Mr. Baldwin and his friends succeeded to
power under Sir Charles Bagot.

This was the state of things until 1843, when Sir Charles Bagot died,
and Sir Charles Metcalfe was appointed to succeed him. I had the
melancholy pleasure of offering a tribute (in the form of an obituary
notice) to the character and administration of both Lord Sydenham and
Sir Charles Bagot--papers much noticed and widely circulated at the time
as the best specimens of any writing which had ever appeared; but I had
a genial theme and good subjects in both cases. Sir Charles Metcalfe was
popular with all parties at first: but after a few months a difference
arose between him and his Councillors as to the appointment of the Clerk
of the Peace of the County of Lanark, and then on the principle of
appointments to office; or in other words, the exercise of the patronage
of the Crown.

To understand the character of this famous and much misrepresented
controversy, and how I became involved in it, some preliminary and
explanatory remarks are necessary:--

It is to be observed in the first place, that one chief subject of
complaint by "Reformers" for many years--nay from the beginning--was the
partial exercise of the patronage of the Crown, appointing magistrates,
officers of militia, judges, etc., from men of one party only, in whose
behalf every kind of executive favour was bestowed for years. This was
the purport of their complaints in the various petitions and addresses
of "Reformers" to the Earl of Durham, Lord Sydenham, Sir Charles Bagot,
etc., who necessarily promised that the Governments should henceforth be
conducted upon the principles of justice, "according to the well
understood wishes of the people," of whom "Reformers" claimed to
contribute a large majority, and even of the liberal Conservative
members of the Church of England. But singular to say, on the occurrence
of the first vacancy, the Reform government urged upon Sir Charles
Metcalfe the appointment of one of their own party, irrespective of the
superior claims, as the Governor conceived (on the ground of service,
experience and fitness), of a deserving widow and her orphan son. The
circumstances were as follows:--

Amongst the early gentlemen immigrants in the County of Lanark was
a Mr. Powell, a man of wealth and education; but in attempting to
clear and cultivate a farm in a new country, he soon expended his
means and became reduced in circumstances. He was