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

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Early in 1792 Simcoe organized his Government at Kingston. The organization and ceremonies attending, conformably with the wishes of the Governor, partook of a religious character, and took place in the wooden church opposite the market-place. After the Proclamation appointing Lord Dorchester Governor-General and John Graves Simcoe Governor of Upper Canada was solemnly read and published, the oaths of office were administered to His Excellency the first Governor of the Province. According to the Royal instructions he was to have five individuals to form his Executive Council. The five named were William Osgoode, William Robertson, James Baby, Alexander Grant, and Peter Russell, Esquires. These appointments were made on the 8th of July. On the following Monday Messrs. Osgoode, Russell, and Baby were sworn into office. Robertson was not then in the Province. Grant was sworn in a few days afterwards.

The Legislative Councillors were not elected till the 17th July, 1792, when a meeting of the Executive Council was held at Kingston, and the following gentlemen appointed: Robert Hamilton, Richard Cartwright, and John Munro. On the 21st July the Governor left Kingston for his new capital of Newark, now called Niagara. The first Parliament of Upper Canada was held at Newark on the 21st September, 1792, in answer to a call by His Excellency Governor Simcoe. In his address to the House the Governor remarked upon the "wisdom and beneficence of our most gracious Sovereign and the British Parliament, not only in imparting to us the same form of government, but in securing the benefit by the many possessions which guard this memorable Act (the Constitution of the Province), so that the blessings of our invulnerable constitution, thus protected and amplified, we hope will be extended to the remotest posterity."