d exasperated,[32] he deserted to
the enemy, carrying with him a corps of Canadians. Joseph Wilcocks, who
was an Irishman of good family, and who was persecuted by the
office-men of Upper Canada, to the prejudice and without the knowledge
of the British government, was driven into hostile opposition to
Britain by the most petty and contemptible tyranny of a few fellow
colonists holding office, and was killed during the siege of Fort Erie.
Had war occurred while Sir James Craig held Bedard in gaol and kept the
_Canadien_ printing press in the vaults of the Court House, at Quebec,
it is difficult to say whether a feeling very different to that
elicited by the prudent management of Sir George Prevost, might or
might not have been exhibited. The government of the province should
from the very outset have been only responsible to the people of the
province, and Great Britain have only maintained in acknowledgement of
her supremacy a military protectorate of British North America. But
Francis Gore, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, again met
the parliament of that province, on the 6th of January, 1816. The
business done consisted in an Act to alter the time of holding Courts
of Quarter Sessions in the London and Johnstown districts, an Act to
repeal part of the Act constituting the counties of Prescott and
Russell a separate district, under the name of the District of Ottawa;
an Act to make more effectual provision for the collection of the
revenue; an Act to provide for the appointment of Returning Officers;
an Act to extend the jurisdiction of the Court of Requests; an Act to
provide, for a limited time, for the appointment of a Provincial
Aid-de-Camp, to be appointed by the Governor, and to have ten shillings
a day in war, and five shillings a day in peace; an Act to provide L165
a year for the Adjutant-General of Militia; an Act to enable the
Governor to establish one or more additional ports of entry; an Act to
remunerate William Dummer Powell, Esquire, in the sum of L1,000, for
his services in ascertaining titles to land; an Act repealing part of
an Act for granting to His Majesty an additional duty on shop and
tavern licences; an Act to amend an Act to prevent damage to travellers
on the highways; an Act to grant relief to Catherine McLeod, whose son
was killed in war; an Act to relieve Charlotte Overholt whose husband
had been peculiarly killed; an Act to extend the limits of the town of
Niagara; an Act gra