Robert Baldwin

This article is about the Canadian lawyer and politician Robert Baldwin . For the US poker player, see Bobby Baldwin .

Baldwin 1851

Robert Baldwin (born May 12, 1804 in York ( Toronto ), † December 9, 1858 near Toronto) was a Canadian lawyer and politician.

He is considered one of the pioneers of Canadian independence and overcoming the intra-Canadian opposition between the Catholic French Canadians and English-speaking Anglicans in the country. He led the governments of the provinces of Upper Canada and Canada from 1842 to 1843 and from 1848 to 1851 together with Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine ( Great Ministry ).

In 1830 Baldwin was a member of the parliament of the British colony of Upper Canada , which was dissolved that same year. In 1836 he was appointed to the Executive Council , but withdrew after just one month. He pushed for the interests of the colony to be taken into account in the form of its own parliamentary representation (responsible government). In 1840 he was again a member of the Executive Council as Solicitor General and he was also represented in the parliament of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, which were united in 1841, but also withdrew here due to lack of support. In 1842 he became Deputy Premier, working closely with Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, but here too he retired on November 26, 1843. The reform party he led was defeated in the following elections, but won in 1848. During this second term of office (1848-1851) Baldwin was able to get the University of Toronto largely freed from religious influences, in addition to reforms of the administration at the regional level (municipalities).

In 1851 Baldwin resigned as a result of a dispute over the role of the courts he established. The deeper cause was the internal party dispute with the internal party opponents known as radicals, the Clear Grits . His re-election failed because of the question of the clergy reserve , that is, land areas whose income was used to support the Catholic and Anglican clergy . The Liberal-Conservative Party, which emerged from 1853, tried to win him as a candidate in 1854, but he refused. He died on December 8, 1858 in Spadina House , now a museum.

Historical context

Since the independence of the United States, Great Britain has sought to reorganize the remaining colonies from which Canada would emerge. In the Quebec Act of 1774, London had assured the French majority that their mother tongue and religion would be protected. However, this majority was broken when more than 10,000 refugees were resettled in the remaining parts of the colonial empire after the end of the American Revolutionary War . This happened above all in the area of what would later become Toronto , which at that time was still called York . The English share of the population grew so strongly that the province was divided in the constitutional law of 1791 . This is how the mostly English-speaking Upper Canada and Lower Canada emerged , where a majority spoke French.

In the British-American War (1812-1814 or 1815) US troops invaded Upper Canada, but were repulsed by 350 British soldiers, militias and warriors of the First Nations , especially the Ojibwa . Nevertheless, the Americans occupied and sacked the capital, York, and burned down the parliament building. In return, British troops in Washington burned the White House in 1814 .

A group of aristocratic families, the so-called Family Compact , dominated the economy and politics even after the war. Republican groups resisted them. In 1837 two uprisings broke out, both aimed at the introduction of self-government, the Lower Canada Rebellion led by Louis-Joseph Papineau and the Upper Canada Rebellion led by William Lyon Mackenzie . Lord Durham was to investigate the causes of the disturbance. He proposed extensive self-government, plus the unification of Upper and Lower Canada in order to gradually assimilate the French Catholic minority. So the two colonies were united to the province of Canada . The colony received self-government rights in 1848. At that time Canada West already had over 450,000 inhabitants. In 1846, Colonial Secretary Lord Albert Gray determined that the lieutenant governor should not rule against the majority of the population. In 1848 he commissioned Baldwin and La Fontaine to form a government.

In 1854, London agreed with the United States to abolish numerous protective tariffs. Trade, greatly encouraged by the construction of multiple canals and the Grand Trunk Railway to Montreal and on to Halifax on the Atlantic, spawned new interest groups and became one of the most important integrators for nascent Canada. He promoted the transformation of the agrarian feudal country into a capitalist one, a development which the East lagged behind. Logically, in 1858, the West opted for the Liberals and the East for the Conservatives.

Origin and youth

Robert Baldwin was the eldest son of William Warren Baldwin and Margaret Phoebe Willcocks, who went to Canada from Ireland in 1798 . Having grown up with a strong family focus, he later called his mother “the master mind of our family”. She provided for his earliest education. In 1818 the family bought a house in Toronto, the Spadina House. Its name goes back to the Indian name espadinong , which means hill . In 1820 his young brother Henry died, and Robert was also sickly and prone to melancholy.

He made friends with James Hunter Samson, who had moved from York, later Toronto , to Kingston in early 1819 . The two corresponded about love and friendship. Baldwin considered the love of man and woman to be nobler than friendship between men. Baldwin wrote poems that he shared with his friend, but also criticized. In June 1819 he gave up the plan to write an epic and instead wrote an “Ode to Tecumse”, which Samson liked very much. It touched on a second central theme, honor or general virtue. His family had no idea of ​​the self-doubts that moved him.

Great love, lawyer

In 1825 he fell in love with his 15-year-old cousin Augusta Elizabeth Sullivan. For him, the admission as a lawyer, which took place in April 1825, was insignificant in comparison. When the family found out, they sent Eliza, whom he described as "the sweetest source of my future happiness and the kindest soother of my future disappointments," to New York .

Baldwin took up his position on June 20, and three days later his father, who was himself treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada , tried him in court. The dependence of his happiness with Eliza on success in his position frightened him, as he wrote to Eliza. He toured the western and central districts of the province and was more successful than he expected.

In the late summer of 1825 a collaboration began with the lawyer and physician John Rolph . Soon Baldwin and Rolph were in a lawsuit against James Buchanan Macaulay . Rolph let Baldwin do the talking, and to his amazement he was extremely successful. Nevertheless, he continued to fear mediocrity, because he believed he would not be able to make Eliza happy then, as he admitted to her. At the same time, he felt that he was attracted by the mere right.

On May 31, 1827, Robert and Eliza were married, who suffered greatly from their first pregnancy. They read the Bible together and Robert hoped that even after death he would not be separated from his wife. They should have two sons and two daughters. He led trials with his father and brother-in-law Robert Baldwin Sullivan, often together with John Rolph from 1831.

Entry into politics

In 1828, for the first time in Canadian history, there was a campaign against the so-called Responsible Government , which meant a mode of government that was not only oriented towards the interests of the colonial power Great Britain, but also saw itself primarily responsible for the colony. The administration of Sir Peregrine Maitland was criticized, among others by William Warren Baldwin and John Rolph, but also by Marshall Spring Bidwell. On June 17, 1828, John Walpole Willis presented his opinion that the Court of King's Bench was unlawful. The governor then dismissed him and dissolved the Executive Council on June 26th.

Robert Baldwin thought the process was an important and alarming crisis and stood for election in York County . However, the election was won by Jesse Ketchum and William Lyon Mackenzie , Baldwin was the last of 40 candidates. Despite the elections, a petition was tabled on August 15 calling for responsible government , with Robert Baldwin playing a central role. Maitland was compelled to defend his administration against London , claiming that the Baldwins were the only gentlemen who were in common with the opposition.

On November 13, 1828, Baldwin was urged by the committee to address the Governor General Sir John Colborne. In meetings he protested against Willis' recall. In a by-election in December 1829, after John Beverley Robinson gave up his seat for York to become Chief Justice, Baldwin defeated his opponent James Edward Small. However, due to a procedural error, the election was retried, but Baldwin also won against the new challenger. On January 30, 1830, he took his seat in the congregation.

As a shareholder in the Bank of Upper Canada , Baldwin intervened in its administration. So he allied himself with other owners to get an independent director on the board. Baldwin was set up himself, but lost to Samuel Peters Jarvis.

With the death of King George IV in June 1830, the parliament was dissolved. In the following election, Baldwin lost to WB Jarvis. With that he disappeared from the political stage, which he never loved.

Eliza's death, adviser to the governor general, trip to Europe

During this time, Baldwin feared for the health of his wife above all. On April 17, 1834, Robert Baldwin Junior was born by caesarean section . However, the mother's health was badly damaged afterwards, and in 1835 she traveled to New York with her father-in-law to recuperate. There she died on January 11, 1836. In 1835, Spadina, the shared house, burned down, and the next year the family built a new house on what is now Front Street in Toronto.

The new Governor General, Sir Francis Bond Head, arrived in Toronto on January 23, 1836. Head chose Robert Baldwin, whose support he valued highly and whom he considered moderate. Baldwin, however, was in dispute with the three counselors Heads. After consultations with his father and John Rolph, Robert Baldwin declined the seat. Even a far-reaching concession did not change his attitude. Baldwin finally agreed to it only on a trial basis. Rolph and Dunn also received seats and they were sworn in on February 20th.

In a memorandum , the new advisors called for a responsible government , which in their view was in line with the British constitution. Head denied this on March 5th, and on March 12th they resigned accordingly. The meeting, led by Peter Perry, condemned Head's concession, denied constitutional compliance, and the dispute escalated.

Apparently, Baldwin managed to win over important men like Robinson, Markland, and Wells. The Bidwell spokesman was one of the most influential figures alongside Rolph, while Mackenzie, Bidwell and Peter Perry lost their elections. Baldwin went to England on April 30, 1836 , complained to the Colonial Office . He wrote to the colonial secretary, Lord Glenelg, complaining about the autocratic regiment in Upper Canada. Then he went to Ireland , where he researched his ancestors. He did not return until February 10, 1837. Meanwhile, Rolph led the reformers, while a radical group led by Mackenzie chose to use force. Rolph did not inform the colonial government; whether he should take a leading role after the uprising is unclear. He fled to the USA, where he remained in exile for five years, only to return in August 1843.

Baldwin defended several participants after the Double Rebellion of 1837, such as Thomas David Morrison. In March 1838 Head's successor Sir George Arthur came into office, a little later the Earl of Durham [Lambton] became governor-in-chief . He advocated the introduction of responsible government . Francis Hincks , a neighbor, good friend, and Baldwin's banker became the chief strategist of the Upper Canada's reform group . He wanted to win Baldwin and the reform group in Lower Canada .

Lord Sydenham, Solicitor general

This alliance was achieved by Governor Charles Edward Poulett Thomson, who later became Lord Sydenham. Colonial Secretary Lord John Russell wrote to Thomson on October 10, 1839, that a new relationship between the Assembly and the Governor General was necessary. William Warren Baldwin was even convinced that he was close to the goal. Russell, however, aimed to restructure the Executive Council and strike a balance with the Governor General. Thomson made Robert Baldwin solicitor general (Advocate General) in February 1840 , but without a seat in the assembly.

When the association was proclaimed in February 1841, Baldwin withdrew. Sydenham, who won the election in March, called him in a letter “such an ass!” The French party won half the seats in Lower Canada, but corruption and intimidation led to the election of government officials. Only six Independents or ultra-reformers, including Baldwin, now sat in the congregation. Baldwin moved in for Hastings . He was sworn in, but rejected any influence from foreign powers, especially from the Pope and the Church.

Baldwin called for four cabinet posts for Franco-Canadians, but Sydenham maneuvered him by deliberately reinterpreting a threat of resignation as a petition. He accepted this request on June 13th.

One day later, on June 14, 1841, the first parliament of the two Canadas met. Francis Hincks made friends with Sydenham's regiment. His examiner already supported him in July, and in August he voted with him on important matters. He did not want to connect with the "unprogressive" French Canadians, but rather pursue an expansionist economic program. Baldwin and the Franco-Canadians blocked a “bank of issue” that was supposed to be responsible for the provision of stable money. He also opposed, albeit unsuccessfully, a British loan guarantee of 1.5 million pounds for the construction of canals, from which the government expected a closer connection between the spacious provinces, which were hardly accessible by road.

Baldwin consistently tried to exemplify the cultural balance, although he hardly spoke any French. His children consequently went to Francophone schools in Lower Canada, and he supported the leader of the Francophone party Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine .

On September 3, 1841, he set up his own resolution, which, however, was subject to the vote. Sydenham seemed to have managed to outmaneuver the resistance once more. But with his death on September 19th, the regime of harmony ended and the dams broke.

The rise of Hincks, ministerial office

Despite attacks in the Examiner , Baldwin publicly defended Hinck's former comrade in May 1842. He managed to get the Tories on his side.

The new governor Sir Charles Bagot made Hincks the inspector general of public accounts on June 9th. But as early as July, Attorney General William Henry Draper called for agreements with the opposition. However, Draper was not ready to vacate his chair for Baldwin, whom he believed to be a traitor. Bagot had to accept in September that the opposing forces were in the majority and he had to ignore instructions from London by contacting them. Baldwin and La Fontaine took office on September 16. So five reformers were added to the six existing ministers.

In October, Baldwin lost to Orange mobs, Anglican radicals, in Hastings and in 2nd York. He accepted a seat in Lower Canada. On January 30, 1843, he returned by acclamation to Rimouski in Québec, which he formed another connection between Upper and Lower Canada.

Attorney general west

From September 1842 to November 1843 Baldwin was attorney general west , but his opponents accused him of exercising office patronage and his friends of leaving too many Tories in office. In addition, he maintained too little of the important contacts. La Fontaine complained that he was not binding and that he did not answer letters. In 1843 Baldwin showed the first signs of depression .

1848 began his second term as Attorney general . Now his suffering became so severe that he no longer appeared in public and did not appear at numerous sessions, ten times in the first six weeks of the new parliament alone. In 1850 he hardly ever left the house from January to March. He suffered from frequent headaches and Provincial Secretary James Leslie was startled by his disorder. In 1850 he spoke of resigning.

The family, Governor Metcalfe

At home he still celebrated Eliza's birthday and wedding anniversary. His father died on January 8, 1844. He was more of a teacher than a loving father to his children, and his political duties required strict self-control.

When Bagot fell ill in November 1842, Baldwin and La Fontaine were the leading men until March 1843. But the new governor, Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe , came with instructions to eliminate the “radical” government. Metcalf was entitled to grant amnesties to the 1837 rebels, so he submitted to pressure and pardoned Louis-Joseph Papineau. Hincks and Baldwin worked together again in September 1843 and strengthened the material basis of the Upper Canadian schools, and also ensured that schools were denominationally separated. The capital wanted to move the government from Kingston to Montreal .

Metcalfe and Baldwin argued over how to deal with the Orange Order and its acts of violence. They burned pictures of Baldwin and Hincks in front of the Baldwin's home in Toronto on November 8th. On November 26, 1843, the opposition leaders resigned. In the September 1844 elections, Baldwin and Hincks (at Oxford ) lost, while the opposition in Lower Canada won a majority.

Baldwin did not let himself be put off, but continued to propagate responsible government and he demanded control of Canadian affairs by Canadians. Therefore, he is considered a Canadian nationalist. In March 1846 he said: “We want no foreign bayonets here.” (We don't want any foreign bayonets here).

The reign of the Tories, led by William Henry Draper and Denis-Benjamin Viger, changed a number of things, especially after Metcalfe's death. He was followed by Charles Murray Cathcart as Administrator and Governor General in November 1845 and April 1846, respectively.

Focus on politics

Baldwin wanted to focus on politics. He hired Lawrence Heyden in 1845 to manage the extensive family property. In 1848 he also withdrew from the legal work that he left to his partner Adam Wilson.

From January 1847 the reformers' prospects improved with the arrival of Lord Elgin [Bruce], the new governor. Baldwin succeeded in ensuring that the wives' dowries were better protected against the husband's access. This dispute was on his line, because he defended the individual right to property, also against corporations, mining and railway companies. This was by no means meant to be friendly towards women's rights. In 1849, on the contrary, his government stripped the upper Canadian women, who had property qualifications, the right to vote, even if in practice it had never been used.

Election victory, Great Ministry, resignation

In the elections of July 28, 1847, however, the university question was in the foreground. His opponent in his Toronto constituency was the editor of the British Colonist , Hugh Scobie, whose manager William Henry Boulton led the campaign against Baldwin. The "Baldwinites" gained a majority in January 1848 with 23 of the 42 seats in Upper Canada, their allies in Lower Canada even 33 of 42. In February Baldwin warned the American John Sandfield Macdonald against hasty reforms.

On March 3, parliament declared by 54 votes to 20 that it did not agree with the government. She resigned on March 4, the new ministers were sworn in on March 10, and the first cabinet meeting took place on March 14.

Men who many reformers regarded as traitors, such as Robert Baldwin Sullivan and René-Édouard Caron , belonged to the government that came to be known as the "Great Ministry". Four of the eleven ministers did not even get into office; only one, Malcolm Cameron, was part of the radical wing. He became assistant commissioner of public works .

The situation for the new government was difficult, especially given the economic problems. Hincks was again inspector general , but the deficits grew rapidly, despite promises to the contrary. Spending increased from £ 474,000 to £ 635,000 between 1848 and 1851. But in 1851 the economy recovered rapidly and the profit was £ 207,000.

Hincks was able to convince major investors that it was worth investing in railroad projects. William Hamilton Merritt joined the Cabinet on September 15, 1848. Free traders and protectionists faced each other. British law only permitted trade within the British Empire on British ships. Both directions, however, strongly promoted reciprocity with the USA, Baldwin and Hincks asked the Queen to repeal the obstructive laws, which actually happened by the end of the year. This limited intra-American free trade in the USA was supported by Senator John Adams Dix , a relative of Baldwin's.

La Fontaine, Sullivan, and Hincks negotiated in Washington between 1848 and 1851. Baldwin stumbled upon the Henry John Boulton case in January 1850, whom he allegedly had promised the post of judge. The Toronto Globe attacked Boulton, who later moved on to the Clear Grit radicals .

Baldwin's second term as attorney general was aimed at reforming the Upper Canadian legal system. Thus in 1849 a Court of Common Pleas and a Court of Error and Appeal was created ; the Court of Chancery was reformed and enlarged. However, it was this reform that led to strife and drove Baldwin out of politics in 1851.

Another point of contention was the question of how to deal with the rebels of 1837. Baldwin demanded an amnesty from London , which the government approved in 1849. John Rolph also fell under this amnesty.

But he did not come to an agreement with Robert Fleming Gourlay , who was expelled from Canada in 1819 , or with Marshall Spring Bidwell, who demanded a leadership role. WL Mackenzie, whom Baldwin did not come to terms with, had greater justification to sue. The two soon formed a dangerous enmity.

The Irish famine and revolutions in Europe made the situation worse. The immigration of more than 100,000 Irish in 1847, fleeing hunger in their homeland, changed the structure of the population again. By 1851, Canada West , as Upper Canada was now called, had over 950,000 inhabitants, making the region outperform the population of Canada East (Lower Canada) for the first time.

The transition from an agrarian, often feudalist to a capitalist economic and social order was brutal for most Canadians. The party groups known as Orange and Green were mixed up with violent protests by the Toronto Tories against Mackenzie's return, rebellious seafarers in Quebec, or railroad workers. The Francophones resisted centralizing the school system.

The Tories feared French dominance and turned their political power against La Fontaine. Baldwin held Parliament during the compensation debate, and negotiations went through the night of February 22nd to 23rd. When Lord Elgin ratified the negotiated law, the Rebellion Losses Bill , on the 25th, Baldwin's house was attacked. I guess he wasn't home.

Baldwin was by no means intimidated. He added French Canadians to his police force, but had to pull them out to avoid a bloodbath. In October 1849, the cabinet decided to move the capital from Montreal to Toronto. On the Annexationists who demanded connection to the United States, Baldwin responded with rough play. He drove her out of all political offices, and he warned radical reformer Peter Perry in an open letter that he only regarded those who stood by Britain as friends and all others as opponents.

With the Municipal Corporations Act , Baldwin's government had given local governments greater authority. Like the townships , the places, be it villages , towns or cities , were given the opportunity to be incorporated and thus to elect a local parliament. However, Perry attacked Baldwin because financial oversight was shared between provincial magistrates and county councils , a minimum electoral fortune was required , and key positions were held by the province.

The University of Toronto in its particular form was Baldwin's creation. With the University Bill of 1849 he deprived the Church of England of its power in higher education. The university should be secular, centralized and controlled by the government. Bishop Strachan, however, pushed through an Anglican college , Trinity College .

Another point of contention was the so-called clergy reserve . The Francophone and Catholic reformers did not go along with them because they feared that the expropriation of these lands, which were used to supply the clergy, would be followed by the struggle against the Catholic Church. Baldwin tried to reach a compromise. Thereafter, the revenue from the clergy reserve should be placed in the disposal of the Canadian parliament, but he failed with this project.

At the same time, tensions between Baldwin supporters and Clear grits increased. Malcolm Cameron was to reform the Schools Act , the Common Schools Act of 1841 , in the spring of 1849 . The bill, which Baldwin had not read, passed Parliament in May 1849. Its democratic and decentralized provisions led Egerton Ryerson, the superintendent of schools , to threaten his resignation. When Baldwin received the bill, Cameron resigned on December 1st. It fueled the discontent of the Clear Grits , who caused a serious election defeat for Cameron's successor.

Baldwin opposed calls for an elected legislative council because he feared secession from Britain. For June 3, 1850, Henry John Boulton and Louis-Joseph Papineau planned a discussion on exactly this constitutional issue. For reasons that are difficult to understand, conservatives like Henry Sherwood have shown an interest. Baldwin accused them of being Republicans, advocates of independence from a generous mother who, in his opinion, were guilty of sheer ingratitude. The Boulton – Papineau initiative failed, but not without Baldwin threatening to resign.

When the popular William Hamilton Merritt resigned from the cabinet on December 11, 1850 for rejecting its austerity measures, the Tories found the Globe as the media leader of an anti-Catholic campaign. When George Brown lost an election to WL Mackenzie in April 1851, he attributed it to Catholic votes and a lack of support from Baldwin.

The conflict with Hincks over railway financing continued to smolder when Baldwin also supported his Railway Guarantee Act in April 1849 . To him, the ways the Toronto, Simcoe, and Huron Union Rail-Road were trying to make money seemed like a lottery game. Nor could he prevent the government from wanting to allow the municipalities to acquire shares in Great Western . Hincks even added that they were allowed to acquire shares in all railway constructions. In addition to Baldwin, only six French Canadians and one English liberal from Lower Canada voted against it.

Hincks attacked Baldwin's resistance and delay, claiming "I could myself complete the administration on a permanent and satisfactory footing in 24 hours." Both threatened to resign.

Baldwin's mother died in January 1851. He fell into depression and fell ill in May and June. In a dispute over the courts, 25 MPs from Upper Canada have already voted against, only 8 for Baldwin's position. He could only prevail with the voices of Lower Canada. In tears, Baldwin announced his resignation in parliament on June 30th. La Fontaine also resigned.

The last few years

Hincks brought together an alliance of modernizers and grits as well as the French party under Augustin-Norbert Morin (October 28, 1851 to September 1854). John Rolph was commissioner of crown lands , then responsible for agricultural affairs, but he was not up to the offices. Hincks succeeded in discrediting the Grits and integrating the remaining supporters.

Baldwin faced the election again in York North. The Grits nominated Joseph Hartman, who won Mackenzie as campaign leader. Hartman received three times as many votes as Baldwin.

In spite of everything, far removed from politics, he supported Hinck's coalition with Augustin-Norbert Morin in 1854, and in 1856 auditor John Langton saw him as the only alternative to John A. Macdonald . In 1858 political friends asked him to save the party.

After his resignation, Baldwin's health deteriorated. This concerned the control of the movements, the eyesight, also he had a tendency to repeat words. He isolated himself more and more.

In a letter to La Fontaine dated September 21, 1853, he refused a trip with him and his wife to Europe. He had been sick since May and had rarely been clear of the "rumbling noise" in his head for two days in a row. His fear of travel had been heightened by the death of his aunt and mother-in-law, Barbara Sullivan, who had passed away without notice in 1853. His children, Eliza and John Ross, had to move from Belleville to Toronto to care for him. The eldest daughter Maria bore the brunt of this, her father never even let her marry.

In contrast to Maria, Eliza married the much older Ross in Spadina on February 4, 1851. Baldwin liked him and had supported him. His elder son William Willcocks married Elizabeth MacDougall in 1854, but she died in 1855. Baldwin described her death as his second widowhood. Willcocks remarried in 1856, but was denied professional success. In 1864 he received a sinecure at Osgoode Hall . In 1866 he had to sell the Spadina, which Baldwin loved. It went to the entrepreneur James Austin. The younger son Robert went to sea from 1849, but he became infected with polio and had to stay at home.

At the urging of George Brown, now party leader, Baldwin ran for the York divisional seat , but realized that he was no longer up to the task and resigned on August 12, 1858.

Testament, death and burial

Still on his deathbed, Baldwin had probably contracted pneumonia, his son Willcocks harassed him, who distrusted Lawrence Heyden, the administrator, as an inheritance sneak. Baldwin was one of the richest men in Upper Canada. His last will was drawn up on December 9th. He died that same day and was buried on December 13th.

He had decreed that Eliza's personal belongings and letters should be buried with him and that their coffins should be chained together. His body should be operated on as follows: "Let an incision be made into the cavity of the abdomen extending through the two upper thirds of the linea alba." This should probably be done analogously to the caesarean section, as a result of which his wife Eliza had died.

Maria had everything done except for the operation. A month later Willcocks found in a bag in his father's clothes a request “for the love of God, as an act of Christian charity, and by the solemn recollection that they may one day have themselves a dying request to make to others, they will not ... permit my being inclosed in my coffin before the performance of this last solemn injunction. ”Willcocks obeyed, and in January 1859, Dr. James Henry Richardson, Lawrence Heyden, Baldwin's brother William Augustus Baldwin, and Willcocks found the grave and performed the cut.

Web links

• Robert Baldwin . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ). .
• Robert Baldwin Born 200 Years Ago , The Law Society of Upper Canada, May 2004.
• Website of the Spadina Museum .

literature

• Michael S. Cross, Robert L. Fraser: The waste that lies before me : The Public and the Private Worlds of Robert Baldwin, in: Historical Papers (1983) 164-183 (PDF, 964 kB).
• Robert Baldwin. 1804-1858. In: George H. Locke: Builders of the Canadian Commonwealth , 1923, Reprinted 1967, pp. 27-38.
• John Ralston Saul : Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin , Penguin Canada, 2010.

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