s; and I believe few
men would have more heartily welcomed Mr. Bidwell's return to Canada
than Mr. Justice Hagerman himself. Mr. Hagerman was a man of generous
impulses. He was a variable speaker, but at times his every gesture was
eloquent, his intonations of voice were truly musical, and almost every
sentence was a gem of beauty.

The discussion ended there; but no proposal was ever made to, much less
entertained by, the Law Society to erase Mr. Bidwell's name from its
rolls.

Mr. Bidwell's case did not, however, end here. In 1842, on the
recommendation of Hon. Robert Baldwin, any promise given by Mr. Bidwell
not to return to Canada--of which no record was found in any of the
Government offices--was revoked, in 1843, by the Governor-General (Lord
Metcalfe). Mr. Bidwell was also strongly urged to come back, and a
promise was given to him by the authority of the Governor-General that
all of his former rights and privileges would be restored to him, with a
view to his elevation to the Bench. He, however, declined to return.
Again, some years afterwards, when Sir W. B. Richards was
Attorney-General, he was authorized to offer Mr. Bidwell the position of
Commissioner to revise our Statute Law. He declined that offer also.

In conversation, in 1872, with Sir John Macdonald in relation to Mr.
Bidwell's early life, Sir John informed me that some years before, he
himself had, while in New York, solicited Mr. Bidwell to return to
Canada, but without success. Sir John said that he had done so, not
merely on his own account (as he had always loved Mr. Bidwell, and did
not believe that he had any connection whatever with the rebellion), but
because he believed that he represented the wishes of his political
friends, as well as those of the people of Canada generally.

Mr. Bidwell was an earnest Christian. He was also a charming companion.
A few weeks before his lamented decease, he visited his relatives and
friends in Canada, spent a Sabbath in Toronto, occupying a seat in my
pew in the Metropolitan Church. While here he presented me with a
beautiful likeness of himself on ivory. I have placed it in the Canadian
room of our Departmental Museum. I little thought it was my last meeting
with him, as I had long anticipated and often intended to visit him in
New York, where he promised to narrate to me many incidents of men and
things in the Canada of former years, which had not come to my
knowledge, or which I had forgotten. A sui