622 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



In 1799, the Gazette being about to be removed across permanently to York, the new capital, 

 whither also all the government offices were departing, Messrs. S. and G. Tiffany decide on 

 starting a newsijaper on their own account for Niagara. It is called "the Canada Constellation," 

 and its terms are four dollars -per annum. It is announced to appear weekly "opposite the 

 Lion tavern." The date of the first number is July 20. In the introductory address to the 

 public the Slessrs. Tiffany make use of the following rather involved language : " It is a truth 

 long acknowledged that no men hold situations more influential of the minds and conduct of 

 men than do printers ; political printers are sucked from, nursed and directed by the press ; 

 and when they are just, the community is in unity and prosperity; but when vicious, every 

 evil ensues ; and it is lanientalile that many printers, either vile, remiss in, or ignorant of, their 

 duty, jiroduce the latter or no effect ; and to which of these classes we belong, time will unfold," 



The public nicans of maintaining a regular correspondence with the outer world being insuf- 

 ficient the entei'ijrising spirit of the Messrs. Tiffany led them to think of establishing a postal 

 system of their own. In the Constellation for August 23 we have the announcement: " The 

 printers of the Constellation are desirous of establishing a post on the road from their office to 

 Ancastcr and the Grand River, as well as another to Port Erie ; and for this purpose they 

 propose to hire men to perform the routes as soon as the subscriptions will allow of the expense. 

 In order to establish the business, the printers on their part will subscribe generously, and to 

 put the design into execution, but little remains for the people to do." We can detect in the 

 Constellation a natural local feeling against the upstart town of York which had now drawn 

 av/ay almost everything from the old Newark. Thus in the number for November the 14th, 

 1799, a communication from York, signed Amicus, is admitted, written plainly by one who was 

 no great lover of the place. It affords a glimpse of the state of its thoroughfares, and of the 

 habits of some of its inhabitants. Amicus proposes a "Stump Act " for York ; i. e., a, compul- 

 sory eradication of the stumps in the streets : so that " the people of York in the space of a 

 few months may " as he speaks "relapse into intoxication with impunity; and stagger home . 

 at any hour of the night without encountering the dreadful apprehension of broken necks." 

 The same animus gives colour to remarks on some legal verbiage recently employed at York. 

 Under the heading " Interesting Discovery " we read : "It has been lately found at York that 

 'in England laws arc made ; .and that a law made in England is the law of England, and is 

 enforced by another law : that many laws are made in Lower Canada and follow up, that is, 

 follow after, or in other words are made since, other laws ; and that these laws maybe repealed. 

 It is seldom," continues the writer in the Constellation "that so few as one discovery slips into 

 existence at one birth. Genius is sterile, and justly said to be like a breeding cat, as is verified 

 in York, where by sonu unaccountable fortuity of events aU genius centers ; at the same time 

 with the above, its twin kitten came forth, that an atheist does not believe as a Christian." In 

 another number we have some chaffing about the use of the word capital. In an address 

 on the arrival of Governor Hunter, the expression, "We, the inhabitants of the Capital" had 

 occurred. "This fretted my pate," the critic pretends to complain. "What can this be? 

 Surely it is some great place in a great country was my conclusion ; but where the Capital is, 

 was a little beyond my geographical acquaintance. I had recourse to the books," he continues : 

 "all the gazettes and magazines from the year One I carefully turned over, and not one case 

 among all the addresses they contained afforded me any instruction : ' We, the inhabitants of 

 the cities of London and Westminster, of Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, &c.,' only proved to me 

 that neither of these is the Capital. But as these are only littU towns in young countries, and 

 cannot be so forward as to take upon themselves the pompous title of capital, it must be in 

 America." He then professes to have consulted the Encyclopoidia Eboretica, or "A Vindication 

 in support of the great Utility of New Words," lately printed in Upper Canada, and to have 

 discovered therein that tlie Capital in question "was, in plain English, York." He concludes 

 therefore that whenever in future the expression "We, the inhabitants of the Capital" is met 

 with, it is to be translated into the vernacular tongue, "We, the inhabitants of York, assembled 

 at McDougal's, &c." The CoJisteWaJioii does not appear to have succeeded. Early in 1801 a new 

 paper comes out, entitled the Niagara Herald. In it, it is announced that the Constellation 

 "after existing one year, expired some mouths since of starvation, its publishers dep.arting too 

 much from its constitution (advance pay)." The printer is now Silvester Tiffany, the senior 

 proprietor of the Constellation. It is very well printed with good type ; but on blue wrapping 



