a preeminence therein as great as
he had ever attained at the bar. There was no regularly-organized
medical college in Upper Canada, and the facilities for acquiring a
competent medical training were few. In response to urgent requests from
a number of influential persons in Toronto he established a private
medical class, and gave instruction to a limited number of students. His
teaching was eminently successful, and he made himself greatly beloved
by his students. He seemed to have the whole round of medical literature
at his fingers' ends, and his marvellous knowledge and graphic power of
expression kindled in the breasts of the young men a love of knowledge
for its own sake.[182] By no one were his attainments held in higher
respect than by the Lieutenant-Governor. Sir John urged him to found a
permanent medical college, and promised that Government aid for such an
enterprise should not be wanting. But Dr. Rolph had other views. He had
for several years been out of public life, but with no idea of so
remaining. He was resolved to re-enter Parliament at the first suitable
opportunity, and did not allow his professional pursuits to absorb all
his attention. Unlike Robert Baldwin, who to a great extent held himself
aloof from politics at this time, Rolph took a leading part at Reform
meetings and caucuses, and did his utmost to give practical shape to the
Reform policy. Baldwin, notwithstanding his undoubted zeal for Liberal
principles, was imbued with somewhat exclusive social ideas, and was
not in active sympathy with the Reformers at this period. He regarded
Mackenzie as very much of a demagogue, and as a person with whom he
could not hold any very intimate relations. The sentiments entertained
by Baldwin for Mackenzie seem to have been closely akin to those
entertained by Sir John Falstaff for the troops with whom he declared
that he would not march through Coventry. Mackenzie's noisy verbosity
and self-assertion offended the patrician instincts of Mr. Baldwin, to
whom, indeed, the little proletarian was altogether distasteful and
repulsive. This feeling, however, seems to have been due to the
antipathetic natures of the two men, rather than to any mere feeling of
exclusiveness on the part of Mr. Baldwin. They had as little in common
as two persons very well could have. Without entering any further into
the question, it will be sufficient to say that the one had a judgment
under strict discipline, while the judgment o