majorities in the British Parliament, and became law in 1791. The new Constitution went into force in Canada the following year.
CHAPTER IV.
THE WAR OF 1812.
1. The Beginning of Parliamentary Government.—When the Constitutional Act was passed Canada had a population of one hundred and fifty thousand, of which about twenty thousand belonged to the Western Province. There were few villages or towns then in Upper Canada, the more important being Kingston and Newark (now Niagara). Newark was chosen as the place of meeting for the first Parliament of Upper Canada; but a few years after, in 1797, Parliament was moved to the village of York, or Toronto, because Newark being situated at the mouth of the Niagara river, and just opposite an American fort, it was not considered safe for the seat of Government to be so near the guns of a possible enemy. On the 17th September 1792, twenty-three men came, mostly from farm and store, to Newark to form a Legislative Council and Assembly; seven belonging to the Council and sixteen to the Assembly. They were busy men, and time was precious, so they set to work in earnest. The Governor Sir John Graves Simcoe was equally sturdy and energetic, and equally anxious to build up the Western Province. The first session saw English Civil Law and Trial by Jury introduced, and bills passed to collect small debts, to regulate tolls for millers, and to erect jails and court-houses in the four districts in which the Province was divided. These districts were the Eastern or Johnstown; the Midland or Kingston; the Home or Niagara; and the Western or Detroit. The session lasted less than two months. Parliament met the next year in May, and passed bills offering rewards for wolves’ and bears’ heads; and what was more important, provided for the doing away with slavery in Upper Canada. There were not many slaves in the province, but the Act passed in 1793, forbade the bringing of any more slaves into the country, and made all
