This is absolutely the only information obtainable from the contemporary number of the official organ on a subject which was _par excellence_ the topic of the time. It may be added that the organ contained no reference whatever to the type riot until many weeks after its occurrence. [83] Apparently they were not then aware that the publication had actually ceased before the riot took place. [84] _Life of Mackenzie_, Vol. I., p. 99. [85] See Dr. Scadding's _Toronto of Old_, p. 38. Mr. Baby's idiom was due to his French origin and training. CHAPTER VI. THE CASE OF CAPTAIN MATTHEWS. Captain Matthews, who, it will be remembered, had been returned to the Assembly for the County of Middlesex, gave great umbrage to the official party by allying himself with the Opposition. His birth and social standing, it was said, unfitted him for such companionship. The Captain himself was apparently conscious of no incongruity, and bent all his energies to the advancement of the Reform cause. Upon his first arrival in the country he could not be said to have had any political convictions at all. He had been bred a Tory, and his military career had been such as might naturally have led him to seek his allies in the ranks of those in authority. But his own experience of the abuses in the Land Office had impelled him to consider the political situation of affairs in Upper Canada generally, and the upshot of his deliberations had been his alliance with the new movement in the direction of Reform. Being a man of much local influence, his example had won to his side a number of the Middlesex farmers, more especially in the Township of Lobo, in which he resided. During his first session in Parliament he attracted considerable attention to himself, for he spoke frequently and well, and generally with a humorous eloquence which made him a favourite with those who were not bitter partisans on the other side.