exemption
from militia servitude, the Act to be continued until the next session
of parliament. An Act was passed providing for the circulation of army
bills; L6,000 was appropriated for the construction and repair of roads
and bridges; an Act was passed to ascertain the eligibility of persons
to be returned to the House of Assembly; an Act was passed to continue
the Act granting to His Majesty duties on licenses to hawkers, pedlars,
petty chapmen, and other trading persons; every traveller on foot was
to pay L5 for his license, and for every boat L2 10s.; for every decked
vessel L25 was to be paid; for every boat L10; and for every
non-resident L20; the Act to be in force for two years; an Act was
passed to detain such persons as might be suspected of a treasonable
adherence to the enemy; an Act was passed imposing a duty of 3s. 9d.
per gallon on the contents of licensed stills; and the Act to prohibit
the exportation of grain and restraining the distillation of grain from
spirits was continued.

General Drummond again met the parliament of Upper Canada, on the 1st
of February, 1815. There were much the same kind of wranglings in the
Assembly of Upper Canada that distinguished the parliament of Lower
Canada. There were two parties, one highly conservative and another
violently radical. In Upper Canada the conservatives had the majority.
In 1808, Mr. Joseph Wilcocks, a member of the Assembly, was imprisoned
for having libellously alleged that every member of the first
provincial parliament had received a bribe of twelve hundred acres of
land. The "slanderous" accusation first appeared in a newspaper styled
the _Upper Canada Guardian_ or _Freeman's Journal_, edited by the
Joseph Wilcocks, who was a member of the Assembly. Mr. Wilcocks
grievously complained of the Messrs. Boulton and Sherwood, who were
ever on the watch to prevent any questions being put that would draw
forth either inaccuracy or inconsistency from the witnesses. Mr.
Sherwood attacked that great blessing of the people, the freedom of the
press and, being a good tory, called it, to the great horror of Mr.
Wilcocks, a pestilence in the land. Indeed, Mr. Wilcocks was deeply and
painfully sensible that Little York abounded in meanness, corruption,
and sycophancy, and notified his constituents accordingly. Such a
condition of things was only natural in a small community, having all
the paraphernalia of "constitutional" government.

In 1815, the progress of