TORONTO OF OLD. 527 



Goverument Printer. The Canadian Freeman joined for a time in the general opposition clamour 

 against Dr. Strachau,— against the influence, real or supposed, exercised by him over 

 successive lieutenant-governors. But on discovering the good-humoured way in which 

 its fulminations were received by their object, the Freeman dropped its strictures. It 

 happened that Itlr. Collins had a brother in business in the town with whom Dr. Strachan 

 had' dealings. This brother on some occasion thought it becoming to make some faint apology 

 for the Freeman's diatribes, " O don't let them trouble you," the Doctor replied, "they do not 

 trouble me; but, by the way, tell your brot)ier,"»he laughingly continued, "I shall claim a 

 share in the proceeds." This, when reported to the Editor, was considered a good joke, and 

 the diatribes ceased ; a proceeding that was tantamount to Peter Pindar's confession, when 

 some one charged him with being too hard on the King : "I confess there exists a difference 

 between the King and me," said Peter; "the King has been a good subject to me; and 

 I have been a bad subject to his Majesty." During the period of Mr. Collins' imprisonment 

 in 1828 for the application of the afterwards famous expression "native malignity" to the 

 Attorney General of the day, the Freeman still continued to appear weekly, the editorials, set 

 up in type in the manner spoken of above, being supplied to the office from his room in the gaol. 



During the period of the early development of society in Upper Canada the Government 

 autliorities appear not only to have possessed but to have exercised the power of handling 

 political writers pretty sharply. In the Kingston Chronicle of December 10th, 1820, we have 

 recorded the sentence pronounced on Barnabas Ferguson, Editor of the Niagara Spectator, for 

 " a libel on the Government." Mr. Ferguson was condemned to be imprisoned eighteen 

 months ; to stand in the pillory once during his confinement ; to pay a fine of £50, and remain 

 in prison till paid ; and on his liberation to find security for seven years, himself in £500, and 

 two sureties in £250 each. No comment is made by the Chronicle on the sentence, and the 

 libel is not described. The local government took its cue in this matter from its superiors of 

 the clay in the old country. Wliat Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer says in his sketch of the life of 

 Cobl;ett helps to explain the action of the early Upper Canada authorities in respect to the 

 press. "Let us not forget," says the writer just named, "the blind and iincalculating intoler- 

 ance with which the law struggled against opinion from 1809 to 1822. Writers during this 

 period were transported, imprisoned, and fined, without limit or conscience; and just when 

 government became more gentle to legitimate newspapers, it engaged in a new conflict with 

 unstamped ones. No less than 500 vendors of these were imprisoned within six years. The 

 contest was one of life and death." 



So early as 1807 there was an " opposition" paper — tlie Upper Canada Guardian. Willcocks, 

 the editor, had been Sherift' of the Home District, and had lost his office for giving a vote con- 

 trary to the policy of the lieutenant-governor for the time being. He was returned as a member 

 of parliament ; and after having been imprisoned for breach of privilege, he was returned again, 

 and continued to lead the reforming party. Wlien tlie war of 1812 broke out the Guardian 

 cime to an end ; its editor at first loyally bore arms on the Canadian side, but at length deserted 

 to the enemy, taking with liim some of the Canadian Militia.' He was afterwards killed at the 

 siege of Fort Erie. 



The newspaper that occupies the largest space in the early annals of the press at York is the 

 Colonial Advocate. Issuing first at Queenston in May 1824, it was removed in the following 

 November, to York. Its shape varied from time to time : now it was a folio ; now a quarto. 

 On all its pages the matter was densely packed ; but printed in a very mixed manner : it 

 abounded with sentences in italics, in small capitals, in large capitals ; with names distinguised 

 in like decided manner : with paragraphs made conspicuous by rows of index hands, and other 

 typographical symbols at top, bottom and sides. It was editorial, not in any one particular 

 column, but throughout ; and the opinions delivered were expressed for the most part in the 

 first person. The Weekly Register fell foul of the Advocate at once. It appears that the new 

 audacious nondescript periodical, though at the time it bore on its face the name of Queenston, 

 was nevertheless for convenience sake printed at Lewiston on the New York side of the river. 

 Hence it was denounced by the Weekly Register in language that now astonishes us, as a United 

 States production ; and as in the United States interest. " This paper of motley, unconnected, 

 shake-bag periods" cried the Editor of the Weekly Register," "this unblushing, brazen-faced 

 Advocate, afi'ects to be a Queenston and Upper Canadian paper ; whereas it is to all intents 



