sense_, is not to be attained but by a long
period of correct and honourable service." The italics are not Sir
Peregrine's, but they are deserving of all the emphasis which
distinguishing type can give them, as exemplifying the way in which the
representative of Majesty in those days was not ashamed to secretly
vilify persons who opposed his policy: persons who, whether contemplated
from a moral or an intellectual point of view, were elevated so far
above him that it is impossible to institute any comparison between
them. Will it be believed that the gentlemen who were "not very
respectable in any sense" were John Rolph, Marshall Spring Bidwell, Dr.
William Warren Baldwin, and Robert Baldwin? Was it not an honour to be
disreputable in such company? Some of these, at least, were men whom no
pressure of outward circumstances could have induced to stab their
bitterest foe in the dark, as this eminently respectable vice-regal
assassin was in the frequent habit of doing in his despatches, and as
he did when he wrote the mendacious words above quoted. Judge Willis
doubtless associated with these men because he found them more to his
taste than anyone else with whom he became acquainted in York. And his
doing so was made much more of than the facts warranted. His
acquaintance with the persons named was not of such a nature as to be
called intimate. In his "Narrative," already quoted from, he has
recorded that to the best of his recollection he never conversed with
Dr. Baldwin, Mr. Rolph, Mr. Bidwell, "or any other person politically
opposed to Mr. Robinson" a dozen times in the course of his life; and in
a separate defence of his conduct written at Bath in December, 1828, he
says: "From what I know of Dr. Baldwin and his family, I must always
sincerely regret that I have not known more."[109]

Having arrived at such a decision as to the constitution of the Court,
and having apprised the Colonial Secretary thereof, he took the earliest
feasible opportunity of making it known to the Provincial bar. At ten
o'clock in the forenoon of the opening day of Trinity Term--which was
Monday, the 16th of June--he repaired to the Court House at York. While
robing himself in the Judge's chamber he was joined by his colleague,
Justice Sherwood, and a few moments afterward they both proceeded to the
Court room, attended by the Sheriff in the usual manner. The Court
having been formally opened, Judge Willis arose and addressed the
audience, sta