ore British in sentiment. In no part of the world would an expatriated
Englishman find himself more entirely in harmony with his environment,
from a purely patriotic point of view. What wonder, then, that Upper
Canada was regarded by place-hunting emigrants from England with
wistful eyes? What wonder that an appointment to a public office in
Upper Canada should have been regarded by such persons as a thing
greatly to be coveted? Such aspirants were regarded with but little
favour by Governor Simcoe. His great object was to launch the Province
successfully on its career, and to lay the foundations of good
government. He brought with him his own staff, selected by himself with
a single eye to their fitness for the positions which they were
respectively intended to fill. During his day there was little or no
favouritism in public appointments, and but little, if anything, to find
fault with in the conduct of the administration. His demission of office
was almost immediately followed by a relaxation of discipline, and by a
looseness in the management of the public business. As the years passed
by, the Province became the resort of numerous office-seekers from
beyond sea--half-pay officers and scions of good English, Scotch and
Irish families, who sought to better their fortunes by expatriation. As
they were, generally speaking, men of some education, and of manners
more polished than were ordinarily found among the colonists, they
naturally assimilated, and were drawn towards each other. They likewise
coalesced, to some extent, with a few United Empire Loyalist families of
exclusive pretensions, in whose veins the blood was supposed to possess
an exceptionally cerulean tint. Several persons who had rapidly gained
wealth by trade and speculation, and who had thereby acquired influence
in the community, were also admitted. In an inconceivably short space of
time this union of several influential cliques was followed by important
results. They acquired a strength and influence which, in the then
primitive state of the colony, carried all before them. They wormed
themselves into all the more important offices, directed the Councils of
the Sovereign's representative, and, in a word, became the power behind
the Throne. In the early years of their domination they organized their
forces with much tact and judgment, and did not develop their plans
until they had been carefully matured. They may be said to have
practically absorbed the