MARSHALL SPRING BIDWELL
In the old ante-rebellion days ot Upper Canada, when a Family Compact still held the reins of government, and jealously guarded every avenue to power; in the days of a venal judiciary, and a press prostituted to the will of the ruling oligarchy; when every project for the improvement of the condition of the people was trodden under foot, and when a few patriotic and enlightened men were valiantly fighting the battle which at last brought about Responsible Government, no name was more familiar in the ears of Upper Canadians than was that of the subject of this sketch. Local historians have done very inadequate justice to the part played by him in our history, and his connection with Canada terminated more than forty years ago, so that during the last two generations he has quietly passed out of public memory. Yet the name of Marshall Spring Bidwell is one which deserves to be held in perpetual remembrance by the people of this country as that of a lawyer of great learning and ability; as a legislator of singular purity of character, sincerely desirous of leaving the world better than he found it.
He was born at Stockbridge, in the State of Massachusetts, in the month of February, 1799. His father, Barnabas Bidwell, was a lawyer of considerable local eminence, who had been engaged in the active practice of his profession ever since the termination of the War of Independence. The latter rose in his profession by steady degrees, and before reaching middle age became Attorney-General of the State. He was afterwards returned as Member of Congress, and seems to have served in that capacity during at least one session. Later still, be became Treasurer of the County of Berkshire, in his native State. He was a man of high culture and attainments both in his profession and oat of it, and was distinguished for courtly and agreeable manners, great powers of conversation, and a high degree of mental activity. He was an ardent Republican, and took a most pronounced stand in the national politics. His career as
