TRINITY COLLEGE, TORON'l'O. :ILLU8TR.A.':I'ED FOR 1.865 CONcrAINING A CLASSIFIED BUSINESS DIRECTORY, SKETOH OF THE CITY, &0. - PUBLISHED BY A. S. IRVING, I'HOLESALE NEWtl DEALER, BOOKSELLER & STATIONER, WOOD ENGRAVER, 19 KING STREET WEtlT, TORONTO. 1865. A CHAPTER ON THE CITY OF TORONTO. BY ALEXANDI~R SOMERYILLE. TORONTO, metropolis of the Province of Upper Oanada, is a City demanding' more regard from the travelling stranger, and justifying a higher degree of satisfaction in its inhabitants than may be accorded to its magnitude, or to the years of its age. It is too young to have many trallitions or much venerable history, yet it has some. It might be looked to as central subject of a long history were a writer to diverge into the annals of the Province, of which it has occasion­ ally been the Seat of Government. As the place of residence of the LieuJenunt-Governot's of Upper Oana(la, they being subordinate to the Governors-General who residec] at Quebec, it became the Seat of Legislation, of the Courts of Justice, of Education, and the centre of Western Commerce. In 1793, besides the old French fort built in 1686, it contained no other human habitation than the rude wigwams of the migratory In­ dians, and thon not many of these. In 1795, it had twelve habita­ tions of log, plank, and canvas residences of its earliest white settlers and the Upper Province Government; the popUlation was about 2,000, when a8sailed by the Americans in 1813. In 1817, the disaster of war and other causes hall reduced the number to 1,200. In 11>26 it haclrisen to 1,677 ; by Howison's estimate in 1824, it was 3,000. In 18:50, 2,8GO. In 1832, the higher ratio of increase then commencing gave 4,000, or thel'eabonts. In 1842, the number was, 15,336. In 1845,19,706. In 1850, 25,1(;6. In the next six years the pop"lation had risen, it has been said, to about 50,000; but as no official census certifies this, the statement may be incorrect. 'I'he removal of the Government and Legislature from Toronto to Quebec in Hi58, and of commercial panic and general depression of industry, concurrent with deficient harvests in 1857, 1858, and partially defi­ cient in 1859, redaced the population in those yeal's. It increased somewhat in 1860, and when the census was taken in January, 1861, the official retllrn was 45,166. By natural increasement and immi­ gration; by the British military garrison; and by American angmen­ tations temporarily resident, it may be estimated for January 1865, as close upon 50,000, This beautiful city extends between east and west over two miles bounded on the south by the Bay, a spacious inlet from Lake Onta~ rio, and stretchinlJ' northerly about a mile and a half, including open spaces at the extremities, terminating with Yorkville, on the undu­ lating heights, and more westerly, limited by the Queen's Park where stand the University and Observatory, with handsome private 2 SKETCH OF TORONTO. residences, among the pictnresqne woods, at an elevation from one hundred to two hundred feet above the level of the Lake, Taking the site of the Observatory as the geographical position of Toronto, the city occupies a spot of the globe on the north-wcB~ angle of Lake Ontario, in 4,P 39' 4" North IAtitnde, and 79° 21' G" West Longitude; or 5 hours, 17 minutes, 20 seconds of time sl'lIVl'r tlmn Uw clock at Greenwich Observatory, six miles from CluriilgCros3, London, England, Toronto is distant from J\iag"rJ F,db, by direct line across the lake and the month of ~iag~ra rive:', ,,0 mile" ; f,'om Col­ lingwood at the north terminus of the ~ or~he)'n llailro'ld, on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, 93 mile., j fl'Om Hamilton, 4,> ; London, lli ; King­ ston, 16;; j Ottawa, 233; Montreal, 32'l; Quebec, 50:~; New York, 500; B03ton, 593; POl'tLmd, at thc Atlantic tennin!lS of the Gmnd Trunk Railway --, and Halifax, Nova ScoUa, abollt -- miles, The beach at Toronto, wbich nearly enclo,3es tho Bay from Lake Ontario, is a banier of grfwcl and sand, It h'lS aCCllll1ulateil by the wedging of ice into an ang10 of the shore, \Vh~H'e t!w watcl' frce~es, being there comp~T<ltively shalhllv, A:;:linsl th,lt ice, through long ages, Lake Ontario, too deep to fl'(l(>ZU, 1m, sllrgedup ill the tempests of winter, depositing a \V,til of shingle tr.lll,·Lr,'ed from its own bottom, Another beach formed in lil,c matHl"", encloses Bnrlington Bay at the western extremity of the !:tke, five miles from th(~ city of Hamil ion, Bonchette, in his work on the Survey of Canada, pablished in 183~~, dC3cribes the harbf)ur and site of Toronto as h0 s:nv the locality in 1793, thus :-" [still distinctly recollect th:) nnkllncd aspect which tlw couutry exhibited when I Ii,'st elltewd the bea;rtiful basin which then became the scone of my eal'ly byul'Ognphical operations. Dense and trackless foi'e8ts lined the margin of th.c lake, and reflecfed their inverted images in its glassy surfcLce, The wandering savage had constructed his cphemcr,11 habitation beneath their luxuriant foliage,-the group thon consisting of two f,"!lilies of Mississagas j and the b"y and neighlJoLll'ing marshes were t'w hitllerto uninvaded hannts of immense coveys of wild fowh; indeed they were so abun­ dant as in some mea,lll'e to annoy us duriug the night, In the Spring following, Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe removed to the site of the new capital, attende(l by the regiment of Queen's Rangers, and com­ menced at once the realizations of his favourite project, His Excel­ lency inhabited, during the summer and through the winter a canvas house which he imported dil'eclly for the occ,tclion ; but frail as was its substance, it was rendercd exceedingly comfortable, and soou b~came as distingnished for the social alHl urbane hospitality of its venerated and gracious host, as for the peculiarity of its structure, From 1793 till 185,1 the Seat of Government was'iu Canada an un­ settled question; the pl)ople of NewMk in the fir3t-named year, were troubled with the subject j they being in possession desired the Government to remain where it was, Governor Simcoe decided that SKETOH OF TORONTO. 3 it should be at York, yet only temporarily until the West should be settled and London built. Lord Dorchester the Governor-General thought Kingston the propel' place. In 1795, the retirement of Ll",,­ tenant-Governor Simcoe from Upper Canada led the inhabit:u:tl Newark. to hope that the projected removal of the Seat of GC.Hlh. ment would not be carried onto The name Toronto was superseded by that of York. about 1794, and by Act of Parliament it displaced York in 183,1. It is found in Canadian French documents as early as 1686, anc1 if it be of Indian origin its antiquity extends beyond memory. Ouentorouk is given as one of the native names which, says the Rev. Dr. Scadding, may have been gradually rubbed down in passing from trac1er to trader to Toronto. Two favourite interpretatious have been, "trees risiug out of t.he water," and the "place of meeting." Others have sug­ gested the word" Toronto" to be a perpetuation of the French engi­ neer who constructed the fort in the years 1750-52, but the fort and French habitations within were 11>1med Rouille in compliment to the Colonia11finister of France who authorized its cOl]struction. The French settlers in Canada, were in const'int turmoil with the English Colonists of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and the other settlements on the Atlantic seaboard. The English and Dutch New Yorkers were unceasiug in their efforts to divert the fur tmdc from the channel of the St. L,l\vreucc. Their emissaries everywhere tampered with tte native tribes even in the undisputed territories of the French. In the reports of grievances of thf1t kiml the name of Toronto frequently recurs in 1686 and after, but varies into Tarento, Taranto, and Torronto. The New York Colonists hac1 treated with the Iroquois Indians for leave to erect a beaver trap at Choueguen, now named Oswego, amI used their permission to erect a stone fort. From that phwe they traded by selling goods to the Indians for fnrs at rates greatly below the French prices at Montreal. It was to counteract the Englishmen at Oswego that fort Rouille, otherwise fort 'l'oronto, was built. Other suggestions about the name make tracings of it to the :French words-" au tOllr de ronde d'eall." Supposing that these may have been caught up and repeated by the Indians, "as Yankee has arisen from an Indian effort to say Anglais." In this matter incidentally touched, the learned Dr. Scadding who makes the remark, is mistaken. Yankee is a Scandinavian word in­ troduced into Britain a thousand years ago, or more, and carried to the New England Colonies with the earliest settlers who were in greater part from the east of England a~ the names of their cities imply. The writer of this notice was familiar with the word" Yau­ kee" on the south-east shores of Scotland in childhood; where many names of places and words and colloquial phrases remain from the old Northmen, testifying that they and their language had taken root there.