The irony of fate had decreed that this admirable sentiment
should not find a permanent lodgement in the writer's breast.

[179] _Life and Times of Mackenzie_, vol. i., p. 311.

[180] See Lord Goderich's despatch of 8th November, 1832.

CHAPTER XIII.

MR. HUME'S "BANEFUL DOMINATION" LETTER.

Mackenzie's repeated expulsions, unjust as they were, and humiliating as
were some of the attendant circumstances, were not wholly without
compensation. For one thing they caused him to be more talked about than
any other man in Upper Canada. This, of itself, would have gone far
towards reconciling him to the indignities which had been heaped upon
him, for notoriety was very dear to his heart. But a more substantial
reward, and one altogether unlooked for, was in store for him.

Within a month after the scene in the Assembly described towards the
close of the last chapter, the town of York ceased to exist, having
exchanged its name for the old Indian appellation which it has ever
since borne. An Act of incorporation had been obtained during the
session, whereby it was enacted that York should be constituted a body
corporate and politic by the name of the City of Toronto. The city was
to be divided into wards, with two aldermen and two common councilmen
for each ward, to be elected by the inhabitants; and with a mayor, to be
elected by the aldermen and councilmen from among themselves. This Act,
like the rest of the measures passed during the session, was assented to
on the day of adjournment--the 6th of March, 1834. On the 15th of the
same month an official proclamation appeared whereby Thursday, the 27th,
was appointed for the first election of municipal representatives. A
campaign of active canvassing was forthwith set on foot throughout the
city. As has often happened in more recent times, the contest assumed a
political complexion. The Act of incorporation had been procured by Tory
influences, and had been carried through the Assembly under the auspices
of Sheriff Jarvis, the local member. In his speeches on the subject in
the House Mr. Jarvis had taken the reasonable and legitimate ground that
the Provincial capital had attained dimensions which rendered a separate
government necessary to the efficient management of its affairs. This
view was participated in by Tory residents generally. The Reformers, on
the other hand, had all along been opposed to incorporation. York, they
argued, was the main fortress and strong