Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE CHARTER 35strongly supported by the Minister of Finance, the Hon. JohnRose. Consideration of Mr. Rose's own resolutions draggedon through June, and it transpired that in this case the propheticgift had failed Senator McMaster, for the oppositionroused by the other banks was sufficient to wreck the scheme.The Government, to save its face, agreed to postpone considerationof the banking legislation until the following session.In the interim between the sessions of 1869 and 1870, the Hon.Mr. Rose, realizing that every day only strengthened theretired from the Government and leftopposition to his plan,Canada. About the same time Mr. King, the reputed fatherof the measure, retired from the active management of theBank of Montreal and took no further part in publicaffairs.It was at this juncture that Sir Francis Hincks returnedto Canada on a visit which had unexpected consequences tohimself and to the banking community. The career of SirFrancis Hincks had been a remarkably varied one. Thescion of a Cheshire family which had settled in Ireland, heearly foreswore the divinity career in which his father andseveral of his brothers won distinction, and resolved to becomea merchant. He went to the West Indies in 1830 as supercargoof a trading vessel; and while in Barbados, he madethe acquaintance of a Canadian gentleman who prevailed onhim to pay a visit to Canada. He came to Toronto in 1832with letters to Robert Baldwin, 1 and was soon engaged inbusiness as a merchant. Commerce did not afford sufficientscope for his eager mind, however, and in 1838, after the1Robert Baldwin (1804-58) was the son of Dr. W. W. Baldwin and was born inLittle York, as Toronto was then termed.He studied law and was called to the bar in1825. In 1830 he was elected to the legislature. He became one of the most prominentleaders of the Reform party in Upper Canada in the struggle for responsible governmentwith what was then known as the "Family Compact." He was Attorney-General forUpper Canada from 1842 to 1843 and again from 1848 to 1851. During both theseperiods he was closely associated hi the administration with Louis Hippolyte LaFontaine (1807-64), Attorney-General for Lower Canada, who later became SirLouis La Fontaine, Bart.In 1851 Mr. Baldwin retired from public life.