Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of OntarioScadding, Henry
History
Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario
Scadding, Henry
Toronto (Ont.) -- Description and travel; Toronto (Ont.) -- History
These words were addressed to Mr. Justice Thorpe. His reply was couched
in the following terms: "Gentlemen: With pleasure I accede to your
desire. If you make me your representative I will faithfully discharge
my duty. Your confidence is not misplaced. May the first moment of
dereliction be the last of my existence. Your late worthy representative
I lament from my heart. In private he was a warm friend; at the Bar an
able advocate, and in Parliament a firm patriot. It is but just to draw
consolation from our Governor, when the first act of his administration
granted to those in the U. E. list and their children, what your late
most valuable member so strenuously laboured to obtain. Surely from this
we have every reason to expect that the liberal interests of our beloved
sovereign, whose chief glory is to reign triumphantly enthroned on the
hearts of a free people, will be fulfilled, honouring those who give and
those who receive, enriching the Province and strengthening the Empire.
Let us cherish this hope in the blossom; may it not be blasted in the
ripening." A postscript is subjoined: "P. S. If influence, threat,
coercion or oppression should be attempted to be exercised over any
individual, for the purpose of controlling the freedom of election, let
me be informed.--R. T."
In 1806 Judges were not ineligible to the Upper Canadian Parliament. Mr.
Justice Thorpe and Governor Gore did not agree. He was consequently
removed from office. Some years later, when both gentlemen were living
in England as private persons, Mr. Thorpe brought an action for libel
against Mr. Gore, and obtained a favourable verdict.
We now proceed on our prescribed course. So late as 1833, Walton, in his
"York Commercial Directory, Street Guide, and Register," when naming the
residents on Lot Street, as he still designates Queen Street, makes a
note on arriving at two park lots to the westward of the spot where we
have been pausing, to the effect, that "here this street is intercepted
by the grounds of Capt. McGill, S. P. Jarvis, Esq., and Hon. W. Allan;
past here it is open to the Roman Catholic Church, and intended to be
carried through to the Don Bridge."
The process of levelling up, now become so common in Toronto, has
effectually disposed of the difficulty temporarily presented by the
ravine or ancient water-course, yet partially to be seen either in front
of or upon the park lots occupied by the old inhabitants just named; and
Queen Street, at the present hour, is an uninterrupted thoroughfare in a
right line, and almost on a level the whole way, from the Don in the
east to the Lunatic Asylum in the west, and beyond, on to the gracefully
curving margin of Humber Bay.--(The unfrequented and rather tortuous
Britain Street is a relic of the deviation occasioned by the ravine,
although the actual route followed in making the detour of old was
Duchess Street.)
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XIX.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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