nadian
Insurrection," p. 75, incorrectly states that Ferguson "died in jail
from extremely cruel usage."

[23] _Canadian Portrait Gallery_, Vol. III., pp. 240-256.

CHAPTER II.

A BILL OF PARTICULARS.

The course of bitter persecution sustained by Mr. Gourlay was really the
first remote germ of the Upper Canadian Rebellion. In making this
statement I would not be understood as asserting that Gourlay was the
first person to set himself up in opposition to authority in the
Province, or even that he was the first victim of Executive tyranny.
There had been more or less of dissatisfaction at the selfish and
one-sided policy of the Administration ever since shortly after the
departure of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe in 1796. Between that date and
Mr. Gourlay's arrival in the Province several personages of some local
note had paid heavy penalties for daring to have opinions of their own.
Mr. Wyatt, the Surveyor-General, had been dismissed from office because
he had presumed to point out certain official irregularities, and
because he would not betray the trust reposed in him. Joseph Willcocks
had been goaded into treason by a long course of persecution. Judge
Thorpe had been driven from the country quite as effectually as Mr.
Gourlay, for no other reason than that he had persisted in holding up
official corruption to the public gaze. But none of these manifestations
of "the oppressor's wrath, the proud man's contumely," had taken so deep
a hold upon the public mind as did the case of Mr. Gourlay. The injuries
inflicted upon him had been so cruel, the perversion of justice so vile,
that the public conscience received a shock from which it did not
recover during the existing generation. For the first time in Upper
Canada's history signs of an organized Opposition began to appear upon
the floor of the Assembly. Thenceforward the antagonism between the two
parties grew in intensity from year to year. In process of time the
Opposition frequently became the controlling power in the House. At a
later stage of its development it divided into two parts. One of these
constituted the moderate Reform Party of the Province. The other was
made up of the advanced Radical element, whence emanated the Rebellion
which forms the especial subject of the present work. All of which will
hereafter be narrated with greater amplitude of detail.

It has been intimated that traces of dissatisfaction began to be
apparent soon after Governor