Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/143

 that born agitator, William Lyon Mackenzie. A wiser but less vigorous reformer was Robert Baldwin, who saw that in responsible government lay the cure for the political green-sickness from which Upper Canada was suffering. But though Baldwin and Mackenzie were in the right, it is very doubtful whether their party could at the time have given the country as cheap and efficient a civil service as was given by the Family Compact, who had at least education and an honourable tradition.

In 1837 discontent flared up into a pitiful little rebellion, led by Mackenzie. This tragical farce was soon at an end and its author a fugitive in the United States, whence he instigated bands of hooligans to make piratical attacks upon the Canadian frontier. Thus forcibly reminded of the existence of Canada, the British government sent out Lord Durham to investigate, and as a result of his report the two Canadas were in 1841 united in a legislative union.

Meanwhile the southern part of the province had been filling up. In 1791 the population was probably under 20,000; in 1824 it was 150,066, and in 1841, 455,688. The eastern counties of Stormont and Glengarry, and parts of the western peninsula, had been settled by Highlanders; the Canada Company, organized in 1825 by the Scottish novelist, John Galt, had founded the town of Guelph, had cleared large tracts of land in the western peninsula, and settled thereon hundreds of the best class of English and Scotch settlers.

Once granted responsible government, and the liberty to make her own mistakes. Upper Canada went ahead. The population rose to 952,004 in 1851 and to 1,396,091 in 1861. Politically she found Lower Canada an uneasy yoke-fellow. The equality of representation, granted at the union, at first unfair to Lower Canada, became still more unfair to Upper Canada, as her population first equalled and then surpassed that of her sister province. The Roman Catholic claim to separate state-aided schools, at length conceded in 1863, long set the religious bodies by the ears. Materially the province prospered. The “Clergy Reserves” were secularized in 1854, and in 1851 began a railway development, the excitement and extravagance caused by which led in 1857 to a financial crisis and the bankruptcy of various municipalities, but which on the whole produced great and lasting benefit. The Reciprocity Treaty with the United States, in operation from 1854 to 1866, and the high prices for farm produce due to the American Civil War, brought about an almost hectic prosperity. In the discussions from which sprang the federation of 1867, Ontario was the one province strongly in favour of the union, which was only rendered possible by the coalition of her rival leaders, J. A. Macdonald and George Brown.

Since Federation Upper Canada has been known as the province of Ontario. The first provincial government, formed on coalition lines by John Sandfield Macdonald, was thrifty and not unprogressive, but in 1871 was defeated by a reorganized liberal party, which held power from 1871 to 1905, and on the whole worthily. Under Oliver Mowat, premier from 1873 to 1896, the government, though strongly partisan, was thrifty and honest. An excellent system of primary and secondary schools was organized by Egerton Ryerson (1803–1882) and (q.v.), higher education was aided and a school of practical science established in Toronto and of mining in Kingston; agriculture was fostered, and an excellent agricultural college founded at Guelph in 1874.

The great struggle of the time was with the federal government on the question of provincial rights. Several questions in which Ontario and the Dominion came into conflict were carried to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and in all of them Mowat was successful. Connected with this was the boundary struggle with Manitoba, the latter province being aided by the federal government, partly out of dislike for Mowat, partly because the crown lands in the disputed territory would, had it been adjudged to Manitoba, have been under federal control. Had Manitoba won, the boundary line would have been drawn about 6 m. east of Port Arthur, but in 1884 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council unanimously decided in favour of Ontario; and in 1888 another decision gave her absolute control of the crown lands of New Ontario. Under Mowat’s successors the barnacles which always attach to a party long in power became unpleasantly conspicuous, and in January 1905 the conscience of Ontario sent the conservatives into power, more from disgust at their opponents than from any enthusiasm for themselves. The new government displayed unexpected energy, ability and strength. The primary and model schools were consolidated and improved; the provincial university was given increased aid from the succession duties; various public utilities, previously operated by private companies, were taken over by the province, and worked with vigour and success. At the election of the 8th of June 1908 the conservative government was returned by an increased majority.

ONTARIO, LAKE, the smallest and most easterly of the Great Lakes of North America. It lies between 43° 11′ and 44° 12′ N. and 76° 12′ and 79° 49′ W., and is bounded on the N. by the province of Ontario and on the S. by the state of New York. It is roughly elliptical, its major axis, 180 m. long, lying nearly east and west, and its greatest breadth is 53 m. The area of its water surface is 7260 sq. m. and the total area of its basin 32,980 sq. m. Its greatest depth is 738 ft., its average depth much in excess of that of Lake Erie, and it is as a general rule free from outlying shoals or dangers.

On the north side of the lake the land rises gradually from the shore, and spreads out into broad plains, which are thickly settled by farmers. A marked feature of the topography of the south shore is what is known as the Lake ridge, or, as it approaches the Niagara river, the Mountain ridge. This ridge extends, with breaks, from Sodus to the Niagara river, and is distant from the lake 3 to 8 m. The low ground between it and the shore, and between the Niagara escarpment and the water on the Canadian shore, is a celebrated fruit growing district, covered with vineyards, peach, apple and pear orchards and fruit farms. The Niagara river is the main feeder of the lake; the other largest rivers emptying into the lake are the Genesee, Oswego and Black from the south side, and the Trent, which discharges into the upper end of the bay of Quinte, a picturesque inlet 70 m. long, on the north shore, between the peninsula of Prince Edward, near the eastern extremity of the lake, and the mainland. The east end of the lake, where it is 30 m. wide, is crossed by a chain of five islands, and the lake has its outlet near Kingston, where it discharges into the head of the St Lawrence river between a group of islands. Elsewhere the lake is practically free from islands. There is a general surface current down the lake towards the eastward of about 8 m. a day, strongest along the south shore, but no noticeable return current. As a result of its relatively great depth there are seldom any great fluctuations of level in this lake due to wind disturbance, but the lake follows the general rule of the (q.v.) of seasonal and annual variation. Standard high water (of 1870) is 2·77 ft. below the mean level, of 246·18 ft. above mean sea-level, and standard low water 3·24 ft. below the same plane. The lake never freezes over, and is less obstructed by ice than the other lakes, but the harbours are closed by ice from about the middle of December to the middle of April.

The commerce of Lake Ontario is limited in comparison with that of the lakes above Niagara Falls, and is restricted to vessels