Country Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago: Personal recollections and reminiscences of a sexagenarianHaight, Canniff
History
Country Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago: Personal recollections and reminiscences of a sexagenarian
Haight, Canniff
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Ontario -- Social life and customs
The administration of justice cost the Province in 1830, $23,600, and
according to the latest official returns $274,013--a very striking proof
that our propensity to litigate has kept pace with the increase of
wealth and numbers. There were four Superior Court Judges, of whom the
Hon. John Beverley Robinson was made Chief Justice in 1829 at a salary
of $6,000. The remaining judges received $3,600 each. Besides these
there were eleven District Judges, and in consequence of the extent of
country embraced in these sections, and the distance jurors and others
had to travel, the Court of Sessions was held frequently in alternate
places in the district. In the Midland District, this court was held in
Kingston and Adolphustown. The latter place has been laid out for a town
by some farseeing individual, but it never even attained to the dignity
of a village. There was, besides the courthouse, a tavern, a foundry, a
Church of England--one of the first in the Province--the old homestead
of the Hagermans, near the wharf; a small building occupied for a time
by the father of Sir John A. Macdonald as a store, and where the future
statesman romped in his youth, and four private residences close at
hand. When the court was held there, which often lasted a week or more,
judge, jury, lawyers and litigants had to be billeted around the
neighbourhood. As a rule they fared pretty well, for the people in that
section were well off and there was rarely any charge for board. The
courts comprised the Court of King's Bench, the Quarter Sessions, and
Court of Requests. The latter was similar to our Division Court, and was
presided over by a commissioner or resident magistrate. The Quarter
Sessions had control of nearly all municipal affairs, but when the
Municipal Law came into force these matters passed into the hands of the
County Councils. The machinery in connection with the administration of
justice has been largely augmented for, beside the additional courts, we
have six Superior Court Judges, one Chancellor, two Vice-Chancellors,
one Chief-Justice, three Queen's Bench, three Common Pleas, three Court
of Appeal Judges, and thirty-eight County Court Judges.
The manufacturing interests of the Province in 1830 were very small
indeed. I have been unable to put my hand on any trustworthy information
respecting this matter at that time, but from my own recollection at a
somewhat later period, I know that very little had been done to supply
the people with even the most common articles in use. Everything was
imported, save those things that were made at home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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