e Compact. An indictment, therefore, was out
of the question.

It has often been asserted that the oligarchy are to be held accountable
for the display of ruffianly violence which followed Mackenzie's retort
to Macaulay's pamphlet. In one sense this is true, for it was in
consequence of their long abuse of the supremacy which they enjoyed that
feelings of hatred and enmity were begotten between one stratum of
society and another; and it was this hatred which gave rise to violent
measures. But if it is meant to be implied that the oligarchy, as a
body, conceived the design, or that it was carried out under their
auspices, the implication is too absurd to stand in need of serious
rebuttal. To carry the argument no farther, the body was too numerous to
admit of any general secret cooeperation between them for such a purpose.
As simple matter of fact, all knowledge of the contemplated violence was
confined to the breasts of those who took part in it. No one familiar
with the circumstances, however, can doubt that it met with the fullest
approval of the ruling faction after it had been effected, and that, so
far as such a thing was possible, the wrong-doers were protected by them
from the consequences of the outrage. To this charge they must perforce
plead guilty; but there are degrees in guilt, and the endorsation, or
even the approval of an act after it has been committed, is a different
thing from the original conception and carrying out of it. The
respective weight of culpability, in the case under consideration, is a
matter which the reader may very well be left to estimate according to
his own judgment.

And now for the outrage itself.

[Sidenote: 1826.]

The office of the _Advocate_ was situated on the north-west corner of
Frederick and Front[69] streets, in a building which had been the
birthplace of Robert Baldwin, and in which the Cawthras subsequently
carried on a large and very successful mercantile business.[70] Readers
acquainted with the neighbourhood will not need to be informed that this
site is in close proximity to the bay. Mr. Mackenzie, with his aged
mother--who had long before followed him to Canada--and the rest of his
family, resided in the building, which was therefore his home, as well
as his place of business. At about half-past six o'clock in the
afternoon of Thursday, the 8th of June, 1826, in broad daylight, and
while the proprietor was absent in the United States,[71] a raid was
made upon