province of
Ontario did not exceed 120,000, clustered, for the most part, in
settlements along the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario proper, and the
vicinity of the Niagara and Detroit rivers. The interior of the
province was covered with the primeval forest, which disappeared
slowly, and only by dint of painful and unceasing toil. The early
accounts of Kingston bear eloquent testimony to its primitive
character. In 1815, according to a correspondent of the Kingston
_Gazette_, the town possessed no footways worthy of the name, in
consequence of which lack it was, during rainy weather, 'scarcely
possible to move about without being in mud to the ankles.' No
provision existed for lighting the streets 'in the dark of the moon'; a
fire-engine was badly needed, and also the enforcement of a regulation
prohibiting the piling of wood in public thoroughfares.

Communication with the outside world, in those early days, was slow,
toilsome, and sometimes dangerous. The roads were, for the most part,
Indian paths, somewhat improved in places, but utterly unsuited,
particularly in spring and autumn, for the passage of heavily laden
vehicles. In 1817 a weekly {3} stage began running from Kingston to
York (Toronto), with a fare of eighteen dollars. The opening of an
overland highway between Kingston and Montreal, which could be
travelled on by horses, was hailed as a great boon. Prior to this the
journey to Montreal had been generally made by water, in an enlarged
and improved type of bateau known as a Durham boat, which had a speed
of two to three miles an hour. The cost to the passenger was one cent
and a half a mile, including board.

In the early twenties of the nineteenth century the infant province of
Upper Canada found itself slowly recovering from the effects of the War
of 1812-14. Major-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, the
lieutenant-governor, together with the Executive and Legislative
Councils, was largely under the influence of the 'Family Compact' of
those days. The oligarchical and selfish rule of this coterie gave
rise to much dissatisfaction among the people, whose discontent,
assiduously fanned by agitators like Robert Gourlay, culminated in open
rebellion in the succeeding decade.

Such was the condition of things prevailing at the time when the future
prime minister arrived in the town with which he was destined {4} to be
in close association for nearly three-quarters of a century.

[Illustration: The Macd