were precisely of the same opinion as Dr.
Baldwin. They were sick and weary of all that they saw around them. They
would have cordially welcomed a bloodless revolution. As for Bidwell, he
would gladly have seen the Province quietly absorbed by the United
States, for Family Compact domination would then have been at an end,
and there would have been a chance for a man to be rated according to
his merits. One situated as he was could not be expected to be devotedly
loyal to a Government which did its utmost to keep him down, and which
raised a lawyer like Jonas Jones to the bench over his head. Like his
father before him, he was a republican in principle, and would doubtless
have been willing enough to see a republican form of Government
established in Upper Canada; but he had never permitted his
predilections to interfere with his duties as a citizen and legislator.
Moreover, he was before all things a Christian and a man of peace. It is
not by such as he that revolutions are planned or accomplished. If
questioned on the subject, he would doubtless have admitted that
rebellion, under certain circumstances, may be justifiable, but it is
hardly possible to conceive of any circumstances under which he could
have been induced to take part in such a movement. Assuredly, nothing
short of an almost absolute certainty of success would have impelled him
to such a course. The inherent probabilities of success in the case of
the Upper Canadian rebellion were from the first very few and remote.
There was a brief interval during which, owing to the stupidity and
supineness of the Government, success might have been achieved, but
whether it would have been temporary or permanent must ever remain an
open question. In any case, the contingency was one upon which no
prudent man would have allowed himself to count beforehand. As a matter
of fact Mr. Bidwell had no more to do with the rebellion than had Robert
Baldwin.[274] Dr. Rolph, Dr. Morrison, David Gibson, James Hervey Price,
Francis Hincks, John Doel, James and William Lesslie, John
Mackintosh,[275] and many other leading Reformers were full of vehemence
and indignation, ready to go any reasonable length to bring about a
state of things more satisfactory to their party; but up to the close of
summer I cannot learn that any serious thought of rebellion had taken
possession of the minds of any prominent Toronto Reformer with the
exception of Mackenzie himself. Even up in North York and