TORONTO OF OLD. 237 



Mhers, ere yet the modem passion for real knowledge had heen awakened, fascinated the young 

 Londoner at Drury Lane. And how curiously were the illusions of the mimic splendors some- 

 times in a moment broken, as if to admonish the inexperienced spectator of the facts of real 

 life, In the performance of Pizarro, it will he remembered that an attempt is made to bribe a 

 Spanish soldier at his post. He rejects and flings to the ground what is called "a wedge of 

 massive gold :"— we recollect the smmd produced on the boards of the stage in Phair's by the 

 fall of this wedge of massive gold : it instantly betrayed itself by this, as well as by its nimble 

 rebound, to be, of course, a gUded bit of wood. And it is not alone at obscure village perform- 

 ances that such disclosures occur. At an opera in London, where all appearances were elabo- 

 rately perfect, we recollect the accidental faU of a goblet which was supposed to be of heavy 

 chased silver, and also filled with ^vine — a contretemps occasioned by the giddiness of the lad 

 who personated a page: two things were at once clear: the goblet was not of metal, and 

 nothing liquid was contained within it : which recalls a mishap associated in our memory with 

 a visit to the Argentina at Rome, many years ago : this was the coming off of a wheel from the 

 chariot of a Roman general, at a critical moment : the descent on this occasion from the vehicle 

 to the stage was a true step from the sublime to the ridiculous ; for the audience observed the 

 accident, and persisted in their laugh in spite of the heroics which the great commander pro- 

 ceeded to address, in operatic style, to his assembled army. 



It was in this same assembly-room at Phair's, dismantled of its theatrical furniture, that a 

 celebrated fancy ball was given, in 1827, conjointly by Mr. Gait, Commissioner of the Canada 

 Company, and Lady Mary "Willis, wife of Mr. Justice Willis. On that occasion the interests of 

 the Company were to some extent studied in the ornamentation of thii room, its floor being 

 decorated with an immense representation, in chalks or water-colour, of the arms of the asso- 

 ciation : the supporters of the shield were of colossal dimensions : two lions, rampant, bearing 

 flags turning opposite ways : below, on the riband, in characters proportionably large, was the 

 motto of the Company, "Non mutat genus solum." The sides and ceiling of the room, with 

 the passages leading from the front door to it, were covered throughout with branchlets of the 

 hemlock-spruce : nestling in the greenery of this perfect bower were innumerable little coloured 

 lamps, each containing a floating light. Here, for once, the potent, grave and reverend seigniors 

 of York, along with their sons and daughters, indulged in a little insanity. Lady Mary Willis 

 appeared as Mary, Queen of Scots ; the Judge himself, during a part of the evening, was in the 

 costume of an old woman ; Miss Willis, the clever amateur equestrienne, was FoUy, with cap 

 and bells ; Dr. W. W. Baldwin was a Roman senator ; his two sons, William and St. George, 

 were the Dioscuri ; his nephew. Augustus Sullivan, was Puss in Boots ; Dr. Grant Powell was 

 Dr. Pangloss ; Mr. Kerr, a real Otchipway chief, at the time a member of the Legislature, made 

 a magnificent Kentucky backwoodsman. Mr. Gregg, of the Commisssariat, was there as Othello. 

 The Kentuckian (Kerr), professing to be struck with the many fine points of the Moor, as 

 regarded from his point of view, persisted, throughout the evening, in setting up a rlaim to 

 ownership — an idea naturally much resented by Othello. Col. Givins, his son Adolphus, Ray- 

 mond Baby, and others, were Indian chiefs of dififerent tribes, who more than once indulged ia 

 the war-dance. Mr. Buchanan, son of the British Consul at New York, was Damley ; Mr. 

 Thompson, of the Canada Company's office, was Rizzio; Mr. G. A. Barber was a wounded 

 sailor recently from Navarino (that untoward event had lately taken place) ; his arm was in a 

 sling ; he had suffered in reality a mutilation of the right hand by an explosion of gunpowder 

 on the 5th of November. 



Mr. Gait was only about three years in Canada ; but this short space of time sufficed to enable 

 him to lay the foundations of the Canada Company wisely and well, as is shewn by its duratioM 

 and prosperity. The feat was not accomplished without some antagonism springing up between 

 himself and the local governmental authorities, whom he was inclined to treat rather haughtily. 

 It is a study to observe how frequently, at an early stage of Upper Canadian society, a mutual 

 antipathy manifested itself between visitors from the transatlantic world, tourists and settlers 

 (intending and actual), and the first occupants of such places of trust and emolument as then 

 existed. It was a feeling that grew partly out of personal considerations, and partly out of 

 difference of opinion in regard to public policy. A gulf thus began at an early period to open 

 between two sections of the community, which widened painfully for a time in after years ; — a 

 fissure, which, at its first appearance, a little philosophy on both sides would have closed up. 



