wearing at this day a look of peculiar calm and tranquillity, screened from the outer world by a dark grove of second-growth pine, and overshadowed by a number of acacias of unusual height and girth.
Governor Gore and his lady, Mrs. Arabella Gore, were constant visitors at Pine Grove, as this house was named; and here to this day is preserved a very fine portrait, in oil, of that Governor. It will satisfy the ideal likely to be fashioned in the mind by the current traditions of this particular ruler of Upper Canada. In contour of countenance and in costume he is plainly of the type of the English country squire of a former day. He looks good humoured and shrewd; sturdy and self-willed; and fond of good cheer.
The cavalier style adopted by Gov. Gore towards the local parliament was one of the seeds of trouble at a later date in the history of Upper Canada. "He would dismiss the rascals at once." Such was his determination on their coming to a vote adverse to his notions; and, scarcely like a Cromwell, but rather like a Louis XIV., though still not, as in the case of that monarch, with a riding-whip in his hand, but nevertheless, in the undress of the moment, he proceeded to carry out his hasty resolve.
The entry of the incident in the Journals of the House is as follows: "On Monday, 7th April, at 11 o'clock a.m., before the minutes of the former day were read, and without any previous notice, the Commons, to the great surprise of all the members, were summoned to the bar of the Legislative Council, when his Excellency having assented, in his Majesty's name, to several bills, and reserved for his Majesty's pleasure the Bank bill, and another, to enable creditors to sue joint debtors separately, put an end to the session by the following speech:—'Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,—The session of the provincial legislature having been protracted by an unusual interruption of business at its commencement, your longer absence from your respective avocations must be too great a sacrifice for the objects which remain to occupy your attention. I have therefore come to close the session and permit you to return to your homes. In accepting, in the name of his Majesty, the supply for defraying the deficiency of the funds which have hitherto served to meet the charges of the administration of justice and support of the civil government of this province, I have great satisfaction in acknowledging the readiness manifested to meet this exigence.'"
Upper Canadian society was, indeed, in an infant state; but the growing intelligence of many of its constituents, especially in the non-official ranks, rendered it unwise in rulers to push the feudal or paternal theory of government too far. The names of the majority in the particular division of the Lower House which brought on the sudden prorogation just described are the following:—McDonell, McMartin, Cameron, Jones, Howard, Casey, Robinson, Nellis, Secord, Nichol, Burwell, McCormack, Cornwall. Of the minority: Van Koughnet, Crystler, Fraser, Cotter, McNab, Swayze, and Clench.
Six weeks after, Governor Gore was on his way to England, not recalled, as it would seem, but purposing to give an account of himself in his own person. He never returned. He is understood to have had a powerful friend at Court in the person of the Marquis of Camden.
One of the "districts" of Upper Canada was called after Governor Gore. It was set off, during his regime, from the Home and Niagara districts. But of late years county names have rendered the old district names unfamiliar. In 1837, "the men of Gore" was a phrase invested with stirring associations.
The town of Belleville received its name from Gov. Gore. In early newspapers and other documents the word appears as Bellville, without the central e, which gives it now such a fine French look. And this, it is said, is the true orthography. "Bell," we are told, was the Governor's familiar abbreviation of his wife's name, Arabella: and the compound was suggested by the Governor jocosely, as a name for the new village: but it was set down in earnest, and has continued, the sound at least, to this day. This off-hand assignment of a local name may remind some persons that Flos, Tay and Tiny, which are names of three now populous townships in the Penetanguishene region, are a commemoration of three of Lady Sarah Maitland's lap-dogs. Changes of names in such cases as these are not unjustifiable.