TORONTO: AN HISTOKICAL SKETCH 



ceeded Head, sent in his famous report, which is 

 said to have been written by Charles Buller, his sec- 

 retary, the friend of Tennyson and the pupil of Car- 

 lyle. To this we owe the establishment of responsible 1846 

 government and the abolition of abuses. As a result 

 Toronto, now one of the capitals of a united Canada, 

 made rapid advances, and though its prosperity was 

 temporarily checked by the adoption of free trade in 

 England, it received an added impetus by Lord 

 Elgin's Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. 



During these years the growth of both city and 

 province had been slow but steady. The early set- 

 tlers came mostly from the south, including the 

 " Pennsylvania Dutch," of whom a number took up 

 land to the north and east of Toronto, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Markham. After the war of 1812-13 

 this influx ceased, and the new settlers came from 

 the British Isles, especially Scotland and the north 

 of Ireland. To this day Toronto is the greatest 

 Orange centre except Belfast. After the famine the 

 Irish came in great numbers and suffered terribly 

 from the ravages of the fever and the cholera epi- 

 demics which raged in 1847 and 1854. The Eoman 

 Catholic Bishop Power, after whom Power Street is 

 named, sacrificed his life in the former year while 

 ministering to these unfortunates. 



The first Toronto " boom " broke after the Cri- 

 mean War in 1857. The opening of the Northern, 

 Grand Trunk and Great Western Railways had facili- 

 tated transportation, stimulated commerce and en- 

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