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by Ken W. Watson It was to be a grand celebration, the official opening of the northern section of the Rideau Canal in August 1831. When the canal was constructed, the northern section was completed before the southern section. By the summer of 1831, all work on the locks from Ottawa to Burritts Rapids had essentially been completed, this section was ready for steamboat navigation. It had been a long hard slog to get to this point. The work had started with the clearing of trees in Entrance Valley in the fall of 1826. In this section of the canal, Colonel By faced and overcame many obstacles. Contractors had quit, there were many lawsuits over the expropriation of land, and the dam at Hogs Back had failed not once, not twice but three times before a re-design allowed it to be successfully completed (see Washed Away). It’s no wonder that Colonel By wanted to celebrate the successful completion of this section of the canal. In preparation for the opening ceremony, Colonel By had four silver cups prepared in London as a reward to his best contractors; Thomas McKay, John Redpath, Robert Drummond, Andrew White and Thomas Phillips. Two cups were labelled to the partnership of McKay & Redpath, one to Robert Drummond, and one to the partnership of White and Phillips
The other cups are similar, the one to Phillips and White for their work on the lock and dam at Black Rapids and the lock, dam and waste weir at Long Island. The one to Robert Drummond for the four locks, dam and waste weir at Kingston Mills, one lock, dam and waste weir at at Brewers Mills and one lock, dam and waste weir at Davis’s Mill. The official opening was to be made in Bytown, then everyone would board a steamship and make their through the newly completed locks to Burritts Rapids. It would be a great day, a grand celebration. However, as the day of the big celebration drew nearer, a problem cropped up. The water in the lower section of the Rideau suddenly dropped below navigation level. There wasn’t going to be any grand cruise through this completed section of the canal. Word quickly came to Colonel By that the problem with the water levels was due to one of the millers located upstream, a certain William Mirick. When Colonel By and his surveyors arrived at the location of Merrick’s Mills in 1826, they found a thriving milling business, operated by William Mirick. Similar to all sections of the canal, By’s first preference was the bypass the existing mills, allowing these operations to continue uninterupted. This wasn’t always possible, he had to buy out the millers in some location, but at Merrick’s Mills he came up with a plan that allowed the canal to be constructed with no interference to the existing mills. By’s original plan was to put the three locks slated for this spot in a “snie,” a flood channel that bypassed the mills, which were located in the main channel of the Rideau River. Mirick was using this flood channel as a bywash, a water bypass for his mills. After By’s first experience with spring flooding on the Rideau, he realized that his initial plan wouldn’t work, if he blocked Mirick's bywash, there was the potential that Mirick’s mills could be flooded. So, he opted for a new plan, to put the locks in a canal cut that bypassed both the mills and the bywash, leaving them completely intact. By placed his water control weir adjacent to the head of the canal cut. This allowed By to provide a navigation depth of water into the canal cut, while allowing most of the natural flow of the Rideau River to continue on to Mirick’s mills.
While we can assume that when By heard what Mirick had done, his normal ruddy complexion would have been more of a beet shade of red, and that some choice words would have been directed towards William Mirick, the letter By wrote to his superiors on August 19, 1831 is a model of restraint: “I have the honor to report that after exciting myself with the hope of opening the Rideau Canal on the 21st Instant from By Town to Burrits and having every thing ready to pass Steam Boats, I find the Navigation impeded by the supply of water being cut off by Mr. Merrick having dammed up the river, to enable him to perform repairs at his Mill etc.; I therefore respectfully beg to observe that if individuals are allowed to Control the waters of the Rideau Canal, the great expenditure that has already taken place will be rendered of little value; consequently it appears indispensably necessary that Mr. Merrick should be written to on this subject and that law Officers of the Crown should be authorized to take such steps as will effectually prevent such interruptions in future, waiting your instructions … " [Price, pg. 182]
The history books are silent on whether any "celebration" took place. We know that Colonel By presented Robert Drummond with his cup at Drummond's home in Kingston, a quieter affair than the planned grand celebration. By’s problems with William Mirick foreshadowed the decades long battles between the use of the water of Rideau Canal for navigation and of its use for powering mills (see Problems and Conflicts). Mirick’s mills thrived and the whole of the Rideau Canal was officially opened in May 1832. 
Sources: "Construction History of the Rideau Canal," by Karen Price, Manuscript Report 193, Parks Canada, Ottawa, 1976.
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