af Parliament, and died Sir Allan MacNabb. When Mr. Solicitor-General Boulton came before the House, he understood its spirit, and so iadroitly explained his offence that, after debate, it was resolved that he should be let off with a reprimand from the Speaker. It was believed, however, that this wonld be no slight penalty. The Solicitor-General had been a principal opponent of the elder Mr. Bidwell, had favoured, his removal from the House, and the adoption of the special statute which had closed the doors of Parliament to him forever. In the language of the newspapers of the day, there was a deadly feud between the Bidwells and the Boultons. Great concern was felt on the part of Mr. Boulton's friends lest he should be roughly handled, for it was feared that the son would pay off all the father's old debts. Mark the sequel. The occasion when the Solicitor-General was brought to the bar of the House was one of great ceremony and solemnity. In the first part of the reprimand, when the Speaker was vindicating the power of Parliament, and stating that he could not forget that its power and dignity had been offended and sought to be impaired by one who was the legal adviser of the Government—an example most pernicious—Mr. Boulton appeared calm, if not indifferent; but as the Speaker proceeded, and administered the required reproof with such magnanimity and forbearance that a mere observer could not have told whether the offender was or was not a personal friend of the Speaker, Mr. Boulton, recognizing the presence of a superior mind and. heart, was humbled, and finally left the House profoundly affected. The London Times, in publishing that reprimand, declared it to be the best paper of the kind on record. These circumstances are not without present interest as illustrating how Marshall Spring Bidwell, when charged with the performance of a great constitutional duty, could rise to the dignity of the occasion, quite above mere personal and party dissensions, and could discharge that duty in the spirit of a lofty and high-minded statesman.
The peculiar circumstances under which Mr. Bidwell ceased to reside in Canada must now be related. All readers of these pages are familiar with the leading facts in the history of the insurrection of 1837 and 1838, under the auspices of William Lyon Mackenzie. The rising was quickly suppressed, and the insurgents dispersed; but among the banners captured, from them was one bearing the inscription, "Bidwell and the Glorious Minority." This was, in fact, an old political banner
