he
election. Meanwhile his rage against the party which had been concerned
in his defeat was ungovernable, and must have vent. He resolved that he
must again have control of a newspaper. He accordingly established _The
Constitution_, a weekly paper, the first number of which made its
appearance in Toronto on the sixtieth anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence of the United States--namely, the 4th of July, 1836. Its
tone was such as might have been anticipated from the mood of its
editor. It was more outspoken than the _Advocate_ had ever been under
his management, and might from the first have been styled a
revolutionary organ. In its columns every phase of discontent found
utterance, and some of its editorial articles were marked by a spirit of
bitterness and implacability such as had not commonly been supposed to
belong to Mackenzie's nature. Means would doubtless have been taken for
its suppression, had not the Government felt that they had achieved a
signal triumph, and that they could afford to ignore its attacks.

Many others of the Radicals felt little less rancour towards the
Government party than did Mackenzie. Indeed, the conduct of the party in
power had been such as to make temporary Radicals of not a few persons
who had theretofore been known as moderate Reformers. It may be said
indeed that nearly all the moderates had either made common cause with
the Government party for fear of the Radicals, or had coalesced with the
Radicals from a sense of official tyranny and injustice. Public meetings
were held, at which the Lieutenant-Governor and his myrmidons were
subjected to the most vehement denunciations. At a meeting of the
Constitutional Reform Society Dr. Baldwin, George Ridout, James E. Small
and others referred to his Excellency's conduct in terms which public
audiences had never before heard from their lips. An official address
issued by the Society on the subject of the resignation of the
Executive Councillors also contained some severe but well-merited
strictures. The Lieutenant-Governor marked his condemnation of the
language employed by promptly dismissing the three gentlemen above named
from certain offices which they held.[259] As will hereafter be seen,
this proceeding eventually led to serious complications between the Home
Office and Sir Francis. Meantime, the latter was permitted to have his
own way, but not without stubborn attempts at resistance on the part of
some of his opponents.