Public men and public life in Canada; the story of the Canadian confederacy, being recollections of Parliament and the press and embracing a succinct account of the stirring events which led to the confederation of British North America into the Dominion of Canada . ly Mes-sage, continued to be taken by some of his earlysympathizers. Mr. Mackenzies first visit to Gait had been asearly as 1833, on which occasion his Tory opponentstried to break up his meeting by an artful device. He spoke from the southend window of the onlyhotel the then little back-woods village possessed,and about the middle
Public men and public life in Canada; the story of the Canadian confederacy, being recollections of Parliament and the press and embracing a succinct account of the stirring events which led to the confederation of British North America into the Dominion of Canada . ly Mes-sage, continued to be taken by some of his earlysympathizers. Mr. Mackenzies first visit to Gait had been asearly as 1833, on which occasion his Tory opponentstried to break up his meeting by an artful device. He spoke from the southend window of the onlyhotel the then little back-woods village possessed,and about the middle ofthe proceedings a personwith a blackened face andfantastic dress suddenlyappeared on the streetcarrying a hideous-lookingeffigy, which was intendedto represent the orator,and contained a small par-cel of gunpowder. Thefigure was well gotten up, and the lower extremitieswere fitted up with a good pair of top boots, whichwere recognized as belonging to a leading Galtonianwho wore a style and quality not commonly in effigy prematurely exploded, knocking over arespectable old farmer named William Mackenzie,and an uproarious scene ensued. In the melee overthe half-scorched figure, a young farmer namedMarshall, a Mackenzie sympathizer, rushed through 84. William Lyon Mackenzie;. MACDONALD AND BROWN AS RIVAL LEADERS the crowd, seized the top boots, and made off withthem as fast as his legs could carry him. The heroof this incident, who was a bit of a wag, afterwardsdeclared they were the brawest boots he had everworn, but if his pursuers had caught him that nightit would have fared badly with him. Although the whole of these proceedings tookplace in full view of Mr. Mackenzie, he only smiledgrimly, and went on with his speech very little dis-concerted by the boisterous scene around him. When the day arrived for his last Gait meeting,Mr. Mackenzie was greeted by a large and respect-able audience, and as he stepped nimbly on the plat-form to commence his address, there was a
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