mind against whom and what it
was that they rebelled. The expulsion of Mackenzie from the Assembly was
not the greatest act of tyranny to which the people of Upper Canada were
compelled to submit in the far-away days that are gone; but the nature
of the abuse was such that it awoke widespread alarm, and gave rise to
ominous forebodings. It indicated that constitutional opposition to the
Government was no longer safe in the Assembly, as it had been during the
two preceding Parliaments. It indicated that nothing approaching to a
fair trial was to be had, even from the High Court of Parliament, for a
politician who dared to criticize the official methods of transacting
the public business. Growls of discontent were heard from all over the
County of York, whose representative was treated with such ignominy.
People were heard to express an opinion that Upper Canada was no longer
a fit place of abode for free men and women.

The public indignation found expression in several petitions, addressed
to the Lieutenant-Governor by electors in York and elsewhere, in which
his Excellency was asked to "dismiss a House tainted with the worst
vices of judicial partiality." A deputation, consisting of more than
nine hundred persons, called at Government House to present one of these
manifestations of popular sentiment. His Excellency could not well
refuse to receive a respectfully-worded petition, but his reply was so
curt and unsatisfactory as to amount to positive insolence. "Gentlemen,"
said he, "I have received the petition of the inhabitants." And with
this wholly unnecessary item of information the deputation was compelled
to withdraw. So utter a disregard for the expression of the opinion of a
considerable body of the inhabitants was without precedent in the annals
of the Province. That the prayer of the petition would be granted, or
even that it would be taken into serious consideration, was hardly to be
expected. Its very nature forbade any such expectation. But, considering
the number of names appended to it, it certainly merited a serious
response, in which light the actual rejoinder could not be regarded. The
proceeding showed not merely indifference, but contempt; and
thenceforward Sir John Colborne was as cordially hated by the Reformers
of Upper Canada as ever Sir Peregrine Maitland had been.[151]

The efforts of the faction to ruin and humiliate Mackenzie had the
effect which such treatment always produces in communities