Governor on the
subject, with a request to dismiss from office the whole of the Boulton
race, root and branch. "If a Government emanating from England," wrote
Mr. Mackenzie, "can cherish such a corrupt, such a Star Chamber crew,
then the days of the infamous Scroggs and Jeffries are returned upon us;
and we may lament for ourselves, for our wives and for our children,
that the British Constitution is, in Canada, a phantom to delude to
destruction, instead of being the day-star of our dearest liberties."

Such language as this, which was a mild specimen of the writer's
trenchant style, was not, upon the whole, too strong for the occasion.
In other instances he was roused to greater fury on less provocation,
and used phrases unbefitting the columns of any paper which aspires to
be a public instructor. But he was not alone in his scurrility. Some of
the persons attacked in the _Advocate_ retorted upon the editor through
the official press in language far less defensible than his own. He was
denounced as an upstart and a demagogue, whose low origin placed him far
beneath the notice of gentlemen. This language, be it understood, was
used by at least one wealthy and influential personage whose own origin
was such that Mr. Mackenzie's might have been pronounced aristocratic by
comparison. To all such vapourings Mr. Mackenzie responded in the
_Advocate_ in kind. He had a large vocabulary of Billingsgate at his
command, and as his temper became thoroughly aroused he proved that he
could fully hold his own in this sort of wordy warfare. He followed the
example of his antagonists, invaded the sanctities of private life, and
descended to outrageous personalities. The persons thus placed in the
journalistic pillory were merely paid back in their own coin, but they
had never been accustomed to yield to others the privileges they claimed
for themselves, and could not understand how "this fellow" dared presume
to retort the foulness hurled at him. His paper meanwhile enjoyed a
fair circulation, and his enemies periodically saw themselves held up
before the people of the Province in a light well calculated to bring
down public execration upon them. They winced, and hated their aggressor
with a hatred which knew no bounds.

Before the close of the first session of the Ninth Parliament, in 1825,
the struggle between the two political parties had assumed a distinct
form. The Opposition contended for a responsible Executive; the
Governmen