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Ballingall Diary - Fifteen Months on Lake Ontario Upper Canada in the years 1841 & 1842
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that branch, the improvement of forest lands soon produced a wonderful change, and converted a great extent of wilderness into beautiful fields.
In 1791 Upper Canada had attained so much importance that when Mr. Pitt determined to bestow a constitution on the Colony, he formed this part into a separate government giving it the name of Upper Canada, and to the early settled districts that of Lower Canada, the former was not supposed to contain at that time above 10,000 inhabitants, General Simcoe however in 1794 founded the town of York, (Toronto) on the upper shore of Lake Ontario, which was fixed upon as the seat of Government, and made the most strenuous effort to encourage colonists to settle in the neighbourhood. They came in considerable numbers those chiefly from the United States.
It was not till 1803 that through the exertions of Colonel Talbot emigration from Britain was commenced on a large scale.
The result of these measures was that in 1811, The Country was found to contain about 9623 persons paying taxes. By a most careful examination Mr. Gourlay estimated the tax payers at one eighths of the entire population which on this principle must have amounted to about 77,000. A vast additional impulse however was given at the close of the last war, in consequence of the low rate of profit and wages, and the difficulty of finding employment at home,
