be taken to remove the new
Councillors from office. Meanwhile, petitions on the all-engrossing
subject poured into the Assembly from all over the Province.[231] Public
meetings were called in Toronto, as well as in some other of the
principal towns, at which resolutions were passed echoing the Assembly's
address, imploring the Lieutenant-Governor to dismiss his present
advisers, and to call to his Council gentlemen possessing public
confidence.

One of these gatherings tended in an especial manner to widen the
irreparable breach between Sir Francis Head and the Reform party. On the
25th of March a meeting was held in the City Hall, Toronto, at which an
Address to his Excellency of exceptional significance was passed. It
dealt at considerable length with the constitutional question at issue;
referred to Responsible Government as having been introduced by the
Constitutional Act; expressed surprise and sorrow at the resignation of
the late Councillors, and an entire want of confidence in their
successors. It deplored the apparent fact that his Excellency was acting
under the influence of evil and unknown advisers. In conclusion, it
claimed all the rights and privileges of the British constitution, and
that the representative of the Crown should be advised by men known to
and possessing the confidence of the people. When the deputation called
at Government House to present this Address, they were treated with an
off-hand abruptness and _brusquerie_ which gave them much offence. The
reply of his Excellency was wordy and unsatisfying in tone; but its most
objectionable feature was the air of assumed superiority by which it was
pervaded. It referred to the meeting represented by the deputation as
having been composed principally of "the industrious classes," but
added, with a seeming loftiness of condescension, that the Address
should be replied to with as much attention as if it had proceeded from
either of the branches of the Legislature--"although," said his
Excellency, "I shall express myself in plainer and more homely
language." This was bad enough, but its effect was intensified by the
demeanour of the Lieutenant-Governor and several military officers who
were in attendance upon him. It seemed to the deputation that those
gentlemen regarded them with supercilious impertinence; as a something
which viceroyalty must be content, for the nonce, to endure, but as
being altogether beyond the pale of their sympathies or intere