Mackenzie, WILLIAM LYON

Mackenzie, WILLIAM LYON, Canadian agitator and journalist, was born in Dundee, 12th March 1795, emigrated to Canada in 1820, and in 1824 established the Colonial Advocate, first at Queenstown, then at Toronto. There his denunciations of the officials resulted in the partial destruction of his printing-office in 1826. In 1828 he was elected to the provincial parliament for York, but was expelled for libel on the Assembly, and was successively expelled and re-elected until finally the government refused to issue the writ. In 1832 he went to London with a petition of grievances from the Reformers of Canada, and while there secured the dismissal from office of the Attorney-general and Solicitor-general of Upper Canada. In 1834 he was elected the first mayor of Toronto, and in 1836 he started the Constitution, in which he attacked Sir Francis Head, the lieutenant-governor, for interference with the elections. In 1837 he published a virtual declaration of independence in his paper, headed a band of armed insurgents, and demanded of the lieutenant-governor a settlement of all provincial difficulties by a convention. This demand not having been granted, Mackenzie determined to arrest the lieutenant-governor and capture the military stores in Toronto; but being met by a superior force at Montgomery's Hill, 4 miles from the city, the insurgents were put to flight after a brief skirmish in which several were killed. Mackenzie and others effected their escape, and took possession of Navy Island in the Niagara River, where he established a provisional government. He was soon, however, compelled to break up his camp, and was afterwards sentenced by the United States authorities to twelve months' imprisonment in Rochester jail. On the proclamation of amnesty in 1849 he returned to Canada, and was a member of parliament from 1850 till 1858. Reforms more radical than those he contended for have since been granted. He died in Toronto, 28th August 1861. See the Life by his son-in-law, Charles Lindsay (2 vols. 1862).