upon the commonest member of society. 'Am
I,' said you, 'the son of a U. E. Loyalist, who fought and bled for his
country, to sit within these walls with disloyal runaway felons,
pickpockets and murderers from the United States?'--(the loyal tears
flowing.) Yes, Sir, you coaxed, you threatened, you argued, you wept,
until you prevailed upon a corrupt and cringing House, as I have before
remarked, to turn Mr. Bidwell out of his seat, unconstitutionally,
illegally and unjustly; and the next day you were obliged to get one of
your tools to bring in a Bill to cover this illegal proceeding, and
prevent his re-election, thus forever depriving the country of the
valuable services of a man better qualified for a legislator, in point
of learning, talent and experience than yourself, or any other man,
perhaps, in Upper Canada. Now, Sir, if you viewed it as a disgrace to
sit in the same House with the father, although in every respect your
superior, how will it suit you to bend your outrageously loyal neck to
his son in the Speaker's chair, who, it is my opinion, is the most fit
person in the new House to fill it, and who, I doubt not, will be
elected?"

The letter from which the foregoing extract is taken bears date December
25th, and appears in the _Freeman_ of that date. The prediction in the
concluding sentence was verified. Mr. M. S. Bidwell was elected Speaker
at the opening of the session in January, 1829.

[62] See 4 Geo. IV., sess. 2, chapter 3, passed 19th January, 1824.

[63] _Canadian Portrait Gallery_, Vol. I., pp. 17, 46.

[64] It is to the exertions of Robert Baldwin himself that we owe the
abolition of the doctrine of primogeniture as applied to real estate in
Upper Canada. He it was who, while Attorney-General for the Western
Province, introduced and carried through the measure of 1851.

[65] Quoted by Mr. Lindsey, in his _Life and Times of William Lyon
Mackenzie_, Vol. I., pp. 40, 41.

[66] Among those who approved of such a provision no one was more
outspoken than was Mr. Mackenzie himself. In the very first number of
the _Advocate_ he clearly laid down his platform on this question. "In
no part of the constitution of the Canadas," he writes, "is the wisdom
of the British Legislature more apparent than in its setting apart a
portion of the country, while yet it remained it wilderness, for the
support of religion." He expressed himself in favour of a law whereby
the ministers of every body of professing Ch