by a certificate, signed by the minister and the clerk of session at that place, written shortly before his departure for Canada:

"ALYTH, March 30, 1820.

"That the bearer, Lyon Mackenzie, resided in this Parish about three years preceding Whitsunday, eighteen hundred and seventeen, when he removed from this Parish, without anything known to us, at his removal hence, to prevent him from being admitted into any Christian Society, or partaking of Church privileges, is attested by

"WM. RAMSAY, Minister.

"EDW. PATERSON, Session Clerk." Young Mackenzie afterwards, leaving his native Scotland, crossed to the South of the Tweed; where at one time we find him filling the situation of Clerk to the Kennett and Avon Canal Company,* at another

The following summons proves him to have been in the employment of this Company in October, 1818; which was eighteen months before he sailed for Canada.

WILTSHIRE,

TO WIT.

}

To all Constables, Tythingmen, and others, Ilis Majesty's Officers of the Peace in and for the said County, whom these may concern, any or either of them.

THESE are in His Majesty's Name, to will and require you, on Sight hereof, to summon David Slowly, Captain of the boat No. 6, Euclid Shaw, of Bath, owner, personally to be and appear before me, and such other of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the said County of Wilts as shall be present at the Town Hall in Devizes, in the said County, on Tuesday, the Tenth day of November next, at eleven of the clock in the forenoon, to answer to what is and shall be on His Majesty's Behalf objected against him by William Lyon Mackenzie, Clerk to the Kennett and Avon Canal Company, for having, on the third of October instant, offended against the eleventh article of the said Company's Bye-Laws, by carrying shafts and poles constructed contrary to the same. And you are to attend at the time and place above appointed for the appearance of the said parties, and to make return of this precept and of the execution hereof.

Herein fail not at your perils. Given under my Hand and Seal, the tenth day of October, in the fifty-eighth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord

time in London; and he used to relate that he was for a short time in the employ of Ear Lonsdale, as a clerk.

In the autumn before he left for Canada, our future. emigrant was in London, where he appears to have been either without employment or not to have been so satisfactorily engaged as to preclude the desire of a change. A correspondence took place between him. and a Mr. Wm. Dunsford, who held an office in a Canal Company's office, at Swindon, Wiltshire. There was a question of the Company establishing a Gauging Dock; and if this was done, Mr. Mackenzie was to be recommended for an office in connection with it. The Committee of Directors, with whom the decision would rest, was not to meet till December, 1819; and whatever was the result at which they arrrived, Mr. Mackenzie was destined to cross the Atlantic and become a resident of Canada next Spring. Mr. Dunsford, in October, writes in a friendly, if not very encouraging tone,* and adds a postscript, asking to borrow the forGEORGE the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, and in the year of our Lord, 1818.

HENRY BAYNSTON.

CANAL OFFICE, SWINDON, October 18, 1819.

SIR: I received your letter of the 15th yesterday, and am sorry you have not succeeded in making an arrangement with the K. & A. Co., to allow us the use of their Tables. I do not expect that Mr. Thomas will communicate with me on the subject. The very liberal ideas of that gentleman as to the neighboring Canals, as you represented them to me, forbid the hope of such an accommodation.

I therefore look forward to the time when the Companies for whom I am concerned will be able to set on foot an establishment of their own for the purpose, and it shall not be my fault if this is delayed a moment after the necessary means can be procured; but you are aware that such a thing cannot be effected in a moment, and that before the expenditure of at least £700 or £800

mula of certain gauging tables belonging to Mr. Mackenzie.

That he was probably without employment, and was certainly in search of an occupation, in October, 1819, appears from Mr. Dunsford's letter; and as he conceived he had not met with fair usage, it is probable that it was not long after this time when he resolved to sail for Canada the next Spring. He appears then to have only just left Swindon and the Kennett and Avon Canal Company; for Mr. Dunsford, at that date, mentions the failure of Mr. Mackenzie's attempt to effect a certain arrangement with his employers to allow their Gauging Tables to be used by another Company. This occurrence must have been of recent date; and it is probable that Mr. Dunsford replied as soon as he learned from Mr. Mackenzie the result of the application, which may be presumed to have been made before the latter left the service of the Canal Company.

can be resolved upon, the Committee will require time for deliberation. Their next meeting is not till the middle of December, and until that time, all that I can say is, that in the event of their determining on a Gauging establishment, I should not hesitate to recommend you to their notice, being perfectly satisfied of your competency for the business, and not doubting the testimonials you could bring to your character. I will further add that the salary you expect would not be objected to, together with a comfortable house for your residence. Under these circumstances, it appears to me that you had better not omit any favorable appointment that may offer for your settlement; but should you not be better provided, in the event of our building a Gauging Dock, upon your favoring me with your future address when convenient, I will not fail to remember you; and wishing you the success you appear to deserve, and better usage than you say you have had,

I remain your obedient servant,

WILLIAM DUNSFORD.

If you feel no objection to sending me the formula of your Gauging Tables, I should be obliged, as it would assist me in explaining the system to our Committees better than my memory will serve.

The idea of going to Canada is said to have been first suggested to Mr.. Mackenzie by Mr. Edward Lesslie, of Dundee. He was elated at the prospect which the New World held out to him, and gave expression to his hilarity in a demonstrative manner.

Before starting for Canada, he visited France. The date of this visit cannot now be fixed with certainty; but it was probably in November or December, 1819.

He confesses to having, a little before this time, plunged into the vortex of dissipation and contracted a fondness for play. But all at once, he abandoned the dangerous path on which he had entered, and after the age of twenty-one never played a game at cards. A more temperate man than he was, for the rest of his life, it would have been impossible to find.

5

CHAPTER III.

Sails for Canada in the Psyche-Personal Appearance-Is connected with the Lachine Canal Survey-Enters into the Book and Drug Business in YorkAfterwards in Dundas-The Partnership with Lesslie Dissolved-Starts a separate business in Dundas-Removes to Queenstown-Abandons Mercantile Business for Politics-The First Office that he is Elected to is that of School Trustee.

IN April, 1820, there was among the passengers of the Psyche, bound for Canada, and commanded by Captain Thomas Erskine, a young man just turned twenty-five years of age, born of poor Scottish parents; whose mother, widowed in his infancy, had sometimes been at a loss to find the plainest food for his nourishment; a young man who had been a clerk in a counting house, at Dundee; who had tried mercantile business on his own account, in a small Scottish market town, and failed; who had held a clerkship under a company and a nobleman in England; who, without having enjoyed any other advantage of education than the parochial and secondary schools of Dundee offered, had a mind well stored with varied information which he had devoured with the appetite of a literary glutton; who was so little known that his departure from his dear native soil excited no public interest or attention. Yet was it fated that this young man should change the destiny of the country