disbanded at the ensuing peace, and many of the officers and most of the soldiers settled on the lands to which they had a claim in Nova Scotia. Many others of the force settled in Upper Canada, following the fortunes of their trusty leader.

Simcoe went to England on parole.

Arriving

there in bad health he left his case in the hands of ministers who, according to his Journal, did not neglect his interests in the matter of exchange and restoration to complete liberty. In the Appendix to his Journal, speaking of himself as he did invariably in the Journal in the third person, he says, "Lieut.-Col. Simcoe has always thought himself under the highest obligations to His Majesty's ministers for this mark of attention" (his exchange). The terms on which he was exchanged are here inserted, verbatim from Dr. Franklin's discharge : Being informed by William Hodgson, Esquire, chairman of the committee of subscribers for the relief of American prisoners in England, of the benevolent and humane treatment lately received by the said prisoners in consequence of orders from the present British ministers; and that the said ministers earnestly desire that Lieut.-Col. Simcoe, on parole to the United States of America, should be released from his said parole; and being further of opinion that meeting the British Government in acts of benevolence is agreeable to the disposition and intention of the Congress, I do hereby,

as far as in my power may lie, absolve the parole of the said Lieut.-Col. Simcoe, but on this condition, that an order be obtained for the discharge of some officer of equal rank, who being a prisoner to the English in America, shall be named by Congress or by General Washington for that purpose, and that three copies of such order be transmitted to me.

"Given at Passy, this 14th January 1783.

"B. FRANKLIN,

"Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America at the Court of France."

Thus was ended the military career of Lieut.-Col. Simcoe a man who during the whole of his military life was honoured and beloved by all who knew him, of most generous impulses and well entitled to promotion in the service of the Crown whose battles he had fought, if with varying success, at least with devotion and loyalty not surpassed by any of the King's subjects of high or low degree.

CHAPTER VI.

CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN UPPER CANADA.

U

PPER CANADA had its beginning as a separate province in 1791. The Act of the Imperial Parliament dividing the old Province of Quebec into the two Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada has generally been known as the 31st of the King. It was an Act of immense importance to the English-speaking people of the province, entailing far-reaching consequences to all who should make the new made Province of Upper Canada their future home. We have followed Lieut.Col. Simcoe in his military career in the Revolution till it was brought to a close, and his return to England as a prisoner on parole, to his subsequent release, in 1783. Now in England, at his old home, enjoying a life of tranquillity, his mind was restored to its former tone, and his constitution to a state of health, which, if not perfect, was apparently so. Soon after retiring from active service he determined

to change his condition in life, taking to himself for wife a Miss Guillem, a near relation of Admiral Graves who had commanded at Boston in the Revolution, and who was a distant relative of his own.

Lieut.-Col. Simcoe in 1790 was elected a member of the British Parliament to represent the borough of St. Maw's, Cornwall, and he took part in the debates on the Bill by which the Province of Quebec was divided into Upper and Lower Canada, the Constitutional Act of the 31st of the King to which I have referred. He had therefore an intimate knowledge of what was intended by that Bill, and of the course which the English Government desired to be pursued in the affairs of the then new and distinct Province of Upper Canada, No man better qualified to be Governor of this new Province than Simcoe could have been

selected.

In the Revolutionary struggle he had associated himself with the Loyalists of America, and had become acquainted with their every want. He knew that when the struggle was over the Loyalists, unused and unwilling to live under the Republican Government, would flock into Canada, and thus escape the tyranny of the Sons of Liberty.

The better to understand this matter of the Act of 1791, and the circumstances attending it, I may state that the debate in the House of Commons on

that Bill was commenced on the 8th April, 1791, and was championed by Mr. Pitt on the Government side of the House, and criticised by Mr. Fox, leader of the Opposition in the Commons. It is too important a matter to be in any way neglected in dealing with the the life of Lieut.-Col. Simcoe, the first LieutenantGovernor appointed to administer government under it, so I state the facts as they appeared in the Journal of Parliament.

The order of the day being read for taking the report of the Quebec Government Bill into further consideration, Mr. Massey presented a petition from several merchants, warehousemen and manufacturers concerned in the trade of Quebec, praying that the Bill might not pass into a law, inasmuch as after having duly weighed the consequence of it, they conceived it would be attended with great injury to the said province, and particularly to the trade and commerce of the petitioners. It was ordered to lie on the table. The Speaker then put the question: "That this report be now taken into consideration."

Mr. Massey moved. That the Bill be recommitted." He made the motion because he thought there were many objections to various parts of the Bill. Mr. Fox seconded the motion. He observed that the Bill contained a great variety of clauses, all of them of the utmost importance, not only to the country