e Rouge party in Lower Canada, elsewhere referred
to, was the Clear Grit party in Upper Canada. Among its leaders were
Peter Perry, one of the founders of the Reform party in Upper Canada,
Caleb Hopkins, David Christie, James Lesslie, Dr. John Rolph and
William Macdougall. Rolph had played a leading part in the movement
for reform before the rebellion, and is the leading figure in Dent's
history of that period. Macdougall was a young lawyer and journalist
fighting his way into prominence.

"Grit" afterwards became a nickname for a member of the Reform or
Liberal party, and especially for the enthusiastic followers of George
Brown. Yet in all the history of a quarrelsome period in politics
there is no more violent quarrel than that between Brown and the Clear
Grits. It is said that Brown and Christie were one day discussing the
movement, and that Brown had mentioned the name of a leading Reformer
as one of the opponents of the new party. Christie replied that the
party did not want such men, they wanted only those who were "Clear
Grit." This is one of several theories as to the derivation of the
name. The _Globe_ denounced the party as "a miserable clique of
office-seeking, bunkum-talking cormorants, who met in a certain
lawyer's office on King Street [Macdougall's] and announced their
intention to form a new party on Clear Grit principles." The _North
American_, edited by Macdougall, denounced Brown with equal fury as a
servile adherent of the Baldwin government. Brown for several years
was in this position of hostility to the Radical wing of the party. He
was defeated in Haldimand by William Lyon Mackenzie, who stood on an
advanced Radical platform; and in 1851 his opponent in Kent and
Lambton was Malcolm Cameron, a Clear Grit, who had joined the
Hincks-Morin government. The nature of their relations is shown by a
letter in which Cameron called on one of his friends to come out and
oppose Brown: "I will be out and we will show him up, and let him know
what stuff Liberal Reformers are made of, and how they would treat
fanatical beasts who would allow no one liberty but themselves."

The Clear Grits advocated, (1) the application of the elective
principle to all the officials and institutions of the country, from
the head of the government downwards; (2) universal suffrage; (3) vote
by ballot; (4) biennial parliaments; (5) the abolition of property
qualification for parliamentary representations; (6) a fixed term for
t