t only stop to assure you of the sentiments of
unabated affection and respect with which you have ever continued
to be regarded in this country, during the whole period of your
exile, and to express my conviction of the satisfaction with which
your return will be hailed by all your former friends, and by many
even of your former political opponents--in which satisfaction, I
trust, I need scarcely add that no one will more sincerely
participate than myself.

The following is a copy of Mr. Baldwin's note to Sir Charles Metcalfe,
the Governor-General, dated 25th May:--

Mr. Robert Baldwin, having been informed by Mr. Secretary Harrison
that with reference to the case of Mr. Bidwell, which Mr. Baldwin
had the honour of bringing under the notice of the Governor-General
shortly after his assumption of the Government, His Excellency only
requires a request to be made to him as a foundation for his
directing that the pledge taken from that gentleman, in his
departure from Upper Canada, should be cancelled, and giving His
Excellency's sanction for the introduction into Parliament of a
Bill to restore to Mr. Bidwell the political rights of which his
residence abroad, under pressure of that pledge, has deprived him,
Mr. Baldwin respectfully begs leave to make that request.

The letter in reply, of Mr. Secretary Harrison to Hon. Robert Baldwin,
dated 29th May, was as follows:--

I am commanded by the Governor-General to inform you, in reply to
your note of the 25th inst., that His Excellency considers it right
that whatever pledge may have been given by Mr. Bidwell on his
departure from Upper Canada, to preclude his return, should be
cancelled. The letter of that gentleman to the then
Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head, supposed to contain
such a pledge, is not to be found in the archives of the
Secretary's office. I am, therefore, directed to say that the
pledge is considered as cancelled, and that the letter, if ever
found, may be returned.

I am also further desired to acquaint you that in the event of Mr.
Bidwell's proposing to return, His Excellency will give his
sanction to the introduction into Parliament of a Bill to restore
to that gentleman the political rights of which his residence
abroad, under pressure of his pledge, deprived him.

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