in the government; while always
willing to give his opinion when asked on any particular question, he
never volunteered his advice. His opinions, of course, received free
utterance in the _Globe_, which was more unfettered by reason of his
absence from parliamentary duties; though even there it was rarely
indeed that any articles were published which were calculated to
inconvenience or discomfort those who occupied his former
position."[21]

Left comparatively free to follow his own inclinations, Brown plunged
into farming, spending money and energy freely in the raising of fine
cattle on his Bow Park estate near Brantford, an extensive business
which ultimately led to the formation of a joint stock company. The
province of Ontario, especially western Ontario, was for him the
object of an intense local patriotism. He loved to travel over it and
to meet the people. It was noticed in the _Globe_ office that he paid
special attention to the weekly edition of the paper, as that which
reached the farming community. His Bow Park enterprise gave him an
increased feeling of kinship and sympathy with that community, and he
delighted in showing farmers over the estate. It would be hard to draw
a more characteristic picture than that of the tall senator striding
over the fields, talking of cattle and crops with all the energy with
which he was wont to denounce the Tories.

Brown was appointed to the senate in December, 1873. Except for the
speech on reciprocity, which is dealt with elsewhere, his career there
was not noteworthy. He seems to have taken no part in the discussion
on Senator Vidal's resolution in favour of prohibition, or on the
Scott Act, a measure for introducing prohibition by local option. A
popular conception of Brown as an ardent advocate of legislative
prohibition may have been derived from some speeches made in his early
career, and from an early prospectus of the _Globe_. On the bill
providing for government of the North-West Territories he made a
speech against the provision for separate schools, warning the House
that the effect would be to fasten these institutions on the West in
perpetuity.

In 1876 Senator Brown figured in a remarkable case of contempt of
court. A Bowmanville newspaper had charged Senator Simpson, a
political ally of Brown, with resorting to bribery in the general
election of 1872. It published also a letter from Senator Brown to
Senator Simpson, asking him for a subscription towards