266 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY: 



Tlie land on the opposite .side, a little to the north of the point at wliieh we have arrived, 

 viz., Carleton Street — long remaining in an xmeultivated condition, was a portion of tlie estate 

 of Mr. Alexander Wood, of whom we have already spoken. His family and baptismal names 

 are preserved, as we have before noted, in "Wood" Street and "Alexander" Street. 



The streets which we passed southward of Wood Street, Cnrleton, Gerrard, Shuter, with 

 Gould Street in the immediate vicinity, had their names from personal friends of Mr. McGill, 

 the tirst owner, as we have seen, of this tract. Tliey are names mostly associated with the ■ 

 early annals of Montreal, and seemed rather inapposite here. 



Northward, a little beyond whare Grosvenor Street leads into what was Elmsley villa, and is 

 now Knox College, was a solitary green field with a screen of lofty trees on three of its sides. 

 In its midst was a Dutch barn, or iiay-barracli, with moveable top. The sward on the northern 

 side of the building v/as ever eyed by the paKser-l:)y with a degree of awe. It was the exact 

 spot where a fatal duel had been fougiit. We have seen in repeated instances that the so-called 

 code of lionour was in force at York from the era of its foundation. " Without it," Mandeville 

 had said. " there would be no living in a populous nation. It is the tie of society ; and although 

 we are beholders of our frailties for tlis chief ingredient of it, there has been no virtue, at least 

 that I am acquainted with, which has proved half so instruniental to the civilizing of mankind, 

 who, in great societies, would soon degenerate into cruel villains and treacherous slaves, were 

 honour to be removed from among them." Mandeville's sophistical dictum was blindly 

 accepted, and trifles light as air gave rise to the conventional hostile meeting. The merest 

 accident at a dance, a look, a jest, a few words of unconsidered talk, of youthful chaff, were 

 every now and then sufBcient to force persons who previously, perhaps, had been bosom friends, 

 companions from childhood, along with otliers sometimes, in no wise concerned in the quarrel at 

 first, to put on an unnatural shew of thirst for each other's blood. The victim of the social 

 visage of the day, in the case now referred to, v/as a youthful son of Surveyor-General Bidout. 



Some years after the event, tlie public attention was drawn afresh to it. Tlie surviving 

 principal in the affair, Mr. Samuel Jarvis, underwent a trial at the time and Vi-as acquitted. 

 But the seconds were not arraigned. It happened in 1S28, eleven years after the incident (the 

 duel took place July 12, 1817), that Francis Collins, editor of the Canadian Freeman, a paper 

 of which we have before spoken, was imprisoned and fined for libel. As an act of retaliation 

 on at least some of those who had promoted the prosecution, which ended in his being thus 

 sentenced, he set himself to work to bring tlie seconds into court. He succeeded. One of 

 them, Mr. Henry John Boulton, was now Solicitor-General, and the other, Mr. James B. SmaU, 

 an eminent member of the Bar. All the particulars of the fatal encounter, were once more 

 gone over in the evidence. But the jury did not convict. 



Modern society, here and elsewhere, is to be congratulated on the change which has come 

 over its ideas in regard to duelling. Ap)art from the considerations dictated by morals and 

 religion, common sense, as we sujipose, has had its effect in checking the practice. York, in 

 its infancy, was no better and no worse in this respect than other places. It took its cue in 

 this as in some other matters, from very high quarters. The Duke of York, from whom York 

 derived its name, had himself narrowly escaped a bullet from the pistol of Colonel Lennox : "it 

 passed so near to tlic ear as to discommode the side-<mrl," the report said : but our Duke's 

 action, or rather inaction, on the occasion helped perhaps to impress on the public mind the 

 irrationality of duelling: he did not return the fire. "He came out," he said, "to give 

 Colonel Lennox satisfaction, and did not mean to fire at him; if Colonel Lennox was not 

 satisfied, he might fire again." 



Just to the north of tlie sceiirt of the fatal duel, which has led to this digression, was the 

 portion of Yonge street where a wooden tramway \N'as ou'-c laid down for a short distance ; an 

 experiment interesting to be remembered now, as an early foreshadowing of the existing 

 convenient street railw^ay, if not of the great Northern Railway itself. Subterranean springs 

 and quicksands hereabout rendered the ijrimitive roadmaker's occupation no easy one ; and 

 previous to the application of macadam, the tramway, while it lasted, was a boon to the farmers 

 after heavy rains. 



BL. Duraiid's modo.st cottage and bowery grounds, near here, recall at the present day, an 

 faiiy praiseworthy effort of its Civiier to establish a local jieiiodical devoted to Literature and 



