gnize such a right on the part of the Executive, I trust he will not
persevere."[178] For milder language than this, many of the Reformers
had been branded as "traitors," "disaffected," and "republicans," by the
very person who now gave utterance to it. The beam in one's own eye is
so much harder to perceive than the mote in the eye of one's brother.

The plain fact of the matter is, that no sentiment of either loyalty or
disloyalty had anything whatever to do with the treatment to which
Mackenzie was subjected at the hands of the Compact and their
supporters. It was simply this: Mackenzie was a thorn in their sides. He
watched them closely, and exposed their conduct in language which was
telling and vigorous, albeit often ill-considered and unbecoming. They
felt that their supremacy was menaced, and largely by his
instrumentality. His expulsions were due to a fixed determination to
keep him out of Parliament, irrespective not only of what was
constitutional or unconstitutional, but even of what was right or wrong.
To carry out this determination they resorted to all the party devices
which a majority in the Assembly placed at their disposal. "From first
to last," as Mr. Lindsey remarks,[179] "the proceedings against Mr.
Mackenzie were conceived in a party spirit, and carried by party votes.
No worse description or condemnation of them could be given, seeing
that they were in their nature judicial."

The debate, as has been said, came to nothing. Mackenzie was not
permitted to take his seat, and did not again attempt to do so during
the session. No new writ was issued for the election of a member by the
County of York. Mackenzie's supporters opposed the issue of a writ
because such a proceeding would have assumed that the expulsion had been
legal, and that there was a legal vacancy in the representation. Others,
who were not friendly to Mackenzie, felt that a new election would only
lead to fresh complications. York would undoubtedly return the expelled
member, and he would again be refused a seat in the House. The session
accordingly dragged on to its close without any writ having been issued:
a matter of little practical importance, inasmuch as there was to be a
general election in the course of a few months. It will thus be seen
that the County of York underwent a partial disfranchisement for three
years, during which three sessions were held. Before another session
came round a new Parliament had come into being, an