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n\i If Benjamin had thought i i notary public entitled to swear oaths. This was the first such re- corded appointment of a Jew by a Canadian government, although Eleazer Levy of Quebec had received a similar appointment by im- perial commission from Britain, 70 years earlier. In Benjamin was to think back 1836, probably the most impor- tant thing he had done since he arrived in town was the launching of the Intelligencer in September, 1834. Its motto called for a con- tented populace. "Let there be harmony in things essential," it ran, "Liberality in things not essential, Charity in all." Benjamin's pro- spectus had promised to be "just and advantageous alike to the gov- erned and governing. If men are anxious to shine as political writ- ers," he wrote, "let them adopt a fair, honest course for the welfare of the public." Notwithstanding its professed independence, the In- telligencer was labelled as conservative by others. Benjamin's elo- quence and cutting humour were used to give public support for his views on a wide range of issues. He opposed free trade with the United States, which he felt would hurt Canadian farmers, saying "it is a charming name because it tends to seduce reflection and at- tention. It is anything but freje trade, unless that be called free which gains riches to one and ruin and poverty to the other." He supported Lieutenant Governor Head's resistance to the no- tions of responsible government raised by the Executive Council led by Robert Baldwin. He called Marshall Spring Bidwell, the radical speaker of the assembly, "a master spirit of mischief." By 1836, the editor of Kingston's British Whig had noted that Benjamin did not tolerate observations by outsiders on the political affairs of Hast- ings "as he regards that field entirely as his own." Although the Kingston Chronicle and Gazette had given the In- telligence only six months to live, it had survived. Benjamin had become one of the leading journalists in the province and was fre- quently quoted by other papers. While no one at the time knew it, the Intelligencer would continue to survived, standing, over 150 years later, as Ontario's oldest operating newspaper. But all that mattered to George Benjamin that day, as he stood in the Intelligencer office planning what to do, was that the slander be forgotten. He folded up the paper and went on with his work. about it, he would have realized that he had achieved an enormous amount in the two short years he had been in Belleville. Not four months earlier he had scored a remarkable electoral triumph. On January 4, 1836 at the an- nual Thurlow Township meeting in the Belleville courthouse, Ben- jamin ran for the office of clerk (or chairman) of the township, which included Belleville. A vote by show of hands gave Benjamin 69 votes to 68 for Dr. Anson Hay- den of Hay den's Corners. After a written ballot was demanded, both candidates rounded up addi- tional supporters and the final vote gave Benjamin the clerkship by a count of 144 to 122. The victory of such a recent ar- rival was strong evidence of the confidence in which Benjamin was held by the community. But it was more than that. Benjamin had made no secret of his reli- gion. The previous summer, he had been listed as one of the members who donated to the fund for the new synagogue building in Montreal. Benjamin must have been aware of how un- usual it was for a Jew to be elected to public office. In fact, his election as clerk was the first re- corded instance of a Jew being elected to municipal office in Brit- ish North America. A month lat- er, Benjamin had added another office to his list of achievements. On February 18, 1836, Lieuten- ant Governor Francis Bond Head granted him a commission as a ///•?/