nsequence of this unfavorable report, townships were directed to be
laid out on the River Thames, instead of the lake shore.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR SIMCOE.

In the year 1791 the Quebec Act was passed, dividing Quebec into
two provinces, and Colonel John Graves Simcoe became the first
lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada. Before the Bill was introduced into
parliament, it was understood that Simcoe had been selected by Pitt to
govern the new province, direct its settlement and establish
constitutional government after the model of the British system. As
early as January, 1791, he had written a letter to Sir Joseph Banks,
President of the Royal Society,[16] in which after mentioning his
appointment, he explained his own plans as to the administration, and
stated his desire to profit by the ideas of his correspondent whom he
would wait upon for that purpose.

[16] Record book of the Land Board at Detroit, now in the Crown
Lands Department at Toronto.

"For the purpose of commerce, union and power, I propose that the site
of the colony should be in that Great Peninsula between the Lakes Huron,
Erie and Ontario, a spot destined by nature, sooner or later, to govern
the interior world."

"I mean to establish a capital in the very heart of the country, upon
the River La Tranche, which is navigable for batteauxs for 150
miles--and near to where the Grand River, which falls into Erie, and
others that communicate with Huron and Ontario almost interlock. The
capital I mean to call Georgina--and aim to settle in its vicinity
Loyalists, who are now in Connecticut, provided that the Government
approve of the system."

As a member of the House of Commons, Simcoe spoke in support of a
provision in the bill for the establishment of an hereditary nobility,
which Fox had moved to strike out. The report states that Colonel Simcoe
"having pronounced a panegyric on the British constitution, wished it to
be adopted in the present instance, as far as circumstances would
admit." The provision was in the bill as finally passed.

Having proceeded to Quebec to enter upon the performance of his duties,
he appears to have utilized every opportunity for informing himself of
his new domain. He writes to Hon. Henry Dundas from Montreal, December
7, 1791, in a letter marked "secret and confidential," as follows:--

"I am happy to have found in the surveyor's office an actual survey
of the River La Tranche. It answers my