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shall, however, have to allude briefly to the parts played by these gentlemen in the great struggle; briefly, because I am dealing with Canadian history from a special standpoint, and yet that special stand-point will not prevent me treating the period on which we are now entering in the broad epic spirit of history. Singularly happy for this work is it, that the two great periods of Canadian history were controlled by Irish genius. In other parts of the book—

"We must tread a tamer measure
To a milder homelier lyre."

and this little essay, from first to last, is but a tributary to the great river of history, and may one day be lost in its capacious stream. But the rivulet can quench the thirst of the faint, and refresh the weary limb; in its depths gems serene of ray may rest; the precious ore be cast up on its shores; beautiful lives glide through its crystal arcades; and this little book may likewise refresh, and inspire, and correct, and in the future even, speak fruitfully to men, undeceive the deceived, recall the betrayed from the mazes of betrayal, and help in that straightening, setting-up process, which I think is going on, and which years of slavery and a propaganda of passion and ignorance have made so necessary. It is better to be useful than famous. If these humble pages do a good day's work, others will take up the thread; echo will answer echo ; an influence unknown and unthought of will live in the lives of Irishmen, nay, of all Canadians, when the hand that traces these letters will be a clod of the valley. Beautiful results will bloom around, because wounded feelings have been healed, drooping hopes invigorated, noble ambitions kindled, charity diffused, justice vindicated, the truth told.

The rebellion of 1837-8, and the union of the two Canadas, were but incidents in the great struggle for responsible government, of which the foundation was laid in the closing years of the eighteenth century. But the structure rose slowly amid difficulty and strife. The building was a roofless shell until 1841, and the coping stone was not placed until six years afterwards.

Early, in both Lower and Upper Canada, inevitable difficulties arose out of the fact that popular government was allied with personal government, qualified by the cupidity of a second chamber.

A tendency towards independence in Lower Canada, and a dispute between the provinces respecting import duties, led the Imperial Parliament to attempt a solution by a Union Bill, which, while conceding the claims of Upper Canada in respect to import duties, leant strongly in the direction of making the Executive independent of the Assembly, a measure which caused much alarm among the people of French origin in Lower Canada. At a time, when the great question whether Frenchmen are fit for parliamentary government, is still discussed, it would be instructive to study the period now before us, in Lower Canada, and to note how much better, men of French descent understood the genius of popular institutions, than the English governors, or indeed English statesmen, always excepting, to go back nearly a quarter of a century, that extraordinary man Charles James Fox, whose genius made the future present, and the distant near.

In Lower Canada, in 1825, the estimates were laid before the Assembly without any distinction between the funds appropriated by the Crown, and the supplementary vote required from the House. The next year, Lord Dalhousie having returned from his short leave of absence in England, great indignation was created by the estimates being laid before the Assembly in two classes, and its fancied power over the Executive destroyed. With French Canadians of talent excluded from office; the mass of the people speaking a language alien to the Imperial isles; favouritism; seignorial rights; what could be expected but discontent on the part of a Province, now numbering four hundred and twenty thousand souls, and opposition and protest on the part of a chamber whose functions were reduced to the level of farce?

In Upper Canada, the Crown and Clergy Reserves which interfered with the settlement of the Province, as Mr. Talbot points out very eloquently in his book, and other abuses, created discontent. When in 1817, the Assembly wished to inquire into such matters, it was prorogued by the Governor-contemptuous treatment which could have but one result, to aggravate discontent. Amid discontent and discussion, the root of existing evils was seen, and responsible government, in one form or another, began to take outline in thoughtful minds.

About this time a Scotchman named Gourlay, appeared like a

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portentous comet on the horizon of "The Family Compact." He was full of inquiries, and full of schemes, and therefore a visitor most unpleasant to those who were farming this great Province for themselves. The foolish Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, instead of seeing that whatever tended to raise discussion, and to foster interest in the country, was calculated to create a public spirit, without which free institutions are a doubtful blessing, levelled a paragraph of a speech from the throne at the head of a persecuted man, who, whatever his eccentricities, had new ideas, which are more valuable to a community than a thousand emigrants, being to it, indeed, what light and sunshine are to the physical world, bringing freshness, opening up lanes of beauty and avenues of wealth. In a population of one hundred and twenty thousand, meetings of delegates were prohibited, in order to hit poor Gourlay. This Act was a couple of years afterwards repealed, under the influence of an impending election. Every year the Reform Party was taking shape and consistency. The General Election of the Autumn of 1825, resulte 1 in an Assembly in which the Family Compact was in a minority, and outside the Assembly the mantle of Gourlay had fallen on William Lyon Mackenzie. Little need be said, especially in this work, of Mackenzie. His story, surely, notwithstanding some faults not an unaffecting one, has been told by an appreciative and able pen.* It would be ungenerous to deny either Mackenzie or Gourlay, some of the credit for responsible government. But neither of them conceived the idea of responsible government as we enjoy it. Mackenzie advocated making the Legislative Council elective. This, he thought, would remedy all existing evils. Baldwin was the first to see how the knot might be cut, and it is to him we owe our present form of government, and that the country tided successfully over a dangerous crisis.

That there were ample grounds for complaint and agitation in those days may be easily shown. In 1825, a question arose respecting the reporting of the debates of the House of Assembly. A vote was passed to meet the expense, but was dishonoured by the governor. In 1826, a committee was appointed to inquire into

* Charles Lindsey.

the expediency of encouraging reporting, with power to send for persons and papers. John Rolph was chairman, and he reported on the 26th of December. It was submitted that in every free country the public had encouraged the reporting of Legislative proceedings, that the English House of Commons had never succeeded in embarrassing or suppressing their publication, that valuable knowledge relating to parliamentary history, the usages and privileges of parliament, and the liberties of the people had been derived from such publication, that in the then state of the Province there was not sufficient patronage given to any one journal to reward a reporter for the time and labour which would be consumed in reporting the debates, and that as the vote of the previous years had been dishonoured by His Excellency, it was the duty of the Committee to recommend in the strongest manner such measures for the security and independence of the press as was in the power of the House, and free from the veto or control of the present administration. It is evident from this what was the arbitrary character of the Government in 1826.

Again, on February 14th, 1827, John Wilson, the speaker of the Commons House of Assembly, in the name of the House, addressed His Excellency, saying that they had learned that it was his design to prorogue parliament on the following Saturday. The number and importance of the measures in progress before them and which it would be impossible to despatch by that time induced them to request that His Excellency would be pleased to defer the prorogation to a more distant day. The request was refused, and the House was prorogued on Saturday the 19th.

Sir P. Maitland, in his reply, said it was with reluctance he had in the previous year acceded to a similar request from the Legislative Council. To avoid the occurrence of such a necessity he had that session given an early intimation of the intended time of prorogation. If any unforeseen objects of great moment had presented themselves, he took it for granted that they would have referred to them. If none such had occurred he would rather leave it to the Legislature to resume at a future session any matter not of extraordinary public moment which might be left unfinished, than "produce uncertainty on all future occasions by departing from the day I have named."

At this time we find W. W. Baldwin in parliament, he and Wm. Lyon Mackenzie apparently working together. The Honourable Henry John Bolton, Solicitor-General, was censured by the House for his conduct in what was known as the Hamilton Outrage, and for his bearing before a committee appointed by the House. The reproof of the Speaker is on the journals. Dr. Baldwin was active in bringing Bolton and Allan MacNab before the House.

Dr. Baldwin had a firm grasp of the principles of popular liberty, and he bequeathed his principles as well as his integrity to his son. Indeed his son expressly declares in a letter written to a member of the House of Assembly, with reference to his negotiations with Sir Francis Bond Head, that his opinions were not hastily formed, but were imbibed from his father. The student of the journals of the Upper Canada House of Assembly, will find Dr. Baldwin mooting constitutional questions in 1825. The last most striking glimpse we get of him was at the great Reform demonstration held in Yonge Street, and called the Durham meeting. The old Doctor," says an eye-witness," was pulled off the waggon, and they told him it was only his gray hairs saved him. Hincks was there too, and he had to run for his life."

He early removed to Toronto, where his son Robert was born, in 1804. Here, if a Canadian colloquialism is permissible, he went back on Esculapius, and began to court the stern Muse of law. Rather would it be more correct to say that he united medical and forensic practice. He had, so early as 1802, employed himself in the even more useful character of pedagogue. Advertisements appeared in the public prints of those days, saying that Dr. Baldwin, understanding that some of the gentlemen of the Town of York were anxions for the establishment of a classical school, intended to open a school in which he would instruct twelve boys in writing, reading, classics, and arithmetic, the terms for each boy being eight guineas per annum, payable quarterly or half-yearly, "one guinea entrance, and one cord of wood to be supplied by each of the boys on opening the school." A note to the advertisement said that the advertiser would meet his pupils at Mr. Willcocks's house, on Duke Street. The date is York, Dec. 18th, 1802, and the school was to commence on the 1st of January. One of his pupils was the late Chief Justice McLean, who used to tell