The language of the note recalls the agitation in the public mind at Niagara in 1796, on the subject of the seat of Government for Upper Canada--a question that has since agitated Canada in several of its sub-sections. The people of Niagara in 1796, being in possession, naturally thought that the distinction ought to continue with them. Governor Simcoe had ordered the removal of the public offices to the infant York: there to abide, however, only temporarily, until the West should be peopled, and a second London built, on a Canadian Thames. Lord Dorchester, the Governor-in-Chief, at Quebec, held that Kingston ought to have been preferred, but that place, like Niagara, was, it was urged, too near the frontier in case of war. In 1796, Governor Simcoe had withdrawn from the country, and the people of Niagara entertained hopes that the order for removal might still be revoked. The policy of the late Governor, however, continued to be carried out. [Sidenote: 1793.] Three years previously, viz., in 1793, the site of the trading post known as Toronto had been occupied by the troops drawn from Niagara and Queenston. At noon on the 27th of August in 1793, the first royal salute had been fired from the garrison there, and responded to by the shipping in the harbour, in commemoration of the change of name from Toronto to York--a change intended to please the old king, George III., through a compliment offered to his soldier son, Frederick, Duke of York. For some time after 1793, official letters and other contemporary records exhibit in their references to the new site, the expressions, "Toronto, now York," and "York, late Toronto." [Sidenote: 1795.] The ancient appellation was a favorite, and continued in ordinary use. Isaac Weld, who travelled in North America in 1795-7, still speaks in his work of the transfer of the Government from Niagara to Toronto. "Niagara," he says, "is the centre of the _beau monde_ of Upper Canada: orders, however," he continues, "had been issued before our arrival there for the removal of the Seat of Government from thence to Toronto, which was deemed a more eligible spot for the meeting of the Legislative bodies, as being farther removed from the frontiers of the United States. This projected change," he adds, "is by no means relished by the people at large, as Niagara is a much more convenient place of resort to most of them than Toronto; and as the Governor, who proposed the measure, has been removed, it is imagined that it will not be put in execution." [Sidenote: 1803.]