--one of the four judicial divisions of the
province--and also the proprietor and editor of the _Upper Canada
Guardian_, {315} the second paper printed in Upper Canada--the first
having been the _Upper Canada Gazette_, or the _American Oracle_, which
appeared at Newark on the 18th April, 1793. He was a dangerous agitator,
not worthy of public confidence, but he was able to evoke some sympathy,
and pose as a political martyr, on account of the ill-advised conduct of
the majority of the assembly ordering his arrest for expressing some
unfavourable opinion of their proceedings in his paper.

In the maritime provinces the conflict between the executive and the
assemblies was less aggravated than in the St. Lawrence country, although
Sir John Wentworth, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, who had been
a governor of New Hampshire before the revolution, had a very exalted
idea of the prerogative, and succeeded in having an acrimonious
controversy with Mr. Cottnam Tonge, the leader of the popular party, and
the predecessor of a far greater man, Joseph Howe, the father of
responsible government.

Such, briefly, was the political condition of the several provinces of
British North America when events occurred to stifle discontent and
develop a broader patriotism on all sides. The War of 1812 was to prove
the fidelity of the Canadian people to the British Crown and stimulate a
new spirit of self-reliance among French as well as English Canadians,
who were to win victories which are among the most brilliant episodes of
Canadian history.

{316}

XXIII.

THE WAR OF 1812-1815--PATRIOTISM OF THE CANADIANS.

At the outbreak of the unfortunate War of 1812 the United States
embraced an immense territory extending from the St. Lawrence valley to
Mexico, excepting Florida--which remained in the possession of Spain
until 1819--and from the Atlantic indefinitely westward to the Spanish
possessions on the Pacific coast, afterwards acquired by the United
States. The total population of the Union was upwards of eight million
souls, of whom a million and a half were negro slaves in the south.
Large wastes of wild land lay between the Canadian settlements and the
thickly populated sections of New England, New York, and Ohio. It was
only with great difficulty and expense that men, munitions of war, and
provisions could be brought to the frontier during the contest.

The principal causes of the war are quite intelligible to the