ng been
to a large extent superseded by younger and more energetic men. His
opinions were no longer deferred to as they had once been, and on one or
two occasions he had, as he conceived, been treated with inadequate
respect by some of his junior colleagues. He felt his position keenly,
and there is reason for believing that he would have resigned his office
of Inspector-General and his seat at the Council Board, had it not been
that there were many demands upon his purse, and that he was largely
dependent upon his official salary for the support of his family. On a
subsequent page a notable instance will be given of the degradation to
which his poverty compelled him to submit at the hands of the
Lieutenant-Governor. Under the circumstances, however, he could not
refuse to contribute to Colonel Fitz Gibbon's list; and it is recorded
that when one of his sons called upon him for the amount which he had
subscribed, he handed over the sum with justifiable petulance, saying:
"There, go and make one great fool of yourself again."[85] Such of the
rioters as were possessed of means contributed to the fund according to
their respective ability, but the others were not allowed to bear more
than a very small share of the loss.

The only other documentary evidence to be had on the subject of the
subscribers to the fund is to be found in the "Statement of Facts" of
Samuel Peters Jarvis himself. "I have on my part to assure the public,"
he writes, "that so far from being indemnified by the contributions
which from various motives were made for our relief, the burthen fell
heavily upon such of us as had the means of paying anything; and I
affirm that the share of the verdict which I myself had to defray, from
no very abundant means, was such that if Mr. Mackenzie had made as much
clear profit by his press during the whole time he has employed it in
the work of detraction, he would not have found it necessary to leave
the concern, and abandon it to his creditors." To which statement it may
be added that a gentleman now living in Toronto distinctly remembers
hearing Mr. Jarvis say that his own contribution to the fund was
precisely L109; that that of Peter McDougall was about the same; and
that none of the rest of the rioters paid anything, except through their
parents or relatives.

The civil liability having been discharged, the public looked forward to
a criminal prosecution, for it seemed outrageous that the perpetrators
of such