her quality which seriously interfered with
his usefulness was his exceeding want of discretion. He seemed to be
utterly incapable of keeping his own counsel, and a secret once told to
him was a secret no longer. His rashness and impetuosity were
proverbial, and were perpetually involving him in disputes, not only
with enemies but with friends.

[Sidenote: 1832.]

It was surely a short-sighted policy which gave to a man so constituted
a factitious importance, and which made him for some years the most
notorious personage in Upper Canada. The treatment he had received
aroused popular sympathy on his behalf, and preparations were made to
return him again for the County of York by an increased majority. When
the new election was held, on the 2nd of January in the following year,
a long procession of sleighs escorted him to the polling-place, which
was the Red Lion Tavern, on Yonge Street. Two thousand persons assembled
to witness the triumph of "the people's friend." An Oppositionist was
nominated, but as he received only one vote during the hour and a half
which elapsed after the opening of the poll, he abandoned the contest,
and Mackenzie's triumph was assured. The close of the poll was followed
by the presentation of a gold medal by his constituents, as a token of
their approbation. A number of sleighs were then formed in line and
paraded down Yonge Street, and thence past Government House and down to
the Parliament Buildings. The foremost sleigh was decorated with
enthusiastic mottoes painted on calico, and cheers for the successful
candidate rent the air as the procession passed along the principal
thoroughfares. All this popular adulation was grateful to Mackenzie's
soul. He was in his element. There is no need to linger over this part
of the narrative. Parliament was still in session, and the Assembly were
resolved that, no matter what the electors of York might think proper to
do, Mackenzie should not sit in the House. A new pretext for his
expulsion was found in an article of which he avowed himself to be the
author, and which appeared in the _Advocate_ of the 5th of January. This
article was a true and by no means intemperate recital of certain
well-known facts as to certain measures which had been passed by the
Assembly. It was notwithstanding adjudged, by a vote of twenty-seven to
nineteen, to be a libel on the House, and a high breach of its
privileges; and it was further resolved that Mr. Mackenzie be expell