XXXVI ROYAL SOCIETY OF CA^'ADA 



the connection with Great Britain, and establish a republic. There were 

 no British soldiers in the Province, but Sir Francis Bond Head, the 

 Lt.-Governor, did not have to appeal to the loyal inhabitants to support 

 him. They poured into Toronto spontaneously, from every direction, 

 in such numbers, to uphold law and order, that the rebels were dis- 

 persed at once. In various places where trouble arose, the malcontents 

 were promptly put down. 



The striking point about this rising of the loyal population, in 

 defence of law and order, is the extraordinary contrast between the 

 prompt and vigorous action of the loyal people, and the apathy and 

 slowness of the same class in the early days of the American Eevolution. 

 Men did not wait for orders, but gathered in groups all over the Pro- 

 vince, and without uniforms, but with their own shot guns and rifles, 

 after electing their own officers, came pouring into Toronto in such 

 numbers that the Governor had to issue a proclamation telling them to 

 go back to their homes. We fancy we can see in this, that the traditions 

 of the Eevolution had taught the loyal men of 1837 not to depend upon 

 constituted authority, but at once to set to work themselves, to defend 

 the interests of their Queen and country. Had the loyal men gathered 

 on the day of the first fighting at Lexington in 1775, and poured into 

 Boston in the same way, the Eevolution would not have been a success. 



Mr. John A. Macdonell, in his " Sketches in Glengarry," draAvs 

 attention to the fact that those districts in Upper Canada, where in 

 1812 the militia were disloyal and wavering, were the same districts 

 in which the later settlers from the United States had taken up lands. 

 These same districts were the centres of rebellion in 1837. He gives 

 a list of the numbers arrested for disloyalty from the 5th December, 

 1837, until the 1st November, 1838. In the Eastern, Ottawa, Bathurst 

 and Prince Edward districts, settled by the U. E. Loyalists or dis- 

 banded soldiers, there were no rebels to arrest. In the Johnston Dis- 

 trict there were 8; Midland, 75; Newcastle, 12; Home District, 422; 

 Niagara, 43; Gore, 90; London, 163; Western, 11, The rebellion did 

 not arise among the descendants of the U. E. Loyalists, but mainly 

 in the other districts, and it was suppressed by the Loyalists without the 

 aid of regular soldiers. 



Once more the United Empire Loyalist spirit had its influence 

 upon the history of this country, and helped to preserve Canada to the 

 British Crown. 



In 1842, at the time of the Maine boundary dispute, Governor 

 lairfield threatened hostile operations. The loyalists of New Bruns- 

 wick stood firm while the Legislature of Nova Scotia, representing the 

 same breed of staunch defenders of British institutions, at once placed 



