unties. An Act was also passed to erect a jail and court-house
in each district.

Governor Simcoe closed this session of the Parliament the 15th of
October, 1792, and after complimenting both Houses on the business-like
manner in which they had performed their legislative duties, concluded
his proroguing speech with the following significant words:

"I cannot dismiss you without earnestly desiring you to promote, by
precept and example, regular habits of piety and morality, the surest
foundations of all private and public felicity; and at this juncture I
particularly recommend you to explain _that this province is signally
blessed, not with a mutilated Constitution, but with a Constitution
which has stood the test of experience, and is the very image and
transcript of that of Great Britain_, by which she has long established
and secured to her subjects as much freedom and happiness as is possible
to be enjoyed under the subordination necessary to civilized society."

When Governor Simcoe selected Newark as the seat of government, he
thought that Fort Niagara, on the opposite side of the river, would be
ceded to England, as it was then occupied by a British garrison; but
when he found that the Niagara river was to be the boundary line between
Great Britain and the United States, and that the British garrison was
to be withdrawn from Fort Niagara, he judged it not wise that the
capital of Upper Canada should be within reach of the guns of an
American fort. He made a tour through the wilderness of the western
peninsula, and proposed to found a new London for the Canadian capital,
on the banks of what he then called the River Thames, the site of the
present city of London, in the heart of the western district, and secure
from invasion; but Lord Dorchester preferred Kingston, which he had made
the principal naval and military station of the province. To this
Governor Simcoe objected. It was at length agreed to select _York_, as
it was then called, the site of an old French fort. Though the
surrounding land was low and swampy, the harbour was excellent.

Governor Simcoe removed to the new capital before a house was built in
it, and lodged some time in a large canvas tent, pitched on the site of
the old fort, at the west end of the bay. He employed the Queen's
Rangers, who had accompanied him, to open a main road--Yonge
Street--from York to Lake Simcoe, called after the Governor himself. He
proposed to open a direct communi