Читать книгу The Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada and Ontario 1792-1899 - David Breakenridge Read - Страница 3

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It was not my intention when I had completed "The Life and Times of Major-General John Graves Simcoe," and the past governors of the old Province of Upper Canada, to further pursue the investigation of the history of Canadian governors; but the favorable reception that volume received at the hands of the public has encouraged me to continue my writing of the series of lieutenant-governors from Simcoe's time to the incumbency of the present occupant of the office, Sir Oliver Mowat.

I am certain that all Canadians will take an interest in a connected historical account of the rulers that have been set over them for the last hundred years. A mere biographical sketch would hardly answer the purpose, so I have combined something of the political history of the governors with biography in order to convey a better idea of the men who have held so prominent a position as that of lieutenant-governor of this Province of the Dominion of Canada.

Before the union of the Provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, in 1841, the lieutenant-governors and the administrators of the Government who were appointed as official heads of the State during the periods intervening between the retirement of one governor and the appointment of his successor, had much more power than the governors of the present time. I have therefore included sketches of those administrators in the series of executive officers in this volume, as in more cases than one the administrators and provisionally appointed governors, in the performance of their duties, rendered very essential service to the Province whose affairs for the time being were committed to their hands.

In entitling the chapters I have followed the plan of giving to each of the Governors or Administrators his official designation in use during his term of office. Many of the governors and administrators received subsequent honors and rank, and many had military rank while holding office, but in filling the civil post of chief magistrate of the Province, the military rank was not regarded. Up to 1878 the lieutenant-governors were designated as His Excellency; after that date, as His Honor.

Special acknowledgment is made to Mr. Alfred Sandham, Toronto, for permission to make duplicates from his admirable collection of portraits of the lieutenant-governors, as well as of their autographs, which form a feature of this volume.