Toronto of Old Part 28

In the local commotions of 1837, Mr. Doel ventured in an humble way to give aid and comfort to the promoters of what proved to be a small revolution. We cannot at this hour affirm that there was anything to his discredit in this. He acted, no doubt, in accordance with certain honest instincts. Men of his cla.s.s and stamp, shrewd in their ideas and st.u.r.dy against encroachments, civil and religious, abound in old Somersets.h.i.+re where he first drew breath. His supposed presumption in having opinions on public questions induced the satirists of the non-progressive side to mention him occasionally in their philippics and pasquinades. His name has thus become a.s.sociated in the narrative of Upper Canadian affairs with those of the actual chiefs of the party of reform. In 1827, Robert Randal, M.P., was despatched to London as a delegate on the part of the so-called "Aliens" or unnaturalized British subjects of United States origin. A series of burlesque nominations, supposed to be suggested by Randal to the Colonial Secretary, appeared at this time, emanating of course from the friends of the officials of the day. We give the doc.u.ment. It will be seen that Mr. Doel is set down in it for the Postmaster-Generals.h.i.+p. The other persons mentioned will be all readily recalled.

"Nominations to be dictated by the Const.i.tutional Meeting, on Sat.u.r.day next, in the pet.i.tion for the redress of grievances to be forwarded to London by Amba.s.sador Randal. Barnabas Bidwell--President of Upper Canada--with an extra annual allowance for a jaunt, for the benefit of his health, to his native State of Ma.s.sachusetts. W. W. Baldwin--Chief Justice and Surgeon-General to the Militia Forces--with 1,000,000 acres of land for past services, he and his family having been most shamefully treated in having grants of land withheld from them heretofore. John Rolph--Attorney-General, and Paymaster-General to the Militia--with 500,000 acres of land for his former accounts as District Paymaster, faithfully rendered. Marshall S. Bidwell--Solicitor-General--with an annual allowance of as much as he may be pleased to ask for, rendering no account--for the purpose of 'encouraging emigration from the United States,' and a contingent account if he shall find it convenient to accompany the President to Ma.s.sachusetts. The Puisne Judges--to be chosen by ballot in the Market Square, on the 4th of July in each and every year, subject to the approval of W. W. B., the Chief Justice.

Their salaries to be settled when going out of office. Jesse Ketchum, Jos. Sheppard, Dr. Stoyell, and A. Burnside--Executive and Legislative Councillors. Joint Secretaries--William Lyon McKenzie and Francis Collins, with all the printing. John Carey--a.s.sistant Secretary, with as much of the printing as the Joint Secretaries may be pleased to allow him. Moses Fish--Inspector of Public Buildings and Fortifications. J. S.

Baldwin--Contractor-General to the Province, with a monopoly of the trade. T. D. Morrison--Surveyor-General and Inspector of Hospitals.

Little Doel--Postmaster-General. Peter Perry--Chancellor of the Exchequer and Receiver-General. The above persons being thus amply provided for, their friends, alias their stepping stones," the doc.u.ment just quoted proceeds to state, "may s.h.i.+ft for themselves; an opportunity, however, will be offered them for 'doing a little business'

by disposing of all other public offices to the lowest bidder, from whom neither talent nor security will be required for the performance of their duties. Tenders received at Russell Square, Front Street, York.

The Magistracy, being of no consequence, is to be left for after consideration. The Militia, at the particular request of Paul Peterson, [M.P. for Prince Edward,] to be done away altogether; and the roads to take care of themselves. The Welland Ca.n.a.l to be stopped immediately, and Colonel By to be recalled from the Rideau Ca.n.a.l. N.B. Any suggestions for further _improvements_ will be thankfully received at Russell Square, as above."--(The humour of all this can of course be only locally understood.)

Mr. Doel arrived in York in 1818, occupying a month in the journey from Philadelphia to Oswego, and a week in that from Oswego to Niagara, being obliged from stress of weather to put in at Sodus Bay. At Niagara he waited three days for a pa.s.sage to York. He and his venerable helpmeet were surviving in 1870, at the ages respectively, of 80 and 82.--Not without reason, as the event proved, they lived for many years in a state of apprehension in regard to the stability of the lofty spire of a place of wors.h.i.+p close to their residence. In 1862, that spire actually fell, eastward as it happened, and not westward, doing considerable damage. Mr. Doel died in 1871.

By the name of the short street pa.s.sing from Adelaide Street to Richmond Street, a few chains to the west of Mr. Doel's corner, we are reminded of Harvey Shepard, a famous worker in iron of the former time, whose imprint on axe, broad axe or adze, was a guarantee to the practical backwoodsman of its temper and serviceable quality. Harvey Shepard's axe factory was on the west side of this short street. Before his establishment here he worked in a smithy of the customary village type, on King Street, on the property of Jordan Post. Like Jordan Post himself, Harvey Shepard was of the old fas.h.i.+oned New England mould, elongated and wiry. After a brief suspension of business, a placard hung up in the country inns characteristically announced to his friends and the public that he had resumed his former occupation and that he would, "by the aid of Divine Providence," undertake to turn out as good axes as any that he had ever made; which acknowledgement of the source of his skill is commendable surely, if unusual. So also, there is no one who will refuse to applaud an epigrammatic observation of his, when responding to an appeal of charity. "Though dealing usually in iron only, I keep," he said, "a little stock of silver and gold for such a call as this." The factory on Shepard Street was afterwards worked by Mr. J. Armstrong, and subsequently by Mr. Thomas Champion, formerly of Sheffield, who, in 1838, advertised that he had "a large stock of Champion's warranted cast steel axes, made at the factory originally built by the late Harvey Shepard, and afterwards occupied by John Armstrong. As Shepard's and Armstrong's axes have been decidedly preferred before any others in the Province," the advertis.e.m.e.nt continues, "it is only necessary to state that Champion's are made by the same workmen, and from the very best material, to ensure for them the same continued preference."--We now return from our digression southward at Bay Street.

Chief Justice Elmsley was the first possessor of the hundred acres westward of the Macaulay lot. He effected, however, a certain exchange with Dr. Macaulay. Preferring land that lay higher, he gave the southern half of his lot for the northern half of his neighbour's, the latter at the same time discerning, as is probable, the prospective greater value of a long frontage on one of the highways into the town. Of Mr. Elmsley, we have had occasion to speak in our perambulation of King Street in connection with Government House, which in its primitive state was his family residence; and in our progress through Yonge Street hereafter we shall again have to refer to him. In 1802 he was promoted from a Puisne Judges.h.i.+p in Upper Canada to the Chief Justices.h.i.+p of Lower Canada.

The park-lot which follows was originally secured by one who has singularly vanished out of the early traditions of York--the Rev. T.

Raddish. His name is inscribed on this property in the first plan, and also on part of what is now the south-east portion of the Government-house grounds. He emigrated to these parts under the express auspices of the first Lieutenant-Governor, and was expected by him to take a position of influence in the young colony of Upper Canada. But, habituated to the amenities and conveniencies of an old community, he speedily discovered either that an entirely new society was not suited to him or that he himself did not dovetail well into it. He appears to have remained in the country only just long enough to acquire for himself and heirs the fee simple of a good many acres of its virgin soil. In 1826 the southern portion of Mr. Raddish's park-lot became the property of Sir John Robinson, at the time Attorney General.--The site of Osgoode Hall, six acres, was, as we have been a.s.sured, the generous gift of Sir John Robinson to the Law Society, and the name which the building bears was his suggestion.

_Osgoode Hall_.

The east wing of the existing edifice was the original Osgoode Hall, erected under the eye of Dr. W. W. Baldwin, at the time Treasurer of the Society. It was a plain square matter-of-fact brick building two storeys and a half in height. In 1844-46 a corresponding structure was erected to the west, and the two were united by a building between, surmounted by a low dome. In 1857-60 the whole edifice underwent a renovation; the dome was removed; a very handsome facade of cut stone was put up; the inner area, all constructed of Caen stone, reminding one of the interior of a Genoese or Roman Palace, was added, with the Court Rooms, Library and other appurtenances, on a scale of dignity and in a style of architectural beauty surpa.s.sed only by the new Law Courts in London. The pediment of each wing, sustained aloft on fluted Ionic columns, seen on a fine day against the pure azure of a northern sky, is something enjoyable.

Great expense has been lavished by the Benchers on this Canadian _Palais de Justice_; but the effect of such a pile, kept in its every nook and corner and in all its surroundings in scrupulous order, is invaluable, tending to refine and elevate each successive generation of our young candidates for the legal profession, and helping to inspire amongst them a salutary esprit de corps.

The Library, too, here to be seen, n.o.ble in its dimensions and aspect, must, even independently of its contents, tend to create a love of legal study and research.

The Law Society of Osgoode Hall was incorporated in 1822. The Seal bears a Pillar on which is a beaver holding a Scroll inscribed Magna Charta.

To the right and left are figures of Justice and Strength (Hercules.)

An incident a.s.sociated in modern times with Osgoode Hall is the Entertainment given there to the Prince of Wales during his visit to Canada in 1860, on which occasion, at night, all the architectural lines of the exterior of the building were brilliantly marked out by rows of minute gas-jets.

Here, too, were held the impressive funeral obsequies of Sir John Robinson, the distinguished Chief Justice of Upper Canada, in 1862. In the Library is a large painting of him in oil, in which his finely cut Reginald Heber features are well delineated. Sayer Street, pa.s.sing northward on the east side of Osgoode Hall, was so named by Chief Justice Robinson, in honour of his mother. In 1870 the name was changed, probably without reflection and certainly without any sufficient cause.

The series of paintings begun in Osgoode Hall, conservative to future ages of the outward presentment of our Chief Justices, Chancellors and Judges, is very interesting. All of them, we believe, are by Berthon, of Toronto. No portrait of Chief Justice Osgoode, however, is at present here to be seen. The engraving contained in this volume is from an original in the possession of Capt. J. K. Simcoe, R. N., of Wolford, in the County of Devon.

After filling the office of Chief Justice in Upper Canada, Mr. Osgoode was removed to the same high position in Lower Canada. He resigned in 1801 and returned to England. Among the deaths in the _Canadian Review_ of July, 1824, his is recorded in the following terms:--"At his Chambers in the Albany, London, on the 17th of February last, Wm. Osgoode, Esq., formerly Chief Justice of Canada, aged 70. By the death of this gentleman," it is added, "his pension of 800 sterling paid by this Province now ceases." It is said of him, "no person admitted to his intimacy ever failed to conceive for him that esteem which his conduct and conversation always tended to augment." Garneau, in his History of Canada, iii., 117, without giving his authority, says that he was an illegitimate son of George III. Similar tattle has been rife from time to time in relation to other personages in Canada.

A popular designation of Osgoode Hall long in vogue was "Lawyers' Hall:"

"Farewell, Toronto, of great glory, Of valour, too, in modern story; Farewell to Courts, to Lawyers' Hall, The Justice seats, both great and small: Farewell Attorneys, Special Pleaders, Equity Draftsmen, and their Readers.

Canadian Laws, and Suits, to song Of future Bard, henceforth belong."

Thus closed a curious production in rhyme ent.i.tled _Curiae Canadenses_, published anonymously in 1843, but written by Mr. John Rumsey, an English barrister, sometime domiciled here. In one place is described the migration of the Court of Chancery back from Kingston, whither it was for a brief interval removed, when Upper and Lower Canada were re-united. The minstrel says:

"Dreary and sad was Frontenac: Thy duke ne'er made a clearer sack, Than when the edict to be gone Issued from the Vice-regal Throne.

_Exeunt omnes_ helter skelter To Little York again for shelter: Little no longer: York the New Of imports such can boast but few: A goodly freight, without all brag, When comes 'mongst others, Master Spragge.

And skilful Turner, versed in pleading, The Kingston exiles gently leading."

To the last three lines the following note is appended:--

"J. G. Spragge, Esq., the present very highly esteemed and respected Master of the Court of Chancery; R. T. Turner, Esq., a skilful Equity Draftsman and Solicitor in Chancery. See _Journals of House of a.s.sembly, 1841_."

The notes to _Curiae Canadenses_ teem with interesting matter relating to the laws, courts, terms, districts and early history, legal and general, of Lower as well as Upper Canada. A copious table of contents renders the volume quite valuable for reference. The author must have been an experienced compiler, a.n.a.lyst and legal index maker. In the text of the work, Christopher Anstey's poetical "Pleader's Guide" is taken as a model. As a motto to the portion of his poem that treats of Upper Canada he places the line of Virgil, "_Gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata_," which may be a compliment or not. The t.i.tle in full of Mr.

Rumsey's brochure, which consists of only 127 octavo pages, is as follows:--"Curiae Canadenses; or, The Canadian Law Courts: being a Poem, describing the several Courts of Law and Equity which have been erected from time to time in the Canadas; with copious notes, explanatory and historical, and an Appendix of much useful Matter. Itur in antiquam sylvam, stabula alta ferarum; Proc.u.mbunt piceae, sonat icta securibus ilex, Fraxineaeque trabes: cuneis et fissile robur Scinditur: advolvunt ingentes montibus ornos.--_Virgil._ By Plinius Secundus. Toronto: H. and W. Rowsell, King Street, 1843." The typography and paper are admirable.

The _Curiae_, in a jacket of fair calf, should be given a place on the shelves of our Canadian law libraries.

We pause for a moment at York Street, opposite the east wing of Osgoode Hall.

It rather puzzles one to conceive why York Street received its name. If a commemoration of the Duke of York of sixty years since was designed, the name of the whole town was that sufficiently already. Frederick Street, besides, recorded his specific Christian name, and Duke Street his rank and t.i.tle. Although interesting now as a memento of a name borne of old by Toronto, York Street, when Toronto was York, might well have been otherwise designated, it seeming somewhat irrational for any particular thoroughfare in a town to be distinguished by the name of that town.--A certain poverty of invention in regard to street names has in other instances been evinced amongst us. Victoria Street, for example, was for a time called Upper George Street, to distinguish it from George Street proper, so named from George, Prince of Wales, the notable Prince Regent. It is curious that no other name but George should have been suggested for the second street; especially, too, as that street might have been so fittingly named Toronto Street, as being situated within a few feet of the line of the original thoroughfare of that name which figures so largely in the early descriptions of York.--If in "York Street" a compliment had been intended to Charles Yorke, Secretary at War in 1802, the orthography would have been "Yorke Street."

After all, however, the name "York Street" may have arisen from the circ.u.mstance that, at an early period, this was for teams on their way to York, the beaten track, suddenly turning off here to the south out of Dundas or Lot Street, the line of road which, if followed, would have taken the traveller to Kingston.

The street on the west of the grounds of Osgoode Hall is now known as University Street. By the donor to the public of the land occupied by the street, it was designated Park Lane--not without due consideration, as is likely. In London there is a famous and very distinguished Park Lane. It leads from Oxford Street to Piccadilly, and skirts the whole of the east side of Hyde Park. The position of what was our Park Lane is somewhat a.n.a.logous, it being open along its whole length on the left to the plantations of an ornamental piece of ground. Unmeddled with, our Park Lane would have suggested from time to time in the mind of the ruminating wayfarer pleasant thoughts of a n.o.ble and interesting part of the great home metropolis. The change to University Street was altogether uncalled for. It ignored the adjoining "College Avenue," the name of which showed that a generally-recognized "University Street"

existed already: it gave, moreover, a name which is pretentious, the roadway indicated being comparatively narrow.

Of the street on the east side of the grounds of Osgoode Hall we have already spoken. But in connection with the question of changes in street names, we must here again refer to it. In this case the name "Sayer" has been made to give place to "Chestnut." "Elm Street," which intersects this street to the north, probably in some vague way suggested a tree name. "Elm Street," however, had a reason for its existence. Many persons still remember a solitary Elm, a relic of the forest, which was long conspicuous just where Elm Street enters Yonge Street. And there is a fitness likewise in the names of Pine Street and Sumach Street, in the east; these streets, pa.s.sing through a region where pines and sumachs once abounded. But the modern Chestnut Street has nothing about it in the past or present a.s.sociated with chestnut trees of any kind. The name "Sayer" should have been respected.

It is unfortunate when persons, apparently without serious retrospective thought, have a momentary chance to make changes in local names.

Chancery might well be invoked to undo in some instances what has been done, and to prohibit like inconsiderate proceedings in the future.

Equity would surely say that a citizen's private right should be sustained, so long as it worked no harm to the community; and that perplexity in the registration and description of property should not needlessly be created.

Although we shall forestall ourselves a little, we may here notice one more alteration in a street-name near Osgoode Hall. William Street, immediately west of the Avenue leading to the University, has in recent times been changed to Simcoe Street. It is true, William Street was nearly in a line with the street previously known as Simcoe Street; nevertheless, starting as it conspicuously did somewhat to the west of that line, it was a street sufficiently distinct to be ent.i.tled to retain an independent name. Here again, an item of local history has been obliterated. William Street was a record on the soil of the first name of an early Chief Justice of Upper Canada, who projected the street and gave the land. Dummer Street, the next street westward, bears his second name.

Of "Powell," his third name we have already spoken elsewhere, and shall again almost immediately have to speak.

When it shall be proposed to alter the name of Dummer Street, with the hope, perhaps, of improving the fame of the locality along with its name, let the case of March Street be recalled. In the case of March Street, the rose, notwithstanding a change of name, retained its perfume: and the Colonial Minister of the day, Lord Stanley, received but a sorry compliment when his name was made to displace that of the Earl of March. (It was from this second t.i.tle of the Duke of Richmond that March Street had its name.)--It is probable that the Dummer Street of to-day, like the March Street of yesterday, would, under another name, continue much what it is. In all such quarters, it is not a change of name that is of any avail: but the presence of the schoolmaster and home-missionary, backed up by landlords and builders, studious of the public health and morals, as well as of private interests.

_Digression Northward at the College Avenue._

The fine vista of the College Avenue, opposite to which we have now arrived, always recalls to our recollection a certain bright spring morning, when on reaching school a whole holiday was unexpectedly announced; and when, as a mode of filling up a portion of the unlooked-for vacant time, it was agreed between two or three young lads to pay a visit to the place on Lot Street where, as the report had spread amongst us, they were beginning to make visible preparations for the commencement of the University of King's College. The minds of growing lads in the neighbourhood of York at that period had very vague ideas of what a University really was. It was a place where studies were carried on, but how or under what conditions, there was of necessity little conception. Curiosity, however, was naturally excited by the talk on the lips of every one that a University was one day to be established at York; and now suddenly we learned that actual beginnings were to be seen of the much-talked-of inst.i.tution. On the morning of the fine spring day referred to, we accordingly undertook an exploration.

On arriving at the spot to which we had been directed, we found that a long strip of land running in a straight line northwards had been marked out, after the manner of a newly-opened side line or concession road in the woods. We found a number of men actually at work with axes and mattocks; yokes of oxen, too, were straining at strong ploughs, which forced a way in amongst the roots and small stumps of the natural brushwood, and, here and there, underneath a rough mat of tangled gra.s.s, bringing to light, now black vegetable mould, now dry clay, now loose red sand. Longitudinally, up the middle of the s.p.a.ce marked off, several bold furrows were cut, those on the right inclining to the left, and those on the left inclining to the right, as is the wont in primitive turnpiking.

One novelty we discovered, viz., that on each side along a portion of the newly-cleared ground, young saplings had been planted at regular intervals; these, we were told, were horse-chestnuts, procured from the United States expressly for the purpose of forming a double row of trees here. In the neighbourhood of York the horse-chestnut was then a rarity.

Everywhere throughout the North American continent, as in the numerous newly-opened areas of the British Empire elsewhere on the globe's surface, instances, of course, abound of wonderful progress made in a brief interval of time. For ourselves, we seem sometimes as if we were moving among the unrealities of a dream when we deliberately review the steps in the march of physical and social improvement, which, within a fractional portion only of a retrospect not very extended, can be recalled, in the region where our own lot has been cast, and, in particular, in the neighbourhood where we are at this moment pausing.

The grand mediaeval-looking structure of University College in the grounds at the head of the Avenue, continues to this day to be a surprise somewhat bewildering to the eye and mind, whenever it breaks upon our view. It looks so completely a thing of the old world and of an age long past away. To think that one has walked over its site before one stone was laid upon another thereon, seems almost like a mental hallucination.

A certain quietness of aspect and absence of overstrain after architectural effect give the ma.s.sive pile an air of great genuineness.

The irregular grouping of its many parts appears the undesigned result of accretion growing out of the necessities of successive years. The whole looks in its place, and as if it had long occupied it. The material of its walls, left for the most part superficially in the rough, has the appearance of being weather-worn. An impression of age, too, is given by the smooth finish of the surrounding grounds and s.p.a.cious drives by which, on several sides, the building is approached, as also by the goodly size of the well-grown oaks and other trees through whose outstretched branches it is usually first caught sight of, from across the picturesque ravine.

Of the still virgin condition of the surrounding soil, however, we have some unmistakeable evidence in the ponderous granitic boulders every here and there heaving up their grey backs above the natural greensward, undisturbed since the day when they dropped suddenly down from the dissolving ice-rafts that could no longer endure their weight.

Seen at a little distance, as from Yonge Street for example, the square central tower of the University, with the cone-capped turret at its north-east angle, rising above a pleasant horizon of trees, and outlined against an afternoon sky, is something thoroughly English, recalling Rugby or Warwick. On a nearer approach, this same tower, combined with the portal below, bears a certain resemblance to the gateway of the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, as figured in Palgrave's "Anglo-Saxons;" and the elaborate and exquisite work about the recessed circular-headed entrance enables one to realize with some degree of certainty how the enriched front of that and other n.o.ble mediaeval structures, seen by us now corroded and mutilated, looked when fresh from the hands that so cunningly carved them.

In the two gigantic blind-worms, likewise, stretched in terrorem on the sloping parapets of the steps leading to the door, benumbed, not dead; giving in their extremities, still faint evidence of life, we have a sermon in stone, which the brethren of a masonic guild of Wykeham's day would readily have expounded. As we enter a house devoted to learning and study, is it not fitting that the eye should be greeted with a symbol of the paralyzing power of Science over Ignorance and Superst.i.tion?

Moreover, sounds that come at stated intervals from that central tower, make another link of sympathy with the old mother-land. Every night at nine, "swinging slow with solemn roar," the great bell of the University is agreeably suggestive of Christ Church, Oxford, St. Mary's, Cambridge, and other places beyond the sea, which to the present hour give back an echo of the ancient Curfew.