In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the disputes between the executive and legislative authorities were characterised by much acrimony, but eventually the public revenues were conceded to the assemblies. In Prince Edward Island the political difficulties arose from the land monopoly, and the efforts of the lieutenant-governors to govern as much as possible without assemblies. In these provinces, as in Canada, we find—to cite Lord Durham—"representative government coupled with an irresponsible executive, the same abuse of the powers of the representative bodies, and the same constant interference of the imperial administration in matters which should be left wholly to the provincial governments." In the maritime provinces, however, no disturbance occurred, and the leaders of the popular party were among the first to assist the authorities in their efforts to preserve the public tranquillity, and to express themselves emphatically in favour of the British connection.
In Upper Canada an official class held within its control practically the government of the province. This class became known, in the parlance of those days, as the "family compact," not quite an accurate designation, since its members had hardly any family connection, but there was just enough ground for the term to tickle the taste of the people for an epigrammatic phrase. The bench, the pulpit, the banks, the public offices were all more or less under the influence of the "compact." The public lands were lavishly parcelled out among themselves and their followers. Successive governors, notably Sir Francis Gore, Sir Peregrine Maitland, and Sir Francis Bond Head, submitted first to its influence and allowed it to have the real direction of affairs. Among its most prominent members were John Beverly Robinson, for some years attorney-general, and eventually an able chief-justice, and the recipient of a baronetage; William Dummer Powell, a chief-justice; John Henry Boulton, once attorney-general; John Strachan, the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in Upper Canada; Jonas Jones, the Sherwoods, and other well-known names of residents of York, Niagara, Kingston, and Brockville.
It was not until 1820 that a strong opposition was organised in the assembly against the ruling bureaucracy. The cruel treatment of Robert Gourlay, an erratic Scotch land-agent, by the ruling class who feared his exposure of public abuses, had much to do with creating a reform party in the legislature. Gourlay was a mere adventurer, who found plenty of material in the political condition of the province for obtaining the notoriety that he coveted. In the course of some inquiries he made in connexion with a statistical work he published in later years, he touched on some points which exposed the land monopoly and other abuses. He was immediately declared by the "compact" to be a dangerous person, who must be curbed by some means or other. He was tried on two occasions for libelling the government, but acquitted. Then his enemies conspired to accuse him most unjustly of being a seditious and dangerous person, who came under the terms of an alien act passed in 1804. He was arrested and kept in prison for seven months. When he was at last tried at Niagara, the home of Toryism, he was a broken-down man, hardly in full possession of his senses. A severe judge and prejudiced jury had no pity, and he was forced to leave the province, to which he did not return until happier times. The injustice which was meted out to a man who had thrown some light on public corruption, stimulated the opponents of the "family compact" to united action against methods so dangerous to individual liberty and so antagonistic to the redress of public grievances.
The disputes between the reformers and the "family compact" were aggravated by the "clergy reserves" question, which was largely one between the Episcopalians and the dissenting bodies. This question grew out of the grant to the Protestant Church in Canada of large tracts of land by the imperial act of 1791, and created much bitterness of feeling for a quarter of a century and more. The reformers found in this question abundant material for exciting the jealousies of all the Protestant sects who wished to see the Church of England and the Church of Scotland deprived of the advantages which they alone derived from this valuable source of revenue. The British Government for years were on the side of the "family compact," whose leading adherents belonged to the Church of England, and who opposed every effort that was made to dispose of these lands for the support of education and other public purposes. The Methodists, who outnumbered the Church of England, had for years an additional grievance in the fact that their ministers were not allowed to solemnise marriages, and it was not until 1829 that this disability was removed by the legislature.
Bishop Strachan.
Among the minds that dominated the "family compact" was the eminent divine, John Strachan, who was originally a Presbyterian, and came to the country as a teacher at the request of the Honourable Richard Cartwright, a prominent U. E. Loyalist, but eventually joined the Episcopalian Church, and became its bishop. Like his countryman, John Knox, he had extraordinary tenacity of purpose and desire for rule. He considered the interests of the Church as paramount to all other considerations. He became both an executive and a legislative councillor, and largely moulded the opinions and acts of the governing classes. It was chiefly through his influence that Sir John Colborne established a number of rectories out of the clergy reserves, and thereby gave additional offence to those religious bodies who had no share in these lands. He hoped to create a state church, and the establishment of King's College, afterwards secularised, was a part of his ecclesiastical system. Eventually when King's College became a provincial institution, open to all denominations—the foundation of Toronto University—he devoted all his energies to the establishment of Trinity College, which is the noblest monument of the zealous prelate.