part in Edinburgh. It might well have been supposed that all the trials

and sufferings he had undergone would have taught him a lesson, and

that he would not again be so ill-advised as to recklessly bring trouble

upon himself by interfering in public affairs which did not specially

concern him. But his foible for searching out abuses was ineradicable

and ingrained in his constitution. He could not behold injustice without

showing his teeth, and his bumptiousness was destined to bring further

suffering down upon his head. When he was not far from his seventieth

year some land in or near Edinburgh which had theretofore been

unenclosed, and which, in his opinion, should have continued unenclosed,

was in some way or other appropriated, and the public were debarred from

its use. We are not in possession of sufficient details to go into

particulars. Mr. Gourlay denounced the enclosure as an act of

high-handed tyranny, and harangued the common people on the subject

until he had worked them up into a state of frenzy. Something resembling

a riot was the result, in which he, while attempting to preserve the

peace, was thrown down, and run over by a carriage. One of his legs was

broken; a serious accident for a man of his years. The fracture refused

to knit. He was confined to his bed for many months, and remained a

cripple throughout the rest of his life.

His case was again brought before the Canadian Assembly during Lord

Elgin's Administration of affairs in this country, but nothing final was

accomplished on his behalf. In 1857 he once more came out to Canada in

person, and remained several years. He owned some property in the

township of Dereham, in the county of Oxford, and took up his abode upon

it. At the next general election he announced himself as a candidate for

the constituency, and put forth a printed statement of his political

views. He received, we believe, several votes, but of course his

candidature never assumed a serious aspect. In 1858 the late Mr. Brown,

Mr. M. H. Foley, and the present Chief Justice Dorion took up his cause

in the Assembly, and procured permission for him to address the House in

person. On the 2nd of June he made his appearance at the Bar, and

liberated his mind by a speech in which he commented rather incoherently

on his banishment and subsequent life, and concluded by handing in

certificates from Dr. Chalmers and other eminent men in Scotland as to

his personal character and abilities. The final result was that an

official pardon was granted by the Governor-General, which pardon Mr.

Gourlay repudiated as an insult. He also continued to repudiate his

pension. Having completed his eightieth year, he married a young woman

in the township of Dereham, who had been his housekeeper. This marriage

was a source of profound regret to his friends, and especially to his

two surviving daughters. The union was in no respect a felicitous one,

for which circumstance the proverb about "crabbed age and youth" is

quite sufficient to account, even had there not been other good and

substantial reasons. In course of time the patriarchal bridegroom

quietly took his departure for Scotland, leaving his bride--and of

course the farm--behind him.

He never returned to this country, but continued to reside in Edinburgh

until his death, which took place on the 1st of August, 1863. He had

completed his eighty-fifth year four months previously, and the tree was

fully ripe.

At the time of his death he had two daughters surviving, and we

understand that all arrearages of pension were paid to them by the

Canadian Government. One of these ladies went out to Zululand as a

missionary several years since, but was compelled by ill health to

return to her home in Scotland, where she has since died. The youngest

daughter, Miss Helen Gourlay, still resides in Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Navy Hall was the Lieutenant-Governor's residence at Newark. See the

sketch of the life of Governor Simcoe, in the first volume of this work.

[2] From correspondence and documents laid before the Upper Canadian

House of Assembly in 1836, and published in the appendix to the Journal

for that year, we learn that the total quantity of land placed at

Colonel Talbot's disposal amounted to exactly 518,000 acres. Five years

before that date (in 1831) the population of the Talbot settlement had

been estimated by the Colonel at nearly 40,000. It appears that the

original grant did not include so large a tract, but that it was

subsequently extended.

[3] See "Portraits of British Americans," by W. Notman; with

Biographical Sketches by Fennings Taylor; vol. I., p. 341.

[4] See "Life of Colonel Talbot," by Edward Ermatinger; p. 70.

[5] A sketch of the life of Edward Blake appears in Vol. I. of the

present series. Since that sketch was published the subject of it has

succeeded Mr. Mackenzie as leader of the Opposition in the House of

Commons.

[6] A full account of this interesting case will be found in Mrs.

Moodie's "Life in the Clearings, _versus_ the Bush."

[7] See "Life of Rev. James Richardson," by Thomas Webster, D.D.

Toronto, 1876.

[8] See "Case and his Cotemporaries," by John Carroll; Vol III., p. 17.

[9] See "Nova Scotia, in its Historical, Mercantile and Industrial

Relations;" by Duncan Campbell; p. 427.

[10] Mr. Lafontaine was in reality the head of the Administration, which

should strictly be called--and which is sometimes called--the

Lafontaine-Baldwin Administration. In common parlance, however, and in

most histories, Mr. Baldwin's name comes first, and we have adopted this

phraseology throughout the present series.

[11] See "The Poems of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, with an Introduction and

Biographical Sketch by Mrs. J. Sadlier." New York, 1869.

[12] See a sketch of Judge Wilmot's life by the Rev. J. Lathern

(published at Halifax in 1880), p. 45.

[13] It was administered to an Indian child. The great-grandfather of

Madame Taché and the mother of M. Varennes de la Verandrye acted as

sponsors.

[14] See Lindsey's "Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie," vol i.,

p. 147.

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