Part 27

We now proceed on our prescribed course. So late as 1833, Walton, in his "York Commercial Directory, Street Guide, and Register," when naming the residents on Lot Street, as he still designates Queen Street, makes a note on arriving at two park lots to the westward of the spot where we have been pausing, to the effect, that "here this street is intercepted by the grounds of Capt. McGill, S. P. Jarvis, Esq., and Hon. W. Allan; past here it is open to the Roman Catholic Church, and intended to be carried through to the Don Bridge."

The process of levelling up, now become so common in Toronto, has effectually disposed of the difficulty temporarily presented by the ravine or ancient water-course, yet partially to be seen either in front of or upon the park lots occupied by the old inhabitants just named; and Queen Street, at the present hour, is an uninterrupted thoroughfare in a right line, and almost on a level the whole way, from the Don in the east to the Lunatic Asylum in the west, and beyond, on to the gracefully curving margin of Humber Bay.--(The unfrequented and rather tortuous Britain Street is a relic of the deviation occasioned by the ravine, although the actual route followed in making the detour of old was Duchess Street.)

XIX.

QUEEN STREET--DIGRESSION AT CAROLINE STREET--HISTORY OF THE EARLY PRESS.

A little to the south of Britain Street, between it and Duchess Street, near the spot where Caroline Street, slightly diverging from the right line, passes northward to Queen Street, there stood in the early day a long, low wooden structure, memorable to ourselves, as being, in our school-boy days, the Government Printing Office. Here the _Upper Canada Gazette_ was issued, by "R. C. Horne, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty."

We shall have occasion hereafter to notice among our early inhabitants some curious instances of change of profession. In the present case, His Majesty's Printer was in reality an Army Surgeon, once attached to the Glengary Light Infantry. And again, afterwards, the same gentleman was for many years the Chief Teller in the Bank of Upper Canada. An incident in the troubles of 1837 was "the burning of Dr. Horne's house," by a party of the malcontents who were making a show of assault upon the town. The site of this building, a conspicuous square two-storey frame family residence, was close to the toll-bar on Yonge Street, in what is now Yorkville. On that occasion, we are informed, Dr. Horne "berated the Lieutenant-Governor for treating with avowed rebels, and insisted that they were not in sufficient force to give any ground of alarm."

The _Upper Canada Gazette_ was the first newspaper published in Upper Canada. Its first number appeared at Newark or Niagara, on Thursday, the 18th of April, 1793. As it was apparently expected to combine with a record of the acts of the new government some account of events happening on the continent at large, it was made to bear the double title of _Upper Canada Gazette, or American Oracle_. Louis Roy was its first printer, a skilled artizan engaged probably from Lower Canada, where printing had been introduced about thirty years previously, soon after the English occupation of the country.

Louis Roy's name appears on the face of No. 1, Vol. I. The type is of the shape used in contemporaneous printing, and the execution is very good. The size of the sheet, which retained the folio form, was 15 by 91/2 inches. The quality of the paper was rather coarse, but stout and durable.

The address to the public in the first number is as follows:--"The Editor of this paper respectfully informs the public that the flattering prospect which he has of an extensive sale for his new undertaking has enabled him to augment the size originally proposed from a Demy Quarto to a Folio.

"The encouragement he has met will call forth every exertion he is master of, so as to render the paper useful, entertaining and instructive. He will be very happy in being favoured with such communications as may contribute to the information of the public, from those who shall be disposed to assist him, and in particular shall be highly flattered in becoming the vehicle of intelligence in this growing Province of whatever may tend to its internal benefit and common advantage. In order to preserve the veracity of his paper, which will be the first object of his attention, it will be requisite that all transactions of a domestic nature, such as deaths, marriages, &c., be communicated under real signatures.

"The price of this _Gazette_ will be three dollars per annum. All advertisements inserted in it, and not exceeding twelve lines, will pay 4s. Quebec currency; and for every additional line a proportionable price. Orders for letter-press printing will be executed with neatness, despatch and attention, and on the most reasonable terms."

An advertisement in the first number informs the public that a Brewery is about to be established under the sanction of the Lieutenant-Governor. "Notice is hereby given, that there will be a Brewery erected here this summer under the sanction of His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, and encouraged by some of the principal gentlemen of this place; and whosoever will sow barley and cultivate their land so that it will produce grain of a good quality, they may be certain of a market in the fall at one dollar a bushel on delivery. W. Huet, Niagara, 18th April, 1793."

The number dated Niagara, May 2, 1793, "hath" the following advertisement:--"Sampson Jutes begs leave to inform all persons who propose to build houses, &c., in the course of this summer, that he hath laths, planks and scantlings of all kinds to sell on reasonable terms. Any person may be supplied with any of the above articles on the shortest notice. Applications to be made to him at his mill near Mr. Peter Secord's."

In the Number for May 30, 1793, we have ten guineas reward offered for the recovery of a Government grindstone:--"Ten Guineas Reward is offered to any person that will make discovery and prosecute to conviction, the Thief or Thieves that have stolen a Grindstone from the King's Wharf at Navy Hall, between the 30th of April and the 6th instant. John McGill, Com. of Stores, &c., &c., for the Province of Upper Canada. Queenstown, 16th May, 1793."

The Anniversary of the King's Birth-day was celebrated at Niagara in 1793, in the following manner:--"Niagara, June 6. On Tuesday last, being the Anniversary of His Majesty's birthday, His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor had a Levee at Navy Hall. At one o'clock the troops in garrison and at Queenston fired three volleys; the field-pieces above Navy Hall, under the direction of the Royal Artillery, and the guns of the Garrison, fired a Royal Salute. His Majesty's schooner, the Onondago, at anchor in the river, likewise fired a Royal Salute. In the evening His Excellency gave a Ball and elegant Supper at the Council Chamber, which was most numerously attended."

In the second volume (1794) of the _Gazette and Oracle_, Louis Roy's name disappears. G. Tiffany becomes the printer. In 1798 it has assumed the Quarto form, and is dated "West Niagara," a name Newark was beginning to acquire.

No _Gazette_ is issued April 29th, 1798. An apology for the omission constitutes the whole of the editorial of the Number for May 5. It says: "The Printer having been called to York last week upon business, is humbly tendered to his readers as an apology for the _Gazette's_ not appearing."

In 1799, the _Gazette_ being about to be removed across permanently to York, the new capital, whither also all the government offices were departing, Messrs. S. and G. Tiffany decide on starting a newspaper on their own account for Niagara. It is called the "_Canada Constellation_," and its terms are four dollars per annum. It is announced to appear weekly "opposite the Lion tavern." The date of the first number is July 20. In the introductory address to the public, the Messrs. Tiffany make use of the following rather involved language:--"It is a truth long acknowledged that no men hold situations more influential of the minds and conduct of men than do printers: political printers are sucked from, nursed and directed by the press: and when they are just, the community is in unity and prosperity; but when vicious, every evil ensues; and it is lamentable that many printers, either vile remiss in, or ignorant of, their duty, produce the latter or no effect; and to which of these classes we belong, time will unfold."

The public means of maintaining a regular correspondence with the outer world being insufficient, the enterprising spirit of the Messrs. Tiffany led them to think of establishing a postal system of their own. In the _Constellation_ for August 23, we have the announcement: "The printers of the _Constellation_ are desirous of establishing a post on the road from their office to Ancaster and the Grand River, as well as another to Fort Erie; and for this purpose they propose to hire men to perform the routes as soon as the subscriptions will allow of the expense. In order to establish the business, the printers on their part will subscribe generously, and to put the design into execution, but little remains for the people to do."

We can detect in the _Constellation_ a natural local feeling against the upstart town of York, which had now drawn away almost every thing from the old Newark. Thus in the number for November the 14th, 1799, a communication from York, signed _Amicus_, is admitted, written plainly by one who was no great lover of the place. It affords a glimpse of the state of its thoroughfares, and of the habits of some of its inhabitants. _Amicus_ proposes a "_Stump Act_" for York; _i. e._, a compulsory eradication of the stumps in the streets: so that "the people of York in the space of a few months may" as he speaks. "relapse into intoxication with impunity; and stagger home at any hour of the night without encountering the dreadful apprehension of broken necks."

The same animus gives colour to remarks on some legal verbiage recently employed at York. Under the heading "Interesting Discovery" we read: "It has been lately found at York that in England laws are made; and that a law made in England is the law of England, and is enforced by another law; that many laws are made in Lower Canada and follow up, that is, follow after, or in other words are made since, other laws; and that these laws may be repealed. It is seldom," continues the writer in the _Constellation_, "that so few as one discovery slips into existence at one birth. Genius is sterile, and justly said to be like a breeding cat, as is verified in York, where by some unaccountable fortuity of events all genius centres; at the same time with the above, its twin kitten came forth, that an atheist does not believe as a Christian."

In another number we have some chaffing about the use of the word _capital_. In an address on the arrival of Governor Hunter, the expression, "We, the inhabitants of the Capital," had occurred. "This fretted my pate," the critic pretends to complain. "What can this be? Surely it is some great place in a great country was my conclusion; but where the capital is, was a little beyond my geographical acquaintance. I had recourse to the books" he continues: "all the gazettes and magazines from the year One I carefully turned over, and not one case among all the addresses they contained afforded me any instruction: 'We, the inhabitants of the cities of London and Westminster, of Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, &c.,' only proved to me that neither of these is the Capital. But as these are only _little_ towns in young countries, and cannot be so forward as to take upon themselves the pompous title of _capital_, it must be in America." He then professes to have consulted the _Encyclopaedia Eboretica_, or, "A Vindication in support of the great Utility of New Words," lately printed in Upper Canada, and to have discovered therein that the Capital in question "was, in plain English, York." He concludes, therefore, that whenever in future the expression "We, the inhabitants of the Capital" is met with, it is to be translated into the vernacular tongue, "We, the inhabitants of York, assembled at McDougall's, &c."

There is mention made above of a Stump Act. We have been assured that such a regulation was, at an early day, in force at York, as a deterrent from drunkenness. Capt. Peeke, who burnt lime at Duffin's Creek, and shipped it to York in his own vessel, before the close of the last century, was occasionally inconvenienced by the working of the Stump Act. His men whom he had brought up with him to assist in navigating his boat would be found, just when especially wanted by himself, laboriously engaged in the extraction of a great pine-root in one or other of the public thoroughfares of the town, under sentence of the magistrate, for having been found, on the preceding day, intoxicated in the streets.

The _Constellation_ newspaper does not appear to have succeeded. Early in 1801 a new paper comes out, entitled the _Herald_. In it, it is announced that the _Constellation_, "after existing one year, expired some months since of starvation, its publishers departing too much from its constitution (advance pay)." The printer is now Silvester Tiffany, the senior proprietor of the _Constellation_. It is very well printed with good type; but on blue wrapping paper. In little more than two years, viz., on the 4th June, 1802, it announced that the publication of the _Herald_ is suspended; that it will appear only "on particular occasions;" but Mr. Tiffany hopes it "will by and by receive a revival." Other early papers published at the town of Niagara were the _Gleaner_, by Mr. Heron; the _Reporter_; the _Spectator_. The _Mail_ was established so late as 1845. Its publication ceased in 1870, when its editor, Mr. Kirby, was appointed to the collectorship of the Port of Niagara. Down to 1870 Mr. Tiffany's "imposing stone," used in the printing of the _Constellation_, did duty in the office of the _Mail_.

In 1800, the _Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle_ is issued at York, weekly, from the office of William Waters and T. G. Simons. In the number for Saturday, May the 17th, in that year, we read that on the Thursday evening previous, "His Excellency Peter Hunter, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province, arrived in our harbour on board the Toronto; and on Friday morning, about nine o'clock, landed at the Garrison, where he is at present to reside."

We are thus enabled to add two items to the table of dates usually given, shewing the introduction of Printing at different points on this Continent: viz., the dates 1793 and 1800 for Niagara and York respectively. The table will now stand as follows:--

1639, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Stephen Day and Samuel Green; 1674, Boston, John Foster; 1684, Philadelphia, Wm. Bradford; 1693, New York, Wm. Bradford (removed from Philadelphia); 1730, Charleston, Eleazer Phillips; 1730, Bridgetown, Barbadoes, David Harry and Samuel Keimer; 1751, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Bartholomew Green, jun., and John Bushell; 1764, Quebec, Wm. Brown and Thos. H. Gilmore; 1771, Albany, Alex. and Jas. Robertson; 1775, Montreal, Chas. Berger and Fleury Mesplet; 1784, St. George's, Bermuda, J. Stockdale; 1793, Newark (Niagara), Louis Roy; 1795, Cincinnati, S. Freeman; 1800, York (Toronto), Wm. Waters and T. G. Simons.

As at York and Niagara, the first printers in most of the places named were publishers of newspapers.

It may be added that a press was in operation in the City of Mexico in 1569; and in the City of Lima in 1621. The original of all the many Colonial Government _Gazettes_ was the famous royal or exclusively court news sheet, published first at Oxford, in November, 1665, entitled the _Oxford Gazette_, and in the following year, at London, and entitled then and ever afterwards to this day, the _London Gazette_.

In 1801, J. Bennett succeeds Messrs. Waters and Simons, and becomes the printer and publisher of the _Gazette or Oracle_. In that year the printing-office is removed to "the house of Mr. A. Cameron, King Street," and it is added, "subscriptions will be received there and at the Toronto Coffee House, York." From March 21st in this year, and onward for six weeks, the paper appears printed on blue sheets of the kind of material that used formerly to be seen on the outsides of pamphlets and magazines and Government "Blue-books." The stock of white paper has plainly run out, and no fresh supply can be had before the opening of the navigation. The _Herald_, at Niagara, of the same period, appeared, as we have already noticed, in the like guise.

On Saturday, December 20th, 1801, is this statement, the whole of the editorial matter: "It is much to be lamented that communication between Niagara and this town is so irregular and unfrequent: opportunities now do not often occur of receiving the American papers from our correspondents; and thereby prevents us for the present from laying before our readers the state of politics in Europe." In the number for June 13th, the editorial "leader" reads as follows:--"The _Oracle_, York, Saturday, June 13th. Last Monday was a day of universal rejoicing in this town, occasioned by the arrival of the news of the splendid victory gained by Lord Nelson over the Danes in Copenhagen Roads on the 2nd of April last: in the morning the great guns at the Garrison were fired: at night there was a general illumination, and bonfires blazed in almost every direction." The writer indulges in no further comments.

It would have been gratifying to posterity had the printers of the _Gazette and Oracle_ endeavoured to furnish a connected record of "the short and simple annals" of their own immediate neighbourhood. But these unfortunately were deemed undeserving of much notice. We have announcements of meetings, and projects, and subscriptions for particular purposes, unfollowed by any account of what was subsequently said, done and effected; and when a local incident is mentioned, the detail is generally very meagre.

An advertisement in the number for the 27th August, 1801, reminds us that in the early history of Canada it was imagined that a great source of wealth to the inhabitants of the country in all future time would be the ginseng that was found growing naturally in the swamps. The market for ginseng was principally China, where it was worth its weight in silver. The word is said to be Chinese for "all-heal." In 1801 we find that Mr. Jacob Herchmer, of York, was speculating in ginseng. In his advertisement in the _Gazette and Oracle_ he "begs leave to inform the inhabitants of York and its vicinity that he will purchase any quantity of ginseng between this and the first of November next, and that he will give two shillings, New York currency, per pound well dried, and one shilling for green."

At one period, it will be remembered, the cultivation of hemp was expected to be the mainstay of the country's prosperity. In the Upper Canada Almanac for 1804, among the public officers we have set down as "Commissioners appointed for the distribution of Hemp Seed (gratis) to the Farmers of the Provinces, the Hon. John McGill, the Hon. David W. Smith, and Thomas Scott, Esquires."

The whole of the editorial matter of the _Gazette and Oracle_ on the 2nd of January, 1802, is the following: "The _Oracle_, York, Saturday, January 2, 1802. The Printer presents his congratulary compliments to his customers on the New Year." Note that the dignified title of Editor was yet but sparingly assumed. That term is used once by Tiffany at Newark, in the second volume. After the death of Governor Hunter, in September, 1805, J. Bennett writes himself down "Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty." Previously the colophon of the publication had been: "York, printed by John Bennett, by the authority of His Excellency Peter Hunter, Esq., Lieut.-Governor."

Happening to have at hand a bill of Bennett's against the Government we give it here. The modern reader will be able to form from this specimen an idea of the extent of the Government requirements in 1805 in regard to printing and the cost thereof. We give also the various attestations appended to the account:--

York, Upper Canada, 24th June, 1805.

The Government of Upper Canada,

To John Bennett, Government Printer.

Jan. 11. 300 copies Still Licenses, 1/2 sheet foolscap, pica type 0 16 6

March 30. Printing 20 copies of an Act for altering the time of issuing Licenses for keeping of a House of Public Entertainment, 1/4 sheet demy, pica type 0 3 4

April 5. Inserting a Notice to persons taking out Shop, Still or Tavern Licenses, 6 weeks in the _Gazette_, equal to 41/2 advertisements 1 16 0

April 16. 1,000 copies of Proclamation, warning persons that possess and occupy Lands in this Province, without due titles having been obtained for such Lands, forthwith to quit and remove from the same, 1/2 sheet demy, double pica type 4 18 4

April 22. 100 copies of an Act to afford relief to persons entitled to claim Land in this Province as heirs or devisees of the nominees of the Crown, one sheet demy, pica type 3 6 3

Printing Marginal notes to do 0 5 0

May 14. Printing 1,500 copies of the Acts of the First Session of the Fourth Parliament, three sheets demy, pica type 45 0 0

Marginal Notes to do., at 5s. per sheet 0 15 0

Folding, Stitching and Covering in Blue Paper, at 1d. 6 5 0 -------- Halifax currency L63 5 9

Amounting to sixty-three pounds five shillings and nine-pence Halifax currency. Errors excepted. (Signed) John Bennett.

John Bennett, of the Town of York, in the Home District, maketh oath and saith, that the foregoing account amounting to sixty-three pounds five shillings and ninepence Halifax currency, is just and true in all its particulars to the best of his knowledge and belief. (Signed) John Bennett.

Sworn before me at York, this 20th day of July, 1805. (Signed) Wm. Dummer Powell, J.

Audited and approved in Council 6th August 1805. (Signed) Peter Russell, _Presiding Councillor_.

(_Examined_) (Signed) John McGill, _Inspector Genl. P. P. Accts._ [A true copy.] John McGill, Inspector Gen. P. P. Accts.

Bennett published "The Upper Canada Almanac," containing with the matter usually found in such productions the Civil and Military Lists and the Duties, Imperial and Provincial. This work was admirably printed in fine Elzevir type, and in aspect, as well as arrangement, was an exact copy of the almanacs of the day published in London.