Major General Sheaffe, became President, 20th October, 1812, and continued in office until January 19, 1813, when Major General de Rottenburgh assumed the office, and remained until December 12, of the same year. At this date
Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Drummond was inducted as President. It was immediately after this that the infamous American General McClure, set fire to Newark when unprotected, burning 150 houses, and leaving 400 women and children homeless in the middle of December. This act of villany was fully avenged by General Drummond. Having occupied Fort George, a night attack was made upon Fort Niagara, with brilliant success. Then, the burning of Newark was remembered, and from Lewiston to Buffalo the frontier was laid waste, including those two towns. In this connection, we would remark, that in the event of another war with the United States, it would be no doubt the policy of Canada to make frequent disastrous raids into the States, wherever the opportunity presented. The Americans may as well understand that destruction of property will not be all on one side.
These brief sketches of the first Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada, will be finished by alluding to one who devised the scheme of uniting the two Canadas, who successfully accomplished that noble design, and became the first Governor of United Canada. He fixed the capital at Kingston, as the most central place suitable for both Provinces, indeed, it is generally understood, that it was a part of the plan when the union was made, that Kingston should become the permanent seat of government. “It virtually formed part of the contract between the respective provinces.” But with the death of Lord Sydenham, also died the opportunity of Kingston remaining the capital of Canada.
Lord Sydenham died at Kingston, in September, 1841, and was buried beneath St. George’s Church. Says Dr. Ryerson, in an affecting letter communicated to the public at that time: “Unlike the close of the session of legislature, which was ever held in either Province of Canada, the termination of the late session will produce throughout Canada the opposite feelings of grateful joy, and melancholy grief. The same post which conveys to the people of Canada, the tidings of the harmonious and happy conclusion of a session unprecedented in the productiveness of comprehensive and valuable measures for the general improvement and social and intellectual elevation of the province, conveys to them the appalling announcement that death has terminated the earthly career of the noble mind which conceived those improvements and originated those institutions which will form a golden era in the annals of Canadian history, by laying the foundation of Canadian prosperity and greatness. While blessings are multiplied us, the agent of those blessings is removed from us, and our country is, at the same moment, thrilled with joy and consternation—and on the same day vocal with thanksgiving and clothed in sackcloth; luminous with hope and involved in mourning. Thus do the strokes of Providential chastisement accompany the out-beamings of Providential munificence; and the brightest picture of human life is shaded with disappointment, suffering, and bereavement. It is in heaven only that death is unknown, that pain is never felt, and tears are never shed.
“Lord Sydenham belongs essentially to Canada. His nobility was fairly earned in her service; the ripest fruits of his experience and acquirements are embodied in her institutions; his warmest and latest sympathies are blended with her interests; his mortal remains repose, by choice, among her dead; and his name is indelibly inscribed in the affectionate esteem and grateful recollections of her inhabitants.
“It is not easy to determine which is most worthy of admiration, the comprehensiveness and grandeur of Lord Sydenham’s plans, the skill with which he overcame the obstacles that opposed their accomplishment, or the quenchless ardor and ceaseless industry with which he pursued them. To lay the foundations of public liberty, and at the same time to strengthen the prerogative; to promote vast public improvements, and not increase the public burdens; to promote a comprehensive system of education upon Christian principles, without interfering with religious scruples; to promote the influence and security of the government by teaching the people to govern themselves; to destroy party faction by promoting the general good; to invest a bankrupt country with both credit and resources, are conceptions and achievements which render Lord Sydenham the first benefactor of Canada, and place him in the first rank of statesmen. His Lordship found a country divided, he left it united; he found it prostrate and paralytic, he left it erect and vigorous; he found it mantled with despair, he left it blooming with hope. Lord Sydenham has done more in two years to strengthen and consolidate British power in Canada by his matchless industry, and truly liberal conservative policy, than have been done during the ten previous years by the increase of a standing army, and the erection of military fortifications. His Lordship has solved the difficult problem, that a people may be colonists and yet be free; and, in the solution of that problem, he has gained a triumph less imposing, but not less sublime and scarcely less important, than the victory of Waterloo; he has saved millions to England, and secured the affections of Canada.
“In the way of accomplishing these splendid results, the most formidable obstacles oppose themselves. At the foundation of these lay the hitherto defective theory, and worse than defective system of Colonial Government; a system destitute of the safety-valve of responsibility, of the attributes of freedom, and of the essential materials of executive power; a system which was despotic from its weakness, and arbitrary from its pretences to representation; a system inefficient in the hands of good men, and withering in the hands of mistaken or bad men.”
CHAPTER LX.
Contents—Kingston—First capital—First act of government—Niagara—Selecting the capital—Niagara in 1788—Carrying Place—Landing Place—Newark—In 1795—Mr. Hamilton—The inhabitants—Little York—The Don—The Harbor—Survey—De la Trenche—London—Inhabitants of the Don—Yonge Street, a military road—Governor at York—Castle Frank—York in 1798—The Baldwins—In 1806—Buffalo—York, 1813—Taken by the Americans—The Combatants—Toronto—“Muddy York”—A monument required.