Section IL, 1U03 [ 145 ] Trans. K. 8. C. 



IX. — The Second Legislature of Upper Canada. — 1700-1800} 

 By C. C. James, MA., Toronto. 



(Communicated by W. Wilfired Campbell and read May 19, 1903). 



'J'hc flfUi and last sesbion of the First Legislature of Upper Canada 

 began at Newark (Niagara), on the KJth of May, 1796, and closed on the 

 3rd of June. The four years" life provided by the Constitutional Act 

 was thus filled, as the first election took place in August, 1792. Mr. D. 

 W. Smith, in his record of offices, published in my paper of last year, 

 gives 18th August, 1796, as the date of his election; we therefore con- 

 clude that the general elections were held in August, Just four years, 

 after the holding of the first. '■ 



Lt.-Governor Simcoe and his advisers had well understood that 

 the evacuation of Fort Niagara by British troops was only a question of 

 time and mutual aiTangement and therefore the holding of iho Parlia- 

 ment at Newark was but a temporary convenience. The permanent 

 location of the capital therefore was of deep concern and Simcoe's 

 travels through the province were doubtless in great measure for the 

 purpose of selecting points advantageous for towns and government 

 works. The general scheme that he had in view would appear to have 

 been that Kintrston, Chatham, Penetanguishene and York were to be 

 naval bases and that the capital should be located in the interior. We 

 are told that he had set his heart upon a site at the Forks of the Thames 

 where a town to be royally named Georgina should arise, to become in 

 time the seat of government. The Governor-General of Canada, Lord 

 Dorchester, did not see eye to eye in all things with Lt.-Governor 

 Simcoe. At length, however, in 1796, the forts were to be handed over 

 to the United States, and hence the importance of moving the capital 

 from Nevrark. The lands on the north shore were purchased from the 

 Indians in 1787, and in 1788, Mr. Aitkin laid out a town-plot near Fort 

 Toronto, in accordance with instructions from Surveyor-General John 

 Collins. In 1792, Simcoe determined upon York as the name of the 

 county from Durham west, and he gave the name York to the harbour 

 on August 27, 1793. 



Simcoe had a very favourable opinion of York, for on a promontory 

 overlooking the valley of the Don he built his rustic house called Castle 



' This is the second of a seiries of papers on the Legislature of Upper 

 Canada. The first dealing with the origination of the Legislature and the 

 members of the first Legislature 1732-1796, appeared in the Transactions of 

 the Royal Society of Canada published last year. — C. C. James. 



S«-c. II., }90:3. 10. 



