and in a week from the time when he was first spoken to, the Toronto Examiner made its appearance. The avowed object of this journal was to advocate Parliamentary or Responsible Government, and to prove its entire compatibility with loyalty to the Crown, and the maintenance of the integrity of the Empire. Mr. Hincks soon became extensively known by his writings, and before the expiration of a year from the commencement of the Examiner, he was invited to stand as the Liberal candidate for the county of Oxford, in the Western Peninsula of Upper Canada. Meantime the Earl of Durham's celebrated report recommending the reunion of the two Canadas and the concession of responsible Government was received in Canada, and was followed by the appointment of Mr. Poulett Thomson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, as Governor-General. The Union Act received the sanction of Parliament, and at the first election held under it, Mr. Hincks was chosen as representative for the county of Oxford against a home candidate of considerable influence. He took a prominent part in the proceedings of the first Parliament, having been chosen chairman of the Select Committee on banking and currency, subjects to which he has through life devoted much attention. Towards the close of the Session, Lord Sydenham met with an accident, which terminated fatally, and after a brief temporary administration, Sir Charles Bagot arrived as his successor. In June 1842 Mr. Hincks joined the Government, which in the ensuing Session was materially strengthened by the accession of the leaders of the French Canadians, and of Mr. Baldwin from Upper Canada. Sir Charles Bagot's health having soon given way, Sir Charles Metcalfe was appointed to succeed him, and arrived in Canada early in 1843. During the Session of Parliament of that year, the members of the Government, with one exception, resigned office, owing to their dissatisfaction with Sir Charles Metcalfe's interpretation of the resolutions which had been adopted in 1841 as the basis of responsible government. A period of great political excitement followed. Montreal having been fixed on as the future seat of Government, Mr. Hincks took up his residence in that city, and established a new paper, the Montreal Pilot, which he conducted with unwearied assiduity during four years. The ex-members having been warmly supported by the House of Assembly on the occasion of their resignation, Sir Charles Metcalfe, after several unavailing efforts to form a Ministry, resorted to a dissolution, and succeeded in getting a small majority, chiefly from Upper Canada. Mr. Hincks was one of those who lost his election for Oxford by a very small majority, and remained out of Parliament until the end of 1847. During that year he paid his first visit to his native country after his taking up his residence in Canada in 1832. His venerable father was then seventynine years of age, but in full possession of his faculties. On his arrival at Boston, on his return to Canada, Mr. Hincks learned that the Canadian Parliament had been dissolved; and that the writs for a new election had already been dispatched. His friends had not been idle; and although he was unable to be present at the election, he was returned by a very large majority over his opponent. At the ensuing Session the Opposition returned to power, backed by a large majority, and Mr. Hincks resumed his former office of Inspector-General, or as the office was subsequently more appropriately termed, "Minister of Finance." The leader of the Government was the Hon. L. H. Lafontaine, subsequently created a baronet; but the Parliamentary duties were chiefly performed by Mr. Baldwin, an Upper Canadian. Both these gentlemen retired from public life, one during the Session of 1851, the other a few months afterwards, when the Ministry was dissolved. Lord Elgin, who had been appointed Governor-General in 1847, entrusted Mr. Hincks with the formation of a new Government, in which he was entirely successful. And at the general election which followed, he had a double return, and a considerable majority in the House of Assembly. It would not be within the scope of this notice to discuss the policy of the Government of which Mr. Hincks was the leader, but we may observe that during his second term of office he paid three visits to England and had an opportunity of being known to English statesmen of both political parties. He had likewise succeeded in obtaining a large share of the confidence of the Earl of Elgin. In 1854 Lord Elgin, then in England on leave of absence, having been appointed on a special embassy to negotiate a reciprocity treaty with the United States, invited Mr. Hincks, who was also in England, to accompany him to Washington. A convention having been agreed to, Mr. Hincks returned to Canada, and having met Parliament soon after, an amendment to the address was carried by a combination of parties having no sympathy with each other on questions, the immediate settlement of which they professed to desire, while Mr. Hincks and his colleagues were of opinion that a material change in the Parliamentary representation, as well as an alteration in the franchise having been already sanctioned by Parliament, it was inexpedient that any measures of a political character should be dealt with by an expiring Parliament. The Government having been defeated, Lord Elgin by the advice of his Ministers dissolved the Parliament, and an exciting Government election followed. The result was an overwhelming majority for the Liberals, but as both in Upper and Lower Canada a section of that party had seceded from the Government, it became doubtful whether Mr. Hincks' Government would command a majority. On the speakership the Government candidate, Mr. Cartarr, was defeated by a very small majority, and the Government having been subsequently left in a minority on a question of privilege, Mr. Hincks tendered his resignation. Whereupon Lord Elgin entrusted the formation of a new Government to Sir Allan Macnab the lender of the Conservative opposition. The consequence was an application on the part of Sir Allan Macnab to Mr. Hincks' old colleagues from Lower Canada, to join the new Government. This led to negotiations which terminated in a coalition between the Conservative party and the section of Reformers which recognized Mr. Hincks as their leader. The party then formed under the designation of Liberal-Conservatives, and has retained its identity up to the present time. In the year 1855 Mr. Hincks again paid a visit to his native country, and while there was most unexpectedly offered by Sir William Molesworth, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, the appointment of Governorin-Chief in Barbadoes and the Windward Islands. Having accepted the appointment Mr. Hincks proceeded to Canada, and from there accompanied by his family to Barbadoes; the Government of which he assumed in Janua y, 1856. He remained at his post for the full term of six years, with the exception of a short visit to Canada and England in 1859. Towards the end of 1861 he was promoted by the Duke of Newcastle to the Government of British Guiana where he remained until the beginning of 1869, about a year after the Apiration of the usual term of a colonial government, when he was created a K.C.M.G. on the recommendation of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, having previously been created a C.B. on the recommendation of the Duke of Newcastle. Returning to England early in that year, and having attained the age of 61 years, he obtained the grant of a Colonial Governor's pension on retiring from the Imperial service. Soon after his return to Canada in the summer of 1869, he was offered by Sir John A. Macdonald his old office of Finance Minister, which had just been vacated by the resignation of Sir John Rose, who was about to take up his residence in London as a partner in a commercial house. This offer he accepted, and was a few weeks afterwards elected for one of the divisions of the county of Renfrew, for which county he had been elected fifteen years previously, having had a double return for that county and Oxford. After joining the Government, Sir Francis Hincks engaged actively both in departmental and political work during the ensuing three years, but when the Parliament was about to expire in 1872, he intimated to the leader of the Government his fixed determination to retire from public life. He was induced so far to modify this determination as to postpone its execution until after the elections, and it was not until February, 1873, that he carried it into effect. Having been elected without his knowledge or consent for Vancouver or British Columbia, he retained his seat during the ensuing session, giving an independent support to his old colleagues, and explaining that his retirement from the Government was not caused by any difference on public questions. A change of Government having taken place some months later in the 1876.] A Madrigal. 541 autumn of 1873, Sir Francis Hincks did not seek re-election, and has now entirely withdrawn from public life. On leaving the Government he accepted the office of President of the Montreal City Bank, which having been subsequently amalgamated with the Royal Canadian, is now the Consolidated Bank of Canada. Sir Francis has been twice married, first in 1822 to Martha Anne, second daughter of the late Alexander Stewart, Esq., of Ligoniel, near Belfast, who died at Montreal, May 8, 1874; second, in June, 1875, to Emily Louisa, relict of the Honourable Mr. Justice Sullivan. A MADRIGAL. A BEE went out one summer's day— (The blue corn-cockle was waving.) The blue corn-cockle then closed its eyes- It opened them soon with a glad surprise, Its pulses beat with a rapture new, (The bee was away on its roaming.) For it bore on its bosom the fresh'ning dew, The blue corn-cockle then sank to rest- (The bee came back in the morning.) So I'll rifle thy honey-then-sweetheart, adieu! E. OWENS BLACKBURNE, "FAST FRIENDS." By F. W. CURREY, AUTHOR OF "HER GOOD NAME," "AGAINST ALL ODDS," &c. CHAPTER I. NATURE made Lady Charles Mydleton a handsome woman, but Art perfected her charms so that she looked very beautiful. Nature gave her fair hair, which Art made to shine with a golden lustre that dazzled men's vision. Nature gave her two expressive brown eyes, and Art pencilled over them exquisitely shaded brown brows. Nature made her skin soft and fair, but to Art she owed it that her cheeks were of a lovely pink, and as prettily graduated in tint as the petals of a rose. Nature gave her good features, and a fine outline of face; for these Lady Charles did not invoke the aid of Art, no doubt because she felt they were incapable of improvement. Finally, Nature bestowed on her a beautiful figure, while her husband enabled her to supply herself to her heart's content with most becoming and fashionable clothes. Possessed of wealth and rank, and with Art and Nature playing into each other's hands for her advantage, it was no wonder that Lady Charles Mydleton's career, after her marriage had been a perilously successful one. Before that important event, however, she had not been quite so fortunate. She had been brought up "absurdly ex strictly," the world said, by an ceedingly religious mother who, had she ever allowed herself any latitude in the matter of Biblical criticism, could have found it in her heart to deplore the absence of fixed scripture rules for the guidance of mothers, who, having daughters to marry, find it hard to choose between a moneyed black-sheep, and an impecunious pretender with fleece of spotless white. When the time came for her to decide the knotty point herself, she argued that as all men were but wolves in sheep's clothing, the colour of the fleece did not signify much. The result of which piece of reasoning was that before her daughter had completed her seventeenth year, she was the wife of as black a sheep as society would tolerate. Before Lady Charles's mother had time to appreciate the consequences of this marriage, a cold caught in attending some night services conducted by an Evangelical missioner carried her off. Into the subject of those consequences we have no desire to enter, they have little to do with our story, and we prefer to think with the charitable that much should be forgiven to a beautiful woman who never knew a mother's wise tenderness, and suddenly found herself condemned to live in, and receive the flatteries of corrupt, if |