238 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



Men of intelligence, who had risen to position and acquired aU their experience in a remote, 

 diminutive settlement, might have been quite sure that their grasp of great imperial and human 

 questions, when they arose, would be very imperfect; they might, therefore, rationally have 

 rejoiced at the accession of new minds and additional light to help tliem in the day of necessity. 

 And on the other hand, the fresh immigrant or casual visitor, trained to maturity amidst the 

 combinations of an old society, and possessing a knowledge of its past, might have compre- 

 hended thoroughly the exact condition of thought and feeling in a community such as that 

 which he was approaching, and so might have regarded its ideas with charity, and spoken of 

 them in a tone conciliatory and delicate. On both sides, the maxim Tout comprenclre, c'est tout 

 pardonner would have had a salutary and composing effect, " for," as the author of Eealmah 

 well says, "in truth, one would never be angry with anybody, if one understood him or her 

 thoroughly." We regret that we cannot recover two small "paper peUets of the brain," of this 

 period, arising out of the discussions connected with the appointment of an outsider (Mr. Jus- 

 tice Willis) to the Bench of Upper Canada. They would have been illustrative of the times. 

 They were in the shape of two advertisements, one in reply to the other, in a local Paper : one 

 was the elaborate title-page of a pamplilet "shortly to appear," with the motto "Meliora 

 sperans" ; the other was an exact counterpart of the first, only in reversed terms, and bearing 

 the motto "Deteriora timens." In the earlier stages of aU colonies it is obviously inevitable 

 that appointments db extra to public office must occasionally, and even frequently, be made. 

 Local aspirants are thus subject to disappointments ; and men of considerable ability may now 

 and then feel themselves overshadowed, and imagine themselves depressed, through the intro- 

 duction of talent transcending their own. Some manifestations of discontent and impatience 

 may thus always be expected to appear. But in a few years this state of things' comes naturally 

 to an end. In no public exigency is there any longer a necessity to look to external sources for 

 help. A home supply of men duly qualified to serve " Church and State " is legitimately devel- 

 oped, as we see in the United States, among ourselves, and in all the other larger settlements 

 from the British Islands. The denouement of the Willis-trouble may be gathered from the fol- 

 lowing notice in the Gazette of Thursday, July 17th, 1828, now lying before us : "His Excellency 

 the Lieutenant-Governor has been pleased to appoint, by Commission under the Great Seal, 

 Christopher Alexander Hagerman, Esq., to be Judge in His Majesty's Court of King's Bench for 

 this Province, in the room of the Hon. John Walpole Willis, amoved, until the King's pleasure 

 shall be signified." 



Lady Mary Willis, associated with Mr, Gait in the Fancy Ball just spoken of, was a daughter 

 of the Earl of Strathmore. In the Canadian Literary Magazine for April, 1833, there is a notice 

 of Mr. Gait, with a fuU-length pen-and-ink portrait, similar to those which used formerly to 

 appear in Fraser. In front of the figure is a bust of Lord Byron ; behind, on a waU, is a Map 

 shewing the Canadian Lakes, with York marked conspicuously. From this sketch we learn 

 that "Mr. Gait always conducted himself as a man of the strictest probity and honour. ' He was 

 warm in his friendships, and extremely hospitable in his Log Priory at Guelph, and thoroughly 

 esteemed by those who had an opportunity of mingling with him in close and daily intimacy. 

 He was the first to adopt the plan of opening roads before making a settlement, instead of leav- 

 ing them to be cut, as heretofore, by the settlers themselves — a plan which, under the irregular 

 and patchwork system of settling the country then prevailing, has retarded the improvement of 

 the Province more, perhaps, than any other cause."' In his Autobiography Mr. Gait refers to 

 this notice of himself in the Canadian Literary Magaztne, especially in respect to an intimation 

 given therein that contemporaries at York accused him of "playing Captain Grand" occasion- 

 ally, and "looking do'wn on the inhabitants of Upper Canada." He does not affect to say that 

 it was not so ; he even rather unamiably adds : " The fact is, I never thought about them [i. e., 

 these inhabitants], unless to notice some ludicrous peculiarity of individuals." The same tone 

 s assumed when recording the locally famous entertainment, given by himself and Lady WiUis, 

 as above described. Having received a hint that the colonelcy of a militia regiment might pos- 

 sibly be offered him, he says ; " This information was unequivocally acceptable ; and, accord- 

 ingly," he continues, "I resolved to change my recluseness into something more cordial towards 

 the general inhabitants of York. I therefore directed one of the clerks [the gentleman who 

 figured as Eizzio, doubtless], to whom I thought the task might be agreeable, to make arrange- 

 ments for giving a general Fancy Ball to all my acquaintance, and the principal inhabitants. I 



