^.'TORONTO OF OLD. 515 



Upper Canada to traverse the^whole province from west to east, as we shall liave occasion 

 liereafter to narrate.) 



In the early plan of tliis part of York, the names of the flrst locatees of the range of park- 

 lots are given. On the flrst or easternmost lot we read tliat of John Small. On the next, that 

 of J. White. In this collocation of names there is something touching, when we recall an event 

 in which the first owner.s of these two contiguous lots were tragically concerned. Friends, and 

 associates in the Public Service, the one as Clerk of the Crown, the other as Attorney General 

 for Upper Canada, from 1792—1800, their dream doubtless was to pass the evening of their days 

 in pleasant suburban villas placed here side by side in tlte outskirts of the young capital. But 

 there arose between them a difficulty, trivial enough probably at the beginning, but which, 

 according to the barbaric conventionality of the hour, could only be finally settled by a 

 " meeting," as the phrase was, in the field, where chance was to decide between them, for life 

 or death, as between two armies — only now two armies reduced to the absurdity of each 

 consisting of only one man. The encounter took place in a pleasant grove at the back of the 

 Parliament Building, immediately to the east of it, between what is now King Street and the 

 water's edge. Mr. White was mortally wounded and soon expired. By his own direction his 

 remains were deposited in his garden on the park-lot, beneath a bower to wliich he had been, 

 accustomed to retire for purposes of study. 



The Oracle of Saturday, Jan. 4, 1800, records the duel in the following words : " Yesterday 

 morning a duel was fought back of the Government Buildings by John White, Esq., his 

 Majesty's Attorney General, and John"; Small, Esq , Clerk of the Executive Council, wherein 

 the former received a wound above the right hip, which it is feared will prove mortal." In the 

 issue of the following Saturday, Jan. 11th, the announcment appears : "It is with much regret 

 that we express to the public, tlie death of John White, Esq." It is added: "His remains 

 were on Tuesday evening interred in a small octagon building, erected on the rear of his Park 

 lot." "The procession," the Oracle observes, "was solemn and pensive; and shewed that 

 though death, ' all eloquent,' had seized upon him as his victim, yet it could not take from the 

 public mind the lively sense of his virtues. Vivit post funera virtus." 



The Constellation at Niagara, of the date January 11th, 1800, also records the event, and 

 enjoying a greater liberty of expression than the Government organ at York, indulges in some 

 just and sensible remarks on the irrational practice of duelling in general, and on the sadness 

 of the special case that had just occxirred. We give the Constellation article : 



"Died at York, on the 3rd instant, John White, Esq., Attorney General of this Province, 

 His death was occasioned by a wound he received in a duel fought the day before with John 

 Small, Esq., Clerk of the Executive Council, by whom he was challenged. We have not been 

 able to obtain the particulars of the cause of the' dispute ; but be the origin what it may, 

 we have to lament the toleration and prevalency of a custom falsely deemed honorable, 

 or the criterion of true courage, innoceucy or guilt, a custom to gratify the passion of 

 revenge in a single person, to the privaiion of the country and a family, of an ornament of 

 societj', and support : an outrage on humanity that is too often procured by the meanly 

 malicious, who have preferment in oflBce or friendship in view, without merit to gain it, and 

 stupidly lacquey from family to family, or from person to person, some wonderful suspicion, 

 the suggestions of a soft head and evil heart ; and it is truly unfortunate for Society that the 

 evil they bring on others should pass by their heads to light on those the world could illy spare. 

 We are unwilling to attribute to either the Attorney General or Mr. Small any improprieties of 

 their own or to say on whom the blame lies ; but of this we feel assured, that an explanation 

 might easily have been brought about by persons near to them, and a valuable life preserved to 

 us. The loss is great ; as a professional gentleman, the Attorney General was eminent, as a 

 friend, sincere ; and in whatever relation he stood was highly esteemed ; an honest and upright 

 man, a friend to the poor ; and dies universally lamented ; and we here cannot refuse to 

 mention, at the particular request of some who have experienced his goodness, that he has 

 refused taking fees, and discharged suits at law, by recommending to the parties, and assisting 

 them with friendly advice, to an amicable adjustment of their differences ; and this is the man 

 whom we have lost ! " 



For his share in the duel Mr. Small was, on the 20th January, 1800, indictetj and tried before 

 Judge Alcock and a jury, of which Mr. Wm. Jarvis was tlie foreman. The venlict rendered was 



