Bond Head, the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, directed the local surveyor to dismiss the postmaster at Lloydtown instantly, for having, as he said, sent to Mackenzie a series of traitorous resolutions to which the postmaster had attached his name as corresponding secretary of the West King and Tecumseth Political Union. Head explained to Stayner that he was aware that the usual course was to have the dismissal made by the deputy postmaster general, but as he desired to produce a certain moral effect by instant punishment, he was compelled to act through Stayner's agent. Furthermore, Bond Head asked that Stayner should delegate to Berezy, the surveyor, the power to dismiss peremptorily any person connected with the post office whom the lieutenant governor should judge to have failed in loyalty. Head was an arbitrary personage, who never gladly suffered the execution of his wishes to linger after their utterance. A painful instance of the hardships inflicted upon innocent men in times of political turmoil was the dismissal of Howard, the postmaster of Toronto.[255] His offence was not disloyalty. Even Bond Head would not venture to say that he was disloyal--but merely that his friendships were so far inclusive as to embrace men of widely differing political opinions. James Howard had been connected with the post office in Toronto for eighteen years, during eight of which he had been postmaster. Testimony abounded as to his zeal and efficiency as a public official. Stayner reported to the postmaster general that Howard was a man of excellent character, and one of the best officers in the service. An aspect of Howard's conduct, which won Stayner's warm commendation, was his withholding himself from all forms of political activity. "People in our department," wrote Stayner to Howard, some years before, "cannot too carefully abstain from identifying themselves with factions or parties of any kind." Secure in the approbation of his chief, Howard, following his natural inclination, moved quietly through the troubled times, which were heading for an outbreak, and delivered the letters to Loyalist and Reformer, to Tory and Radical, with even-handed indifference. It would seem, too, that in the choice of his friends, he exhibited a like insensibility to the explosive possibilities of some of their opinions. A few days after the public disturbances began, it was intimated to Howard that his general attitude towards affairs was not quite satisfactory, and he at once demanded an investigation. There was nothing to investigate. But a hint was conveyed to him that he was too intimate with "those people." It was decided to have the correspondence of suspects placed under surveillance. But the duty was not confided to Howard. Letters supposed to contain information of the rebels were sent to the bank of Upper Canada, where they were subjected to scrutiny.