34 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
like the Admiral and the Colonel there was a considerable middle class, 
chiefly English and Lowland Scotch, who lived in frame houses, and en- 
joyed cleanliness and comfort in an English sense. 
The absence of an efficient system of local government, and the 
great quantity of waste lands between the settlements prevented the con- 
struction of good roads. Outside of the great Dundas road between To- 
ronto and the Western district, of Yonge street between Lakes Ontario 
and Simcoe, and of the main thoroughfare from Toronto to Kingston 
by the lake shore route—works begun in Simcoe’s time and finished in 
the course of years by the government—the country roads especially in 
the low swampy lands, full of mosquitoes eager for blood, were execrably 
bad. Corduroy roads, trunks of trees laid lengthwise in wet places, ex- 
tended for miles, and helped to dislocate the wearied limbs of travellers, 
carried in the rude stage-coaches of those days—generally in the remote 
districts, “large oblong boxes without springs formed of a few planks 
nailed togéther and placed on wheels, into which one entered by the 
windows. Two or three seats were suspended inside on leather straps.” 
Happily there was a winter time when, for weeks, people could drive 
smoothly over a country, where plank and gravel roads did not make 
their appearance generally until after the Union of the Canadas in 1841 
and the introduction of municipal government. 
In 1838, the principal town of Upper Canada was Toronto, built on 
low swampy ground, which gave it the name of “muddy little York.” 
It had a population of about ten thousand, but with the exception of the 
Parliament House, just completed on Front Street, it had no public 
buildings of architectural pretensions. The houses were generally of 
wood, a few of staring ugly red brick, the streets had not a single side- 
walk until 1834, and in 1838 this comfort for the pedestrian was still 
exceptional. The exclusive set of “society” was made up of judges, 
officials, a few garrison officers, the clergy of the Church of England, 
and some retired military men with a little means. Kingston, ancient 
Cataraqui, was even a better built town than Toronto, and had a popu- 
lation of perhaps four thousand five hundred in 1837. It was de- 
fended by a fine fort on a promontory at the entrance of the harbour, 
and possessed special commercial advantages as the resort of the vessels 
and boats engaged in the carrying trade between Ontario and Montreal. 
Hamilton and London were beginning to be places of importance. By- 
town, now Ottawa, had its beginnings in 1826, when Colonel By of the 
Royal Engineers, commenced the construction of the Rideau Canal on 
the chain of lakes and rivers between the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence 
at Kingston. 

