e was the great man
in the Commons, and Mr. Speaker Chief Justice Powell in the Lords. The
first Parliament died a natural death, and the members of it went
quietly to their respective places of abode.

The second Parliament met at Newark, after a general election not
productive of any very great degree of excitement, on the 16th of May,
1796, opened by the Governor in person, with the usual formalities.
Certain coins were better regulated; the juries Act was amended; the
Quarter Sessions Act was amended; the public houses Act was amended;
the wolves and bears destruction Act was partially repealed, by the
rewards for killing bears being withdrawn; the Lieutenant Governor was
authorized to appoint Commissioners to meet others from the Lower
Province, about duties and drawbacks on goods passing from one Province
to the other; and the assessment Act was amended.

This Session of the second Parliament was hardly concluded, when
Governor Simcoe was required to relinquish his Government and proceed
to St. Domingo, in a similar capacity, the government of Upper Canada,
until the arrival of a regularly appointed successor, devolving upon
the Hon. P. Russell, President of the Council. Mr. Russell convened the
second Session of the Provincial Parliament, at the new capital of
York, selected by his predecessor, and in which a gubernatorial
residence of canvass had been erected. The first Act passed during his
very quiet reign of only three years, was one for the better security
of the Province against the King's enemies. It provided that no person
professing to owe allegiance to any country at war against the King,
should be permitted to enter, remain, reside, or dwell in the province.
The second Act was one to enable the inhabitants of the township of
York to assemble for the purpose of choosing and nominating parish and
township officers; an Act for securing the titles to lands; an Act for
the regulation of ferries; an Act to incorporate the legal profession;
the word "clergyman" in land grants to signify clergy; felons from
other Provinces to be apprehended, and the trade between the United
States and the Province to be temporarily provided for, by the
suspension of an Act repugnant to the free intercourse with the United
States, established by treaty of 1794. Several amendments to Acts and
other Acts were passed, when the Session was prorogued in due form.

On the 5th of June, 1798, the third Session of the second Provincia