Barnabas Bidwell is thus commemorated in Mackenzie's Almanac for 1834: "July 27, 1833: Barnabas Bidwell, Esq., Kingston, died, aged 69 years and 11 months. He was a sincere friend of the rights of the people; possessed of extraordinary powers of mind and memory, and spent many years of his life in doing all the good he could to his fellow-creatures, and promoting the interests of society."
Irritating political questions have now, for the most part, been disposed of in Canada. We have entered into the rest, in this respect, secured for us by our predecessors. The very fences which, some forty years ago, were muttering "No Aliens!" we saw, during the time of a late general election, exhibiting in conspicuous painted characters, the following exhortation: "To the Electors of the Dominion—Put in Powell's Pump"—a humorous advertisement, of course, of a particular contrivance for raising water from the depths. We think it a sign of general peace and content, when the populace are expected to enjoy a little jest of this sort.
A small compact house, with a pleasant flower garden in front, on the left, a little way on, was occupied for a while by Mr. Joshua Beard, at the time Deputy Sheriff, but afterwards well known as owner of extensive iron works in the town.
We then came opposite to the abode, on the same side, of Mr. Charles Fothergill, some time King's Printer for Upper Canada. He was a man of wide views and great intelligence, fond of science, and an experienced naturalist. Several folio volumes of closely written manuscript, on the birds and animals generally of this continent, by him, must exist somewhere at this moment. They were transmitted to friends in England, as we have understood.
We remember seeing in a work by Bewick a horned owl of this country, beautifully figured, which, as stated in the context, had been drawn from a stuffed specimen supplied by Mr. Fothergill. He himself was a skilful delineator of the living creatures that so much interested him.
In 1832 Mr. Fothergill sat in Parliament as member for Northumberland, and for expressing some independent opinions in that capacity, he was deprived of the office of King's Printer. He originated the law which established Agricultural Societies in Upper Canada.
In 1836, he appears to have been visited in Pickering by Dr. Thomas Rolph, when making notes for his "Statistical Account of Upper Canada." "The Township of Pickering," Dr. Rolph says, "is well settled and contains some fine land, and well watered. Mr. Fothergill," he continues, "has an extensive and most valuable museum of natural curiosities at his residence in this township, which he has collected with great industry and the most refined taste. He is a person of superior acquirements, and ardently devoted to the pursuit of natural philosophy." P. 189.
It was Mr. Fothergill's misfortune to have lived too early in Upper Canada. Many plans of his in the interests of literature and science came to nothing for the want of a sufficient body of seconders. In conjunction with Dr. Dunlop and Dr. Rees, it was the intention of Mr. Fothergill to establish at York a Museum of Natural and Civil History, with a Botanical and Zoological Garden attached; and a grant of land on the Government Reserve between the Garrison and Farr's Brewery was actually secured as a site for the buildings and grounds of the proposed institution.
A prospectus now before us sets forth in detail a very comprehensive scheme for this Museum or Lyceum, which embraced also a picture gallery, "for subjects connected with Science and Portraits of individuals," and did not omit "Indian antiquities, arms, dresses, utensils, and whatever might illustrate and make permanent all that we can know of the Aborigines of this great Continent, a people who are rapidly passing away and becoming as though they had never been."
For several years Mr. Fothergill published "The York Almanac and Royal Calendar," which gradually became a volume of between four and five hundred duodecimo pages, filled with practical and official information on the subject of Canada and the other British American Colonies. This work is still often resorted to for information.