The other was the
escapade of a number of young people in York, of respectable standing,
who had committed a gross breach of the peace in breaking into and
ransacking the printing-office of Wm. Lyon Mackenzie, smashing the
presses of that martyr to Reform, and throwing into the lake the type
which had been used in setting up some pungent articles against the
Government.
"Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" the moralizing
bystander of the period might have observed, as he took note of the
electrical condition of the political atmosphere of York, and, indeed,
of the whole Province--the result of the indiscretion of one man, and
the partisan frolic of half a dozen lads, who had inherited, with the
bluest of Tory blood, the prejudices of their fathers. The wrecking of
the Mackenzie printing-office was, of course, a serious conspiracy
against the peace of a youthful and law-abiding community. But it will
occur to the modern reader of the transaction, that the act was
scarcely so heinous as to bring it before the country's legislature,
and become the subject of a grave Parliamentary inquiry.
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