ity," proceeded Mr. Bidwell, "a ready and cheerful respect should
be shown towards the House of Assembly, who represent the people of the
Province, whom the constitution has entrusted with important privileges
for the benefit of their constituents, and who are amenable to them for
all that they do. But it might in a peculiar degree have been expected
of you, whose duty it is to enforce submission to the laws and respect
for the institutions of the country." Here Mr. Boulton bowed his head as
if in mute assent. He was then informed that the House could not permit
this formal and gratuitous denial of its authority to pass unnoticed.
"It is important," continued the Speaker, "that by its proceedings
against you a warning should be given, before others are led by the
influence of your sentiments and conduct to dispute an authority which
the House is bound to vindicate and enforce. It is necessary that it
should go thus far; but it gives me great satisfaction to observe that
its duty does not compel, nor its inclination induce it, in your case,
to go any farther than is requisite to attain this object; and, finding
from your answer that you are now disposed to treat its privileges with
just and becoming respect, and to defer your own private opinion to the
judgment of that body whose constitutional right it is to decide upon
its own privileges, it is willing to dismiss you with no other
punishment than this admonition from its Speaker. This moderation is a
proof that these privileges have been safely lodged by the constitution
in its hands, and that they will never be used in a wanton or oppressive
manner. It is by the order and in the name of the House that I thus
admonish you, and direct that the Sergeant-at-Arms do now discharge you
from custody." He was discharged accordingly, and left the house
profoundly affected by the magnanimity of the man whom he had so
grievously injured. One who seems to have watched him as he took his
departure has recorded that the Boulton crest never hung so low as at
that hour.[146] Nothing could have more clearly proved the greatness of
soul of Mr. Bidwell than this episode; nothing could have more
effectually illustrated his capacity to rise superior to all merely
personal considerations when entrusted with the discharge of a public
duty. The London _Times_ published a full report of his admonition,
which it pronounced to be the best paper of the kind on record.

During the following summer