When the Treaty of Ghent terminated the war and left Canada in
possession of her own, Commodore Macleod, with other old naval
officers, retired from the service, and took grants of land in the
neighbourhood of Lake Simcoe. Being possessed of considerable private
means, the Commodore built a palatial residence on the borders of that
lake, and varied the monotony of a life ashore by an engrossing
interest in politics and the active duties of a Legislative Councillor.
The illness of his wife, to whom he was devoted, had in the past two
years almost entirely withdrawn him from political life, and lost to
his colleagues in the Upper House the services of one who took grim
pleasure in strangling bills obnoxious to the dominant faction which
originated in the Lower Chamber. His temporary withdrawal from the
Legislative Council, and the lengthened absence in England of Dr.
Strachan, that sturdy ecclesiastic who was long the ruling spirit of
the "Family Compact," emboldened the leaders of Reform to inveigh
against the Hydra-headed abuses of the time, and sow broadcast the
dragon-teeth of discontent and the seeds of a speedy harvest of
sedition.
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