But though thorny as was
then the path of Reform, and galling the insult and injury done to its
martyrs, Mackenzie did not shrink from pursuing the course he had cut
out for himself; and his intense hatred of injustice, and sturdy
defiance of those whom he held responsible for the maladministration
of affairs, gained him many adherents and sympathizers. The outrage
that had just been committed on his property vastly increased the
number of the latter, while popular indignation compelled the
Government to disown the act, and to make it, as we have seen, the
subject of Parliamentary inquiry. From the Parliament the matter went
to the Courts, and there the scapegraces, who had been concerned in
the outrage, were mulcted in a large amount, which their parents, high
government officials, had ruefully to pay over to the aggrieved
printer and incipient rebel. Thus ended one act in the drama of these
distraught times. How shall we keep our countenance and deal with the
other?
Let us first tell the story, as we gather it, in the main, from the
Journals of the House. For some time previous to the meeting of the
Legislature, in 1826, partisans of the Administration had got in the
habit of noting defections from the loyal side among men of substance
and position in the colony, and particularly among members of the
representative Chamber, where the cry for Responsible Government was
waxing loud, and where sullen protests were almost daily heard against
the system of official patronage and favouritism that prevailed in the
government of the Province.
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