(should he be elected) must be the deliberate result of public opinion alone, opposed, as it would be, to the powerful influence of the local government, the dominant priesthood, the provincial bank, and every human being who profits by the present irresponsible system." On this ground he put the contest; and the result† justified his confident anticipations.

The new House‡ met on the 7th of January, 1831.

* Shortly before the election came on, Mr. Mackenzie had given "Reasons," occupying four newspaper columns, "why the farmers and mechanics should keep a sharp look-out upon the Bank [of Upper Canada] and its managers." These reasons were based upon the refusal of the officers of the Bank, in the previous session, to answer the inquiries on numerous points of a parliamentary committee; on the statement, in evidence of Mr. R. Baldwin, that notes had been discounted and refused discount from political reasons; on the palpable defects which then existed in the charter, defects which were such as even then no economist or good business man in Europe would have thought of defending. In order to exclude Mr. Mackenzie from the last annual meeting proxies had been refused.

†The result of the polling was: For Ketchum, 616; Mackenzie, 570; Washburn, 425; Thorne, 243.

The following are members returned with the places they represented: Glengary.-Alex. McMartin and Hastings.-Reuben White and Jas. Alexander Fraser. H. Samson.

No previous Assembly had committed half as many follies as the one that now met for the first time was

Wentworth.-John Willson and Al- William Crooks, and Bartholomew C

lan N. McNab.

Beardsley.

Haldimand.-John Brant.

CHAPTER XIII.

Meeting of the New House-The Official Party elect Mr. M Lean SpeakerThe Chaplain and State Church Question-Cause of the Party RevolutionPower of the Purse-State of the Representation-Macker.zie obtains a Committee upon it-Officials and Dependants on the Executive in the HouseGrants of Public Lands to Members of the House-Cheering in the Galleries of the Assembly-Permanent Civil List first Granted-Mackenzie inquires into the Public Expenditure, and becomes a Thorn in the Side of the Official Party-Bank Mysteries made Public-Unsuccessful Attempt to expel Mackenzie for distributing Copies of the Journals of the House at his own expense-Mr. McNab tries to pay off the Grudge of his previous Imprisonment-Scheme of Representative Reform-Undue Influence of the Executive on the Legislative Council—-Mackenzie starts an Agitation for Responsible Government and other Reforms-Petitions to the Imperial Authorities -Journey to Quebec-Shipwrecked in the Ice of the St. Lawrence.

THE first trial of party strength, in the new House, showed that the majority had passed to the official side. It was then the habit of the Upper Canada Assembly, as it is now that of United Canada, to change the Speaker with every revolution of party. The reelection of Mr. Bidwell, by the new House, was out of the question; and Mr. Archibald McLean became his successor, on a vote of twenty-six against fourteen. He was the first native Canadian elected to the chair of the Upper Canada Assembly. His father had emigrated from Argyleshire, Scotland; and the son had, in previous local parliaments, allied himself with the Official or Family Compact party. Person

ally, he was not obnoxious, even to the opposition; and his pleasing address was much in his favor. But his election indicated a complete change in the politics of the House; and the party now dominant in both branches of the Legislature, as well as in the government, was subject to no check whatever. The way which it abused its power, will hereafter be seen.

in

Early in the session, Mr. Mackenzie brought forward a resolution re-affirming the right of the House to appoint its own chaplain, and denying that the Executive government had been entrusted with the power to prescribe the religious duties, exercises, or ceremonies of the House, or to incorporate with the tenets of any particular sect the institutions of the country. In Lower Canada, where the majority of the population, and of the Legislative Assembly, was Roman Catholic, the House had no chaplain. But this was not necessarily the result of the denominational complexion of the population; for Upper Canada was the only British American Province where the government undertook to appoint a chaplain to the Legislative Assembly. Even in Nova Scotia, where the Church of England was fully established, the popular branch of the Legislature claimed and exercised the right of appointing its own chaplain. The legal establishment of the Church of England in Canada was contested; and it was chiefly as a protest against the assumption that it occupied such a position, that Mr. Mackenzie brought up this question, session after session. If the Church of England was not securely established, as a State Church, it had made some not unsuccessful efforts at dominancy. It claimed a

seventh of all the granted lands in the Province. It had obtained control of the University of King's College, at York; and it had obtruded a chaplain on an unwilling House of Assembly. In the temper of the new House, no decision could be got upon the question raised by Mr. Mackenzie. It was superseded by a motion, brought forward by ex-Speaker Willson, "that the question be not now put." Mr. Mackenzie then moved that a request be presented to the ministers of the different denominations, in York, to say prayers in the House, during the session, under such arrangements as the Speaker might make; but a large majority of the members-about three-fourths-refused to entertain the question, and the subject was referred to a committee, consisting of Messrs. McNab, Willson, and Samson. In the course of the debate, Solicitor General Hagerman threatened the House with "confusion," and that "an end would be put to their proceedings," if they ventured to oppose the wishes of the Lieutenant Governor. Attorney General Boulton compared the assumption of the House, of the right to appoint its own chaplain, with the right of the assassin who shoots down a man in the streetthe exercise of mere brute force. And the House accepted the argument, and bowed before the menace.

It was already evident that Mr. Mackenzie had lost in the new House the influence he had exercised in that which the Executive-unable to find in it a single friend in need-had caused to be dissolved. Instead of praying for a removal of the ministry, as on the previous occasion, the Address of the House was a