ne, and
all the returns were in during the first week in July. The issue was an
exciting, but not a doubtful one, for the official party entered upon
the contest with loaded dice and a determination to win. Numerous
attempts have been made to explain and excuse their conduct during this
eventful epoch; but it is impossible to blink the fact that the result
was a foregone conclusion from the very moment of the issue of the
writs. The whole weight of the Government was put forward to ensure the
return of Tory candidates, and this was done in the most direct and
shameless manner. The Lieutenant-Governor openly made himself a party to
the contest. His replies to the various addresses which he had himself
promoted were one and all set to the same tune.[245] The issue was
presented in such a light that no inconsiderable part of the population
were led to believe that the maintenance of British connection depended
upon the result of the contest. Owing to the representations of
Government emissaries, backed by the Tory press, and reinforced by the
inflammatory speeches and addresses of the Lieutenant-Governor, it was
widely believed that should the Reformers succeed there would be a
speedy uprooting of cherished institutions, followed by separation from
the mother country and ultimate annexation to the United States. The
indiscreet language of Mackenzie and some other Radicals had been such
as to lend colour to misrepresentations of this nature, and the spirit
thereby aroused was decisive of the result. Not only professed Tories,
but most of the moderate-minded of the population, rallied to the side
of the Lieutenant-Governor, to uphold British connection, and to oppose
the encroachment of republican and revolutionary ideas. Loyalty was
rampant, and patriotic fervour was aroused to a height which it had not
reached in Upper Canada since the War of 1812. "Down with democracy!"
"Down with republicanism!" "Hurrah for Sir Francis Head and British
connection!" Such were the legends inscribed on the dead-walls in the
principal towns of the Province.[246] Tory votes were manufactured by
wholesale, and Tory funds were squandered with reckless profusion. For
the first time in the history of Upper Canada, Government agents were
sent down to the polling-places armed with patents for land, to be
distributed among the electors. It is open to doubt whether some of
these were not conferred upon persons who had no title to them.[247]
Reform vot