1901-2.] The Beginning of Municipal Government in Ontario. 417 



system, they show a growing anxiety with reference to local government, 

 education and facilities for trade. In the Cataraqui memorial, after 

 referring to the need for local courts of justice aud increased- powers for 

 the magistrates, they continue, " The election, or appointment, of proper 

 officers in the several townships, to see that the necessary roads be 

 opened and kept in proper repair, we conceive would be of great utility, 

 by facilitating the communication with all parts of the settlement. 

 Humanity will not allow us to omit mentioning the necessity of 

 appointing overseers of the poor, or the making of some kind of pro- 

 vision for persons of that description, who from age or accident may be 

 rendered helpless. And we conceive, it would be proper that the persons 

 appointed to this charge, as well as the road masters, should be directed 

 to make regular reports of the state of their districts to the courts at 

 their meetings, and be in all cases subject to their control."^ Here, we 

 observe that the magistrates, naturally favouring the conservation of 

 their own power, lean to the side of the Virginia system, in which the 

 Court of Quarter Sessions, and not the town meeting, should be the 

 centre of local administration. 



The New Oswegatchie memorial, though briefer, is to the same 

 effect. It prays that the new settlements may be formed into separate 

 counties or districts, from Point Beaudet upwards, each having its own 

 courts, judges and civil officers.' 



These memorials and many others affecting the whole judicial and 

 local administration of the Province of Quebec, were referred to a 

 committee of the Council, composed of one English and two French- 

 Canadian members. Their report is very exhaustive and very inter- 

 esting, but only certain portions of it bear directly on the question in 

 hand. It brings out, however, the utter inadequacy of such local 

 administration as existed under the French-Canadian system, for the 

 regulation of the loyalist settlements, where the quasi-civil machinery of 

 the French Canadian Church was entirely wanting. Mr. Finlay, the 

 English member of the committee, strongly supported the claims of the 

 loyalist settlements to be erected into separate districts, and recom- 

 mended an ordinance to be passed authorizing this division. But the 

 two French-Canadians on the committee strongly opposed any weaken- 

 ing of the French-Canadian system, and supported their views with most 

 interesting and subtle argument based on legal, social, political and 

 international grounds.^ 



1 Canadian Archives, Q. 27-2, pp. 510-518, 



2 Canadian Archives, Q, 27-2, pp. 519-520. 



3 Canadian Archives, Q. 27-1, pp. 199-206. 



