Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/253

 between the farms of settlers made it difficult to construct roads and fences, and separated the farmers so much that they could not form school districts without a great deal of trouble and inconvenience.

Then again, there was great discontent because the English Church clergy claimed that they alone were entitled to share in the Clergy Reserves grant. The Church of Scotland also claimed a share, as it was the Hstablished Church of Scotland, and after some dispute its claim was recognized. This left out the Methodists, Baptists, Roman Catholics and other denominations, and, therefore, did not mend matters much. In 1836, Sir John Colborne the Governor, and his Executive Council, endowed fifty-seven rectories of the Church of England with a part of these church lands. This was done because the Reform party (the party opposed to the Family Compact) was in the majority in the House of Assembly, and it was feared something might be done to prevent the Church of England from getting the benefit of the endowment. As already stated, for a time the Family Compact controlled the Legislative Assembly. This did not last long, for the abuses of power were so great that the people began to elect as members men who tried to remove the evils from which they were suffering. In 1824 this Reform party elected a majority of the members, and chose one of their own number as Speaker, or Chairman of the Assembly. The most prominent members of this party at this time were Dr. Rolph, Peter Perry, and Marshall Bidwell. At this time also the noted William Lyon Mackenzie began to make his influence felt. Mackenzie was 2 Scotchman who had emigrated to Canada a few years before—had been a storekeeper in different places—and then had come to Toronto to start a newspaper. His paper, “The Colonial Advocate,” attacked the abuses of the Family Compact so fiercely that a gang of ruffians seized his press and threw it into Lake Ontario. This made Mackenzie and his paper more popular than ever, and he.was elected member of the Assembly for the County of York, the most populous county in the Province. On the floor of the Assembly he made himself very troublesome to the Executive Council, and was continually unearthing frauds and scandals in connection with the public accounts, and the management of such works as the Welland Canal. Another man of a higher character and better judgment was elected, a little later, in