528 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY. 



and purposes, and radically, a Lewiston and genu-wine Yankee paper. How can this man of 

 truth, this pure and holy reformer and regenerator of the unhappy and prostrate Canada 

 reconcile such barefaced and impudent deception?" Nothing could more promote the success 

 of the Colonial Advocate than a welcome like this. To account for the JRegister's extraordinary 

 warmth, it is to be said that the Adi^ocate in its first number had hajipened to quote a passage 

 from an address of its Editor to the electors of the County of Durham, which seemed in some 

 degree to compromise him as a servant of the Government. Mr. Fothergill had ventured to 

 say "I know some of the deep and latent causes why this fine country has so long languished 

 in a state of comparative stupor and inactivity, while our more enterprising neighbours are 

 laughing us to scorn. All I desire is an opportunity of attempting the cure of some of the evils 

 we labour under." This was interpreted in the Advocate to mean a censure upon the Executive. 

 But the Register replied that these words simply expressed the belief that the evils complained 

 of were remediable only by the action of the House of Assembly, on the well-known axiom 

 " that all law is for the people, and from the people ; and when inefficient, must be remedied 

 or rectified by the people ; and that therefore Mr. Fothergill was desirous of assisting in the 

 great work." The end in fact was that the Editor of the Register, after his return to parliament 

 for the County of Durham, did not long retain the post of King's Printer. After several 

 independent votes in the House he was dismissed by Sir Peregrine Maitland in 1826, after which 

 date the awkwardness of uniting with a Government Gazette a general newspaper whose editor, 

 as a m)(;mber of the House of Assembly, might claim the privilege of acting with His Majesty's 

 opposition, came to an end. In 1826 we have Mr. Fothergill in his place in the House support- 

 ing a m«ti<3n for remuneration to the publisher of the Advocate on the ground that tile wide 

 and even gratuitous circulation of that paper throughout Canada and among members' of the 

 British House of Commons, " would help to draw attention in the proper quarter to the 

 country." 



Here is an account of McKenzie's method in the collection of matter for his various ptibllca- 

 tions, the curious multifariousness of which matter used to astonish whUe it amused The 

 description is by Mr. Kent, editor of a religious journal, entitled The Church, published at 

 Cobourg in 1838. Lord Clarendon's style has been exactly caught, it will be observed : 'Pos- 

 sessed of a taste for general and discursive reading," says Mr. Kent, "he (McK.) made ewn his 

 very pleasures contribute to the serious business of his life, and, year after year, accumi^ated 

 a mass of materials, which he pressed into his service at some fitting opportunity. Whenever 

 anything transpired that at all reflected on a political opponent, or whenever, in his reafling, 

 he met with a passage that favored his views, he not only turned it to a present purpose! but 

 laid it by, to bring it forward at some future period, long after it might have been supposed 

 to be buried in oblivion." ' 1 



The Editor of the Advocate, after his flight from Canada in 1837, published for a short time 

 at New York a paper named McKenzies Gazette, wliich afterwards was removed to Eochester : Hts 

 term of existence there was also brief. In the number for June, 1839, we have the followmg 

 intelligence contributed by a correspondent at Toronto : A certain animus in relation to t|ie 

 military in Canada, and in relationto the existing Banks of the country, is apparent. "Toronto, 

 May 24th : The 93rd Regiment is still in quarters here. The men 660 strong, all Scotehmei, 

 enlisted in the range of country from Aberbeen to Ayrshire : a highland regiment withoit 

 highlanders : few or none of Englishmen or Irishmen among them. They are a fine-lookint 

 body of men : I never saw a finer. I wished to go into the garrison, but was not permitted t^ 



do so. Pew of the townspeople have that privilege. has made the fullest enquiries, and 



tells me that a majority of the men would be glad to get away if they could : they wouldl 

 willingly leave the service and the country. He says they are well-informed, civil and well- \ 

 behaved, and that for such time as England may be compelled to retain possession of the 

 Canadas by military force, against the wishes of tlie settled population he would like to have 



this regiment remain in Toronto. tells me that a few soitj^s have been kept at Queenston 



during the winter, because if they desert it is no matter : the regulars are all at DrummondviUe, 

 near the Falls, and a couple of hundred blacks at Chippewa watching them. The Ferry below 

 the Falls is guarded by old men whose term of service is nearlyout, and who look for a pension. 

 It is the same at Maiden, and in Lower Canada. The regiments Lord Durham brought were 

 fine fellows, the flower of the English army. The Banks here tax the people heavily,, but 



