coming within the domain of practical
politics in Upper Canada. On the question of the Clergy Reserves there
was less uniformity of sentiment. Many sincere Reformers disapproved of
the voluntary principle, and believed in a State provision for the
Clergy,[66] though very few of them went so far in that direction as to
defend the exclusive pretensions of the Church of England. On this and
other important public questions, however, the diversity of opinion
henceforth became less and leas from year to year. In point of numbers
the adherents of Reform principles constituted a majority of the
inhabitants of the Province.

The _Advocate_ was only six months old when its proprietor removed to
York. If any good service was to be done to Reform by his means it was
clear that the Provincial capital must be the seat of his operations.
The removal took place in November, 1824, and in the following January
the new Parliament met for the first time. Much of the interval was
spent by the Reformers in preparations for organization. In all these
proceedings Mr. Mackenzie took an active and prominent part. He also
assumed, to a greater extent than he had previously done, the _role_ of
a public censor, and, in the columns of his paper, opened a hot fire
upon the official party and their myrmidons. His writing was "personal
journalism," with a vengeance, for he usually expressed himself in the
first person singular, and directed his animadversions against any one
who, for the time being, happened to have attracted his notice. He wrote
very erratically, and from the impulse of the moment; in one number
lauding some particular personage in extravagant terms, and in
subsequent numbers assailing the self-same individual in language which
certainly reflected no credit upon the writer. Sometimes he even
extended his attacks to the friends and relatives of those who had
become obnoxious to him. In all this he merely followed the example of
his opponents, from whom better things might have been expected, but he
certainly lessened his influence, even among his friends and
fellow-labourers, by his onslaughts upon particular individuals. There
can be no manner of doubt, however, that he achieved his object of
holding some of his opponents up to public ridicule, and that in at
least one or two instances he was the means of affecting votes in the
Assembly thereby. To what extent, if at all, his efforts in this
direction contributed to the election of M