1889-90.] NEWARK IN 1792. 75 



In the Life of the late William Hamilton Merritt, the projector of the 

 Welland Canal and United Empire Loyalist, we find it stated that his 

 father came into Upper Canada from New York State in 1796, and that 

 at that time the lands of the Niagara District had all been taken up by 

 the men of Butler's ilangers, that the frontier being settled he was forced 

 to take up land on the twelve-mile creek. 



From all tiiis it is pretty plain to be seen how Newark or Niagara had 

 a population of at least five hundred souls in 1792. 



Major General Simcoe, the commander of the Simcoe Rangers through- 

 out the Revolutionary war, when he took up the reins of government in 

 the Province, found himself among his own people, who looked upon him 

 as an elder brother. 



This paper would not be complete without a fuller statement of what 

 took place at Newark on the occasion of the opening of the first session of 

 the First Farliament of Upper Canada, of which General Simcoe was 

 executive head, in 1792. It has been stated, on the authority of Mr. 

 Surveyor-General Smith, that the Council House was on the hill between 

 Navy Hall and the Town of Newark. It would thus be found to be in 

 the Military Reservation. There is every reason to believe that the 

 Council House mentioned by Mr. Smith was the place of meeting of 

 the Legislative Council of the Province. There is a kind of unauthentic- 

 ated tradition that the first Legislature met under a tree. It is more pro- 

 bable that the members sent to the first Assembly met the Governor at 

 his headquarters, Navy Hall, and having organized, were summoned to 

 attend His Excellency in the Council Chamber to hear the speech from 

 the throne. It is an historical fact that at the opening of the House 

 soldiers were drawn from Fort Niagara on the opposite side of the 

 river (still retained by the British, as a hostage for the due performance of 

 the terms of the Treaty of 1783 by the Americans) to act as a guard of 

 honor to His Excellency, and to accompany him to the Council House to 

 listen to his speech to be addressed to Parliament. It is not impossible 

 that the members may in the first instance have met together under a 

 tree, and then it being announced to them that the Governor was ready to 

 receive the people's representatives proceeded from thence to the Council 

 Chamber. It has been the custom for nearly a century of our existence 

 as a separate Province for the Governor to address the Legislative Council 

 and the Commons in the Legislative Council Chamber. The Constitu- 

 tional Act of 1791 entitled the Province to send fifteen members to the 

 Legislative Assembly — of the fifteen returned to the first Assembly only 

 seven were present at the opening of the House, and about as many Legis- 



