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  REMINISCENCES

  OF A

  Canadian Pioneer.




  REMINISCENCES

  OF A

  CANADIAN PIONEER

  FOR

  THE LAST FIFTY YEARS.


  AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.


  BY

  SAMUEL THOMPSON,
  _Formerly Editor of the "Toronto Daily Colonist," the "Parliamentary
  Hansard," &c., &c._


  Toronto:
  HUNTER, ROSE & COMPANY.
  MDCCCLXXXIV.




    Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the
    year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four, by Samuel
    Thompson, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture.




  PREFACE.


It was in consequence of a suggestion by the late S. J. Watson,
Librarian of the Ontario Legislature--who urged that one who had gone
through so many experiences of early Canadian history as myself, ought
to put the same on record--that I first thought of writing these
"Reminiscences," a portion of which appeared in the _Canadian Monthly
Magazine_. For the assistance which has enabled me to complete and issue
this volume, I am obliged to the kind support of those friends who have
subscribed for its publication; for which they will please accept my
grateful thanks.

In the space at my disposal, I have necessarily been compelled to give
little more than a gossiping narrative of events coming under my own
observation. But I have been careful to verify every statement of which
I was not personally cognizant; and to avoid everything of a
controversial character; as well as to touch gently on those faults of
public men which I felt obliged to notice.

It has been a labour of love to me, to place on record many honourable
deeds of Nature's gentlemen, whose lights ought not to be hidden
altogether "under a bushel," and whose names should be enrolled by
Canada amongst her earliest worthies. I have had the advantage, in
several cases, of the use of family records, which have assisted me
materially in rendering more complete several of the earlier chapters,
particularly the account of Mackenzie's movements while in the
neighbourhood of Gallows Hill; also the sketches of the "Tories of
Rebellion Times;" as well as the history of the Mechanics' Institute, in
which though a very old member, I never occupied any official position.

Since the first part of these pages was in type, I have had to lament
the deaths of more than one comrade whose name is recorded therein;
amongst them Dr. A. A. Riddel--my "Archie"--and my dearest friend Dr.
Alpheus Todd, to whom I have been indebted for a thousand proofs of
generous sympathy.

  THE AUTHOR.




  CONTENTS.

                                                      PAGE
           Preface                                     iii
  Chap. I. The Author's Antecedents and Forbears         9
       II. History of a Man of Genius                   14
      III. Some Reminiscences of a London Apprentice    19
       IV. Westward, Ho!                                21
        V. Connemara and Galway fifty years ago         27
       VI. More Sea Experiences                         33
      VII. Up the St. Lawrence                          36
     VIII. Muddy Little York                            39
       IX. A Pioneer Tavern                             42
        X. A First Day in the Bush                      46
       XI. A Chapter on Chopping                        52
      XII. Life in the Backwoods                        65
     XIII. Some Gatherings from Natural History         69
      XIV. Our Removal to Nottawasaga                   78
       XV. Society in the Backwoods                     84
      XVI. More about Nottawasaga and its People        91
     XVII. A Rude Winter Experience                     93
    XVIII. The Forest Wealth of Canada                  98
      XIX. A Melancholy Tale                           101
       XX. From Barrie to Nottawasaga                  104
      XXI. Farewell to the Backwoods                   107
     XXII. A Journey to Toronto                        109
    XXIII. Some Glimpses of Upper Canadian Politics    116
     XXIV. Toronto During the Rebellion                119
      XXV. The Victor and the Vanquished               134
     XXVI. Results in the Future                       140
    XXVII. A Confirmed Tory                            143
   XXVIII. Newspaper Experiences                       146
     XXIX. Introduction to Canadian Politics           154
      XXX. Lord Sydenham's Mission                     156
     XXXI. Tories of the Rebellion Times:
              Ald. G. T. Denison, Sen                  165
              Col. R. L. Denison                       171
              Col. Geo. T. Denison, of Rusholme        172
              Alderman Dixon                           174
    XXXII. More Tories of Rebellion Times:
              Edward G. O'Brien                        186
              John W. Gamble                           198
   XXXIII. A Choice of a Church                        201
    XXXIV. The Clergy Reserves                         210
     XXXV. A Political Seed-time                       215
    XXXVI. The Maple Leaf                              217
   XXXVII. {St. George's Society                       229
           {North America St. George's Union           234
  XXXVIII. A Great Conflagration                       239
    XXXIX. The Rebellion Losses Bill                   242
       XL. The British American League                 245
      XLI. Results of the B. A. League                 261
     XLII. Toronto Civic Affairs                       262
    XLIII. Lord Elgin in Toronto                       268
     XLIV. Toronto Harbour and Esplanade               274
      XLV. Mayor Bowes--City Debentures                281
     XLVI. Carlton Ocean Beach                         285
    XLVII. Canadian Politics from 1853 to 1860         288
   XLVIII. Business Troubles                           295
     XLIX. Business Experiences in Quebec              300
        L. Quebec in 1859-60                           303
       LI. Departure From Quebec                       315
      LII. John A. Macdonald and George Brown          317
     LIII. John Sheridan Hogan                         320
      LIV. Domestic Notes                              322
       LV. The Beaver Insurance Company                325
      LVI. The Ottawa Fires                            326
     LVII. Some Insurance Experiences                  329
    LVIII. A Heavy Calamity                            333
      LIX. The Hon. J. Hillyard Cameron                336
       LX. The Toronto Athenaeum                        340
      LXI. The Buffalo Fete                            344
     LXII. The Boston Jubilee                          349
    LXIII. Vestiges of the Mosaic Deluge               365
     LXIV. The Franchise                               368
      LXV. Free Trade and Protection                   371
     LXVI. The Future of Canada                        374
    LXVII. The Toronto Mechanics' Institute            377
   LXVIII. The Free Public Library                     384
     LXIX. Postscript                                  392




  REMINISCENCES

  OF

  A CANADIAN PIONEER.


  CHAPTER I.

  THE AUTHOR'S ANTECEDENTS AND FORBEARS.


The writer of these pages was born in the year 1810, in the City of
London, and in the Parish of Clerkenwell, being within sound of Bow
Bells. My father was churchwarden of St. James's, Clerkenwell, and was a
master-manufacturer of coal measures and coal shovels, now amongst the
obsolete implements of by-gone days. His father was, I believe, a
Scotsman, and has been illnaturedly surmised to have run away from the
field of Culloden, where he may have fought under the name and style of
Evan McTavish, a name which, like those of numbers of his fellow
clansmen, would naturally anglicise itself into John Thompson, in order
to save its owner's neck from a threatened Hanoverian halter. But he
was both canny and winsome, and by-and-by succeeded in capturing the
affections and "tocher" of Sarah Reynolds, daughter of the wealthy
landlord of the Bull Inn, of Meriden, in Warwickshire, the greatest and
oldest of those famous English hostelries, which did duty as the
resting-place of monarchs _en route_, and combined within their solid
walls whole troops of blacksmiths, carpenters, hostlers, and many other
crafts and callings. No doubt from this source I got my Warwickshire
blood, and English ways of thinking, in testimony of which I may cite
the following facts: while living in Quebec, in 1859-60, a mason
employed to rebuild a brick chimney challenged me as a brother
Warwickshire man, saying he knew dozens of gentlemen there who were as
like me "as two peas." Again, in 1841, a lady who claimed to be the last
direct descendant of William Shakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, and
the possessor of the watch and other relics of the poet, said she was
quite startled at my likeness to an original portrait of her great
ancestor, in the possession of her family.

My grandfather carried on the business of timber dealer (we in Canada
should call it lumber merchant), between Scotland and England, buying up
the standing timber in gentlemen's parks, squaring and teaming it
southward, and so became a prosperous man. Finally, at his death, he
left a large family of sons and daughters, all in thriving
circumstances. His second son, William, married my mother, Anna Hawkins,
daughter of the Rev. Isaac Hawkins, of Taunton, in Somersetshire, and
his wife, Joan Wilmington, of Wilmington Park, near Taunton. My
grandfather Hawkins was one of John Wesley's earliest converts, and was
by him ordained to the ministry. Through my mother, we are understood to
be descended from Sir John Hawkins, the world-renowned buccaneer,
admiral, and founder of the English Royal Navy, who was honoured by
being associated with her most sacred Majesty Queen Elizabeth, in a
secret partnership in the profits of piratical raids undertaken in the
name and for the behoof of Protestant Christianity. So at least says the
historian, Froude.

One word more about my father. He was a member of the London
trained-bands, and served during the Gordon riots, described by Dickens
in "Barnaby Rudge." He personally rescued a family of Roman Catholics
from the rioters, secreted them in his house on Holborn Hill, and aided
them to escape to Jamaica, whence they sent us many valuable presents of
mahogany furniture, which must be still in the possession of some of my
nephews or nieces in England. My mother has often told me, that she
remembered well seeing dozens of miserable victims of riot and
drunkenness lying in the kennel in front of her house, lapping up the
streams of gin which ran burning down the foul gutter, consuming the
poor wretches themselves in its fiery progress.

My father died the same year I was born. My dear mother, who was the
meekest and most pious of women, did her best to teach her children to
avoid the snares of worldly pride and ambition, and to be contented with
the humble lot in which they had been placed by Providence. She was by
religious profession a Swedenborgian, and in that denomination educated
a family of eleven children, of whom I am the youngest. I was sent to a
respectable day-school, and afterwards as boarder to a commercial
academy, where I learnt the English branches of education, with a little
Latin, French, and drawing. I was, as a child, passionately fond of
reading, especially of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and of Sir Walter
Scott's novels, which latter delightful books have influenced my tastes
through life, and still hold me fascinated whenever I happen to take
them up.

So things went on till 1823, when I was thirteen years old. My mother
had been left a life-interest in freehold and leasehold property worth
some thirty thousand pounds sterling; but, following the advice of her
father and brother, was induced to invest in losing speculations, until
scarcely sufficient was left to keep the wolf from the door. It was,
therefore, settled that I must be sent to learn a trade, and, by my
uncle's advice, I was placed as apprentice to one William Molineux, of
the Liberty of the Rolls, in the district of Lincoln's Inn, printer. He
was a hard master, though not an unkind man. For seven long years was I
kept at press and case, working eleven hours a day usually, sometimes
sixteen, and occasionally all night, for which latter indulgence I got
half a crown for the night's work, but no other payment or present from
year's end to year's end. The factory laws had not then been thought of,
and the condition of apprentices in England was much the same as that of
convicts condemned to hard labour, except for a couple of hours'
freedom, and too often of vicious license, in the evenings.




  CHAPTER II.

  HISTORY OF A MAN OF GENIUS.


The course of my narrative now requires a brief account of my mother's
only brother, whose example and conversation, more than anything else,
taught me to turn my thoughts westwards, and finally to follow his
example by crossing the Atlantic ocean, and seeking "fresh fields and
pastures new" under a transatlantic sky.

John Isaac Hawkins was a name well known, both in European and American
scientific circles, fifty years ago, as an inventor of the most fertile
resource, and an expert in all matters relating to civil engineering. He
must have left England for America somewhere about the year 1790, full
of republican enthusiasm and of schemes of universal benevolence. Of his
record in the United States I know very little, except that he married a
wife in New Jersey, that he resided at Bordenton, that he acquired some
property adjacent to Philadelphia, that he was intimate with the elder
Adams, Jefferson, and many other eminent men. Returning with his wife to
England, after twenty-five years' absence, he established a sugar
refinery in Titchfield Street, Cavendish square, London, patronized his
English relatives with much condescension, and won my childish heart by
great lumps of rock-candy, and scientific experiments of a delightfully
awful character. Also, he borrowed my mother's money, to be expended for
the good of mankind, and the elaboration of the teeming offspring of his
inexhaustible inventive faculty. Morden's patent lead pencils, Bramah's
patent locks, and, I think, Gillott's steel pens were among his numerous
useful achievements, from some or all of which he enjoyed to the day of
his death a small income, in the shape of a royalty on the profits. He
assisted in the perfecting of Perkins's steam-gun, which the Duke of
Wellington condemned as too barbarous for civilized warfare, but which
its discoverer, Mr. Perkins, looked upon as the destined extirpator of
all warfare, by the simple process of rendering resistance utterly
impossible. This appalling and destructive weapon has culminated in
these times in the famous mitrailleuses of Napoleon III, at Woerth and
Sedan, which, however, certainly neither exterminated the Prussians nor
added glory to the French empire.

At his home I was in the habit of meeting the leading men of the Royal
Society and the Society of Arts, of which he was a member, and of
listening to their discussions about scientific novelties. The
eccentric Duke of Norfolk, Earl Stanhope, the inventor of the Stanhope
press, and other noble amateur scientists, availed themselves of his
practical skill, and his name became known throughout Europe. In 1825 or
thereabouts, he was selected by the Emperor Francis Joseph, of Austria,
to design and superintend the first extensive works erected in Vienna
for the promotion of the new manufacture of beet-root sugar, now an
important national industry throughout Germany. He described the
intercourse of the Austrian Imperial-Royal family with all who
approached them, and even with the mendicants who were daily admitted to
an audience with the Emperor at five o'clock in the morning, as of the
most cordial and lovable character.

From Vienna my uncle went to Paris, and performed the same duties there
for the French Government, in the erection of extensive sugar works. The
chief difficulty he encountered there, was in parrying the determination
of the Parisian artisans not to lose their Sunday's labour. They could
not, they said, support their families on six days' wages, and unless he
paid them for remaining idle on the Sabbath day, they must and would
work seven days in the week. I believe they gained their point, much to
his distress and chagrin.

His next exploit was in the construction of the Thames tunnel, in
connection with which he acted as superintendent of the works under Sir
Isambert Brunel. This occupied him nearly up to the time of my own
departure for Canada, in 1833. The sequel of his story is a melancholy
one. He made fortunes for other men who bought his inventions but
himself sank into debt, and at last died in obscurity at Rahway, New
Jersey, whither he had returned as a last resort, there to find his
former friends dead, his beloved republic become a paradise for
office-grabbers and sharpers, his life a mere tale of talents
dissipated, and vague ambition unsatisfied.[1]

After his return from Vienna, I lived much at my uncle's house, in
London, as my mother had removed to the pleasant village of Epsom in
Surrey. There I studied German with some degree of success, and learnt
much about foreign nations and the world at large. There too I learnt to
distrust my own ability to make my way amidst the crowded industries of
the old country, and began to cast a longing eye to lands where there
was plenty of room for individual effort, and a reasonable prospect of
a life unblighted by the dread of the parish workhouse and a pauper's
grave.

[Footnote 1: Since writing the above, I find in _Scribner's Monthly_ for
November 1880, the following notice of my uncle, which forms a sad
sequel to a long career of untiring enthusiasm in the service of his