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BY WILLIAM WATT, JR., LL, B., SHERIFF COUNTY OF BRANT. BRANTFORD • EXPOSITOR • CHRISTMAS • NUMBER, • DECEMBER • 1892. On a crisp frosty morning, just one hundred years ago this winter, Col. John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, set out with his staff from the capital of the province, the .little town of Newark (Niagara) to make a personal inspection of the western portion of his domain. He had convened the first parliament of Upper Canada, with its sixteen representative members, amid the most primitive surroundings, but with all the trappings, as far as circumstances would permit, of British crown and dignity, on the 16th of September, 1792. On February 4, 1793, he left Niagara for a trip to Detroit, then a British garrison. And the historian tells us that on February 7th he arrived at the Mohawk village, where the Indians hoisted their flags and trophies and fired a feu dejoie in compliment to His Excellency. The governor remained a guest of Capt. Brant until the 10th, when the party proceeded on their journey, accompanied for a distance by Brant and his friends. On March 6th we find them , again at the Mohawk on their return, the Indians having; -iji'Giight horses for the governor and his suite to the end of the plains, near the Salt Lick creek in that region. In the evening all the Indians assembled and danced their customary dances, the war, calumet, buffalo and feather dances. Most of His Excellency's suite being equipped and dressed in imitation of the Indians were adopted as chiefs. The district through which the governor passed on this exploratory trip was then a dense wilderness of forest, in which the pioneers had just commenced to make their little clearings. The whole valley of the 'GranT river and its tributaries was the principal hunting groumi of the Six Nations. The only spot along the route where even a village existed was at the headquarters of his friend and Indian ally, 'Thayendenagea, and who received him on this, as well as upon subsequent occasions, with a genuine and generous hospitality. Where St. Catharines and Hamilton and Brantford and London and a score of other towns and villages now dot the landscape, was virgin forest, clad in nature's own garb. But that it was a goodly land and one likely to attract the sturdy pioneer, did not escape the shrewd observation of Col. Simcoe. For we find him reporting upon his return from this trip, that the tract he had just traversed was one of the finest in North America, and he was no amateur . expert, such as Downing street too often within the century has inflicted upon Canada. He had seen hard service and done splendid work during the Revolutionary war, and was as f am-' iliar with the North America of that day as any man of his time. And to the period when Governor Simcoe made the trip we have recorded, accompanied as it was during his whole term of .office, by zealous and active effort to induce immigration, we may date the first white settlement of this county. And the settlement which then commenced, not only here, but j through all the older parts of the province, was comparatively rapid for those days, though, of course, not to be compared with the boom movements of a more modern period. Previous to this, there had been but warlike posts and scattered farms along the lake front and water stretches. But now the true pioneers of the province appeared upon the scene and struck for the timbered lands and the fertile soil of the interior. And it is with some difficulty that we can bring ourselves to even partially appreciate the condition of the country a century ago, or imagine the obstacles the early settlers had to overcome in hewing out of the forest a home for themselves and for their children. The civilization of a progressive age and the rapid: development of science and invention, have showered so many j blessings upon this end of the nineteenth century, that we fail; to gauge at their proper value, the uncouth appliances and ; primitive methods with which the first settler had to deal in his struggle for existence. The means of transportation were of the slowest and most simple kind--boats and batteaux which followed the indentations of lake and river, or the old-fashioned ox-cart, which laboriously toiled through swamp and forest, guided by the "blaze" of the settler or the Indian hunting path. 'The home in the forest meant no cleared and cultivated farm, with school, and store and church within easy reach, where the necessaries of life could be obtained, the children taught in the rudiments, or the settlers brought into contact with one another and with higher things. It was more the lot of the hermit, with more than the hermit's share of hard work, in felling the forest giants, and in frequent long journeys to neighbor or mill or store, for the scant comforts of life and the few simple wants of raising a family in the bush. The ideas even of those who were residents of Canada in those days in regard to their country, were-peculiar, looked at from rthe point of view of the Canadian of to-day. For instance, the act of 1791, which divided the province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada, was strongly opposed by certain parties both in Canada and in the British parliament. Mr. Adam Lymburner, a merchant of Quebec, was heard at the bar of the House of Commons against the bill, and parts of his address are of interest as showing the state, condition and prospects of Upper Canada at that time. He said: "The new province will be entirely cut off from all communication with Great Britain, and as from their situation they cannot carry on any foreign commerce but by the intervention and assistance of the merchants of Quebec and Montreal, they will therefore have little reason to correspond with Great Britain, and few opportunities of mixing in the society of Britons. Niagara may be considered as the utmost extent westward of the cultivable part of the province. For, although there is a small settlement at Detroit, which is, and must be considered of great importance as a port of trade with the Indians, yet from its situation it can never become of any great importance as a settlement. The falls of Niagara are an insuperable bar to the transportation of such rude materials as the produce of the land. As the farmers about Detroit, therefore, will have only their own settlement for the consumption of their produce, such a confined market must greatly impede the progress of settlement and cultivation for ages tf come." Yet but a few decades elapsed from the time these observations were made in all sincerity, when Niagara itself was bridged by the rail of commerce, the rude products of the soil as well as the products of the factory whirled over it to the markets of the world, while the returning tide brought to the prosperous and almost luxurious population of the district supposed to be beyond the region of cultivation, the comforts and the luxuries of the east. Some idea of the condition of the settler in this western district may be inferred from the following report on the subject of marriages, submitted by Richard Cartwright, jr., a member of the executive council to Governor Simcoe and dated at Newark, October 12, 1792. We quote it entire, as written at the time by one in high position in the country, and after enquiry into the facts: "The country now Upper Canada was not settled or cultivated in any part except the settlement of Detroit, till the year one thousand, seven hundred and eighty-four, when the several provincial corps doing duty in the province of Quebec were reduced, and together with many loyalists from New York, established in different parts of this province, chiefly along the river St. Lawrence and the bay of Quenti. In the meanwhile from the year 1777 many families of the loyalists belonging to Butler's Rangers, the Royal Yorkers, Indian department and other corps doing duty at the upper posts, had from time to time come into the country, and many young women of these families were contracted in marriage, which could not be regularly solemnized, there being no clergyman at the posts, nor in the whole country between them and Montreal. The practice in such cases usually was to go before the officer commanding the post, who publicly read to the parties the matrimonial service in the book of common prayer, using the ring and observing the other forms there prescribed, or if he declined, it, as was sometimes the case, it was done by the adjutants of the regiment. After the settlements were formed in 1784 the justices of the peace used to perform the marriage ceremony till the establishment of clergymen in the country, _ when this practice, adopted only from necessity, hath been discontinued in the districts where clergymen reside. This is not yet the case with them all; for though the two lower districts have had each of them a Protestant clergyman since the year 1786 ; it is but a few months since this (Nassau or Home) district hath been provided with one ; and the western district, in which the settlement of Detroit is included, is to this day destitute of that useful and respectable order of men; yet the town of Detroit is, and has been since the conquest of Canada, inhabited for the most part by traders of the Protestant religion, who reside there with their families, and among whom many intermarriages have taken place, which formerly were solemnized by the commanding officer, or some other layman occasionally appointed by the inhabitants for reading prayers to them on Sundays, but of late more commonly by the magistrates, since magistrates have been appointed for that district. From these circumstances it has happened that the marriages of the generality of the inhabitants of Upper Canada are not valid in law, and that their children must stricto jure be considered as illegitimate and consequently not entitled to inherit their property. Indeed, this would have been the case, in my opinion, had the marriage ceremony been performed even by a regular clergyman, and with due observance of all the forms prescribed by the laws of England. For the clause in the act of the 14th year of his present majesty for regulating the government of Quebec, which declares "That in all cases of controversy relative to property and "civil rights, resort shall be had to the laws of Canada as the rule for the decision of the same," appears to me to invalidate all marriages not solemnized according to the rites of the Church of Rome, so far as these marriages are considered as giving any title to property. Such being the case, it is obvious that it requires the interposition of the legislature as well to settle what is past, as to provide some regulations for the future, in framing of which it should be considered that good policy requires that in a new country at least, matrimonial connections should be made as easy as may be consistent with the importance of such engagements; and having pledged myself to bring this business forward early in the next session, I am led to hope that Your Excellency will make such representations to His Majesty's ministers as will induce them to consent to such a events respecting this business as the circumstances of the country may render expedient, measures for purpose having been__ postponed only because they might thought to interfere with their views respecting the clergy of/the establishment. Of this church I am myself a member, and am sorry to say that the state of it in this pi evince is not very flattering. A verv small proportion of the inhabitants of Upper Canada have been educated in this persuasion and the emigrants to be expected from the United States will for the most part be sectaries or dissenters ; and nothing prevents the teachers of this class from being proportionately numerous, but the inability of the people at present to provide for their support. In the Eastern district, the most populous part of the province, there is no Church clergyman. They have a Presbyterian minister, formerly chaplain to the Eighty-fourth regiment, who receives from the government £50 per annum. They have also a Lutheran minister, who is supported by his congregation, and tin. Roman Catholic priest, settled at St. Regis, occasionally officiates for the Scots Highlanders settled in the lower part of the district, who are very numerous, and all Catholics. There are also many Dutch Calvinists in this part of the province who have made several attempts to get a teacher of their own sect, but hitherto without success. In the Midland district, where the members of the church are more numerous, than in any other part of the province, there are two church clergymen who are allowed £100 sterling per annum each by government, and £50 each by the society for the propagation of the gospel. There are here also some itinerant Methodist preachers, the followers of whom are numerous. And many of the inhabitants of the greatest property are Dutch Calvinists, who have for some time past been using their endeavors to get a minister of their own sect among them. In the Home district there is one clergyman, who hath been settled here since the month of July last. The Scots Presbyterians, who are pretty numerous here, and to which sect the most respectable part of the inhabitants belong, have built a meeting house, and raised a subscription for a minister of their own, who is shortly expected among them. There are here also many Methodists and Dutch Calvinists. In the Western district there are no other clergy than those of the Church of Rome. The Protestant inhabitants here are principally Presbyterians. From this statement Your Excellency will be able to draw the proper conclusions; and to judge how far the establishing of the hierarchy of the Church of England in this province may be proper and expedient. Much as we complain of the law's delays and eccentricities in these modern days, its administration is something of a contrast with that of a hundred years ago. The juror of to-day, paid his mileage and per diem, with the courts within easy reach, sometimes grumbles at the demand upon his time taken from his regular avocation, but how would he feel had he been a juror a hundred years ago'? In 1793, the juror from this locality, to attend the quarter sessions, had to go to Detroit, and for the yearly special sessions, had to find his way to Machilimackinac, the locality of which many a reader will have a very undefined idea, even if we give it its modern name of Mackinaw. For 33 George III, enacts "that the court of general quarter sessions of the peace for the Western district shall commence and be holden in the town of Detroit on the second Tuesday in. the months of January, April, July and October." And the next section of the said act provides: "That a court of special sessions of the peace shall be held yearly, and in every year, for the said Western district, in the town of Michilimackinac, on the second Tuesday in the month of July. As Detroit is 150 miles from Brantford and Mackinaw 250 miles further, the patriotic juryman had sometimes 100 miles to travel at his own charges by the slowest kind of loco-