o
yield anything to popular demands, and they held on their course with
dogged pertinacity, as though animated by a fixed resolve that the
public indignation which had been aroused by the Gourlay prosecutions
should not be permitted to subside. Erelong a new opportunity for
applying the thumb-screw presented itself, and it was taken advantage of
to the fullest practicable extent. During the recess following the close
of the first session of the Eighth Provincial Parliament, which was
prorogued on the 14th of April, 1821, a vacancy occurred in the
representation of the constituency of the United Counties of Lennox and
Addington. The local Reformers took advantage of the opportunity thus
afforded of bringing out a candidate who had rendered much service to
Liberal principles in Upper Canada, and who was eminently fitted to
impart strength to the Opposition in the Assembly. His name was Barnabas
Bidwell, and he was known far and wide as one of the keenest intellects
and as one of the best public speakers in the country. His past history
had been unfortunate, and as it was soon to be made the subject of
strict Parliamentary enquiry, a few leading facts in connection with it
may as well be set down here.

He was a native of Massachusetts, where he was born in the old colonial
days before the Revolution. He came of a Whig family which espoused the
colonial cause with ardour, but he was himself too young to take any
part in the great struggle which gave birth to the United States. Having
completed his education at Yale College, he studied law, and at an early
age rose to eminence at the Massachusetts bar. He became
Attorney-General of the State, and, though he had for his rivals some of
the ablest men known to American history, he was regarded by his
countrymen as one whose future was in his own hands. His manners were
courtly and refined, and his scholastic attainments wide and various. He
soon found his way to Congress, where his brilliant eloquence caused him
to be listened to with attention and respect.

Up to this time his career had been an uninterrupted success. But in
achieving his political eminence he had been unfortunate enough to make
for himself a good many bitter enemies. His political course seems to
have been somewhat arbitrary and uncompromising, insomuch that his
opponents regarded him with more rancorous feelings than are commonly
entertained among public men where there are no personal grounds for
enmity.