Section II, 1913. [175] Trans. R.S.C. 



Notes on the Meeting Place of the First Parliament of Upper Canada 

 and the Early Buildings at Niagara. 



By Duncan Campbell Scott, F. R.S.C. 



(Read May 28, 1913) 



A great interest has always been manifested in the town of Niagara, 

 the earliest buildings there, in Navy Hall, the residence of the First 

 Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, and in the meeting place of 

 the First Parliament of the Province. The west side of the Niagara 

 River is the strip of Ontario territory to which clings the brightest 

 historical memories, the founding of the province, the loyal and de- 

 termined efforts of Simcoe to begin the national life with an impulse 

 which should make it British to the core, and the battles and vicissi- 

 tudes of the war of 1812. 



In the Life of Simcoe, which I contributed to The Makers of 

 Canada Series, the first residence at Navy Hall of the Lieutenant 

 Governor was described and the meeting places of the first Legis- 

 lature were indicated. I did not think it admissable to enter very 

 minutely into details upon each point in a work that was meant to be 

 a comprehensive view of the first few years of organized Government 

 in the Province of Upper Canada, with sketches of the social condi- 

 tions which surrounded the few hardy people who had made it their 

 home. From one point of view these things are unimportant; it is 

 of no particular consequence where Simcoe uttered the first words to 

 an Elected Parliament as the representative of the King. The words 

 themselves were of importance, and they were given forth with deep 

 earnestness, but the air that took them that has flowed away, the build- 

 ing in which they were spoken has disappeared, and the very soil has 

 changed in a hundred years. But other, and it seems to me better 

 considerations, lead us to mark these historical spots and to venerate 

 them, and it behoves us to choose the correct sites for our national 

 monuments and be certain the claims we set up for both sites and 

 buildings are well founded. 



Avoiding then an abundance of detail and not wishing to em- 

 phasize the little treasures which I had unearthed in digging into the 

 subject, I did not point out that the scrap of evidence to be found 

 in the Simcoe papers in the Library of Parliament fixed the place in 

 which the Lieutenant Governor called the Legislature to listen to his 

 first speech. It was a General Order for the 17th of September, 1792. 



