master, and evoking, consequently, the ire of the leading Liberals of
those days--Stuart, Vanfelson, Papineau, Viger, and others. One of the
results of his excessive freedom of speech was an attempt to punish him
for a breach of privilege; but he remained concealed in his own house,
where, like the conspirators of old times, he had a secret recess made
for such purposes, and where he continued hurling his philippics against
his adversaries with all that power of invective which would be used by
a conscientious though uncompromising old Tory of those days, when party
excitement ran so high. The Quebec _Gazette_ was at that time, as in its
first years, hardly more than a mere resume of news. [Footnote: From
1783 to 1792, the paper scarcely published a political 'leader,' and so
fearful were printers of offending men in power, that the Montreal
_Gazette_, so late as 1790, would not even indicate the locality in
which a famous political banquet was held, on the occasion of the
formation of a Constitutional Club, the principal object of which was to
spread political knowledge throughout the country. See Garneau II. 197
and 206.] Hon. John Neilson assumed its editorship in 1796, and
continued more or less to influence its columns whilst he remained in
the Lower Canada Legislature. In 1808, Mr. Neilson enlarged the size of
his paper, and published it twice a week, in order to meet the growing
demand for political intelligence. The _Gazette_ was trammelled for
years by the fact that it was semi-official, and the vehicle of public
notifications, but when, subsequently, [Footnote: In 1823, an Official
Gazette was published by Dr. Fisher, Queen's Printer. Canadian
Magazine,' p. 470.] this difficulty no longer existed, the paper, either
under his own or his son's management, was independent, and, on the
whole, moderate in tone whenever it expressed opinions on leading public
questions. Mr. Neilson, from 1818, when he became a member of the
Legislature, exercised a marked influence on the political discussions
of his time, and any review of his career as journalist and politician