due to personal rivalry between
Mackenzie and himself in municipal affairs. As previously mentioned, he
had defeated Mackenzie at the municipal elections for St. David's Ward,
and had been elected mayor of Toronto in the beginning of 1835. The
contest had been waged between them with unseemly rancour. Sullivan had
denounced Mackenzie as a noisy upstart and demagogue; while Mackenzie
had characterized Sullivan as an oily-tongued, unprincipled lawyer, who
would lie the loudest for the client who had the longest purse. All
Mackenzie's supporters during the contest had been Radicals, or at least
persons of strong Reform proclivities. This had arrayed the whole Tory
and Conservative vote on the side of Sullivan, who was thus in a measure
brought under anti-Reform influences. His social tastes also inclined
him in the same direction, so that he soon came to be classed as a
Conservative. Reformers were disposed to look askance at him as a
political renegade, and this disposition was increased upon his
acceptance of office under Sir Francis Head at the present juncture. He
alone, of all the new Councillors, was a man of exceptional ability. He
was not inaccurately described, a few years later, as "an Irishman by
birth, and a lawyer by profession; a man who, if he had united
consistency of political conduct and weight of personal character with
the great and original talents which he unquestionably possessed, might
have taken a conspicuous part in the public affairs of any
country."[230]

These transactions--the resignation of the Councillors and the
appointment of their successors--produced a tremendous effervescence of
feeling among the Opposition in the Assembly, who had already conceived
strong suspicions of the Lieutenant-Governor's motives. But the
excitement was not confined to the Opposition. It was participated in by
the Conservatives, and, even, for a time, by most of the ultra-Tories.
On the 14th of March, the House, by a vote of fifty-three to two,
adopted a resolution unequivocally assertive of the principles which the
ex-Councillors had endeavoured to maintain. Ten days later an address to
the Lieutenant-Governor, based on this resolution, was passed by a vote
of thirty-two to nineteen. It expressed deep regret that his Excellency
had consented to accept the resignation of his late Council. It declared
the Assembly's entire want of confidence in the new appointments, and
humbly requested that immediate steps might