t not wholly reliable in minutiae, pp. 355 et seq.)

[19] Simcoe was almost certainly the prime mover in the legislation of
1793. When giving the royal assent to the bill he said: "The Act for
the gradual abolition of Slavery in this Colony, which it has been
thought expedient to frame, in no respect meets from me a more
cheerful concurrence than in that provision which repeals the power
heretofore held by the Executive Branch of the Constitution and
precludes it from giving sanction to the importation of slaves, and I
cannot but anticipate with singular pleasure that such persons as may
be in that unhappy condition which sound policy and humanity unite to
condemn, added to their own protection from all undue severity by the
law of the land may henceforth look forward with certainty to the
emancipation of their offspring." (See _Ont. Arch. Rep._ for 1909, pp.
42-43.) I do not understand the allusion to "protection from undue
severity by the Law of the land." There had been no change in the law,
and undue severity to slaves was prevented only by public opinion. It
is practically certain that no such bill as that of 1798 would have
been promoted with Simcoe at the head of the government as his
sentiments were too well known.

[20] _Ont. Arch. Rep._ for 1909, pp. 64, 69, 70, 71, 74; _ibid._ for
1910, pp. 67, 68, 69, 70.

The bill was introduced in the Lower House by Christopher Robinson,
member for Addington and Ontario, Ontario being then comprised of the
St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario Islands, and having nothing in common
with the present County of Ontario. He was a Virginian loyalist, who
in 1784 emigrated to New Brunswick, and in 1788 to that part of Canada
later Lower Canada and in 1792 to Upper Canada. He lived in Kingston
till 1798 and then came to York, later Toronto, but died three weeks
afterwards. He was one of the lawyers who took part in the
inauguration of the Law Society of Upper Canada at Wilson's Tavern,
Newark, in July, 1797, and was an active and successful practitioner.
His ability was great, but his fame is swallowed up by that of his
more famous son, Sir John Beverley Robinson, the first Canadian Chief
Justice of Upper Canada, and of his grandson, the much loved and much
admired Christopher Robinson, Q.C., of our own time. Accustomed from
infancy to slavery, he saw no great harm in it--no doubt he saw it in
its best form.

The chief opponent of the bill was Robert Isaac Dey Gray, the young
solicit