Читать книгу The Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada and Ontario 1792-1899 онлайн

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In 1790 Colonel Simcoe was elected member of Parliament for the borough of St. Maws, Cornwall, and one of the first debates after he had taken his seat was that of April, 1791, when the Quebec Government bill was introduced by Mr. Pitt, and was vigorously opposed by Mr. Fox. It was over the constitution formulated by this Act that many and bitter contests were waged by Papineau, Mackenzie and other leaders of the rebellion of 1837. From the time of the introduction of the bill constant objection was made to the Legislative Council—the second chamber, appointed by the Crown—that, too frequently to please the aggressive Assembly or Commons, ignored the clamor of that body, and carried on the Government regardless of its wishes. In this debate Simcoe acquired some knowledge of his future sphere of action and of the rival elements, then indeed rather confined to the Lower Canadian Province—elements which he saw would not fuse, and whose fusion was rather prevented than aided by the Loyalists and Rangers, exiles from the United States, whose rooted conservatism was no friend of the Republicans of either of the Canadas.