Niagara Falls 



1885 necessarily arise in connection with every place of great public 

 resort, where they are not checked and restrained by the pres- 

 ence of a general superintending authority, and probably exist 

 here in a less degree than in many other places to which large 

 numbers are attracted. We are, indeed, indebted to the kindly 

 care of these residents, and especially to that of the family so 

 long the proprietors of a most beautiful part of these banks, and 

 whose name is not more closely associated with this place than 

 with the patriotic annals of the nation, that so much of their 

 native beauty remains untouched; and the promised restoration 

 of the scene to its original grandeur is welcomed by none with 

 greater delight than is felt by those whose lives have been passed 

 in its great presence. This joyous festivity in which we are 

 hospitably invited to share, is the demonstration of their high 

 satisfaction with all the measures which have been taken to 

 achieve so important a work. 



To those who were thus led to consider in what way the fur- 

 ther degradation of Niagara might be arrested, there was but one 

 measure which seemed adequate. The real source of the evil 

 was perceived to lie in the circumstance that the surroundings of 

 the scene and its approaches had been suffered to become the 

 subject of private ownership. Private proprietors, ordinarily at 

 least, are not at liberty to devote their possessions, of whatever 

 nature, to any other purposes than those of profitable use. The 

 mistake was that the fair territory which lies along these banks 

 should ever have been allowed to become private property. It 

 was once the noble possession of the people of the State. Would 

 that it had always so remained. The plain remedy was a 

 resumption by the State of its former dominion and a movement 

 was set on foot to bring about this result. 



A suggestion tending in this direction was made in the summer 

 of 1878 by the then Governor-General of Canada, Lord Duf- 

 ferin, himself a well-known admirer of the great scenes of nature, 

 to Governor Lucius Robinson, who made it the subject of a 

 special communication to the Legislature of 1879, in which he 



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