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THE CANADIAN 



PORTRAIT GALLERY. 






JOHN CHARLES DENT, 



ASSISTED BY A STAFF OF CONTRIBUTORS. 



"VOL. 



TORONTO : 

PUBLISH KI) BY JOHN B. SIAQURN. 
1881. 



C. B. ROBINSON, PRINTER. 

fl JORDAN STREET, TORONTO. 



'"- '" Alt "' I'.""'"'" ' .T Kiirli|.-.-n lliiiiili-.il I Eight: <'> MM:n;.v. in the c.ftir.- c.f th.- Mini,!,.]- of Agrlcultun 



CONTENTS 



PAOB. 

GENERAL SIR WILLIAM FEXWICK WILLIAMS, BART., K.C.B. ..... 5 

THE MOST REV. ELZEAR ALEXAXDRE TASCHEREAU ...... 10 

THE Hox. Jonx HAWKIXS HAGARTV, D.C.L. . . . . . . .12 

THE MOST REV. ROBERT MACIIHAY, D.D., LL.D. . . . . . . 14 

SEBASTIAN CABOT . . . . . . . . . . . .15 

FROXTEXAC ........... 19 

THE Hox. ISAAC BURPEE .......... 25 

THE Hox. THOMAS HEATH HAVILAXD, Q.C. ....... 27 

THE Hox. JOHX SAXDFIELD MACDONALD ...... .28 

THE REV. ALEXANDER McKxiGUT, D.D. ....... 34 

DAXIEL WILSOX, LL.D., F.R.8.E. ...... 35 

THE Hox. JOSEPH ADOLPHE CHAPLEAU ...... 38 

LORD LISGAR ........ 40 

THE Hox. TIMOTHY BLAIR PARDEE ...... 42 

THE Hox. SIR WILLIAM YOUNG ....... 43 

THE Hox. JOSEPH CUKRAX MORRISON ...... 48 

LORD SELKIRK ......... 50 

THE Hox. Lucius SETH HUXTIXGTON ...... 56 

THE REV. GEORGE W. HILL, A.M., D.C.L. . . . .62 

Sin AXTOINK AIME DORIOX ......'. 65 

THE Hox. SAMUEL CASEY WOOD ....... 67 

THE Hox. JAMES McDoxALD, Q.C. ....... 69 

THE HON. SIR JOHN ROSE, BART., G.C.M.G 70 

THE Hox. ALLAX NAPIER MACRAE, BART. ..... 73 

THE REV. EDMUXD ALBERX CHAWLEY, D.D. .... 86 

THE Hox. ROBERT A. HARRISOX, D.C.L. ... 89 

THE Hox. JAMES FERI;; <i-> 

*7O 

THE Hox. JOHN DOUGLAS AUMOI i; QK 

. . tJ if 

THE HON. JOHN HEXRY POPE ....... 96 

THE Hox. WILLIAM HAMILTON MEKIUTT ..... <is 

THE REV. W. CVIMUAN PINKHAM ...... 101 

Tin; Hox. THOMAS ('ISIIIM; AM.WIX ...... 1Q5 

\\~II.I, IAM BllVDOXE-jACK, A.M., I M '. U . . . . . . 108 

Tin: Hx. JOHN CAKI.IXU ...... HO 



iv. CONTENTS. 



PAQE. 

THE HON. SIMON Hnm HOLMES ..... . . Ill' 

THE Hox. SIR JOHN P>EVKI:I,EY UOBIXSOX, BART., C.B., D.C.L. . 114 

THE HON. .Jonx WELLINGTON' <!\VYXXE ... . 123 

Tin: KIUHT REV. THOMAS BROCK FULLER, D.D., D.C.L. . 125 
Tin: HON. PIIILII' M. .M. S. VAXKOUGIIXET . . .127 

THE Ho.v. MALCOLM <'AMEI;ON ...... . 1:!0 

THOMAS CoLTKiN KEEKER, ('..M.(l. ..... . 134 

Tin-. HON. JOSEPH KIMH \i;i> < '.\rcnox ... . . 138 

THE Hox. JOHN" GODFREY SI-RVIKIK ......... 146 

THE Hox. WILLIAM McDoucALL, C.B. .... . 147 

Lons HO.XOKK FRECHETTE ....... .156 

THE liiciiT HON. Su: KDMCXD WALKER HEAD, BART., K.C.B. . . 158 

THE HON. JAMES COLLEIXIK POPE ...'.. . 160 

THE UII.HT HON. Visrorvr MONCK ...... . 162 

THE Hox. Jonx O'CONNOR, < t >.< ' . 164 

THE UHJHT HON. !V\KL CATHCART ..... 166 

THE HON. JOSEPH PIIILIIM-K RENE ADOLPHE CARON, B.C.L., Q.C. . . liis 

THE Hox. UEOIICE WILLIAM AI.I.AN, D.C.L. . . 170 

THE Ki;v. ALEXAXDEI; SITHEIILAXD, D.D. . . . 172 

WOLKRED XELSON. .M.I). . . . . . . . . . 174 

SIR SAMTEL CCNAUD, BART. .......... 182 

SIR ETIEXNE PASCAL TACHE . . . . . . . . . 1 s;> 

THE IIEV. \VILLIAM MOKLEY Prxsiiox, M.A., LL.D. . .... iss 

THE HON. JOSEPH AI.KRED .MorssEAU, Q.C. ....... 193 

THE HON. TIMOTHY WAUKEN AXULIN ........ 195 

THE HON. ROHEKT DTNCAX WILMOT . . . . . . . . 1'js 

THE Hox. PIEI;I;E JOSEPH OI.IYIER CIIAUVEAU, Q.C., D.C.L., LL.D. .... 199 

THE HON. CMAIJI.ES KISHEI;. A.M., D.C.L. ....... 201 

THE HON. ('n \KI.ES I'I.AKKE ........ .204 

HEXI:Y JAMES MOKI.AN ....... L'i)7 

THE Hox. < IM;ISTOPHER UUNKIX, Q.C., D.C.L. ... ... I'oii 

Tin: HON. LIEITEN ;\XT-( COLONEL JOSEPH GODERIC P.LAXCIIET, M.D. . . 212 

Tin; HON. CHRISTOPHEB SALMON PATTERSON .... ... 214 

I \( ';i i:s ( ' \I; 



PREFACE. 

FN attempting to place before the public an account of the lives of the leading personages 
who have figured in Canadian history, from the period of the first discovery of the 
country down to the present times, the editor has encountered the difficulties incidental 
to such an undertaking. With respect to past times the principal difficulty has been one 
of selection. It has constantly been necessary to bear in mind the fact that the present 
is a Canadian, and not a mere Provincial work, and that many names must be excluded 
from its pages which would rightfully find a place in a Biographical Cyclopaedia of a 
particular Province. During the period before the Conquest, for instance, there were 
many gallant gentlemen whose lives and achievements are pleasant to recall, and who 
left at least a temporary impress upon the civil, political and ecclesiastical institutions of 
New France. The interest in the lives of these personages, however, is for the most 
part confined to the inhabitants of the Lower Provinces, and only a few sketches of the 
lives of the more prominent among them could be admitted into the present work 
with due regard to their relative importance. Similar remarks are applicable to various 
personages who have played a not insignificant part in the history of the Maritime 
Provinces, and even to some who have figured in the annals of the Province of Ontario. 
It is believed, however, that no name of really national importance has been omitted, 
and that the selection has been made with due regard to the comprehensive scope of 
the work. 

As respects the present day, it has been found necessary to adopt a much wider 
range. There are many living persons who, from the mure fact of their occupying more 
or less conspicuous positions, are entitled to notice in the work, but who would undoubtedly 
have had no place there by reason of their personal merits or abilities. This is an incident 
of every work which attempts to deal with contemporaneous biography, and it is one 
which can neither be ignored nor surmounted. 

The four volumes comprised in Tin: ( 'A.NADIAN POUTUAIT ( IAI.I.KKY contain, in addition 
to the title pages and tables of contents, !)(;<) printed pages. The number of sketches is 



vi. PREFACE. 



204. For 185 of these, containing a total of 888 pages, the editor is personally responsible. 
A few of them had been published in a Toronto newspaper prior to their appearance 
in this work, but the sketches so previously published were subjected to a thorough 
revision, and in most cases a good deal of important matter was added. The remaining 
16 sketches, containing an aggregate of 72 pages, are the work of five valued contributors. 
The sketch of Sir John A. Macdonald was prepared by Mr. Charles Lindsey, of Toronto, 
whose " Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie," published nearly twenty years ago, 
made his name known from one end of this country to the other. The sketch of Sir 
George E. Cartier is the work of a writer well fitted for such an undertaking by his 
persona] acquaintance with that gentleman during the latter's lifetime. The sketches of 
the Rev. Dr. Crawley, Sir Samuel Cunard, and the Hon. S. H. Holmes were contributed 
by the Rev. Robert Murray, editor of the Presbyterian Witness, of Halifax, N.S. The 
sketch of Sir Dominick Daly was written by Sir Francis Hincks, whose intimacy with Sir 
Dominick during that gentleman's residence in Canada, and whose active participation 
in the political life of the time render him peculiarly well qualified for the task. The 
remaining contributor is Mr. George Stewart, jr., editor of the Quebec Chronicle, a 
gentleman well-known to the Canadian public as the author of " Canada under the 
Administration of the Earl of Dufferin," and of other valuable historical and literary 
works. Mr. Stewart's contributions consist of the sketches of Sir S. L. Tilley, The Hons. 
A. G. Archibald, T. A. R. Laflamme, R. E. Caron, E. B. Chandler, J. C. Allen, C. E. B. 
De Boucherville, H. G. Joly, T. W. Anglin, J. J. C. Abbott, Sir William Young, Mgr. Laval, 
and the Most Rev. John Medley. The editor deems it right to take this opportunity of 
bearing public testimony to his high sense of the services of his friends above referred 
to, and to the pleasant nature of his relations with them during the progress of this 
work through the press. 

With respect to the literary execution of the work, it is hoped that it will be found 
to maintain the promises made on its behalf in the prospectus issued towards the close of 
the year 1879. " In this country " so ran the prospectus " where political issues develop 
strong sympathies and even prejudices it is of the first importance that the sketches of 
public men shall lie written with justice, and with entire freedom from political bias. 
This difficult task difficult, more especially in the case of living persons the editor will 
endeavour faithfully to discharge." It is scarcely to be expected that the editor's estimate 
will in every case meet with universal acceptance. It is believed, however, that no reader 
will dispute the fact that there has been an honest attempt to do justice to the character 
and actions of every man whose life is delineated in these volumes. It was a matter of 
course that a work of such dimensions would not pass through the press without some 



PREFACE. vii. 



errors creeping into it, in spite of the utmost care in reading and correcting proof-sheets. 
THE CANADIAN PORTRAIT GALLERY doubtless contains many such. Several of the more 
important may as well be referred to in this place, as it is not proposed to issue a table of 
errata. The first error occurs on the very first page of the first volume, in the sketch of 
the present Governor-General of Canada. It is stated that Archibald, Marquis of Argyll, 
was brought to the scaffold during the Protectorate, for his espousal of the Royalist cause. 
As matter of fact the Marquis was beheaded on the 27th of May, 1661, after the Protec- 
torate had come to an end ; and his execution was due to his having intrigued with 
Cromwell, and engaged in a treasonable correspondence with General Monk. Another 
error occurs on page 53 of the third volume, in the sketch of the Hon. William Hume 
Blake. A tribute to the deceased Chancellor's memory is quoted as having been pro- 
nounced by the late Chancellor Vankough.net, when as matter of fact the tribute was 
pronounced by the present Chief Justice Spragge. The critical reader will also notice 
that the surname of Sir Allan MacNab is spelled in various ways in different sketches. 
This can scarcely be pronounced an error, as different branches of his family spell the 
name in a variety of ways. It would have been preferable, however, had the spelling 
been uniform throughout the work. As matter of fact Sir Allan at all events during 
the latter years of his life always spelled the name as it will be found spelled in the 
sketch of his life contained in the fourth volume MacNab. The ecclesiastical prefix 
"Most Reverend" was accidentally omitted in the title to the sketch of Archbishop 
Connolly; and the prefix "Sir" from the title to the sketch of Sir W. P. Howland. 
There are doubtless other errors which have not been detected by the editor, but it is 
believed that there are no others of importance. 

During the passage of the work through the press, various events have occurred 
which affect the text as it stands, and which may appropriately be recorded here. On 
the 4th of January last the Judicial Bench of Ontario sustained a grievous loss by the 
death, at Nice, France whither he had gone for the improvement of his health of Chief 
Justice Moss. On the 28th of the same month the Hon. Mr. Letellier died at his home in 
the county of Kamouraska. The Rev. Dr. Punshon died in England on the 14th of April 
last. The services of Lord Dufferin at St. Petersburg have come to an end, and he is 
about to take up his abode in a diplomatic capacity at Constantinople. The Hon. F. < i. 
Baby has ceased to be a member of the Government at Ottawa, and has accepted a seat 
as one of the Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench for the Province of Quebec. The 
Hon. James McDonald, late Minister of Justice, has succeeded Sir William Young as 
Chief Justice of Nova Scotia. The Hon. J. G. Spragge has ceased to be Chancellor 
of Ontario, and has become Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal. The Hon. S. 11. 



viii. PREFACE. 



Blake has retired from the Bench, and has resumed practice at the Ontario Bar. On 
the 24th of May the Hon. Hector Langevin and Chief Justice Ritchie were created 
Knights Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. There have also 
been several other changes in the composition of the Dominion Government, but as 
they are understood to be of only a temporary nature, it is considered unnecessary to 
specify them. 



TOKONTO, Jlliif Jxt, 



GENERAL SIR WILLIAM FENWICK WILLIAMS, 

BART., K.C.B. 



TO tell the story of the life of " the Hero 
of Kars " as it deserves to be told, and 
as it will assuredly have to be told in the 
not distant future, would require much 
greater space than can be allotted for the 
purpose in the present work. The life of 
Sir Fenwick Williams, like that of his 
friend and fellow-countryman Sir John 
Inglis, forms a glorious chapter in the his- 
tory, not of Nova Scotia alone, but of the 
British Empire, in which it must ever oc- 
cupy a conspicuous and an honoured place. 
In the annals of the Crimean War and the 
Indian Mutiny two of the most notable 
conflicts of modern times the names of 
these gallant sons of Nova Scotia stand out 
in bold relief. The career of Sir John 
Inglis was brought io a close eighteen 
years ago. Sir Fenwick Williams, though 
he has passed by a decade the allotted term 
of three score years and ten, is happily still 
preserved to us. His life is co-existent with 
the present century, the history of which 
he has materially contributed to make. In 
none but a conventional sense can he be 
said to have fallen into the sear and yellow 
leaf. It would be too much to expect that 
a veteran of fourscore will add fresh lustre 
to his name by any further military achieve- 
ments, but he is fully entitled to repose un- 
der the shade of his laurels for the remain- 
der of his days, surrounded by 

" that which should accompany old age, 
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends." 
IV 2 



He comes of military stock on both sides 
of his house. His father, of whom he is 
the only surviving son, was Thomas Wil- 
liams, Commissary-General and Barrack 
Master at Halifax, who subsequently rose 
to the rank of a Lieutenant-Colonel, and 
who died in 1807. His mother was Maria, 
daughter of Captain Thomas Walker. He 
was born at Annapolis Royal, the ancient 
capital of Nova Scotia, on the 4th of De- 
cember, 1800.* He had an elder and only 
brother, Lieutenant Thomas Gregory Town- 
send Williams, of the Royal Artillery, who 
served under Wellington in the Peninsula 
and in France, and who died after the com- 
bat at New Orleans in 1814-15. 

For the greater part of his early training, 
military and otherwise, he was indebted to 
his relative, Colonel William Fenwick, of 
the Royal Engineers. In May, 1815, through 
the influence of the Duke of Kent, who was 
a friend and patron of his father, he was 
placed at the Royal Military Academy at 
Woolwich, in England. While there he de- 
veloped a passion for a military life, and 
studied military tactics with extraordinary 
diligence. In 1821 he passed a very suc- 
cessful examination, and in 1825 was ga- 
zetted to a second lieutenancy in the Royal 
Artillery. Two years later he was pro- 

* Several authorities, Debrett among the number, place 
the date of his birth a year later. We adopt the date 
sanctioned by all the local historians, and by nearly all 
the standard collections of military biographies. 



GENERAL SIR WILLIAM FENWICK WILLIAMS, BART, K.C.B. 



moted to a first lieutenancy, and was sta- 
tioned at Gibraltar. In 1829 he was trans- 
ferred to the East Indies, and was stationed 
in the island of Ceylon. He spent consid- 
erable time in travelling through India in 
the capacity of a military engineer, and 
penetrated to districts which were known 
to few Europeans in those days. Through 
the good offices of Sir Robert Wilmot Hor- 
ton, he obtained an appointment in the de- 
partment of the Surveyor-General of Cey- 
lon, where he superintended the erection of 
various public buildings and bridges, and 
the construction of several highways in the 
neighbourhood of Colombo, the capital .of the 
island. Towards the close of 1835 he bade 
adieu to India and proceeded to Egypt, where 
he formed the acquaintance of the Viceroy, 
the famous Mehemet Ali. Thence he proceed- 
ed to Syria and Constantinople, and, after a 
somewhat prolonged sojourn at the Turkish 
capital, returned to England in 1839 and re- 
joined his regiment. Early in the following 
year he was promoted to a captaincy. 

During his stay in Constantinople he had 
been presented to Mahmoud II., the Sultan, 
whose authority his great feudatory, Me- 
hemet Ali, had nearly succeeded in throw- 
ing off. The young English officer had 
thus had an opportunity of personally esti- 
mating the respective characters of these 
illustrious personages, and of forming a 
more intelligent opinion as to the merits of 
the controversy between them than any one 
who had not travelled in their dominions 
could have been expected to do. The Sul- 
tan died about this time, and was succeeded 
by his son Abdul Medjid, who inherited but 
a very moderate share of his father's states- 
manship and energy. Great Britain, being 
then, as in times much more recent, sus- 
picious of Russian intrigues, and having 
resolved upon " maintaining the integrity " 
of the Ottoman Empire, prepared to inter- 
fere in the quarrel between the Sultan and 
his insubordinate vassal. While the pre- 



parations were afoot, Lord Palmerston, who 
was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
sent down to Woolwich a requisition for an 
energetic and capable artillery officer, who 
was to proceed to the Turkish capital and 
inspect the arsenals there. The object of 
such inspection was to remedy the numer- 
ous deficiencies which were believed to ex- 
ist, and to put the Turkish marine in an 
efficient state of defence. Captain Fenwick 
Williams was the officer selected for this 
important duty. He repaired to Constanti- 
nople, and served in the arsenals there for 
three years. Towards the close of the year 
1843 he received his majority, and imme- 
diately afterwards proceeded as British 
Commissioner to the conference held at 
Erzeroum, in Upper Armenia, with a view 
to a settlement of the boundary-line be- 
tween Persia and Turkey in Asia. The 
commissioners were four in number, and 
represented Great Britain, Russia, Turkey 
and Persia. Their conference lasted about 
four years, and after the Treaty was signed 
the commissioners were detailed to see its 
more important provisions carried out. This 
involved an official survey of the entire ter- 
ritory lying between Mount Ararat and the 
head of the Persian gulf. The survey oc- 
cupied several years more, during the great- 
er part of which period the commissioners 
were compelled to endure many privations 
and hardships. They slept under canvas 
tents, and were exposed to terrible vicissi- 
tudes of alternate heat and cold. While 
engaged in his labours he was prostrated 
by a serious illness, and was compelled to 
return to England. 

Fr his services in connection with the 
making of the Treaty of Erzeroum he had 
been advanced, in 1848, to the brevet rank 
of Lieutenant-Colonel. During his illness 
the Crimean War was entered upon, and 
scarcely had he recovered ere the news 
reached England that the Turkish forces 
had been driven under the walls of Kars 



GENERAL SIR WILLIAM FENWICK WILLIAMS, BART., K.C.B. 



by the Russians under Prince Bebutoflf. 
The intelligence was regarded as momen- 
tous, as it was considered certain that the 
Russians would follow up their success by 
renewed efforts in Asia. It was highly de- 
sirable that Great Britain should have a 
representative there, to keep her informed 
of the state of the respective armies, and as 
to the general course of events. Colonel 
Williams, who was thoroughly familiar with 
the ground, and of whose abilities the War 
Office justly entertained a very high opinion, 
was forthwith despatched to the scene of 
action as Her Majesty's Commissioner. He 
reached Constantinople on the 14th of Au- 
gust, 1855, and put himself into immediate 
communication with Lord Raglan, Com- 
mander of the British Forces in the Crimea, 
and with Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the 
British Plenipotentiary at Constantinople. 
He then set out for his destination, accom- 
panied only by three men, viz.: Lieutenant 
Teesdale, Mr. Churchill, and Dr. Sandwith. 
On the 2-tth of September the little party 
reached Kars, and Colonel Williams forth- 
with set himself to work to reorganize the 
Turkish forces. He found that there had 
been gross peculation and mismanagement, 
and that the equipments and commissariat 
were in a wretched condition. The army 
was an unsightly rabble in rags and tatters, 
bearing, except in the matter of numbers, 
considerable resemblance to that famous 
regiment with which Sir John Falstaff re- 
fused to march through Coventry. The 
rations served out to the men were scanty 
and foul. The officers were shiftless and 
'incompetent. The payment of the troops 
was more than twelve months and in 
some cases more than twenty-two months 
in arrear. As a result, a state of insub- 
ordination prevailed. Drill was altogether 
neglected, and many of the troops were 
ilutely too lazy to take exercise. Such 
was the condition of things which prevailed 
when Colonel Williams arrived at Kars. 



His first proceeding was to send off de- 
spatches to Constantinople representing the 
state of affairs. His next was to make an 
attempt to evoke some sort of order out of 
the chaos which prevailed all around him. 
Upon receipt of the despatches Lord Strat- 
ford de Redcliffe submitted the situation to 
the Turkish Government, and urged them 
to find a remedy. In response to this ap- 
peal the Turkish Government sent to Kars 
an insolent and incapable drunkard named 
Shukri Pasha, who, instead of being of 
any service to Colonel Williams did all he 
could to thwart his efforts at reorganiza- 
tion. The Colonel, after much routine 
and delay, was appointed a Lieutenant- 
General in the Sultan's service. In his 
commission he was styled AVilliams Pasha ; 
and this is the first instance on record of a 
Christian being appointed to high rank in 
the service of the Sublime Porte under his 
own proper name. The custom had pre- 
viously been to bestow Moslem names upon 
such officers, when promoting them to posi- 
tions of distinction. In the following No- 
vember Lieutenant -General Williams, re- 
paired to Erzeroum, which he placed in as 
efficient a state of defence as the means at 
his disposal rendered possible, leaving Lieu- 
tenant Teesdale behind at Kars to maintain 
discipline there. In the following spring 
he was reinforced by Colonel Lake, Captain 
Olpherts, and Captain Thompson, from the 
Indian army. The fortifications at Kars 
were strengthened and largely reconstruct- 
ed, and provisions were stored up for a 
siege, for it was known that a strong 
Russian force under General Mouravieff 
would attempt to take the place. The at- 
tempt was not long delayed. " Never, 
probably," says a recent historian, " had a 
man a more difficult task than that which 
fell to the lot of Williams. He had to con- 
tend against official stupidity, corruption, 
delay ; he could get nothing done without 
having first to remove whole mountains of 



s 



GENERAL SIR WILLIAM FENWICK WILLIAMS, BART., K.C.B. 



obstruction, and to quicken into life and 
movement an apathy which seemed like 
that of a paralyzed system. He concen- 
trated his efforts at last upon the defence 
of Kars, and he held the place against over- 
powering Russian forces, and against an 
enemy far more appalling, starvation itself. 
With his little garrison he repelled a tre- 
mendous attack of the Russian army under 
General Mouravieff, in a battle that lasted 
nearly seven hours, and as the result of 
which the Russians left on the field more 
than five thousand dead. He had to sur- 
render at last to famine ; but the very ar- 
ticles of surrender to which the conqueror 
consented became the trophy of Williams 
and his men. The garrison were allowed 
to leave the place with all the honours of 
war, and ' as a testimony to the valorous 
resistance made by the garrison of Kars, 
the officers of all ranks are to keep their 
swords.' Williams and his English com- 
panions Colonel Lake, Major Teesdale, 
Major Thompson and Dr. Sandwith had 
done as much for the honour of their coun- 
try at the close of the war as Butler and 
Nasmyth had done at its opening. The 
curtain of that great drama rose and fell 
upon a splendid scene of English heroism. 
The war was virtually over." 

General Williams and his valiant com- 
rades in arms were taken to Russia as pris- 
oners of war first to Moscow, and after- 
wards to St. Petersburg ; but they were 
treated with the courtesy and respect due 
to brave enemies. Immediately after the 
conclusion of terms of peace they left for 
England, where they landed, amid the ac- 
clamations of the entire British nation, in 
May, 1856. Honours flowed in upon Gen- 
eral Williams thick and fast. A Baronetcy' 
and a Companionship of the Bath were 
conferred upon him, and a pension of a 
thousand pounds a year was granted to 
him for life. The House of Lords and the 
House of Commons vied with each other to 



do honour to the hero who had so valiantly 
maintained the national prestige against 
overwhelming odds. Sir Edward Bulwer 
Lytton, in a speech in the Commons, while 
reproaching the Government for its mis- 
management of affairs in the East, said : 
"The stain of the fall of Kars will still 
cling to your memory as a Government, as 
long as history can turn to the record of a 
fortitude which, in spite of your negligence 
and languor, still leaves us proud of the 
English name." The Earl of Derby, in the 
House of Lords, said : " We honour the 
valour and prize the fame of the brave but 
unsuccessful defenders of Kars as not be- 
low those of the more fortunate conquerors 
of Sebastopol." The Sultan of Turkey con- 
ferred upon the Hero of Kars the dignity 
of a Pasha or Medjidie of the highest rank, 
together with the title of " Mushir," or full 
General in the Turkish service. The Em- 
peror of the French created him Grand Of- 
ficer of the Legion of Honour, and person- 
ally presented him with a diamond-hilted 
sabre. But perhaps no token of the esteem 
in which he was held affected the recipient 
more than one from his native Province of 
Nova Scotia. The Attorney-General of that 
Province, Mr. now Sir William Young, 
made a motion in the Local House of As- 
sembly to the effect that the Lieutenant- 
Governor should be requested to expend a 
hundred and fifty guineas in the purchase 
of a sword, to be presented to General Wil- 
liams as a mark of the high esteem in 
which his character as a man and a soldier, 
and more especially his heroic courage and 
constancy in the defence of Kars, were held 
by the Legislature of his native Province. 
The Hon. J. W. Johnston seconded the reso- 
lution which passed unanimously in elo- 
quent terms. The General's appreciation 
of the honour is sufficiently attested by a 
letter which he addressed from Berlin, 
Prussia, to a gentleman in Halifax, under 
date of May 28th, 1856 : "How thankful I 



GENERAL SIR WILLIAM FENWICK WILLIAMS, BART., K.C.B. 9 



ought to be" so runs the letter "and 
indeed am, to God for having spared me 
through so many dangers, to serve the 
Queen in such a manner as to obtain her 
approbation, and the good will of all my 
countrymen on both sides of the water. Of 
all the proofs which I have, or shall receive 
of this too general sentiment in my favour, 
the sword voted to me by the Nova Scotians 
is the most acceptable to my heart ; and 
when I again come in sight of the shores of 
that land where I first drew my breath, I 
shall feel that I am a thousand times re- 
quited for all I have gone through during 
the eventful years of the last terrible 
struggle." 

In the way of lesser honours, the Uni- 
versity of Oxford, at the annual commemo- 
ration of 1856, conferred upon General Wil- 
liams the honorary degree of D.C.L. The 
Corporation of London invested him with 
the freedom of the city, accompanying the 
investiture by the gift of a costly sword. 
In the month of July, 1856, he was ap- 
pointed to the command of the garrison at 
Woolwich, and was about the same time 
returned to the House of Commons in the 
Liberal interest as representative of the 
borough of Calne. He was again returned 
for the same constituency at the general 
election of 1857. About two' years later he 
was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 
forces in British North America, and upon 
his arrival in his native land he was re- 



ceived with salvos and acclamations from 
one end of the Province of Nova Scotia to 
the other. 

The subsequent important events in his 
life may be chronicled very briefly. From 
the 12th of October, 1860, to the" 22nd of 
January, 1861, he administered the Gov- 
ernment of Canada during the absence of 
the Governor-General, Sir Edmund Head. 
He also administered the Government of 
Nova Scotia for some time after the de- 
parture from that Province of Sir Richard 
Graves Macdonnell, in 1865. As senior 
military officer, he was appointed the first 
Lieutenant-Governor of that Province, after 
the accomplishment of Confederation, and 
retained that position until the month of 
October, 1867. On the 2nd of August, l.sc.s, 
he was raised to the full rank of a General 
in the British Army ; and in the course of 
the following year he was appointed Gov- 
ernor-General of Gibraltar, as successor to 
Lieutenant-General Sir R. Airey. He ad- 
ministered the Government there until the 
month of November, 1875, when he resigned. 
In October, 1877, he retired from the army, 
since which time he has not taken any 
prominent part in public affairs. A few 
weeks ago he was appointed Constable of 
the Tower of London, a position which he 
still retains. At the present time, though 
he has passed his eightieth year by sev- 
eral months, he retains a large measure of 
vigour. 



IV 3 



THE MOST REV. ELZEAR A. TASCHEREAU, 

R. C. ARCHBISHOP OF QUEBEC. 



A RCHBISHOP TASCHEREAU is de- 
li scended from Thomas Jacques Tasche- 
reau, a French gentleman who emigrated 
from Touraine to Canada during the early 
years of the seventeenth century, and whose 
descendants have ever since been conspicu- 
ous members of society in the Province 
of Quebec. Soon after the arrival of the 
founder of the Canadian branch of the 
family in the Province he was appointed 
to the post of Marine Treasurer, and in 17oG 
he received a grant of a seignory on the 
banks of the River Chaudiere. The present 
Archbishop of Quebec is the grandson of 
this gentleman, and was born at Ste. Marie 
de la Beauce, on the 17th of February, 1820. 
When only eight years of age he was sent to 
the Quebec Seminary, where he soon became 
distinguished for his diligence and clever- 
ness. In 1836, when he was in his seven- 
teenth year, he visited Rome in company 
with the Abbe Holmes, of the Seminary, and 
in the following year received the tonsure 
at the hands of Monseigneur Piatti, Arch- 
bishop of Trebizonde, in the Basilica of St. 
John Lateran. Later in the same year he 
returned to Quebec, and commenced his theo- 
logical studies, which, with other branches 
of learning, occupied his attention for about 
six years, when, though he was still under 
canonical age, he was ordained Priest. His 
ordination took place on the 10th of Septem- 
ber, 1842, at the Church of Ste. Marie do la 
Beauce, his native place, in the presence of 



Monseigneur Turgeon, then Coadjutor, and 
subsequently successor to Archbishop Signai. 
Within a short time after his ordination he 
was appointed to the Chair of Philosophy 
in the Seminary, and this position he held 
for a period of twelve years. An episode in 
his life during this interval deserves to be 
recorded in a permanent form. About thirty 
miles below Quebec, in the middle of the 
River St. Lawrence, opposite the village of 
St. Thomas, is an island, the chief use of 
which is for a quarantine station for emi- 
grants, and the name of which is Grosse 
Isle. In the year 1847 a malignant fever 
broke out with great virulence among the 
emigrants there. It ran a rapid course, and 
the victims died in great numbers. The emi- 
grants at that time were chiefly composed 
of Irish Roman Catholics, who had been 
driven by poverty and famine to seek an 
asylum in Canada. Their vitality had been 
much impaired by starvation and suffering, 
and they fell easy victims to the terrible 
pestilence, which in some cases carried them 
oft' in a few hours. The greater part of the 
island was for a short time little better than 
a mass of loathsomeness and pestilence. The 
heroism which enables a man to face such a 
danger as this is quite as praiseworthy as 
that more demonstrative courage which en- 
ables him to walk up to the mouth of a can- 
non. Father Taschereau felt the call of 
duty, and volunteered his services to assist 
the Rev. Father McGavran, who was then 




-r- f 






THE MOST REV. ELZEAR ALEXANDRE TASCHEREAU. 



11 



Chaplain at Grosse Isle, to minister to the 
spiritual necessities of the victims of the 
pestilence. His proposal was thankfully 
accepted, and he landed on the island, where 
he remained until he himself was struck 
down by the scourge, and brought literally 
to death's door. His conduct at this time 
endeared him very much to the Irish Catho- 
lic population of Quebec. 

In 1854 he again repaired to Rome, 
charged by the second Provincial Council of 
Quebec to submit its decrees for the sanction 
of His Holiness. He spent two years in the 
capital of Christendom, during which period 
he occupied himself chiefly in studying the 
Canon Law. In July, 1850, the Roman 
Seminary conferred upon him the degree of 
Doctor of Canon Law. He soon afterwards 
returned to Quebec, where he was appointed 
Director of the Petit Seminaire, a position 
which he filled until 1859, when he was 
elected Director of the Grand Seminaire, 
and appointed a member of the Lower Can- 
ada Council of Public Instruction. In 18GO 
he became Superior of the Seminary and 
Rector of Laval University. In 18G2 he ac- 
companied Archbishop Baillargeon to Rome, "j 
and upon his return the same year, was ap- 
pointed Vicar-General of the Archdiocese 



of Quebec. In 18G4 he again visited Rome 
on business connected with the University. 
His term of office as Superior having expired 
in 18G6, he was again appointed Director of 
the Grand Seminaire, which office he held 
for three years, when he was reflected Su- 
perior. He again accompanied Archbishop 
Baillargeon to Rome when the (Ecumenical 
Council was held, and on his return resumed 
his duties as Superior of the Seminary and 
Rector of the University. After the death 
of the Archbishop, in October, 1870, he ad- 
ministered the affairs of the Archdiocese 
conjointly with Grand Vicar Cazeau. On 
the 13th of February, 1871, it was announced 
that he had been appointed successor to the 
late Archbishop, and on Sunday, the 19th 
of March, he was consecrated in the presence 
of a vast concourse of people, many of the 
clergy of the diocese, and of the Bishops of 
Quebec and Ontario, the Archbishop of To- 
ronto officiating. From that time down to 
the present, Archbishop Taschereau has dis- 
charged the onerous duties of his dignified 
position with entire acceptance. He is held 
in honour by persons of all classes and 
creeds, and watches with zealous care over 
the many and various interests committed 
to his charge. 



THE HON. JOHN HAWKINS HAGARTY, D.C.L. 



THE Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's 
Bench for Ontario was born at Dublin, 
Ireland, on the 17th of December, 1816. His 
father, Mr. Matthew Hagarty, was a gentle- 
man of refined and scholarly tastes, and at 
the time of his son's birth held the post of 
Examiner of His Majesty's Court of Pre- 
rogative for Ireland. The future Chief Jus- 
tice received his early education at a pri- 
vate school in Dublin taught by the Rev. 
Mr. Haddart. Soon after entering upon his 
sixteenth year he entered as a student at 
Trinity College, where he was known for a 
bright intelligent boy, and was very popular 
among his fellow-scholars. He was also 
known as a diligent, although somewhat 
fitful student, with a ready grasp of the 
salient points of a lesson. He made rapid 
progress during his brief collegiate career, 
and devoted himself with much ardour to 
classical studies. His fondness for such 
studies has accompanied him throughout 
the subsequent years of a busy and use- 
ful life. It is to be regretted that a schol- 
astic career of such promise should have 
been so early broken off. He did not re- 
main long enough at college to obtain his 
degree, as he became infected with the 
mania for emigration which was so common 
among clever and spirited young Irishmen 
at that period. In 1834 he bade adieu to 
his native land, and made his way to Can- 
ada. In the course of the following year 
he reached Toronto, which had been incor- 



porated only a few months before (in March, 
1834), and which was growing rapidly. 
There he pitched his tent, and there he has 
ever since resided. That he should succeed 
in such a community or indeed in almost 
any community was a matter of course. 
He had brilliant'abilities, a pleasing manner, 
high principles, and much strength of will. 
He studied law in the office of the late Mr. 
George Duggan, and was called to the Bar 
of Upper Canada in Michaelmas Term, 1840. 
There were many strong men at the local 
Bar in the early years of the Union of the 
Provinces. Robert Baldwin, William Hume 
Blake, Henry Eccles, William Henry Draper, 
Robert Baldwin Sullivan and John Hillyard 
Cameron were all formidable competitors in 
the race for professional distinction. Young 
Mr. Hagarty took his place by their side, 
and won his full share of fame and honour. 
He had an ingratiating manner with juries, 
and never failed to do full justice to any 
case in which he was engaged. His lan- 
guage was apt and incisive, and his conduct 
and demeanour were uniformly marked by 
a high-minded respect for himself and his 
profession. He prospered in his calling, and 
no one grudged him his prosperity. The 
usual inducements were held out to him to 
enter political life, but he preferred to con- 
fine himself to the profession in which he 
had already won a proud position. He in- 
terested himself in municipal affairs, how- 
ever, and in 1847 was an Alderman of the 



THE HON. JOHN HAWKINS HAGARTY, D.C.L. 



13 



city. In course of time he formed a part- 
nership with the late Mr. John Crawford, 
who in after years represented East To- 
ronto in the Canadian Assembly, and finally 
became Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. 
This partnership, which was carried on un- 
der the style of Crawford & Hagarty, ex- 
isted for many years, and in fact was only 
dissolved when Mr. Hagarty retired from 
practice and accepted a seat on the Judicial 
Bench. In 1850, during the tenure of 
office of the second Baldwin-Lafontaine Ad- 
ministration, he was appointed a Queen's 
Counsel, and he frequently thereafter rep- 
resented the Crown in important cases, both 
civil and criminal. 

In the society and more especially in 
the most cultivated literary society of To- 
ronto, Mr. Hagarty had ever since his arri- 
val been regarded as a decided acquisition. 
He had fine taste, brilliant powers of con- 
versation, a wide acquaintance with ancient 
and modern literature, and a never-failing 
fund of ready humour. He was, like every 
other true Irishman, fond of poetry, and 
did not disdain to occasionally throw off a 
few verses on his own account. He con- 
tributed several poetical effusions to the 
" Maple Leaf," a costly illustrated Annual 
set on foot, in 1847, by his friend and fel- 
low-countryman Dr. McCaul. The most 
noticeable thing about these contributions 
is their exquisite perfection of rhythm, but 
they display a certain degree of genuine 
poetic inspiration, and are of a much higher 
class of workmanship than the conventional 
" offerings " in the English Annuals of that 
date. He is also known as an author by a 
pamphlet entitled " Thoughts on Law Re- 
form," published in Toronto a few years 
ago. During the early years of his career 
in Upper Canada he was also a frequent 
contributor to the newspaper press, and 
many of the smart, crisply-written para- 
graphs of that day were attributable to his 
pen. 



Mr. Hagarty was also an active member 
of the Canadian Institute, in the proceed- 
ings of which he has taken a warm interest 
ever since its foundation, and of which he 
has once or twice been elected President. 
The St. Patrick's Society was another or- 
ganization with which he allied himself 
early in his professional career. He was 
President of the latter Society in 1846. 

His elevation to the Bench took place on 
the 5th of February, 1856, when he was 
appointed a Puisne 1 Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas. This dignity he retained 
until the 18th of March, 1802, when he was 
transferred to the Court of Queen's Bench, 
where he remained until the 12th of No- 
vember, 1868, when he was appointed Chief 
Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, as 
successor to the Hon. (now Sir) William 
Buell Richards, who had been promoted to 
the dignity of Chief Justice of Ontario. Im- 
mediately after the death of the late Chief 
Justice Harrison, Mr. Hagarty became Chief 
Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench for 
Ontario, which position he still retains. He 
is a sound and well-read lawyer, and his ex- 
positions of the law are clear and lucid. His 
quickness of perception has long been pro- 
verbial among the profession. He grasps 
the points of an argument almost before it 
has been uttered, and if there be any fallacy 
about it, it is rarely necessary for the op- 
posing counsel to urge it upon the attention 
of the Court. His judicial humour is an- 
other characteristic which has long been 
recognized by the profession. He sees the 
ludicrous, as well as the legal side of a 
question, and has the faculty of presenting 
it in a light which is sometimes irresistibly 
provocative of laughter. Many of his hu- 
morous sayings have passed into currency 
among his brother judges and professional 
men. Alike as a man and a judge he is 
held in the highest respect, and his written 
judgments are equally conspicuous for ele- 
gance of diction and profound learning. 



THE MOST REV. ROBERT MACHRAY, D.D, LL.D., 

BISHOP OF RUPERT'S LAND. 



THE Bishop of Rupert's Land is a son of 
Mr. Robert Machray, advocate, of Aber- 
deen, Scotland. He was born at Aberdeen 
in the year 1832, and in his early boyhood 
entered King's College, University of Aber- 
deen, for the purpose of receiving a cleri- 
cal education. He graduated in 1851, and 
subsequently entered Sidney College, Cam- 
bridge, where he graduated as B.A. in 1855, 
taking high honours in mathematics. He 
in due course obtained the degrees of M.A. 
and D.D. Immediately after receiving his 
baccalaureate degree he was elected a Foun- 
dation Fellow of Sidney College, and in the 
course of the same year was advanced to 
Deacon's Orders by His Grace the Lord 
Bishop of Ely. In 185G he was advanced 
to the Priesthood by the same Prelate. In 
1858 he was elected Dean of his College. 
In I860 and 1861 he was University Ex- 
aminer, and in 1865 he became Ramsden 
University Preacher. 

For several years prior to his elevation to 
the Episcopate he officiated as Vicar of Mad- 
ingley, a village situated about five miles 
west of Cambridge. In 1865 he was ap- 
pointed by the Crown as Bishop of Rupert's 
Land, and was consecrated at Lambeth Pal- 
ace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, as- 
sisted by the Bishops of London, Ely, and 
Aberdeen, and by the Right Rev. David 
Anderson, a former Bishop of Rupert's Land. 
His first exercise of his Episcopal functions 
consisted of the holding of an ordination for 
the Bishop of London, whereat he ordained 



to the Priesthood the Rev. William Carpen- 
ter Bumpus, the present Bishop of Atha- 
basca, in the North- West Territories. 

Bishop Machray 's Episcopate has been 
marked by great progress in the welfare of 
the Church of England in his diocese. The 
diocese of Rupert's Land was originally 
constituted in 1849, and comprehended the 
whole of what now forms the Province of 
Manitoba and the North- West Territories. 
The subsequent formation of separate bishop- 
rics curtailed the See of its proportions. The 
See of Rupert's Land now consists of the 
Province of Manitoba, with part of the Dis- 
trict of Cumberland, and the Districts of 
Swan River, Norway House, and Lac La 
Pluie. In 1874, on the subdivision of the 
diocese, Bishop Machray was chosen Metro- 
politan, under the Primacy of the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. He is held in very 
high esteem throughout his diocese, and has 
done much to promote the cause of educa- 
tion. He is Chancellor and Warden of St. 
John's College, Manitoba, and is also Pro- 
fessor of Ecclesiastical History in the Theo- 
logical College. His sermons and charges 
to his clergy are marked by practical good 
sense, and his manner, whether in the pul- 
pit or out of it, is eminently calculated to 
make for him many friends. Though he 
makes no pretence to brilliancy of diction 
or extraordinary gifts of oratory, he is capa- 
ble of rising, upon an important occasion, 
to a high degree of eloquence and spiritual 
fervour. 



SEBASTIAN CABOT. 



THE honour of being the original discover- 
er of the American continent is com- 
monly vouchsafed, by persons who do not 
read, to Christopher Columbus. As matter 
of fact the honour belongs neither to him 
nor to the mendacious Florentine, Amerigo 
Vespucci, who was the first to publish an 
account of the New World which bears his 
name. Leaving the mythical accounts of 
western voyages by the Welsh and Irish out 
of the question, as well as the semi-mythi- 
cal discoveries of the Norsemen in the ninth 
and tenth centuries, Columbus may justly 
lay claim to having led the van in the way 
of American discovery, and to have wrested 
from the western seas the marvellous secret 
which they held hidden in their bosom. 
Columbus deserves all the credit which even 
the most partial writers have claimed on his 
behalf. His merits as a discoverer and a 
man of genius have long been matters be- 
yond dispute, and the brightness of his fame 
can never be tarnished. But, saving the 
more or less mythical personages above- 
mentioned, the first discoverer of the main- 
land of America the first man to set foot 
upon its shore, and to hold personal com- 
munication with its inhabitants was the 
intrepid navigator whose name stands at the 
head of this sketch. 

Sebastian Cabot was of Venetian extrac- 
tion, but of English birth, having been born 
at Bristol then the first of English seaports 
sometime in the year 1477. His father, 



Giovanni Cabotta, was a native of Venice, 
ami was engaged in various maritime opera- 
tions of considerable magnitude, which com- 
pelled him to reside almost entirely in Eng- 
land for many years. As the time passed 
by he became to all practical intents an 
Englishman. His sympathies, language, and 
habits of thought were all of the land in 
which he dwelt, and he even Anglicized his 
name, and was known as John Cabot. He 
was a man of some learning and enterprise, 
and is entitled to a share of the honour ac- 
corded to his more celebrated son. 

The precise day upon which Sebastian 
Cabot was born is unknown. There was 

\ 

formerly a dispute as to his birthplace, but 
that point may now be said to be definitely 
settled. There does not seem to have been 
any good ground for difference of opinion 
about the matter at any time. It arose 
from conflicting expressions in various au- 
thors, some of whom wrote under the belief 
that he had been born at Venice. Purchas 
says of him (" Pilgrims," vol. iii., p. 901), " He 
was an Englishman by breeding, borm- 
Venetian, but spending most part of his 
life in England, and English employments." 
Harris, in his " Collection of Voyages," vol. 
ii., p. 191, has the following : " Sebastian 
Cabote is, by many of our writers, affirmed 
to be an Englishman, born at Bristol, but 
the Italians as positively claim him for their 
countryman, and say he was born at Venice, 
which, to speak impartially I believe to be 



16 



SEBASTIAN CABOT. 



the truth, for he says himself, that when 
his father was invited over to England, he 
brought him with him, though he was then 
very young." Other writers have indulged 
in similar remarks, which were probably 
made in good faith. The impression that he 
was by birth an Italian, however, was clearly 
erroneous. The navigator's own statement 
to Richard Eden, a careful writer and a con- 
temporary and personal friend of Sebastian, 
was sufficiently explicit. " Sebastian Cabot 
tould me," says Eden, " that he was borne in 
Brystowe, and that at iiii. yeare ould he was 
carried with his father to Venice, and so re- 
turned agayne into England with his father 
after certayne years, whereby he was tkon</lit 
to have been born in Venice." The work in 
which these words occur (" The Decades of 
the New World," fol. 255,) was originally 
published in the English language in 1612. 
Its accuracy, so far as we know, has never 
been disputed by any one ; notwithstanding 
which we find the Quarterly Review, vol. 
xvi., p. 154, commenting upon the credit due 
to England, for having " so wisely and hon- 
ourably enrolled this deserving foreigner in 
the list of her citizens." Since the publica- 
tion of Mr. Richard Biddle's " Memoir," in 
1831, there has never, we presume, been any 
doubt as to Sebastian Cabot's birthplace. 

The only information obtainable with re- 
spect to his youth is that he was carefully 
instructed in mathematics and navigation, 
and that he made several more or less ex- 
tended voyages in his father's company be- 
fore he was twenty years of age. There is 
ground for believing that one of these voy- 
ages extended to Iceland, and probably as far 
as Greenland. The great discoveries of Co- 
lumbus in the western seas inflamed all the 
maritime powers of Europe with a passion 
for exploration. The Spanish court did its 
utmost to keep the momentous secret, but 
in vain. It was a secret which could not be 
kept. Among the enterprising mariners who 
were roused to a high degree of enthusiasm 



by the wonderful news was John Cabot, who 
applied to Ring Henry VII. for a patent of 
exploration, with the ostensible view of 
finding a short route to the Indies. Henry, 
who had narrowly missed securing the ser- 
vices of Columbus, was willing enough to en- 
courage such an undertaking. On the 5th 
of March, 1496, a patent was granted to 
John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebas- 
tian and Santius, authorizing them to seek 
out, subdue, and occupy, at their own charges, 
any regions which before had " been un- 
known to all Christians." Permission was 
given to the patentees to set up the royal 
banner of England, and to possess any terri- 
tories discovered by them as the kind's 
vassals. The expedition consisted of five 
vessels, and sailed from Bristol in the month 
of May, 1497. There is no evidence that 
cither John, Lewis or Santius accompanied 
it, though the weight of testimony is in 
favour of the father's having done so. Se- 
bastian was learned and mature beyond his 
years, and was certainly the chief director 
of the expedition. He embarked on board 
the Mattheiu, and sailed in a north-westerly 
course until he reached the fifty-eighth de- 
gree of north latitude,* when the intense 
cold and floating masses of ice compelled 
him to steer to the south-west. He had a 
fair wind, and at five o'clock in the morning 
of the 24th of June he came in sight of land. 
This land he christened Priina Vista, because 
it was his first view of a region hitherto un- 
known to Europeans. Much learning has 
been expended in attempts to establish with 
certainty the precise locality of this land, 
which has been variously represented as 
Labrador, the island of Newfoundland, the 
island of Cape Breton, and the peninsula of 
Nova Scotia. It is claimed by some writers 
that Cabot entered Hudson's Bay during this 
expedition, and one goes even so far as to 

* There is some evidence that he advanced several de- 
grees farther northward than is stated above. It is im- 
possible at this date to fix the latitude with certainty. 



SEBASTIAN CABOT. 



17 



state, without offering a particle of evidence 
in support of the assertion, that he (Cabot) 
ascended the river subsequently called St. 
Lawrence as far as the mouth of the Sag- 
uenay. Much must necessarily be matter 
of conjecture. The map of the course pur- 
sued by the expedition, which was made 
either by Cabot himself or under his per- 
sonal supervision, was engraved in 1549 by 
one Clement Adams, and formerly hung in 
Queen Elizabeth's gallery at Whitehall. It 
has long since disappeared, and it is thus 
impossible to fix the route with any ap- 
proach to certainty. The royal patent issued 
during the following year, however, seems to 
recognize the fact that " a Londe and Isles " 
had been discovered during the expedition ; 
and it is at least tolerably clear that Sebas- 
tian Cabot, during the summer of 1497, 
sighted and landed on the American conti- 
nent probably on the coast of Labrador 
and that he was the first European who had 
done so since the days of the Norse expedi- 
tions of several centuries before. 

Cabot returned to England with his ves- 
sels, and landed at Bristol in August, 1497. 
The king, as may well be supposed, wa.s 
much gratified at the result of the expedi- 
dition. A second patent, being the one 
referred to in the foregoing paragraph, was 
issued to " John Kabotto, Venecian," on the 
3rd of the following February. It author- 
ized him, " by him, his deputie or deputies," 
to take six English ships of not more than 
200 tons, and proceed to the land and islands 
previously discovered. John, the patentee, 
died before the preparations had been com- 
pleted, and the two sons, Lewis and Santius, 
are supposed about this time to have settled 
in Italy. The expedition sailed from Bris- 
tol, under the command of Sebastian, in the 
following May. It seems tolerably certain 
that he penetrated into Hudson's Bay du- 
ring this voyage, whatever may have been 
the fact with reference to that of the pre- 
ceding year. He appears to have been ac- 
IV 4 



companied by about three hundred men, 
with a view to colonization. The accounts 
of this second voyage, however, are exceed- 
ingly vague, and very little is definitely 
known about it. It is said that he sailed 
far to the northward, in the hope of finding 
a passage to the Indies ; that when the 
sailors found themselves in such a desolate 
and unknown region, surrounded by ice- 
bergs and the various perils and discomforts 
of Arctic exploration, they refused to pro- 
ceed farther, and broke out into open mutiny; 
that the commander therefore turned back 
and explored the American coast nearly as 
far south as Florida, after which, his stock 
of provisions having run short, he returned 
to England, taking with him three native 
Americans from northern climes. 

His subsequent adventures have no special 
interest for Canadian readers, and may be 
given very briefly. In 1499 he engaged in 
an expedition to the Gulf of Mexico, as to 
which nothing specific is known. He sub- 
sequently entered the naval service of Fer- 
dinand of Spain, and supervised a revision 
of the royal maps and charts. In 1517 he 
joined Sir Thomas Perte, Vice- Admiral of 
England, in an expedition to Spanish Amer- 
ica. In 1518 he returned to Spain, where 
he is said to have been appointed Pilot- 
Major. He made other voyages to South 
America, hoping to discover a southern route 
to the Indies. He ascended the River La 
Plata and built a fort near one of the mouths 
of the Parana. He finally settled in Eng- 
land, and was actively employed in mari- 
time affairs by the Government, who settled 
upon him a pension of two hundred and fifty 
marks. Hakluyt asserts that the office of 
Grand Pilot of England was created for, and 
conferred upon him, the duties of the office 
consisting of having " the examination and 
appointing of all such mariners as shall 
from this time forward take the charge of a 
Pilot or Master upon him in any ship within 
this our realm." It seems doubtful, how- 



18 



SEBASTIAN CABOT. 



ever, whether such an office ever exist- 
ed in England. During the latter years 
of his life he disclosed to King Edward 
the phenomenon of the variations of the 
magnetic needle. His later life was dis- 
tinguished by the organization of a com- 
pany, and the equipment of an expedition 
which proved a great national benefit in 
opening a lucrative trade with Russia. 
His life, which was one of ceaseless physi- 
cal and mental activity, was a long, and 
upon the whole a glorious one. His per- 
sonal character is highly commended by 
all who have written about him. The 
precise date of his death, like that of his 
birth, is uncertain. He is presumed to 
have died in London, sometime in the year 
1557. Even the place of his interment is 
unknown. 

It is worth mentioning that a work pub- 
lished at Venice, in 1583, entitled " Naviga- 
tione nelle parte Settentrionale," has been 
attributed by many writers to Sebastian 
Cabot. Researches conducted during the 
present century, however, have established 
the fact that Cabot had nothing to do with 
the authorship of the work, which was 
probably written by one Stephen Bur- 
rough, an adventurous navigator of the 



sixteenth century. There is another error 
which is worth correcting, viz., that one 
or both of the Cabots (John and Sebas- 
tian) received the dignity of knighthood 
from King Henry VII., in testimony of his 
appreciation of their discoveries. The error 
was originally perpetrated by Purchas, who 
mistook the purport of an inscription under 
a portrait of Sebastian. The error was 
adopted as truth by Dr. Henry, in his " His- 
tory of Britain," and from him has been 
copied by scores of writers who have been 
content to adopt blunders without investiga- 
tion. In more than one history of Canada 
we find references to " Sir John Cabot." 
There never was any such personage. The 
fame of the Cabots rests on a higher and 
more solid foundation than any empty titu- 
lar dignities which it is the province of 
kings to confer. A full exposure of the 
blunder will be found in Biddle's " Memoir," 
! already quoted from. 

An original portrait in oil of Sebastian 
Cabot, painted by the celebrated Holbein, 
is in existence. It was formerly placed in 
the royal picture gallery at Whitehall, but is 
now in private hands. It has several times 
been engraved, and is doubtless familiar to 
many readers of these pages. 



FRONTENAC 



/CONCERNING the early life of Louis 
\J de Buade, Count de Frontenac, who has 
been called " the Saviour of New France," 
but little is known. He came of an ancient 
and noble race, said to have been of Basque 
origin, and was born in 1620, seven years 
after the marriage of his father, who held a 
high post in the household of Louis XIII., 
who became the child's godfather, and gave 
him his own name. Even the diligence and 
enthusiasm of Mr. Parkman have not enabled 
him to discover any further circumstances 
relating to the Count's childhood ; and the 
known facts relating to his youth may be 
comprised within a very few lines. It ap- 
pears that at the age of fifteen the young 
Louis showed an uncontrollable passion for 
the life of a soldier, and was sent to serve 
under the Prince of Orange, in Holland. 
Four years later, when he was nineteen, he 
was a volunteer at the siege of Hesdin. 
Next year he distinguished himself during 
a sortie of the garrison at Arras. At twen- 
ty-one he took part in the siege of Aire, 
and at twenty-two he was at the sieges of 
Caillioure and Perpignan. At twenty-three 
he became colonel of a regiment, and com- 
manded in several battles and sieges during 
a campaign in Italy. He was repeatedly 
wounded, and in 1646 had an arm broken 
at the siege of Orbitello. He was then 
twenty-six years of age, and before the year 
was out he had been made a nm r< : i-Iml ./< 
camp the French equivalent for the rank 



of a brigadier-general. A year or two later 
he was residing in his father's house in 
Paris ; and these isolated facts include about 
all that is certainly known with respect to 
the first twenty-six years of the life of a man 
of whom Mr. Parkman says, " a more remark- 
able figure, in its bold and salient individual- 
ity and sharply marked light and shadow, is 
nowhere seen in American history." 

The next episode in his career as to which 
we have any precise information is his mar- 
riage, which took place at the church of St. 
Pierre aux Boeufs, in Paris, in the month of 
October, 1648. His bride was the young 
and beautiful Mademoiselle Anne de la 
Grange-Trianon, whose portrait, painted as 
Minerva, hangs in one of the galleries at 
Versailles at the present day. She was one 
of the " professional " or court beauties of 
that day, and was the friend and com- 
panion of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 
grand-daughter of Henry IV. Her marriage 
with Frontenac was contracted without the 
consent of her parents. It soon appeared 
that the romantic and wayward couple were 
unsuited to each other. The young wife 
conceived an aversion to her husband, and 
after the birth of a son she left his protec- 
tion, and attached herself to the suite of 
Mademoiselle de Montpensier. The attach- 
ment between the two ladies was not per- 
manent. They quarrelled, and the beautiful 
young Countess was dismissed. The latter 
seems to have intrigued to get her husband 



20 



FRONTENAC. 



sent out of the kingdom. The Count was 
in high position at court, and was possessed 
of fine and polished manners, as became one 
of his ancestry and rank. He is said to have 
been one of the many lovers of the famous 
Madame de Montespan, the haughty and ex- 
travagant mistress of the king, Louis XIV. 
He had, however, an imperious and at times 
ungovernable temper, and had run through 
his fortune. In 16G9 he was chosen by the 
great Marshal Turenne to conduct a cam- 
paign against the Turks in Candia, where he 
displayed dauntless courage and high mili- 
tary ability to very little purpose. In 1672, 
after his return to his native land, he was 
appointed Governor and Lieutenant-General 
of New France. Various scandalous stories 
have been told as to the origin of his ap- 
pointment. Several chronicles aver that 
the king was aware of his intimacy with 
Madame de Montespan, and wished to get 
him out of the way. St. Simon, on the 
other hand, says : " He (Frontenac) was a 
man of excellent parts, living much in so- 
ciety, and completely ruined. He found it 
hard to bear the imperious temper of his 
wife, and he was given the government of 
Canada to deliver him from her, and afford 
him some means of living." He was at this 
time fifty-two years old. " Had nature dis- 
posed him to melancholy," says Mr. Park- 
man, " there was much in his position to 
awaken it. A man of courts and camps, 
born and bred in the focus of a most gorge- 
ous civilization, he was banished to the ends 
of the earth, among savage hordes and half- 
reclaimed forests, to exchange the splendours 
of St. Germain and the dawning glories of 
Versailles for a stern gray rock, haunted 
by sombre priests, rugged merchants and 
traders, blanketed Indians, and wild bush- 
rangers. But Frontenac was a man of ac- 
tion. He wasted no time in vain regrets, 
and set himself to his work with the elastic 
vigour of youth. His first impressions had 
been very favourable. When, as he sailed 



up the St. Lawrence, the basin of Quebec 
opened before him, his imagination kindled 
with the grandeur of the scene. ' I never,' 
he wrote, ' saw anything more superb than 
the position of this town. It could not be 
better situated as the future capital of a 
great empire.' " 

He forthwith set himself vigorously to 
work to reduce his dominions to a state of 
order. He convoked a council at Quebec, 
and administered an oath of allegiance to 
the chief personages of the colony. His 
principles of government were aristocratic 
and monarchical, and he founded the three 
estates of his realm clergy, nobles and 
commons with great pomp and solemnity. 
The clergy were ready-made to his hand 
in the persons of the Jesuits and seminary 
priests. To the three or four gentilshommes 
whom he found at Quebec, he added a num- 
ber of officers, and these formed his nobility. 
The merchants and citizens constituted the 
third estate. The magistracy and members 
of council were formed into a distinct body. 
He made an oracular speech in which he in- 
formed his subjects that fealty to him was 
not only a duty, but an inestimable privi- 
lege. He also established a sort of munici- 

O 

pal government at Quebec. He took kindly 
to the Indians, over whom he gained an ex- 
traordinary influence. But and here was 
his gravest mistake of policy he quarrelled 
with the clergy. 

At the time of his arrival in the colony 
the priesthood still possessed an undue in- 
fluence, which they were by no means con- 
tent to restrict to spiritual affairs. Several 
of Frontenac's predecessors had had enough 
to do to maintain the civil authority against 
them. But Frontenac brooked no rival. 
He set himself in determined opposition to 
the clerical influence from the first. To the 
Jesuits and Sulpicians he was especially 
hostile, and to this day many of them regard 
him as an impious impostor. An impostor, 
however, he was not, for he was by no means 



FRONTENAC. 



21 



extravagant in his professions of orthodoxy. 
Religion, with him, was a mere sentiment, 
though, by mere force of custom, he con- 
tinued to respect and practise the formal 
observances of the church throughout his 
life. The only priests that found any favour 
in his eyes were the Recollets, whom he be- 
friended at first out of a mere spirit of op- 
position to the Bishop and the Jesuits, and 
afterwards, it may be believed, from a feel- 
ing of genuine kindness. These Rocollets 
had originally been sent out to Canada to 
counteract the machinations of the rival 
order, and of course found no favour in 
the eyes of the Bishop and his adherents. 
The breach between them was widened by 
the patronage of Frontenac. The priestly 
method of exercising power by secret means 
was very distasteful to the frank and courtly 
soldier, who could not for the life of him 
understand why any man should dissemble 
his real opinions. He found that the priests 
abused the confessional, intermeddled with 
private family affairs with which they had 
no right to concern themselves, set wives 
against their husbands and children against 
their parents " and all," says Frontenac, in 
a letter to Colbert, the king's famous minis- 
ter " and all, as they say, for the greater 
glory of God." He sent home constant 
complaints against the priesthood, and they, 
in turn, were equally assiduous in traducing 
him at headquarters. These two powerful 
influences were thus pitted against each 
other in the colony, and an energy that 
ought to have been exerted in promoting 
the common weal was largely expended in 
mutual opposition. 

Frontenac was favourable to western ex- 
ploration. He found at Quebec a young 
man who was very willing to promote any 
such .schemes. This young man was no 
other than La Salle, whose life has been 
sketcliL-d in an earlier volume. " Tin i , 
between them," says Mr. Park man, " Un- 
sympathetic attraction of two bold and en- 



ergetic spirits ; and though Cavelier de la 
Salle had neither the irritable vanity of the 
Count, nor his Gallic vivacity of passion, he 
had in full measure the same unconquerable 
pride and hardy resolution. There were 
but two or three men in Canada who knew 
the western wilderness so well. He was 
full of schemes of ambition and of gain ; 
and, from this moment, he and Frontenac 
seem to have formed an alliance, which 
ended only with the governor's recall." Fron- 
tenac's predecessor, Courcelle, had urged 
upon the king the expediency of building a 
fort on Lake Ontario, in order to hold the 
Iroquois in check, and intercept the trade 
which the tribes of the Upper Lakes had 
begun to carry on with the Dutch and Eng- 
lish of New York. Thus, a stream of wealth 
would be turned into Canada, which would 
otherwise enrich her enemies. Here, to all 
appearance, was a great public good, and 
from the military point of view it was so in 
fact ; but it was clear that the trade thus 
secured might be made to profit, not the 
colony at large, but those alone who had 
control of the fort, which would then be- 
come the instrument of a monopoly. This 
the governor understood; and without doubt 
he meant that the projected establishment 
should pay him tribute. How far he and 
La Salle were acting in concurrence at 
this time it is not easy to say ; but Fron- 
tenac often took counsel of the explorer, 
who, on his part, saw in the design a pos- 
sible first step towards the accomplishment 
of his own far-reaching schemes. La Salle 
was thoroughly familiar with the country 
along the shores of Lake Ontario, and con- 
vinced Frontenac that the most appropri- 
ate site for his projected fort was at the 
mouth of the River Cataraqui ; and there, on 
the site where now stands the city of King- 
ston, the fort was built accordingly, during 
tin- month of July, 167-5. Frontenac's pa- 
tronage of La Salle continued throughout 
the former's tenure of the Governorship. He 



22 



FRONTENAC. 



also patronized other enthusiastic western 
travellers, and sent Marquette and Joliet to 
explore the regions of the Mississippi. Mean- 
time his quarrels with the clergy were in- 
cessant, and the perpetual recriminations 
which were sent over to France were no 
slight cause of annoyance at court. The 
French king finally determined to send 
over an intendant to manage the details of 
the administration, and to report upon the 
merits of the perpetual disputes between the 
Governor and the clergy. The intendant 
arrived in the colony in due course, in the 
person of M. Duchesneau. This gentleman 
sided with the clerical party, and became 
the strenuous partisan of Bishop Laval. 
This brought down upon his head the fierce 
wrath of Frontenac. Into the bitter quar- 
rels, charges and counter-charges, that en- 
sued it is not necessary to enter. The strife 
of the rival factions grew fiercer and fiercer. 
Canes, sticks, and even drawn swords were 
imported into the quarrel. In February, 
Kis2, both Frontenac and Duchesneau were 
recalled. La Barre succeeded as Governor, 
and Frontenac repaired to Paris, where he 
spent seven years, by which time La Barre, 
and his successor, Denonville, had contrived 
to bring the colony to the brink of ruin. In 
this contingency the king once more had re- 
course to Frontenac, who was at this time 
(1G89) in his seventieth year. " I send you 
back to Canada," he is reported to have 
said, " where I am sure that you will serve 
me as well as you did before ; and I ask 
nothing more of you." The Count accepted 
the responsibility, and bade a last farewell 
to France and his sovereign. 

One of the principal drawbacks to the 
success of the colony of New France was 
the proximity of the Iroquois in the Province 
of New York, who made frequent incursions 
into Canada, and generally spread devasta- 
tion in their track. It was understood at 
Quebec that these incursions were not only 
winked at by the authorities at Albany and 



New York, but were even in some instances 
incited by them. There were also perpetual 
troubles between the French and English 
colonies respecting the fur-trade. No sooner 
had Frontenac been reappointed as Gover- 
nor than he conceived the design of invading 
and ravaging the British colonies in America, 
and thus removing the chief drawback to 
the prosperity of New France by laying 
waste the territory of her foes. He had no 
sooner set foot in Canada than his spirit 
began to infect the entire French population 
there, and for the first time for seven years 
some traces of energy were visible in the 
streets of Quebec and Montreal. The ter- 
rible massacre which had taken place at 
Lachine only a few months before was 
almost forgotten in the ardour of the ap- 
proaching expedition against the British 
colonies. Three separate war parties were 
organized, and set out on their mission. The 
history of their subsequent proceedings is a 
terrible record of cruelty and bloodshed into 
which it is unnecessary to enter here. Vari- 
ous points in New England and New York 
were attacked almost simultaneously, and 
with success for the French arms. The 
British colonies became thoroughly aroused, 
and organized a counter expedition against 
Canada. A detachment under Colonel Win- 
throp of Connecticut advanced from Albany 
upon Montreal, and a naval armament under 
Sir William Phips menaced Quebec. 

The expedition against Montreal under 
Winthrop was a failure, owing, in part, to 
the combined effects of famine and small- 
pox. Sir William Phips, on the 5th of Oc- 
tober, (Old Style) 1690, anchored his fleet of 
thirty-five vessels a little below Quebec, and 
sent an envoy ashore with a summons to 
Frontenac to surrender. Sir William had 
delayed on his way up the St. Lawrence, 
and the French had had time to put the gar- 
rison in an efficient state of defence. When 
the envoy presented his summons to Fron- 
tenac in the Castle of St. Lewis, he was 



FRONTENAC. 



23 



grossly insulted by some of the officers, but 
was treated by the Governor himself with as 
much courtesy as the occasion called for. 
The summons to surrender was conceived in 
a most peremptory style, and could not fail 
to give serious offence to such a haughty 
aristocrat as Frontenac was. It demanded, 
in the name of William and Mary, King and 
Queen of England, Scotland, France and 
Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, a surrender 
of forts, castles and stores, as well as of the 
persons and estates of the Governor and his 
chief officials. It referred to the cruelties 
and barbarities which had been practised by 
the French and Indians against the colonists ; 
and concluded by demanding a positive an- 
swer within an hour. When it had been 
translated aloud, Sir William's envoy took 
his watch from his pocket and handed it to 
the Governor. The latter calmly waved it 
aside, and delivered his memorable reply, 
which, stripped of the florid ornamentation 
with which it has been garnished by succes- 
sive generations of translators, was as fol- 
lows : " I will not keep you waiting so long. 
Tell your general that I do not recognize 
King William ; and that the Prince of 
Orange, who so styles himself, is a usurper, 
who has violated the most sacred laws of 
blood in attempting to dethrone his father- 
in-law. I know no king of England but 
King James. Your general ought not to be 
surprised at the hostilities which he says 
that the French have carried on in the col- 
ony of Massachusetts ; for, as the king my 
master has taken the king of England under 
his protection, and is about to replace him 
on his throne by force of arms, he might 
have expected that his Majesty would order 
me to make war on a people who have re- 
belled against their lawful prince." Then, 
turning with a smile to the officers about 
him : " Even if your general offered me con- 
ditions a little more gracious, and if I had 
a mind to accept them, does he suppose that 
these brave gentlemen would give their con- 



sent, and advise me to trust a man who 
broke his agreement with the governor of 
Port Royal, or a rebel who has failed in his 
duty to his king, and forgotten all the 
favours he had received from him, to follow 
a prince who pretends to be the liberator of 
England and the defender of the faith, and 
yet destroys the laws and privileges of the 
kingdom and overthrows its religion ? The 
divine justice which your general invokes 
in his letter will not fail to punish such acts 
severely." The startled messenger asked 
for an answer in writing. " No," returned 
Frontenac, " I will answer your general 
only by the mouths of my cannon, that he 
may learn that a man like me is not to be 
summoned after this fashion. Let him do 
his best, and I will do mine." He was as 
good as his word. He opened a fire on the 
fleet. The upshot of the expedition was 
that Sir William was completely discom- 
fited, and sailed off down the St. Lawrence 
to the sea, leaving his artillery, which had 
been disembarked near the mouth of the 
St. Charles, behind him. He lost nine of 
his vessels by rough weather on his way 
back to Boston. Frontenac's victory was 
commemorated by the erection of the little 
church, still standing in the Lower Town 
of Quebec, dedicated to Notre Dame de la 
Victoire. 

The repulse of Phips and his fleet may be 
pronounced the culminating point in the 
career of the Count de Frontenac, although 
eight years more of vigorous life remained 
to him. Such vigour and energy in a man' 
of his age has few parallels in history. In 
the summer of 1696, when he was in his 
seventy-sixth year, he led an army in per- 
son from Montreal into the heart of the 
Province of New York, and laid waste the 
country of the Onondagas and Oneidas. For 
this achievement his royal master sent him 
the cross of the Military Order of St. Louis. 
He had a due share of quarrels for the rest 
of his life with the clergy and with certain 



FRONTENAC. 



of his officials, but he succeeded in restoring 
the fallen fortunes of France in North 
America. He paid the penalty of being a 
blood-horse, and ran till he dropped. In 
November, 1698, he was seized with a mor- 
tal illness, and sank very rapidly. He died 
with perfect calmness and composure, as 
became him, on the 28th of the month. He 
was buried in the Church of the Re"collet 
Fathers. On the destruction of that church 
his bones were removed to the cathedral of 
Quebec, where they now repose. His heart, 
by his direction, was enclosed in a case of 
silver to his Countess. Tradition says that 
the lady refused to receive it, saying that 
she would not have a dead heart which had 
never been hers while living. 

Of Frontenac's services to French Canada 
there can be no doubt. " His own acts and 
words," says Parkman, " best paint his char- 
acter, and it is needless to enlarge upon it. 
What perhaps may be least forgiven him is 
the barbarity of the warfare that he waged, 
and the cruelties that he permitted. He 
had seen too many towns sacked to be much 
subject to the scruples of modern humani- 
tarianism ; yet he was no whit more ruth- 
less than his times and his surroundings, 



and some of his contemporaries find fault 
with him for not allowing more Indian 
captives to be tortured. Many surpassed 
him in cruelty, none equalled him in dapa- 
city and vigour. When civilized enemies 
were once within his power, he treated 
them, according to their degree, with a chi- 
valrous courtesy, or a generous kindness. 
If he was a hot and pertinacious foe, he 
was also a fast friend ; and he excited love 
and hatred in about equal measure. His 
attitude towards public enemies was always 
proud and peremptory, yet his courage was 
guided by so clear a sagacity that he never 
was forced to recede from the position he 
had taken. Towards Indians, he was an 
admirable compound of sternness and con- 
ciliation. Of the immensity of his services 
to the colony there can be no doubt. He 
found it, under Denonville, in humiliation 
and terror ; and he left it in honour, and 
almost in triumph." 

The Countess survived her husband about 
nine years, and succeeded to the bulk of his 
property after his death. Her only child, 
the son whose birth was recorded in the 
early part of this sketch, was slain in battle, 
or, as some say, in a duel, at an early age. 



THE HON. ISAAC BURPEE. 



MR. BURPEE, one of the most distin- 
guished members of the Liberal Party 
in the Province of New Brunswick, is de- 
scended from one of those old Huguenot 
families which were driven by persecution 
to emigrate from France during the latter 
part of the sixteenth century. The Burpee 
family sought refuge in England, and re- 
mained there for a generation or two, when, 
being debarred from the enjoyment of full 
religious freedom there, they once more 
tried the experiment of emigration. In 
1622 or thereabouts they followed in the 
wake of those Pilgrim Fathers who, two 
years before, had crossed the billowy At- 
lantic, and founded a little colony upon the 
ruffed coast of Massachusetts Bay. Thev 

OO " 

settled in what is now the State of Massa- 
chusetts, and there they and their descen- 
dants remained for about 140 years. In 
1763, immediately after the making of the 
Treaty of Paris, Jonathan Burpee, the head 
of the family, removed from Rowley, Massa- 
chusetts, to Maugerville, on the north shore 
of the St. John River, in what is now the 
Province of New Brunswick. His descen- 
dants have ever since resided in that Prov- 
ince, and many of them have held impor- 
tant public offices there. 

The immediate ancestor of the subject of 
this sketch was Isaac Burpee, of Sheffield, 
N.B., who married Phoebe, daughter of 
Moses Coban. The present Isaac Burpee 
was the eldest son of this couple, and was 
IV 5 



born at Sheffield on the 28th of November, 
1825. He received his education at the 
County -Grammar School, and at an early 
age devoted himself to mercantile pursuits. 
In 1848. when he was in his twenty-third 
year, he removed from Sheffield to St. John, 
the commercial capital of the Province, and 
soon afterwards, in partnership with his 
younger brother Frederick, he entered into 
business as a hardware merchant, under the 
style of I. & F. Burpee. Both these young 
men displayed great aptitude for commer- 
cial life, and soon succeeded in building up 
a large and prosperous business connection. 
The senior partner acquired a very promi- 
nent position, not only as a merchant, but 
as a man of large views and public spirit. 
He took an interest in all questions affect- 
ing the welfare of the people, and was an 
active promoter of the establishment of 
manufactures to provide employment for 
the surplus population. He also took an 
active part in the movement which secured 
for Portland a town contiguous to St. 
John, and in which his own residence is 
situated an Act of incorporation, whereby 
the old system of irresponsible magistrates 
appointed for life was done away with, and 
whereby the management of municipal af- 
fairs was placed under the public control. 
He was elected Chairman of the first Town 
Council an office identical with that of 
Mayor and continued to hold that posi- 
tion for several successive years. 



26 



THE HON. ISAAC BURPEE. 



On the 8th of March, 1855, he married 
Miss Henrietta Robertson, the youngest 
daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Robert- 
son, a prominent hardware merchant of 
Sheffield, England. The business carried 
on by the firm of I. & F. Burpee continued 
to prosper, and after some years another 
brother, Mr. John P. C. Burpee, was ad- 
mitted as a member. It was almost a mat- 
ter of course that so influential and public- 
spirited a citizen as the senior partner should 
take a lively interest in political matters. 
He had been reared in Liberal principles, 
and had always adhered to the Reform side. 
He first appeared in the rdle of a candidate 
for Parliament at the general election of 
1872, when he was returned to the House 
of Commons for the city and county of St. 
John, his colleague being Mr. A. L. Palmer, 
a leading member of the local Bar. Both 
the successful candidates, though of Liberal 
tendencies, expressed their intention of giv- 
ing the Government of Sir John A. Mac- 
donald an independent support, and this 
Mr. Burpee continued to do until the fall 
of that Government in the autumn of 1873, 
consequent on the Pacific Scandal disclo- 
sures. Since then Mr. Burpee has been a 
vigorous opponent of the Conservative 
Party, and has been able to indulge his 
Liberal prepossessions. Upon the forma- 
tion of Mr. Mackenzie's Administration he 
accepted the portfolio of Minister of Cus- 
toms, and upon presenting himself to his 
constituents for reelection he was returned 
by acclamation. Upon accepting office he 
retired from his connection with the com- 
mercial firm, the success of which he had 
been mainly instrumental in establishing, 
deeming such a connection incompatible 
with his position as a member of the 
Cabinet. 



His administration of the affairs of his 
department was very efficient, and was 
marked by the complete absence of jobbery 
or scandal. As a member of the Privy 
Council his practical good sense made him 
extremely useful, and his diplomatic con- 
test with Mr. Bristow, who was then Secre- 
tary of the United States Treasury, respect- 
ing the navigation of the New York canals, 
proved him to be possessed of a far higher 
degree of statesmanship than he had pre- 
viously been credited with. As a Parlia- 
mentary speaker he at first had to contend 
with the difficulties attendant upon inex- 
perience and a want of readiness in ex- 
pressing himself. These difficulties, how- 
ever, were erelong surmounted, and he be- 
came a ready and effective speaker. He 
mastered every detail of his own depart- 
ment, and administered it with vigour and 
resolution. At the general election held on 
the 17th of September, 1878, he and his 
colleague in the representation of St. John, 
Mr. Palmer, again presented themselves to 
their constituents for election. Mr. Burpee 
was successful in securing his return by a 
large majority, but Mr. Palmer was defeat- 
ed. Mr. Burpee resigned office, with his 
colleagues, on the 16th of October. 

Mr. Burpee occupies a high social position 
in his native Province, and is connected 
with various public institutions. He is a 
Director of the Confederation Life Associa- 
tion ; of the Victoria Coal Mining Com- 
pany ; and of the New Brunswick Deaf 
and Dumb Institution. He has filled the 
office of Treasurer of the St. John Indus- 
trial School, is a member of the Executive 
Council of the Congregational Union of 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and is 
Vice-President of the New Brunswick 
branch of the Evangelical Alliance. 



THE HON. THOMAS HEATH HAVILAND, Q.C, 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



T IEUTENANT-GOVERNOR HAVI- 
-L^ LAND is a son of the late Hon. Thomas 
Heath Haviland, formerly of Gloucester- 
shire, England, who for many years prior 
to the introduction of Responsible Govern- 
ment in Prince Edward Island, in 1851, 
was a member of the Executive and Legis- 
lative Councils, and Colonial Secretary of 
the Province. 

He was born at Charlottetown, the capi- 
tal of Prince Edward Island, on the 13th of 
November, 1822, and received his early edu- 
cation there. He subsequently proceeded 
to Belgium, in Europe, and completed his 
education at Brussels, the pleasant capital 
of that little kingdom. After his return to 
his native Province he studied law, and was 
called to the local Bar in 1846. He about 
the same time began to take part in public 
affairs, and towards the close of the year was 
returned to the Provincial Assembly for 
Georgetown. He thenceforward represent- 
ed that constituency in the Assembly for 
a continuous period of twenty -four years ; 
that is to say, until 1870, when he was 
elected a member of the Legislative Council 
of Prince Edward Island. From the month 
of April, 1859, to November, 1862, he was a 
member of the Executive Council of Prince 
Edward Island, as Colonial Secretary. This 
position he occupied on two subsequent oc- 
casions ; viz., (luring part of 1866 ami 1867, 
and from September, 1870, until April, Ls72. 
During part of the year 1865 he was Solici- 



tor-General of the Province, and was created 
a Queen's Counsel just prior to his appoint- 
ment to that office. From 1863 to 1864 he 
was Speaker of the Assembly, and from 
1867 to the general election of 1870 he was 
leader of the Opposition in that Chamber. 
In April, 1873, he again entered the Local 
Cabinet, and held the office of Provincial 
Secretary from that time until 1876, when 
he resigned. 

Mr. Haviland had a share in bringing 
about the great work of Confederation. He 
was a delegate to the Union Conference 
held at Quebec in 1864. In May, 1873, 
he accompanied Messrs. Pope and Howlan 
to Ottawa to arrange the final terms upon 
which Prince Edward Island should be ad- 
mitted into the Confederation. Upon the 
consummation of that event later on in the 
same year he was called to the Senate of 
the Dominion. He sat in that Body, and 
took part in its deliberations, until his ap- 
pointment as Lieutenant-Governor of his 
native Province, which took place on the 
14th of July, 1870. 

He has occupied various positions of dig- 
nity and importance, including that of Mas- 
ter in Chancery and Director of the Bank of 
Prince Edward Island. He is also a Colonel 
in the Volunteer Militia. 

In 1847 he married Miss Annie Eliza- 
beth Grubbe, daughter of Mr. John Grubbe, 
of Horsendun House, Buckinghamshire, 
England. 



THE HON. JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD. 



THE late Mr. Macdonald occupied a place 
in Canadian politics which it is not easy 
to define. He acted alternately with Con- 
servatives and Reformers, and sometimes 
even went the length of refusing to act with 
either. His constituents were not exacting, 
and he himself was not fond of being dic- 
tated to. He was probably in jest when he 
referred to himself on the floor of the Assem- 
bly as " the Lshmael of Parliament," but 
there were times and seasons when he might 
have done so in grave earnest when his 
political isolation was complete, and when 
his hand was literally against every man in 
public life. He seems to have been about 
as indiffei'ent to public opinion as a promi- 
nent member of Parliament very well can be. 
He made many enemies, and took little pains 
to conciliate them. Circumstances, how- 
ever, combined to give him a factitious im- 
portance. They also combined to impart to 
his life an appearance of inconsistency. He 
was an Upper Canadian, and he was likewise 
a Roman Catholic ; yet he opposed both re- 
presentation by population and separate 
schools. He lived in and represented a 
constituency so near the boundary-line be- 
tween the two Provinces that he could 
not always act with the extremists from 
either side of it. He, however, always had 
the courage of his opinions, and could con- 
trive to render something like a reason 
for the political faith that was in him. He 
occupied a prominent place among the pub- 



I lie men of Canada for more than thirty 
years. It cannot be said that he was a 
great statesman. He initiated no great 
measures of legislation, and did not seem 

o ' 

to have any very lofty conception of a 
legislator's responsibilities. He was, how- 
ever, an excellent man of business and an 
admirable tactician. Some desirable re- 
forms in the practice of the courts were 
carried out under his auspices, and some 
features which characterized his Adminis- 
tration are well worthy of emulation by his 
successors. It should be remembered, too, 
in extenuation of some of his foibles, that 
during the greater part of his public career 
he was compelled to struggle against seri- 
ous physical debility. Few men so handi- 
capped would have accomplished so much. 
He retained his popularity among the Scot- 
tish Highlanders of Glengarry down to the 
time of his death, which left a vacancy in 
the district with which he was so long 
identified that has never since been com- 
pletely filled. Few or none of the enmities 
which he provoked have survived to the 
present day, and many persons who once 
opposed him to the uttermost bear him in 
not unkindly remembrance. 

He was descended from an old Highland 
Roman Catholic family which settled at St. 
Raphael, a little village in what is now the 
county of Glengarry, Ontario, about the 
time of the close of the American Revolu- 
tionary War. They were not U. E. Loyal- 



THE HON. JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD. 



29 



ists, but came to Canada direct from their 
native Highlands in or about the year 1786. 
John Sandfield was born at St. Raphael, on 
the 12th of December, 1812. His father's 
name was Alexander Macdonald. The lat- 
ter seems to have been a characteristic Gael, 
fond of having his own way, and little dis- 
posed to permit his offspring to follow his 
example in that particular. He is said to 
have ruled the subject of this sketch with 
so exceedingly firm a hand that the latter 
several times ran away from home. The 
first of these excursions took place before 
he had completed his eleventh year. He 
was pursued by his irate parent and con- 
veyed back to his home ; but he soon made 
a second attempt, and with a similar result. 
His second capture was effected at Cornwall, 
just when he was in the very act of nego- 
tiating with an Indian to convey him across 
the river in a canoe. His entire capital at 
this time was a quarter of a dollar, and the 
noble savage was disposed to hold out for 
double that sum. The negotiation was ab- 
ruptly put an end to by the arrival of the 
father in pursuit of his prodigal son, and 
the latter was once more taken back to St. 
Raphael, to plan a further attempt at escape. 
Under these circumstances it is not surpris- 
ing that he grew up to young manhood 
with a somewhat imperfect education, and 
with a tolerably stubborn will of his own. 
Tradition reports that he was for some time 
a clerk in a store at Cornwall and that he 
threw up his situation in disgust on account 
of his being stigmatised as a " counter-hop- 
per" by some unwashed urchins on the 
street. From that moment, it is said, his 
situation became odious to him, and he be- 
gan to look about him for some calling in 
life which would render him less subject to 
opprobrious epithets from the gamins of 
the gutter. He discussed future possibilities 
with one of the local lawyers, and the re- 
sult of the discussion was that he resolved 
upon qualifying himself for the practice of 



the law. His scholastic attainments were 
confined to reading and writing, and even 
in these branches he was probably not very 
proficient. He was informed that by dili- 
gent study he might hope to qualify him- 
self to pass the preliminary examination 
before the Law Society of Upper Canada 
in three years. He set to work with a will. 
He entered the school at Cornwall taught 
by the late Dr. Urquhart, and worked at 
his books early and late. This was in 
November, 1832. In a little more than 
two years from that date he had mastered 
the curriculum and triumphantly passed 
his examination before the Law Society. 
His frame was slightly built, his constitu- 
tion was far from robust, and he doubtless 
had to pay in body for the strain upon his 
mind. He became delicate, and it was even 
prophesied that he was far advanced in con- 
sumption. The diagnosis would seem to 
have been at fault, as he lived and worked 
hard for nearly forty years after this time. 
The fact is that he was tough and wiry, 
and there is good reason for believing that 
he prolonged his life to some extent by the 
sheer force of his will. 

Having passed the Law Society in Hilary 
Term, 1835, he was articled to Mr. Maclean 
afterwards the Hon. Archibald Maclean, 
Chief Justice of Upper Canada at Corn- 
wall, where he remained somewhat more 
than two years. He then transferred his 
services to the office of Mr. afterwards the 
Hon. Chief Justice Draper, in Toronto, 
where he completed his studies in 184-0. 
He was admitted to practice as an attorney 
and solicitor, and, being then twenty-eight 
years of age, settled down at Cornwall, 
where his connections and his natural abili- 
ties secured for him a remarkably profitable 
business. In due course he was called to 
the Bar, and was thus enabled to hold his 
own briefs. He took as good care of his 
physical health as was consistent with hard 
work, and laughed at the gloomy predic- 



30 



THE HON. JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD. 



tions of the physicians. He was successful 
at the Bar, and increased both his know- 
ledge of law and his pecuniary resources. 
Immediately after his call to the Bar, in 
1840, he married Miss Waggoman, a daugh- 
ter of the Hon. George Waggoman, a United 
States Senator who resided in Louisiana, 
where he owned a large plantation and 
several hundred slaves.* 

He soon found his way into Parliament. 
At the first general election held after the 
Union of the Provinces in 1841 he was 
elected to represent his native county of 
Glengarry in the Assembly. He continued 
to represent that constituency for sixteen 
years, being several times elected without 
opposition. He was originally elected in 
the Conservative interest, but had scarcely 
taken his seat in the House before he began 
to assail the Family Compact. Upon the 
formation of the first Baldwin-Lafontaine 
Administration, in 1842, he arrayed himself 
on the side of Liberal principles, and all 
through the long struggle with Sir Charles 
Metcalfe took a pronounced stand against 
the Governor-General, and in favour of the 
ex-Ministers. From this time forward he 
was commonly associated in the popular 
mind with the Reform Party, though he 
frequently served it with a divided alle- 
giance. Whatever party he served seemed 
to make no difference to his constituents, 
who stood by him loyally, and did not at- 
tempt to interfere with his line of action. 
This is in part accounted for by the fact 
that nine-tenths of his constituents were 
Highland Scotchmen, either by birth or 
descent. From the census taken in 1851 
it appears that there were at that time no 
fewer than 3,242 persons named Macdonald 
settled in the county of Glengarry, to all of 
whom the language of Roderick Dhu was 
as their mother tongue. Mr. Macdonald was 
successively returned at the elections of 

* Senator Waggoman was shot in a duel about three 
years after his daughter's marriage to Mr. MacJonald. 



1844, 1848, 1852 and 1854, either by ac- 
clamation or by sweeping majorities, and 
his constituency came to be regarded as a 
pocket-borough. Upon the formation of 
the second Baldwin-Lafontaine Adminis- 
tration, in 1848, Mr. Macdonald accorded it 
an energetic support ; and on Mr. Blake's 
retirement in December, 1849, he succeeded 
to the office of Solicitor-General for Upper 
Canada. He continued to hold that office 
until the reconstruction of the Ministry 
towards the close of 1851, when Mr. Hincks 
became Premier. Mr. Baldwin's retirement 
from the Cabinet had left the portfolio of 
Attorney-General West without a holder, 
and it was expected that Mr. Sandfield 
Macdonald would be asked to succeed him 
as a matter of course. This expectation, 
however, was not fulfilled. He was passed 
over, and Mr. W. B. Richards succeeded to 
the Attorney-Generalship. Mr. Macdonald 
was by no means insensible to the slight 
put upon him, but carried his coals with 
the best grace he could, and quietly bided 
his time. When Parliament met at Quebec, 
in August, 1852, he was elected to the 
office of Speaker of the Assembly, on mo- 
tion of Mr. Hincks. He held that position 
until the dissolution in 1854. On the as- 
sembling of Parliament in that year he re- 
corded an adverse vote on the address in 
answer to the speech from the throne. He 
had practical control over at least two other 
votes, both of which were recorded against 
the Government, and Mr. Hincks was com- 
pelled to resign. 

Soon after this time Mr. Macdonald's 
health, which had long required careful 
nursing, completely broke down. One of 
his lungs was completely destroyed, and re- 
mained closed during the remainder of his 
life. His physicians insisted upon his ces- . 
sation from the turmoil of politics, as the 
only means whereby he could hope to pro- 
long his life, even for a few months He 
accordingly started for Europe on a holi- 



THE HON. JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD. 



31 



day tour, and on his departure many of his 
friends bade him what they supposed to 
be a last farewell, as it was not believed 
that he would live to return. He falsified 
all the predictions of the faculty, however, 
and returned in a few months greatly im- 
proved both in health and spirits. He lived 
for seventeen years longer, and during the 
greater part of that time got through enough 
harassing labour to have killed a man of 
apparently much more robust physique. 
He threw himself into hard work, and not 
only attended closely to his professional 
duties, but took his full share in the politi- 
cal discussions of the day. He had already 
fought for the secularization of the Clergy 
Reserves, and had advocated non-sectarian 
education. His opposition to the separate 
schools aroused the anger of the clergy of 
his Church, many of whom denounced him 
from the altar, and enjoined the Highland- 
ers of Glengarry to discard him as their 
representative. They might as well have 
enjoined the Old Guard to fight against 
Napoleon Bonaparte. They returned him 
by increased majorities, and on one occasion 
chased his opponent out of the Riding. It 
was plain that " the Macdonald of Glen- 
garry " was not to be interfered with. On 
matters unconnected with religion he gener- 
ally spoke and voted on the side of progress ; 
but he regarded every question, as it arose, 
upon what seemed to him to be its particu- 
lar merits or demerits. He refused to be 
bound by any trammels of party, and was 
consequently charged by both parties with 
caprice. He opposed the method adopted 
with respect to the construction of the 
Grand Trunk Railway. He spoke vigor- 
ously on the " double majority " question, 
contending that in matters of local con- 
cern the majority in each section should 
control the affairs of that section. He for 
some time opposed the late Mr. Brown on 
nearly every public question, and was fre- 
quently denounced by that gentleman and 



his western followers with characteristic 
vehemence. 

During all this time he was carefully 
husbanding his health. In the early spring 
of 1857 his one remaining lung began to 
manifest signs of giving out. He deter- 
mined to render his public life less arduous 
by putting his brother into Parliament for 
Glengarry, and choosing a smaller constitu- 
ency for himself. He accordingly intro- 
duced his younger brother, Donald Alexan- 
der Macdonald, the recent Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of Ontario, to his constituents, who 
forthwith accepted him as their represen- 
tative. John Sandfield offered himself to 
the electors of Cornwall, who returned him 
at the head of the poll, and he thencefor- 
ward continued to represent them until his 
death. 

Not long after his first election for Corn- 
wall he and Mr. Brown began to work 
more cordially together. Upon the forma- 
tion of the short-lived Brown-Dorion Min- 
istry in August, 1858, he accepted office as 
Attorney-General West. Brief as was the 
existence of this Administration (even ac- 
cording to the most liberal computation it 
lived only four days), the time was long 
enough to develop grave misunderstandings 
between Mr. Macdonald and Mr. Brown. 
After the dissolution the differences be- 
tween them became wider and wider. The 
western Reformers repudiated Mr. Mac- 
donald, who returned the compliment by 
repudiating them. For some years after 
this time he called himself "an Indepen- 
dent Member," which, as matter of fact, he 
always had been. All through the tenure 
of office of the Cartier-Macdonald Adminis- 
tration he showed his independence by at- 
tacking alternately the Government and the 
Opposition. 

Upon the defeat of the Cartier-Macdonald 
Ministry on the Militia Bill, in March, 18G2, 
the Governor-General, somewhat to the pub- 
lic surprise, applied to the subject of this 



32 



THE HON. JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD. 



sketch to form an Administration. It is 
easier to understand the position of affairs 
at this time than to explain them in few 
words. People looked forward to the dead- 
lock in public affairs which eventually en- 
sued. The two parties were so evenly di- 
vided that it was impossible that any purely 
party measure could count upon a large ma- 
jority. It was therefore thought not im- 
probable that a man who could not strictly 
be claimed as belonging to either party 
might be able to form a stronger Govern- 
ment than an adherent of either one side 
or the other. Mr. Macdonald responded 
favourably to the Governor-General's ap- 
peal, and, with the assistance of Mr. Sicotte 
from the Lower Province, he was soon able 
to announce that he had formed a Ministry. 
The announcement was made by Mr. Lewis 
Wallbridge, the Speaker of the House, on 
the 26th of April. The composition of the 
Government was as follows : John Sand- 
field Macdonald, Attorney -General West; 
Louis Victor Sicotte, Attorney-General East; 
Thomas D'Arcy McGee, President of the 
Council : William Pearce Rowland, Minis- 
ter of Finance ; William McDougall, Com- 
missioner of Crown Lands ; Antoine Aime 
Dorion, Provincial Secretary ; Ulric Joseph 
Tessier, Commissioner of Public Works; 
Adam Wilson, Solicitor-General West ; J. 
J. C. Abbott, Solicitor-General East ; Fran- 
cois Evanturel, Minister of Agriculture ; 
Michael Hamilton Foley, Postmaster-Gen- 
eral ; and James Morris, Receiver-General. 
The programme announced by the new 
Ministry included the observance of the 
" double majority " principle in all local 
matters ; a revision of the tariff with a 
view to increasing the revenue ; retrench- 
ment in the public expenditure ; a new in- 
solvency law ; a new militia bill ; and vari- 
ous reforms in the conduct of the depart- 
ments. The principle of representation by 
population, however, was not adopted, and 
western members of the Reform Party were 



not disposed to work heartily with any Gov- 
ernment which did not make rep. by pop. 
the first plank in its platform. The Globe 
opposed the new Ministry nearly as vigor- 
ously as it had opposed the preceding one, 
and denounced its leader for pandering to 
the French Canadian element. But little 
business was transacted between the for- 
mation of the Cabinet and the prorogation, 
which took place on the 9th of June. When 
Parliament met at Quebec in the following 
February it was evident that the Govern- 
ment held office by a frail tenure. There 
were motions in favour of direct represen- 
tation by population, which were supported 
by eloquent speeches from members of the 
Opposition. These motions were defeated 
by the solid Lower Canadian vote, but it 
was evident that there was a growing feel- 
ing throughout the country in favour of a 
more equitable adjustment of seats. At 
last, early in May, the present Premier of 
the Dominion moved and carried by a ma- 
jority of five a direct vote of want of confi- 
dence. Parliament was prorogued with a 
view to its immediate dissolution, which 
soon afterwards followed. Before the en- 
suing elections Mr. Macdonald tried the ex- 
periment of a reconstruction a reconstruc- 
tion so sweeping as to practically result in 
a new Ministry. Some of Mr. Brown's fol- 
lowers from the Upper Province were ad- 
mitted, among whom were Mr. Fergusson- 
Blair and the present Premier of Ontario. 
Certain Rouges from Lower Canada were 
also included, and Mr. Macdonald found 
himself with only three of his former col- 
leagues, viz., Messrs. Dorion, Howland, and 
McDougall. Previous to its reconstruction 
the Administration had been known as the 
Macdonald - Sicotte Government. It was 
thenceforward known as the Macdonald- 
Dorion Government. What it gained on 
one side by reconstruction it lost on the 
other. It secured the support of some of 
the prominent western Reformers, but it 



THE HON. JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD. 



33 



had to encounter the fierce opposition of 
the ousted members, Messrs. Foley, Mc- 
Gee, and Sicotte. It so happened that the 
reconstructed Ministry did not contain a 
single Irish member, and this, we may be 
sure, was made the most of by Mr. McGee 
and some of his compatriots. During the 
following session the Government narrowly 
escaped defeat time after time. They con- 
trived to drag through the session, but lost 
further ground during recess, and upon the 
assembling of the House again in February, 
1864, they were without a working ma- 
jority. They accordingly resigned, and were 
succeeded by the Administration formed un- 
der the auspices of Sir Etienne P. Tache and 
the Hon. John A. Macdonald. 

John Sandfield Macdonald was not favour- 
able to the scheme of Confederation, and op- 
posed it vigorously so long as opposition 
could be of any avail. When the scheme 
was accomplished, however, he yielded to 
the popular sentiment, and loyally assisted 
in carrying it out. To him was entrusted 
the task of forming the first Government 
of the Province of Ontario, which was suc- 
cessfully accomplished in July, 1867. It 
was a Coalition Government, composed of 
himself as Premier and Attorney-General ; 
the Hon. John Carling, Commissioner of 
Agriculture and Public Works ; the Hon. 
Stephen Richards, Commissioner of Crown 
Lands ; the Hon. Edmund Burke Wood, 
Treasurer ; and the Hon. Matthew Crooks 
Cameron, Secretary and Registrar. By this 
Ministry the work of administration was 
fairly set in motion in Ontario. The char- 
acteristic by which it was chiefly marked 
was the rigid system of economy adopted by 
it in all the departments, and in the general 
conduct of public affairs. A not uncommon 
idea prevails that this economy was some- 
what overdone. Such a fault, however, is 
unquestionably on the right side, and seems 
venial indeed when contrasted with the more 
serious delinquencies of some other public 
IV 6 



men in Canada. When he retired from his 
premiership, in the month of December, 
1871, there was a surplus of about three 
millions of dollars in the treasury. His 
retirement was due to an adverse vote of 
the House in consequence of his Govern- 
ment's having appropriated a large sum for 
railway subsidies without taking a vote on 
the appropriations to the several roads sub- 
sidized. There is no doubt that he felt his 
loss of office very keenly, and he survived 
the loss only about six months. He died on 
the 1st of June, 1872, at "Ivy Hall," his 
residence at Cornwall. He was buried at 
St. Andrews, a village situated about seven 
miles from Cornwall, in the very centre of 
the district inhabited by those Highlanders 
who had borne faithful allegiance to him 
for so many years. A large granite column 
marks his last resting-place.' 

His name will long be held in affectionate 
remembrance by the Highlanders of Stor- 
mont and Glengarry, as well as by a wide 
circle of other friends. His personal inde- 
pendence, amounting almost to stubbornness, 
rendered him at times difficult to deal with, 
but he was not malicious, and did not nurse 
his animosities. He was somewhat uncouth 
in his language at times, and given to quot- 
ing liberally from the Athanasian Creed in 
ordinary conversation. Many readers of 
these lines will remember the Strathroy 
episode ; and if they were personally ac- 
quainted with Mr. Macdonald their memo- 
ries will doubtless supply them with a 
score of similar little ebullitions. This 
sort of thing, however, was rather a matter 
of habit than of malignity, and it was so 
understood by his friends. He had a criti- 
cal and inquiring mind which impelled him 
to question whatever was not proved, and 
thus his natural place was in Opposition. 
It cannot be said that he ever seriously 
abused the power entrusted to him, and he 
is on the whole entitled to a verdict in his 
favour from posterity. 



THE REV. ALEXANDER McKNIGHT, D.D., 

PRINCIPAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE, HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 



DR. McKNIGHT was born at Dalmelling- 
ton, Ayrshire, Scotland, and studied 
the Arts Course in the University of Glas- 
gow during the sessions of 1841-5. We 
have been able to learn but few facts with 
reference to his early life, which, like the 
rest of his career, seems to have been free 
from remarkable incident. His proficiency 
as a student is proved by the testimony of 
numerous fellow-students, as well as by class 
prizes in Logic, Mathematics and Natural 
Philosophy. He studied Theology in New 
College, Edinburgh, from the session of 1845 
till that of 1849, and was licensed by the 
Free Presbytery of Ayr, on the 19th of 
February, 1850. 

In January, 1855, he received from the 
Colonial Committee of the Free Church the 
appointment of Teacher in Hebrew in the 
Free College, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Shortly 
after entering on the discharge of the duties 
of this office, he was called by the congre- 
gation of St. James's Church, Dartmouth, 
to be their pastor ; and having accepted the 
call, he was ordained minister of that charge 
on the 26th of January, 1857. During the 
eleven years following, in addition to his 
duties as pastor, he discharged the func- 
tions incidental to the Hebrew Chair; but 
in 1868 he resigned the charge of the Dart- 
mouth congregation, and undertook Exeget- 
ics in addition to Hebrew, in connection 
with the College. In 1871, after the retire- 
ment of the Rev. Dr. King, he was trans- 



ferred to the Chair of Systematic Theology. 
In the year 1877 he received the degree of 
D.D. from his alma mater, the University 
of Glasgow. 

To sum up : Dr. McKnight has been Pro- 
fessor in the Free College, Halifax, subse- 
quently in the Theological Hall of the Pres- 
byterian Church of the Lower Provinces 
(after the Union between the Free and the 
Presbyterian Churches of Nova Scotia in 
1860, and of New Brunswick in 1866), and 
lastly in the Presbyterian College, Halifax, 
the Divinity School, in the Maritime Prov- 
inces, of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. 
By a vote of the Assembly at Hamilton he 
was appointed Principal in 1878. He com- 
mands the confidence as he enjoys the esteem 
of the whole Church. His reputation as a 
preacher, and especially as a lucid expositor 
of Scripture, is very high. He takes com- 
paratively little part in the Assembly's dis- 
cussions ; but when he speaks he carries 
great weight. He is thoroughly versed in 
Church law as well as in his own special 
department of Theology. He has peculiar 
ability in expressing his thoughts in terse 
and clear language. He always, even when 
speaking without preparation, says precisely 
what he means to say, and never leaves 
either his students or his hearers in doubt 
as to his meaning. He has impressed his 
students with a deep sense of his intel- 
lectual power, and all of them entertain for 
him the most profound respect and affection. 



DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E., 

PRESIDENT OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO. 



DR. WILSON is the second son of the 
late Mr. Archibald Wilson, of Edin- 
burgh, Scotland, in which city he himself 
was born in 1816. He was one of a numer- 
ous family. His younger brother, the late 
Dr. George Wilson, Professor of Technology 
in Edinburgh University, won considerable 
reputation as a chemist and scientist, and, 
after a long struggle with ill-health, died in 
1859. The subject of this sketch received 
his education at the High School of his 
native city, and at Edinburgh University, 
where he remained until he was about 
twenty-one years of age. He was a hard 
and patient student, and attracted much 
notice among his schoolfellows and the Pro- 
fessors by his diligence, application and 
energy. Being compelled to make his own 
way in life, he immediately after leaving 
the university betook himself to London, 
where he remained for several years, deriv- 
ing his support mainly from the productions 
of his pen. He then returned to Edinburgh, 
and continued to support himself by literary 
effort. He contributed to various news- 
papers and periodicals of that time, most 
of which have now ceased to exist. He 
had -and has a fondness for archteological 
researches, and his studies in that line were 
destined to produce abundant results. He 
became an enthusiastic member of the Scot- 
tish Society of Antiquaries, and for some 
time acted as secretary to, and edited the 
proceedings of, that institution. He devoted 



a good deal of attention to art, and became 
proficient as a draughtsman. He was espe- 
cially fond of wandering about the quaint 
old streets of Edinburgh, and acquired great 
familiarity with the topography, history and 
traditions of one of the most beautiful and 
interesting cities in the world. In 1847 his 
first published work the precursor of many 
others was given to the world. Its title 
is " Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden 
Time." It appeared in two quarto volumes, 
with numerous illustrations by the author's 
own hand. It enjoyed much local popu- 
larity, and was pronounced by the London 
Athenaeum to be "a very agreeable and 
useful addition to our list of topographical 
works." The London Literary Gazette said 
of it : " These volumes will do him (the 
author) honour in his native city so long as 
the ancient capital of Scotland stands." A 
second edition of the work was issued in 
1872. In 1848 appeared " Oliver Cromwell 
and the Protectorate," a work chiefly com- 
piled from Noble, Foster, Daubeny and Car- 
lyle. In 1851 a more ambitious attempt 
than either of the works above mentioned 
appeared, viz., " The Archaeology and Pre- 
historic Annals of Scotland." It was pub- 
lished in royal 8vo, with about two hundred 
illustrations (including six plates on steel) 
chiefly from drawings by the author. It 
was highly commended by the press of 
Great Britain and America, and made its 
author's name known to a much wider circle 



36 



DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E. 



of readers than any of his previous contri- 
butions to literature. It may be said, in- 
deed, to have given him a world-wide repu- 
tation among archaeologists. The British 
Quarterly Review said of it: "This is no 
ordinary book. If we mistake not, it will 
form an epoch in the study of the earlier 
antiquities of Scotland, and of Britain at 
large. . . It is a work full of original 
views, bearing everywhere the stamp of 
independent investigation, and of an inde- 
pendent judgment." The Westminster Re- 
view spoke of it in terms equally lauda- 
tory, saying that " The Scandinavian anti- 
quaries have geologically deduced some 
important facts regarding the prehistoric 
period, and Dr. Wilson has followed up 
the inquiry with regard to Scotland in a 
manner worthy of all praise. His work 
upon the prehistoric antiquities of Scotland 
contains an immense mass of facts, with a 
due proportion of rational deduction." Mr. 
Hallam, quite as high an authority as either 
of the foregoing, pronounced it to be the 
most scientific treatment of the archasologi- 
cal evidences of primitive history which 
had ever been written. In 18G3 a second 
edition of the work, revised and largely re- 
written, appeared under the title of " Pre- 
historic Annals of Scotland." 

The above-quoted dictum of Mr. Hallam 
is said to have been the means of procuring 
for Dr. Wilson the appointment of Professor 
of History and English Literature in Uni- 
versity College, Toronto. This appointment 
was conferred in 1853, and has ever since 
been held by the recipient with entire satis- 
faction to the authorities and students of 
the College, and to the general public. It 
may be mentioned that he had not long 
been installed in his Professorship ere he 
received an offer of the position of Principal 
of McGill College, Montreal. This flattering 
offer was declined, owing in part to certain 
conditions annexed to the appointment, and 
partly, as has been said, in consequence of 



a natural dislike to abandon " a field which 
promised such opportunities of usefulness, 
and a sphere which bade fair to become 
highly congenial." 

Dr. Wilson's life, since his arrival in this 
country, presents an uninterrupted record 
of educational and literary industry, and 
has been attended with great benefit to the 
community in which it has been passed. 
His labours in the various capacities of lec- 
turer, examiner, and member of the Uni- 
versity Senate and College Council have 
been attended with the happiest results, 
and have proved him to be the possessor of 
abundant energies, great tact, and a fine 
common sense, as well as of versatile accom- 
plishments. His lectures on History have 
been marked by philosophical insight and 
breadth of view, as well as by a spirit of 
toleration for opposing schools of thought. 
The same may be said of his discourses on 
Archeology and Ethnology. " But perhaps 
the greatest benefit he has conferred on the 
University," says a sympathetic critic, " has 
been conferred in the capacity of Examiner. 
In such an institution good teaching is less 
indispensable than a proper style of exami- 
nation questions, which ought to be of such 
a kind as at once to test the student's know- 
ledge of the subject and serve as a guide to 
him in his private reading. The style of 
examination introduced by Dr. Wilson, and 
perpetuated by his successors, who have for 
the most part been at one time or another 
members of his class, has done quite as 
much for the training of students in His- 
tory, Ethnology, and English as his lectures, 
valuable as they are, have accomplished." 
His eloquent and effective plea before a 
Committee of the Canadian Parliament on 
behalf of University College and non-sec- 
tarian endowments will be remembered by 
many readers of these pages. 

He had not been long in this country 
before he began with renewed ardour to 
prosecute his researches in archaeology and 



DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E. 



37 



ethnology. In 1862 the result of some of 
the more important of his investigations on 
both sides of the Atlantic was given to the 
world in a work in two volumes, entitled 
" Prehistoric Man : Researches into the Ori- 
gin of Civilization in the Old and the New 
Worlds." A subsequent edition, revised and 
partly re-written, was published in 1865. 
This work was very favourably received 
throughout the scientific world. The Edin- 
burgh Witness said of it : " This work is 
worthy of the high reputation won by Dr. 
Wilson by his previous contributions to 
literature. It is a thoroughly good book ; 
in its information fresh and ample, in its 
conclusions wise, in its arrangement judi- 
cious and clear, in its style vigorous, expres- 
sive and distinct. The topic is not only 
vast in range, complex in material, and diffi- 
cult from its nature, but brings the man 
who ventures to discuss it into contact with 
momentous and perplexing questions touch- 
ing the origin of civilization, the unity of 
the human race, and the time during which 
man has been a denizen of this planet. Dr. 
Wilson proves himself at all points equal 
to his task." Some scientific critics took 
a less favourable view of the work, but 
its reception was on the whole remark- 
ably cordial, and a third edition has since 
been published. In 1869 appeared " Chat- 
terton: a Biographical Study," which Dr. 
Wilson himself is said to regard with greater 
satisfaction than any other product of his 
pen. " Caliban, the Missing Link," a sort 
of fanciful Shaksperean study, made its 
appearance in 1873. Some years before 
his arrival in Canada he published a small 
volume of poems. In 1873 it was repub- 
lished in London with numerous additions, 
under the title of " Spring Wild Flowers." 
His latest separate work is " Reminiscences 
of Old Edinburgh," published in two vol- 
umes at Edinburgh in 1878, and profusely 



illustrated by phototypes from the author's 
original designs. He also contributed vari- 
ous articles to the eighth edition of the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica ; and to the 
ninth edition now in course of publica- 
tion -he has already contributed the arti- 
cles on "Archaeology," "Canada," "Chatter- 
ton," and " Edinburgh," besides others of 
less importance. In addition to the works 
already enumerated, his contributions to 
the Canadian Journal and the Canadian 
Monthly are well worthy of mention. His 
articles in the Journal alone would make a 
volume of formidable proportions, and con- 
sist chiefly of papers read by him before 
the Canadian Institute, of which he has 
long been one of the most prominent mem- 
bers, and of which he was for several years 
President. 

Dr. Wilson has also won a creditable 
reputation by his connection with various 
philanthropic and social movements. To 
his benevolent efforts the existence of the 
Boys' Home in Toronto is largely due, and 
he has contributed more than any other 
single personage to render it efficacious for 
the purpose for which it was established. 
He was for some years the President of the 
Young Men's Christian Association. In 
addition to his many other services in the 
cause of education, he has taken a warm in- 
terest in promoting the higher education of 
women. He filled several times in succes- 
sion the chair of the Ontario Teachers' 
Association, and was twice elected by the 
High School Masters as their representative 
in the old Council of Public Instruction. 
He is a member of the Church of England, 
and took an active part in the work of the 
Church Association during its existence. 
The last event in his history to which it is 
deemed necessary to refer is his appoint- 
ment in August last to the Presidency of 
University College. 



THE HON. JOSEPH ADOLPHE CHAPLEAU. 



1 



R. CHAPLEAU comes of an old French 
family which settled in the Seign- 
iory of Terrebonne nearly a century before 
the Conquest, and has ever since resided 
there. He was born at Ste. TheVese de 
Blainville, in the county of Terrebonne, on 
the 9th of November, 1840. He was a re- 
markably bright and intelligent boy, and 
was early intended by his parents for a pro- 
fessional life. He received his education 
first at the College of Terrebonne, and after- 
wards at the College of St. Hyacinthe, at 
both of which seats of learning he won a 
high reputation for brilliancy and clever- 
ness. Having passed through the college 
curriculum at St. Hyacinthe with much 
credit, he fixed upon the law for a pro- 
fession, and entered the office of Messrs. 
Ouimet, Morin & Marchand, at Montreal, to 
qualify himself for the Bar. He joined the 
Institut Canadien, of which he erelong be- 
came a prominent member, and eventually 
one of the Presidents. Having completed 
his professional studies, he was called to 
the Bar of Lower Canada in the month of 
December, 1801, he having attained his 
majority only about a month previously. 
He entered into partnership with his former 
principals, and began practice at the Mont- 
real Bar, where he has ever since been one 
of the most conspicuous figures. 

At the Bar he early displayed remarkable 
powers of oratory. He devoted himself 
largely to criminal practice. The first im- 



portant case in which he figured involved 
the defence of a whole family on a charge 
of infanticide. The evidence against the 
prisoners was very strong, and public feel- 
ing was very much aroused upon the sub- 
ject of the trial. In conducting the cross- 
examination of some of the witnesses the 
young advocate displayed powers which 
even his intimate friends had scarcely given 
him credit for possessing. His address to 
the jury was admirably calculated to arouse 
the sympathies of his auditors on behalf of 
his clients. The result of his exertions was 
that the prisoners escaped the gallows, and 
that he himself established a high reputa- 
tion as a criminal counsel. His subsequent 
career has fully borne out the promise of its 
commencement. His defence of Lepine and 
Nault, at Winnipeg, in October, 187-1, on a 
charge of murdering Thomas Scott, will be 
remembered by many of our readers as a 
masterly forensic effort. He has also fre- 
quently appeared in the Courts on behalf of 
the Crown, and has proved himself to be as 
formidable in attack as in defence. He was 
created a Queen's Counsel in 1873. 

It was to be expected that a gentleman 
of Mr. Chapleau's abilities and intelligence 
would take a more than passing interest in 
the political questions of the day. He may 
be said to have been an ardent politician 
from his youth, and in every electoral con- 
test he threw his influence into the struggle 
on behalf of the Conservative side. In the 



THE HON. JOSEPH ADOLPHE CHAPLEAU. 



39 



beginning of the year 1862 he acquired a 
pecuniary interest in a tri-weekly news- 
paper called Le Colonisateur, of which he 
soon afterwards became editor. It did good 
work for the Conservative Party during the 
period of Mr Chapleau's editorship, but it 
existed only about two years. At the first 
general election under Confederation Mr. 
Chapleau presented himself to the electors 
of his native county of Terrebonne as a 
candidate to represent them in the Local 
Legislature of Quebec. He was elected as 
second member (his colleague in the repre- 
sentation being the Hon. Louis F. R. Masson), 
and has ever since been returned as such 
several times by acclamation. At the open- 
ing of the first session of the first Provincial 
Parliament of Quebec Mr. Chapleau was 
entrusted with the presentation of the Ad- 
dress in reply to the Speech from the Throne. 
He has always devoted special attention to 
railway legislation, and as early as 1868 
made a telling speech in favour of a rail- 
way Bill which was then before the House. 
Upon the reconstruction of the Chauveau 
Cabinet under Mr. Ouimet, in February, 

1873, the portfolio of Solicitor-General was 
offered to, and accepted by, Mr. Chapleau, 
who retained it until the 8th of September, 

1874, when he resigned, with his leader. 
On the 27th of January, 1876, he entered 
the De Boucherville Government, as Provin- 
cial Secretary and Registrar. This position 
he retained until the month of March, 1878, 



when the Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Letellier 
de St. Just, dismissed his Ministry, under 
circumstances already frequently referred 
to in these pages. After such dismissal, and 
the formation of Mr. Joly's Government, 
Mr. Chapleau became leader of the Opposi- 
tion, and acted in that capacity until the 
resignation of Mr. Joly's Ministry, in Octo- 
ber, 1879. Being called upon to form a 
new Administration, Mr. Chapleau readily 
accomplished that task, he himself becom- 
ing Premier and Minister of Agriculture 
and Public Works. His Ministry still re- 
mains in power. It is well known that Mr. 
Chapleau has more than once been urged 
to accept office in the Dominion Govern- 
ment at Ottawa, and that, for reasons not 
definitely communicated to the public, he 
has hitherto thought proper to decline that 
honour. 

At the general election of 1872 Mr. Chap- 
leau was an unsuccessful candidate for the 
representation of the county of Vercheres in 
the House of Commons. He is Professor of 
Criminal Jurisprudence in the section of 
Laval University established at Montreal. 
He is a director of the Laurentides Railway 
Company, and of Le Credit Fonder du Bus 
Canada, and holds various other positions 
of trust and emolument. 

On the 25th of November, 1874, Mr. 
Chapleau married Miss Mary Louisa King, 
a daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel King, Bri- 
gade Major, Sherbrooke. 



LORD LISGAR. 



LORD LISGAR, who, prior to his eleva- 
tion to the peerage in 1870, was well 
known in political and diplomatic circles as 
the Right Hon. Sir John Young, was born 
in the Presidency of Bombay, British India, 
on the 31st of August, 1807. He was the 
eldest son of the late Lieutenant-Colonel 
Sir William Young, Baronet, of Bailie- 
borough Castle, in the county of Cavan, 
Ireland, who was for many years a Director 
and a very large shareholder in the East 
India Company. The future diplomat was 
sent home to Europe in his childhood, and 
was educated, first at Eton, and afterwards 
at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he 
graduated as B.A. in 1829. He afterwards 
studied law in the chambers of an eminent 
special pleader in London, and in 1834 was 
called to the Bar of Lincoln's Inn. It does 
not appear that he engaged, or that he ever 
had any intention of engaging in actual 
practice at the Bar. He doubtless had an 
eye to political life from his earliest youth. 
Three years before the last-mentioned date, 
and while he was still a student, he had en- 
tered the House of Commons, having been 
elected in the Conservative interest as one 
of the representatives of the county of 
Cavan, where the family estates are situ- 
ated, and where the family influence was 
paramount. He continued to represent that 
constituency until the year 1855, during 
which period he was known as a " working 
member," and held many important minis- 



terial offices. In 1841 he was appointed a 
Lord of the Treasury, which office he held 
till 1844; and from the last-named year 
until 1846 he filled the more important 
office of Secretary of the Treasury. On 
the formation of the Earl of Aberdeen's 
Administration in 1852, Sir John Young 
was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, 
which office he held until 1855, when he be- 
came Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian 
Islands. For some years prior to this time 
he had been a magistrate and Deputy-Lieu- 
tenant for the county of Cavan ; and he had 
succeeded to the Baronetcy on the death of 
his father, the first Baronet, in 1848. For 
his successful administration of the Govern- 
ment of the Ionian Islands Sir John received 
the decoration of the Grand Cross of the 
Order of St. Michael and St. George. His 
office of Lord High Commissioner having 
ceased with the cession of the Islands to 
Greece in 1859, he was soon afterwards 
called upon to fill a more important posi- 
tion, having been appointed in 1860 Gover- 
nor of New South Wales. He administered 
the affairs of that colony for six years, when 
he was recalled, and was soon afterwards 
appointed to succeed Lord Monck (whose 
term of office, for reasons connected with 
the constitutional changes then in progress, 
had been extended for two years beyond 
the usual period) as Governor-General of 
Canada. Sir John arrived in this country 
in November, 1868, and was sworn in as 



LORD LISGAR. 



41 



Governor-General of the Dominion on the 
29th of December following. His adminis- 
tration of Canadian affairs lasted till the 
month of June, 1872, when he was succeed- 
ed by His Excellency the Earl of Dufferin. 
Meanwhile, in 1870, he had been created 
Baron Lisgar of Lisgar and Bailieborough, 
in the county of Cavan, in the Peerage of 
the United Kingdom ; and in 1871 he had 
been constituted Lord Lieutenant and Gus- 
tos Rotulorum of his county. 

His tenure of office as Governor-General 
of Canada was not specially remarkable for 
energy, though it was an important epoch 
in our history. It was during this period 
that the "better terms" were conceded to 
Nova Scotia, and that the Provinces of 
Manitoba and British Columbia entered 
Confederation. It was during his adminis- 
tration of affairs also that the Red River 
rebellion broke out and was put down ; that 
the Treaty of Washington was signed ; and 
that the terms of agreement for building 
the Canadian Pacific Railway were agreed 
upon. The Governor discharged the duties 
of his position to the best of his ability, but 
he was past middle life at the time of his 
appointment, and was constitutionally older 
than his years. During much of his resi- 
dence among us he was in rather indifferent 
health, so that public business was in a few 
instances somewhat delayed thereby. His 
manners were pleasant and ingratiating, and 
he made many personal friends during his 



peregrinations through the country, though 
it cannot be said that he aroused any extra- 
ordinary ebullitions of enthusiasm, or that 
he ever made himself universally popular. 
He was criticised with some freedom by one 
section of the local press. He left Canada 
for the last time on the 22nd of June. Upon 
his arrival in England he retired from the 
public service, and soon afterwards took up 
his abode on his estates in Ireland, where 
the rest of his life was passed very quietly, 
owing to the increased feebleness of his 
health. He died on the 6th of October, 
1876. 

On the 8th of April, 1835, he married 
Miss Adelaide Annabella, daughter of Ed- 
ward Tuite Dalton, by Olivia, his wife, 
afterwards Marchioness of Headfort. There 
was no issue of the marriage, and upon Lord 
Lisgar 's death the barony became extinct. 
The baronetcy and the representation of the 
ancient family of Young devolved upon his 
Lordship's nephew, now Sir William Muston 
Need Young, posthumous son of the late 
Mr. Thomas Young, of the Bengal Civil 
Service, who was second son of the first 
Baronet. This gentleman is the present 
holder of the title as third Baronet. 

In 1878 Lady Lisgar whose many ac- 
complishments and fine social qualities made 
for her many friends during her three years' 
sojourn in Canada contracted a second 
marriage, with Sir Francis Fortescue Tur- 
ville, K.C.M.G. 



IV 7 



THE HON. TIMOTHY BLAIR PARDEE. 



MR. PARDEE'S grandparents emigrated 
from the State of New York to Upper 
Canada towards the close of the last cen- 
tury, and settled in what is now the county 
of Grenville. His father is Mr. A. B. Pardee, 
who at present resides in that county, and 
he himself was born there on the llth of 
December, 1830. He received his education 
at the public schools of his native county, 
and afterwards at Brockville. He chose 
the law for a profession, and became a stu- 
dent in the office of Mr. (now Sir) William 
Buell Richards. In those days the marvel- 
lous achievements of " the Argonauts of '49 " 
caused the eyes of many enterprising young 
men to be turned in the direction of Cali- 
fornia. Young Pardee caught the prevail- 
ing infection, abandoned his studies, and 
turned his .steps in the direction of the set- 
ting sun. After spending two years in 
California, during which he necessarily saw 
a good deal of adventurous life among the 
miners, he proceeded to Australia. There 
he spent about five years, a great part of 
which time was passed in the mining dis- 
tricts. He then returned to his native land, 
and resumed his legal studies in the office of 
Mr. Joshua Adams, of Sarnia. Having com- 
pleted the term of his articles he was admit- 
ted as an attorney and solicitor in Trinity 
Term, 1860. He commenced the practice 
of his profession at Sarnia, and in Hilary 
Term of the following year he was called 
to the Bar. He has ever since enjoyed a 



fairly successful professional career, and has 
made for himself a position of much local in- 
fluence. He embraced the Reform side in 
politics, and at the first general election un- 
der Confederation came out as the anti-Coali- 
tion candidate for a seat in the Ontario Leg- 
islature for Lambton. His opponent was Mr. 
Robert Rae, ex-Warden of the county, whom 
he defeated by a very large majority. At 
the next election, in 1871, he was returned 
by acclamation, and during the same year 
he was elected a Bencher of the Law So- 
ciety of Ontario. On the 25th of October, 
1872, he accepted the portfolio of Provincial 
Secretary in the Ontario Cabinet, and upon 
returning to his constituents for reelection 
he was once more returned by acclamation. 
He continued to be Provincial Secretary 
until the 4th of December, 1873, when he 
became Commissioner of Crown Lands, 
which position he has ever since occupied 
Since the division of the county he has sat 
for West Lambton. At the general election 
of 1875 he was returned by a majority of 
about GOO. At the last general local elec- 
tion his majority was 228. His duties as a 
member of the Cabinet have been discharged 
with efficiency, and various reforms in the 
management of the Crown Lands Depart- 
ment have been carried out under his aus- 
pices. He married Miss Emma K. Forsyth, 
a daughter of Mr. J. K. Forsyth, of the town- 
ship of Sombra, in the county of Lambton. 
He was created a Queen's Counsel in 1876. 



THE HON. SIR WILLIAM YOUNG. 



FOR more than half a century Sir William 
Young has been a conspicuous figure 
in the political, social and professional life 
of Nova Scotia, and few names among the 
scholars and statesmen of that Province 
have attained to greater celebrity than his. 
He is the son of a distinguished man, who 
like himself, in his day, wielded a great 
power in his adopted home, and two of his 
brothers have sustained the laurels of the 
family in a degree almost equal to his own. 
The Hon. John Young, his father, is still 
remembered as the author of the famous 
" Agricola " letters papers which sixty odd 
years ago exerted a considerable amount of 
influence among the people throughout the 
country. For a year the name of the author 
was kept a profound secret. Lord Dalhousie 
toasted the " Bluenose Junius" at a public 
dinner, unmindful of the writer's presence 
at the banquet. The author's name was 
not given to the public until the year 
1819. Three years afterwards these clever 
papers were published in book form, and 
added much to Mr. Young's reputation as a 
writer and thinker. His son, the subject of 
this sketch, was born at Falkirk, Stirling- 
shire, Scotland, on the 29th of July, 1799. 
He was educated at Glasgow University 
with a view to entering the profession of 
the law. In LSI i his father, accompanied 
by his family, emigrated to America, set- 
tled in Nova Scotia, and opened a store. 
Father and son traded together as mer- 



chants until 1820, when the latter, tired 
of mercantile pursuits, thought he would 
turn to advantage the education he had 
gained in his old home. Accordingly he 
relinquished trade, and began with deter- 
mination and zeal the study of law, in the 
office of Charles Rufus Fairbanks, an emi- 
nent lawyer of the period, and once Solici- 
tor-General of the Province. He studied 
with diligence, and in 1826 was admitted 
a barrister of Nova Scotia. Nine years 
later he was called to the Bar of Prince 
Edward Island, and in 1843 was created a 
Queen's Counsel. Upon being enrolled a 
barrister of the Province whose future legal 
status he has done so much to adorn, he en- 
tered into partnership with his brothers, 
George R. and Charles. The former was 
a prominent member of Parliament, and 
the author of several eminently readable 
works, the chief of which is the sketch of 
" Colonial Literature, Science and Educa- 
tion." He was also the founder of the 
Nova Scotian newspaper a journal after- 
wards conducted by the Hon. Joseph Howe. 
Charles Young, LL.D., became a Judge in 
Prince Edward Island. 

On the 10th of August, 1830, William 
Young married Annie, eldest daughter of 
the late Hon. Michael Tobin, M.L.C , and in 
this year also he made up his mind to enter 
the political arena. It was not until 1832, 
however, that he was able to find a seat 
in the House. In that year he was re- 



THE HON. SIR WILLIAM YOUNG. 



turned to Parliament as one of the repre- 
sentatives for the county of Cape Breton. 
He signalized his entrance into the Assembly 
by making a speech of considerable power, 
on a subject just then affecting the dearest 
interests of the people. The Home Govern- 
ment had threatened to collect the quit 
rents, as well as to retain the coal mines of 
the Province, and both of these questions 
were very bitterly and hotly discussed, the 
action of the Imperial authorities coming in 
for severe condemnation. Mr. Young spoke 
on the latter topic, and though the temper- 
ate suggestions which he offered were not 
immediately adopted by the House, he had, 
several years afterwards, the pleasure of 
seeing the matter settled on the basis of 
the changes he had advocated. From this 
date his political position was assured, and 
when in 1836 he presented himself for elec- 
tion in the county of Juste au Corps, now 
known as Inverness, he was returned by 
acclamation. During this period he linked 
his fortunes with those of the Hon. Joseph 
Howe and other redoubtable Reformers 
then battling for Responsible Government, 
and until that boon was granted the col- 
ony he fought against its opponents with 
great determination and spirit. He second- 
ed Howe's memorable attack on the Legis- 
lative Council, and condemned that body for 
the secret character of its sessions, and for 
its refusal to allow the public free access to 
its deliberations at all proper times. In the 
following year the Bill limiting the dura- 
tion of Provincial Parliaments to four years 
was the subject of a fierce debate, in which 
almost every member of the House took 
part. Mr. Young, on that occasion, deliv- 
ered one of the ablest speeches ever heard in 
that chamber, and won a prominent place 
among the public speakers of the day. He 
brought to bear on the discussion a great 
variety of legal and constitutional lore. 
After an animated debate, the four years' 
term was adopted by the Lower House. It 



was promptly rejected by the Council, but 
next year became law. 

In 1837 the fishermen of Nova Scotia 
complained of the infringements practised 
on their treaty rights by citizens of other 
nations, notably those of the United States 
and France. Mr. Young boldly espoused 
the cause of the fishermen, and the result 
was an address from the Assembly to the 
British Government on the subject. Five 
hundred pounds were voted for the purpose 
of arming small vessels to protect the fishing 
interests of the Province. About this time 
a despatch which had been anxiously looked 
for was received by the Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor from Lord Glenelg. It was in reply 
to certain representations which had been 
made by the popular branch of the Legisla- 
ture as to the fees exacted by the Chief 
Justice and the Puisne Judges of the Prov- 
ince. His Lordship, while in the main 
non-commital, ventured on the assertion 
that he regarded the commutation of the 
fees on two occasions by the Assembly as 
involving a recognition of their legality. 
He refrained from discussing the subject 
further, nor would he say how far the origi- 
nal establishment of these fees was within 
the actual tenor of the constitution. The 
King refused to allow an immediate and 
uncompensated abolition of the fees. Mr. 
Howe moved his resolutions respecting the 
constitution of the Council, and in the de- 
bate which ensued Mr. Young in a forcible 
speech pronounced the deliberate opinion 
that " the exaction of the fees, though sanc- 
tioned by long usage, was not legal." This 
sentiment was received with great applause, 
and the views expressed by the speaker had 
considerable effect on future legislation. 

Mr. Young, who was now regarded as a 
strong man, was sent as a delegate with 
the Hon. Mr. Johnston and others, to confer, 
by invitation, with the Earl of Durham, on 
matters affecting the prosperity of the Prov- 
ince. The Governor -General greeted the 



THE HON. SIR WILLIAM YOUNG. 



45 



delegates with much cordiality, and pleasant 
relations were established between them. 
Mr. Young presented a communication com- 
plaining of the way in which the Crown 
Lands were administered, of the regular and 
systematic encroachments of the American 
people on the fisheries, the expense of the 
customs establishment, the large salaries of 
some of the officers of the Government, and 
the composition of the Legislative Council. 
It was at this interview that His Excellency, 
in speaking of the ill-treatment which he 
had received at the hands of the Home au- 
thorities, became so overcome by his feel- 
ings that he had to retire to a distant part 
of the room for a time. 

During the session of 1839 Mr. Young 
was appointed, with Mr. Herbert Hunting- 
ton, a delegate to proceed to England to 
represent to the Imperial Government the 
views and wishes of the House, and of the 
people of Nova Scotia, with reference to cer- 
tain proposed reforms. After considerable 
time had elapsed the delegates returned 
home, having succeeded in obtaining the 
following concessions : Cumberland, Parrs- 
boro', Windsor, Shelburne and Lunenburg 
were declared free ports ; the Customs and 
Excise departments were combined, so that 
all duties might be collected at the Customs, 
and the necessity for double entries, bonds 
and securities might be dispensed with. 
By this latter regulation at least fifteen 
hundred pounds were saved to the Province 
annually. The yearly grant of fifteen hun- 
dred pounds for maintenance of the Post 
Office department was not to be required 
leaving the Assembly to arrange for such 

extensions as the state of the country ini<*ht 
/ " 

from time to time demand. A Bill was sub- 
sequently prepared by the delegates, and 
sanctioned by the Ministry, which guaran- 
teed the privilege to actual settlers of pur- 
chasing Crown lands as low as one shilling 
sterling per acre. 

In 1840 Mr. Young took an active part in 



the demonstrations against Sir Colin Camp- 
bell, then Lieutenant -Governor of Nova 
Scotia. The House of Assembly petitioned 
the Imperial Government to remove the 
obnoxious ruler, and to send to Nova Scotia 
a Governor who would not only represent 
the Crown, but carry out its policy with 
firmness and good faith. Public meetings 
were held, and Messieurs Young, Howe, 
Forrester and Bell spoke earnestly in sup- 
port of the Assembly's course, and against 
the arbitrary action of Sir Colin Campbell. 
These impassioned orators carried their 
point, and had the satisfaction of witness- 
ing the recall and departure of the Gover- 
nor. His successor, however, was no better, 
and Viscount Falkland, on taking office soon 
found himself face to face with problems 
which he either would not or could not un- 
derstand. Howe proved a most implacable 
enemy, but only one remove more bitter 
than his fiery associate, Mr. Young. The 
contest was carried on for a long time with 
acrimony and warmth. In 1843 Mr. Howe 
accepted the Collectorship of Colonial Rev- 
enue, and Mr. Young was elected Speaker 
of the Assembly by a majority of two votes 
over Mr. Huntington, his opponent. The 
new House met on the 8th of February, 
1844, when Mr. Young, who had been ele- 
vated to a seat in the Executive Council, 
but had resigned on his appointment to the 
Speakership, was reflected Speaker. This 
gave much satisfaction throughout the 
country, for the great majority of the peo- 
ple sympathized with the Reformers. Mr. 
Young's name spread far and wide, and he 
was regarded as one of the leading cham- 
pions in the tremendous struggle for Re- 
sponsible Government which was then agi- 
tating the whole of British North America. 
He visited Upper Canada while Speaker, 
and the Reformers of Toronto and the neigh- 
bouring townships invited him to a public 
dinner, as a mark of the high consideration 
entertained of the able conduct displayed by 



46 



THE HON. SIR WILLIAM YOUNG. 



himself and his colleagues in their contest 
with Lord Falkland for constitutional gov- 
ernment. The banquet took place on the 
23rd of September, in the Hall of the Re- 
form Association, and the chair was taken 
by the Hon. Henry John Boulton. The 
Hon. Robert Baldwin acted as croupier. 
The demonstration was in all respects a 
very brilliant one. 

In 1847 Sir John Harvey, who succeeded 
Falkland, proposed a coalition of forces, as a 
way out of the difficulty. Speaker Young 
opposed this vigorously, and he and his 
friends addressed a letter to the Governor 
declining to accede to the proposal in any 
form. A new election was determined upon, 
and in the fall of the year it took place. 
The contest was very keen, but the Reform- 
ers were successful. The new House met on 
Saturday, 22nd January, 1848. The former 
Speaker was reflected, after a ballot of 28 
to 22, and the Howe-Uniacke Ministry came 
into power. 

In the session of 1850 a commission, con- 
sisting of Mr. Young, Jonathan McCulley, 
J. W. Ritchie and Joseph Whidden, was ap- 
pointed to consolidate and simplify the laws 
of the Province. Mr. James Thomson lent 
valuable aid to the scheme, which is said to 
have been the first attempt of the kind ever 
made in a British colony. The work was 
thoroughly and satisfactorily done, and the 
commissioners received high praise at the 
conclusion of their labours. 

On the appointment of Mr. Howe, in 1854, 
to the Chairmanship of the Railway Board, 
and his consequent retirement from the 
office of Provincial Secretary, a reconstruc- 
tion of the Cabinet was necessary. The 
Hon. Mr. Young, late Speaker, was en- 
trusted by the Lieutenant-Governor with 
the task of forming a Government. He 
accepted the duty, and the office of Attor- 
ney-General, after which he issued a pro- 
clamation to his constituents at Inverness, 
in which he presented an able exposition of 



the principles by which the new Administra- 
tion proposed to be guided. All the mem- 
bers of the Ministry, on seeking reelection, 
were returned by good majorities, except 
the Premier, who was elected by a show of 
hands. 

A very graceful act was performed by 
Attorney-General Young in 1856, when he 
moved in the House that His Excellency the 
Lieutenant-Governor should be requested to 
expend one hundred and fifty guineas in 
the purchase of a sword, to be presented 
to General Sir Fenwick Williams, hero of 
Kars, as a mark of the high esteem in which 
his character as a man and a soldier, and 
more especially his heroic courage and con- 
stancy in the defence of Kars, were held by 
the Legislature of his native Province. It 
is scarcely necessary to say that this motion 
was received with the greatest enthusiasm 
by the entire populace, in and out of Par- 
liament. 

In 1857 the Mining Lease Act came up for 
settlement. Mr. Young, as we have already 
said, had expressed very decided but tem- 
perate views on this question many years 
before. His opinion was that any lease 
which gave a legal title must emanate from 
the Assembly of Nova Scotia. This was 
subsequently corroborated by the Crown 
Law officers of England. In this year 
the Liberal Government experienced defeat, 
owing to a rash and violent letter which 
Mr. Howe had written during the recess 
against the Roman Catholic religion. On 
the meeting of Parliament Mr. Johnston 
proposed a motion of want of confidence, 
which resulted in the overthrow of the 
Government by a majority of seven votes. 
Mr. Johnston was entrusted with the for- 
mation of a new Ministry. Dr. Tupper (now 
Sir Charles) became Provincial Secretary. 
In 1859 general elections were held through- 
out the country, after which the Liberal 
Party, headed by Mr. Young, their leader, 
petitioned the Lieutenant-Governor, and 



THE HON. SIR WILLIAM YOUNG. 



47 



asked for an early session, stating that they 
had a majority of members. Dr. Tupper re- 
turned to them the Lieutenant-Governor's 
reply, that he could not accept advice on 
the subject of the memorial from any other 
than his constitutional advisers, without dis- 
regarding the royal instructions, and com- 
promising the position of strict impartiality 
between political parties. The House met 
in January. 1860, and in the election for 
Speaker the Opposition carried their candi- 
date by a majority of three votes. The 
Government contended that five or six mem- 
bers were disqualified from sitting, as they 
held offices of emolument under the Crown 
at the time of their election. A good deal 
of discussion followed, the Government ad- 
vised dissolution, the Governor refused, and 
the Liberals came into power again, the new 
Cabinet comprising Mr. Young as Premier 
and President of the Council, Mr. Howe as 
Provincial Secretary, and Mr. Archibald as 
Attorney-General. 

On the death of Chief Justice Sir Bren- 
ton Haliburton, Mr. Young was appointed 
to that position an office which he con- 
tinues to hold. His appointment is dated 
August, 1860, and shortly afterwards he 
was created Judge of the Vice-Admiralty. 
In 1868 he was knighted by Her Majesty 
for distinguished services to his country. 

During his long incumbency of the Bench, 
Sir William Young has tried very many im- 
portant cases, and his judgments, as a rule, 
have been regarded as exceedingly able, 
argumentative and clear. He is a many- 
sided man, and apart from the performance 
of his arduous and exacting duties as an 
administrator of the law, he has found time 



to cultivate, in his leisure, the arts, letters 
and sciences. He has always taken great 
interest in literature, and the numerous 
addresses which he has from time to time 
delivered before literary societies and col- 
leges are rich in graceful allusion, and ex- 
ceedingly elegant and scholarly. Indeed 
there are few public men in Canada who can 
equal him in such felicitous performances. 
In July, 1873, he was present at the dinner 
given to Lord Dufferin, in Halifax, and his 
remarks in proposing the toast of the even- 
ing were characterized by great beauty of 
style and diction. His interest in the col- 
leges and educational establishments, the 
charities and public institutions of the coun- 
try, has never waned, and he has always 
found time to devote a large amount of per- 
sonal attention to them. An active mem- 
ber of the Board of Governors of Dalhousie 
College for several years, Sir William, while 
Chairman of that Body, in April, 1878, was 
presented with an oil painting of himself by 
the Senate of the College. On the 10th of 
August, 1880, the venerable Chief Justice 
celebrated his golden wedding. The occa- 
sion was marked by a characteristic deed 
of benevolence, several charitable organiza- 
tions in which Sir William took an active 
interest being made the recipients of gifts 
of money. The octogenarian is hale and 
hearty, walks with a quick step, and though 
superannuation has been hinted at now and 
then, he declares that he will " die in har- 
ness." He could have had the Lieutenant- 
Governorship of his Province, but he pre- 
ferred his own position to that of any other 
within the gift of the Crown. He has en- 
joyed almost half a century of public life. 



THE HON. JOSEPH CURRAN MORRISON. 



JUDGE MORRISON is the eldest son of 
the late Mr. Hugh Morrison, a native 
of Sutherlandshire, Scotland, and was born 
in the north of Ireland where his par- 
ents were then sojourning on the 20th of 
August, 1816. His early days were spent in 
Ireland, and his preliminary education was 
received at the Royal Belfast Institution. 
He removed to Upper Canada during his boy- 
hood, and settled at Little York, where he 
completed his education at Upper Canada 
College. After leaving that institution he 
entered upon the study of the law in the 
office of the late Mr. Simon Washburn, Clerk 
of the Peace, where he was a fellow-student 
of Mr. William Hume Blake, who subse- 
quently became Chancellor of Upper Canada, 
and whose life has already been outlined in 
this work. Mr. Morrison and Mr. Blake, 
during their student days, formed a friend- 
ship which endured until Mr. Blake's death 
in 1870 ; and when the subject of this 
sketch was called to the Bar of Upper Can- 
ada in Easter Term, 1839, the two entered 
into a partnership which lasted until Mr. 
Blake's elevation to the Bench as Chancellor 
on the 30th of September, 1849. The style of 
the firm was for some time Blake & Morrison, 
but afterwards, when Dr. Skeffington Con- 
nor entered the firm, the style became Blake, 
Morrison & Connor. Upon Mr. Blake's ele- 
vation to the Bench the late Mr. Alexander 
McDonald entered the firm, the style of 
which thenceforth became Morrison, Connor 
& McDonald. 



In the month of May, 1843, Mr. Morrison 
became Deputy Clerk of the Executive 
Council of Canada, for the purpose of acting 
as Clerk of the Court of Error and Appeal. 
In December, 1847, he resigned this position 
in order to enter political life, and at the 
general election held in the beginning of 
the following year he was returned to the 
Assembly as a member of the Third Parlia- 
ment under the Union for the West Riding 
of the county of York. In politics he was 
what was known in those days as a Bald- 
win Reformer, and he was returned as a 
supporter of the policy inaugurated by the 
second Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration, 
which came into power in the month of 
March following. He sat in the Assembly 
for West York until the close of the Third 
Parliament in November, 1851, and at the 
general election held in the following year 
he was returned for the town of Niagara as 
a supporter of the Hincks-Morin Adminis- 
tration. On the 22nd of June, 1853, he 
accepted office in that Administration as 
Solicitor-General for Upper Canada. His 
acceptance of office was fully approved by 
his constituents upon his presenting himself 
before them for reelection in the month 
of July following. He was created a Queen's 
Counsel during the same year. Three years 
previously (in 1850) he had been elected a 
Bencher of the Law Society. 

He continued to act as Solicitor-General 
for Upper Canada until the 10th of Septem- 
ber, 1854, having been reflected to the Fifth 



THE HON. JOSEPH CURRAN MORRISON. 



49 



Parliament by his constituents in Niagara 
during the preceding month of August. 
On the 19th of April, 18-36, he became a 
member of the Executive Council, and on 
the 24th of May following he became 
Receiver-General in the Tache-Macdonald 
Administration, and a Member of the Board 
of Railway Commissioners. His constitu- 
ents again testified their approval of his 
acceptance of office, and of his Parliamentary 
career generally, by reelecting him upon his 
presenting himself before them in the follow- 
ing August. He remained in the Ministry 
after Mr. Tache's retirement (in the Mac- 
donald-Cartier Administration) and held 
office as Receiver-General until the expira- 
tion of the Fifth Parliament. At the gen- 
eral election of 1857 he was an unsuc- 
cessful candidate for the representation of 
South Ontario, in the Assembly, and in 
1858 was again defeated in North Oxford, 
his successful opponent in the latter con- 
stituency being Mr. (now the Hon.) William 
McDougall. Mr. Morrison was thus left 
without a seat in the Assembly. 

In 1856 he was appointed a member of 
the Commission for the Consolidation of 
the Public General Statutes of Upper Can- 
ada. In January, 1859, he was appointed 
Registrar of the city of Toronto, and re- 
tained that office until February of the year 
following, when he accepted a portfolio as 
Solicitor-General in the Cartier-Macdonald 
Government which was then in being. He 
remained Solicitor-General until the 18th 
of March, 1862, when he was appointed a 
Puisne* Judge of the Court of Common 
Pleas. On the 24th of August in the follow- 
ing year he was promoted to the Court of 
Queen's Bench, where he remained until the 
30th of November, 1877, when lie was trans- 
ferred to the Court of Appeal. He is now 
the Senior Puisne Judge of all the Courts 
in the Province of Ontario. 



While at the Bar he attained high distinc- 
tion, and was connected with many impor- 
tant cases, both civil and criminal. Among 
the most important criminal cases conducted 
by him were the prosecution of McDermott 
and Grace Marks, in 1853, for the murder 
of Mr. Kinnear ;* and the prosecution of 
James Brown, in 1860, for the murder of 
Mr. John Sheridan Hogan, M.P., at the Don 
Bridge, Toronto. As a member of Parlia- 
ment and Minister of the Crown he was 
identified with the advocacy of the secu- 
larization of the Clergy Reserves and the 
abolition of the Seignorial Tenure. He has 
always taken a warm interest in all educa- 
tional questions. He was for twenty-eight 
years a member of the Council of Public 
Instruction for Upper Canada ; and for a 
quarter of a century he was a member of 
the Senate of the University of Toronto, 
during fourteen of which he was Chancellor 
of the University. 

Since his elevation to the Bench he has 
presided over many criminal trials of pub- 
lic interest, among which may be men- 
tioned the trial of James Greenwood for 
murder ; the trial of Dr. Davis and his wife 
for procuring abortion ; and the trial of 
the Fenian prisoners taken at Fort Erie in 
1866. Twenty-two of the latter were sen- 
tenced to death, but their sentences were 
afterwards commuted to imprisonment for 
life in the Provincial Penitentiary. He 
is a learned, industrious, and painstaking 
Judge, and his decisions are held in high 
respect. 

In July, 1845, Mr. Morrison married Miss 
Elizabeth Bloor, daughter of the late Mr. 
Joseph Bloor, of Yorkville, whose name is 
perpetuated in the name of the street for- 
merly known as St. Paul's Road which 
separates Yorkville from Toronto. 

* An account of this Oanjyli, ill lit-fnund 

in Mrs. Mixnlie's ' 'Life in the Clearings, < < ;* //.-> the Bush." 



IV 8 



LORD SELKIRK. 



THE RIGHT HON. THOMAS DOUG- 
LAS, fifth Earl of Selkirk, was one of 
the most public-spirited and enlightened 
men who figure in Canadian annals. His 
views on colonization and kindred subjects 
were both original and philanthropic, and 
he gave up some of the most important 
years of his life to carrying them into prac- 
tical effect. His published works display 
native powers of mind of a high order, care- 
fully disciplined by training and thought. 
He encountered a great deal of that opposi- 
tion which inevitably falls to the lot of men 
whose opinions are in advance of their times. 
He died comparatively early he was only 
in his forty-ninth year at the time of his 
death but he lived long enough to see the 
success of some of his cherished schemes, 
and to find many of his cherished opinions 
accepted by persons who had once opposed 
them. He was broad and unselfish in his 
views, and the world is the better for his 
having lived in it. 

He was the seventh and youngest son of 
Dunbar, fourth Earl of Selkirk, and was 
born at the family seat, St. Mary's Isle, 
Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, on the 5th of 
June, 1771. His family have been noted 
in Scottish history from the earliest times. 
The peerage was created in 1646, and the 
holder of it, in addition to being Earl of 
Selkirk, is Baron Daer and Shortcleugh, 
all in the peerage of Scotland. The subject 
of this sketch developed remarkable capa- 



city, even as a little boy, and he received an 
education of unusual thoroughness. He had 
several private tutors, and attended for a 
time at one of the national Universities. 
He was a great reader of books of voyages 
and travels, more especially those relating 
to America, and was interested in the sub- 
ject of colonization before he had reached 
manhood. He succeeded to the title upon 
the death of his father, in 1799, his six elder 
brothers having all died after reaching man- 
hood, and during the lifetime of their father. 
On the 24th of November, 1807, he 
married Miss Jean Colvie, only surviving 
daughter of Mr. James Wedderburn Colvie, 
of Ochiltree, a gentleman of great wealth, 
and a prominent member of the corporation 
of the Hudson's Bay Company. His lord- 
ship, who was a Representative Peer of 
Scotland, and Lord Lieutenant of the Stew- 
artry of Kirkcudbright, had already become 
known as an enthusiast on the subject of 
emigration. He had given currency to his 
opinions through the medium of newspapers, 
and had also published several books and 
pamphlets. So early as 1805 he had pub- 
lished a work entitled " Observations on 
the Present State of the Highlands of Scot- 
land, with a view of the Causes and Prob- 
able Consequences of Emigration." It had 
received the commendation of such diverse 
authorities as Blackwood's M<i<j<r.ine, John 
Ramsay McCulloch, the eminent political 
economist, and Francis Horner, in the Edin- 



LORD SELKIRK. 



51 



burgh Review. Another work on " National 
Defence," published by him in 1808 
being an expansion of the views enunci- 
ated by him in a speech made during the 
preceding year in the House of Lords was 
also highly commended by the critics, and 
was deemed of sufficient value to be re- 
printed so lately as 1860. Several smaller 
works on Parliamentary Reform, the Scot- 
tish Peerage, and the Philosophy of Mal- 
thus, bore testimony alike to his industry 
arid his vigour of mind. He was in every 
respect a rigidly conscientious and high- 
minded man, whose philanthropy was not 
confined to theorizing. He was very bene- 
ficent and charitable to the poor, and was 
most considerate and generous in his deal- 
ings with his own tenantry. His views, as 
has been intimated, were in advance of the 
times, and they found many vigorous op- 
ponents, but it was admitted on all hands 
that his Lordship was an original thinker, 
and a sincere well-wisher of his race. 

The principal scheme of his life, and the 
one in which we in Canada are most directly 
interested, was his colonization of the Red 
River country. That country, of which the 
Province of Manitoba now forms an im- 
portant part, was included in the territory 
originally granted by Royal Charter, in the 
year 1670, to " the Company of Merchant 
Adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay." 
This great corporation has long been known 
by its shorter title of the Hudson's Bay 
Company. For many years subsequent to 
the date of its charter, however, the oper- 
ations of the Company did not extend into 
the interior of the district comprised in the 
grant, but were for the most part confined 
to the shore and neighbourhood of Hudson's 
Bay. In course of time, however, it was 
found necessary, with a view to preventing 
intrusion upon their domain, to penetrate 
into the far western wilderness, whither 
the French Canadian coin-ear* </< /w/.s had 
already found their way in quest of furs. 



The first white man whose foot is known 
to have traversed those remote regions sub- 
sequently known as the Red River Settle- 
ment, was M. Varennes de la Verandrye, a 
seigneur of Nouvelle France, and an ances- 
tor of the present Archbishop of St. Boni- 
face. This gentleman, who was born at the 
old town of Three Rivers, at the mouth of 
the St. Maurice, was one of the most daunt- 
less of western explorers. He made two 
important voyages, which were the means 
of making known to mankind the vast 
prairies and wastes of the North-West. At 
the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine 
Rivers he founded a fort, which he called 
Fort Rouge. It stood on the southern shore 
of the Assiniboine, opposite the site of Fort 
Garry. From this time forward French 
fur-traders regularly resorted to Fort- Rouge, 
and other posts were established on the 
route leading thence to Fort William on 
Lake Superior. For some time after the 
Conquest of 17G3 the fur-trade in these 
regions seems to have been almost aban- 
doned. It was gradually resumed, however, 
chiefly by private traders, many of whom 
were Scotchmen resident in Montreal. The 
traffic was prosecuted under many disad- 
vantages, for agents sometimes proved faith- 
less, and there were large incidental losses. 
It was nevertheless attended on the whole 
with much pecuniary success. The Hud- 
son's Bay Company found that in order to 
protect their own interests it would be neces- 
sary for them to engage in the traffic them- 
selves. They accordingly constructed forts 
at various important points, and their wealth 
enabled them to carry on the undertaking 
on a scale, and after a fashion which mere 
private traders could not hope to oppose 
with any prospect of success. This led the 
latter to cooperate for their mutual benefit. 
In 1783 a number of these private traders 
formed themselves into an organization un- 
der the name of the North-West Company 
of Montreal. They had ample capital, and 



52 



LORD SELKIRK. 



their directors were men of great energy 
and force of character. They were fully 
resolved to have their share of the profits 
arising from the traffic in furs. They also 
constructed forts here and there wherever 
they deemed advisable, and their operations 
extended all the way from Lake Superior 
to the Pacific Coast. Some idea of the ex- 
tent of their operations may be formed from 
the fact that they had as many as five thou- 
sand persons in their employ at the same 
time. They denied or ignored the prior 
rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, whom 
they regarded as opulent and intolerant 
rivals. The hostility between these two 
companies was most intense. The operations 
of the one constantly conflicted with those 
of the other, and whenever their emissaries 
met it was the old story of Montague and 
Capulet over again. 

While matters were in this unsatisfactory 
state, Lord Selkirk, who, like his father-in- 
law, was a large shareholder in the Hudson's 
Bay Company, was elected as its Governor. 
He had long cherished the scheme of found- 
ing a colony either in one of the remote 
regions of the West or in one of the islands 
of the Pacific. His heart had often bled 
for the condition of many of the poor High- 
landers in the north, and he had longed to 
emancipate them from their hapless lot. 
He had also, as a prominent stockholder in 
the Hudson's Bay Company, chafed under 
the opposition of the rival concern. He 
now saw his way to carrying out one of his 
long-cherished colonization projects, and at 
the same time to upholding the legitimate 
supremacy of the great corporation in which 
he had so large a pecuniary interest. The 
possession of a fort at the confluence of the 
Red and Assiniboine Rivers would afford a 
strong base of operations, and its mainten- 
ance would give the Company practical con- 
trol over the surrounding districts. A col- 
ony planted there would be dependent on 
the Company for their supplies, and would 



also be glad to dispose of their own supplies, 
whereby a double profit would accrue to 
the Company. The money paid to the col- 
onists would moreover be thus retained in 
the country, instead of being carried out of 
it. It must not be forgotten, too, that Lord 
Selkirk was a man of great natural piety. 
He was sincerely desirous of promoting the 
evangelization of mankind, and believed that 
a colony planted on Red River would ulti- 
mately be the means of rescuing the native 
barbarians of the North-West from the 
state of savagery in which they lived. It 
would also relieve, to some extent, the re- 
dundant population of the Old World. He 
accordingly resolved to take a number of 
poor Highland families from Sutherland- 
shire, and establish them on the Red River, 
at or near the important point where Fort 
Rouge had been constructed eighty years 
before by the Sieur Varennes de Verandrye. 
In furtherance of this scheme he, in the 
year 1811, obtained from the Company a 
grant of sixteen thousand square miles, in- 
cluding more than ten millions of acres of 
land contiguous to Red River. He thereby 
obtained full proprietary rights over this 
wide expanse of territory, subject only to 
the burden of extinguishing the Indian 
title. 

Having secured his grant, he at once set 
about turning it to account. At this time 
the enforced removal of many of the Duchess 
of Sutherland's poorer tenants from her 
estates in Sutherlandshire was imminent. 
To these persons Lord Selkirk offered a home 
in the wilds of Rupert's Land, and by a 
shipload of them his offer was thankfully 
accepted. They were nearly all from the 
parish of Kildonan, the name of which is 
perpetuated on this continent by the name 
of the little parish in the Red River country 
wherein many of them found* a refuge. A 
vessel having been provided for them, they 
set sail from their native land, and reached 
York Factory, at the mouth of Hayes River, 



LORD SELKIRK. 



53 



on the western shore of Hudson's Bay, in the 
autumn of the year (1811). York Factory 
was then the headquarters of the Hudson's 
Bay Company in America. They spent the 
winter at Fort Churchill, more than a hun- 
dred miles to the north of the point of dis- 
embarkation. With the advent of spring 
they resumed their interrupted journey to 
the centre of the North American continent. 
They ascended the Norfolk River, crossed 
Lake Winnipeg, and ascended the chocolate- 
coloured stream known as the Red River of 
the North, until they reached the point 
where the Assiniboine pours its waters into 
it. The old fort erected by Verandrye must 
have been either dismantled or totally de- 
molished, as we find no reference to it after 
the arrival of the emigrants. Scarcely had 
they reached their destination when their 
troubles began. The North-West Com- 
pany's emissaries, having heard of Lord Sel- 
kirk's project, had busied themselves in set- 
ting up the Indians of the district to oppose 
the settlement of the emigrants. They also 
made it their business to oppose the settle- 
ment on their own account. If an agricul- 
tural community were permitted to obtain 
a footing there, it was evident enough that 
the fur trade would be seriously interfered 
with. A large mixed force, consisting of 
Indians and representatives of the North- 
West Company in the disguise of Indians, 
presented themselves before the sons of the 
Gael (who were about a hundred in number, 
inclusive of women and children), and for- 
bade them to remain, on peril of their lives. 
The latter were unable to make any efficient 
resistance to these demands, for they had to 
consider their wives and little ones, and the 
number of Indians ready to take the field 
against them seemed to be limitless. They 
were accordingly compelled to seek refuge 
at the Hudson's Bay Company's fort at Pem- 
bina, at what is now the frontier line be- 
tween Manitoba and the United States. 
There they spent, in great discomfort, the 



winter of 1812-13. In the following spring 
they were permitted to return to the spot 
whence they had been driven. They built 
log huts, and made some little progress in 
the way of cultivating the ground, when 
they were again attacked by a force of com- 
bined Indians and whites, acting under 
specific instructions from the North -West 
Company, the directors whereof had formal- 
ly resolved upon the destruction of the col- 
ony. The huts of the colonists were burned 
to the ground, their crops were destroyed, 
and several of their number were slain. 
They again sought a temporary refuge at 
Pembina, but were soon afterwards rein- 
forced by the arrival of a number of addi- 
tional emigrants from Scotland. The entire 
colony now set to work to rebuild their habi- 
tations, together with additional ones for 
the new arrivals. A fort was also built 
for their protection at a spot on the Red 
River about a mile north of the confluence 
of the two rivers. It was called Fort Doiif- 

O 

las, in honour of the family name of the 
founder of the colony, and it stood on the 
site now known as Point Douglas. The op- 
position to which the unfortunate colonists 
were subjected made them lose heart, and in 
LSI 5 a number of them left for Canada. 
For a time it seemed that there would be a 
complete break-up of the colony. Several 
additional reinforcements arrived, however, 
from the Highlands of Scotland, and towards 
the close of 1815 the settlers numbered 
about 200. But the feud between the two 
companies waxed hotter and hotter. In the 
spring of 1816 Mr. Robert Semple arrived 
in the colony. A few months previously he 
had been appointed by the Hudson's Bay 
Company to the position of Governor of 
their forts and territories in Rupert's Land, 
and the object of his mission to Red River 
was to ascertain the exact position of the 
colony there, with a view to providing, if ne- 
cessary, additional means of defence against 
the encroachments of the North-West Com- 



54 



LORD SELKIRK. 



pany and their scarcely more savage allies. 
During an ignominious skirmish which oc- 
curred on the 19th of June, 1816, between 
a party of emissaries of the North- West 
Company and a few of the colonists, Gover- 
nor Semple, who had placed himself at the 
head of the latter, was slain, together with 
a number of his partisans. This tragedy 
occurred at a spot called Seven Oaks, a short 
distance to the rear of the present abode of 
Mr. Colin Inkster, Sheriff of Manitoba, and 
about three miles from Fort Garry. 

This tragical event for a time threatened 
to effect the purpose which the North-West 
Company had so much at heart -the break- 
ing up of the colony. At the time when 
it occurred, however, Lord Selkirk himself 
was on his way thither, anxious to see the 
success of his experiment at colonization. 
Upon reaching New York towards the close 
of 1815, he for the first time heard of the 
partial break-up of the colony. He had, 
however, two other colonies on his hands, 
both of which. demanded his immediate at- 
tention at this juncture. One of these was 
on Lake St. Glair ; the other was at the 
mouth of the Grand River, in Upper Can- 
ada. He visited both these colonies in turn, 
and made certain arrangements for the com- 
fort of the settlers. Having concluded these 
arrangements he was about to proceed to Red 
River when he was prostrated by sickness, 
on the very eve of his intended departure, 
and was compelled to send a representative. 
The person chosen to represent His Lordship 
was a French-Canadian by name Lagirno- 
niere, who was interrupted on his journey 
by persons acting on behalf of the North- 
West Company, and was not permitted to 
continue it. Lord Selkirk had by this 
time sufficiently recovered to be able to 
undertake the expedition in person, and 
having received no tidings of Lagimoniere, 
he concluded that he had been waylaid and 
probably murdered by the agents of the 
rival company. He accordingly resolved to 



make his own way to Red River, and to 
provide against a similar contingency to him- 
self by taking a sufficient force to protect 
him from maltreatment. He proceeded to 
Montreal, and applied to the Commander- 
in-Chief of the Forces for a body-guard of 
sufficient strength to enable him to make 
the journey in safety. In consequence of 
the war with the United States having 
been brought to a close, there were at that 
time several disbanded regiments in Canada. 
He engaged, at his own expense, about 
eighty men and four officers of one of these 
regiments, known as the De Meuron Regi- 
ment, together with a few voluntaries from 
two other corps. He also caused himself to 
be appointed a Justice of the Peace, in order 
that he might invest his subsequent pro- 
ceedings with an aspect of legality. Plac- 
ing himself at the head of his forces, he 
proceeded westward by way of Lake Huron. 
Upon reaching Sault Ste. Marie, he heard for 
the first time of the skirmish at Seven Oaks, 
and of its tragical consequences. He has- 
tened on with his troops, by way of Lake 
Superior, and in due course reached Fort 
William, at the mouth of the Kaministiquia 
River, where one of the principal stations 
of the North-West Company was situated. 
He encamped on the opposite side of the 
river, and issued his warrant as a Justice of 
the Peace for the arrest of Mr. McGillivray, 
the chief agent of the rival company at the 
post. The latter submitted to arrest, and it 
then appeared that several other partners in 
the great Montreal Company were on the 
premises. Notwithstanding the presence 
of about two hundred French-Canadians 
and a number of Indians attached to the 
Company's service, Lord Selkirk promptly 
arrested all the partners, and despatched 
them under a sufficient guard to York, to 
stand their trial for the murder of Governor 
Semple, and for arson, robbery, and other 
misdemeanours committed at Red River. 
He himself, with the greater part of his 



LORD SELKIRK. 



55 



troops, pushed on to his destination, taking 
possession of all the posts belonging to the 
North- West Company on the route. Having 
reached Red River, he succeeded in impart- 
ing some measure of his own determination 
to the colonists. He felt himself responsi- 
ble for their presence there. He supplied 
them with seed-grain and agricultural im- 
plements at his own expense. Notwith- 
standing his benevolence, the settlers suf- 
fered terrible privations. When their crops 
were nearly fit for harvesting the grasshop- 
pers made their appearance, and left the 
ground bare. Lord Selkirk imported fresh 
supplies, and personally attended to many 
details to insure the success of the colony. 
He also succeeded in extinguishing the In- 
dian title to so much of the lands as was re- 
quired for purposes of colonization. This 
was effected by an instrument dated the 
ISth of July, 1817, made between himself 
and the chiefs and warriors of the Salteaux, 
or Chippewa, and Cree nations. He also set 
apart lands for the erection of a church and 
a school-house. The hostility between the 
two great companies was finally put an 
end to by their amalgamation in 1821. His 
Lordship, however, did not live to see this 
consummation, but he lived to see his pro- 
ject an accomplished fact. He did not leave 
Red River until he saw his colonists in what, 
for them, must have been regarded as com- 
fortable circumstances. Then he took his 
departure for his native land, his consti- 
tution seriously impaired by the exposure 
and hardships to which he had been sub- 
jected, and from the effects of which he 
never recovered. 

Meanwhile, the trials of the prisoners at 
York had been delayed term after term. 
Lord Selkirk believed that the influence 
of the North-West Company was too strong 
in Canada to enable him to obtain justice. 
It is certain that the Company's influence 
was very strong, and that the prisoners, 
when their trials finally came on in Octo- 



ber, 1818, were acquitted for want of evi- 
dence. The Earl, however, does not seem 
to have tried very hard to secure their con- 
viction. He did not wait for the trials, but 
went home to Great Britain during the pre- 
vious year. He published several volumes 
giving a full account of the Red River set- 
tlement, and of his proceedings in relation 
thereto. Accompanied by Lady Selkirk, 
he sought repose and a renewal of health 
in the south of France. His vitality, how- 
ever, was too much impaired, and he died at 
Pau on the 8th of April, 1S20. 

His name is held in high respect in the 
colony on Red River, and one of its electoral 
constituencies is named in his honour. The 
town of Selkirk, also, several miles below 
Lower Fort Garry, commemorates his name 
and services to the district. Several ver- 
dicts for false imprisonment were obtained 
against him at York after his departure 
from Canada, the amounts whereof his ex- 
ecutors were called upon to pay. One of 
these verdicts was in favour of William 
Smith, Under-Sheriff of the Western Dis- 
trict, and was for 500. Another was for 
the formidable sum of 1,500, and was re- 
covered by Daniel McKenzie, a former part- 
ner in the North-West Company. 

In 1830 the Hudson's Bay Company, in 
order to put an end to various complications 
with respect to the land-tenure in the Red 
River settlement, re-purchased from Lord 
Selkirk's heirs the entire tract which had 
been granted to him in 1811. The pecu- 
niary consideration for the re-purchase was 
about eighty-four thousand pounds sterling. 

His eldest son, Dunbar James Douglas, 
born in 1809, succeeded him as sixth Earl, 
and still survives. The wife of the subject 
of this sketch, and the mother of the present 
representative, survived until the 10th of 
June, 1871. A daughter of the fifth Earl is 
also living at the present time. She is Lady 
Isabella Helen Hope, wife of the Hon. Charles 
Hope, a son of the fourth Earl of Hopetoun. 



THE HON. LUCIUS SETH HUNTINGTON. 



M 



R. HUNTINGTON'S abilities would 
have made him a marked man in any 
legislative body in which he might have 
found a place ; but certain circumstances 
have combined to render him one of the 
best known personages in Canadian public 
life. His abilities are disputed by none. 
As to his personal character and attributes 
there is greater divergence of opinion. In 
the ranks of the Reform Party he holds a 
very conspicuous place a place second to 
that of not more than two or three men in 
the Dominion, and the esteem in which he 
is held by Reformers generally is quite com- 
mensurate with his political standing. This 
estimate, however, is not universally acqui- 
esced in by his political opponents, by many 
of whom he is regarded with a very moder- 
ate degree of respect, and to whom his per- 
sonality is not more acceptable than his 
politics. It would perhaps not be going too 
far to say that by many of the latter he is 
intensely disliked, and that by a few of 
them he is contemplated with a hatred that 
is unforgiving. It is neither our purpose 
nor our desire to pronounce judgment on 
the merits of such conflicting opinions. All 
that we propose to ourselves is to briefly 
and impartially tell the story of his life, 
leaving it to others to interpret the narra- 
tive according to their own lights. 

He comes of Puritan stock. In 1633 his 
paternal ancestors emigrated from Norwich, 
England, to the colony of Massachusetts 



Bay, and thenceforward figured more or 
less conspicuously in the colonial annals. 
Towards the close of the last century his 
paternal grandfather removed from New 
England to Canada, and settled on the banks 
of the Coaticook River, in the county of 
Compton, in the Province of Quebec, where 
his son, Mr. Seth Huntington, the father 
of the subject of this sketch, also resided 
until his death, which took place in 1875. 
Mr. Seth Huntington's wife, whose maiden 
name was Horry, was also of a New Eng- 
land family, which removed to Canada after 
the close of the Revolutionary War, and 
settled in the county of Stanstead. Lucius 
Seth Huntington was born at Compton, 
on the 26th of May, 1827. He received 
his education at the common schools, and 
afterwards studied law at Sherbrooke, sup- 
porting himself meanwhile by teaching in a 
township High School. In 1853 he was 
called to the Bar of Lower Canada, and 
three years later embarked in journalism as 
proprietor of the Waterloo Advertiser. This 
paper he conducted for some time with char- 
acteristic vigour, and the " slashing " tone of 
its editorial articles involved him in various 
local disputes which made his name widely 
known throughout the Eastern Townships. 
In political opinions he was an advanced 
Liberal, and in 1860 he came forward as 
a candidate for a seat in the Canadian As- 
sembly for the county of Shefford. The 
contest resulted in a " tie," and there was 



THE HON. LUCIUS SETH HUNTINGTON. 



57 



consequently no return, as the then-existing 
Parliament expired before the election com- 
mittee appointed to investigate the affair 
had presented its report. At the general 
election of 1861 he again presented himself 
to the same constituency, and secured a re- 
turn. He has ever since represented Shef- 
ford in Parliament ; prior to Confederation 
in the Assembly, and since that event in 
the House of Commons of the Dominion. 

From the outset of his Parliamentary 
career he developed remarkable aptitude 
for Parliamentary life, more especially as a 
speaker. He had a never-failing command 
of vigorous language, and made himself con- 
spicuous for his scathing criticism of meas- 
ures whereof he disapproved. His energy 
and good judgment also made him useful as 
a member of committees. Upon the recon- 
struction of the late John Sandfield Mac- 
donald's Administration in May, 1863, he 
became an Executive Councillor, and ac- 
cepted the Solicitor- Generalship for the 
Lower Province. He retained office until 
the resignation of the Government in March, 
1864, when the Tache-Macdonald Govern- 
ment succeeded to power. 

It has been said that Mr. Huntington's 
political views were of an " advanced " char- 
acter ; to which it may be added that on 
some subjects they were altogether " in 
advance " of most of his colleagues. He 
was an avowed advocate of Canadian inde- 
pendence, and both in his speeches and his 
writings urged his views upon the public 
with frequency, as well as with considerable 
power of oratory. In these views he found 
few sympathizers among the members of 
Parliament, and some of his opponents were 
wont to taunt him with being an annexa- 
tionist in disguise. His almost isolated posi- 
tion in this respect interfered, to some ex- 
tent, with his usefulness to his Party, but 
he never made any attempt to conceal or 
dissemble his views, and had the full cour- 
age of his opinions. After the accomplish- 
IV 9 



ment of Confederation he yielded his alle- 
giance to the new order of things. He 
arrayed himself on the side of the Oppo- 
sition, and was from first to last one of the 
most Uncompromising opponents of Sir John 
A. Macdonald's Government. His opposi- 
tion was fraught with momentous results 
to the Government and to the country at 
large. 

During the early part of the first session 
of the second Parliament of the Dominion, 
which was opened on the 6th of March, 
1873, it began to be rumoured that there 
was some irregularity about the granting 
of the charter for the construction of the 
Canadian Pacific Railway, which had been 
obtained by Sir Hugh Allan and others on 
the 5th of February. The rumours were of 
the most vague character, and it was not 
commonly supposed that the irregularity 
was very serious in its nature. As matter 
of fact, Mr. Huntington had become pos- 
sessed of information which convinced him 
that there had been a corrupt bargain be- 
tween Sir Hugh Allan and the Government, 
and he proceeded quietly to get his mate- 
rials together with a view to bringing the 
subject before the attention of Parliament. 
With the assistance of his partner, Mr. La- 
flamme, he erelong succeeded in obtaining 
such evidence as to justify him, in his opin- 
ion, in proceeding with the matter. On the 
2nd of April he rose in his place in the 
House, and after a brief statement of facts, 
submitted the following resolution : That 
Mr. Huntington, a member of this House, 
having stated in his place that he is credibly 
informed, and believes that he can establish 
by satisfactory evidence, that in anticipa- 
tion of the legislation of last session, as to 
the Pacific Railway, an agreement was made 
between Sir Hugh Allan, acting for himself 
and certain other Canadian promoters, and 
G. W. McMullen, acting for certain United 
States capitalists, whereby the latter agreed 
to furnish all the funds necessary for the 



58 



THE HON. LUCIUS SETH HUNTINGTON. 



construction of the contemplated railway, 
and to give the former a certain percentage 
of interest in consideration of their interest 
and position ; the scheme agreed upon be- 
ing ostensibly that of a Canadian company 
with Sir Hugh Allan at its head : That the 
Government were aware that negotiations 
were pending between these parties : That 
subsequently an understanding was come 
to between the Government and Sir Hugh 
Allan and Mr. Abbott, M.P., that Sir Hugh 
and his friends should advance a large sum 
of money for the purpose of aiding the elec- 
tions of ministers and their supporters at 
the ensuing general election, and that he 
and his friends should receive the contract 
for the construction of the railway : That 
accordingly Sir Hugh Allan did advance a 
large sum of money for the purpose men- 
tioned, and at the solicitation, and under 
the pressing instance of ministers : That 
part of the moneys expended by Sir Hugh 
Allan in connection with the obtaining of 
the Act of Incorporation and Charter were 
paid to him by the said United States capi- 
talists under the agreement with him : It is 
Ordered that a committee of seven members 
be appointed to inquire into all the circum- 
stances connected with the negotiations for 
the construction of the Pacific Railway, with 
the legislation of last session on the subject, 
and with the granting of the charter to Sir 
Hugh Allan and others ; with power to send 
for persons, papers, and records, ami with 
instructions to report in full the evidence 
taken before, and all proceedings of said 
committee. 

This resolution was treated as a motion 
of want of confidence in the Ministry, and 
was rejected by a majority of thirty-one 
votes. Sir John Macdonald for the time 
maintained silence in the House about the 
matter, but he well knew that he could not 
continue to do so with impunity. Public 
opinion was aroused, and even his own sup- 
porters became moody and dissatisfied with 



his policy of reticence. On the following 
day, accordingly, he himself gave notice 
that on the next Government day Tues- 
day, the 8th he would move for the ap- 
pointment of a committee. He kept his 
word, and the committee was appointed. It 
consisted of three Ministerialists the Hons. 
J. G. Blanchet, James McDonald, and John 
Hillyard Cameron ; and two members of 
the Opposition the Hons. Edward Blake 
and A. A. Dorion. Mr. Cameron was ap- 
pointed chairman, but the question of ex- 
amining the witnesses upon oath having 
been raised, it was deemed necessary to 
postpone the proceedings until a Bill em- 
powering Parliamentary Committees to ad- 
minister oaths should become law. The 
requisite Bill was passed on the 3rd of May, 
and as doubts were expressed as to its legal- 
ity a certified copy of it was forwarded by 
the Governor-General to England for the 
approval of the law officers of the Crown. 
When the committee, thus fully empowered, 
met twelve days afterwards, an appeal was 
made for delay on the ground that Sir 
George E. Cartier and the Hon. J. J. C. 
Abbott, who were important witnesses, were 
in England, and were not expected to return 
to Canada for several weeks. Mr. Hunting- 
ton urged the committee to proceed. He 
pointed out that his charges had been known 
to these men for a month ; that they had 
had ample time to return if they so desired ; 
that the Premier had at first sought to stifle 
inquiry ; that he had failed on the line first 
taken ; that he then proposed to court it ; 
that he allowed several weeks to be wasted 
because he professed to want the evidence 
taken on oath, while no effort was made to 
enable the committee to proceed in that 
way, and that among the witnesses were 
several of the colleagues of the Premier, of 
whose testimony he ought not to be so much 
afraid. The committee finally adjourned 
to the 2nd of July. Long before that time 
came round Mr. Huntington had obtained 



THE HON. LUCIUS SETH HUNTINGTON. 



59 



important additional evidence, and on the 
15th of May he informed the House that 
original documents of the greatest impor- 
tance in the investigation of the charges 
were held by a trustee (whose name he was 
prepared to disclose to the committee) on 
such condition, and under such circum- 
stances, that there was very great danger 
that they might be placed beyond the reach 
of the committee before the day upon which 
they were next to meet. He asked the 
House to order that the committee should 
meet on the following day, and that they 
should summon the trustee by whom the 
documents were held, to appear before them 
and produce the documents in his possession 
relating to the inquiry. It is usual in such 
cases for the House to ask to be put in pos- 
session, so far as possible, of the character 
of the papers and the nature of the infor- 
mation disclosed. Mr. Huntington, in the 
course of his speech in support of his motion, 
was about to read certain letters, when Sir 
John A. Macdonald called Mr. Huntington 
to order, and said he would move that they 
proceed to the orders of the day. He was 
informed by Mr. Holton that he had stated 
no point of order, that he had verbally put 
a motion in amendment to the motion of 
Mr. Huntington, which he had no right to 
do, for Mr. Huntington had the floor and 
had not concluded his remarks. Sir John 
A. Macdonald then said it was not compe- 
tent for Mr. Huntington to read letters or 
papers as evidence, as they could only be 
properly submitted to the select committee 
to whom the whole case had been referred 
by the House. The Speaker, the Hon. James 
Cockburn, held the point well taken, and 
the papers were not read. They consisted 
chiefly of the famous Allan- McMullen cor- 
respondence, and had been placed in the 
hands of the Hon. Henry Starnes, banker, 
of Montreal, to be delivered up to Sir Hugh 
Allan on certain conditions. There is lit- 
tle doubt that had this correspondence been 



read and made public as Mr. Huntington 
proposed, the downfall of the Ministry could 
not have been delayed until the following 
November. 

When the committee met on the 2nd of 
July it was announced that the Oaths Bill 
had been disallowed. They were thus un- 
able to proceed with the inquiry, having 
no power to examine witnesses under oath, 
although Mr. Huntington was personally 
in attendance for the purpose of substan- 
tiating the serious charges which he had 
made. The next phase in the drama was a 
proposal by the Premier to issue a Royal 
Commission addressed to the gentlemen 
forming the committee, which would confer 
upon them all the powers given to a com- 
mittee by the House of Commons, including 
the examination of witnesses under oath, 
and the power to send for persons, papers 
and records. Both Mr. Dorion and Mr. 
Blake wrote to Sir John A. Macdonald in 
reply to this proposition. They pointed out 
to him that the inquiry was undertaken by 
the House ; that the issue of a Royal Com- 
mission by a Government to inquire into 
charges against itself would be an unheard- 
of proceeding, and that it would not aid but 
prejudice the inquiry by the House ; that 
the House did not expect the Crown or any 
one else, least of all the members of its own 
committee, to obstruct the inquiry which it 
had undertaken. The committee adjourned 
to the 13th of August, and immediately af- 
terwards the famous Allan-McMullen cor- 
respondence was given to the world through 
the Montreal Herald and the Toronto Globe. 
The effect upon public opinion in Canada 
and in a lesser degree in Great Britain 
was electrical. There could no longer be 
any real doubt as to the perpetration of 
gross corruption, and the fate of the Mac- 
donald Ministry was sealed. When Parlia- 
ment met, pursuant to adjournment, on the 
13th of August, the members were in a 
decidedly investigating mood. His Excel- 



60 



THE HON. LUCIUS SETH HUNTINGTON. 



lency, however, by the advice of his Minis- 
ters, prorogued Parliament, amid a tumult- 
uous scene which will not soon be forgotten 
by those who beheld it. A Royal Commis- 
sion, under the Act 31 Victoria, chapter 38, 
was then issued by the Governor-General, 
directed to the Hon. C. D. Day, the Hon. 
Antoine Polette, and James Robert Gowan, 
Judge of the County Court of the county 
of Simcoe. It enjoined upon the Commis- 
sioners that they should investigate the 
charges made by Mr. Huntington, and re- 
port to the Speakers of the Senate and 
Commons, as well as to the Secretary of 
State. The Commission met at Ottawa, 
and requested Mr. Huntington to furnish a 
list of his witnesses. To this request Mr. 
Huntington replied by a letter, dated the 
26th of August, and addressed to Judge 
Day, as Chairman of the Commission. " I 
have to call your attention to the fact," 
wrote Mr. Huntington, " apparent on the 
face of the Commission, that it was as a 
member of the House of Commons, and 
from my place in Parliament, that I pre- 
ferred these charges against Ministers of the 
Crown and members of that House, which, 
on the 8th day of April last, entertained 
the charges, determined to investigate them 
itself, and appointed a select committee to 
inquire into and report upon them ; and to 
the further fact, apparent on the Journals 
of the House, that to the said committee I 
furnished a list of some of the principal 
witnesses, whose evidence I believe could 
establish my charges, and I have always 
been ready to proceed to the proof thereof 
before the tribunal constituted by the House 
for the investigation. The determination of 
the Commons to investigate these charges 
remains unaltered, and I deem it inconsis- 
tent with my duty as a member of Parlia- 
ment, and a breach of the undoubted privi- 
leges of the House, to recognize any inferior 
or exceptional tribunal, created to inquire 
into charges still pending before the Com- 



mons, and so essentially affecting the privi- 
leges, dignity, and independence of Parlia- 
ment. I believe that it is a breach of those 
privileges that a Royal Commission, issued 
without the special sanction of the House, 
should take any cognizance of, or should 
assume to call on me, to justify words which 
I have spoken on the floor of the Commons, 
and for which I am responsible to them, and 
to them alone. I feel that I should do no 
act which may be construed into an acqui- 
escence in the attempt to remove from the 
Commons the conduct and control of the 
inquiry. I believe that the creation of the 
Commission involves a breach of that funda- 
mental principle of the constitution which 
preserves to the Commons the right and 
duty of initiating and controlling inquiries 
into high political offences ; that it involves 
also a breach of that fundamental principle 
of justice which prevents the accused from 
creating the tribunal and controlling the 
procedure for their trial ; and that it is a 
commission without precedent, unknown to 
the Common Law, unsanctioned by the 
Statute Law, providing by an exercise of 
the prerogative for an inquiry out of the 
ordinary course of justice into misdemean- 
our cognizable by the Courts, and conse- 
quently illegal and void. Entertaining 
these views, you will not expect me to act 
otherwise than in conformity with them, 
and you will be satisfied that by my non- 
appearance before the Commission I intend 
no disrespect to the Commissioners, but am 
moved by the same sense of public duty 
which will constrain me at the earliest 
practicable moment to renew the efforts 
which I have been making since April last 
to bring to trial before the Commons of 
Canada the men whom I have impeached 
as public criminals." 

Various other witnesses who were in a 
position to give important evidence fol- 
lowed Mr. Huntington's example, and de- 
clined to appear before the Commission. 



THE HON. LUCIUS SETH HUNTINGTON. 



61 



Thirty-six witnesses appeared and were 
examined. Their evidence has long been 
before the world, and judgment has long 
since been passed upon it. When Parlia- 
ment met in the following autumn Mr. 
Blake made a speech which produced a tell- 
ing effect upon the House, and upon the 
country at large. The Ministry resigned 
office, and were succeeded by Mr. Macken- 
zie's Government, which came into power 
on the 7th of November. Mr. Huntington 
did not immediately become a member of 
the new Cabinet, but was sworn in as a 
Privy Councillor on the 20th of January 
following, when he became President of the 
Council. Upon returning to his constituents 
in Shefford, after accepting office, he was 
reflected by acclamation. He retained the 
office of President of the Council until Oc- 
tober, 1875, when he succeeded the Hon. 
Telesphore Fournier as Postmaster -Gen- 
eral, which position he retained until the 
resignation of the Government in October, 
1878. 

The foregoing facts, we think, will suffi- 
ciently explain the hostile feelings enter- 
tained towards Mr. Huntington by certain 
members of the Conservative Party ; but he 
has also been subjected to a good deal of ad- 
verse criticism on other grounds. For some 
time previous to 1873 he had given con- 
siderable attention to commercial pursuits, 



and had engaged in efforts to develop the 
mineral resources of the Province of Quebec. 
A market for Quebec copper having been 
found in England and the United States, a 
company was formed under his auspices for 
working the mines. Out of these negotia- 
tions arose some serious charges against Mr. 
Huntington, the purport of which was that 
he had by misrepresentation obtained a 
larger amount for the property than its real 
value. The matter was frequently referred 
to in the public press and elsewhere, and 
suits were instituted against Mr. Hunting- 
ton. They were subsequently withdrawn, 
however, and the plaintiffs admitted that 
they had been misled by false information. 
Since the accession to power of the present 
! Government Mr. Huntington has been con- 
spicuous as a member of the Opposition, and 
is regarded as adding very materially to its 
strength. 

He has been twice married. His first 
wife was Miriam Jane, daughter of Major 
David Wood, of Shefford. This lady died in 
1871. His present wife, whom he married 
at New York on the 28th of October, 1877, 
was Mrs. Marsh, widow of the late Charles 
Marsh, Civil Engineer. His eldest son, the 
late Mr. Russ Wood Huntington, who died 
on the 13th of November, 1879, was promi- 
nently connected with the editorial depart- 
ment of the Montreal Herald. 



THE REV. GEORGE W. HILL, A.M., D.C.L., 

CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HALIFAX. 



DR. HILL, one of the most distinguished 
living inhabitants of the Province of 
Nova Scotia, was born in the city of Hali- 
fax, on the 'Jth of November, 1824. His 
life has been one of very remarkable indus- 
try and mental activity, and has been at- 
tended with noteworthy results to the edu- 
cational, social, and literary interests of his 
native Province. In his case, a rare capa- 
city for hard work is happily blended with 
vigorous mental endowments, and a high 
and honourable purpose in life. His capa- 
city for work is sufficiently attested by his 
parochial, literary, and scholastic labours. 
The distinction which he has achieved as a 
divine, as an orator, as an educator, and as 
a man of letters, affords abundant evidence 
of a vigorous mind ; and the respect in 
which he is held by persons of the most 
opposite lines of thought is a tolerably con- 
clusive proof of the worthiness of his aims. 
Nova Scotia has produced men who have 
become more widely known. His pursuits 
have not been of a nature to blazon his 
name abroad ; but within the limits of the 
Province in which nearly all his life has 
been passed, no name is held in higher 
esteem than that of the present Chancellor 
of the University of Halifax. 

His life, like that of most scholars, has 
been devoid of startling adventures. It has 
been passed in the acquisition and dissemi- 
nation of useful knowledge, in discharging 
the duties incidental to clerical pursuits, 



and in literary labours. He received the 
elements of a good English and classical 
education at the Halifax Grammar School, 
and afterwards matriculated at Acadia Col- 
lege, Wolfville, where he passed through 
the studies of the first and second years' 
courses. He then betook himself to the 
country, and spent several years in farm- 
life, which did much to increase the vigour 
of a naturally sound and robust constitu- 
tion. It was never his intention, however, 
to make agriculture the business of his 
life ; and having chosen the ministry of the 
Church of England as his profession, he 
entered King's College, Windsor, where, 
after a successful collegiate career, he grad- 
uated as B.A. in 1847. During the same 
year he was ordained a Deacon, and became 
curate of the populous and important parish 
of St. George's, Halifax. Next year he was 
ordained to the priesthood. He remained 
in connection with St. George's about seven 
years, during which period he won a high 
local reputation for learning, eloquence, and 
the industry wherewith he discharged the 
various duties assigned to him. Early in 
1854 he proceeded to England on an im- 
portant mission on behalf of King's College, 
Windsor. He acquitted himself of this mis- 
sion greatly to the satisfaction of all parties 
concerned, and on his return, after an ab- 
sence of several months, his <ilni muter con- 
ferred upon him the appointment of Pro- 
fessor of Pastoral Theology. For five years 



THE REV. GEORGE W. HILL, A.M., D.C.L. 



63 



he filled the position with great satisfaction 
to the friends of the College. In 1859 he 
returned to Halifax as the curate of St. 
Paul's Church, and, on the death of the in- 
cumbent, in 1865, he was chosen Rector by 
the unanimous voice of the congregation. 
He was at the same time appointed Chaplain 
to the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia. 
Both these appointments he has ever since 
retained. As Rector, his position is a very 
important one in the Nova Scotian capital, 
both ecclesiastically and socially. We may 
add that the position is one very congenial 
to himself. " St. Paul's," says a contempo- 
rary writer, " has associations and a history 
surpassing in interest probably those of any 
other Protestant sanctuary in the Dominion. 
Built within a year of the founding of Hali- 
fax (1750), it has witnessed the changes and 
the progress of 130 years, and its frame of 
oak is still untouched by the tooth of time. 
Dean Stanley is not more an fait and en- 
thusiastic in all that pertains to his cele- 
brated abbey than is the Doctor in regard 
to the interesting antiquities of St. Paul's." 

In 1876 the University of Halifax was 
established. It was modelled to a large 
extent upon the University of London, 
England, and does not undertake the office 
of instruction. Its sole duty consists in 
examining those who may present them- 
selves for examination, and in conferring 
degrees upon those who are successful in 
the ordeal. The office of Chancellor was 
conferred upon Doctor Hill, and his ap- 
pointment was accepted by all as a fitting 
tribute to his great learning and high per- 
sonal character. His discharge of the duties 
of the position has fully borne out the ex- 
pectations formed of him. Under his di- 
rection the Senate of the University has 
made gratifying progress in harmonizing 
the higher educational forces of the Prov- 
ince. 

Dr. Hill's contributions to literature have 
been many in number, and various in char- 



acter. Among the most important may 
be mentioned " Old Testament History, its 
Chronology, Apparent Discrepancies, and 
Undesigned Coincidences," published at 
Halifax in 1855; "Nova Scotia and Nova 
Scotians," a lecture delivered before the 
Literary and Debating Society of Windsor, 
in 1858, and afterwards published in pam- 
phlet form. Of this production the Halifax 
Express eulogistical ly remarked : " We have 
seldom had the satisfaction of listening to 
a discourse written in a style so classic, and 
delivered in such an eloquent manner, as 
that by which this lecture was character- 
ized. From the commencement to the close, 
each period seemed to surpass in classic ele- 
gance that which had preceded it ; and the 
simple narrative was so adorned and em- 
bellished as to appear the sublime concep- 
tion of the poet and the scholar." During 
the same year Dr. Hill delivered and pub- 
lished a sermon entitled "A Review of the 
Rise and Progress of the Church of Eng- 
land in Nova Scotia ;" also " Records of the 
Church of England in Rawdon from its 
origin until the present date." In 1860 the 
Doctor delivered an oration at the inauo-u- 

O 

ration of the Welsford and Parker Monu- 
ment, which the journal already mentioned 
characterized as "an oration of matchless 
beauty, tracing with a master-hand the 
lives and characters of the heroes, and the 
stirring events in which they were actors." 
In 1864 Dr. Hill published an important 
addition to the Provincial literature in the 
form of a " Memoir of Sir Brenton Hali- 
burton, late Chief Justice of the Province 
of Nova Scotia." Of this work another 
Nova Scotian newspaper remarked : " We 
look upon this volume as a very 

interesting contribution to our colonial lit- 
erature. It deals with the life and actions 
of a good and great colonist who distin- 
guished himself, during the most stirring 
periods of our colonial history, as a soldier, 
statesman, and jurist; and in the eyes of 



THE REV. GEORGE W. HILL, A.M., D.C.L. 



those who knew him best he was most ad- 
mired for the many virtues which adorned 
his character in social life. In sketching 
the career of his hero, the author's hand 
seems to have been tremulous with affec- 
tion ; but the judgment which characterizes 
his pages is unclouded, and the style is easy, 
correct, and sometimes eloquent." 

The foregoing works, which by no means 
complete the list of Dr. Hill's literary efforts, 
have been merely the products of his leisure. 
The work of his life has been chiefly devoted 
to his professional and educational pursuits, 
the records of which necessarily remain un- 
written. Though now in his fifty-seventh 
year, he is still in the prime of his intel- 
lectual and physical powers. ''Toil," says 
a writer already quoted from, " has left but 



little impress of itself on his erect form, and 
fresh, health-indicating countenance. Noth- 
ing short of eminent natural endowments, 
and well-disciplined faculties sustained in 
their action by a high moral purpose, could 
enable one to work so vigorously, so con- 
stantly, and withal so easily." In addition 
to the offices already referred to, he fills 
other important positions, including those 
of President of the Church of England In- 
stitute, President of the Board controlling 
St. Paul's Almshouse of Industry, and Gov- 
ernor of the Orphan Asylum. He is also 
Vice - Pi-esident both of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society and of the Tract 
Society. His degree of D.C.L. was con- 
ferred upon him by the University of 
King's College, Windsor. 



SIR ANTOINE AIME DORION, 

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, QUEBEC. 



CHIEF JUSTICE DORION was born in 
the parish of Ste. Anne de la Porade, 
in the county of Charaplain, in the Prov- 
ince of Lower Canada, on the 17th of Janu- 
ary, 1818. He is a son of the late Mr. Pierre 
Antoine Dorion, who carried on business as 
a general merchant at Ste. Anne de la Pe- 
rade, and was a gentleman of much local 
influence and reputation, having represent- 
ed the county of Champlain in the Legisla- 
tive Assembly of Lower Canada from 1830 
to 1838. The Chief Justice's mother was 
Genevieve, daughter of the late Mr. P. Bu- 
reau, who also occupied a seat in the Pro- 
vincial Assembly, where he represented the 
county of St. Maurice for about fourteen 
years, from 1820 to 1834. 

After spending some time at the schools 
of his native parish, Mr. Dorion completed 
his education at Nicolet College, and entered 
upon the study of the law. In the month 
of January, 1842, he was called to the Bar 
of Lower Canada, and immediately after- 
wards entered upon the practice of his pro- 
fession at Montreal. His excellent abilities 
soon enabled him to take a conspicuous rank 
at the Bar, and his graceful and courteous 
manners contributed to establish him in a 
high social position. In 1848 he married 
Miss Trestler, a daughter of the late Dr. 
Trestler, of Montreal. 

In politics Mr. Dorion held very pro- 
nounced opinions on the Liberal side from 
his earliest youth, and he had not been 
IV 10 



many years at the Bar ere his eligibility for 
a seat in Parliament began to be discussed 
by the leading members of the Liberal Party 
in Montreal. His actual entry into public 
life dates from the year 1854, when he was 
returned at the general election for the city 
of Montreal ; but for some time prior to that 
date he had taken an active interest in the 
Provincial politics, and had had no slight 
share in formulating the policy of the Party 
to which he belonged. From the outset of 
his Parliamentary career he was the recog- 
nized leader of the Rouge Party in the 
House, and was long the steadfast ally of 
the late Mr. Brown. He continued to repre- 
sent the city of Montreal until 1861. When 
Mr. Brown formed his short-lived Adminis- 
tration in the month of August, 1858, Mr. 
Dorion accepted office in it as Commis- 
sioner of Crown Lands, and the Ministry 
then formed is commonly referred to as the 
Brown -Dorion Administration, from the 
names of its respective leaders in the two 
Provinces. Upon the formation of the Car- 
tier- Macdonald Government Mr. Dorion ar- 
rayed himself in Opposition, and for several 
years thereafter he was one of the most 
formidable critics which the Government 
had to encounter. At the general election 
following the dissolution of Parliament in 
1861 he was defeated in his constituency 
by the Hon. George Etienne Cartier, the 
Lower Canadian leader of the Government. 
For some months subsequent to this defeat 



66 



SIR ANTOINE AIMfi DORION. 



he remained out of Parliament, but upon 
the formation of the Sandfield Macdonald- 
Sicotte Government in May, 1862, he ac- 
cepted office as Provincial Secretary. His 
acceptance of office was confirmed by the 
electors of Hochelaga, which constituency 
he thenceforward continued to represent 
until Confederation. He did not long re- 
tain office in the Cabinet, as then consti- 
tuted, owing to a difference of opinion with 
his colleagues on some matter connected 
with the construction of the Intercolonial 
Railway. On the 28th of January, 18G3, 
he resigned, and was succeeded in his post 
of Provincial Secretary by the Hon. J. 0. 
Bureau. He remained out of office until 
the month of May following, when the Gov- 
ernment was remodelled, and Mr. Dorion 
succeeded Mr. Sicotte as Attorney-General 
and Lower Canada leader. This position 
he held until the defeat of the Cabinet in 
March of the following year. 

At the first general election after the 
Union of the Provinces, Mr. Dorion was re- 
turned to the House of Commons for the 
constituency of Hochelaga. In 1872 he an- 
nounced his intention of retiring from pub- 
lic life, and was tendered a complimentary 
banquet, along with Mr. Holton, by his 
friends in Montreal, but at the general elec- 
tions of that year he was induced to stand 
for Napierville, where he was successful. 
He continued to represent Napierville in 
the House of Commons so long as he re- 
mained in public life. He resumed his old 
position at the head of his Party, and op- 
posed Sir John Macdonald's Government 
until its downfall in November, 1873. Upon 
the formation of Mr. Mackenzie's Adminis- 
tration immediately afterwards, Mr. Dorion 
accepted office in it as Minister of Justice, 



which position he retained until his appoint- 
ment to the Chief Justiceship of Quebec, on 
the 30th of May, 1874. 

As a lawyer Mr. Dorion has long been 
recognized as one of the foremost in his 
Province. He was created a Queen's Coun- 
sel in 1863 ; was several times elected Baton- 
nier of the Bar of Montreal District, and was 
also President of the Bar of the Province of 
Quebec. He administered the Government 
of the Province of Quebec from the death 
of the late Lieutenant-Governor Caron until 
the appointment of that gentleman's suc- 
cessor in the person of Mr. Letellier de St. 
Just i.e., from the 8th of November to the 
15th of December, 1876. He is a fine lin- 
guist, a polished scholar, and a judge whose 
decisions are held in high respect. Of his 
Parliamentary manner Mr. Fennings Tay- 
lor, in his " Portraits of British Americans," 
speaks in the following terms : " Though a 
French Canadian himself, Mr. Dorion might 
in one respect be regarded as a representa- 
tive of both races, for as a speaker and a 
fluent master of both languages he has no 
superior in the Legislative Assembly. No 
matter in what tongue he chooses to address 
the House, his diction is pure and his man- 
ners equable. If he speaks in English, you 
will think him an Englishman with a for- 
eign face. If he speaks in French, you will 
in like manner think him a Frenchman who 
has spent much of his life in England. He 
is one of those polished, human perplexities, 
which are rarely met with out of the diplo- 
matic services of the greater States of Eu- 
rope ; for, while his face is continental, his 
manner is the manner of the people whose 
language, for the time being, he thinks fit 
to use, for his speech never bewrays his 



r;irr. 



THE HON. SAMUEL CASEY WOOD. 



MR. WOOD comes of a long-lived race. 
His father, Mr. Thomas Smith Wood, 
one of the few surviving veterans of the 
War of 1812, was born in 1790, and is con- 
sequently at the present time a nonagen- 
arian. His mother, whose maiden name 
was Miss Frances Peckins, is also living, 
and, at the advanced age of eighty-seven 
years, is still in the full enjoyment of all 
her faculties. 

He was born at the village of Bath, in the 
county of Lennox, Upper Canada, on the 
27th of December, 1830. He received his 
education at various common schools, owing 
to the fact that during his boyhood his 
parents removed several times from one part 
of the country to another. The last school 
attended by him was near Frankfort, in the 
township of Sidney, in the county of Hast- 
ings, where he for about a year enjoyed the 
advantage of having for his tutor Mr. now 
Doctor G. H. Boulter. Mr. Boulter, who 
now represents North Hastings in the On- 
tario Legislature, was then fresh from Vic- 
toria College, Cobourg, and proved himself 
one of the most efficient instructors that the 
rural districts of Canada have ever known. 
Under his tutelage the subject of this sketch 
made rapid strides in learning. Teacher 
and pupil have since arrayed themselves 
on opposite sides in polities, but Mr. Wood 
h;i- Frequently acknowledged his indebted- 
ness to Dr. Boulter's early instructions, and 
a warm personal friendship has always sub- 



sisted between them. When only eighteen 
years of age, young Mr. Wood obtained a 
first-class certificate as a common school 
teacher from the counties of Hastings, Nor- 
thumberland and Durham, and York and 
Peel. Immediately on obtaining his certifi- 
cate he began to teach one of the schools in 
j Sidney. He afterwards taught at Prince 
: Albert, in North Ontario, and elsewhere. 
About 183G he abandoned the occupation 
of teaching, and opened a general country 
store in the township of Mariposa, in the 
county of Victoria, which was at that time 
united to the county of Peterborough. In 
18GO the counties were divided, and Mr. 
Wood was appointed Clerk and Treasurer 
of the county of Victoria. He accordingly 
removed to Lindsay, the county town, which 
has ever since been his home, and where he 
soon became one of the most popular and 
prominent citizens. He took an active in- 
terest in all public matters, and more especi- 
ally in all questions relating to schools and 
education. He from time to time held 
various local offices. He was Chairman of 
the Board of High and Public Schools ; and 
after the passing of the Insolvent Act of 
1864 he became Official Assignee. In 1874 
he was elected a member of the now defunct 
Council of Public Instruction, to represent 
the school-inspectors. This position he re- 
signed, after holding it about a year. 

He early allied himself with the Reform 
Party in politics, and took an active part in 



68 



THE HON. SAMUEL CASEY WOOD. 



the election campaigns of the times. His en- 
terprise, public spirit and popularity marked 
him out as a fitting candidate for Parlia- 
mentary life, and at the general election of 
1871 he contested the constituency of South 
Victoria for the Local Legislature. He was 
opposed by Mr. Thomas Mitchell, a Con- 
servative, who had already represented the 
constituency. South Victoria had always 
theretofore returned a 'Conservative, but 
there were local reasons of great potency in 
the Riding at the time, and it was thought 
desirable that the representative should be 
a resident of Lindsay. Mr. Wood's candida- 
ture was successful, and he was returned by 
a majority of more than 300 votes. He soon 
made his mark in the House as an industri- 
ous, hard-working member, and took an 
intelligent part in the debates, more especi- 
ally on educational and agricultural topics. 
His judgment and business faculties were 
such that in the summer of 1875 he was 
offered a seat in the Executive Council of 
Ontario, as Commissioner of Agriculture, 
Provincial Secretary and Registrar. He 
accepted these offices on the 24th of July, 
and retained them about two years. At the 
general election of 1875 he was opposed by 
a local Conservative candidate of great in- 
fluence, but was again successful in securing 



his election. In March, 1877, there was a 
partial readjustment of portfolios in the 
Ontario Ministry. Mr. Wood ceased to be 
Secretary and Registrar, which offices de- 
volved upon the Hon. A. S. Hardy. Mr. 
Crooks became Minister of Education, and 
Mr. Wood became Commissioner of Agri- 
culture and Provincial Treasurer. These 
offices he still retains. In his departmental 
capacity he has under his management the 
Agricultural College at Guelph, the Refor- 
matory at Penetanguishene, the Andrew 
Mercer Reformatory at Toronto, the Deaf 
and Dumb Institution at Belleville, and the 
Blind Asylum at Brantford, in addition to 
the various Lunatic Asylums throughout the 
Province. He also has charge of the Insur- 
ance Department, and is at the present time 
Chairman of the Agricultural Commission. 

At the general election held on the 5th of 
June, 1879, Mr. Wood was opposed by Mr. 
William L. Russell, ex- Warden of the County 
of Victoria. Mr. Wood was elected by a 
majority of 115. He is responsible for the 
consolidation of the Agriculture and Arts 
Act, and for other important measures affect- 
ing agricultural affairs in Ontario. 

On the 17th of June, 1856, Mr. Wood 
married Miss Charlotte M. Parkinson, of 
the township of Mariposa. 



THE HON. JAMES McDONALD, Q.C., 

MINISTER OF JUSTICE. 



M 



R. MCDONALD'S ancestors emigrated 
from the Highlands of Scotland to 
Nova Scotia nearly a hundred years ago, 
and settled in the county of Pictou. He 
was born at East River, a port settlement 
in Pictou County, on the 1st of July, 1828. 
He was educated at New Glasgow, a sea- 
port town in the same county. He studied 
law, and was called to the Nova Scotia Bar 
in the year 1857. He practised in Halifax, 
and soon won a conspicuous position in his 
profession. Having become thoroughly es- 
tablished, he began to turn his attention to 
public affairs. In 1859 he entered political 
life, as the representative of the county of 
Pictou in the Legislative Assembly of Nova 
Scotia. He sat in the Assembly for that 
constituency until the accomplishment of 
Confederation. He was Chief Railway 
Commissioner for Nova Scotia, from June, 
18G3, to December, 1864, when he was ap- 
pointed Financial Secretary in the Govern- 
ment led by the Hon. Dr. Tupper, which 
he continued to hold until the Union. He 
was one of the Commissioners (represent- 
ing Nova Scotia) appointed to open trade 
relations between the West Indies, Mexico 
and Brazil, and the British American Prov- 
inces in 1865-(i(i. 

In 18G7 he was created a Queen's Counsel, 
and during the same year, at the first gen- 
eral election under Confederation, he was 
an unsuccessful candidate for the represen- 
tation of the county of Pictou in the House 



of Commons. In the year 1871 he was 
returned to the Local Legislature of Nova 
Scotia for his old constituency of Pictou, 
and sat for it until the month of July, 1872, 
when he resigned his seat in the Local 
House in order to enter the House of Com- 
mons. He was returned to the Commons 
immediately afterwards, and remained a 
member of that House until 1874, when he 
was unsuccessful in securing his reelection. 
At the general election held in September, 
1878, he was again returned to the Com- 
mons for the county of Pictou by a consider- 
able majority, and he now sits for that con- 
stituency. He is a Conservative in politics, 
and upon the formation of the present Gov- 
ernment in October, 1878, Mr. McDonald 
accepted office in it as Minister of Justice, 
which portfolio he still retains. He has 
made an efficient Minister, and is highly 
esteemed by his colleagues, though he has 
been subjected to a due share of criticism 
on the part of the Opposition press. It is 
generally conceded, alike by supporters and 
opponents, that he takes rank among the 
foremost men in his Party, and is both in- 
tellectually and otherwise a very important 
factor in the composition of the present 
Administration. 

In 1856 Mr. McDonald married Miss Jane 
Mortimer, daughter of the late Mr. William 
Mortimer, of Pictou. He has held various 
positions of dignity and local importance in 
the Nova Scotian capital. 



THE HON. SIR JOHN ROSE, BART., G.C.M.G. 



SIR JOHN ROSE is not a Canadian by 
birth, nor has he resided in this coun- 
try for some years past, but the greater 
part of his life was spent among us, and it 
was here that the foundation of his politi- 
cal and h'nancial reputation was laid. He 
is of Scottish birth and parentage, and was 
born at Turriff, in Aberdeenshire, on the 
2nd of August, 1820. He is a son of the 
late Mr. William Rose, of Turriff, by his 
marriage with Miss Elizabeth Fyfe, daugh- 
ter of Captain James Fyfe. He was edu- 
cated at various schools in Aberdeenshire, 
and finally at King's College, Aberdeen. 
While he was still a youth his parents 
emigrated to Canada, and settled in the 
county of Huntingdon, in the Lower Prov- 
ince, whither he accompanied them. He 
for a short time engaged in the useful and 
honourable, but in those days not very luc- 
rative occupation of a school teacher in the 
Eastern Townships. Being conscious of 
good abilities, and of his fitness for better 
things than the business of tutorship seemed 
to hold out to him, he soon abandoned that 
pursuit, and proceeded to Montreal, where 
he entered upon the study of the law. In 
1842 he was called to the Bar of Lower 
Canada (Montreal District), and at once 
entered upon the practice of his profession 
in Montreal. As an advocate he possessed 
many advantages, being a ready and fluent 
speaker and a skilful debater, and having a 
tall figure, an earnest manner, and a com- 



manding presence. All these advantages 
were turned to good account, and he soon 
succeeded in building up what was in those 
days the largest commercial practice in 
Montreal. His standing at the Bar was 
commensurate with his practice. He had 
many wealthy firms and corporations for 
his clients, including the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany. He also conducted a good many 
cases on behalf of the Government of the 
day, and acquired an intimate acquaintance 
with political questions. In 18-18 he was 
created a Queen's Counsel. During the ex- 
istence of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Govern- 
ment he was strongly importuned to enter 
public life, but he preferred to establish his 
fortunes on a firm basis before allowing 
himself to be drawn aside by any other 
allurements. He, however, interested him- 
self in the operations of the Conservative 
Party, to which he belonged, and with 
which he was identified throughout his 
public career. He was also a prominent 
figure in the social life of Montreal, and 
during his long residence there held many 
offices of honour and responsibility in con- 
nection with charitable and other kindred 
societies, banks, and institutions of learning. 
It was not until 1857 that he felt himself 
fully at liberty to enter upon a Parliament- 
ary career. On the 26th of November in 
that year he accepted office in the Macdon- 
ald-Cartier Administration as Solicitor-Gen- 
eral for Lower Canada. At the general 



THE HON. SIR JOHN ROSE, BART., G.C.M.G. 



71 



election which followed, he offered himself, 
in conjunction with the Hon. George E. 
Cartier and Mr. H. Starnes, of Montreal, to 
the electors of that city. These three prom- 
inent members of the Conservative Party 
were opposed by the Hons. A. A. Dorion, 
Luther H. Holton, and Thomas D'Arcy Mc- 
Gee. Mr. Rose, who appealed to the electors 
of Montreal Centre, was the only one of the 
ministerialists whose candidature was suc- 
cessful. He held the portfolio of Solicitor- 
General East until the resignation of the 
Ministry on the 1st of August, 1858. When 
the Ministry, as reconstructed, resumed of- 
fice after the brief interval of the Brown- 
Dorion Government, Mr. Rose, after a nomi- 
nal acceptance of office as Receiver-General, 
resumed his former portfolio, with a seat in 
the Executive Council. He continued as 
Solicitor-General until the 10th of January 
following, when he was transferred to the 
more important department of the Public 
Works. As such Commissioner the duty 
devolved upon him of providing for the 
accommodation of the Prince of Wales and 
suite, during His Royal Highness's visit to 
Canada in I860. Mr. Rose continued as 
Commissioner of Public Works until the 
month of June, 1861, when, what between 
the cares and responsibilities of his public 
duties, and the demands upon his time and 
attention of a large professional practice, he 
found his health giving way, and resigned 
office. He continued, however, to represent 
Montreal Centre in Parliament until Con- 
federation. In 1804 he was appointed by 
the Imperial Government as Commissioner 
on behalf of Great Britain under the treaty 
with the United States for the settlement 
of the claims which had arisen out of the 
Oregon Treaty. At the first general elec- 
tion, under Confederation, in 1807, Mr. Rose 
declined a requisition to contest his old 
constituency, in deference to an influential 
minority of the electors who desired a com- 
mercial man as their representative in Par- 



liament. He therefore offered himself for 
the county of Huntingdon, where he had 
resided upon his first arrival in the country 
nearly thirty years before. He was returned 
by a large majority. On the retirement of 
the Hon. (now Sir) Alexander T. Gait from 
the Government at the beginning of the 
following November, Mr. Rose was ap- 
pointed a member of the Privy Council 
and Minister of Finance. He returned to 
his constituents in Huntingdon, who tes- 
tified their approval of his acceptance of 
office by reelecting him by acclamation. 
The difficulties with which he had to con- 
tend as Minister of Finance were consider- 
able. He had barely a fortnight to prepare 
for the meeting of Parliament, and there 
had been no session of the Legislature for 
nearly eighteen months. New Brunswick 
and Nova Scotia were then for the first 
time included in the revenue and expendi- 
ture of Canada. " Four separate accounts," 
says a recent writer, commenting on the 
Finance Minister's difficulties at this period, 
" with as many Provinces had to be kept, 
which were still further complicated by the 
accounts of the old Province of Canada. 
Beyond this, three different tariffs had to 
be dealt with and assimilated, and as many 
systems of inland revenue to be reduced to 
one ; the effects of unrestricted free trade 
between the Provinces had not then been 
developed ; and the exceptional currency 
and political discontent of Nova Scotia 
added further to the difficulties of the posi- 
tion. Mr. Rose had therefore no easy task 
before him, but he undertook it with even 
more than his usual energy and application, 
and before the session was many weeks old 
he made a budget speech which surprised 
Parliament and the public by its perspicuity 
and fullness of detail." During the second 
part of the first session of the Dominion 
Parliament Mr. Rose also carried through 
several financial measures, besides a read- 
justment of the tariff. In July, 1808, he 



72 



THE HON. SIR JOHN ROSE, BART., G.C.M.G. 



went to England and successfully floated 
half of the Intercolonial Railway Loan. 
During the session of 18G9 he introduced 
a series of resolutions on currency and 
banking, but as they proved unsatisfac- 
tory to a large majority of western mem- 
bers, and distasteful to bankers generally, 
they were withdrawn. In the month of 
September, 1869, having resolved to take 
up his abode in England, Mr. Rose resigned 
his seat in the Canadian House of Com- 
mons, and thus brought to a close his 
twelve years' term of Parliamentary service 
in this country. He soon afterwards re- 
moved to London, England, where he be- 
came a partner in the well-known banking 
firm of Messrs. Morton, Bliss & Co., the 
style of which thenceforward became Mor- 



ton, Rose & Co. He has ever since resided 
in England, and his connection with the 
banking-house still continues. On the 18th 
of January, 1870, he was nominated a 
Knight Commander of the Order of St. 
Michael and St. George; and in August, 
1872, he was created a Baronet. On the 
29th of October, 1878, in recognition of his 
services as Executive Commissioner of Can- 
ada at the Paris Exhibition, and Member of 
the Finance Committee, he was nominated 
a G.C.M.G. 

In 1843 the subject of this sketch mar- 
ried Miss Charlotte Temple, a daughter 
of the late Mr. Robert Temple, of Rut- 
land, in the State of Vermont, by whom 
he has a family of three sons and two 
daughters. 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAcNAB, BART. 



SIR ALLAN was a distinguished, an 
active, and withal rather a useful man 
in his day, and acquired a reputation fully 
commensurate with his merits. It cannot 
be said that he possessed, or that he ever 
laid claim to possessing, any brilliant or 
extraordinary powers of intellect, or that 
he was mentally in advance of the times in 
which he lived. It was his lot, however, to 
be born beneath a lucky star. At various 
epochs in his career, in youth and in middle 
life, circumstances combined to give him a 
great we had almost said an undue noto- 
riety ; and the impetus thus given to his for- 
tunes landed him on an eminence where he 
continued to retain a footing to the end of 
his days. He was a life-long sufferer from 
impecuniosity, but Providence had fitted his 
back for the burden, and financial troubles 
sat more lightly upon him than on most 
men who are subjected to maladies of that 
nature. Endowed with high spirits and a 
buoyant temperament, he could afford to 
meet such minor afflictions as a chronic 
scarcity of funds and the many drawbacks 
attendant thereupon, with undaunted front. 
Mark Tapley himself was not more persist- 
ently jolly under depressing circumstances 
than was Allan MacNab during the greater 
part of his life. He took the world remark- 
ably ''I society serinrd to have en- 
teivd into a tacit conspiracy to push him 
forward. He took th' results, as lie took 
ything else, with comfortable self-com- 
IV 11 



placency. And yet it would be most unfair 
to say that his success was wholly unue- 
served. He merely received liberal pay- 
ment for services more or less substantial. 
He was of a loyal and not unkindly nature. 
He served his country in various capacities, 
and cannot be said to have conspicuously 
failed in any. He figured in the respec- 
tive characters of sailor, soldier, legislator, 
Speaker to the Assembly, and Prime Minis- 
ter. High dignities descended upon him. 
For his military services he received the dig- 
nity of knighthood. Later on he in turn be- 
came proprietary lord of Dundurn, Baronet, 
Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty, and hono- 
rary Colonel in the British Army. " Some 
men," says Malvolio, " are born great ; some 
achieve greatness, and some have greatness 
thrust upon "em." Allan MacNab was cer- 
tainly not born great. His achievements, 
though many of them were sufficiently 
creditable to him, were not of a kind which 
a critical judgment can pronounce truly 
great. The inevitable inference is that his 
Sovereign and his country were grateful ; 
that he received ample compensation for 
his life's work ; and that such a man cannot 
be said to have lived altogether in vain. 

The nationality of his ancestry is suffi- 
ciently indicated by his name. His grand- 
father, Captain Robert MacNab, was an 
officer in the Forty-second Royal Highland- 
ers, or "Black Watch," and resided on a 
small estate called Dundurn, at the head of 



74 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAcNAB, BART. 



Loch Erne, in Perthshire, Scotland. Robert 
had a son named Allan, who, after serving 
as a Lieutenant in the Third Regiment of 
Dragoons, attached himself to the famous 
corps of Queen's Rangers, and fought under 
Colonel Simcoe through the Revolutionary 
War. At the close of the struggle with the 
colonies the Rangers were disbanded, and 
many of them -Lieutenant Allan MacNab 
among the number retired on half- pay, 
and took up their abode in Upper Canada, 
after their old Colonel's appointment to the 
Lieutenant-Governorship of that Province. 
Prior to that date, Lieutenant MacNab had 
married the youngest daughter of Captain 
William Napier, Commissioner of the port 
and harbour of Quebec. When Governor 
Simcoe arrived in Canada young MacNab 
accompanied or followed him to Newark, 
and took up his abode there, acting, for a 
time, as aide-de-camp to the Governor. The 
young half-pay officer remained at Newark 
for several years after Governor-Simcoe's 
departure from the Province, and it was 
during his residence there that the subject 
of this sketch was born, on the 19th of 
February, 1798. 

Soon after his birth his parents removed 
to York, the provincial capital, where the 
father for some time acted as a clerk in the 
office of the Provincial Secretary, Mr. Wil- 
liam Jarvis. The impecuniosity which at- 
tended the subject of this sketch all through 
his life came to him legitimately enough. 
His parents lived on the outside fringe of 
the aristocratic society of Little York in 
those early days, and entertained notions 
altogether beyond their means. They la- 
boured under the combined disadvantages 
of aristocratic tastes and prejudices, and a 
very insufficient income. The father was 
always in pecuniary difficulties, and was fre- 
quently subjected to the indignities which 
are the legitimate outcome of exuberant 
social ideas and an empty exchequer. A 
short time before his removal to York he 



was imprisoned for debt in the Newark 
gaol, from which he contrived to make his 
escape on the night of the 1st of April, 1798, 
at which time his little son was not quite 
six weeks old. The sheriff' of the Niagara 
District notified the escape to the Upper 
Canadian public through the medium of an 
advertisement in the only newspaper pub- 
lished in the Province, the Upper Canada 
Gazette and Oracle, and offered a reward of 
two hundred dollars for the apprehension 
of the fugitive. The latter was a personage 
who was neither a thing of beauty nor a joy 
forever. His unprepossessing appearance 
was proverbial among his acquaintances, 
and his unloveliness was clearly set forth 
in the advertisement, which described him 
as " Allan MacNab, a confined debtor . 
a reduced lieutenant of horse, on the half- 
pay list of the late corps of Queen's Rangers ; 
aged thirty-eight years or thereabouts ; five 
feet three inches high ; fair complexion ; 
light hair ; red beard ; much marked with 
the small-pox ; the middle finger of one of 
his hands remarkable for an overgrown 
nail ; round shouldered ; stoops a little in 
walking ; and although a native of the 
Highlands of Scotland, affects much, in 
speaking, the Irish dialect." Whether these 
minute details sufficed to bring about the 
fugitive's recapture we have no means of 
knowing, but if so, his second term of cap- 
tivity must have been brief, for towards the 
close of the year we find him residing with 
his family at Little York, and employed 
as a clerk by the abovenamed Mr. Jarvis. 
As his family increased his clerkship seems 
to have become wholly inadequate for their 
support, and he was appointed to various 
subordinate positions of small emolument, 
including that of Sergeant-at-arms to the 
House of Assembly. As the years rolled 
by, and as his family grew up around him, 
he became somewhat more comfortable or 
rather less uncomfortable in his circum- 
stances, but he was never free from debt, 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MxcNAB, BART. 



75 



and was frequently at his wits' end to pro- 
cure the necessaries of life for his family. 
The house in which he resided for many 
years before his death is still, or was re- 
cently standing, on King Street East, near 
the intersection of that thoroughfare with 
Queen Street, in the neighbourhood of the 
Don Bridge. He had several daughters, 
who were handsome, stately, and very popu- 
lar in society, one of them being currently 
toasted as the belle of Little York. 

Allan MacNab's high-born kinsman, the 
Laird of MacNab, and the Chief of the clan, 
emigrated to Upper Canada at an early 
period of the Provincial history. He took 
up his abode in a romantic region on the 
Ottawa River, where he built an abode 
which he named Kinnell Lodge. The old 
Chief, whose social and political ideas seem 
to have been about on a par with those of 
Roderick Dhu, was a frequent visitor at 
Little York, at which times ho always so- 
journed with his relative at the above-men- 
tioned abode. He was exceedingly proud 
of his handsome and queenly kinswomen, 
and used to accompany them in state to 
St. James's Church on the first day of the 
week. His garb on these occasions a 
somewhat modified form of the Highland 
costume was such as would have better 
befitted his native hills in Scotland than 
these western climes, and made him the ob- 
served of all observers. It is said that on 
one occasion he entered the Court of King's 
Bench at York, clad in this peculiar cos- 
tume, while a trial was proceeding before 
the Chief Justice, Sir William Campbell. 
The haughty Gael, like the famous Chief- 
tain to whom we have already compared 
him, seemed to " reck not if he stood on 
Highland heath or Holy Rood," and kept 
his bonnet firmly planted on his head. It 
does not appear whether this proceeding on 
his part was due to a determination not to 
show deference to one of the clan Campbell. 
At any rate so the story goes he kept 



his bonnet on all the time he remained in 
Court; and when the Sheriff, by direction 
of the Chief Justice, requested him to un- 
cover, he replied that " The MacNab of Mac- 
Nabs doffs his bonnet to no man." 

The childhood of the future baronet was 
spent in the MacNab homestead on King 
Street already referred to, which in those 
times was on the skirt of the forest which 
stretched far away northward to Lake Sim- 
coe. When he was nine years old he began 
to attend the Home District School.* We 
find no account of his having distinguished 
himself there, nor have we any information 
as to how long he remained. We can readily 
believe the testimony of one of his fellow- 
students to the effect that he was a high- 
spirited, frolicsome boy, fond of play, and 
but little addicted to study. The next 
glimpse we catch of him is during the 
American invasion of York, towards the 
end of April, 1813. He was then fifteen 
years of age. It was a critical period in 
the histoiy of the little capital of Upper 
Canada, and every one capable of bearing 
arms was expected to play the man. The 
two Allan MacNabs, father and son, needed 
no urging, and arrayed themselves side by 
side in defence of their "altars and their 
fires." We all know the sequel. The place 
was not in a condition to be successfully de- 
fended against the foe, and after the blow- 
ing up of the magazine, and the death of 
Brigadier -General Pike, the forces, under 
the command of Sir Roger H. Sheaffe, re- 
treated to Kingston, leaving the blazing 
halls of the Legislature behind them. It 
does not appear that young Allan MacNab 
had any chance of striking a blow in the 
contest at this time, however good his will. 
He formed one of the ranks on the retreat 
to Kingston. During the march he attract- 
ed the attention of the Commander-in-Chief, 



It i in lsii7, uii'l.T tli,' > I'r. 

Stuart, anil young Allan M one of tli 

pupils. 



76 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAcNAB, BART. 



by whose influence he was appointed to a 
midshipman's berth on board the Wolfe, the 
flag-ship of the Commodore, Sir James Lucas 
Yeo. In this capacity he accompanied the 
expedition to Sackett's Harbour, Genesee, 
and other places on the American side of 
Lake Ontario. During his brief naval career, 
which lasted about four months, he was 
always at his post, and was several times 
commended for his strict attention to his 
duties. For some reason, however proba- 
bly because promotion seemed afar off he 
left the navy and joined the 100th Regi- 
ment, under Colonel afterwards Major- 
General John Murray, as a volunteer. On 
land service he seemed to be more in his 
native element, and he played a gallant 
part in several exploits which mai'ked the 
progress of hostilities. In the beginning of 
December, 1813, the Americans set fire to 
Newark, which was almost entirely con- 
sumed. By way of retaliation for what was 
a wanton and uncalled-for piece of cruelty, 
Colonel Murray determined upon the storm- 
ing and capture of Fort Niagara, on the 
American side of the Niagara River. The 
determination was carried into effect on the 
night of the 18th of the month. The night 
was black as ink, and the thermometer was 
at zero. Then it was that young Allan Mac- 
Nab won his first spurs. He formed one of 
the advanced guard of the five companies 
which, under Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, 
were appointed to force the main gateway 
of the fort. The storming proved to be a 
much tamer affair than had been anticipated 
by the assailants. The resistance made was 
not very determined, and the British were 
in possession of the fort before the entire 
garrison were awake. Allan MacNab's share 
in the assault consisted of the cutting down 
of one of the sentinels. He had a truly 
martial spirit, and his demeanour on the 
occasion is said to have excited the admira- 
tion of the regular troops, many of whom 
were veterans of a hundred fights. For his 



gallantry on this occasion he was rewarded 
with an ensigncy in the Forty-ninth Regi- 
ment, and received special mention in the 
despatches. He continued in active service 
until the close of the war. On the night of 
the 29th of December only eleven days af- 
ter the assault on Fort Niagara he formed 
one of the expedition under General Riall 
which set fire to Buffalo and Black Rock. 
When the campaign on the Niagara frontier 
was brought to a close for the season he pro- 
ceeded to Montreal, where he joined his new 
regiment. In September, 1814, he marched 
with the land forces under Sir George Pro- 
vost to the attack on Plattsburg, a village 
situated on the Saranac River, at its en- 
trance into Lake Champlain, and in the 
territory of the United States. The place 
was at the same time besieged by a British 
flotilla, under Commodore Downie, and if 
Sir George Prevost had been equal to his 
position there would have been a fair chance 
of victory for the Canadian arms. As it 
was, we were defeated, both by land and 
water. Allan MacNab was in the thick of 
the fight, and was in one of the columns 
under Major-General Robinson which tried 
to force their way across the Saranac. Like 
a good many of his brother officers, he was 
intensely disgusted with the conduct of Sir 
George Prevost. It is even said that in the 
first flush of his indignation he placed his 
foot upon the blade of his sword, snapped 
it in two, and declared he would never again 
draw sword under such a leader.* There 
was however not much further occasion for 
his services at this time. After the procla- 
mation of peace the army was reduced, and 
Allan MacNab, like scores of other young 
officers, was placed on the half -pay list. And 
so his active military career was for the 
time brought to a close. 



* The same story is t<>Ul nf other British officers after 
the defeat of Plattsburj;. It is, however, quite in ac 
aoo Hitli tlie well-known im; of Sir Allim \l,n 

Null's ehanicter. 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MxcNAB, BART. 



77 



He returned to the paternal home at 
Little York. He was nearly eighteen years 
of age, ami as a military career was no 
longer feasible, it was high time for him to 
think about some means of earning a liveli- 
hood. He had the thews of an athlete, and 
if he had devoted himself to some useful 
trade he would have found employment 
suited to his intellectual level. But he had 
been trained in a school where the belief 
was cherished that any man who earns his 
bread by manual labour is a personage to be 
patronized and looked down upon. Such, up 
to a time within the memory of the present 
generation, was the social philosophy cur- 
rent among the old Family Compact society 
of Little York a philosophy which would 
be simply outrageous if it were not so irre- 
sistibly ludicrous. Its ludicrous element was 
intensified by the peculiar circumstances in 
which many of its professors stood. These 
hangers-on of a narrow-minded and for the 
most part illiterate clique: these proud and 
itive scions of a sort of bastard aristoc- 
racy, were far too proud and high-born to 
earn an honest living by the sweat of the 
brow. But there were some of them who 
had or appeared to have no scruples 
about living on the fruits of the shame of 
their wives and daughters. At least one of ; 
them acted as an approver and standing- 
witness fur a prominent official. Hardly 
any of them turned as much into the public 
chest as he took out of it. Truly, it was a 
rare old society, that shiftless and poverty- 
stricken section of the aristocracy of Upper 
Canada. It was a grosser anomaly than the 
" prowd and hawty suthener " of Artemus 
Ward. Reared amid such influences, it was 
not to be expected that young Allan Mac- 
Nab would voluntarily forfeit his caste by 
learning a trade. He must embrace one 
of the learned professions. Which '. His 
dioicr was determined, not by any personal 
inclination or native aptitude. His family 
influence was sufficient to procure for him 



a situation as copying-clerk in one of the 
Government offices. He wrote a good hand, 
and was equal to the not very exacting du- 
ties of such a position. The Hon. D'Arcy 
Boulton, Attorney-General of the Province, 
who had recently returned from confine- 
ment in a French prison, agreed to receive 
him as an articled clerk, and to permit him 
to retain his clerkship concurrently with 
the term of his articles. Unnecessary to 
say that the young man did not weaken his 
fine constitution by severe study. Equal- 
ly unnecessary to say that he was unable 
to make his income square with his ex- 
penditure. He displayed the true heredi- 
tary genius, and was always head over ears 
in debt. It is fair to say, however, that 
the difference between him and most of his 
comrades in this respect was only one of de- 
gree. Among the latter he was a universal 
favourite, for he was always overflowing 
with high spirits, and ready to engage in 
any lark or " diversion " which suggested 
itself. He was much given to playing prac- 
tical jokes, but they were free from malice ; 
and he does not seem at this period to have 
had an enemy in the world except, perhaps, 
himself. He was by no means ashamed of 
his chronic impecuniosity. On the contrary, 
he took a special delight in recounting the 
various shifts and devices to which he was 
compelled to resort in order to avoid arrest ; 
for in those days, be it understood, arrest on 
mesne process flourished in all its rigour. 
" This youth was doubtless designed by des- 
tiny to move in the circles of fashion, for 
he's dipt in debt, and makes a merit of tell- 
ing it," says Doctor Pangloss. The tastes 
of Allan Mac. Nab were quite as exclusive in 
this particular as erst were those of Master 
Dick Dowlas. But the creditor was not al- 
ways to be bilked: the bailiff was not al- 
ways to be hoodwinked. As the years went 
by, our young friend became more and more 
t missed, and it was no uncommon state 
of affairs with him to be " on the limits." At 



78 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAcNAB, BART. 



a certain distance from the old gaol in those 
days, a succession of posts, painted blue, and 
tipped with a dab of white paint, extended 
round the populous part of our little capital, 
terminated at either extremity by the waters 
of the bay. These posts marked the bounds 
beyond which no debtor who had given 
" bail to the limits " was allowed to pass, on 
pain of close confinement. It was frequent- 
ly noticed by Allan's young friends, when 
they were promenading the streets in his 
company, that he came to a sudden halt at 
the " blue posts," and retraced his steps. 
His perambulations were thus restricted 
within a somewhat limited radius. At such 
seasons he was often hard put to it to pass 
the time. He had few intellectual resources 
within himself, and books were an abomina- 
tion to him. To relieve himself from the 
wearisome monotony of his position he at 
last took to carpentry a pursuit for which 
he displayed much aptitude. What was at 
first taken up as a pastime erelong became 
a source of profit. He manufactured vari- 
ous useful articles, such as panelled doors 
and Venetian shutters, for which he found a 
ready market ; and in this way he was able 
to do something towards extricating him- 
self from his pecuniary difficulties. Still, he 
was afraid of losing caste if it should become 
known " in society " that he was earning 
money by base mechanical arts. Moreover, 
as he had never been regularly taught the 
trade of a carpenter there was a limit to his 
skill ; and there was a corresponding limit 
to the demand for his wares. Erelong his 
occupation resembled that of the Moor of 
Venice. Then he turned his attention to 
theatricals, and performed various minor 
characters on the public stage. It is said 
that he displayed some histrionic talent, and 
that he at one time contemplated taking 
|>riuianently to the stage as a profession. 
Meanwhile, as we may reasonably infer, his 
legal studies were not pursued with that 
close application which Themis demands 



from her votaries. His outlook for the 
future was not very inspiriting. He was, 
however, a universal favourite, and took a 
sanguine view of things. No despondent 
word was ever heard to come from his lips. 
He never shirked his responsibilities, and 
in 1821 he took upon himself the serious 
responsibility of setting up a household on 
his own account. On the 6th of May in 
that year he married Miss Elizabeth Brooke, 
a daughter of Lieutenant Daniel Brooke, of 
Toronto. This lady bore him a son and a 
daughter, and died in 1825. It was not till 
Michaelmas Term, 1826, that he succeeded 
in getting himself called to the Bar. He 
then removed to Hamilton, and entered on 
the practice of his profession. Good law- 
yers were less numerous in those days than 
now, and his high spirits and bluff', hearty 
manners, more than atoned for any intel- 
lectual shortcomings. He soon got together 
a considerable business, and though he was 
probably seldom or never free from debt, 
there was a manifest improvement in his 
condition and prospects. 

Erelong an event occurred which gave a 
decided impulse to his fortunes. The Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, Sir John Colborne (after- 
wards Lord Seaton) was exhibited in effigy 
in the streets of Hamilton.* During the 
ensuing session of Parliament, Dr. Rolph 
moved that a Committee should be appoint- 
ed to inquire into the circumstances of the 
outrage. The motion was carried, and the 
Committee appointed. Among the witnesses 
summoned to give evidence was the subject 
of this sketch, who declined to testify, al- 
leging that he could not do so without im- 
plicating himself. Dr. Baldwin, father of 
Robert, accordingly moved that the recalci- 
trant witness should be declared guilty of 
contempt, and of a breach of Parliamentary 
privilege. This motion was also carried, and 
the delinquent was taken into custody by 
the Sergeant-at-arms and brought to the 

See V,.l. II.. ],. UO. 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAcNAB, BART. 



79 



Bar of the House, where he complained that 
he had not been afforded a hearing. On 
motion of William Lyon Mackenzie he was 
committed to gaol during the pleasure of 
the House. His imprisonment was a mere 
formality, and of very brief duration, but 
it was the indirect means of making his 
future career. The Tory Party looked upon 
him as a martyr. The death of George 
IV., in 1830, rendered a new election neces- 
sary, and it was determined that Allan 
MacNab should be sent to Parliament as a 
recompense for the indignity he had en- 
dured. He was returned to the Assembly 
as one of the representatives of the county 
of Wentworth. During tin- ensuing session 
he was appointed to move the hostile motion 
against William Lyon Mackenzie, by whose 
instrumentality he himself had been com- 
mitted to gaol as above narrated. The pur- 
port of that motion, and its results, are 
detailed in the sketch devoted to Mr. Mac- 
kenzie's life. Allan MacNab, as was to be 
expected, was one of the most active spirits 
in all the subsequent measures of hostility 
against Mackenzie. He of course acted con- 
sistently with the Tory Party. He often 
addressed the House, and made a consider- 
able figure in it, but neither then nor at any 
subsequent time did he exhibit any qualities 
of statesmanship. His speeches were very 
voluble and not ineffective, but they never 
rose above the veriest commonplace. In 
1 s.'iT he was elected Speaker to the Assem- 
bly, and presided during the summer session 
of that year. He retained the Speakership 
until the Parliament of Upper Canada was 
extinguished by the operation of the Act 
of Union. After sitting for Wentworth in 
three successive Parliaments he was re- 
turned for the town of Hamilton. Mean- 
while, however, another impetus had been 
given to his fortunes by the Rebellion. 

He seems to have kept up some sort of 
connection with military affairs ever since 
his retirement on half-pay after the close of 



the War of 1812-15. In 1827 he held a 
commission in the Sixty-eighth Regiment. 
No sooner had the Rebellion fairly declared 
itself, in December, 1837, than he placed 
himself at the head of all the followers he 
could muster in Hamilton, and repaired to 
Toronto to the assistance of the Lieutenant- 
Governor. His " Men of Gore," as they 
were christened, stood loyally by him, and 
after the rout of the insurgents at Mont- 
gomery's Tavern they accompanied him 
westward to the London District, where 
the smouldering fires of rebellion were soon 
quenched. They then repaired to the Ni- 
agara frontier, Mackenzie and his sympa- 
thizers having quartered themselves on 
Navy Island. To Allan MacNab was as- 
signed the command of the Canadian land 
forces, the naval arrangements being under 
the direction of Lieutenant Drew. The 
project of cutting-out the Carol; i is said 
to have originated with the former. At any 
rate he gave it his hearty cooperation, and 
the ill-fated steamer was set on fire and 
sent rushing over the mighty cataract be- 
low. After the "dwarfish war" had been 
effectually disposed of, Allan MacNab re- 
ceived the honour of knighthood, and also 
the thanks of Her Majesty and of the Pro- 
vincial Legislature. Henceforth he will be 
known to us as Sir Allan MacNab. 

His professional business at Hamilton 
was nourishing apace, and he was soon 
afterwards appointed a Queen's Counsel. 
By degrees, however, he continued to give 
more attention to his Legislative duties, 
and less to his law business, which was 
largely deputed to subordinate hands. His 
return for Hamilton took place at the first 
election contest after the Union of the Prov- 
inces, upon which occasion he defeated the 
Hon. Samuel Bealey Harrison, the Provin- 
cial Secretary in the Government which 
had just been formed under the new order 
of things. He continued to represent Ham- 
ilton until 1857. Soon after the ("nion lie 



80 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAoNAB, BART. 



became leader of the Conservative Oppo- 
sition. After the defeat of the first Bald- 
win -Lafontaine Administration and the 
formation of the Provisional Government 
under Mr. Draper, Sir Allan was again 
elected to the Speaker's Chair. He held 
that office from the 28th of November, 1844, 
to the 24th of February, 1848. He again 
became leader of the Conservative Opposi- 
tion upon the accession to power of the 
second Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration, 
and during the stormy debates on Mr. La- 
fontaine's Rebellion Losses Bill he distin- 
guished himself by his strident vociferations 
about putting a premium on treason. It 
was not to be expected that a man of Sir 
Allan's intellectual conformation, who had 
moreover taken a prominent part in quelling 
the insurrection, should look with compla- 
cency on Mr. Lafontaine's famous measure. 
He even went to England, as the representa- 
tive of his Party, to invoke Imperial inter- 
ference. The Home Government, however, 
in spite of a warm remonstrance from Mr. 
Gladstone, supported Lord Elgin, and re- 
fused to disallow the Bill, which accordingly 
became law. Sir Allan continued to direct 
the Parliamentary tactics of his Party until 
the defeat of the Hincks-Morin Government 
in 1854, when he was entrusted by Lord 
Elgin with the task of forming a new Ad- 
ministration. With the assistance of Mr. 
Morin, he succeeded, in September, 1854, in 
forming the Coalition Ministry which is 
known by the names of its respective lead- 
ers. Sir Allan represented the Upper Cana- 
dian section of the Cabinet, Mr. Morin the 
Lower Canadian section. Sir Allan became 
I'ri'-iident of the Executive Council and 
Minister of Agriculture. At the preceding 
election he had signified that, as the voice 
of the country was loud and distinct in fa- 
vour of secularizing the Clergy Reserves, his 
Party would no longer oppose that measure. 
It therefore fell to the lot of his Adminis- 
tration to set that long disputed question at 



rest. His tenure of office was marked by 
other important legislation. The Seigniorial 
Tenure was abolished, and a Treaty of Reci- 
procity was negotiated with the United 
States. The active spirit in the Cabinet, 
however, was not Sir Allan MacNab, but 
the Attorney-General West, the present Sir 
John A. Macdonald. Sir Allan was past 
his prime, and the energy for which he had 
once been conspicuous was very perceptibly 
diminished. He suffered from repeated at- 
tacks of gout, and was sometimes unable to 
take any part in public affairs. Upon his 
active lieutenant devolved the lion's share 
of negotiations, and in May, 1856, Sir Allan 
retired from the Administration. The doc- 
trine of the survival of the fittest thus re- 
ceived another exemplification. Sir Allan 
left the Cabinet with no good will, and it is 
doubtful if he ever quite forgave the am- 
bitious statesman who had supplanted him 
in the leadership of his Party. The time 
was past, however, when Sir Allan's patron- 
age could seriously affect the fortunes of 
any one who had the ear of the Assembly. 
The position to which Mr. Macdonald then 
succeeded he has ever since retained. 

Sir Allan, on retiring from office, was 
created a baronet. In 1857, a short time 
before the dissolution of Parliament, he re- 
signed his seat in the House, and issued an 
address to his constituents in Hamilton, in 
which he assigned ill-health as a reason for 
his retirement from public life. He repaired 
to England, with the intention of perma- 
nently residing there, and in the hope of 
regaining the enviable condition of health 
which had once been his. But he was at 
this time rapidly nearing his sixtieth year, 
and it was not to be expected that he would 
ever again recover the vigour of his youth. 
There was, however, a marked improvement 
in his symptoms, and for a time it seemed 
not unlikely that he might luxuriate in a 
reen old a<re. He took up his abode on 

O O ! 

the south coast, near Brighton, and the soft 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAcNAB, BART. 



81 



breezes of that beautiful region worked 
wonders on his frame. In the spring of 
]v">!) he wrote to a friend in Toronto that 
he felt as young as ever, and ready for any 
amount of hard work. At the general elec- 
tion for the House of Commons held in that 
year he offered himself as a candidate for 
the town of Brighton, as a supporter of the 
late Lord Derby's Administration, in oppo- 
sition to Vice-Admiral Pechell, of Alton 
House, Hampshire. The result was what 
might have been expected. Sir Allan was 
an unknown man, bearing an unfamiliar 
patronymic. His opponent was an English 
baronet whose family had been known in 
the south of England for more than a cen- 
tury. The latter's agent by some means ob- 
tained possession of a copy of the printed 
address, already referred to, which had been 
issued by Sir Allan to his constituents in 
Hamilton in October, 1857, and of course 
made the most of it for election purposes. 
It appeared from the terms of the address 
that the member for Hamilton had with- 
drawn from public life on account of the 
infirm state of his health. It was argued 
by Vice-Admiral Pechell's supporters that 
if the Canadian baronet's health did not 
permit him to represent a constituency in 
the colonial Legislature it would certainly 
not permit him to fitly represent such an 
important constituency as Brighton in the 
Imperial House of Commons. No allow- 
anoe was made for the fact that his health 
had in the interim materially improved. He 
was beaten, and he soon after made up his 
mind to return to the land of his birth. He 
came back in the spring of l,s(j(). .Scareelv 
had he reached his home in Hamilton when 
he was again prostrated by a sharp attack 
of his old enemy, the gout. While he was 
confined to his room by this painful malady, 
inel Prince, who represented the West- 
ern Division in the Legislative Council, ac- 
cepted the position of Judge of the District 
of Algoiaa. The representation of the \\Vst- 
IV 12 



ern Division was thus left vacant, and a 
deputation waited on Sir Allan with a re- 
quest that he would become a candidate. 
He temporarily rallied at the news, and at 
once repaired to Sandwich to carry on the 
campaign, but was partially stricken down 
again on the journey, and had to be carried 
from his bed to the hustings to deliver his 
speech. Notwithstanding his physical dis- 
abilities, he was returned by a majority of 
twenty-six votes. A partial reconciliation 
about the same time took place between 
him and his old lieutenant, the Hon. John 
A. Macdonald. From this time forward 
honours flowed in upon him thick and fast. 
During his sojourn in England he had been 
consulted by the Home Ministry on the sub- 
ject of the colonial defences, and, in recom- 
pense for the advice then given, he now re- 
ceived the honorary rank of a Colonel in 
the British army. He was also appointed 
an honorary Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, in 
which capacity he attended the Prince of 
Wales in his progress through Canada in 
the autumn of l.SGO. At the opening of the 
session in 1862 he was chosen as the first 
elective Speaker of the Legislative Council 
by a majority of three votes over the present 
Sir Alexander Campbell. It was soon ap- 
parent, however, that he was physically un- 
equal to the duties of that office. He was 
perpetually harassed by attacks of gout, and 
was sometimes completely prostrated by ex- 
oeesive weakness. Towards the close of the 
session he did not attempt to preside over 
the proceedings of the Council, and when 
the prorogation took place in June, he made 
the best of his way home to Hamilton. 

Before referring to the " last scene of all," 
it will be well to take a brief glance at some 
of Sir Allan's private affairs. Reference has 
he.-ii made to a son who was born to him by 
his first wife. This son died in 183-t, and 
c Allan never had another son there 
was no heir to the baronetcy. He also had 
a daughter named Ann .lane) by his first 



82 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAcNAB, BART. 



wife, who in 1849 married Assistant Com- 
missary-General Davenport. In 1841 Sir 
Allan contracted a second marriage with 
Miss Mary Stuart, eldest daughter of the 
Sheriff of the Johnstown District. By this 
lady, who died in 1846, he had two daugh- 
ters. The eldest (Sophia) was married, in 
1855, to the Right Hon. William Coutts 
Keppel, Viscount Bury, who sits in the 
House of Lords as Baron Ashford, and who 
is the heir-apparent to the Earldom of Al- 
bemarle. . At the time of the Viscount's 
marriage to Miss MacNab he held the post 
of Civil Secretary in Canada, and in 1878 
was appointed Under-Secretary for War. 
He has a son and heir, so that Sir Allan 
MacNab's blood flows in the veins of an 
embryo English peer. Sir Allan's second 
daughter (Mary Stuart) was married, in 
1801, to a son of the Hon. Sir Dominick 
Daly, a sketch of whose life appears in the 
third volume of this series. 

Notwithstanding his success in his pro- 
fession, in Parliament, and elsewhere, Sir 
Allan MacNab's bete noir of impecuniosity 
never left him entirely at peace. His ex- 
penditure was always lavish, and always in 
excess of his income. Reference has been 
made to the devices to which he was com- 
pelled to resort in the early part of his ca- 
reer in order to stave off his importunate 
creditors. In the later phases of his life he 
was equally ingenious, though the devices 
assumed a different shape. This state of 
affairs never affected his spirits. It was 
jestingly said by his friends that debt was 
his normal condition, and that if by any 
chance he could be set pecuniarily straight 
with the world he would die of the shock. 
At any rate he was to the last fond of joking 
about his poverty. In one respect he re- 
sembled a much more celebrated man the 
inimitable Mr. Wilkins Micawber. As soon 
as he had settled an account by giving a 
bill or note for the amount he honestly con- 
sidered that there was an end of the matter. 



Sometimes a pertinacious creditor would 
haunt his footsteps from day to day till, 
wearied, like the unjust judge in Scripture, 
by continual importunity, the debtor would 
propose to give a bill at three months for 
the amount. Upon his proposition being 
accepted he would lean back in his chair 
with a grateful sense of relief, and exclaim, 
" Thank Heaven, that job's done." To do 
him justice, we do not believe he was in- 
tentionally dishonest. He simply had no 
capacity for regulating his finances. He 
was moreover liberal and generous to his 
friends and the poor. Creditors might howl 
round his door as long as they pleased ; their 
howlings never found a way to his heart. 
But if a personal friend stood in need of 
material aid, he seldom appealed to Sir Allan 
in vain. The man who could not find the 
wherewithal to pay his own butcher's bill 
could always contrive to scrape together a 
liberal trifle if an appeal was made to his 
sympathies for charity. Nor do we believe 
that this sort of thing was a mere bid for 
popularity. Sir Allan was a kind-hearted 
man, who liked to see everybody happy 
about him and who liked to be happy 
himself, as indeed he generally was, except 
when he had the gout. His expenses were 
large. Dundurn, his' place at Hamilton, 
named in honour of the ancestral estate at 
the head of Loch Erne, was acquired during 
his career in Parliament. It was, for the 
times, a lordly mansion, and was thronged 
by aristocratic visitors all the year round. 
It was not his custom to stint his hospi- 
tality, and he always entertained his guests 
in a lordly fashion. During the last fe\v 
years of his life he kept a somewhat stricter 
guard over his outlay, but the habits of a 
lifetime are not to be conquered in old age, 
unless by a man of much stronger will than 
Sir Allan was. Debt and duns pursued him 
to the end. 

The end was very near at the time of the 
adjournment of the session in Juni>. lsi;;>. 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MxcNAB, BART. 



83 



It may be said indeed that he only returned 
home to die, for six short weeks were all 
that remained to him of life. He seemed 
to recover strength for a while after his 
arrival at home. When intelligence reached 
him of the death of his old friend the Hon. 
William Hamilton Merritt, on the 6th of 
July, he exerted himself sufficiently to at- 
tend the funeral at St. Catharines, and to 
act as one of the pall bearers. Mr. Merritt's 
death left a vacancy in the representation 
of the Niagara District in the Legislative 
Council, and Sir Allan, as Speaker, issued 
his warrant for a new election. This was his 
last public act. An attack of gout, sharper 
than any to which he had previously been 
subjected, came on towards the close of July, 
and it was soon evident that it would be the 
last. He lingered till the 8th of August, 
when his spirit passed away. 

The extraordinary circumstances which 
followed his death are still well remembered 
by many readers of these pages. Sir Allan 
had been a life-long member of the Church 
of England, and was wont to exhibit as 
much zeal for the forms and ritual of that 
Church as could be expected from a man of 
his mental constitution. The breath had 
not left his body many hours before start- 
ling reports began to creep into circulation 
about interference by the Roman Catholic 
clergy during his last moments. It was 
said that Sir Allan's clergyman, the Rev. 
Mr. Geddes, of Christ Church, was excluded 
from his bedside, and that baptism, con- 
tinuation and extreme unction had been 
administered by Bishop Farrell and his 
assistants, while Sir Allan was insensible. 
The information, at first confined to a few 
persons, was on the following Sunday made 
known to the public by Mr. Geddes himself 
from the pulpit. " Our dear old friend, Sir 
Allan Mat- Nab. is no more," said the reverend 
gentleman. " You have all heard the sad 
announcement, and it has stirred the feel- 
ings of your inmost hearts. His venerable 



form, his manly, honest countenance, beam- 
ing with kindness and benignity, have been 
long familiar to us. For seven and twenty 
years he has worshipped with this congre- 
gation. But a few short weeks ago he knelt 
with us at the table of the Lord. He was 
here present in his place the last Sunday but 
one before his fatal illness. He received my 
spiritual administrations on Thursday. I 
was denied access to him, although I made 
three ineffectual attempts, at one, five, and 
half-past nine, a.m. On Friday morning, I 
was informed, on calling at his residence, 
that he had become a good Catholic, and 
had been received into the bosom of the 
Romish Church. Had this been the case, 
he who prided himself upon his consistency 
in all his political life is made to be guilty 
of the grossest inconsistency at the most 
solemn period of his existence ; he who 
prided himself upon his honest, manly, 
straightforward, fearless expression of his 
sentiments, is made to act the coward or 
the hypocrite. Oh, foul blot upon a fair 
escutcheon ! dark stigma upon a dear and 
honoured being ! For the satisfaction, how- 
ever, of his old and familiar friends for 
the satisfaction of this congregation, and of 
the whole community, I now solemnly de- 
clare to you from this sacred place, that 
on Friday morning, about half-past nine 
o'clock, in his clear and lucid moments, in 
the presence of credible witnesses, our deal- 
departed friend solemnly expressed to me, 
on his dying bed, his desire to die in the 
pure and reformed faith of the Church of 
England. And yet, can it be believed, that 
as efforts were made to subvert his soul, so 
it is to be apprehended that attempts are 
being made to secure for his body Romish 
burial ? And I have been notified by a 
near relative of the deceased that I am not 
to officiate at the funeral of my dear and 
valued parishioner and friend." 

The explanation of this singular story is 
not difficult to find. For some years before 



84 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAcNAB, BART. 



his death Sir Allan had afforded a home 
and shelter to his sister-in-law, the widow 
of his brother David. This lady, who ac- 
quired great influence over the baronet in 
his declining years, and took charge of his 
household he had been a widower ever 
since lcS46 was a zealous member of the 
Roman Catholic Church. Her influence 
was exerted and doubtless conscientiously 
exerted at a time when Sir Allan was in 
no condition to resist her appeals. The 
entire Protestant community in Hamilton, 
however, were stirred to their inmost 
depths. It was alleged that at the time 
when the rites of the Romish Church were 
administered to him he was utterly uncon- 
scious of what was passing around him. 
Under such circumstances, it was said, the 
administration of any religious rite requir- 
ing, to make it complete, the active volition 
of the person receiving it, must be regarded 
in the light of a mere mockery. The lady 
and the prelate did not sit down quietly 
under the countless taunts ami accusations 
to which they were subjected. It was 
alleged on their behalf that the deceased, 
while in the possession of all his mental 
faculties, consciously, and of his own free 
will, entered the Roman Catholic Church. 
Upon Mrs. MacNab and Bishop Farrell, it 
was claimed, no responsibility rested except 
that of having faithfully carried out the 
dying baronet's wishes. It was represented 
that Sir Allan had some months previously, 
while in the possession of perfect health, 
promised the Bishop that he would join the 
Catholic Church, and that in its fold he 
intended to die. It was further alleged that 
on the first or second day of the illness 
which terminated in his death, before he or 
any of his friends anticipated any serious 
results, he had said to one of his most inti- 
mate friends, " I am about to take an im- 
portant step." When Bishop Farrell called 
on him as a friend, during his illness, he 
(the Bishop) was, according to his own ac- 



count, reminded by Sir Allan of the promise 
made several months before, and Sir Allan 
there and then expressed his intention of 
redeeming it. On Thursday, at his own 
special request, Bishop Farrell alleged, he 
(the Bishop) was called in, and received the 
penitent into the Roman Catholic Church 
with the usual ceremonies, and administered 
to him the sacraments which that Church 
provides for those at the point of death. 
Sir Allan so said the lady and the priest 
was in the full possession of his mental 
faculties, and clearly conscious of what he 
was doing, and after his admission into the 
Roman Catholic Church he on no occasion, 
while in a state of consciousness, expressed 
himself as dying in the Protestant faith. 

This, however, did not satisfy the public. 
The Toronto Globe was at that time the 
especial champion of Protestantism in west- 
ern Canada, and was greatly scandalized by 
these proceedings. It spoke with an un- 
mistakable frankness, and characterized the 
performance of the rites by Bishop Farrell 
as an outrage of the grossest kind. Com- 
menting upon the defence set up, it ex- 
pressed its entire disbelief in the story. 
" We do not believe," said the Globe, " that 
Sir Allan MacNab told Bishop Farrell (not 
by any means a careful or scrupulous man, 
by the way,) that he would join the Church 
and die in its fold. We do not believe that 
he said this, and afterwards took the com- 
munion in the Church of England, and regu- 
larly attended its services. As to the vague 
statement that Sir Allan said he was about 
to take an important step, and the deduction 
that the step referred to was his adhesion 
to the Church of Rome, they are hardly 
worthy of notice, except to show that those 
who urge them lack evidence to establish 
their case. If they can prove that on 
Thursday, Sir Allan, while in full po 
sion of his faculties, sent for Bishop Farrell, 
and while still conscious, took the commu- 
nion from him, there is no need to fall back 



THE HON. SIR ALLAN NAPIER MAcNAB, BART. 



85 



upon vague remarks by Sir Allan to his 
friends." 

Upon opening the will it was found that 
Mr. T. C. Street and Mrs. MacNab were 
named executor and executrix. Mr. Street 
declined to act, and Mrs. MacNab became 
mistress of the situation. She declared her 
desire that the deceased should be buried 
according to the rites of the Roman Catho- 
lic Church. Mr. John Hillyard Cameron, 
who was present, gave it as his opinion 
that, as executrix, Mrs. MacNab could claim 
possession of the coffin, shroud, and other 
articles enclosing the body, and as the body 
could not be buried without them, it conse- 
quently, by law, became the right of Mrs. 
MacNab to have the body interred as she 
deemed proper. It was soon known among 
the gentlemen assembled in the hall and 
chambers, that Sir Allan was to be buried 
according to the rites of the Roman Catholic 
Church, and many hurriedly left the house. 
In a few minutes, not half-a-dozen persons 
were left standing in the hall. Chief Jus- 
tice McLean, Chief Justice Draper, the Hon. 



Mr. Cameron, Chancellor Vankoughnet, and 
other gentlemen who had come by train from 
Toronto specially to attend the funeral, left 
in the carriages by which they had come. 
The sisters and other friends of the deceased 
were compelled to stand aside, and see their 
relative and friend carried beyond their 
reach. The general public also declined to 
participate in the ceremonies, and but a 
IVw individuals paid the last tribute of re- 
spect to their deceased friend. All appeared 
sad, and many said it was scandalous to bury 
a gentleman as a Roman Catholic who had 
all his life been known for a Protestant. It 
was at one time feared that there would 
be a riot, and the Mayor was requested to 
swear in a /<.>. of special constables. The 
day passed off, however, without any dis- 
turbance, and Mrs. David MacNab and 
Bishop Farrell had it all their own way. 
The deceased baronet was buried in Roman 
Catholic ground, and according to Roman 
Catholic rites. And thus the curtain fell 
over the last obsequies of Sir Allan Napier 
MacNab, of Dundurn. 



THE REV. EDMUND ALBERN CRAWLEY, D.D. 



THE Rev. Dr. Crawley, Professor of New 
Testament exegesis, and Principal of 
the Theological Faculty of Acadia College, 
Nova Scotia, was born at Ipswich, in the 
county of Suffolk, England, on the 20th of 
January, 1799. He has accordingly reached 
the great age of fourscore and two years. 
Like the heroic prophet, law -giver, and 
leader of old, his eye is not dimmed, and it 
can almost be said that his natural strength 
is not abated. His father, Captain Thomas 
Crawley, R.N., was the eldest son of a 
family long resident at Ipswich. His mother 
was a daughter of the late Mr. Birnal, of 
London. Her brother, Ralph Birnal, for 
many years, and till his death, represented 
in Parliament the city of Rochester, Kent. 
The subject of this sketch was still a child 
when his father removed to Sydney, Cape 
Breton, to fill an office in the Government 
of that island before its annexation to Nova 
Scotia. Sydney was then the scene of a 
miniature "court," and though the town 
was small and the population of the island 
sparse, there was not a little life and vigour 
manifested in the capital, especially in the 
summer season, when its beautiful harbour 
was frequented by ships of all nations. The 
world on which his boyish eyes most fre- 
quently rested embraced in the foreground 
the harbour, sheltered from every wind that 
blows, and in the background leagues of 
virgin forest on one hand, and on the other 
vast reaches of the lonely Atlantic. 



Schools were few and of very inferior 
quality in those days in Cape Breton, but 
Sydney was not without its advantages, 
and by means of the public school, supple- 
mented by private instruction, young Craw- 
ley, when he was seventeen years of age, 
was qualified to matriculate in King's, Col- 
lege, Windsor, the only college then in the 
Maritime Provinces. Here he made rapid 
progress, and won distinction in all his 
classes. In due course he received the de- 
grees of A.B. and M.A. He studied law 
under the late James W. Johnston, subse- 
quently Judge in Equity, and was called to 
the Bar of Nova Scotia and also of Ni'W 
Brunswick in 1822. He practised his pro- 
fession with marked success, and a brilliant 
career was, humanly speaking, certain. 

Fifty-five years ago the Rev. J. T. Twi- 
ning, then curate of St. Paul's Church, Hali- 
fax, of which the late Bishop Inglis was 
Rector, commenced to preach with earnest- 
ness the doctrines held by the Evangelical 
school in the Church of England. The con- 
gregation were delighted with the young 
preacher and his doctrines, but the Bishop 
was so dissatisfied with both the doctrines 
and the man that he dismissed Mr. Twi- 
ning from the curacy. Mr. Twining and his 
friends, embracing three-fourths of the con- 
gregation, set up separate services which 
were exceedingly popular. A church was 
erected, and it was hoped that connection 
with the Anglican Church could be main- 



THE REV. EDMUND ALBERN CRAWLEY, D.D, 



87 



tained. The opposition of the Bishop, how- 
ever, was so keen and so effective that no 
alternative was left to preacher or people 
but to become "Dissenters," or to return 
to full conformity. Mr. Twining was ap- 
pointed Garrison Chaplain, and a very large 
majority of those who had left St. Paul's 
with him quietly retraced their steps. 
Some, however, became Baptists, and these 
formed the nucleus of an influential Baptist 
Church, that of Granville Street, Halifax. 
Mr. Crawley's parents belonged to the 
Church of England, and he regarded himself 
as connected with that Body until 1828, 
when he joined the Baptist Church, Halifax 
the Granville Street Church already re- 
ferred to. He was quickly recognized as 
one of the leaders of the Church, and became 
closely associated with such men as James 
\V. Johnston, J. W. Rutting, John Ferguson 
and others whose influence was quickly felt 
throughout the whole denomination in the 
Maritime Provinces. Shortly after identi- 
fying himself with the Baptists, Mr. Craw- 
ley gave up the practice of law and de- 
voted himself to the ministry of the Gos- 
pel. He spent a year at Andover Seminary, 
Massachusetts, as a resident graduate, at- 
tending the lectures of Moses Stuart, at that 
time fadle princepe of American exegetes 
and theologians. He was appointed agent 
for collecting funds for the support of Wolf- 
ville Academy, and in following up his work 
he travelled extensively throughout the At- 
lantic States of America, and also visited 
England and Scotland. The era of large 
gifts for educational purposes had not then 
arrived, but by hard work and eloquent per- 
suasion Mr. (.Yiiwley collected a very hand- 
some amount. The institution for which 
he thus toiled was to some extent his own 
creation. In l.sijs he, as one of the dele- 
gates to the Baptist Association at Horton, 
proposed the formation of the Baptist Edu- 
cation Society for the purpose of found- 
ing and supporting, first an academy at 



Horton, and then a college. The Bap- 
tist Association of 1828 was co-extensive 
with the Convention of 1880. It will 
be observed therefore that the Education 
Society was intended to represent the whole 
denomination in the Maritime Provinces. 
The proposal of Mr. Crawley was cordially 
accepted, and the result was the almost 
immediate establishment of an academy, 
and, by and by, the erection of Acadia Col- 
lege. The desirableness of having an edu- 
cated ministry for the churches was fully 
recognized, and the Baptist denomination 
under the leadership of Mr. Crawley and 
men of kindred spirit contended earnestly 
and successfully for the advancement of 
education in general, from the primary 
school up to the college. 

In 1831 Dr. Crawley became pastor of 
Granville Street Baptist Church, Halifax, 
a position which he filled with preeminent 
success. His discourses bore the impress of 
a thoroughly logical and philosophical mind. 
They were well ordered, accurate and pre- 
cise. His language was withal poetical, 
giving expression to the feelings of a warm. 
generous and philanthropic heart. His elo- 
cution was most effective ; his voice flexible 
and musical, adapting itself easily to the 
grand, the pathetic in fact, to every shade 
of thought and emotion. His sympathies 
and feelings were deep, tender, and fervid. 
Tears often streamed down his cheeks while 
dilating upon affecting themes. His ser- 
mons were always carefully prepared and 
he never indulged in the mindless fluency 
of speech too often mistaken for eloquence. 
His prayers were extemporaneous, and they 
were remarkable as impressing the congre- 
gation with a sense of the petitioner being 
alone with God. He seemed as if his whole 
heart and soul were set free in the cxerci-e 
of humlile worship. Large congregations 
crowded to hear him, and his preaching was 
by far the most popular and powerful in 
the city. 



88 



THE REV. EDMUND ALBERN CRAWLEY, D.D. 



In 1840 he took the Chair of Moral and 
Intellectual Philosophy in Acadia College 
entering thus upon a field which was attrac- 
tive and congenial, and which he was well 
fitted to cultivate with success. A battle 
had been fought and won in Nova Scotia 
for denominational colleges, and in this bat- 
tle Dr. Crawley took an active and influen- 
tial part. He now became identified more 
closely than ever with a denominational 
college ; but he never was, never could be, 
a mere sectarian. His mind was of a high 
order, and it was thoroughly cultivated. 
His acquaintance with music, sculpture and 
painting was remarkable in a man of his 
limited opportunities. As a Professor he also 
excelled. He at once won, and never could 
lose, the entire confidence and respect of the 
students. These feelings speedily ripened 
into an admiration bordering on idolatry. In 
after life the students never felt that they 
had overestimated the man, but that they 
had overworshipped him. In the lecture 
room he was dignified and almost regal, but 
he never forgot to be courteous and kind 
to all. He understood young men, led them 
along naturally, easily mastering and con- 
trolling their prejudices, and impressing 
them with a profound sense of the nobility 
of a well-spent life. The Professor must 
ever be himself a student, and Dr. Crawley 
recognized the fact, and kept well abreast 
of the thought and literature of his sub- 
jects. 

In 1847 Dr. Crawley returned to the pas- 
torate of Granville Street Church, and con- 
tinued therein with his wonted vigour and 
success until 18.~>2, when he again accepted 
the Chair of Moral Science, together with 
the Presidency of the College at Wolfville. 
These changes, we may remark, were not 
made from any dissatisfaction on either side, 



but from the pressing need of help now at 
this point, and now at that, in the infant 
state of education in the Baptist denomi- 
nation, and in the early history of their 
churches in the Maritime Provinces. The 
degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred 
upon him by Brown University, Providence, 
Rhode Island. 

The name of Dr. Crawley is honourably 
associated with the religious press, as well 
as with the college of the Baptist denomina- 
tion. Up to the year 1835 a bi-monthly 
magazine was deemed sufficient as a means 
of communication among the churches. At 
a meeting of the Association held at Fred- 
ericton in that year, Dr. Crawley proposed 
that a weekly religious newspaper be estab- 
lished in place of the magazine. The propo- 
sition was cordially adopted, and the Chris- 
t in a M^w HI/I- > was the result. Previously 
to this date a weekly paper was issued for 
a short time in connection with the Church 
of England, but it was discontinued. The 
Baptist paper has continued to flourish, and 
is the oldest -religious journal in the Mari- 
time Provinces. 

In 1855 Dr. Crawley, much to the regret 
of the friends of Acadia College, resigned 
his position in connection with it, for reasons 
wholly private, and became at different times 
engaged in several educational situations in 
the United States first in Ohio, and after- 
wards in South Carolina. In I860 he re- 
newed his connection with Acadia College 
by accepting the Chair of Rhetoric and 
Logic. In 1878 he relinquished that Chair 
for the now more congenial one of Exegesis 
of the Greek New Testament, with the 
Principalship of the Theological Depart- 
ment of the College. This position Dr. 
( Yfiwley now holds, and its duties he dis- 
charges with distinguished success. 



THE HON. ROBERT A. HARRISON, D.C.L. 



THE late Chief Justice Harrison afforded 
a striking exemplification of the power 
of work. His native intellectual powers 
were above the average, but he was far less 
brilliant than were some of his contempo- 
raries at the Canadian Bar who have not 
attained to anything approaching an equal 
degree of professional eminence. His in- 
dustry and steadiness of purpose were the 
qualities mainly instrumental in placing 
him in the proud and honourable position 
which he attained. His capacity for steady, 
continuous, hard labour has probably never 
been surpassed by any lawyer in this coun- 
try, and in his case it has left abundant 
traces behind it. 

He was the eldest son of the late Mr. 
Richard Harrison, formerly of Skegarvey, 
in the county of Monaghan, Ireland, by his 
marriaga with Miss Frances Butler, of New- 
ton Butler, in the county of Fermanagh. 
He was born at Montreal on the 3rd of 
August, 1833, but his parents removed to 
the township of Markham, in the county of 
York, within a few months after hi.s birth. 
While he was still a mere child the family 
removed from Markham to Toronto, where 
lie was destined to spend the greater part 
of his life. He received his education, first 
at Upper Canada College, and afterwards 
at the University of Trinity College, To- 
ronto, where he took his degree of M/M',. 
in 1 is."), and that of D.O.L. about four year- 
later. Having fixed upon the law as his 
IV-13 



profession, he entered the office of Messrs. 
Robinson & Allan as a law student when 
he was in his seventeenth year. When he 
was about eighteen, and had been less 
than two years a student, he commenced 
the compilation of a work which was des- 
tined to make his name known to every 
lawyer in the country. This work was "A 
Digest of all Cases determined in the Queen's 
Bench and Practice Courts of Upper Canada, 
from 1843 to 1851, inclusive." He was 
about a year in writing and compiling the 
work, and nearly as long in passing it 
through the press. Being a young law 
student, unknown to the profession, his 
" Digest " was published under the super- 
vision of Mr. (now Sir) James Lukin Rob- 
inson, who was then the authorized re- 
porter to the Court of Queen's Bench. The 
work was published in the joint names of 
" Robinson & Harrison," and is known to 
the profession as " Robinson i: Harrison's 
Digest." It was most successful, and, 
as has been intimated, brought Mr. Harri- 
son's name prominently before the legal 
profession. This was the only legal work 
he wrote during the time he was a law 
student, though lie was a frequent contrib- 
utor to the magazines and newspapers <>f 
tin- day. It was during his student days 
also that he first aspired to University 
honours. He entered the University of 
Toronto, in the Law Faculty, but subse- 
quently migrated to Trinity College. He 



90 



THE HON. ROBERT ALEXANDER HARRISON, D.C.L. 



did not receive his Bachelor's degree, as 
above mentioned, until a short time subse- 
quent to his call "to the Bar in 1855. He 
was also a prominent member of the To- 
ronto Literary and Debating Society, and 
of the Osgoode Club. In 1853 he trans- 
ferred his services to the office of Messrs. 
Crawford & Hagarty, then perhaps the 
leading law firm of the Province, the mem- 
bers whereof were the late Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of Ontario, and the present Chief 
Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench for 
Ontario. During the following year he re- 
received an appointment in the Western 
Branch of the Crown Law Department for 
Upper Canada, as Chief Clerk, or Deputy 
to the Attorney- General. The selection was 
made by the late Hon. John Ross, who was 
then Attorney-General, and was confirmed 
by his successor in office, the Hon. (now 
Sir) John A. Macdonald. This appoint- 
ment rendered necessary the removal of the 
appointee from Toronto to Quebec, which 
was for the time then being the seat of 
Government. He was absent about a year, 
when he returned with the Government to 
Toronto. 

In Michaelmas Term, 1855, he was called 
to the Bar " with honours," and being the 
first so called, under the new rules which 
had then just come into operation, he was 
warmly congratulated by the late Mr. Robert 
Baldwin, who was then Treasurer of the 
Law Society. He began practice at the 
Bar in Toronto, and from the very outset 
had an abundance of clients. He had 
meanwhile kept up his contributions to the 
newspaper press, and was at this time a 
constant contributor to the C<>/i>n/xf, one of 
the leading papers of Toronto a quarter of 
a century ago. Becoming too much involved 
in politics, however, to the neglect of his 
profession, he soon afterwards discontinued 
his connection with the political press, and 
confined himself entirely to work connected 
with his profession. In IN")? he published 



"The Statutes of Practical Utility in the 
Civil Administration of Justice in Upper 
Canada ;" also "A Manual of Costs in County 
Courts ;" both of which were well received 
by the profession, and had a large sale. He 
next began to prepare an annotated edition 
of the Common Law and County Courts Pro- 
cedure Acts, with the new Rules of Practice. 
He laboured diligently at this very exact- 
ing task for more than a year. Upon the 
publication of the work in 1858 it was re- 
ceived with greater favour by the profession 
than any of his former works, and was com- 
mended by the professional press through- 
out the English-speaking world. The Lon- 
don legal press placed him in the front rank 
of those commentators who had undertaken 
to edit the Acts embodied in his work. T/ie 
Jurist, one of the most critical professional 
periodicals in England, in reviewing the re- 
sult of Mr. Harrison's labours, said : " These 
are the Acts which have revolutionized the 
law of Upper Canada, after their progeni- 
tors had exercised a like radical influence 
in the old country. They are in effect an 
amalgamation of our Procedure Acts of 
l!S.">2 and IN 5 4, together with an Act apply- 
ing them in a great measure to the County 
Courts of Canada. The work is therefore 
almost as useful to the English as to the 
Canadian lawyer, and is not only the most 
recent, but by far the most complete edition 
which we have seen of these important Acts 
of Parliament. The editor has not been 
content with industriously collecting the 
numerous decisions which are now scattered 
through our reports upon these statutes, but 
has displayed both skill and judgment in 
their arrangement, and in deducing, wher- 
ever it was possible, those principles of 
which the decisions are either suggestive or 
illustrative." A second and enlarged edi- 
tion of this valuable work was published in 
1870. 

Notwithstanding the exactions of a 1.; 
and steadily-increasing business, Mr. Harri- 



THE HON. ROBERT ALEXANDER HARRISON, D.C.L. 



91 



son still found time for literary work in 
connection with his profession. He was for 
several years joint editor of the U/>/><'i' Cun- 
,i,l,< Liin- Journal, to the columns of which 
he also contributed many valuable editorial 
articles. In Ls.VJ his ''Municipal Manual" 
appeared. It was highly praised, and had a 
large sale; and two subsequent editions of 
it have since been published. 

The first trial of public importance in 
which Mr. Harrison figured at the Bar was 
the well known case of disputed identity 
tried at Cayuga, in the county of Haldi- 
mand, at the autumn assizes in 1857, and 
known a-~ li"/in'i. va. Townsend alias Mi-- 
Henry. In this extraordinary case, the 
merits of which are still warmly disputed 
throughout the county of Haldimand, Mr. 
I larrison appeared for the Crown ; the pris- 
oner being defended by the late Mr. Samuel 
Black Freeman, of Hamilton. Mr. Harrison 
also appeared for the Crown in the Norfolk 
Shrievalty Case ; and was one of the Coun- 
sel who defended the ministers for violating 
the Independence of Parliament Act by the 
perpetration of the Double Shuffle. In the 
famous l[,il><-<ix (Jin-fus case of John Ander- 
son, the negro, he gained his case bef<>iv the 
Queen's Bench, but lost it on technical 
points before the Common Pleas. 

Hitherto Mr. Harrison had continued to 
hold his office in connection with the Crown 
Law Department, and had not < -imaged in a 
general legal practice. In 1859, however, he 
resigned his clerkship; and formed a part- 
nership with the late Mr. James Patterson. 
The firm of Patterson & Harrison com- 
menced practice as barristers, attorneys and 
solicitors in Toronto, and was a rising one 
from the date of its original formation. 
Mr. Patterson, the senior partner, was re- 
cognized as one of the best office lawyers in 
the profession, and Mr. Harrison's standing 
at the liar was in the front rank. The firm 

subsequently reinforce. 1 by Mr. Th 
Hodgins, and later still by Mr. John liain. 



On the death of the senior partner, the firm 
of Harrison, Osier \r Moss was formed, hav- 
ing as leading members the subject of this 
memoir, the late Chief Justice Moss, and 
Mr. Featherstone Osier, now a Puisne Judge 
of the Court of Common Pleas. This firm 
obtained a practice which was probably 
with a single exception the largest in the 
Province. Its extent may be surmised from 
the fact that it contained about half a dozen 
members; and that the share of the senior 
partner alone for several years before he 
accepted a seat on the Bench was from 
si 1000 to SH,000 per annum. 

Mr. Harrison was created a Queen's Coun- 
sel in 1867, and was elected a Bencher of 
the Ontario Law Society in 1871. He was 
for some time a member of the Corporation 
of the city of Toronto, and was a Director 
of the Life Association of Scotland. He 
identified himself with the Church Associa- 
tion of the diocese of Toronto, and took a 
warm interest in its proceedings. He was 
also a Major in the Canadian Militia. 

His entry into public life took place in 
1S(I7, when he contested West Toronto for 
the House of Commons in the Conservative 
interest, and successfully opposed Mr. John 
Macdonald, who had represented the Divi- 
sion during the last Parliament of the old 
Province of Canada. He continued a mem- 
ber of the House of Commons until 1.S71 
but he did not figure Conspicuously in politi- 
cal life. At the general election of 1872 he 
declined to contest his seat, and announced 
his intention of retiring from a sphere 
which he had not found very much to his 
taste. As a member of Parliament his name 
is identified with several measures of some 
importance, including Bills for amending the 
law as to stamping promissory notes and 
bills of exchange, and for the collection of 
criminal statistics. He was for two sessions 
Chairman of the Committee on .Miscellan- 
eous and Private Bills. During his Parlia- 
mentary career he gave a general support to 



92 



THE HON. ROBERT ALEXANDER HARRISON, D.C.L. 



the Administration of Sir John Macdonald. 
After his withdrawal from political life he 
confined his attention entirely to his pro- 
fessional duties, and it was at this period 
that the business attained its largest dimen- 
sions. 

In the autumn of 1875, upon the promo- 
tion of the Hon. (now Sir) William Buell 
Richards from the position of Chief Justice 
of Ontario to that of Chief Justice of the 
then recently constituted Supreme Court of 
the Dominion, Mr. Harrison was fixed upon 
as the most suitable successor to the position 
thereby left vacant. When his appoint- 
, ment was announced it was hailed with 
great satisfaction by the legal profession 
throughout Ontario. Mr. Harrison thus 
passed at a single bound from the position 
of leader of the Common Law Bar of On- 
tario to that of a Chief Justice, a circum- 
stance by no means common in the history 
of judicial appointments. He received con- 
gratulatory addresses from members of the 
Bar in various parts of the Province. He 
entered upon his duties with the same un- 
conquerable passion for work which had 
characterized him in previous passages of 
his career. The large arrears in the Court 
of Queen's Bench were soon removed, and 
the sanguine anticipations which had been 
formed as to his aptitude for judicial life 
were fully realized. One of the best known 
judgments delivered by him was in the case 
of Reijiaa vs. Wilkinson, in which the late 
Hon. George Brown personally appeared 



before the court and passed strictures upon 
one of its members. 

In 1876 he was appointed one of the 
arbitrators on the question of the north- 
western boundary of Ontario, an appoint- 
ment which involved him in a great deal of 
additional labour. It is not improbable 
that it was the means of shortening his 
life. There is at any rate no doubt that 
his death at the comparatively early age of 
forty -five was largely due to overwork. 
For several years before the end came he 
had been subjected to frequent disorder of 
the heart, and had received grave warnings 
from his physician to abstain altogether 
from brain-work. To abstain from work, 
however, was an impossibility for him. In 
August, 1878, he proceeded to Ottawa on 
business connected with the boundary ar- 
bitration. After his return it was noticed 
that he was worse in health than usual, 
and various remedies including partial 
cessation from work, and easy travel were 
resorted to. In vain ; the machinery was 
worn out. He died at his home in Toronto 
on the 1st of November, 1878. He lives, 
and will long live, in the various profes- 
sional works which he has left behind him. 

He was twice married : first in 1859, to 
Anna, daughter of Mr. J. M. Muckle, form- 
erly a merchant of Quebec. This lady died 
in 1866. His second wife, whom he married 
in 1868, was Kennithina Johanna Mackay, 
only daughter of the late Mr. Hugh Scobie, 
of Toronto. 



THE HON. JAMES FERRIER. 



MR. FERRIER adds one more to the 
number of those hard-headed Scotch- 
men who, like Hugh Allan, John Young, 
and other personages whose lives have been 
outlined in the present series, have enjoyed 
a remarkably successful career in Canada. 
He was born on the 22nd of October, 1800, 
so that his age is nearly coeval with that 
of the nineteenth century. His parentage, 
and the exact place of his birth, are matters 
respecting which we have been unable to 
gain any information. He seems to have 
been born in the humble walks of life, and 
to have received a rudimentary education 
in one of the rural parishes of Fifeshire. 
He served an apprenticeship in a mercantile 
house at Perth, and in his twenty-first year 
emigrated from Scotland to Canada. He 
obtained commercial employment in Mon- 
treal, and early in 1823, when he had been 
about a year and a half in the country, 
began business there on his own account, 
on Notre Dame Street. He is said to have 
been the first to open a store on that 
thoroughfare, which has since become one 
of the busiest mercantile streets in the city. 
Prior to Mr. Ferrier's commencing business 
there, in 1823, Notre Dame Street contained 
only private residences, and one of these 
was rented by him and converted into a 
" store " of the period. 

He 'possessed in an eminent degree the 
characteristics by which Scotchmen have 
won recognition at all times, and in every 



country on the globe. He was shrewd, 
diligent, prudent and saving. In a few 
years he had amassed a competence, and in 
1836 he retired from business. He has ever 
since been a busy man, however, and has 
been engaged in various important financial, 
social and charitable undertakings. Soon 
after his retirement the Bank of British 
North America opened a place of business 
on St. James Street, under the control of 
Austin Cuvillier, Albert Furniss, and the 
subject of this sketch. The Bank was 
actually opened on the 8th of March, 1837, 
more than forty-four years ago and 
Mr. Ferrier has ever since been, and still 
is, a Director of its Canadian Board. 

Upon the breaking out of the rebellion 
in Lower Canada in 1837 Mr. Ferrier ap- 
proved his loyalty by volunteering his ser- 
vices and shouldering his musket. Apart 
from his loyalty, he was a man of property, 
and had large interests to defend in the 
city of Montreal, where loyal subjects had 
everything to dread in case of the success 
of the insurgents. After the quieting down 
of the flames of rebellion Mr. Ferrier began 
to take a larger interest in municipal affairs 
than he had previously done. In IS-il he 
became a member of the Municipal Council 
of the city. In 1S44 he was elected, under 
the new Municipal Act, Alderman for the 
East Ward; and next year he was elected 
Mayor of the city. During his tenure of 
oflice two terrible fires took place in (Ju 



THE HON. JAMES FERRIER. 



whereby the suburbs of St. Roch and St. 
John were nearly destroyed. These two 
calamities, occurring only a month apart, 
left great numbers of persons houseless and 
penniless, and the whole Province was stirred 
to take measures for their relief. Queen 
Victoria herself originated a scheme for the 
relief of the sufferers, and caused charity 
sermons to be preached throughout the 
United Kingdom. She also subscribed mu- 
nificently on her own behalf. Mr. Ferrier, 
who had occasion to visit Quebec in his 
official capacity, had an opportunity of see- 
ing for himself the extent of suffering and 
destitution which had been brought about, 
and felt moved to pity. Upon his return 
to Montreal, which was then the capital of 
Canada, he waited upon the Governor-Gen- 
eral, Lord Metcalfe, and besought his Lord- 
ship's influence in aid of a large scheme of 
relief. Lord Metcalfe, who as a private 
individual was one of the best-hearted and 
most generous of men, not only entered 
heartily into the scheme proposed by Mr. 
Ferrier, but volunteered a subscription on 
his own behalf of $2,000. Mr. Ferrier then 
convened a public meeting in the House of 
Assembly, and told the audience what he 
had seen of the Quebec fire and its conse- 
quences. Contributions to the amount of 
S40.000 were forthwith subscribed ; and he 
was thus the means of alleviating much 
cruel misery and suffering. During the 
same year he was appointed a member of 
the Board of the Royal Institution for the 
Advancement of Learning, of which he sub- 
sequently became President. 

In 1846 Mr. Ferrier formed a regiment of 
about seven hundred troops, consisting of 
members of the city Fire Brigade. This 
ment was for some years maintained in 
a state of considerable efficiency, and Mr. 
Ferrier himself was appointed Lieutenant- 
Colonel of it. On the 27th of May, 1847, 
he was called by royal mandamus to a scat 
in the Legislative Council, in the delibera- 



tions whereof he has ever since taken an 
intelligent part. When the railway era set 
in he took part in the organization of vari- 
ous great enterprises. He projected the 
railway from Montreal to Lachine, which 
was chartered in 1846, but which was sub- 
sequently swallowed by the larger scheme. 
He also took a prominent part in the ree's- 
tablishment of McGill College on a sound 
financial basis. To enumerate the many 
other projects with which he is or has lnvn 
connected would occupy considerable space. 
He became a Director of the Grand Trunk 
Railway Company at a critical period in its 
history, and is now Chairman of the Cana- 
dian Board. He was for six years President 
of the Montreal Assurance Company, and 
has several times been President of the St. 
Andrew's Society of Montreal. He is a 
member of the Council of Victoria College, 
Cobourg, President of the Montreal Bible 
Society, and of several of the most promi- 
nent Temperance and Prohibitory Associa- 
tions. He is Vice-President of the Sabbath 
School Association of Canada, and of the 
French Canadian Missionary Society. He 
is also a Director of the International 
Bridge Company. 

In the month of May, 1867, he was called 
to the Senate of the Dominion by Royal 
Proclamation, and during the same year he 
was appointed a member of the Legisla- 
tive Council of the Province of Quebec for 
Victoria. 

In politics Mr. Ferrier is, and has always 
been, a Conservative. His theology is that 
taught by John Wesley. He was originally 
reared in the Presbyterian faith, but em- 
braced Wesleyan Methodism while he was 
engaged in commercial business in Mon- 
treal. He has ever since been a very promi- 
nent member of that Body, to the advance- 
ment of which his best energies have fre- 
quently been directed. He resides in Mon- 
treal, which has been his home ever since 
his arrival in Canada sixty years ago. 



THE HON. JOHN DOUGLAS ARMOUR. 



JUDGE ARMOUR was born in the town- 
ship of Ofconabee, in the county of 
Peterborough, Upper Canada, on the 4th of 
May, 1830. He is the youngest son of the 
late Rev. Samuel Armour, who was for 
many years Rector of Cavan, in the county 
of Durham, and was widely and favour- 
ably known throughout that part of Up- 
per Canada. In his boyhood he attended 
the schools in the neighbourhood of his 
home, and on the 27th of January, 1843, 
entered as a student at Upper Canada Col- 
lege, Toronto. In 1847 he matriculated at 
King's College, an institution which subse- 
quently developed into the University of 
Toronto. His University career was bril- 
liant. He gained the first University schol- 
arship in classics, and subsequently gained 
the Wellington scholarship. He graduated 
in 1850, winning the gold medal in classics. 
He during the same year entered the office 
of his brother, Mr. Robert Armour, and 
began the study of the law. He completed 
his studies in the office of the late P. M. M. 
S. Vankoughnet, afterwards Chancellor of 
Upper Canada. He was called to the Bar 
in Michaelmas Term, 1N5.S, and began prac- 
tice in Cobourg, where he formed a part- 
nership with the late Hon. Sidney Smith. 
This partnership lasted till the 7th of No- 
vember, 1857, when Mr. Armour began to 
: ise without a partner. He subsequently 
formed ;i partnership with Mr. H. F. Hol- 
land, which lasted until between three and 



four years since, when Mr. Armour was 
raised to the Bench. 

Various other offices of more or less im- 
portance were from time to time held by 
Mr. Armour. On the 2Gth of March, 1858, 
he was appointed County Attorney of the 
United Counties of Northumberland and 
Durham, and during the following year he 
was Warden of those counties. On the 2nd 
of May, 1801, he was appointed Clerk of 
the Peace for the same counties. On the 
8th of January, 1859, he was elected a 
member of the Senate of the University of 
Toronto. On the 26th of June, 1867, he 
was created a Queen's Counsel ; and in 1871 
he was elected a Bencher of the Law Society 
of Upper Canada. The highest dignity of 
all came to him on the 3()th of Novem- 
ber, 1877, when he was appointed a Puisne 
Judge of the Court of Queen's Bench, which 
position he has ever since filled. 

Judge Armour is by heredity and tradi- 
tion a Conservative, in both religion and 
politics ; but he is an advanced Liberal by 
thought and education, and a firm believer 
in the benefit to be derived from Canadian 
independence, lie is a man of wide read- 
ing, multifarious knowledge, and great 
shrewdness and common sense. 

On the 2.sth of April, LS55, he married 
.Miss Eliza Church, daughter of the late 
Freeman S. Church, of Cobourg, by whom 
he has had eleven children, ten of whom 
are now living. 



THE HON. JOHN HENRY POPE, 

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE date and place of Mr. Pope's birth 
are not given in any of the authorities 
to which reference is commonly made for 
such information, and the published facts 
with respect to him are unusually scanty. 
He is a man of middle age at the present 
time, and was born in the Eastern Town- 
ships. He is. said to be of U. E. Loyal- 
ist stock. We have no particulars of his 
career prior to the year 1854, when he was 
an unsuccessful candidate for the represen- 
tation of the county of Compton in the 
Canadian Assembly. In 1857, he was re- 
turned in the Conservative interest for that 
county, and has 1 ever since represented it in 
Parliament in the Assembly up to Con- 
federation, and in the House of Commons 
ever since. He first took office in October, 
1871, when he was sworn of the Privy 
Council and appointed Minister of Agricul- 
ture. He retained office until the downfall 
of the Government in November, 1873, ow- 
ing to the Pacific Railway disclosures. He 
remained in Opposition during Mr. Macken- 
zie's tenure of office. Upon the formation 
of Sir John A. Macdonald's Government in 
October, 1878, he again accepted his old 
portfolio of Minister of Agriculture, which 
he has held ever since, lie seems to enjoy 
a considerable share of popularity among 
his constituents, and has several times been 
returned by acclamation. He is described 
as a representative man of the Lower Can- 
ada British population who has done credit 



to his constituency. At the time of his 
original appointment to office a high con- 
temporary authority referred to him as " a 
man who entertains very warm feelings of 
attachment to the Crown of England, and 
to the autonomy of Canada as established 
by the Act of Confederation, sympathizing 
with no changes save those which will place 
the central government in complete control 
of the whole country between the Atlantic 
and Pacific oceans, subject, of course, to the 
safeguards of local administration provided 
by the Union Act. . . He is not a Cicero 
in debate, and perhaps for that very reason 
he sooner won his way to general esteem, 
for whatever Mr. Pope has to say in Parlia- 
ment or out of it, he says with a terse vig- 
our and conciseness of language that make 
a mockery of ornate phrases. He brings to 
the Government a high personal character, 
a capacity and a disposition for work, an in- 
telligent appreciation of the wants of the 
country, and a well-studied Parliamentary 
experience of nearly half an average life- 
time. These are not qualifications essential 
to what is called a brilliant minister ; but 
they are ample guarantees that the work of 
his Department will be well and thoroughly 
done. He is not likely from excess of 
scrupulosity of conscience to fritter his time 
and his health away in doing mere clerical 
work, but will rather bend his intellect to 
the general working and efficient organiza- 
tion of the different branches of the public 



THE HON. JOHN HENRY POPE. 



97 



service over which he is now about to pre- 
side." To which it may be added that the 
Department presided over by Mr. Pope is 
one which specially requires close attention 
to details, rather than any profound or 
statesmanlike policy. It is to be regretted 
that Mr. Pope's want of attention to those 
details which some persons affect to despise 
should have been the means of advertising 
the Western States as a field for immigra- 
tion, and this at the expense of the Domin- 
ion Government. That the matter was a 
mere oversight no man, we presume, seri- 
ously doubts, but it was the result of a 
degree of carelessness for which a Cabinet 
Minister must in fairness be held respon- 
sible. On the other hand, Mr. Pope has 
earnestly endeavoured to gain for the Do- 
minion a share of the tenant-farmer immi- 
gration from Great Bi-itain. In the autumn 
of 1879 he caused a number of representa- 
tive agriculturists in the United Kingdom 
to be invited to come to Canada, to examine 



into its resources, and to report upon its ad- 
vantages as a field for settlement. The in- 
vitation was complied with, and the reports 
of the delegates, which were very favourable 
to Canada, have been very widely circulated 
throughout the agricultural districts of Eng- 
land and Scotland. It is fair to assume 
that the visit of the delegates has resulted, 
and will result, in a considerable migration 
from Britain to Canada of a class of settlers 
well calculated to promote the country's 
prosperity. For this Mr. Pope is fully en- 
titled to claim credit. 

He is President of the St. Francis and 
Megantic International Railway, and of the 
Compton Colonization Company. He is 
also one of the trustees of the St. Francis 
College, Richmond, P.Q., and a director of 
the Eastern Townships Bank. He com- 
manded the Cookshire Volunteer Cavalry 
for a good many years, and retired from 
that service, retaining his rauk as a Major, 
in 1862. 



IV 14 



THE HON. WILLIAM HAMILTON MERRITT. 



AT the time of the breaking out of the 
American Revolutionary War, there 
resided on a farm in Westchester County, 
in what is now the State of New York, a 
gentleman named Thomas Merritt. He was 
descended from a Puritan family which had 
settled in New England a century before, and 
had through many vicissitudes preserved its 
loyalty to the British Crown. When the 
struggle broke out which finally terminated 
in the emancipation of the American colo- 
nies from the control of the mother coun- 
try, Thomas Merritt joined the regiment of 
Queen's Rangers a regiment which had for 
its Colonel a distinguished English officer 
named Simcoe, who subsequently became 
the first Lieutenant -Governor of Upper 
Canada. While attached to this famous 
corps, young Merritt wooed and won Miss 
Mary Hamilton, a lady belonging to a South 
Carolina family. He fought all through 
the war, and doubtless did good service in 
the cause of King George. At the close of 
hostilities the Queen's Rangers were dis- 
banded, and soon afterwards Mr. Merritt 
and his wife removed to New Brunswick. 
The climate there proving uncongenial, he 
returned, after a brief sojourn, to the neigh- 
bourhood of the old family homestead in 
Westchester County, where the subject of 
this sketch was born on the 3rd of July, 
17!)3. The State of New York, however, 
did not prove a comfortable place of abode 
for a man who had fought on the royal side 



in the great struggle. Thomas Merritt and 
his family were subjected, first to numerous 
petty exactions, and afterwards to down- 
right persecution. His old Colonel, Simcoe, 
had meanwhile been appointed Lieutenant- 
Governor of Upper Canada, and had taken 
up his residence at Navy Hall, Newark, 
near the mouth of the Niagara River. The 
favourable terms offered by Governor Sim- 
coe to persons settling in the Province at- 
tracted a great many of the loyalists from 
the State of New York. Among those so 
attracted was Mr. Thomas Merritt, who 
came over with his family to Niagara, and 
in 1796 settled on Lot No. 13, in the fourth 
concession of the township of Grantham. 
He shortly afterwards removed to Lot No. 
20, in the same concession, and in the im- 
mediate neighbourhood of the present city 
of St. Catharines, which was then covered 
by a dense growth of oak, pine, and walnut 
trees. He applied himself diligently to the 
clearing and cultivation of his farm, and 
went through the usual trials and priva- 
tions incidental to pioneer life. He rose to 
a position of influence in the community, 
and became Sheriff of the Niagara District. 
The greater part of the site of St. Catharines 
was then owned by the Hon. Robert Hamil- 
ton, of Queenston, who had already built a 
storehouse there for the purpose of furnish- 
ing supplies to the settlers in the neigh- 
bouring townships ; but there was no actual 
settlement there until the summer of the 



THE HON. WILLIAM HAMILTON MERRITT. 



99 



year 1797, when a Mr. Thomas Adams built 
a tavern on what is now the corner of St. 
Paul and Ontario Streets, nearly opposite 
the site of the present post office. On the 
bank of the adjacent stream, which was 
called " Twelve Mile Creek," and which 
now forms a part of the Welland Canal, Mr. 
Adams also built a saw-mill, and not long 
afterwards a grist-mill. From this time 
forward the settlement was known as " The 
Twelve." Adams's tavern subsequently 
passed into the hands of one Paul Shipman, 
and soon afterwards the place came to be 
known as "Shipman's Corners." In 1809 
the village was surveyed, and the name of 
St. Catharines was bestowed upon it, in 
honour of Mrs. Catharine Hamilton, wife 
of the proprietor of the greater part of the 
land. It was not until several years after- 
wards, however, that the latter name came 
to be generally adopted, and in common 
parlance the village was still called " The 
Twelve," or " Shipman's Corners," accord- 
ing to the fancy of the speaker. During 
the same year (1809) a store the first in 
the village was opened by a Mr. Chisholm, 
with whom the subject of this sketch subse- 
quently formed a commercial partnership. 
It must be confessed that the prospects 
of the first settlers in this part of the Prov- 
ince were not brilliant. An almost unbroken 
wilderness extended all the way from the 
Niagara frontier to Kingston, and the only 
denizens of the intervening forests were 
wild beasts and wandering tribes of In- 
dians. The U. E. Loyalists who settled on 
the Niagara peninsula received free grants 
of the lands which they took up. Other 
settlers paid a nominal price. Real estate 
in Upper Canada was not much sought 
after in those times, and the price paid by 
the original settlers in ( irantham by such 
of tin-in, ut least, as paid anything was 
7M. per acre. Even these figures, ridicu- 
lous as they appear to us at the present 
day, do not represent the lowest price at 



which lands were purchased on the penin- 
sula. There is at least one well-authenti- 
cated instance where a sale was effected at 
less than half the price just quoted. A U. E. 
Loyalist named Barnes received a grant 
from Government of a tract of two hundred 
acres in the township of Thorold. After 
clearing a part of his property and working 
it for two years, he came to the conclusion 
that it could never be made productive, and 
in a fit of disgust he sold the entire block 
of two hundred acres for three pounds. 
Most of the pioneers, however, were more 
liberally endowed with patience and stam- 
ina than was Mr. Barnes, and were content 
to make the best of the situation. 

In 1806, the subject of this sketch, who 
was then in his thirteenth year, was sent to 
Port Burlington, now Hamilton, to attend 
a school kept by a Mr. Cockerel. This 
gentleman soon afterwards removed to Ni- 
agara, and young Merritt's education was 
continued there, partly under Mr. Cockerel, 
and partly under the Rev. John Burns, a 
Presbyterian minister. When he was fif- 
teen years of age he was sent on a long 
visit to an uncle at St. John, New Bruns- 
wick. There he continued his studies, and 
made considerable progress, not only in the 
ordinary branches of education, but also in 
surveying and navigation. The bent given 
to his mind by these studies was destined, 
as will presently be seen, to exercise an im- 
portant influence upon his future career. 
He returned to his home on the Niagara 
peninsula in the month of December, 1809, 
very much wiser and more experienced in 
the ways of life than he had been at his 
departure. Young as he was, he determined 
to embark in business, lie formed a part- 
nership in a general mercantile business 
with Mr. Chisholm, as already narrated 
his share of the capital, we presume, being 
advanced by his father. The business was 
successful, and young Merritt continued in 
it about two years, when lie sold his interest 



100 



THE HON. WILLIAM HAMILTON MERRITT. 



therein, and took charge of the homestead 
farm a step rendered necessary by the 
fact that he was an only son, and that his 
father's time was engrossed by his official 
duties as Sheriff of the District, to which 
position he had been appointed in LSO.S. 
Soon afterwards the War of 1812 broke 
out, and young Merritt left the farm to 
take care of itself, while he fought the bat- 
tles of his Sovereign. He had previously 
joined the militia, and had obtained an en- 
sign's commission. He was now promoted 
to a lieutenancy, and repaired to Chippawa, 
where he placed himself under the command 
of Colonel Clark. He fought gallantly all 
through the War, and was advanced to the 
rank of a captain. He was present at the 
surrender of Detroit by General Hull, and 
was much trusted by the Commander-in- 
chief, the brave General Brock. He also 
fought at Queenston Heights, Stony Creek, 
and Lundy's Lane. At the last-named en- 
gagement he was surrounded and taken 
prisoner by the enemy. He and thirteen 
of his comrades in arms were conveyed to 
Fort Schlosser, on the American side of the 
Niagara River, and detained as prisoners of 
war for about eight months, when hostili- 
ties were brought to a close. 

< 'attain Merritt returned to his home 
about the end of March, 1815, bringing 
with him a charming young wife, whom 
he had married on the 13th of the month. 
She was Miss Catharine Prendergast, the 
only daughter of a practising physician of 
Mayville, in the State of New York. 

Soon after reaching his home he entered 
into a mercantile partnership with a Mr. 
Ingersoll, of Shipman's Corners. At the 
close of the War of 1812-14 several officers 
who had taken part in the struggle settled 
in the neighbourhood of Shipman's Cor- 
ners, which by this time had become a 
well-known place of resort for the settlers 
around. The new arrivals built houses of 
a better class than had previously been seen 



there. It was found, too, that the plateau 
lying between the base of the mountain 
and the lake shore was well adapted for 
horticulture, and even at this early date the 
fruit grown hereabouts began to attract 
attention. In 1816 the population of the 
township of Grantham was 1,110, and the 
average price of land had increased to fifty 
shillings per acre. During the same year 
Mr. VV. H. Merritt purchased from Mr. 
Hamilton a part of the latter's property, on 
the site of the village, which was re-sur- 
veyed and laid out shortly afterwards by 
Mr. Jonathan Clendennen, a schoolmaster 
of local renown. In August of the same 
year Mr. Merritt began to turn to account 
some of the numerous salt springs in the 
neighbourhood, and this branch of industry 
soon began to yield a very satisfactory re- 
turn. The village, however, was of slow 
growth, and gave little promise of becoming 
a large and prosperous town, the chief in- 
land watering-place of the Dominion, and 
the resort of invalids and tourists from all 
parts of North America. 

In 1818 Mr. Merritt began to mature a 
project which had been long in his mind, 
and which was destined to have very im- 
portant results, not to St. Catharines alone, 
but to the country at large. This project 
was the construction of a canal connecting 
Lakes Erie and Ontario. The Falls of Ni- 
agara presented an insuperable barrier to 
the navigation of the Niagara River, and 
there was no route whereby the produce 
of the west could be conveyed eastward 
through Canadian waters. Whether, as has 
frequently been asserted, the idea originated 
with Mr. Merritt is open to question; but 
it is certain that he was the first to reduce 
it to anything like shape, and that but for 
his energy the scheme would not have been 
carried out until at least some years later. 
It is even probable that but for his exer- 
tions the canal would finally have been con- 
structed in United States territory instead 



THE HON. WILLIAM HAMILTON MERRITT. 



101 



of in Canada. Having thought out some of 
the leading features of his scheme, Mr. Mer- 
ritt made a survey of the district through 
which he deemed it most desirable for the 
canal to pass. The survey was rough, and 
very defective, but its results satisfied Mr. 
Merritt of the practicability of carrying out 
tin- scheme at a moderate cost. He pre- 
sented to the Legislature a petition, signed 
by himself and most of the influential set- 
tlers in the neighbourhood, asking for an 
appropriation for a moi'e accurate survey. 
The petition was successful, and a sum of 
two thousand pounds was voted for the 
purpose. This sum, however, was expended 
upon an injudicious survey, which, if acted 
upon, would have involved the construction 
of a canal nearly double the required length, 
and more than double the necessary cost. 
The project was accordingly suspended for 
about five years. During this interval Mr. 
Merritt was not idle, but spent a great deal 
of time in pondering over his project. In 
the spring of 1823 he conceived that he had 
brought it to perfection, and repaired to 
Niagara to get up an agitation on the sub- 
ject. A subscription list was set on foot 
for the purpose of raising funds to pay for a 
new survey by a competent engineer. The 
necessary amount was soon raised, and the 
survey proceeded with. On the 10th of 
May the engineer's report was published, 
and at the next session of the Legislature, 
in February, 1824, an Act of Incorporation 
was procured. On the 12th of June Mr. 
George Keefer was elected President of the 
( 'oiupany, the corporate style of which was, 
" The Welland Canal Company." Mr. Mer- 
ritt was delegated to go to New York to 
induce capitalists to embark money in the 
undertaking, and started on his mission 
shortly afterwards. His efforts were to 
some extent successful, and on the 30th of 
November the first sod was turned by Mr. 
KeeiW. The work of construction went 
steadily on during the next five years, and 



on the 27th of November, 1829, the first 
two vessels passed through St. Catharines 
on their way to Buffalo, whither they ar- 
rived in due course. In the following July 
the canal was formally opened, and a brisk 
business at once began to be done upon it. 
In 1842 all the stock of the Company was 
purchased by Government, who thencefor- 
ward assumed the control of the enterprise. 
Under their auspices various enlargements 
and improvements have from time to time 
been effected. The commercial importance 
to the country of the Welland Canal is in- 
calculable. The obstruction to trade be- 
tween west and east caused by the Falls of 
Niagara is thereby entirely obviated, and 
the produce of the west is thereby enabled 
to pass down the St. Lawrence, and thence 
to the seaboard by water, without tranship- 
ment. Its value, moreover, is not confined 
to the facilities thus afforded, as there is a 
fall of about three hundred and thirty-four 
feet between the two lakes, and the hy- 
draulic power thus gained has been turned 
to account by the inhabitants of the various 
villages along the banks of the canal. The 
construction of the canal, of course, gave a 
great impetus to St. Catharines. In 1826 
the population of the village was 317. In 
1831 the population had more than quad- 
rupled, and in 184-3 was 2,35-k 

In tracing the history of the great enter- 
prise with which Mr. Merritt's name must 
ever continue to be associated, we have to 
some extent anticipated the course of his 
life. In 1832 he for the first time entered 
Parliament, having been elected to a seat in 
the Legislative Assembly by the electors of 
the county of Haldiiuand. He was placed 
on the Finance Committee, and forthwith 
made his mark as a useful and industrious 
member. His first speech in the House was 
in favour of free trade in grain and eat tie 
with the United States. Another of his 
early speeches was in favour of a Bill for 
the abolition of imprisonment for debt. 



102 



THE HON. WILLIAM HAMILTON MERRITT. 



During the session he wrote and published 
a pamphlet on the inland navigation of the 
Canadian Provinces, advocating an exten- 
sion of the canal system. Throughout the 
*vvhole of his public career he took special 
interest in promoting public works and im- 
provements, more especially that muijuum 
opus which had been successfully inaugu- 
rated under his auspices. He was also a 
zealous advocate of the Union, which was 
finally consummated in February, 1841. 
During the rebellion of 1837, though he was 
of course on the side of law and order, he 
adopted a very moderate course. He had a 
great contempt for Mr. Mackenzie, who had 
taken a very hostile stand to him in the 
House. He designated the enterprise as a 
" Monkey War," and did not regard it as by 
any means a serious matter. Immediately 
after the collapse of the demonstration at 
Gallows Hill, near Toronto, a magisterial 
meeting was held at St. Catharines, with a 
view to providing for the preservation of 
the peace in the district. Mr. Merritt pre- 
sided at this meeting, and certain measures 
were taken for the desired end. A few 
suspected persons were arrested and ex- 
amined, but no one was imprisoned, and a 
general policy of moderation was observed. 
After the Union of the Provinces he ac- 
cepted the Reform nomination for the 
county of Lincoln, in which he resided. 
He was returned for that county, and re- 
presented it continuously for about nine- 
teen years. Among many of the important 
enterprises with which he was connected 
during this period was the Niagara Falls 
Suspension Bridge, which was projected by 
him in 1845. He was elected President of 
the company by which it was built, and so 
remained until his death. He also pro- 
moted the Welland Railway Company, and ' 
obtained its charter of incorporation. 

Within a few months after the formation 
of the second Baldwin-Lafontaine Adminis- 
tration, in 1848, Mr. Merritt accepted office ! 



in it as President of the Council. This office 
he retained until April, 1850, when he be- 
j came Commissioner of Public Works. This 
latter position he retained until early in 
1851 , when he resigned his office and retired 
from the Government, owing to his want of 
harmony with that Body on certain eco- 
nomical measures. This, at all events, was 
the ostensible reason of his resignation, but 
as matter of fact he was tired of office, and 
longed for that perfect freedom and inde- 
pendence which a member of a Cabinet can 
never entirely enjoy. "The restraints of 
office," says a contemporary writer, " were 
in the last degree irksome to him. He had 
accustomed himself to speak when he liked, 
to say what he thought, and to do as he 
pleased ; and the obligation, therefore, of 
speaking by the card, and in accordance 
with the decisions of Council, must have 
been as new to his experience as it was 
foreign to his taste. Few who had ob- 
served his previous career imagined that he 
would be able to stand the discipline ; and 
the chief surprise his retirement occasioned 
was that it did not take place sooner. Those 
who most admired him doubted whether 
he would find his colleagues in the Gov- 
ernment an applauding auditory, or the 
Executive Council a congenial place for 
airing successfully some of his peculiar 
crotchets on Government currency and 
finance ; crotchets by which he had, as we 
think, impaired the influence of his grander 
and more statesmanlike views on the sub- 
jects of progress and improvement, and 
their relation to the ahnost inexhaustible re- 
sources of Canada. The truth seems to be 
that he was neither a party man nor a poli- 
tician, in the exact sense of those terms. 
Government as a science had, as we con- 
jecture, been but slightly studied by him. 
His popularity sprang from his indepen- 
dence, his purity of character, and the prac- 
tical nature of his aims. Those who most 
differed from him never questioned the hon- 



THE HON. WILLIAM HAMILTON MERRITT. 



103 



esty of his intentions or the sincerity of his 
views. His constituents never wavered in 
their support of him ; and the Legislature, 
of which he was so long a member, was al- 
ways proud of him. He was naturally and 
constitutionally a grave and monotonous 
speaker ; and this gravity and monotony of 
tone were necessarily increased, because the 
subjects on which he mostly spoke were 
statistical or financial, and included a con- 
stant reference to dates and figures. Though 
men were neither subdued by his oratory 
nor charmed by his manner, they respected 
his truth and moderation. _ Occasionally 
they were swayed by his earnestness, if not 
carried away by the force and charm of his 
convictions. He was an upright man, whom 
in life all men admired ; and we may add, 
without misplaced eulogy, that he was a 
good man, whom in death all men mourned." 
So says Mr. Fennings Taylor, and the esti- 
mate of his character contained in the pre- 
ceding sentences will, we believe, stand the 
test of time. 

Mr. Merritt was a frequent contributor 
to the public press on subjects connected 
with the trade and industrial resources of 
Canada. Many of his contributions on these 
and kindred subjects appeared in the col- 
umns of the Niagara Gleaner. He made 
frequent journeys to Europe in furtherance 
of his various projects, as well as to the prin- 
cipal cities of the United States. On the 
2!.)th of September, 1860, he was elected a 
member of the Legislative Council by accla- 
mation for the district of Allanburg. This 
position he held until his death. During 
the winter of 1800-61, he advocated the 
establishment of a line of large-sized pro- 
pellers to ply between Chicago and Quebec, 



with a view to diverting the traffic to the St. 
Lawrence from the ordinary route through 
the State of New York. He also favoured 
the establishment of a line of vessels for 
conveying Pennsylvania coal between Dun- 
kirk and the mouth of the Grand River. 
He also had several conferences with the 
Government on the subject of deepening 
the St. Lawrence. All his schemes were of a 
character thoroughly practical, and for the 
advancement of his country's good. He 
had, however, begun to suffer from repeated 
attacks of ill-health, and his constitution 
was evident!}- breaking down. Early in 
l!S(j:> he suffered a serious bereavement by 
the death of his wife, who had long been 
an invalid. His own health continued un- 
certain throughout the rest of the winter. 
Upon the approach of spring he started for 
the sea-side, by advice of his medical atten- 
dant. He proceeded down the St. Law- 
rence to Montreal, where he was attacked 
by erysipelas in the head. He was given to 
understand that in all probability lie would 
not recover, and immediately started to re- 
turn home. He was conveyed on board an 
upward-bound steamer, but did not live to 
reach his destination. On the morning of 
Sunday, the 5th of July, " as the vessel 
was passing through the canal at Cornwall, 
almost within sight of the rapids, which 
had been his thoughts for a life time, the 
spirit so long and so actively identified with 
this noble river took its flight, and W. H. 
Merritt was numbered with the dead." A 
somewhat voluminous account of his life 
has been compiled and published by his son, 
Mr. .T. P. Merritt, of St. Catharines, from 
whose account the foregoing sentence has 
been extracted. 



THE REV. W. CYPRIAN PINKHAM, 

CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF PROTESTANT SCHOOLS, MANITOBA. 



MR. PINKHAM was born at the city of 
St. John's, Newfoundland, in the year 
1844. His youth was spent chiefly in St. 
John's and its neighbourhood, and he re- 
ceived his education at the Theological Col- 
lege there. After some years' attendance 
he became a pupil teacher in that institu- 
tion, under the direction of the Rev. G. P. 
Harris, a distinguished graduate of Cam- 
bridge. After occupying that position about 
two years he accepted a situation as teacher 
in one of the Public Schools, where he ac- 
quitted himself very creditably, and re- 
ceived high commendations from the Secre- 
tary of the Protestant Board of Education 
for St. John's. He subsequently repaired 
to England for the purpose of receiving a 
more thorough educational training than 
was then to be obtained in Newfoundland. 
He entered St. Augustine's College, at Can- 
terbury, where he passed through the usual 
collegiate course, and in 1868 received his 
diploma. He for a short time officiated as 
private tutor in the family of Sir Frederick 
Thomas Fowke, of Lowesby, Leicestershire. 
Soon after leaving college he repaired to the 
Red River Settlement, which was just com- 
ing into notice as a favourable field for emi- 
gration. Having been ordained a Deacon 
by the late Bishop of Huron in 1868, he was 
advanced to the Priesthood in 1869 by the 
Bishop of Rupert's Land, and became in- 
cumbent of St. James's Church, Winnipeg. 
During the absence of Mr. Molyneux St. 



John, the first Superintendent of Protestant 
Schools in Manitoba, Mr. Pinkham per- 
formed the duties incidental to that office, 
and in the month of September, 1871, he 
was regularly appointed to the position by 
Lieu tenant -Governor Archibald. He has 
ever since discharged the duties of his office 
in a very satisfactory manner, and has been 
the means of greatly promoting the cause 
of popular education in Manitoba. He took 
an active part in preparing the Amended 
School Acts of 1873 and 1876. He is a 
member of the Council of St. John's College, 
and of the Theological Faculty for the de- 
grees of B.D. and D.D., being examiner in 
Ecclesiastical History and Liturgiology. In 
1879 he was unanimously chosen by the 
Protestant section of the Board of Educa- 
tion to represent that body on the Senate 
of the University of Manitoba. A local au- 
thority bears the following testimony to his 
qualifications for the position which he fills : 
" Young, vigorous, considerate for others, 
possessed of rare tact and judgment, he is 
specially adapted to the work he has had to 
perform. It must not be supposed that he 
has formed a heterogeneous system consist- 
ing of the peculiar views of the different 
races of the Province. The system is based 
on the fundamental principles of sound edu- 
cation, as wrought out in all enlightened 
countries; and in the standard required for 
teachers, and in other important feature- it 
is deserving of high commendation." 



THE HON. THOMAS GUSHING AYLWIN. 



late Judge Aylwin possessed one of 
J_ the shrewdest and keenest intellects 
that ever adorned the Canadian Bench. 
His knowledge of criminal jurisprudence 
and his skill as a forensic and Parliament- 
ary debater were unsurpassed by those of 
any Canadian of his time. He won a high 
place alike as an advocate, as a statesman, 
and as a jurist; and had the promise of his 
youth been borne out by the performance 
of his mature age, he would have left be- 
hind him the record of a truly great man. 
But he paid the penalty of a too early ma- 
turity. His physical powers declined be- 
fore he could be said to have passed middle 
life, and for some years before he sank into 
his grave he was both physically and men- 
tally a mere .shadow of what he had once 
been. He will long be remembered, how- 
ever, as a man of much note in his day, and 
is well entitled to a place in the present 
collection. 

He was born in the city of Quebec, on 
the 5th of January, 1806. His father was 
a native of Wales, and his mother whose 
maiden name was Connolly was of Irish 
extraction. He received his priinarj' edu- 
cation at a private school in Quebec, kept 
by the Rev. Dr. Wilkie, a Presbyterian 
clergyman. He subsequently spent a short 
time at Harvard College, Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts. It does not appear that he grad- 
uated them, but he was known for a youth 
of great intellectual precocity, and was 

IV -15 



looked upon as a genius by his tutors and 
companions. Having resolved to devote 
himself to the study of the law, he entered 
the office of Mr. Moquin, a distinguished 
advocate of Quebec. After studying for 
some time under that gentleman's direc- 
tions, during which he paid special atten- 
tion to criminal law, he transferred his 
services to the office of the late Judge 
Thompson, of Gaspe. He displayed great 
aptitude as a linguist, and it is said that 
when he was only sixteen years old he 
acted as interpreter in the Criminal Court 
at Quebec. In 1828 he was called to the 
Bar of Lower Canada, and speedily acquired 
repute as an advocate of remarkable bril- 
liancy. He was especially noted among his 
brother practitioners for his skill in detect- 
ing a flaw in an opponent's case, and his 
sagacity in this respect gained him many a 
forensic victory when the cause appeared 
well nigh hopeless. For some time after 
his call to the Bar he practised in partner- 
ship with the late Judge Short, of Sher- 
brooke. He had strong political leanings 
on the Reform side, and took an active 
part in the discussion of the various exci- 
ting public questions of those days. He was 
an admirable writer, and during the three 
or four years prior to the breaking out of 
the rebellion of J 8.'57 and '38, he contributed 
many slashing and effective newspaper arti- 
cles to the provincial press. He was an 
unsparing assailant of Lord (Josford and 



106 



THE HON. THOMAS GUSHING AYLWIN. 



his satellites during that nobleman's tenure 
of office, though he had no sympathy with 
the active rebellion of Papineau and the 
French Canadians generally. He was one of 
the most conspicuous members of the British 
Party, and took part in founding the Con- 
stitutional Association of Quebec, the lead- 
ing members whereof were John Neilson, 
Andrew Stuart, Thomas A. Young, George 
Pemberton, and the subject of this sketch. 
He first entered public life after the con- 
summation of the Union of the Provinces in 
1841, when he was returned to the First 
Parliament of United Canada for the con- 
stituency of Portneuf. In the following 
year he joined the first Bald win- Lafontaine 
Administration, and became Solicitor-Gen- 
eral for Lower Canada, an office which he 
filled from the 26th of September, 1842, 
until the llth of December, 1843, when he 
resigned, with his colleagues, owing to Sir 
Charles Metcalfe's refusal to comply with 
the views of the Ministry respecting the dis- 
tribution of Crown patronage. Mr. (after- 
wards Sir) John W. Kaye, in his life of Lord 
Metcalfe, says of him : " Mr. Aylwin bore 
the reputation of being the best debater in 
the Assembly a man of infinite adroitness 
and lawyer-like sagacity, skilled in making 
the worse appear the better reason, and ex- 
posing the weakness of an adversary's case. 
He had rendered essential service to the 
French Canadians in the time of their 
utmost need, and had been brought into 
the Council through the influence of that 
party. But there was, in reality, little in 
common between them, and it was said 
that the connection gave no great satis- 
faction to the old clients of the Solicitor- 
General." From the time of his resig- 
natioh until the month of April, 1848 
during which he was twice elected for 
Portneuf and three times for the city of 
Quebec he remained in Opposition, and 
rendered great service to the Liberal party 
by his powers as a Parliamentary debater, 



and by his great personal popularity. Of 
him, even more truly than of Sir Francis 
Hincks, might Lord Metcalfe's biographer 
have said that he had a tongue that cut 
like a sword. His powers of sarcasm and 
vituperation were unrivalled in the As- 
sembly. Sir Dominick Daly, his former 
colleague, on more than one occasion felt 
the keen edge of his satire, and it was in 
consequence of one of his passages of arms 
with that gentleman that the bloodless duel 
referred to in the sketch of Sir Dominick 's 
life took place. 

Upon the formation of the second Bald- 
win-Lafontaine Administration, on the 4th 
of March, 1848, Mr. Aylwin again accepted 
the portfolio of Solicitor-General for Lower 
Canada, but retained the office only a little 
more than six weeks, when he was elevated 
to the Bench as one of the Judges of the 
Court of Queen's Bench for the District of 
Quebec, as successor to the Hon. Elzear 
Bedard, who had resigned. In 1851 the 
Judiciary of the Province of Quebec was 
remodelled. The tribunal which is now 
called the Superior Court was invested 
with the jurisdiction of the old Court of 
Queen's Bench, and the Court of Queen's 
Bench, as remodelled, was invested with 
appellate jurisdiction. Judge Aylwin was 
transferred to the newly constituted Court 
of Queen's Bench, and in 1850 he removed 
to Montreal. For many years subsequent 
to that date he continued to discharge his 
judicial duties without interruption. His 
career as a judge added much to his repu- 
tation. His legal learning was great, and 
his ready grasp of the chief points at issue 
in the cases which came before him was the 
admiration of both Bench and Bar. His 
charges were singularly clear, and were 
models of lucid exposition. He could see 
his way through the meshes of an involved 
and complicated argument with marvellous 
rapidity, and was wont to expose the soph- 
istries of a lame defence with merciless 



THE HON. THOMAS GUSHING AYLWIN. 



107 



severity. The students and young advo- 
cates of Montreal eagerly pressed into the 
Court to listen to his masterly charges. 
" It was his fortune," says a writer in the 
Montreal Gazette, "to preside at many of 
the most important and protracted criminal 
trials which have taken place in this city, 
and hundreds who read these lines will 
recall the close and unwearied attention 
which he gave to the evidence, and the ad- 
mirable clearness and precision with which 
he summed up in both languages, forgetting 
no fact of the slightest importance, and 
brushing away in a few pithy and conclu- 
sive sentences all the skilfully woven soph- 
istries of the defence. Many of his charges 
were remarkable specimens of forensic elo- 
quence, and were delivered in both the 
English and French languages with equal 
fluency and perspicuity. In some of the 
more important murder trials, the charge 
and the reading of the evidence lasted seven 
or eight hours, the judge displaying won- 
derful energy and endurance. In Court he 
was remarkable for maintaining decorum 



and order. You might hear a pin drop in 
the Court-room while the presidency was 
in his charge. When in the full enjoyment 
of his faculties, he invariably impressed his 
hearers with the belief that they were in the 
presence of a man of no ordinary powers." 
These protracted efforts doubtless had a 
serious effect upon the judge's constitution. 
In 1860 he was prostrated by a paralytic 
stroke which seriously impaired his intel- 
lect, and though he erelong resumed his 
judicial functions he never again displayed 
his former vigour, either of body or mind. 
After the lapse of several years he obtained 
leave of absence, and spent some months in 
Europe. Upon his return to Canada he 
again resumed his judicial duties, but soon 
afterwards sent in his resignation. The 
resignation was not accepted for nearly a 
year, when a pension was assigned to him, 
and he retired from the Bench, and thence- 
forward lived in strict seclusion down to 
the time of his death, which took place at 
his home in Notre Dame Street, Montreal, 
on the 14th of October, 1871. 



WILLIAM BRYDONE-JACK, A.M., D.C.L., 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 



PRINCIPAL JACK was born at Tinwald, 
-L Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on the ^3rd 
of November, 1819. His father, a stone- 
mason and master builder, came of a 
Perthshire family, but removed to Dum- 
friesshire early in life, married, and settled 
down there. The subject of this sketch, 
after receiving a preliminary education at 
the schools of Tinwald, and a more ad- i 
vanced training at Halton Hall Academy, 
Caerlaverock, entered as a student at the 
University of St. Andrews, in Fifeshire. 
There he enjoyed the advantage of being 
taught by Sir David Brewster, who was at 
that time Principal of the united colleges 
of St. Leonard and St. Salvador, and who 
continued throughout his life to take an in- 
terest in his career. He graduated at St. 
Andrews, and in 1840 took his Master's de- 
gree. During the same year he was offered 
the Professorship of Physics in the New 
College, Manchester, in connection with the 
London University. He was also offered 
the Professorship of Mathematics and Nat- 
ural Philosophy in the University of New 
Brunswick then King's College Frederic- 
ton. Sir David Brewster and other friends 
who took a warm interest in his welfare 
advised him to accept the latter position, as 
they considered that he was too young (be- 
ing then not quite twenty-one years of age) 
to safely risk his reputation in the wider 
and more arduous field of study pursued at 
Manchester. Their counsels prevailed, and 



he accepted the New Brunswick Professor- 
ship. He reached the scene of his labours 
in the month of September, 1840, intending 
to remain there not more than a year or 
two, and then to return to his native land. 
Fortunately for the interests of the institu- 
tion, and of the cause of education in the 
Province of New Brunswick generally, he 
was subsequently induced to relinquish his 
intention, and he has ever since been prom- 
inently identified with the struggles and 
(finally) the success of the college. 

What is now known as the University of 
New Brunswick has undergone a variety of 
changes in its name, character, and consti- 
tution. As early as 1800 it was established 
by a Provincial Charter as the College of 
New Brunswick, but for many years it had 
few of the attributes of a college. In 1828, 
chiefly through the instrumentality of Sir 
Howard Douglas, the then Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of the Province, a Royal Charter was 
granted by the Crown incorporating it as 
King's College, Fredericton, and conferring 
upon it all the privileges of a university. 
This charter, as well as that granted to 
King's College, Toronto, was a copy of that 
previously granted to King's College, Wind- 
sor, Nova Scotia. The King's Colleges at 
Fredericton and Toronto, during the time 
of their troubled existence as such, were 
subjected to very similar trials and as- 
saults, arising from the exclusive nature of 
their charters, which virtually made them 




7 



/ 








' 



WILLIAM BRYDONE-JACK, A.M., D.C.L. 



109 



Church of England institutions. In New 
Brunswick, scarcely five years after the 
granting of the charter and the Act of En- 
dowment, public dissatisfaction had risen to 
such a pitch that a deputation was sent by 
the House of Assembly to the Home Gov- 
ernment with a list of grievances for which 
they were instructed to seek redress. They 
were charged to complain of the narrow and 
illiberal policy manifested in the charter of 
King's College, and to ask for its amend- 
ment in several important particulars. In 
1845, a Provincial Act was passed by the 
Legislature for the amendment of the char- 
ter, and in 184(j it received the Royal assent. 
By this Act all exclusive privileges were 
abolished, with one significant exception, 
namely, that the Professor of Theology was 
to be at all times a clergyman of the United 
Churches of England and Ireland. This, to- 
gether with the composition of the Council, 
which was still largely Episcopalian, served 
as a continued bone of contention ; and du- 
ring a long period of agitation and abuse the 
college languished in a semi-lethargic state, 
and grew more and more unpopular. In 

1854, a Commission was appointed to in- 
quire into its condition, management and 
utility ; and among the members of the 
Commission were the eminent education- 
ists Dr. Dawson and Dr. Ryerson. They, 
as directed, submitted to the Lieutenant- 
governor an able and exhaustive report, 
together with the draft of a Bill for estab- 
lishing a comprehensive system of educa- 
tion in New Brunswick. These documents 
were laid before the House of Assembly in 

1855, and they form the groundwork upon 
which the University, as now constituted, 
was finally established. But the adversa- 
ries of the College continued implacable and 
powerful, and year after year attempts were 
made to deprive it of its endowment. The 
final effort was made in 1N5S, when a Bill 
passed botli branches of the Legislature and 



received the assent of the Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, withholding all money grants from 
the College. The royal assent, however, 
was refused, chiefly on account of the re- 
presentations of the Lieutenant-Governor 
and memorials from parties interested in 
the College. In the following year, the Act 
establishing the University on its present 
liberal footing was passed, and received the 
royal assent. Since then it has continued 
steadily to grow in the favour and estima- 
tion of the people, and the popular preju- 
dice which was so long and persistently 
kept up against King's College has not 
been perpetuated with respect to the Uni- 
versity of New Brunswick. 

In 18G1 the subject of this sketch was ap- 
pointed President of the L T niversity, which 
position he has ever since retained, in ad- 
dition to his Professorship of Mathematics 
and Natural Philosophy. During his Pre- 
sidency he has been accustomed to spend a 
great part of the summer vacation of each 
year in visiting and examining the schools 
of the Province, and has done his utmost to 
promote higher education generally. He 
has delivered frequent addresses in various 
parts of the Province, enlarging upon the 
advantages of a University training and the 
inducements thereto afforded by the Provin- 
cial University. His efforts have been at- 
tended with much success. The University 
of New Brunswick, as we have seen, has 
for some years past steadily advanced in 
popular favour, and the outcry against it 
IIMS long ceased to make itself heard. 

When the present School Law came into 
operation in New Brunswick, President Jack 
was officially appointed a member of the 
Provincial Board of Education, and he has 
since made his presence perceptibly and 

beneficially felt there. He has always 1 n 

fond of astronomical studies, and has en- 
gaged in various important experiments con- 
nected with that branch of science. 



THE HON. JOHN CARLING. 



MR. CARLING is the youngest son of 
the late Mr. Thomas Carling, a native 
of the county of Yorkshire, England, who 
emigrated thence to Canada in the year 
1818, and during the following year set- 
tled in the township of London, in the 
county of Middlesex, where he took up a 
tract of Government land, and devoted 
himself to a farmer's life in the bush. The 
greater part of the township was then a 
pathless forest, though a few settlers who 
had arrived immediately after the close of 
the war of 1812, '13 and '14, were to be 
found here and there. The city of London, 
of course, had no existence in those days, 
and had not even arrived at the dignity of 
a village. Its present site was covered by 
a dense forest. A solitary hut near what 
is now the foot of York Street was the one 
human habitation on the site of the pres- 
ent capital of Western Ontario when Mr. 
Thomas Carling first passed through it on 
his way to his bush farm. The hut was 
occupied by an American " squatter " named 
Miller, who kept a small boat for the con- 
veyance of emigrants across the river. Mr. 
Carling experienced the usual hardships and 
vicissitudes incidental to pioneer life. He 
served as a volunteer during the troubles of 
1837 and 1838. He continued in agricul- 
tural pursuits until the year 1839, when he 
removed into the town which had mean- 
while sprung up, and after an interval of 
.-,c\i-ral years entered into business as a 



brewer. A few years later, Mr. Thomas 
Carling, having amassed a competence, re- 
tired from the business, which devolved 
upon his sons, and under their auspices has 
developed into one of the largest of its kind 

in the Dominion. After his retirement Mr. 

i 

Carling, Senior, for some years took an ac- 
tive interest in municipal and local affairs 
generally, and was a man of character and 
influence. He died at his home in London 
last winter, at the advanced age of eighty- 
three years. 

The subject of this sketch was born at 
the paternal homestead in the township of 
London on the 23rd of January, 1828. He 
was educated at the public schools in the 
neighbourhood, and at more advanced estab- 
lishments in town. He devoted himself to 
acquiring a knowledge of the brewing busi- 
ness, and employed himself in the estab- 
lishment from the time of leaving school. 
When he was twenty-one years of age he 
married Miss Hannah Dalton, eldest daugh- 
ter of Mr. Henry Dalton, of London. Pre- 
vious to his marriage he succeeded to a 
share in the active management of the busi- 
ness with his brother William, and the firm 
of W. & J. Carling soon became one of the 
best known firms in their line of business 
in the Province. He prospered, and became 
a man of influence in the community. In 
politics he is a Conservative, and in De- 
cember, 1857, was returned to the old Cana- 
dian Assembly as member for the city of 



THE HON. JOHN CARLING. 



Ill 



London. He thenceforward continued to 
represent that constituency in the Assembly 
until Confederation ; and after Confedera- 
tion he represented it both in the House j 
of Commons and the Local Legislature of 
Ontario until the abolition of Dual Repi-e- 
sentation. Since then he has represented 
it in the House of Commons only. He has 
been an earnest and consistent supporter 
of his Party, but has not been so extreme 
as to have created any bitter enmities on 
the part of his political opponents, and is 
popular with adherents of all shades of 
opinion. He held the position of Receiver- 
General in the Cartier-Macdonald Adminis- 
tration for a short time before it went to 
pieces in 1862. 

When the late Hon. John Sandfield Mac- 
donald formed the first Ministry for Ontario 
on the 16th of July, 1867, he offered to Mr. 
Carling the portfolio of Commissioner of 
Agriculture and Public Works. The offer 
was accepted, and the position was retained 
by Mr. Carling until the defeat of the Gov- 
ernment in December, 1871. His tenure of 
office was marked by several measures of 
some public importance, including a liberal 



scheme of emigration, the opening up of the 
Free Grant Lands to settlers in the District 
of Muskoka, the establishing of an Agricul- 
tural College, and a measure for the drain- 
age of waste lands. Port Carling, a little 
village situated on the short lock which 
connects Lakes Muskoka and Rosseau, is 
named in his honour. 

Mr. Carling is a man of much enterprise 
and public spirit, and is very popular in the 
constituency wherein he resides, which he 
has represented either in one House or an- 
other ever since his first entry into public 
life, more than twenty-three years ago. He 
is connected with various important com- 
panies, and is an excellent man of business. 
He has been a school trustee and an alder- 
man of the city of London, and was for 
many years a Director of the Great Western 
Railway Company. He was also a promi- 
nent Director of the London, Huron and 
Bruce and London and Port Stanley Rail- 
ways. In 1878 he was elected a Water 
Commissioner for the construction of the 
Water Works for the city of London, and 
was subsequently appointed Chairman of 
the Board. 



THE HON. SIMON HUGH HOLMES. 



SIMON HUGH HOLMES, Provincial 
Secretary and Premier of Nova Scotia, 
is a son of the late Senator John Holmes, 
of Pictou, N.S. Senator Holmes was one of 
the earlier settlers of Pictou county, having 
emigrated from the Scottish Highlands in 
1801, when he was but eleven years of age. 
He settled at East River, Pictou, and by his 
industry, intelligence and public spirit won 
the confidence of the people among whom 
he lived, to such effect that he was elected 
to represent the county in the Provincial 
Parliament for three successive terms of 
four years each extending from 183G till 
18-48. He was elected again in 1852. In 
18,58 he was appointed a member of the 
Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, a posi- 
tion which he occupied till the Union of the 
Provinces in 1867, when he was called to 
the Senate. Though he was at the time of 
the Union well nigh four score years of age, 
he took his seat, and continued to attend 
year after year till 1876, when he died, 
aged eighty-six. Public life may thus be 
supposed to have a claim upon the son 
a claim which he has been quite ready to 
recognize. 

Mr. S. H. Holmes was educated at the 
Grammar School, New Glasgow, and at 
Pictou Academy. He studied law with 
the Hon. James Macdonald, Q.C., and was 
admitted to the Bar in 1 80 1-. He practised 
his profession with industry and success, 
but always looked forward to a public ca- 



reer, and took the deepest interest in the 
political questions of the day. In 18-57 he 
originated the Colonial Standard, a weekly 
political paper, which he continued to edit 
with marked ability and success till he be- 
came Premier, in 1878. 

The editor of a party newspaper must 
keep up a minute acquaintance with the 
public affairs of the country where he de- 
sires to exercise his influence. Mr. Holmes 
watched the doings and sayings of public 
men in Nova Scptia with a keen eye, and 
won the reputation of being a vigorous 
political critic, an effective debater, and an 
able organizer. 

In 1867 Nova Scotia was convulsed with 
an agitation for and against Confederation. 
There was no possibility of mistaking the 
drift of public feeling. The change in- 
volved in Confederation was so great that 
the agitation against it rose and swelled 
into stormy popularity. Mr. Holmes, how- 
ever, was an ardent Confederate ; and when 
candidates for the local Legislature were re- 
quired he did not hesitate to stand in the 
gap. He made a sturdy fight, although he 
and his colleagues wont to the polls with 
the moral certainty of defeat. The reaction 
came in due time, and in 1871 Mr. Holmes 
was easily returned in the county of Pictou 
at the head of the poll. Since 1871 he has 
been thrice returned by the same constitu- 
ency, and by increasing majorities. 

In 187") he became leader of the Oppo- 



THE HON. SIMON HUGH HOLMES. 



113 



sition in the Assembly, and this position 
he held till the change of Government re- 
sulting from the elections of 1N7*. While 
in opposition to the Government of the day 
he propounded measures which met with 
the approval of the country, and devoted 
his utmost energies to questions of finance, 
and to the railway policy of the administra- 
tion. In 1878 the local Government was 
defeated, having won only eight seats out 
of thirty-eight. Mr. Holmes, as leader of 
the Opposition, was called upon to form the 
new Administration, of which he has con- 
tinued Premier and Provincial Secretary. 

Since he has assumed the reins of power 
it has been Mr. Holmes's duty to extricate 
the Province from an extremely disagree- 
able financial predicament to equalize 
revenue and expenditure, which had fallen 
sadly away from the safe condition of bal- 
ancing and to place the railways of the 
country in a position to be of some use to 
the people by whose money they had been 
so far constructed. The revenue had fallen 
off by nearly S200000. A debt of *:).-,< i.- 
ODII had been incurred. The railways aided 
with the greatest liberality by the Legisla- 
ture' had not been completed, and having ex- 
hausted the Provincial subsidies, they ceased 
to make any progress. Mr. Holmes has 
grappled with the varied difficulties of the 
situation with patient energy and sagacity, 
and with the certainty of success. It is no 
light matter to build and operate three hun- 
dred miles of railway, maintain roads and 
bridges, meet the current expenses of ad- 
ministration and legislation, and give S20U,- 
000 in aid of education all out of a rev- 
enue of siioo.OOO. 

Mr. Holmes when in opposition was an 
advocate of municipal incorporation local 
self-government for the counties. One of 
the earliest and must valuable acts of his 
administration was the maturing and enact- 
ing of an incorporation law suited to the 
counties. The Act has l.een in operation 
IV- 16 



for over a year, and is giving entire satis- 
faction. No previous administration felt 
strong enough (or had the courage) to grap- 
ple with the question. It is a reform of 
great importance which should have taken 
place twenty years ago. 

Three years ago two railway companies 
running connecting lines engaged in a bit- 
ter strife as injurious to themselves as to 
the public. Each company did everything 
in its power to embarrass and injure the 
other. For one whole season the trade 
of two counties was nearly paralyzed by 
this foolish strife ; but there was no law 
that could be brought to bear upon the case. 
Mr. Holmes no sooner had the opportunity 
than he matured a measure a general Rail- 
way Act which will effectually prevent the 
recurrence of such a difficulty. 

Nova Scotia has still a Legislative Coun- 
cil which adds considerably to the cost of 
legislation. It is a part of Mr. Holmes's pol- 
i< v to abolish this " Upper Chamber." For 
the present a large majority of the Council 
are in opposition to the policy of the Cab- 
inet on this point ; but the Premier has de- 
clared his determination to use every legiti- 
mate means to give effect to the wishes of 
the people. 

Mr. Holmes is a forcible speaker, though 
his elocution is by no means faultless. He 
keeps t the point, and elaborates it to the 
minutest detail. He usually rises from par- 
ticulars to generals, and concludes by pre- 
senting a subject in its largest and most im- 
-ive aspects. When dealing with a 
fa \ourite theme, such as the duty of main- 
taining the educational system in its integ- 
rity, or preserving intact the credit of the 
country, he attains to genuine eloquence. 
UK power is largely in quiet persistence 
and common sense. He is in the prime of 
life, and is likely to lie heard of in the wider 
sphere of Dominion politics, as a states- 
man of whom his country needs not to be 
ashamed. 



THE HON. SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON, 



BART., C.B., D.C.L. 



THE subject of this sketch occupied a 
conspicuous place in the society of 
this Province for fully half a century. It 
is granted to very few persons to enjoy so 
long a lease of popularity, and to achieve 
distinction in so many and such various 
walks of life. Fame came to him very 
early, and attended him throughout the 
whole of his subsequent career. Every step 
he took was a step in advance. As a boy, 
he was one of the most promising scholars 
at the old Grammar School at Cornwall. 
As a law-student he was diligent and 
painstaking, and inspired all his youthful 
companions with sanguine confidence in his 
future. At twenty-one he volunteered to 
fight the battles of his country, and served 
with credit and distinction under Brock at 
Detroit and at Queenston Heights. His 
military ardour was again conspicuously 
displayed during the troubles of 1837, when 
he doffed his ermine, and once more buckled 
on his sword to defend the Government of 
the day against an armed insurrection. For 
twelve successive years he was Attorney- 
General of Upper Canada, and during the 
greater part of that period he was the Par- 
liamentary leader of the political Party to 
which he belonged. He surrendered these 
distinctions to accept one still higher, and 
for more than thirty-two years thereafter 
he occupied the dignified position of Chief 
Justice of his native Province. When the 
grave closed over him it was declared in all 



seriousness, by a writer who seems to have 
reflected the prevalent sentiment of the 
legal profession generally, that Canada had 
lost the greatest man she had ever produced. 
From all which it is evident enough that 
his earthly career was one of undoubted 
success, in so far as winning applause and 
honour from his contemporaries can be said 
to constitute success. 

Worldly success, however, is not a con- 
clusive proof of greatness, and we venture 
to predict that the verdict pronounced at 
his death will not be the verdict of history. 
John Beverley Robinson was a man of more 
than average ability. His manners, from 
youth to age, were generally courtly and 
pleasing. He was steady, industrious, and 
ambitious. Various circumstances combined 
to afford him exceptional advantages in the 
race for distinction, and he made the most 
of his opportunities. By descent, by train- 
ing, and by native predilection, he was allied 
to the Party which had long enjoyed a mo- 
nopoly of political power and authority. The 
policy of that Party was to preserve the 
then-existing order of things, and to frown 
down all attempts to introduce change. It 
numbered in its ranks all the scions of aris- 
tocracy to be found in Upper Canada. Few 
of them could boast of much learning, but 
their training was at least far in advance of 
that of the people who made up the bulk of 
the provincial population; and their polished 
manners and social standing were such as 



THE HON. SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON, BART. 



115 



to give them a commanding influence in a 
primitive community. In such a commu- 
nity, be it understood, a very moderate de- 
gree of learning and aptitude for public 
life counted for much. Young John Bever- 
ley Robinson had more than a moderate 
degree of intellect, and his educational 
training was, for those times, exceptionally 
liberal. He early came to be looked upon 
as the rising hope of the Tories, and it can- 
not be denied that he realized their expec- 
tations. We believe him to have been 
thoroughly well-meaning and conscientious. 
Real greatness or genuine statesmanship, 
however, cannot be claimed for him. A 
statesman would have had a clearer insight 
into the requirements of his country, and 
would have endeavoured to promote its 
best interests. He would not have been so 
blinded by party prejudice as to throw the 
whole weight of his influence into the scale 
against those clearer-sighted spirits who ad- 
vocated Responsible Government. He would 
have known that the fiat had gone forth ; 
and that any attempts to prevent the inevi- 
table consummation would be as ineffectual 
as were Mrs. Partington's exertions to stem 
back the resistless tide of the Atlantic with 
her broom. A statesman, with such know- 
ledge of the facts of the case as John Bever- 
ley Robinson must have possessed, would 
not have opposed Lord Durham's mission, 
and would not have attempted to cast 
odium and ridicule upon that nobleman's 
" Report." A statesman, moreover, would 
not have attempted to uphold the charter 
of King's College. He would have known 
that the people of Canada would not for- 
ever submit to the domination of an ecclesi- 
astical caste over the affairs of a national 
university. So far as to the question of 
statesmanship. A great man, on the other 
hand, would not have lent himself to a 
series of State prosecutions which form an 
ignominious chapter in the history of Upper 
Canadian jurisprudence. To say that in 



all his actions John Beverley Robinson fol- 
lowed the dictates of his .conscience is to 
defend his personal integrity at the expense 
of his political prescience and sagacity. A 
man who conscientiously permits himself to 
be the instrument of tyranny and selfish 
misgovernment may be scrupulously honest 
according to his lights ; but his lights are 
not of the brightest, and his admirers must 
not complain if history refuses to admit his 
intellectual greatness, or even to accord him 
a place on the same pedestal with Robert 
Baldwin. 

He was descended from an old Yorkshire 
family which traces its lineage back to 
Nicholas Robinson, of Lincolnshire, gentle- 
man, who lived in the time of Henry VII. 
During Puritan times several members of 
the family emigrated from Yorkshire to 
America, and settled in the Old Dominion, 
where they attained to positions of high 
social and political influence. The imme- 
diate ancestor of the late Chief Justice was 
Mr. Christopher Robinson, who at the time 
of the breaking out of the Revolutionary 
War was a student at William and Mary 
College, at Williamsburg, Virginia. He 
cast in his lot with the royalist party, and 
received an Ensign's commission in the 
famous regiment of Queen's "Rangers, com- 
manded by Colonel Simcoe, who afterwards 
liermne the first Governor of Upper Canada. 
He served in that regiment until the close 
of hostilities, when, with many of his self- 
exiled compatriots, lie repaired to what 
afterwards became the Province of New 
Brunswick. He took up his abode in the 
U. E. Loyalist settlement on the St. John 
1 liver, a few miles below Fredericton. In 
17N4 the year which witnessed the crea- 
tion of the Province of New Brunswick- 
he married Miss Esther Saver, a daughter 
of the Rev. John Sayer. a clergyman of the. 
Episcopal Church, formerly resident in Fair- 

tielil. Connecticut. Ill 17^ he IVIIUJVLM! to 

the parish of L'Assomption, in the Province 



116 



THE HON. SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON, BART. 



of Quebec. Three years later he removed to 
Berthier, where his second son, the subject 
of this sketch, was born on the 26th of July, 
1791 the year which was signalized by the 
passing of the Constitutional Act, and the 
creation of Upper Canada as a separate 
Province. 

In former sketches we have seen that Gov- 
ernor Simcoe, immediately after his arrival 
in Canada, in 1792, used his best endeav- 
ours to induce immigration into the Upper 
Province which he had come out to govern. 
By his influence, many of the members of 
his old regiment of " Queen's Rangers "- 
which regiment had been disbanded at the 
close of the war were induced to settle on 
the shores of Lake Ontario. Among these 
was Christopher Robinson, who, in 1792, 
removed from Berthier to Kingston, accom- 
panied by his wife and family, consisting of 
his son, John Beverley, who was then only 
a few months old, and an elder son, named 
Peter. The family resided in Kingston 
about six years. Christopher, the father, 
practised law, and on the formation of the 
Law Society of Upper Canada was elected 
one of the first Benchers. He also repre- 
sented the United Counties of Lennox and 
Addington in the Legislative Assembly, and 
held important Government appointments, 
including that of Deputy Ranger of Woods 
and Forests for Upper Canada. It may as 
well be mentioned in this place that Peter, 
the eldest son, also entered public life, and 
represented the county of York in the Leg- 
islative Assembly for many years. He sub- 
sequently became a member of the Legis- 
lative Council and Commissioner of Crown 
Lands. He died in 1838. A younger son, 
William, was also a well-known personage 
in this Province, where he held many posi- 
tions of influence, including that of repre- 
sentative of the county of Simcoe in the 
Assembly, Inspector-General, Commissioner 
of Public Works, and Commissioner of the 
Canada Company. 



To return. In 1798 the family removed 
from Kingston to York, the Provincial capi- 
tal. Christopher, the father, died within a 
few months after this event, leaving a family 
of three sons and three daughters but slen- 
derly provided for. John Beverley, who 
was then seven years of age, was within a 
year or two after this time sent to school 
to Dr. afterwards Bishop Strachan, at 
Kingston. Tutor and pupil seem to have 
formed a mutual liking from the very first, 
and the favourable opinion which each then 
conceived of the other continued unchanged 
throughout their respective lives. That the 
Doctor should have been fond of his pupil 
is not to be wondered at, for he must have 
been a very lovable little fellow. He was 
bright and handsome in appearance, truth- 
ful and honourable in his character. As a 
student he was precocious and diligent, and 
learned his tasks in less than half the time 
required by his fellow-pupils. He was 
equally proficient in the boyish exercises of 
the playground, and was looked upon by 
his young companions as a sort of Admir- 
able Crichton. When the Doctor removed 
to Cornwall his pupil followed him thither, 
and became his pet scholar. And so it 
came about that the opinions of the latter 
were to a large extent formed by Dr. 
Strachan. No charge of inconsistency can 
be brought against either of them. Other 
people might change their opinions, but the 
opinions of Dr. Strachan and John Beverley 
Robinson, like those of most members of 
the Family Compact, were as unalterable 
as erst were the laws of the Medes and 
Persians. Their minds never expandrd : 
they never learned wisdom in the school of 
experience. The political opinions instilled 
into John Beverley Robinson's mind while 
he was a boy at the Cornwall Grammar 
School were conscientiously held by him 
through life. The natural bent of his mind 
was Conservative, and was confirmed by the 
school in which he was reared. He was 



THE HON. SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON, BART. 



117 



never entirely emancipated from the thral- 
dom of the school-room, and throughout his 
whole political career was more or less sub- 
ject to Dr. Strachan's innueno . 

At the age of sixteen lie entered upon 
tin- study of that profession in which he 
was destined to attain such high eminence. 
He began his studies in the year 1808, when 
he was articled to the Hon. D'Arcy Boulton, 
author of a " Sketch of His Majesty's Prov- 
ince of Upper Canada," published at Lon- 
don in 1805. Mr. Boulton, who subsequently 
-became Attorney-General, and in 1818 was 
raised to the Judicial Bench, was at this 
time Solicitor-General of Upper Canada, and 
had what in those times was regarded as a 
large practice. Young Robinson at the same 
time obtained employment as a clerk in one 
of the Departments, and subsequently acted 
as ('lurk to the House of Assembly. For 
his services in the latter capacity he re- [ 
ceived fifty pounds, which sum was voted 
to him by the House " for his extraordinary 
attention to the duties of his office." When 
he had been under articles a little more than 
two years his principal had occasion to go 
to Europe on official business. The \ 
in which the latter took passage was seized 
by a French privateer during its progress 
across tin- Atlantic, and the passengers and 
crew including Mr. Boulton were con- 
veyed to France and confined as prisoners 
of war. They were detained until the 
Treaty of Peace was signed in 1814. Soon 
after intelligence of the seizure reached 
Upper Canada John Beverley Robinson 
transferred his services to the office of the 
Hon. John McDonell, Attorney-General of 
the Province. Before he had completed 
the term of his clerkship, however, both 
himself and his principal were called upon 
to defend their country from a foreign in- 
vader. On the ISth of June. IS 12, the 
President of the United States declared 
war against Great Britain, and pnie- 
to invade Canada as the most vulnerable 



point of the Empire. The story of the west- 
ern expedition under Brigadier -General 
Hull, and that of the expedition along the 
Niagara River under Van Renssellaer, have 
been related in the sketch of the life of Gen- 
era I Brock, in the first volume of this series. 
The subject of this sketch proved himself 
a worthy descendant of his Loyalist father. 
No sooner was the hostile declaration of the 
American President made known in York 
than he joined the York militia, and ob- 
tained a lieutenant's commission under Colo- 
nel William Allan. He accompanied Brock 
on his marvellous western expedition, and 
was present at the surrender of Detroit, 
upon which occasion he was presented to 
the redoubtable Tecumseh. It is said by a 
contemporary writer that Lieutenant Rob- 
inson drew up the articles of capitulation 
signed on the surrender of the fort an as- 
sertion of which we have not been able to 
find any confirmation, and which does not 
seem to be very probable. There is abun- 
dant evidence, however, that he bore him- 
self gallantly, and proved himself worthy 
of the stock from which he sprang. He 
was placed on the detachment which formed 
a guard over the American General, but 
whether lie accompanied it any farther east 
than York we have not been able to ascer- 
tain. He was soon afterwards placed on 
active service on the Niagara frontier, and 
took part in the conflict at Queenston where 
his principal, Attorney -General McDonell, 
and the gallant Brock were slain. He was 
not far from General Brock when that hero 
fell, and throughout the rest of the battle 
he distinguished himself by his courage and 
his inditl'erence to personal danger. Colonel 
Coffin, in his work, " The War and its 
Moral," draws a Battering, albeit a just 
portraiture of the intrepid young lieuten- 
ant. "The men of Lincoln," he says, "and 
the 'brave York volunteers,' with 'Brock' 
on their lips and in their hearts, 

had joined in 'the last desperate charge, and 



118 



THE HON. SIR JOHN BEYERLEY ROBINSON, BART. 



among the foremost, foremost ever found, 
was John Beverley Robinson, a U. E. Loy- 
alist, a lawyer from Toronto, and not the 
worse soldier for all that. His light, com- 
pact, agile figure, handsome face, and eager 
eye, were long proudly remembered by those 
who had witnessed his conduct in the field, 
and who loved to dwell on those traits of 
chivalrous loyalty, energetic talent, and 
sterling worth which, in after years, and in 
a happier sphere, elevated him to the posi- 
tion of Chief Justice of the Province, and 
to the rank of an English Baronet." The 
young soldier was also mentioned with fit- 
ting honour in Sir Roger H. Sheatte's de- 
spatch to Sir George Prevost, giving an 
official account of the memorable engage- 
ment on Queenston Heights. 

Lieutenant Robinson was detached to 
convey the prisoners of war to Kingston. 
Having performed this duty he returned to 
York, and having arrived there, he found 
that he had been appointed to act as suc- 
cessor to his late principal in the important 
office of Attorney-General. The intelligence 
is said to have taken him by surprise, and 
it may well have done so, for he was only 
twenty-one years of age, and had not been 
called to the Bar. The appointment was 
made on the recommendation of William 
Dumnier Powell, who was then a Puisne 
Judge of the Court of King's Bench, and a 
man of high influence with the Govern- 
ment. Mr. Powell declared that the ap- 
pointment was "fully justified by the high 
character the young student had already 
attained for legal knowledge, and the zeal 
and assiduity which he always brought to 
the performance of every duty that devolved 
upon him." The appointment, backed by 
a recommendation from such a quarter, 
met witli public approval. Solicitor-Gen- 
eral Boulton would have succeeded to the 
office by rotation, if he had been available 
for the post, but he was still confined in a 
French prison. John Beverley Robinson 



entered upon his official duties on the 3rd 
of December, 1812. He was then called 
to the Bar by a special rule of the Court of 
King's Bench, which was subsequently con- 
firmed by a special Act of Parliament. On 
the 4th of January, 1813, he was admitted 
as an attorney. He retained the office of 
Attorney-General until the 6th of January, 
I M15, when Mr. Boulton, having been liber- 
ated, and having returned to Canada, suc- 
ceeded to the position, and Mr. Robinson 
accepted the post of Solicitor-General. He 
was regularly called to the Bar by the Law 
Society of Upper Canada in Hilary Term, 
55 Geo. III., 1815, contemporaneously with 
George Ridout, Jonas Jones, Christopher 
A. Hagerman, and David Jones, all of whom 
subsequently rose to high eminence in the 
Province. 

Soon after his appointment as Solicitor- 
General he obtained leave of absence, and 
proceeded to England, with a view to being 
called to the English Bar. He kept several 
Terms at Lincoln's Inn, but did not remain 
long enough to enable him to present him- 
self for call to the Bar. During his stay in 
London he married Miss Emma Walker, a 
daughter of Mr. Charles Walker, and a niece 
of Mr. William Merry, a gentleman who 
was at one time Under Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs. 

He returned to Canada immediately after 
his marriage, which took place in 1817. He 
had continued meanwhile to hold the office 
of Solicitor-General. In February, IMS, 
the Attorney -General, Mr. Boulton, was 
raised to the Bench, and Mr. Robinson at 
the same time once more succeeded to the 
office of Attorney -General. Among the 
early prosecutions which devolved upon him 
in this capacity were those of the Red River 
rioters and the unfortunate Robert Gourlay. 
With the particulars of the prosecutions 
against Mr. Gourlay readers of these pages 
ate already familiar.* The trials of tlir 

V,,l. 111., [.. -'47. 



THE HON. SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON, BART. 



119 



Red River criminals, which took place at 
the assizes held at York in October, 1818, 
arose out of the disputes between the Earl 
of Selkirk and the North-West Company, 
and made a great deal of noise at the time. 
Lord Selkirk brought grave charges against 
Attorney-General Robinson in connection 
with these proceedings, and accused him of 
tampering with justice. For this accusation 
there does not seem to have been any justifi- 
cation, although it is certain that the At- 
torney-General displayed a good deal of 
political partisanship, and was to a large 
extent under the influence of Dr. Strachan. 
The fact is, that Lord Selkirk was an en- 
lightened man, and held ideas in advance 
of his times on the subject of colonization. 
For this reason he was distasteful to the 
Family Compact. His idea of planting and 
settling an independent colony seemed to 
them in the highest degree revolutionary, 
and a thing to be put down. He was more- 
over the enemy of the North-West Com- 
pany, which had very powerful friends in 
Upper Canada, among whom must be num- 
bered Dr. Strachan himself. His Lordship 
did not appear in person at the trial, ami 
the prisoners were in each case pronounced 
to be " not guilty." 

In 1821 Mr. Robinson entered the House 
of Assembly as the first representative for 
the town of York. It had been well under- 
stood before his election that he was to be- 
come the leader of his Party immediately 
upon taking his seat. The understanding 
was carried into effect, and throughout his 
Parliamentary career he continued to be 
the advocate and mouthpiece of High Tory- 
ism. Whatever was supported by usage 
and custom, that he supported. Whatever 
was new, and smacked of innovation, that 
he opposed. The Gourlay convention, for 
instance, was in his (and Dr. Strachan's) 
opinion a long stride in the direction of re- 
publicanism. His was the solitary voice 
raised in the Assembly in LS:?1 against the 



repeal of Mr. Jones's Act "for preventing 
certain meetings (i e. conventions) in Upper 
Canada." His was the solitary vote recorded 
against the repeal. The Act had been only 
about two years in operation, but almost 
every thinking man in the country had 
come to regard it as absurd. Not so Mr. 
Attorney-General. He was "a consistent 
politician," and never changed his views. 
Of course he had abundant reason to feel 
satisfied with the prevalent order of things. 
He fully realized the expectations of even 
the most sanguine of his friends, whom he 
served with a loyalty and unbending integ- 
rity which in themselves are worthy of all 
praise. His politics, however, were the poli- 
tics of a past age. No intelligent man of the 
present day would give utterance to such 
political doctrines as the first member for 
York gravely enunciated from session to 
session. We have no space to particularize. 
The general course of his career as a legis- 
lator has been indicated in the opening para- 
graphs. For the rest, he was a fluent and 
finished speaker, with an admirable facility 
in the art of putting things. He was natur- 
ally kind and amiable, and his temper was 
under perfect control, so that he made fewer 
personal enemies than might have been ex- 
pected from the very decided stand which 
he took in matters political. He framed a 
good many statutes of more or less import- 
ance, which afford evidence that he was an 
adept in the mechanical part of legislation. 
His presence was particularly fine and com- 
manding, and from first to last he was the 
foremost figure in the Assembly. 

In 1822 he was charged with on official 
mission to Great Britain, the object SOUL;! it 
to be attained being the settlement of cer- 
tain differences which had arisen between 
the Upper and Lower Provinces relative to 
certain customs duties collected at the port 
of Montreal. His efforts to bring about a, 
settlement were completely successful, and 
the public appreciation of his services found 



120 



THE HON. SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON, BART. 



expression in a vote of thanks from both 
Houses of the Legislature. During his visit 
to England at this time he was called to the 
Bar of Lincoln's Inn. His pleasant manners 
and undoubted abilities won many friends 
for him, and society readily opened its doors 
to the clever and handsome young colonist. 
Within a few months after his return to 
Canada he was reflected to the Assembly 
for the town of York by a majority of only 
three votes over his opponent, the late Coro- 
ner Duggan. About the same time the Im- 
perial Government offered him the lucrative 
post of Chief Justice of the Island of Mauri- 
tius, the emoluments of which amounted to 
several thousands of pounds per annum. 
But he was not to be tempted to leave his 
native land, where his prospects were excel- 
lent, and where, indeed, he might very well 
hope to rise to almost any position to which 
he might aspire. His position in Parliament 
was, as he believed, secure ; his legal prac- 
tice was very large and profitable ; and he 
had a large circle of wealthy and attached 
friends who looked up to him as their head. 
It would be time enough to accept a seat 
on the Bench when he should become tired 
of public and professional life. That such 
were his views was clearly proved a year 
later, when he declined to succeed Judge 
Powell as Chief Justice of Upper Canada. 
The various indictments, tines, imprison- 
ments and libel suits, which marked Mr. 
Robinson's tenure of the office of Attorney- 
General are phases of his career upon which 
it is not pleasant to dwell. It has been 
urged on his behalf that many of these 
prosecutions were justifiable and right, and 
that as to the rest the Attorney-General 
merely acted on orders issued by his supe- 
riors, and in fulfilment of his official duties. 
Even if this presentation of the matter were 
true, is it not beyond doubt that a man who 
is at once honourable and enlightened will 
never accept as " duties " any acts which 
are oppressive, unjust, and subversive of 



public liberty ? Such a man will not lend 
himself to tyranny. His honour will appear 
to him to be better worth preserving than 
his place. If the latter cannot be retained 
without sacrificing the former, the place 
will have to go. But we fear that even the 
facts, to say nothing of the argument, are 
against the Attorney-General in this matter. 
He was certainly not acting under orders 
from the Government, nor was he perform- 
ing mere official duties, when he personally 
prosecuted poor Francis Collins of the Fr< <- 
man for imputing " native malignancy " and 
" falsehood " to the Attorney-General. For 
this offence the unhappy editor was mulcted 
in a fine of fifty pounds, and lay a pris- 
oner in York gaol for twelve months. Nor 
was it in compliance with official routine 
that he took part in the proceedings which 
resulted in the removal of Judge Willis, 
with whom he had had several personal al- 
tercations, in which he had always been 
worsted. The most notable of these pas- 
sages of arms is worthy of special mention. 
The Attorney-General, while addressing the 
Court (Judge Willis) on a prosecution, re- 
marked that during his ten years' tenure of 
office he had never made a practice of insti- 
tuting proceedings until a formal complaint 
had been made. " That," remarked Judge 
Willis, "is a proof that your practice has 
been uniformly wrong." The Attorney-Gen- 
eral had not been accustomed to have either 
his practice or his judgment called in ques- 
tion. His reply was to the effect that he 
knew his duty as well as any judge on the 
Bench. "That may be," said Judge Willis, 
" but you have not done it." Upon the At- 
torney-General s persisting in the correctness 
of his practice, and declaring that he should 
continue to do in the future as he had done 
in the past, Judge Willis informed him, in 
a very severe and dignified manner, that it 
would be his (the judge's) duty to report 
the Attorney-General's conduct to the Home 
Government " and," he concluded, " under- 



THE HON. SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON, BART. 



121 



stand this ; it is my place to state to the 
officers of the Crown the nature of their 
duties ; and it is their place to perform 
tin-in." The Attorney-General was silenced, 
but not convinced. 

His personal prosecution of Collins, and 
the severe punishment to which the alleged 
libeller was subjected, did a good deal to 
destroy, for a time, the popularity of At- 
torney-General Robinson. Remarks hos- 
tile to him appeared in several newspapers, 
and some of them were much more strongly 
expressed than Collins's " libel " had been. 
The libelled individual, however, seems to 
have felt that he had gone far enough in 
the way of personal prosecutions, and paid 
no attention to these attacks. It is proba- 
ble that he was willing enough to be rid 
of the onerous and invidious duties which 
attached to the position of an Attorney- 
General in those times. An opportune cir- 
cumstance soon afterwards enabled him to 
follow his inclinations in this particular. 
Sir William Campbell, Chief Justice of 
T T pper Canada, retired from the Bench, and 
the important position thus left vacant was 
offered to, and accepted by, Attorney-Gen- 
eral Robinson. There being some doubt as 
to the legality of his passing immediately 
from the office of Attorney-General to that 
of Chief Justice, he accepted the office of 
llegistrar of the county of Kent, which 
after the lapse of a few days he resigned, 
and took his seat on the Bench. His ap- 
pointment bears date the 3rd of August, 
Is^'.t. lie was succeeded in the office of 
Attorney-General by the Hon. Henry John 
Boulton. 

As Chief Justice of the Province he was 
President of tin- Executive Council, and .-it 
the beginning of the following year he was 
nominal' er of the I'pper House. 

He was formally introduced on the 8th of 
.bumary by his old friend Dr. Strachan, 

who had liy this time bee Aivhd. 

of York. Thenceforward until the I'mon 
IV 17 



of the Provinces he figured conspicuously 
in the debates, and his Conservative cast of 
mind is apparent in almost every speech he 
delivered. To say that he opposed every 
attempt at interfering with the Clergy Re- 
serves, and that he fought against Respon- 
sible Government with every weapon he 
had at command, is merely to say that he 
acted up to his honest opinions. The value 
of those opinions can be estimated at the 
present day much more impartially than it 
could reasonably be expected to be esti- 
mated by his contemporaries. During the 
rebellion, as we have seen, he rallied to the 
side of Sir Francis Bond Head, with his 
musket on his shoulder. It fell to his lot 
to pronounce sentence of death upon those 
unhappy men, Samuel Lount and Peter 
Matthews, who were executed in front of 
the old Court House of Toronto on the 12th 
of April, 1838, and whose bodies sleep be- 
neath the turf in the Necropolis. 

During a visit to England, in 1839, the 
Chief Justice wrote what he intended as a 
counterblast to Lord Durham's Report, un- 
der the title of "Canada and the Canada 
Bill." Its object was to show that the divi- 
sion of the Provinces in 1791 had been very 
beneficial, and that their reunion would be 
an inadequate remedy for the evils which 
existed. The writer's position in the colony 
caused the work to be widely read in Eng- 
land, but the Atlantic was not to be turned 
back by any such means. During his ab- 
sence in England he was otic-red the honour 
of knighthood, but saw fit to decline the 
honour. Soon after his return the Union 
was consummated, and his connection with 
political life came to an end. For about 
twenty-t\\o years thereafter he continued 
to discharge his duties as Chief Justice with 
a dignity and an efficiency which secured 
universal approbation and respect. His 
judicial career is by far the most pleasing 
phase in which to regard him. It extended 
over so long a period that he came to lie 



122 



THE HON. SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON, BART. 



looked upon, alike by the profession and 
the public at large, as a sort of legal Nestor. 
The universal voice was loud in praise of 
his learning, his acumen, and his spotless 
judicial integrity. Even the bitterest of 
his former political opponents forgot old 
animosities, and joined in the common esti- 
mate. His industry was as conspicuous as 
his learning, and his judgments were seldom 
in arrear. Some of his written decisions 
have been characterized as wordy and un- 
necessarily long, but excuse has been made 
for their seeming verbosity on the ground 
of his anxiety to present everything in a 
clear and unmistakable light. Certainly 
the decisions of no Canadian jurist carry 
more weight, and it is with great hesita- 
tion that his successors have ventured to 
disturb any of his dicta. Only one of his 
judgments, we believe, was reversed on ap- 
peal to the Privy Council. 

One of the last cases of permanent pub- 
lic importance which engaged his attention 
was the famous Anderson extradition case, 
which was decided in the winter of 18U1-G2. 
Anderson, as many persons will remember, 
was a fugitive negro slave from the South- 
ern States, who had killed his master in 
self-defence when making his escape. The 
case aroused an excitement in the public 
mind almost without precedent in this coun- 
try and the United States, and indeed the 
excitement extended to Great Britain. Sir 
John's judgment, and that of the court, from 
which the late Judge McLean dissented, was 
that the prisoner must be surrendered. It 
was formed upon a careful consideration of 
the terms of the Extradition Treaty, and 
had no reference to the rights or wrongs 
of slavery, although to the public mind it 
seemed to favour " the peculiar institution," 
and for a time the outcry against it in the 
newspapers was loud and incessant. The 



case subsequently came before the Court of 
Common. Pleas, when the prisoner was dis- 
charged on a technicality, which left the 
principles of the decision in the Queen's 
Bench untouched. 

In 1850 Chief Justice Robinson was ap- 
pointed to the dignity of a Companion of 
the Bath. In 18.54 he was created a Baro- 
net of the United Kingdom ; and on the 
occasion of his last visit to England in 

O 

1856, the honorary degree of D.C.L. was 
conferred upon him by the University of 
Oxford. In June, 18C2, he resigned the 
position of Chief Justice, and accepted the 
less onerous one of President of the Court 
of Appeal. He possessed a strong constitu- 
tion, and had all his life enjoyed excellent 
general health ; but for many years prior 
to this time he had suffered from repeated 
attacks of gout, the intensity whereof in- 
creased with his advancing years. Early 
in January, 18C3, he presided for the last 
time in the Court of Appeal. A few days 
after he was subjected to an attack of ex- 
ceptional sharpness, and it was soon evident 
that his earthly course was nearly run. He 
finally sank to his rest on the 31st of the 
month. On the 4th of February an im- 
mense concourse accompanied his remains 
to their final resting-place in St. James's 
Cemetery. 

He left behind him many pleasant and 
hallowed memories ; for in private life, as 
well as on the Bench, he was one of the 
most excellent and amiable of men. His 
successor in the baronetcy, as well as the 
rest of his sons, still resides in Toronto. The 
second son, named after his father, is the 
present Lieu tenant -Governor of the Prov- 
ince of Ontario. His third son, Christo- 
pher, has long been one of the foremost 
and most highly respected members of the 
local Bar. 



THE HON. JOHN WELLINGTON GWYNNE. 



JUDGE GWYNNE is a son of the late 
Rev. William Gwynne, D.D., a clergy- 
man formerly resident at Castle Knock, in 
the county of Dublin, Ireland. His mother's 
maiden name was Miss Eliza Nelson, and she 
was a daughter of the Rev. Hugh Nelson, of 
Dunshaughlin, in the county of Meath. 
He was born at Castle Knock on the 30th 
of March. 1814. After receiving some pri- 
vate tuition at home he entered Trinity Col- 
lege, Dublin, in July, 1828. He remained 
there several years, and made great progress 
in his classical education, but left without 
taking a degree. Early in 1832 he emigra- 
ted to Canada with a view to improving his 
prospects. There was a great exodus of 
clever, scholarly young men from Ireland to 
Canada during that year which was the 
dread year of the cholera and young Mr. 
Gwynne seems to have caught the spirit 
of the time. Having reached the town of 
Little York he determined to study law, 
and passed his preliminary examination be- 
fore the Law Society of Upper Canada in 
June. He then repaired to Kingston, and 
became a student in the office of the late 
Mr. Thomas Kirkpatrick, a well-known law- 
yer and politician in those days, who rep- 
resented the county of Frontenac in the 
Legislative Assembly. After spending about 
two years in Mr. Kirkpatrick's office Mr. 
Gwynne removed to Toronto, and became a 
student in the office of Messrs. Draper and 
Hagerman, who then practised law in part- 



nership. In Trinity Term, 1837, he was 
called to the Bar, and began practice in 
Toronto. He was for some years in part- 
nership with the late Messieurs Robert J. 
Turner and William Vynne Bacon. In the 
year 1844, when he had been nearly seven 
years at the Bar, he sailed for England, and 
spent fifteen months as a student in the 
chambers of Mr. Rolt, an eminent English 
lawyer. 

Though not showy or pretentious, Mr. 
Gwynne proved himself to be the possessor 
of fine abilities, and rose steadily in his pro- 
fession. He embraced the Reform side in 
politics, and was an adherent of Robert 
Baldwin. At the general election of 1848, 
the result of which was to place the Reform- 
ers in power, under the leadership of Mes- 
sieurs Baldwin and Lafontaine, Mr. Gwynne 
entered the political arena as a candidate for 
the county of Huron. He was opposed by the 
Hon. William Cayley. He received a fair 
measure of support, but his candidature was 
unsuccessful he having polled only 320 
votes to 388 for Mr. Cayley and he has 
never made any attempt to enter Parlia- 
ment since that time. He had meanwhile 
devoted himself to other schemes, and it is 
not improbable that his wish to enter Par- 
liament was largely due to a desire for their 
furtherance. In the early years of the rail- 
way era in Canada he had formed a com- 
pany for the construction, as part of a 
scheme of colonization, of a line of railway 



124 



THE HON. JOHN WELLINGTON GWYNNE. 



from Toronto westward to Lake Huron, 
through the waste lands of the Crown. In 
1847 he obtained an Act of Incorporation 
for this Company, which subsequently de- 
veloped into the Toronto and Guelph Rail- 
way Company, and finally, in 1853, became 
amalgamated with the Grand Trunk line. 
Mr. Gwynne also interested himself in the 
advancement of other railway projects, and 
spent much time and money in maturing 
schemes from which the great railway com- 
panies of Canada have derived more profit 
than has fallen to his own share. 

In 1849 he was elected a Bencher of the 
Law Society, and in 1850 was created a 
Queen's Counsel. In July, 1852, he married 
Miss Julia Durie, youngest daughter of the 
late Dr. Durie, of Craigluscar. He contin- 
ued to devote himself to his profession, and 
obtained high repute as an Equity pleader. 
Without coining conspicuously before the 
public, he was recognized by the profession 
as a remarkably erudite lawyer, and his 
written opinions commanded a high price. 
In comparatively recent times he was for 
some years in partnership with Messieurs 
Robert Armour and John Hoskin, the style 
of the firm being Gwynne, Armour & 
Hoskin. On the 12th of November, 18G8, 
he was appointed a Puisne Judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas, as successor to the 
Hon. Adam Wilson, who had been trans- 



ferred from that Court to the Queen's Bench. 
In 1871 he was appointed a member of the 
Law Reform Commission, and in 1873 be- 
came a member of the Senate of the Uni- 
versity of Toronto. In the month of May, 
1<S74, he was nominated by the Hon. A. A. 
Dorion, who was then Minister of Justice in 
the Reform Goverment of Mr. Mackenzie, 
as one of the permanent Judges of the 
Court of Appeal in Ontario, under a clause 
in the Provincial Statute 37 Victoria, chap- 
ter 7, providing for the appointment of 
three additional Judges to the Court of Ap- 
peal, of which Court he was then a member. 
Judge Gwynne accepted the appointment, 
but subsequently declined it in consequence 
of a disagreement with the Government 
(after Mr. Dorion's retirement) on a question 
of precedence. In January, 187 ( J, he was 
transferred from the Common Pleas to the 
Supreme Court of the Dominion, where he 
now presides. 

The late Mr. Hugh Nelson Gwynne, who 
was once a teacher in Upper Canada Col- 
lege, and who was subsequently Secretary 
to the Law Society of Upper Canada, was a 
brother of the subject of this sketch. He 
retired from his Secretaryship in Decem- 
ber, 1872, and died within a few days after- 
wards. The late Dr. Gwynne, one of the 
medical lecturers to King's College, was also 
one of his brothers. 




tf.A't* 

J 



' 






THE RIGHT REV. THOMAS BROCK FULLER, 

D.D., D.C.L., BISHOP OF NIAGARA. 



BISHOP FULLER is a native Canadian, 
and was born at Kingston, Upper Can- 
ada, on the 16th of July, 1810. His father, 
Thomas Richard Fuller, was a native of 
Ireland, and a Major in the Forty-first Regi- 
ment of Foot. His mother was a daughter 
of Captain England, of the Forty-seventh 
Regiment of Foot, who was a cousin of Sir 
Hichard England, K.C.B., Commander of the 
Third Division of the British Forces in the 
Crimea. It is also worth mentioning that 
Bishop Fuller is lineally descended, on the 
paternal side, from Dr. Thomas Fuller, the 
celebrated English divine of the seventeenth 
century. " Worthy Master Fuller," as he 
was called, was a very voluminous author, 
who combined great learning with an 1111- 
c< mimon degree of quaint humour. His 
writings were well known to his contempo- 
raries, ami were popular for many years 
after his death. During the present cen- 
tury, mainly through the appreciative criti- 
cisms of Coleridge and Southey, several of 
them have become more widely known than 
ever, and nearly all his numerous writings 
have been reprinted within the last one or 
two generations. 

The subject of this sketch was an only 
child, and was named in honour of his 
father and General Brock, who, a little more 
than two years later, met a hero's death at 
Queenston Heights. He had the misfortune 
to be deprived of both his parents by death 
while he was very young. He was adopted 



by his aunt, the late Mrs. Leeming, wife of 
the Rev. William Leeming, who was for 
about forty years Rector of Chippevva. 
Through the kindness of this lady, who is 
said to have been possessed of great personal 
attractions, as well as high intellectual at- 
tainments and force of character, Mr. Fuller 
received the best education which the coun- 
try could afford in those days. He attended 
for some years at the Hamilton Grammar 
School. When he was nineteen years old 
he entered the Theological Seminary at 
Chambly, in the Lower Province, where he 
went through the four years' course, and 
learned the duties of a missionary, by act- 
ing as catechist and Scripture reader among 
the Protestant settlers in the neighbour- 
hood. He was ordained Deacon in INo-'i, 
in the Cathedral of Quebec, by the Right 
Rev. Dr. Stuart, and after a brief residence 
at the Bay of Quinte was selected as curate 
for the Parish Church of Montreal. Soon 
after his appointment, the cholera visitation 
fell on the city, and with the late Dr. Atkin- 
son he laboured day and night amid the 
awful scenes of the pest house's, amid the 
dying and the dead. He took part in estab- 
lishing a free service in a neglected part 
of the city, which has since developed into 
the paiish of St. George. In 1833 he be- 
came curate at Adolphustown. In January, 
1S:3.">, he was ordained to the priesthood at 
Toronto, by the Bishop of Quebec, and a 
few months later he married Cynthia, el- 



126 



THE RIGHT REV. THOMAS BROCK FULLER, D.D., D.C.L. 



dest daughter of the late Mr. Samuel Street, 
of Niagara District. In or about the year 
1836 he removed to Chatham, in the west- 
ern part of Upper Canada, where he la- 
boured for about four years with much zeal 
and faithfulness as a travelling missionary. 
He was then (1840) appointed to Thorold, 
where he established congregations at sev- 
eral points in the vicinity of the Welland 
Canal, while at the same time he was the 
mainspring of the District Branch of the 
Church Society, and his house was the cen- 
tre of all Church work. He laboured there 
gratuitously for nearly twenty-one years, 
when, in 1861, he was appointed Rector of 
St. George's Church, Toronto. Soon after 
he left Thorold he made that parish a pres- 
ent of $11,000, which sum he had advanced 
towards the erection of the church there. 
His removal from their midst was regarded 
by his parishioners at Thorold as an irrepa- 
rable loss, for he had won for himself a 
warm place in their affections, and had 
identified himself with their spiritual and 
temporal needs. He had been the means of 
stopping the Sunday traffic on the Welland 
Canal, and had actively forwarded every 
philanthropic movement in his parish. He 
had clone his utmost to promote kindly 
and liberal feelings among the neighbour- 
ing clergy, by inducing them to effect in- 
terchanges of services and lectures in each 
other's parishes. The high estimation in 
which he was held by the clergy through- 
out the district where he had spent so much 
of his life was proved by the touching ad- 
dress presented to him on his removal to 
Toronto. 

At the time when he settled himself at 
St. George's, Toronto, he found that heavy 
liabilities, combined with unforeseen com- 
mercial depression, had seriously embar- 
rassed the parochial finances. He applied 
himself to remedy this unsatisfactory state 
of affairs, and in the course of a few years, 
he succeeded, by his eminent administrative 



abilities, backed by zealous lay helpers, in 
placing that church in a prosperous condi- 
tion. 

In 1867 he became Archdeacon of the 
Diocese of Toronto, and while holding that 
position did much to increase the stipends 
and provide for the comforts of the mis- 
sionaries of the Church. He also took an ac- 
tive part in promoting various educational 
and benevolent projects. In 1875 the Dio- 
cese of Niagara was created, consisting of 
the counties of Lincoln, Welland, Haldi- 
mand, Wentworth, Halton and Wellington. 
Archdeacon Fuller was consecrated the first 
Bishop of that Diocese, at Hamilton, on the 
1st of May, in the year last named, by the 
Most Rev. the Metropolitan, assisted by the 
Bishops of Toronto, Huron, Michigan, and 
Western New York. On the eve of his 
departure, a most touching and complimen- 
tary address was presented to him, signed 
by Dean Grasett and all the clergymen of 
the city. The Episcopal robes were the 
gift of the ladies of the parish of St. 
George. His duties as a Bishop have been 
discharged with the same zeal by which his 
whole clerical life has been characterized, 
and have been attended with the best re- 
sults to his Diocese. As a churchman he is 
moderate in his sentiments, sound and con- 
sistent in his allegiance to the prayer book, 
and free from all trace of bigotry and party 
spirit. 

As an author, he is known by a pamphlet 
written and published in 1836, entitled, 
" Thoughts on the present condition and 
future prospects of the Church of England 
in Canada," also by a pamphlet published 
at Cobourg in 1844, entitled " The Roman 
Catholic Church not the Mother Church of 
England; or, the Church of England the 
Church originally planted in England." A 
third pamphlet from his pen is " Religious 
excitements tried by Scripture, and their 
fruits tested by experience," published at 
Toronto in l.s:>(i. 



THE HON. PHILIP M. M. S. VANKOUGHNET. 



THE late Chancellor Vankouglmet was , 
of German descent. His ancestors 
emigrated from Frankfort-on-the-Main to 
the British Colonies in America early in 
the eighteenth century, and the family re- 
mained there until the close of the Revo- 
lutionary War.' Upon the breaking out of 
that struggle they took part with the royal- 
ists, and when it was ended they removed 
to Upper Canada. The grandfather of the 
Chancellor came over in the year 1782, and 
settled in the neighbourhood of Cornwall. 
His son Philip, the Chancellor's father, was 
a prominent member of society in that part 
of the Province, and for many years prior 
to the Union of 1841 was a member of the 
Upper Canadian Legislature. 

Philip Michael Matthew Scott Vankough- 
net, the subject of this sketch, was born at 
Cornwall, on the 26th of January, 1S23. 
He received his education there under Dr. 
Urquhart, who it is said prophesied for him 
a brilliant career. It was tin- wish of his 
parents that he should embrace the clerical 
profession, and his education was conducted 
with a special view to that end. He seems 
to have offered no objection to his parents' 
wishes, and for several years was led to 
look upon the Church a,s his chosen career. 
While still in early youth, however, he 
conceived a preference for the law. It has 
been said that this preference was due to 
the fact of his having heard Attorney-- 
General Hagerman deliver before a jury 



a speech of remarkable brilliancy. Mr. 
Hagerman was appointed Attorney-General 
in 1837, and was raised to the Judicial 
Bench in 1839 ; and as it was during this 
interval that Mr. Vankoughnet first began 
the study of the law, it is not improbable 
that the cause assigned for his doing so may 
be the true one. He at first studied in the 
office of Mr. George Jarvis, at Cornwall, but 
after a time transferred his services to the 
office of Messrs. Smith \: Crooks, of Toronto, 
where he remained until the expiration of 
his articles. As a student he worked and 
read hard, and his principals conceived a 
high idea of his talents and general apti- 
tude for legal practice. 

He was called to the Bar of Upper Canada 
in Hilary Term, 1844, and soon afterwards 
formed a partnership with the late Robert 
Ivaston Burns who, like himself, was sub- 
sequently raised to a seat on the Bench 
and Mr. Oliver Mowat, the present Premier 
of Ontario ; the style of the firm being 
Burns, Mowat V Yankouglmet. The senior 
partner, Mr. Burns, was at that time Ji 
of the Home District Court, having juris- 
diction over the present counties of York, 
Ontario and Peel. Upon the passing of the 
Act whereby judges were prohibited from 
engaging in practice, lie withdrew from the 
firm and from business, in order to confine 
his attention exclusively to his judicial du- 
Afterhis withdrawal, Messrs. Mowat \- 
Yankouglmet continued in partnership for 



128 



THE HON. PHILIP M. M. S. VANKOUGHNET. 



some time, after which Mr. Vankoughnet 
formed a partnership with his brother, the 
late Matthew Robert Vankoughnet. The 
subject of the present sketch had by this 
time secured a very prominent position at the 
Bar, though it is said that his prominence 
was due rather to his great natural ability 
than to any strenuous efforts on his own part. 
The diligence which marked his career as a 
student does not seem to have accompanied 
him to the Bar, where, as has been said, " he 
trusted more to his talents than his indus- 
try." This, however, must be taken with 
a due measure of allowance. He was cer- 
tainly less industrious than were some of his 
competitors in those days, but it is incon- 
ceivable that he could have got creditably 
through with such an amount of work as 
he did unless he had been the reverse of 
an indolent man. He attained great success 
as an advocate at Nisi Prius, and was un- 
rivalled as a cross-examiner. Durinf the 

o 

later years of his practice he gave his atten- 
tion chiefly to Equity, and was a formi- 
dable rival of Mr. Mowat, Mr. Strong, Mr. 
Roaf, and other prominent Chancery bar- 
risters. He was for sonic time lecturer on 
Equity Jui'isprudence at Trinity College, 
Toronto. A writer in the Uji/H'r (.'<> mnltr 
Law Jim run/, referring to the lectures then 
delivered by Mr. Vankoughnet, says that 
they were oral, and "not remarkable as the 
fruits of industry," but they were always 
interesting and instructive. He received 
the appointment of a Queen's Counsel from 
the second Baldwin-Lafontaine Government 
in the month of November, 1850. As Mr. 
Vankoughnet was a Conservative in his 
political views, and had always acted with 
the Party opposed to that Administration, 
his appointment must be accepted ;is a trib- 
ute to his acknowledged eminence at the 
Bar, and as such was creditable alike to 
himself and the Ministry. 

In 18.")G, when he had been twelve years 
at the Bar, he was earnestly importuned bv 



the Attorney-General the present Sir John 
A Macdonald to enter the Government of 
the day. He yielded to the importunity, 
and on the 24>th of May in that year accept- 
ed the office of President of the Executive 
Council and Minister of Agriculture, as suc- 
cessor to Sir Allan MacXab. He did not 
obtain a seat in the Legislature until the 
4th of November following, when he was 
elected a member of the Legislative Council 
for the Rideau Division. From this time 
forward his attention was entirely taken up 
with hi.s duties as a Cabinet Minister, and 
he ceased to engage in legal practice. It is 
said that in accepting office he made a great 
pecuniary sacrifice, as the income derived 
from his business was much larger than his 
official salary. 

The Department of Agriculture was not 
in a very satisfactory condition when Mr. 
Vankoughnet succeeded to it. He was in- 
strumental in bringing about some much- 
needed reforms, and had the satisfaction 
of leaving it in a much better state than 
that in which he had found it. As a Cabinet 
Minister, however, he did not at once be- 
come popular. He had previously had but 
little to do with politics, and felt himself in 
an unfamiliar sphere. He at last succeed- 
ed in accommodating himself to his sur- 
roundings, but it cannot be said that politics 
ever became a thoroughly congenial pur- 
suit with him. He of course shared the fate 
of the Ministry at the end of July, LS5S, 
when it was defeated on the seat of Gover- 
ment question. Upon the formation of the 
Cartier-Macdonald Administration, on the 
7th of August, Mr. Vankoughnet became 
Commissioner of Crown Lands, and thus 
took part in the perpetration of the Double- 
Shuffle. As head of the Crown Lands De- 
partment he did good service to the country 
by introducing many much-needed chair. 
He introduced the system of selling town- 
ships i'n li/ui-, and amalgamated the Indian 
Department with that of the Crown Lands. 



THE HON. PHILIP M. M. S. VANKOUGHNET. 



129 



He administered his department with great 
diligence, and got rid of many arrears of 
lon<r .standing. From the time of his elec- 

O O 

tion to the Legislative Council he was the 
Goverment leader of that body, and he con- 
ciliated opinion there by a manner which 
was pleasing without effort. He was a 
smooth and ready, albeit not a remarkably 
powerful speaker, and could always be de- 
pended upon to do justice to any measure 
which might form the subject of debate. 
A short time before his appointment to the 
Bench he repaired to England as one of a 
delegation to confer with the Imperial au- 
thorities on the subject of the International 
Railway. 

He was appointed to the dignified posi- 
tion of Chancellor of Upper Canada on the 
18th of March, 18(i2. The position was an 
onerous one, for there were large arrears of 
work in the Court of Chancery. The long ill- 
ness of the previous Chancellor, the Hon. 
William Hume Blake, and the vacancy in 
the office subsequent to his resignation, had 
been the means of delaying many judgments, 
and even of preventing the hearing of causes. 
Mr. Vankoughnet, moreover, had been for 
si line years out of practice, and could not be 
expected to step upon the Bench with all 
bis legal lore fresh in his mind. It was i 
soon apparent, however, that the Chancery 
Bench had been very powerfully reinforced. 
He was endowed with great readiness of 
perception, grasped the points of a case 
almost by intuition, and in a large propor- 
tion of cases pronounced judgment without 
leaving his scat. His courtesy and consid- 
eration made him highly esteemed by the 
Chancery Bar. To say that he was al \\a\s 
impartial and open to conviction is simply 
to say what, it is to be hoped, might be 
;i vouched of every judge who has sat on 
the Bench of the Superior Courts of this 
Province during the last generation or two. 
He introduced many important reforms into 



the practice of the Court over which he pre- 
sided. He administered justice in the Court 
of Chancery for somewhat more than seven 
years, during the last two or three of which 
he suffered much from ill-health. It was not 
generally believed, however, that his end 
was near, as he was still comparatively a 
young man, and seemed to be endowed with 
a large share of vitality. It would seem, 
however, that his constitution had never 
been really robust. He died at his resi- 
dence in Toronto on Sunday, the 7th of 
November, 18C9, in the forty-seventh year 
of his age. 

Mr. Mowat, who was then one of the 
Vice-Chancellors, was holding the Chancery 
circuit at Cobourg when intelligence reached 
him of the Chancellor's death. He there 
and then pronounced a eulogy upon the 
deceased judge which contains upon the 
whole a truthful estimate of his judicial 
character, and for this reason we append it 
to the foregoing remarks. "As a judge," 
said Mr. Mowat, " he was most conscien- 
tious ; he had a profound love of justice, 
and an exalted sense of judicial duty. In 
the discharge of his office, he acted without 
fear, favour, or affection, if any judge ever 
did. He was from the first prompt in de- 
ciding, and that he was generally accurate 
as well as prompt is shown by the fact that 
his decrees were generally (I believe) as sel- 
dom appealed from successfully as those of 
any judge we ever had. Whatever those op- 
posed to him, politically, may have thought 
of the measures or proceedings of the Gov- 
ernment of which he formed part, nobody 
doubted the purity of his motives or the 
soundness of his patriotism. He loved this 
Canada of ours, which was the land of his 
birth, and he earnestly desired to promote 
its interests." 

Ho married early in life the daughter of 
Colonel Turner, an officer of one of the regi- 
ments of the line. He left several children. 



IV 18 



THE HON. MALCOLM CAMERON. 



THERE was a time when Mr. Cameron 
occupied a position second to that of 
hardly any member of the Reform Party in 
this Province. That time, however, was 
long ago, and for many years before his 
death he was a mere shadow of his former 
self. He was a man who had somewhat 
more than his share of the ups and downs 
of life, both political, commercial, and social ; 
and it is not to be wondered at if the lustre 
of his eye was dimmed in his old age. When 
he was in the vigour of his manhood and 
the plenitude of his power, Malcolm Cam- 
eron was a force not to be despised, though 
there was even then an impracticability 
about him which interfered with his public 
usefulness, and prevented his great energy 
and force of character from being recognized 
at their full value. 

His name sufficiently indicates his Celtic 
origin. His father was Mr. Angus Cameron, 
formerly of Argyleshire, Scotland, who came 
out to Canada in 1806, as the hospital ser- 
geant of a Highland regiment. His mother 
was Euphemia, daughter of Mr. Duncan Mc- 
Gregor, of Perthshire. Malcolm was born at 
Three Rivers, at the mouth of the St. Mau- 
rice, Lower Canada, on the 25th of April, 
1808. The regiment to which his father j 
was attached was disbanded in 1816, and 
Mr. Angus Cameron thenceforward made a 
livelihood by keeping a tavern at Perth, 
in the Ottawa District. Here the family 
resided until 182:2, when the father died, 



leaving his family but slenderly provided 
for. It was during the residence at Perth, 
as we may not unreasonably infer, that the 
son conceived that distaste for bar-rooms 
and ardent spirits which distinguished him 
through life. Sobriety was a lost art in 
Canada in those days ; or rather, it had not 
then been invented. The amount of liquor 
consumed in the remote districts was such 
that the imperfect statistics of the times 
seem incredible. The scenes wherewith 
young Malcolm Cameron was brought into 
frequent contact were such as might well fill 
him with disgust for tavern-life. His mother 
seconded the effect which such scenes might 
naturally produce, by her timely admoni- 
tions. The combined result of daily expe- 
rience and warning was that he conceived a 
horror of dram-drinking which accompanied 
him through life. He was a total abstainer, 
and finally an advocate of prohibition. 

His political views were doubtless to some 
extent the natural outcome of his tempera- 
ment, but they, as well as his distaste for 
drink, are easily accounted for on the score 
of early association. His mother was very 
anxious that he should be removed from 
the atmosphere of the tavern, and when 
he was twelve years old a situation was 
procured for him on a farm a few miles 
farther back in the wilderness, on the banks 
of the Mississippi River. Here a part of 
his duty consisted of taking rhargc of a 
ferry-boat. The neighbouring settlement 



THE HON. MALCOLM CAMERON. 



131 



was largely peopled by quondam Glasgow 
weavers, who were radicals of the most 
pronounced stripe, and who lost no oppor- 
tunity of proclaiming the gospel of radical- 
ism to all who came in their way. Sitting 
at the feet of these Gamaliels, young Mal- 
colm Cameron learned his first rudimentary 
lessons in politics, and most of the ideas 
then acquired clung to him through life. 
He remained in this situation about three 
years, when he obtained a situation in a store 
at Laprairie. After a few months he ills- 
agreed with his employer and threw up his 
situation. He walked in to Montreal and 
accepted the first employment that came in 
his way, which was that of a stable boy. 
His father had meanwhile died, and his 
mother about this time removed from Perth 
to Montreal, where she opened a boarding- 
house. During the following winter he 
lived with her, and attended the district 
school. Previous to this time he cannot be 
said to have had any school education what- 
ever, except sufficient to enable him to read 
words of one syllable, and to make pothooks. 
He worked diligently at his lessons during 
the winter, and in the following spring ob- 
tained employment as a clerk in a brewery 
and distillery. He retained this situation 
about four years, during which period he 
gave great satisfaction to his employer. The 
hours not required for business wire de- 
voted to reading. As soon as he had saved 
money enough, he purchased a copy of 
Hume and Smollett's " History of England," 
and some idea of the state of the book 
market in Montreal forty-five years ago 
may be formed from the fact that the work 
had to be specially ordered from England. 
He read Hume and Smollett through again 
and again, and then read such other books 
urn- in his way. His education pro- 

( led steadily, and, though he never !- 

came what can properly be called an edu- 
cated man, he amassed a great fund of 
knowledge, useful and otherwise, 

D ' 



In 1828, when he was twenty years of 
age, he embarked in his first commercial 
enterprise, in partnership with a relative. 
The connection did not prove harmonious, 
and was soon terminated. He then opened 
a general store on his own account, and 
seems to have prospered fairly for several 
years. In 1833, during a visit to Scotland, 
whither he had gone to purchase goods, 
he married his cousin, Miss Christina McGre- 
gor, daughter of his mother's brother, Mr. 
Robert McGregor, cotton spinner, of Glas- 
gow. The marriage took place on the 2!)th 
of April. Three years later, in 1830, he was 
returned to the old Upper Canadian Assem- 
bly as member for the county of Lanark. 
This was during the Lieutenant-Governor- 
ship of Sir Francis Bond Head, against 
whose mischievous policy the subject of this 
sketch arrayed himself with much resolution. 
It was a matter of 'course that a young man 
who had made his own way in life through 
such difficulties should oppose the Family 
Compact. He denounced that corrupt oli- 
garchy both on the floor of the house and 
elsewhere, and did good service in the ranks 
of the Reform Party. He fought on be- 
half of Responsible Government, the en- 
tire separation of the connection between 
Church and State, and the Union of the 
Provinces. After the Union he was reelect- 
ed for Lanark, and is said to have been 
ottered the portfolio of Inspector-General 
by Lord Sydenham, in the first Baldwin- 
Lafontaine Government. It is not easy to 
understand why he refused such a position, 
unless it was because his radicalism was of 
too pronounced a character to enable him to 
get on with Mr. Baldwin. At any rate, 
the Inspector-Generalship, if offered to Mr. 
Cameron, was declined by him, and was 
eont'erred upon Mr. Hincks. Under Lord 
Sydenham's successor, Sir Charles Bagot, he 
accepted otlice as Inspector of Revenue, but 
without a seat in the ('aliinet. During his 
tenure of office he did much to improve the 



132 



THE HON. MALCOLM CAMERON. 



system adopted at the custom-houses in 
those times. 

Several years before the consummation 
of the Union he had removed westward to 
Sarnia, where he embarked in the milling 
and lumbering business, and continued to 
reside for many years. At the second gen- 
eral election after the Union, he success- 
fully contested the county of Kent, which 
then included Lambton, for the Assembly, 
and thenceforward sat for that constitu- 
ency for several years. It is to be presumed 
that after his entry into public life Mr. 
Cameron had little time to devote to the 
improvement of his education. During the 
first few years of his Parliamentary career 
his deficiencies in this respect were apparent 
enough to all who listened to his speeches, 
and the good breeding of his opponents 
may be inferred from the fact that they 
were constantly sneering at his blunders 
and holding him up to public ridicule on 
the score of his want of learning. As time 
passed by, however, his education improved, 
and people began to admit that his opinions 
were worth listening to. He had an im- 
passioned delivery, and a ready command 
of not ineffective language ; and he was 
thus a great lever during the progress of 
the exciting political campaigns of the 
times. 

Upon the accession to power of the sec- 
ond Baldwiu-Lafontaine Administration, in 
1848, Mr. Cameron became a member of 
the Cabinet. During subsequent modifica- 
tions and reconstructions of that Adminis- 
tration he held the various offices of Presi- 
dent of the Council, Commissioner of Public 
Works, Minister of Agriculture, and Post- 
master-General. He was too advanced a 
radical to get on with Mr. Baldwin, and 
withdrew from the Government in Feb- 
ruary, 1850. Previous to his withdrawal 
he had attacked Mr. Merritt's method of 
administering the Public Works Depart- 
ment, and had made that gentleman's posi- 



tion very uncomfortable. Upon the re- 
construction under Mr. Hincks and Mr. 
Morin in October, 1851, Mr. Cameron ac- 
cepted office as President of the Council, 
but upon presenting himself to his constit- 
uents for reelection after accepting office he 
was opposed by the late Mr. Brown, who 
succeeded in defeating him. He took re- 
fuge in Huron, which constituency he re 
presented for the next three years. He 
was at this time at the height of his power 
and influence in the country, and, with the 
late Dr. John Rolph, formed the head and 
front of the advanced radical element. He 
shared alike in the honour and obloquy 
which attaches to the Hincks-Morin Gov- 
ernment, in all the great measures whereof 
he took an active interest. He was one of 
the Government Directors of the Grand 
Trunk Railway, and came in for a good 
deal of hostile criticism in connection there- 
with. He also visited Washington in con- 
nection with the Reciprocity Treaty. He 
was a vigorous advocate of canal and rail- 
way construction, and of all public works 
for opening up and increasing the trade of 
the country. In 1834, when Mr. Hincks 
brought about an appeal to the people, his 
Government was condemned by the country. 
Mr. Cameron shared in the general con- 
demnation, and was defeated at the polls 
both in Huron and Lambton. During the 
next four years he was not in public life. 
In December, 1858, he was returned for 
Lambton, which he represented until 1860, 
when he resigned his seat and was elected to 
the Legislative Council for the St. Clair 
Division. During the following recess he 
paid a visit to British Columbia and Van- 
couver Island, whence he repaired to Great 
Britain on behalf of those colonies. It has 
been said that his mission was productive of 
much benefit to the colonists of the Pacific 
coast, and that they long regarded them- 
selves as being under an obligation to him. 
A numerously signed petition was sent over 



THE HON. MALCOLM CAMERON. 



133 



to England, addressed to the Secretary of 
State, in which it was prayed that Mr. 
Cameron might be appointed Lieutenaut- 
Governor of British Columbia. 

In 1863 he withdrew from Parliament to 
accept the office of Queen's Printer, con- 
jointly with the late Mr. George Desbarats. 
He held that office for about four years. 
In 18G9 he was an unsuccessful candidate 
for the representation of South Renfrew in 
the House of Commons. Two years later 
he was defeated in South Lanark as a can- 
didate for the Local Legislature. In 1872 
he contested the county of Russell for the 
Commons, and was once more unsuccessful. 
In 1S74 he at last obtained a seat in the 
House of Commons as member for South 
Ontario a position which he occupied 
until his death, which took place at Ottawa 
on the 1st of June, 187G. He had out- 
lived his physical and mental vigour before 
his entry into the House of Commons, 
and did not cut a conspicuous figure there, 
though he occasionally spoke on questions 
in which he felt a more than ordinary 
interest. 

In addition to the various enlightened 
measures already referred to as having been 
supported by Mr. Cameron while he was a 
member of Parliament, it may be mentioned 
that he was also an advocate of the abolition 



of imprisonment for debt, of the right of 
married women to hold property indepen- 
dently of their husbands' control, of vote by 
ballot, and of international arbitration in- 
stead of war. As an advocate of temper- 
ance he has not left his equal behind him. 
During several sessions of Parliament he 
formed societies solely composed of mem- 
bers of the Legislature, and in this way he 
succeeded in inducing various friends to 
sign the pledge for the session. He was 
President of the Canadian Alliance for the 
suppression of the liquor traffic, and fre- 
quently appeared on the temperance plat- 
form as a lecturei'. He was endowed with 
a vast fund of drollery and humour, and 
could tell a story very effectively, either on 
the platform or off it. 

At the time of his death he was sixty - 
eight years of age, and was the only mem- 
ber of the House of Commons who had sat 
in the old Upper Canadian Legislature prior 
to the Union. His business career was an 
exceedingly chequered one. He was fond of 
great undertakings, but did not seem to pos- 
sess the faculty of successfully dealing with 
details. He was at different times a store- 
keeper, miller, lumberer, land speculator, 
journalist, and what not. As a public man 
he kept his hands clean, and died compara- 
tively poor. 



THOMAS COLTRIN KEEPER, C.M.G., 

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, LONDON. 



MR. KEEFER was born at Thorold, 
Upper Canada, on the 4th of No- 
vember, 1821. His father was the son of 
a French Huguenot of German extraction, 
who emigrated from Alsace, near Stras- 
bourg, on the Upper Rhine, more than a 
century ago, to the then British Province 
of New Jersey. On the breaking out of 
the Revolution of 1776, George Kieffer es- 
poused the cause of the King, and lost his 
life and property (which was considerable) 
in consequence of this choice. In the year 
1790, his widow, with her son George, rode 
from the homestead at Paulinskill, near 
Newton, in Sussex County, New Jersey, fol- 
lowing an Indian trail through the wilds of 
southern New York her son marching by 
her side and crossed the Niagara River into 
Canada, opposite where Buffalo now stands. 
The site of Buffalo then contained only a 
hut, which was temporarily occupied by a 
single fisherman. With only what could be 
brought on horseback, and the grant of wild 
lands made by the Crown to the widows 
and children of U. E. Loyalists, the family 
began life in their new home, but under the 
old flag. George Keefer (who spelled the 
name as it is pronounced) was the first 
President of the Welland Canal Company, 
and his house was the headquarters of the 
Engineers of that work. This circumstance 
doubtless led to more than one of his sons 
embracing the profession of Civil Engineer- 
ing. His eldest son and namesake was 



employed on the Welland, St. Lawrence 
and Chambly Canals, and also upon the 
Grand Trunk Railway. His fourth son, 
Mr. Samuel Keefer (of the Pacific Railway 
Commission), was the first Engineer of Pub- 
lic Works when the Union of the Canadas 
took place in 1841. He has been connected 
with all the principal public works of Can- 
ada for the last half century, and received 
the gold medal of the Paris Exhibition of 
1878 for his suspension bridge at Niagara 
Falls. 

The subject of this sketch is the eighth 
son, and was educated first at Grantham 
Academy, St. Catharines, and afterwards, 
from 1833 to 1838, at Upper Canada Col- 
lege, where his name is now emblazoned 
on the walls as the winner of the Elgin 
Prize Essay. He entered the College du- 
ring the administration of its founder, Sir 
John Colborne (Lord Seaton), whose sons 
were pupils, and was a school-fellow of 
many distinguished Canadians. Upon leav- 
ing college, in 1838, after passing into the 
highest form, the principal the Rev. Dr. 
Harris in taking leave of him predicted his 
future success in life. No public work 
being in progress in Canada at that time he 
found employment on the Erie Canal under 
an engineer who, when employed as Chief on 
the Welland Canal, had been a frequent in- 
mate of his father's house. Upon the Union 
of the Canadas in 1841, the purchase by 
the Government of the Welland Canal from 



THOMAS COLTRIN KEEFER, C.M.O. 



135 



the private Company which had construct- 
ed it was determined upon. Its enlarge- 
ment was proceeded with, and Mr. Keefer 
was appointed Assistant Engineer for the 
southern division, where he remained until 
184-3, when he was made Chief Engineer of 
the Ottawa River Works, and removed to 
the present capital of the Dominion. 

Upon the completion of the Ottawa 
Works *in 184S, Mr. Keefer's connection 
with the Government service terminated 
for the time, and foreseeing the advent of 
the railway era in Canada he turned his at- 
tention to that question. In 1849 he pub- 
lished the " Philosophy of Railways," a 
pamphlet which had much to do with the 
commencement of the Grand Trunk and 
other railways, and with the policy of Gov- 
ernment and municipal aid by which their 
construction was secured. This pamphlet 
ran through several editions, the last of 
which appeared in 1871. It was translated 
into French, and reprinted in the Maritime 
Provinces. It showed that Canada lost from 
the want of railways and a winter market 
an amount which would build fifty miles 
'very year ; that we could not have manu- 
factures without them; and that their want 
was an actual tax on the industry of the 
country. Early in the following year (LS50) 
it was announced that Mr. Keefer was the 
winner of the prize offered by Lord Elgin 
for the best essay on the influence of the 
canals of Canada on her agriculture. In 
this essay Mr. Keefer marked out, thirty 
years ago, a National Policy in the follow- 
ing words " Fortunately ' free trade ' and 
' protection ' have not yet become war cries 
in Canada, and we trust that patriotism 
and the mutual respect of parties will dic- 
tate that spirit of compromise which is 
the leaven of all good government. \Ve 
believe there is a freedom of commercial 
intercourse which need not be unlicensed, 
and an encouragement of native indii-trv, 
when judiciously directed, not incompati- 



ble with each other, or with the interests 
of Canada as an agricultural country. We 
cannot fail to perceive that we are already 
a surplus food-producing people ; that our 
most easily cultivated lands are taken up ; 
that the want of a local market and super- 
abundant capital forbids the cultivation of 
the richer and more expensively tilled soils ; 
that our most valuable population the na- 
tive born adults of both sexes are wander- 
ing off where good land is more plenty and 
cheaper, or hard labour better rewarded. 
By industry and thrift we may recover 
from the effects of temporary calamities, 
but when the young and vigorous, the en- 
terprising, intelligent and initiated portion 
of our population abandon the country they 
have been reared in, and which they are 
best qualified to develop, she is indeed be- 
reaved. Any policy, therefore, which offers 
a reasonable prospect of extending the va- 
riety of our occupations, should be received 
upon its own merits, without reference to 
its clashing with a principle." 

The Senate of the United States having 
called for a report on their trade with Can- 
ada, the United States Consul at St. John, 
New Brunswick, was entrusted with the 
duty, and visited Canada for the purpose. 
He applied to the late Hon. W. H. Merritt 
for assistance, who referred him to Mr. 
Keefer as the Canadian best qualified for 
the duty. The latter had reentered the 
Government service during the summer of 
1850, on Mr. Merritt's accession to power, 
and had been engaged on a survey of the 
River St. Lawrence, above Montreal, and 
below Quebec, including the communication 
between Canada and New Hrunswick via 
Lake Temiscouata. After the completion 
of the surveys Mr. Keefer was sent by the 
Government to Boston to assist Mr. An- 
drews, the United States Consul, in pre- 
paring his first report on reciprocal trade 
with Canada. A second report being called 
for, Mr. Keefer /who had again left the 



1.36 



THOMAS COLTRIN KEEFER, C.M.G. 



Government service) was sent for by Mr. 
Andrews in 1852 to New York, and con- 
tributed largely to the final report. In ac- 
knowledgement of his services the con- 
sular agency at Toronto was placed at Mr. 
Keefer's disposal by Mr. Andrews, who had 
now become Consul-General for British 
North America, and he added his opinion 
that in this matter of reciprocity, Mr. Keefer 
had " done more for Canada, outside and 
inside, than any other Canadian." 

In 1851, the first movement respecting a 
trunk railway was made by a convention 
of Wardens and Mayors of counties and 
towns between Kingston and Toronto, which 
was held at Belleville, and Mr. Keefer was 
appointed Chief Engineer. Following this, 
the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway 
Company at Montreal, represented by the 
late Hon. John Young, provided for a sur- 
vey to connect their line with the Great 
West by a bridge over the St. Lawrence 
and a railway to Kingston, both of which 
were entrusted to Mr. Keefer. His report 
established for the first time the practi- - 
cability of bridging the St. Lawrence at 
Montreal, notwithstanding the formidable 
ice movements which had led other engi- 
neers to seek a site higher up the river. 
The Victoria bridge has been built upon the 
principles laid down in Mr. Keefer's report, 
viz., contracting the water way by solid ap- 
proaches, instead of seeking increased water 
way in a wider portion of the river; and 
twenty years' experience has established 
the correctness of his conclusions. While 
these surveys were in progress Mr. Keefer 
visited the first International Exhibition in 
London, in 1851, for which he had been 
gazetted as one of the Canadian Commis- 
sioners by Lord Elgin in the previous year. 

In 18-52 Mr. KrctVr was appointed Chief 
Engineer for the construction of the Mont- 
real water- works, in which he was engaged 
until their completion in 1857. In ls">o 
he became Engineer of the Montreal Har- 



bour Commission. In 1854, when the re- 
peal of the Railway Act of 1849 and the 
Grand Trunk subsidy cut off all further 
Governmental aid to railways, Mr. Keefer 
advocated in a lecture at Montreal a land 
grant for securing a railway through the 
Ottawa Valley; and in 185(3 a line from 
Quebec to Lake Huron was chartered with a 
liberal land grant. In 1857 he removed to 
Hamilton, and constructed the water-works 
for that city, filling at the same time the 
position of Chief Engineer to the Hamilton 
and Port Dover Railway. In addition to the 
important works of construction during his 
residence at Montreal and Hamilton, he was 
engaged as Consulting Engineer on harbour 
questions, water-works, etc., in Nova Scotia 
and New Brunswick. In 1862 he was ap- 
pointed a Commissioner to the second In- 
ternational Exhibition, and went over to 
London to relieve the late Sir William 
Logan, who had organized the Canadian 
Department there. 

In 18G4, Mr. Keefer (who had removed 
from Hamilton to Toronto in 1800) returned 
to Ottawa, where for several years his time 
was chiefly occupied with a family estate ; 
but in 1869, immediately after the acquisi- 
tion by Canada of the claims of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company to the North-West 
Territories, he commenced a series of letters 
in the Montreal and Ottawa papers, point- 
ing out that " a continuous railway on Cana- 
dian soil was indispensable to the extension 
of Confederation across the continent," and 
that " the lands of the ' Fertile Belt ' must 
build it." He opposed the expenditure then 
going on upon the Dawson Route as certain 
to be rendered useless \>y the early construc- 
tion of a railway, and as unable to compete 
with the route through the United States. 
These letters undoubtedly had much to do 
in forming public opinion for a favourable 
reception of the scheme a few years later. 
In].s70, Mr. Keefer brought about a con- 
vention of municipal delegates from the 



THOMAS COLTRIN KEEPER, C.M.G. 



137 



Ottawa Valley and from Montreal, in fa- 
vour of the Canada Central Railway, to 
which he then alluded as the beginning of 
a Canadian Pacific Railway. 

In 1872 he commenced the construction 
of the Ottawa water-works, for which he 
had made the preliminary survey in 1869. 
He has also been connected as Consulting 
Engineer with the water-works of Halifax, 
Quebec, Toronto, St. Catharines, and Lon- 
don, Ontario., In 1877 he was appointed 
Chief Commissioner for Canada at the Paris 
Exhibition of 1878. That Exhibition was 
the first at which Canada has appeared in 
Europe since Confederation, and her Com- 
missioner fully comprehended the impor- 
tance of a favourable (lr'1>ut for the new 
North American Power. The great map 
which has since been exhibited all over 
Canada, and the models of public works, 
for the first time fully illustrated the great 
resources and enterprise of the Dominion, 
and these, aided by a very complete exhibit 
of the products of agriculture, the forest, 
the mine, the fisheries, and manufactures, 
produced a genuine surprise for England as 
well as for France. 

In addition to the arduous labours of 
preparation and installation of such an ex- 
hibition, Mr. Keefer found time to edit one 
of the most complete hand-books which has 
ever been published in connection with any 
country, accompanied and illustrated with 
valuable and beautiful maps. In it the 
most recent and complete information was 



given as to the physical geography, climate, 
area and population, drainage system, laws, 
administration of government, public de- 
partments, commerce, agriculture, mines, 
fisheries, education, railways, canals, etc., 
so that a European about to emigrate could 
supplement what was wanting in the Ex- 
hibition itself, in the way of information to 
enable him to judge of the merits of Canada 
as a future home. The London Times and 
other leading newspapers reviewed it in 
highly favourable terms. Ten thousand 
copies of it in French and English were 
printed, eight thousand of which were dis- 
tributed in Europe. A copy was sent to 
every member of the British Parliament, 
and to many of the country clergy, who 
are more consulted by intending emigrants 
than any other class. The recent interest 
displayed by both France and England in 
the affairs of the Dominion is doubtless in 
no small degree due to the comprehensive 
and exhaustive exhibit made by Canada at 
Paris in 1878. 

France conferred upon the Canadian 
Commissioner the rank of " officer " in the 
Legion of Honour, and invited him, on the 
nomination of the Prince of Wales, to be- 
come a member of the International Jury in 
the class of Engineering. England acknow- 
ledged his services by the Companionship 
of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. 
He is a member of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers, London, and of the American So- 
ciety of Civil Engineers, New York. 



IV 19 



THE HON. JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON, 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE PROVINCE OF MANITOBA. 



THE Honourable Mr. Cauchon occupies a 
position among the public men of the 
Dominion which, for want of a better word, 
we shall designate as peculiar. He has 
been conspicuously before the Canadian 
public for nearly forty years, and is known, 
at least by name, throughout the length and 
breadth of our land. He was a politician 
from his boyhood, and enjoyed a certain 
local repute as a writer on political ques- 
tions long before he had attained his ma- 
jority, and consequently long before he had 
reached an age when his opinions on such 
questions could be expected to have much 
value. His intellect, however, developed 
early, and when he first entered Parliament, 
in 1844, he was considerably older than his 
years. From that date down to the time 
of his appointment to the position which he 
now occupies an interval embracing thirty- 
three years he continuously occupied a 
seat in the Legislature, either as private 
member, Cabinet Minister, or Speaker of 
the Senate. A parliamentary career extend- 
ing over so long a period would of itself 
have been sufficient to make him widely 
known. But there are other reasons for the 
celebrity we had nearly said notoriety 
which attaches to his name. The mem- 
ber for Montmorency was never afflicted 
with bashfulness or diffidence. He was not 
only a frequent speaker, but a remarkably 
fiery and effective one. His speeches were 
always listened to, for on whatsoever topic 



he thought fit to deliver himself, he spoke 
with a verve and energy which could not 
fail to secure attention. His arguments 
were not always convincing, but they were 
nearly always controversial and aggressive. 
It is no disparagement to his French Cana- 
dian contemporaries to say that few, if any, 
of them can claim intellectual precedence 
over Joseph Edouard Cauchon. Sir George 
Cartier was his superior as a party leader. 
Sir A. A. Dorion was and is his superior 
in culture, and in its application to prac- 
tical work. The Hon. A. N. Morin was a 
man of undoubted capacity, and of much 
intellectual and moral worth. Dorion and 
Morin, however, throughout the whole of 
their public career, were diffident men. 
You might know them for years ere you 
knew how much strength was in them. Mr. 
Cauchon well, Mr. Cauchon is not, and 
never has been, diffident. Whether in Par- 
liamentary speech or newspaper article, he 
bursts upon you like a tornado. His great 
force impresses you at once. For various 
reasons, however, he has not for many years 
exerted an influence commensurate with his 
abilities, and he has long ceased to be widely 
popular. True, his constituents in Montmo- 
rency stuck to him through evil report and 
good report, and he never appealed to their 
suffrages in vain. But there were a queru- 
lousness and pugnacity about him which 
constantly provoked bitter enmities, and 
these enmities he seldom or never attempt- 










A 

> 



THE HON. JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON. 



139 



ed to allay. He seemed to take delight in 
ridiculing and exasperating his opponents. 
This was perhaps a weakness, but, it' so, it 
was unquestionably a weakness allied to 
strength. The more powerful of his enemies 
hated him ; the weaker ones both hated and 
feared. He came to be regarded as a danger- 
ous antagonist and an undesirable ally. 
Then, there were certain pecuniary trans- 
actions which, whether rightly or wrongly, 
enveloped him in an atmosphere of dis- 
repute. His enemies were numerous, and 
readily availed themselves of such a state of 
affairs to attack him in the most vulnerable 
place. That many offences were laid to his 
charge of which he was entirely innocent 
there can be no reasonable doubt. Still, it 
is to be feared that certain transactions 
wherewith he was more or less connected 
were of such a nature as to lend colour to 
stultifying accusations, even when, as was 
sometimes the case, the latter were wholly 
groundless. He became a political Ish- 
maelite, and his intellectual fibre was 
such that he scarcely seemed even to re- 
gret his isolation. His unpopularity, how- 
ever, became so widespread that his use- 
fulness as a public man was seriously in- 
terfered with, and there can be no doubt 
that he acted wisely in accepting a high and 
dignified position which removed him from 
the scene of his many antagonisms. As 
Lieutenant-Governor he has conducted him- 
self with a moderation which could scarcely 
have been expected from his previous career. 
He still enjoys a large measure of physical 
and mental vigour, but he has entered upon 
the sixty-fifth year of his age, and it is 
hardly likely that he will ever care to re- 
enter the arena where he long occupied so 
conspicuous a place. 

He is descended from an old French fam- 
ily that originally settled at L'Ange Gar- 
dien a parish situated on the north shore 
of the St. Lawrence, a few miles below Que- 
bec in the year 1(536. The founder of the 



Canadian branch of the family appears to 
have been a gentleman of position and in- 
fluence. He was a member of the Conseil 
Superieur, and the personal friend and 
associate of M. de Montmagny, Governor of 
the colony of New France. His son, Cau- 
chon de Laverdiere, became a Judge of the 
Cour Royale, in the Island of Orleans. A 
more modern descendant was the late Mr. 
Joseph Ange Cauchon, of Quebec, who mar- 
ried Miss Marguerite Vallie, of the same 
city. The present Lieutenant-Governor of 
Manitoba is one of the fruits of that mar- 
riage, and was born at St. Roch's, Quebec, 
on the 31st of December, 1816. 

He began political life with the advan- 
tage of a much more thorough mental train- 
ing than has fallen to the lot of most of our 
public men. After receiving a rudimentary 
education, he entered the Petit Seminaire 
de Quebec in his fourteenth year. His 
attendance there lasted for about nine years, 
during which period he was known as a 
youth of remarkable precocity and mental 
grasp. He entered with keen relish into 
the vexed political questions of the time, 
and became an ardent nationalist while still 
in his teens. He was a high authority on 
constitutional questions among his fellow- 
students, and was accustomed to air his boy- 
ish prejudices -in the columns of Le Liberal, 
a newspaper which was at that time pub- 
lished in Quebec in the interests of the 
French-Canadian party. In 1837, while he 
was still a student at the Seminary, he en- 
tered the office of the late Mr. Justice Morin, 
but did not long remain there, being notified 
that it was contrary to the college regulations 
for him to pursue his professional studies 
concurrently with his scholastic course at the 
Seminary. In 1839, having completed a 
brilliant course at the last-named institu- 
tion, he entered the office of the late Mr. 
James G. Baird, a local advocate of high 
repute. Legal studies, however, do not 
seem to have been much to his taste, and 



140 



THE HON. JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON. 



though he read the prescribed course, and 
was duly called to the Bar of Lower Canada 
in 1843, it does not appear that he ever seri- 
ously gave his mind to his profession, or 
that he ever engaged in actual practice as 
an advocate. During the currency of his 
articles he gave up his time almost exclu- 
sively to journalistic pursuits. He was a 
regular contributor to Le G/inadien, the 
leading exponent of French -Canadian opin- 
ion, which was then edited by Mr. Etienne 
Parent, an eloquent and vigorous, but inju- 
dicious writer, who had paid the penalty of 
imprisonment for his demonstrative expres- 
sion of his opinions during the troubles of 
18:37-8. Upon Mr. Parent's election to Par- 
liament, in 1841, as representative for the 
county of Saguenay, young Cauchon, then 
in his twenty-fifth year, succeeded to the 
editorial chair. Being no longer subjected 
to the control of an older and wiser head 
than his own, he gave an exceedingly loose 
rein to his journalistic Pegasus, and for a 
few months wrote in such a strain that his 
articles could not be allowed to pass unno- 
ticed. As he turned a deaf ear to all admo- 
nitions, Le Canadien was suppressed by the 
Government, and the young editor was of 
course regarded by his admirers as a political 
martyr. He next determined to launch out 
into a newspaper enterprise on his own ac- 
count, and, with the assistance of his bro- 
ther-in-law, Mr. Cote, he established the 
Journal de Quebec. He threw himself in- 
to this new enterprise with characteristic 
energy, and made a personal canvass of his 
native city for subscribers and advertise- 
ments. He succeeded in obtaining a satis- 
factory subscription list, and the first num- 
ber of the paper made its appearance on 
the 1st of December, 1842. He had learned 
wisdom in the school of experience, and the 
Journal, under his management, erelong 
won an influential position among French- 
Canadian newspapers. Its editorial articles 
were marked by a vigour and breadth which 



proved that the writer's mind had developed 
apace since the inditing of the frothy, 
windy verbosity which had characterized 
his contributions to Le Liberal and Le Cana- 
dien. His fame as a writer spread far be- 
yond the limits of Quebec, and he was re- 
peatedly solicited by more than one con- 
stituency to enter public life. 

These solicitations were doubtless highly 
satisfactory to Mr. Cauchon, and at the 
general election of 1844 he was returned 
for the county of Montmorency. He con- 
tinuously represented that constituency, 
either in one House or another, or in both, 
down to 1872. 

His entry into public life took place at a 
critical period in the history of our consti- 
tution. The first Baldwin-Lafontaine Ad- 
ministration had resigned only a few months 
before, and the struggle between Sir Charles 
Metcalfe and the constitutional Reformers 
of Canada had fairly begun. The nature 
of that struggle is already familiar to our 
readers, and only a passing reference to it 
is needed here. The result of the elections 
of 1844 had been to give the Governor- 
General's policy a majority of supporters. 
The majority, however, was too small to 
render the position of Messrs. Draper and 
Viger by any means comfortable or assured, 
and the Opposition was perhaps the most 
formidable known to Canadian political 
history. At its head were Messrs. Baldwin 
and Lafontaine, and in its ranks were Fran- 
cis Hincks, Thomas Gushing Aylwin, and 
! indeed nearly every prominent member of 
Parliament. To swell these ranks now 
came Joseph Edouard Cauchon, who soon 
proved that he was not less formidable on 
the floor of the Assembly than in the col- 
umns of the Journal de Quebec. His 
speeches, during the early part of his Par- 
liamentary career, were marked by a hesita- 
tion of utterance begotten of redundancy 
of ideas, but this drawback was soon sur- 
mounted, and apt words flowed from his 



THE HON. JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON. 



141 



lips like a torrent from an Alpine fastness. 
He developed extraordinary powers of sar- 
casm and objurgation -and also developed 
an extraordinary faculty for making ene- 
Long before the Reform Party re- 



mies. 



turned to power in 1S4JS he was recognized 
as a Parliamentary gladiator who, so far as 
readiness of repartee and eloquence of vi- 
tuperation were concerned, was without a 
peer in the Assembly. In later times he 
had sundry passages of arms with his fel- 
low-countryman, Louis Joseph Papineau, 
but the sceptre of the " old man eloquent " 
had departed from him, and he never ap- 
peared to less advantage than when ex- 
changing left-handed compliments with the 
member for Montrnorency across the floor 
of the House. 

Mr. Cauchon supported his leader, Mr. 
Lafontaine, until that gentleman's retire- 
ment to private life in 1851. Upon the ac- 
cession to power of the Hincks-Morin Ad- 
ministration he assumed a hostile attitude, 
and was a source of no little trouble to the 
Premier. He strongly objected to some of 
the western members in the Government. 
Mr. Malcolm Cameron and Dr. Rolph, re- 
presenting the " Clear Grit " element in the 
House, were specially distasteful to him, 
and he directed all his energies to their mor- 
tification. An attempt was made to appease 
him by Mr. Hincks, who offered him the post 
of Assistant-Secretary for Lower Canada, 
with a seat in Parliament, but without a seat 
in the Cabinet. Mr. Cauchon declined the 
offer, and on the opening of the session in 
1S52 arrayed himself in determined oppo- 
sition. He made an attempt to form a sep- 
arate Opposition composed exclusively of 
Conservatives from the Lower Province, of 
which element he was at that time the 
acknowledged leader. He could not muster 
a sufficient force, however, to make a dis- 
tinct Opposition, and contented himself 
with attacking the Ministry upon i 
available opportunity. Among other pro- 



jects which he advocated at this time with 
great vehemence was that of construct- 
ing a North Shore Railway, out of which 
he contrived to make some political capital. 
He did his utmost to oust Mr. Hincks from 
power, and upon the formation of the Mac- 
nab-Morin Coalition Government, in l!S.">-i, 
he yielded it his cordial support. He sup- 
ported the Acts abolishing the Seignorial 
Tenure and secularizing the Clergy Re- 
serves. Upon Mr. Morin's retirement from 
the Government in the beginning of 1S55, 
to accept a seat on the Bench, Mr. Cauchon 
entered the Administration, and became 
Commissioner of Crown Lands. Within a 
few weeks after his accession to office he in- 
troduced and successfully carried through 
the Act rendering the Legislative Council 
elective. His tenure of office generally was 
marked by great industry, and he certainly 
left his mark upon the legislation of the 
time. He retained his place in the Minis- 
try until the month of April, 1857, when a 
disagreement arose between him and his 
colleagues with respect to the North Shore 
Railway. He was desirous of obtaining 
Government assistance towards the con- 
struction of the line, and pressed his wishes 
upon his colleagues very strongly. Being 
unable to obtain the wished-for boon, he 
withdrew from the Administration in great 
dudgeon, and went into Opposition. When 
he tendered his resignation it was generally 
understood that he only did so to extort 
concessions from his colleagues, and that he 
did not really intend to retire. His resig- 
nation, however, was accepted almost with- 
out remonstrance. Soon after the perpetra- 
tion of the Double-Shuffle he began to give a 
more or less cordial support to the Cartier- 
Maedonald Government. As time passed 
his support became more firm, and in June, 
! 1861, he accepted office in it a.s Commission- 
er of Public Works. He held that portfolio 
until the defeat of the Government in May, 
1MJ2, when he resigned with his colleagues. 



142 



THE HON. JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON. 



Mr. Cauchon was a zealous and active 
supporter of the scheme of Confederation, 
both in Parliament and in his paper, which 
he continued to edit with never-failino- 

o 

ability. He was offered a seat in the Tache- 
Macdonald Administration in 1861, but 
thought proper to decline it, although he 
supported it so long as it remained in 
power. 

At the first general election after the 
Union, in 1867, he was returned by accla- 
mation, both to the House of Commons and 
to the Local Legislature of Quebec, by his 
old constituency of Montmorency. When 
Sir Narcisse Fortunat Belleau entered on 
his duties as first Lieutenant-Governor of 
the Province of Quebec, he offered the Pre- 
miership to Mr. Cauchon ; but that gentle- 
man, after consultation with other persons 
whom he had invited to take office with 
him, declined the honour. Just before the 
meeting of the Dominion Parliament in 
the following November he was offered the 
Speakership of the Senate, which position 
he accepted, and resigned his seat in the 
Commons. The duties incidental to the 
Speakership are said to have been dis- 
charged by him with becoming dignity, 
and his tenure of office was marked by 
a liberal and profuse hospitality. He re- 
signed the Speakership in July, 1872, in 
order to reenter the House of Commons, 
and at the general election of that year he 
was returned to the Commons for Quebec 
Centre as an independent candidate. It 
was known before then that he was sup- 
porting the Opposition under Mr. Macken- 
zie's leadership. 

Meanwhile, he had ever since the Union 
continued to sit in the Local Legislature of 
Quebec for the county of Montmorency. 
Towards the end of 1872 he was compelled 
by the pressure of public opinion to resign 
his seat for that constituency. The circum- 
stances attendant upon this resignation are 
not pleasant to dwell upon, and we would 



gladly omit all reference to them if such 
omission were possible. Such a course, 
however, would involve a suppressio veri 
which the editor of this work does not con- 
ceive to be consistent with his duty. The 
story of the Beauport scandal, as elicited 
by a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry, 
must be told. 

In the parish of Beauport, on the north 
shore of the St. Lawrence, and about five 
miles below Quebec, a private lunatic asylum 
was established more than thirty years ago 
by Dr. James Douglas, who himself assumed 
the superintendence of the institution. The 
Doctor's management was characterized by 
great kindness, and by the most beneficial 
results to the patients, and his asylum soon 
acquired a creditable reputation. There 
was no Provincial asylum in the neighbour- 
hood, and the Government placed such luna- 
tics as they were bound to provide for in 
Dr. Douglas's charge, making him an annual 
allowance of so much per head for their 
care and support. This arrangement proved 
profitable to the Doctor, and entirely satis- 
factory to the Government. After the lapse 
of some years Dr. Douglas sold the estab- 
lishment to one Dr. Roy. The latter was a 
gentleman of comparatively small means, 
and it was surmised that he must have re- 
ceived large pecuniary assistance from some 
quarter or other in order to carry out the 
transaction. He was well known to be 
largely under Mr. Cauchon 's influence, and 
it was commonly rumoured that it was from 
him that the necessary funds for the pur- 
chase had been derived. This, however, 
was merely rumour, though the matter was 
frequently hinted at in the House, and sus- 
picions very uncomplimentary to Mr. Cau- 
chon were engendered in the public mind. 
It must be borne in mind that Mr. Cauchon 
during this time occupied the position of 
a member of Parliament. Meanwhile the 
lunatics chargeable upon the public con- 
tinued to be quartered at the Beauport 



THE HON. JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON. 



143 



Asylum. The suspicions with reference to 
Mr. Cauchon gathered force from year to 
year. During the session of 1872 Mr. Joly, 
the leader of the Opposition in the Quebec 
Legislature, became cognizant of facts which 
induced him to declare from his place in 
Parliament that Mr. Cauchon was a Govern- 
ment contractor. After making this decla- 
ration he demanded an investigation before 
the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges 
and Elections. Mr. Chauveau's Government 
was then in power, and the greatest efforts 
were made to suppress inquiry into the 
matter. Mr. Joly succeeded in his motion, 
however, and the investigation was pro- 
ceeded with. The result was most disas- 
trous to Mr. Cauchon's reputation. It was 
proved that the profits and revenues of the 
asylum belonged to him, and had belonged 
to him for many years. Dr. Roy proved 
that Mr. Cauchon had furnished him with 
the capital to buy out Dr. Douglas, and that 
it had been agreed that Cauchon and Roy 
should share the profits of the establishment 
between them, Mr. Cauchon stipulating that 
his part in the transaction should be kept 
secret in order that he might continue to 
sit in Parliament. The amount actually 
advanced by Mr. Cauchon was 838,000. He 
took from Dr. Roy a mortgage on the asy- 
lum for $58,000, the additional 820,000 be- 
ing an honorarium for his services in con- 
nection with the matter. It was alleged 

o 

that Mr. Cauchon had subsequently taken 
advantage of Dr. Roy's impecuniosity, 
placed him upon a salary of 81,600 a year, 
and retained all the profits of the establish- 
ment, amounting to something like 815,000 
annually. Early in 1872, Dr. Roy had be- 
come tired of this unequal partnership, and 
a prosecution had been instituted against 
Mr. Cauchon for sitting in Parliament while 
he occupied the position of a contractor 
with the Government. Mr. Cauchon was 
thus placed upon the horns of a most em- 
barrassing dilemma. If he admitted that 



he was a contractor with the Government 
he would become liable to a penalty of 
81,000 for every day he had sat in Parlia- 
ment while holding that position. If he 
repudiated his partnership, and claimed to 
be a mere mortgagee, all the vast sums he 
had received would be set off against his 
claim on the mortgage, and he had long 
since been paid in full. According to Dr: 
Roy's evidence, that gentleman finally ar- 
ranged to settle the matter by paying Mr. 
Cauchon 850,000. Mr. Cauchon was to re- 
linquish his proprietorship, and was to use 
his influence to procure a ten years' renewal 
of the contract between the Government and 
the asylum. Dr. Roy further alleged that 
Mr. Cauchon claimed to have spent large 
sums in securing the return of members 
favourable to Mr. Chauveau's Government, 
and had thus placed himself in a position 
to demand the desired renewal. There were 
many other humiliating disclosures, and the 
Provincial press was loud in its denunci- 
ations. Mr. Cauchon, in order to avoid ex- 
pulsion, was compelled to resign his seat in 
the Quebec Parliament, but he was speedily 
reflected by acclamation by his constituents 
in Montmorency, who seemed to be quite 
unconscious that their member had done 
anything to forfeit his claims to their con- 
fidence and respect. 

Such, divested of accessories, is the story 
of the Beauport scandal, the aroma of which 
has ever since clung to Mr. Cauchon, but 
which did not prevent his repeated reelec- 
tion to the House of Commons for Quebec 
Centre. At the general election of 1874 he 
was returned for that constituency by ac- 
clamation, and the same result followed 
when he returned to his constituents for 
reelection after accepting office in Mr. Mac- 
kenzie's Government in December, 1875. 
Mr. Mackenzie was subjected to some criti- 
cism for receiving such a colleague, and it 
is certain that the latter was a source of 
weakness, rather than strength to the Gov- 



144 



THE HON. JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON. 



ernment. Mr. Cauchon's intellectual quali- 
fications for office, however, were of a high 
order. His connection with the Beauport 
Asylum was wholly indefensible, but Mr. 
Mackenzie ascertained, by careful investi- 
gation, that other serious charges against 
him were wholly without foundation, and 
he still retained the confidence of many of 
the French-Canadian members. Under these 
circumstances Mr. Mackenzie as we be- 
lieve, not without serious misgivings ad- 
mitted him to his Government, and he was 
duly installed as President of the Council. 
On the 8th of June, 1877, he was transfer- 
red to the Department of Inland Revenue, 
as successor to the Hon. T. A. R. Lafiamme. 
He made an efficient Cabinet Minister, so 
far as his services and intellectual capacity 
were concerned, but as time passed by it 
became apparent to Mr. Mackenzie that his 
continuance in the Ministry was undesir- 
able. His faculty for making enemies had 
not grown rusty with age, and that faculty, 
combined with the general estimation in 
which he was held, was such as to seriously 
interfere with his usefulness. He had served 
Mr. Mackenzie, however, with perfect faith 
and loyalty, giving him a full and whole- 
hearted support. In the Riel and Lepine 
affair, and in the New Brunswick school 
question, he rendered valuable aid to the 
Government, and was entitled to some con- 
sideration at their hands. In the early au- 
tumn of 1877 he was offered the Lieutenant- 
Governorship of Manitoba. The population 
of that Province is largely made up of his 
French -Canadian fellow-countrymen, and it 
was believed that his appointment would be 
the means of promoting a good understand- 
ing between the rival races there. He ac- 
cepted the position, and his appointment 
took place on the 8th of October. The 
intelligence was not received in the Prairie 
Province with unmixed enthusiasm or satis- 
faction, but the appointment was an accom- 
plished fact, and as such was acquiesced in. 



The hopes entertained prior to his appoint- 
ment have, to some extent been realized. It 
would perhaps be going too far to say that 
Lieutenant-Governor Cauchon has made 
himself universally popular in Manitoba, 
but, so far as we are aware, he has adminis- 
tered the Government with justice and im- 
partiality. 

Mr. Cauchon has contributed several 
works to the literature of his native Prov- 
ince, the most important of which are re- 
productions of some of his articles in his 
newspaper, the Jim rn<i.l </<- (Jin-/,,-,; One of 
these reproductions, published in 1865, un- 
der the title of " L'Union des Provinces de 
I'Amerique Britannique du Nord," is said 
to have done much to influence public opin- 
ion in the Lower Province in favour of the 
projected Confederation. Concerning his 
literary and journalistic style, Mr. Fennings 
Taylor remarks : " He is one of the most 
clear and nervous of our public writers; 
and to his other high merits unites a well 
stored and cultivated mind on almost every 
branch of knowledge. Besides an indomi- 
table will, Mr. Cauchon possesses great indi- 
viduality of character ; determination which 
no opposition can intimidate, industry which 
no labour can exhaust, and perseverance 
which no discouragement can appal. He 
moves vehemently as well as persistently 
towards the point he wishes to arrive at. 
Such movement, moreover, appears to be 
impelled by the unrestrained despotism of 
his thoughts ; thoughts which know neither 
friend nor counsellor outside of the fervid 
brain in which they are generated. The 
matter of his speech harmonizes with his 
temperature. He rarely persuades ; he seeks 
rather to destroy than to convince; to ex- 
pose the weakness of his adversary's argu- 
ment rather than exhibit the strength of 
his own. He does not resort to sopiiistrv. 
being careful only to assert truth, or what 
he believes to be truth. He conciliates by 
accident, while he controls by habit. Force 



THE HON. JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON. 



145 



is his normal condition, and intellectual ac- 
tivity is the life of that condition. He de- 
lights in mental gymnastics, and enters with 
zest, and from sheer love of the exercise, into 
the arena of controversy. Though he lacks 
the flexible qualities which go to make a 
leader popular, he possesses the forcible 
ones which make an ally valuable. He is a 
powerful associate and a dangerous oppo- 
nent." 

Mr. Cauchon has been thrice married. 
His first wife, whom he married in 1843, 



was Julie, eldest daughter of Mr. Charles 
Lemieux, of Quebec. This lady died in 1864. 
Two years later Mr. Cauchon married 
Miss Maria Nolan, daughter of Mr. Martin 
Nolan, of Quebec. She died in December, 
1877. On the 1st of February, 1880, he 
married Miss Emma Lemoine, daughter of 
Mr. Robert Lemoine, Clerk of the Senate. 
He has several times been Mayor of his na- 
tive city, and has also been Lieutenant-Col- 
onel of the Ninth Battalion of Volunteer 
Militia, or Chasseurs de Quebec. 



IV 20 



THE HON. JOHN GODFREY SPRAGGE. 



Chancellor of Ontario belongs to a 
-L Dorsetshire (England) family, but was 
born at New Gross, one of the Surrey 
suburbs of London, in 1807. His father, 
the late Mr. Joseph Spragge, was by pro- 
fession a tutor. The family removed to 
Canada during the early boyhood of the 
future Chancellor, and settled at Little 
York, where Mr. Spragge, Sr., became tutor 
of the Central School. The subject of this 
sketch, with his brothers, Joseph and Wil- 
liam, received his education, first at the 
Central School, and afterwards at the Royal 
Grammar or Home District School, under 
the late Dr. Strachan, afterwards Bishop of 
Toronto. He studied law, first in the office 
of the late Sir James B. Macaulay, and 
afterwards in the office of Robert Baldwin, 
where he completed the term of his articles. 
He was admitted as an attorney and was 
called to the Bar of Upper Canada in 
Michaelmas Term, 1828, and immediately 
thereafter he began the practice of his- pro- 
fession in York. When the late Hon. John 
Hillyard Cameron was called to the Bar in 
Michaelmas Term, 1838, Mr. Spragge ad- 
mitted him to a partnership, which was 
maintained for some yeai'S under the style 
of Spragge & Cameron. While at the Bar 
Mr. Spragge had a very large agency busi- 
ness, ami was considered the ablest Equity 
draughtsman in the Province. 

Upon the creation of the Court of Chan- 
cery of Upper Canada, in 1837, Mr. Spragge 



received the appointment of Master in Chan- 
cery. He subsequently, in accordance with 
the practice then in vogue, attended the sit- 
tings of the Legislative Council in that ca- 
pacity. From July, 18o(i, until the Union 
of the Provinces in 1841, he was Surrogate 
Judge of the Home District. On the 13th 
of July, 1X44, he was appointed Registrar 
of the Court of Chancery. He was subse- 
quently elected a Bencher of the Law So- 
ciety of Upper Canada, and in 1S50 became 
Treasurer to that Body. In January, 1851, 
he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Upper 
Canada, and retained that position until the 
death of the Hon. P. M. M. S. Vankoughnet, 
towards the close of 1869, when he became 
Chancellor a position which he has ever 
since filled with dignity and honour. At 
the present time it is rumoured that further 
promotion awaits him. 

In 1JS47 he wrote and published in pam- 
phlet form a letter on the subject of the 
Courts of Law in Upper Canada, addressed 
to the Attorney-General and Solicitor- 
General. In 1858 he was one of the Judges 
selected to make rules and orders regulating 
the procedure in the Surrogate Courts. No 
more learned lawyer has ever sat on the 
Equity Bench of this Province, and no judg- 
ments are more highly respected than his. 

While at the Bar he married a daughter 
of the late Dr. Alexander Thorn, Stall' Sur- 
geon, and Medical Superintendent of Mili- 
tary Settlements on the Rideau. 



THE HON. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, C.B. 



MR. MeDOUGALL occupies a position 
apart and alone in Canadian political 
life. His bitterest enemy and he has a 
good many bitter enemies will not deny 
that he is in some respects one of our very 
ablest public men. He has been born and 
reared among us, and his sympathies, such 
as they are, are what might naturally be ex- 
pected from his birth and training. His 
native intelligence is of a high order, and 
has been sharpened by a considerable range 
of reading, mental discipline, and wide in- 
tercourse with mankind. His knowledge 
of ( 'anadian alfairs is accurate and compre- 
hensive, and he is, when he pleases, one of 
the most powerful speakers in the Canadian 
Parliament. His voice is clear and sonorous, 
his figure is erect and commanding. His 
language is well-chosen and idiomatic, and 
his delivery effective. Such a man, in a new 
country like our own, might naturally be 
expected to exert a potent and far-reaching 
influence. That h" docs so cannot be denied, 
although, for various reasons, his influence 
for some years past has not been commen- 
surate with his abilities. His enemies say 
that he is not to be trusted. Without en- 
dorsing such a statement, it may be said 
that he possesses a strong individuality of 
his own ; that he has not been able to school 
his mind sufficiently to render himself sub- 
servient to any leader; and that he has thus 
failed to meet the full requirements of partv 
discipline. There is moreover an ag 



siveness in his manner and in his character 
which has seriously interfered with his 
popularity, and with his success in life. His 
public career has been a peculiar one. He 
has at different times attached himself to 
both the political parties into which, prior 
to Confederation, the public men of Canada 
were divided. He has even worked with 
apparent cordiality with different wings of 
each party. It is difficult for any one who 
knows and has conversed with him to avoid 
the conclusion that he is a man of Liberal 
convictions ; yet he has been a member of 
at least one Ministry that was nothing if 
not Conservative. At present he is and 
indeed he has for some time past been a 
free lance in public life. He supports the 
present Government on the tariff question, 
and just so much farther as he thinks proper, 
but claims and exercises perfect indepen- 
dence of action. He calls himself a Conser- 
vative Liberal, and the phrase represents 
his position pretty accurately. 

He was born in the town of York, now 
the city of Toronto, on the 25th of January, 
1<S2 His father was the late Mr. Daniel 
McDougall, who, three years after his son's 
birth, removed to a farm on Yonge Street, a 
few miles north of the city. His paternal 
grandfather was Mr. John McDougall, a 
native of the Highlands of Scotland, and a 
U. E. Loyalist, who served in the British 
i 'ommissariat service during the Revolution- 
ary War. After the close of hostilities, John 



148 



THE HON. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, C.B. 



McDougall removed to Nova Scotia, and 
marrying the daughter of a British officer 
who had settled at Shelburne, attempted to 
establish himself in commercial business in 
that ill-fated refugee town. After the arri- 
val of Governor Simcoe in this Province he 
removed to Upper Canada, and settled in 
Little York. His son Daniel married Miss 
Hannah Matthews, of St. Andrews, in Lower 
Canada, who thus became the mother of the 
subject of this sketch. It is said that the 
latter inherits from her the individuality and 
force of character which have made him con- 
spicuous in public life. 

William McDougall received his prelimi- 
nary education at various public and pri- 
vate schools, and afterwards spent some 
time at Victoria College, Cobourg. Much 
of his early life was passed upon his father's 
farm on Yonge Street, where he doubt- 
less laid the foundation of the robust phy- 
sique which he has possessed ever since 
attaining manhood. It was felt, however, 
that such energy and abilities as his must 
find some other outlet than agricultural 
pursuits, and when he was eighteen years 
of age he entered the office of the late Mr. 
afterwards the Hon. James Hervey 
Price, barrister, of Toronto, and began the 
study of the law. Before the expiration of 
his articles he had begun to contribute to 
the newspapers of the day, and displayed 
a decided talent for the profession of a 
journalist. He completed his studies, how- 
ever, and was admitted as an attorney and 
solicitor in Michaelmas Term, 1847. He en- 
tered into partnership with a fellow-student, 
Mr. Ambrose Gorham, and for a short time 
practised his profession ; but within a few 
months after his admission as an attorney we 
.find him establishing the Canada Farmer, a 
weekly paper devoted to agriculture, science 
and literature. Its name was subsequently 
changed to that of the Canadian Agri- 
culturist, which continued to be published 
under his auspices down to the year 1858, 



when he sold the copyright to the Upper 
Canada Board of Agriculture, by whom 
it was subsequently sold to the late Hon. 
George Brown. Long before this period, 
however, Mr. McDougall had ceased to be 
a mere agricultural journalist. In 1850 he 
established the North American, a semi- 
weekly newspaper of Radical proclivities. 
The divisions in the ranks of the Reform 
Party at that time had estranged many 
readers from the Globe, and the existence of 
such a paper as the North American was 
much desired by the more advanced wing 
of the Reformers. Mr. McDougall became 
editor-in-chief, and conducted the new ven- 
ture with great energy and vigour. Its 
articles were written with great verve, and 
it was read for the sake of its spiciness by 
many persons who did not approve of its 
politics. In that far-away time personal 
journalism was all the rage, and Mr. Mc- 
Dougall proved that he could hold his own 
in journalistic warfare, even against Mr. 
Brown and the Globe. He was regarded by 
the Reformers as one of their " coming " 
men for Parliament. The political platform 
laid down in 1850 by this bold innovator, 
the last important plank of which has just 
been adopted by the Attorney-General of 
Ontario in his new Judicature Bill, is not 
only a matter of historical interest, but 
supplies us with a key to the motive forces 
which, though unperceived by some and 
forgotten by others, have more than once 
impelled Mr. McDougall to leave the beaten 
track of party. His chief planks, as we find 
them set down in the North American, 
were : 1. Elective Institutions, which were 
to apply to the Legislative Council or Upper 
House of that day, as well as to municipal 
and local officers. 2. The abolition of prop- 
erty qualification for Parliamentary repre- 
sentatives. 3. The extension of the elective 
franchise to householders. 4. Vote by ballot. 
5. Biennial Parliaments. 6. Representation 
based on population. 7. Power to the Cana- 



THE HON. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, C.B. 



149 



dian Parliament to regulate commercial in- 
tercourse with other nations. 8. Law Re- 
form, by the giving of Equity jurisdiction 
to the Courts of Law, and by simplification 
of law proceedings. 9. The application of 
the Clergy Reserves to educational pur- 
poses. 10. The abolition of the Rectories. 
11. The abolition of all laws giving special 
privileges to particular religious denomina- 
tions. 12. Modification of the Usury laws. 
13. The abolition of the doctrine of Primo- 
geniture as applied to real estate. 14. A 
decimal currency. 15. Free navigation of 
the St. Lawrence. When it is remembered 
that in 1850 none of these measures had 
been achieved except the election of munici- 
pal councillors, and that Mr. McDougall's 
platform was denounced by the Tories as 
revolutionary and republican, and by the 
Globe (then the organ of the existing Bald- 
win-Lafontaine Government) as radical and 
mischievous, we can estimate the courage 
and energy of the man who advocated such 
root-and-branch reforms. Of this list of 
fifteen important political, financial and 
legal changes, nearly every one has since 
become the subject of legislation by politi- 
cal leaders and parties who for years after 
they were first propounded opposed and 
denounced them. In 1853 he represented 
Canada at the Universal Exhibition held 
at New York in that year. Upon the for- 
mation of the Hincks-Morin Administra- 
tion the North American became its mouth- 
piece, but even at that time the editor had 
decided opinions of his own, and did not 
hesitate to proclaim them. He was used 
by the Reformers in two election contests 
as a forlorn hope, and though he was de- 
feated in both constituencies North Went- 
worth and Waterloo the experience gained 
by him was valuable, as it gave him perfect 
confidence in himself on the political plat- 
form, and enabled him to feel the public 
pulse. It also made him well known 
throughout the Upper Province, and caused 



his name to be very frequently in men's 
mouths. 

The Coalition of 1854, and its conse- 
quences, caused the Reformers to awaken 
to a true sense of their position before the 
country. It was evident that if they were 
ever to achieve any great measure of success, 
it was to be achieved by presenting a united 
front to their opponents, instead of wasting 
their energies by internal dissensions. Mr. 
McDougall and Mr. Brown accordingly re- 
conciled their differences, and for some years 
worked together with some approach to 
harmony. The reconciliation was a matter 
of time, and was not fully brought about 
until the year 1857, when the publication 
of the North American was discontinued, 
being merged in the Globe. Mr. McDougall 
at the same time joined the editorial star! 
of the last-named journal, with which he 
continued to be identified for about two 
years. His articles added not a little to the 
power and popularity of the Globe, for he 
was, and is, one of the most trenchant 
writers in the country. It will easily be 
understood, however, that two such spirits 
as George Brown and William McDougall 
would not long remain in amity if brought 
into frequent personal contact. Both gentle- 
men were too self-conscious and fond of 
having their own way for either of them 
to bear dictation from the other. For some 
time, however, all went smoothly between 
them, and Mr. McDougall, as a public man, 
received the full support of the Globe. He 
entered public life in 1858, having during 
the previous year been an unsuccessful can- 
didate for the representation of the county 
of Perth, against Mr. T. M. Daly. In the 
autumn of 1858 he offered himself as a can- 
didate for the representation of the North 
Riding of Oxford, against the Hon. (now 
Mr. Justice) Joseph Curran Morrison. He 
was returned at the head of the poll, and 
continued to sit in the Assembly for that 
very distinctly Reform constituency until 



150 



THE HON. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, C.B. 



1863. In 1859 he was Secretary to the 
Constitutional Reform Association of Upper 
Canada. He grew steadily in power and 
influence from the time of first taking his 
seat, and furnished one of the few instances 
in the Canadian Parliament of a public 
man who could both speak and write re- 
markably well. He had not been two years 
in the Assembly before he was accounted 
one of the most fluent and vigorous debaters 
there. He was at this time a very distinctly 
pronounced party-man, and an advocate of 
Representation by Population, but still acted 
with much boldness and independence. The 
latter qualities were the cause of his sever- 
ance from Mr. Brown and the Globe, in 18GO. 
In Hilary Term, 1802, he was called to the 
Bar of Upper Canada, but did not engage 
in practice for some years after that date. 

Upon the formation of the Sandfield Mac- 
donald-Sicotte Administration in May, 1862, 
Mr. McDougall accepted office therein as 
Commissioner of Crown Lands. He was 
left undisturbed in his portfolio at the re- 
construction of the Ministry in 18(i3, when 
the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Govern- 
ment was formed. He held office until 
March, 1864, when he retired, with his col- 
leagues, owing to an adverse vote in the 
Assembly. He about the same time aban- 
doned as impracticable the scheme of Repre- 
sentation by Population, and advocated a 
federal union of the Provinces on the plan 
he had proposed at the Reform Conven- 
tion in 1859. He was of course assailed 
by Mr. Brown and the Globe for relin- 
quishing Rep. by Pop. At the general 
election of 1863 he was returned for North 
Ontario, which he thenceforward repre- 
sented until July, 1864. Four months later 
he was returned for the North Riding of 
Lanark, which he represented from that 
date until the Union. During the few 
weeks' tenure of office of the Tache-Macdon- 
ald Administration he remained in Opposi- 
tion. After the defeat of that Government 



in June, 1864, the Great Coalition was 
formed which resulted in Confederation. 
Mr. McDougall was one of the two Re- 
formers whom the Hon. George Brown took 
with him into the Coalition Cabinet. He was 
appointed Provincial Secretary, which office 
he held till the dissolution of the old Pro- 
vincial Government by the enforcement of 
the Union Act on the 1st of July, 1867. On 
that day he was sworn in as a member of 
the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, and 
appointed Minister of Public Works in the 
Government then formed by the Hon. John 
A. Macdonald. During the same year he was 
created a Companion of the Bath (Civil). 
He was from first to last an active promoter 
of the scheme of Confederation. He was a 
delegate to the Union Conference held at 
Charlottetown, P.E.I., in 1804, and to that 
held later in the same year at Quebec. In 
1866 and '67 he was present at the Colonial 
Conference held in London, England, when 
the terms of union of the Provinces were 
finally settled. After his return to Canada 
he heartily advocated the policy of disre- 
garding the old party lines of the past, 
which had been laid down under conditions 
which had long ceased to prevail. He has 
ever since advocated this policy, and cannot 
in strictness be said to have belonged to 
any political party since the accomplishment 
of Confederation. 

In 186.") and '66 Mr. McDougall was Chair- 
man of the Commission appointed to open 
trade relations with the West Indies, Mexi- 
co, and Europe, and at the same time was 
Acting Minister of Marine, with charge of 
the Provincial gun- boats on the lakes. 

Having accepted office, as we have seen, 
in the first Ministry under the new order of 
things, as Minister of Public Works, he was 
returned to the House of Commons by ac- 
clamation at the next general election for 
the North Riding of Lanark, which he had 
previously represented in the Assembly. 
Ever since his first entry into public life 



THE HON. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, C.B. 



151 



Mr. McDougall had taken much interest in 
all matters relating to the North-West. 
" The North- West question," says a Cana- 
dian writer, ''had been for years one of 
his most cherished hobbies ; how to break 
up the Hudson's Bay monopoly ; how to 
throw these fertile lands open for settle- 
ment ; how to acquire them for Canada ; 
were with him questions of serious and fre- 
quent consideration, and of much discussion 
both in the press and on the platform." And 
after the adoption of the Confederation 
policy, in 1864, Mr. McDougall never ceased 
to take a lively interest in the project 
for the acquisition of the North- West by 
the Dominion, and the opening up of its 
lands for settlement. In the autumn of 
the year 1868 he accompanied the late 
Sir George E. Cartier to England to confer 
with the Imperial authorities on several 
matters of public interest, including the de- 
fences of the Dominion and the acquisition 
of the North-West Territory. The negoti- 
ations, in so far as they related to the latter 
subject, were successful. The arrangement, 
as finally completed, gave general satisfac- 
t ion in Canada, and received the unanimous 
approval of Parliament. Mr. McDougall's 
share in these negotiations, and his warm 
interest in everything relating to the North- 
NV'vst, were deserving of some public recog- 
nition. It was deemed fitting that he should 
be offered the responsibility of organizing 
the Government of those territories, and pre- 
paring tlie way for the progress of immi- 
gration and the establishment of municipal 
and other local institutions within their 
boundaries. On the 28th of September, 
IMi'.). In- was appointed Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor of Rupert's Land and the North-West 
Territories, at a salary of $7,000 per annum. 
During the previous summer Lieutenant- 
Colonel John Stoughton Dennis, the present 
Deputy Minister of the Interior, had been 
despatched to Red River to organize a s\ 
of public surveys. Colonel Dennis had 



obeyed his instructions, and had not been 
long in the North-West ere he had become 
convinced that a Provisional Government 
would not be established by the Canadian 
authorities at Fort Garry without some 
difficulty. The French half-breeds through- 
out the territory were in a sullen and dis- 
satisfied mood. They complained that they 
had never been consulted as to the transfer 
of the Territory from the Hudson's Bay 
Company, and they were fearful lest their 
title to their lands should be called in ques- 
tion. Colonel Dennis notified the authori- 
ties at Ottawa of this state of things, but it 
was not supposed that the hostility wa.s 
serious, and but little importance was at- 
tached to it. Mr. McDougall started for 
Fort Garry, the proposed seat of his Gov- 
ernment, in October, 1869, and proceeded 
by way of St. Paul, Minnesota, to Pembina, 
whither he arrived on the 30th of that 
month. He was accompanied by his family, 
and by several gentlemen who were to com- 
pose part of his Council, including the Hon. 
Albert N. Richards, the present Lieutenant- 
Governor of British Columbia (who was to 
be Attorney-General), Mr. J. A. N. Prov- 
encher, and Captain Cameron, of " blawsted 
fence " notoriety. Rumours reached them 
all along the route that the dissatisfaction 
felt by the French half-breed population of 
the Red River Settlement was daily finding 
louder and louder expression, but it was 
not believed that there would be anything 
like a serious attempt at armed insurrection. 
Mr. McDougall took with him rifles and a 
stock of ammunition, the mere display of 
which he believed would be sufficient to 
check any little hostilities that might at- 
tempt to show themselves. 

Upon reaching Pembina, however, he 
found that the situation was more serious 
than he had anticipated. A half-breed, who 
had been waiting there for him several days. 
served him with a formal notice, by the 
terms \\heivof he was forbidden to enter 



152 



THE HON. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, C.B. 



the Territory. He paid slight respect to 
this notice, and proceeded about two miles 
farther, when he arrived at the Hudson's 
Bay Company's post, situated within the 
Territory. Here he received intelligence 
from Colonel Dennis which afforded food 
for serious deliberation. The Colonel and 
his assistants had been prevented from pro- 
ceeding with their surveys, a party of about 
twenty half-breeds, headed by the after- 
wards famous Louis Kiel, having interfered 
with their operations, and forbidden them 
to proceed any farther. No violence had 
been employed, but Kiel had stated in 
so many words that the land belonged to 
the French half-breeds, who would not 
allow any survey to be made of it by the 
Canadian Government. Colonel Dennis had 
then laid the matter before Mr. McTavish, 
the Hudson's Bay Company's Governor at 
Fort Garry, who had remonstrated with 
Riel and his adherents to no purpose. A 
largely- at tended meeting of the French half- 
breeds had subsequently been held, and it 
had been determined that Mr. McDougall 
should not be permitted to enter the Terri- 
tory. The English-speaking settlers were 
not rebellious, but many of them were un- 
enthusiastic about the matter, and, in fact, 
indifferent. Colonel Dennis's reports were 
very full, and disclosed a state of affairs 
which it was impossible any longer to ignore. 
Mr. McDougall despatched to the Secretary 
of State at Ottawa a full account of the 
situation. Meanwhile, armed parties of 
French half-breeds had assembled at various 
points along the route between Pembina 
and Fort Garry, with the avowed intention 
of opposing Mr. McDougall in the event of 
his endeavouring to make his way to the 
latter place. It was evident to Mr. Mc- 
Dougall that if he were to reach Fort j 
Garry he must fight his way thither, and 
this, of course, he was not in a position to do, 
even had he felt so inclined. He accord- 
ingly remained at the Hudson's Bay Com- 



pany's post, and despatched Mr. Provencher 
to Fort Garry with a message to Governor 
McTavish, asking that gentleman to confer 
with the half-breeds, to ascertain the nature 
of their demands, and to assure them of the 
amicable and just intentions of the Canadian 
Government. Mr. Provencher, however, was 
not allowed to proceed to Fort Garry with 
this message. Upon reaching a stream called 
the River Sale, a few miles on the route, he 
found a barricade thrown up, and an array 
of armed half-breeds behind it. He was in- 
formed that neither himself, Mr. McDouo-all 

O * 

nor any other member of their party would 
be allowed to proceed to Fort Garry, and he 
was warned not to repeat the attempt to do 
so. 

A day or two afterwards a party of four- 
teen armed horsemen approached Mr. Mc- 
Dougall's quarters from the direction of 
Fort Garry, and demanded an interview 
with him, which was at once accorded. They 
then informed him that he must leave the 
North-West Territory before nine o'clock 
on the following morning. Mr. McDougall 
argued the matter for some time, and the 
half-breeds retired, apparently without hav- 
ing come to any fixed conclusion. Early 
on the following morning they appeared at 
the gateway in an excited state, with their 
arms in their hands, and drawn up in a 
half circle. They intimated that if Mr. Mc- 
Dougall and his party did not leave the 
Territory before nine o'clock their lives 
would be in danger. Mr. McDougall, not 
wishing to give the marauders any excuse 
for further outrage, had his horses harnessed, 
and with his party set out for the southern 
side of the boundary-line. They were es- 
corted by the half-breeds, and when they 
reached the post which marks the 49th par- 
allel of latitude, one of the band peremp- 
torily informed Mr. McDougall that he must 
not re-cross that boundary. The half-breeds 
then returned northward,and Mr. McDougall 
and his party took up their quarters at a 



THE HON. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, C.B. 



153 



farm-house several miles south of the boun- 
dary-line, where they remained about six 
weeks, awaiting the course of events, and 
hoping to be able to make a peaceable entry 
into the Territory. 

Meanwhile the armed resistance to au- 
thority had attained serious proportions, and 
assumed the form of active rebellion. A 
"Provisional Government" had been formed, 
with Mr. John Bruce as its nominal Presi- 
dent, and Louis Kiel as Secretary. The latter 
personage, however, was the head and front 
of the insurrection. By his instructions Fort 
Garry had been captured by the insurgents, 
and the officials there had been treated with 
contumely. Governor McTavish's authority 
was set at defiance. A number of loyal 
Canadian residents were taken prisoners 
and placed in Fort Garry. Some particulars 
of these transactions will be found in the 
sketch of the life of Dr. Schultz, contained 
in the third volume of this series. 

On the 1st of December Mr. McDougall 
issued a proclamation, stating, among vari- 
ous other matters, that he, as Her Majesty's 
representative, would always be ready to 
redress all well-founded grievances, and as- 
suring the inhabitants that all their civil 
and religious rights and privileges would be 
respected. Those who had taken up arms 
were commanded to peaceably disperse and 
return to their homes, under the penalties 
of the law in case of their disobedience. 
This proclamation was grounded on the 
erroneous belief that the North- West Ter- 
ritory had been transferred from the Im- 
perial Government to Canada. The 1st of 
December was the date which had been 
fixed upon for the transfer, but, owin 
the state of the country, no peaceful trans- 
fer was possible at that time. The insur- 
gents were aware of this fact, and conse- 
quently paid no respect to the proclamation. 
Mr. McDougall also issued a commission to 
Colonel Dennis as his " Lieutenant and ( '<>n- 
servator of the Peace in and for the North- 
IV 21 



West Territories," empowering him to raise, 
organize, equip and provision a sufficient 
force to quell the insurrection, and arming 
him with very full authority. Colonel 
Dennis did his best, but was unable to effect 
anything of importance. Mr. McDougall, 
having learned that no actual transfer of 
the Territory had taken place, and that his 
commission as Lieutenant-Governor was a 
nullity, returned to his home in Ontario. 
With the further progress of the Red River 
Rebellion he had no special concern. He 
naturally felt aggrieved at the Government 
of the day for having placed him in a false 
position. 

Soon after his return he was appointed 
by his old colleague, the Hon. John Sand- 
field Macdonald Government Trustee of 
the Canada Southern Railway Municipal 
Bonds ; and in 1871 he was appointed Com- 
missioner for the Province of Ontario for 
the settlement of the North-Western boun- 
dary. In 1872, upon presenting himself 
for reelection to his constituents in North 
Lanark, he was defeated, and for three years 
afterwards he was without a seat in Parlia- 
ment. In 1873 he was sent over to England 
by the Canadian Government as Special 
Commissioner to confer with the Imperial 
authorities on the subject of the Canadian 
Fisheries ; and also for the purpose of mak- 
ing arrangements in Scandinavia and the 
Baltic Provinces on behalf of the Emigra- 
tion Department. After his return he be- 
came a member of the law firm of McDougall 
& Gordon, of Toronto, and was concerned 
in several important cases, the most widely- 
known of which was that of C'c////i/7/ vs. 
1,'iii'ilnii, the unhappy particulars of which 
are still fresh in public memory. This case, 
after having been tried and decided both at 
law and in equity, was argued by Mr. Mc- 
Dougall with marked energy and ability 
before the Senate of the Dominion on be- 
half of Mrs. Campbell, against the applica- 
tion of her husband for a divyp 



154 



THE HON. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, C.B. 



Turning the tables, he claimed a divorce 
a mensa et tJtoro, and maintenance for the 
wife, in both of which contentions he suc- 
ceeded. In May, 1875, he again entered 
public life as the representative of the South 
Riding of Simcoe in the Local Legislature of 
Ontario. He sat for that constituency as a 
prominent opponent of Mr. Mowat's Govern- 
ment until the general Dominion election 
held in September, 1878, when he resigned 
his seat in order to contest the representa- 
tion of the county of Halton in the House 
of Commons. He was opposed in Halton 
by Mr. W. McCraney, a local candidate. Mr. 
McDougall was elected by a majority of 
eighteen votes. He has ever since sat in 
the Commons for Halton, and his visit and 
address to his constituents last winter on 
the subject of the Canadian Pacific Railway 
Syndicate are still fresh in the public recol- 
lection. Soon after the general election of 
1878 he removed from Toronto where he 
had theretofore resided and practised law 
to Ottawa, which has ever since been his 
home. He practises his profession there, 
but rather as an adviser in special cases than 
as a general practitioner. 

After a long public career, during which 
he has held high and responsible positions, 
and, according to popular notions on the 
subject, had many opportunities to better 
his fortunes, Mr. McDougall is still a poor 
man. He was offered a permanent office by 
the Hincks-Morin Government in 1853, as 
appears from the newspapers of the time ; 
but as acceptance would have involved his 
retirement from journalism and the aban- 
donment of his platform, he declined. On 
the defeat of the Conservative Government 
in ISG-t, Sir Etienne P. Tache, being unable 
to reconstruct without a dissolution, offered 
Mr. McDougall three seats in the Upper 
Canada section of the Cabinet if he could 
bring two Liberals in with him ; but as Sir 
Etienne refused to apply the Coalition prin- 
ciple in Lower Canada, the offer was de- 



clined. Mr. McDougall admitted that ther^ 
was a deadlock, and that the state of par- 
ties and the conflict between the Provinces 
on the subject of Representation did not 
encourage either side to appeal to the coun- 
try a second time upon the questions at issue 
between them. He further admitted that 
as " Her Majesty's Government must be car- 
ried on," a Coalition was justifiable, but he 
refused to undertake the task unless some 
of his Liberal confreres in Lower Canada 
could be admitted. Sir Etienne contended 
that his party were strong enough in Lower 
Canada, and that he could not ally himself 
with " Rouges " and " infidels." Mr. Mc- 
Dougall accordingly declined to discuss the 
matter any further. When the explanations 
were made in both Houses Mr. McDougall 
was highly eulogized, especially by his 
Lower Canada friends. If he had accept- 
ed Sir Etienne's overture with the Liberal 
political programme proposed by the latter, 
there is reason to believe a Government 
strong enough to command a working ma- 
jority might have been the result, and the 
Coalition formed a few days later by Mr. 
Brown, with a federal union of the two 
Provinces as the immediate policy, and Con- 
federation of all the Provinces as its ulti- 
mate aim, would have been indefinitely 
postponed. 

While Minister of Public Works, Mr. Mc- 
Dougall disapproved of the selection of the 
North Shore Route for the Intercolonial 
Railway, and offered to resign with Sir 
Leonard Tilley on that question. It was 
found that they would have no followers ; 
that even the Opposition would not second 
their action ; and that the long route, hav- 
ing been made a sine qua non by the Im- 
perial Government, nothing could be accom- 
plished by resignation. 

It is understood that Mr. McDougall was 
offered a judgeship by the present Gov- 
ernment last year, and that he may, if so 
inclined, accept one of the Lieutenant-Gov- 



THE HON. WILLIAM McDOUGALL, C.B. 



155 



ernorships about to become vacant. We 
have been led to understand, however, that 
he prefers to retain his seat in Parliament 
until the next general election. His men- 
tal powers are unimpaired, and his physi- 
cal vigour shows no sign of decay. In 
the event of a reconstruction of parties in 
the Dominion it is not impossible that he 
may yet play a more or less important 
role. 

As a legislator Mr. McDougall is responsi- 
ble for numerous Acts of Parliament, among 
which may be enumerated the Bureau of 
Agriculture and Agricultural Societies Act ; 
the Act providing for the disposal of the 
property of Lunatics ; the Act respecting 
Corrupt Practices at Elections ; the Gram- 
mar School Act of 1866 ; the Act providing 
for granting Charters of Incorporation to 
Companies ; the Public Works Act of 1867 ; 
and an Act respecting Patents for Inven- 
tions. We find his views on local matters 
thus laid down in the pages of a contempo- 
rary : " It is his theory and belief that it is 
in the interest of the people at large, in the 



interest of the Provinces, and therefore of 
the Dominion, that our local questions, our 
local measures, and our municipal affairs, 
should be considered on their merits, and 
independently of politics." He is the author 
of " Eight Letters to the Hon. Joseph Howe 
on the Red River Rebellion," and of " Six 
Letters to the Hon. Oliver Mowat, Attorney- 
General, on the Amendment of the Provin- 
cial Constitution," a pamphlet published at 
Toronto in 1872. 

Mr. McDougall has been twice married. 
His first wife, whom he married in 184-5, 
while he was a student-at-law, was previ- 
ously Miss Amelia Caroline Easton, a daugh- 
ter of Mr. Joseph Easton, of Millbank, in 
the county of York. This lady, by whom 
he had several children, survived her mar- 
riage nearly twenty-four years, and died in 
the month of January, 1869. On the 18th 
of November, 1872, he married his second 
wife, Miss Mary Adelaide Beatty, a daugh- 
ter of Dr. John Beatty, formerly a Pro- 
fessor in the University of Victoria College, 
Cobourg. 



LOUIS HONORE FRECHETTE. 



MR. FRfiCHETTE has occupied a seat 
in the House of Commons, but his 
highest triumphs have been achieved in lit- 
erature, rather than in political life. He 
was born at Levis, commonly known as Point 
Levi, on the southern shore of the St. Law- 
rence, opposite Quebec, on the ICth of No- 
vember, 1839. He received his education 
at the Quebec Seminary, at Ste. Anne's Col- 
lege, and at the College of Nicolet. He sub- 
sequently studied law at Quebec, and was 
called to the Bar of Lower Canada in 1864. 
From his earliest boyhood he manifested a 
passionate fondness for literature, and used 
to compose original verses before he had 
entered his teens. In this there is perhaps 
nothing remarkable. Most educated boys 
who are gifted with any measure of imagi- 
nation or fancy are wont to liberate their 
souls at a very tender age by the perpetra- 
tion of more or less absurdity in the form 
of versified effusions. Judging from tra- 
ditional reports, however, young Frechette's 
metrical effusions differed from those of 
most other boys, and in some instances were 
really meritorious productions. It is related 
that in his collegiate days, when he was only 
thirteen yeai-s old, he was detected by one 
of the professors with some rhymes in his 
possession. The professor demanded of the 
boy where he had obtained them, and was 
informed by the latter that they had been 
composed by himself. They were so re- 
markably good that the statement seemed 



incredible to the professor, who resolved to 
put the lad's poetic powers to a practical 
test. Master Frechette was accordingly 
locked up by himself in a small room. A 
subject was prescribed to him, and he was 
ordered to " drop into poetry " thereon 
without delay. To such an ordeal Shaks- 
peare or Milton would probably have proved 
unequal. Thomas Moore or Robert Southey, 
however, would probably have got over the 
matter without difficulty, and so did the 
subject of this sketch, who, as we are in- 
formed, " dashed off an admirable little 
poem," which is still preserved among the 
archives of the college. 

A fondness for literature, and more especi- 
ally for poetry, has been the guiding im- 
' pulse of Mr. Frechette's life. While prose- 
j cuting his legal studies he lived chiefly by 
his pen, and was a voluminous contributor 
to the newspaper literature of the day. As 
early as 1858 he began to contribute short 
lyrical effusions to the Quebec press. Fora 
short time, in 18G1, he was one of the editors 
of Le Journal de Quebec, and in 1865 he 
founded a newspaper of his own at Point 
Levi, called Le Journal de Levis, of which 
he was for some time sole editor. In 1862, 
during his student days, he published, at 
Quebec, a collection of poems under the title 
of Mes Loisirs, which received commenda- 
tion from no less an authority than the au- 
thor of " Evangeline." He also published 
several dramas which have been publicly 



LOUIS HONORS FRECHETTE. 



157 



performed on the boards of the theatres of 
the Lower Province. The best known of 
them are Papineau and L 'Exile. 

It will readily be believed that to a young 
man with an ardent imagination and a de- 
cided talent for poetry, the exacting profes- 
sion of the law would not be the most con- 
genial of occupations. In 1866 he removed 
to Chicago, where he succeeded Mr. Thomas 
Dickens, brother of Charles Dickens, as 
foreign correspondent to the Land Depart- 
ment of the Illinois Central Railroad Com- 
pany. This position he occupied for about 
two years. During his residence in Chicago 
he contributed to the Tribune of that city, 
and also to a French newspaper called 
L'Amerique, of which he became editor. He 
also wrote and published La Voix d'un 
Exile, which is said to be a decided advance 
on any of his former productions. In 1871 
he returned to Canada, and resumed the 
practice of his profession in his native town. 
He at once began to make his influence felt 
in matters political. In politics he is an 
advanced Reformer, and as such he offered 
himself to the electors of Levis at the gen- 
eral election of 1871 as their representative 
in the Local Legislature of Quebec. His 
candidature was not successful, and his op- 
ponent, Dr. J. G. Blanchet, the present 
Speaker of the House of Commons, retained 
the seat, which he had occupied ever since 
Confederation. At the general election for 
the Commons held in 1872 Mr. Frechette 
offered himself to his fellow-townsmen as 
their representative in that Body, but was 



again unsuccessful. At the next general 
election, however, held in 1874, he again 
offered himself, and was returned at the 
head of the poll. He sat all through the 
following Parliament as a supporter of Mr. 
Mackenzie's Administration. At the last 
general election, held on the 17th of Sep- 
tember, 1878, he offered himself once more 
to the electors of Levis, but was defeated on 
the tariff question by Dr. Blanchet, who now 
sits for that constituency in the House of 
Commons. Soon afterwards Mr. Frechette 
removed to Montreal, where he has ever 
since resided, devoting himself entirely to 
literary pursuits. He writes prose with re- 
markable smoothness and facility, though 
his greenest laurels have been won in the 
more congenial field of poetry. He is a 
ready and graceful speaker, and, notwith- 
standing his advanced Liberalism, he enjoys 
a wide popularity among persons of all 
shades of political opinion. 

In August, 1880, the news arrived in 
Canada that Mr. Frechette had won the 
Pri.r Mont yon, the most important and the 
most envied reward offered annually by the 
French Academy to the best literary pro- 
duction of the year. The book thus crowned 
by L'Institut de France is entitled " Les 
Fleurs Boreales " and " Les Oiseaux de 
Neige," and contains a selection of poems 
the greater part of which had already been 
published in another volume called " Pele- 
Mele," in 1877. "Les Fleurs Boreales" has 
since been reprinted in Paris, and is just 
now obtaining a large sale. 



THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDMUND W. HEAD, 



BART., K.C.B. 



SIR EDMUND HEAD was descended 
from the same stock as Sir Francis 
Bond Head, whose life is familiar to readers 
of these pages. The family is of antiquity 
in Kent, and derives its surname from the 
Kentish fort which is now called Hythe, 
but which was formerly known as Le Hede. 
A baronetcy was conferred on Sir Richard 
Head, the chief representative, in the year 
1676. Sir Richard was a resident of 
Rochester, and represented that city in 
Parliament for some time during King 
Charles II.'s reign. The family annals tell 
how, during King James II.'s sojourn at 
Rochester, just prior to his flight to France, 
that wretched monarch was entertained by 
the abovenamed Sir Richard Head, who 
then received from His Majesty a keepsake 
in the form of a valuable emerald ring. Sir 
Richard was the direct ancestor of the sub- 
ject of this sketch. Sir Francis was de- 
scended from the fourth baronet. 

Sir Edmund was born at the Hermitage, 
near Rochester, Kent, in 1805. He was the 
only son of the Rev. Sir John Head, M.A., 
seventh baronet, Perpetual Curate of Eger- 
ton, in Kent, and Rector of Rayleigh, in 
the county of Essex. His mother was Jane, 
only child and heiress of Thomas Walker, 
of London. He received his education at 
Oriel College, Oxford, where he obtained a 
first-class in classics in 1827. He subse- 
quently became a Fellow of Merton College 
at the same University. He graduated as 



M.A. in 18.30, and in 1834 was appointed 
University Examiner. His entire Univer- 
sity career was marked by a very unusual 
degree of diligence, and by great classical 
attainments. We have had wiser and great- 
er Governors in Canada than Sir Edmund 
Head, but we have had none who could pre- 
tend to anything like equal learning. His 
researches, though chiefly directed to clas- 
sical studies, were by no means confined to 
them. He devoted some time to the study 
of polities as a science, and took a special 
interest in all matters relating to the colo- 
nies. Whether this interest, which was un- 
doubtedly well known to many members of 
Parliament, had anything to do with the 
ludicrous mistake (if such it was) referred 
to in the life of Sir Francis Bond Head, is a 
question which the present writer cannot 
undertake to answer. 

Owing to pecuniary losses sustained by 
his family, he officiated for several years as a 
tutor at Oxford, and at the same time con- 
tributed to the periodical press of London. 
A remarkably clever article of his in the 
Foreign Quarterly Review attracted the at- 
tention of the Marquis of Lansdowne, who 
was a liberal patron of literary merit. The 
Marquis, in the course of an interview with 
him, advised him to turn his attention to 
ecclesiastical law. The advice amounted to 
a tacit promise of patronage, and he at once 
acted upon it by resigning his tutorship and 
entering upon the prescribed course of 



THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDMUND WALKER HEAD, BART., K.C.B. 159 



study. He had not long to wait for patron- 
age. Scarcely had he begun to read eccle- 
siastical law when he was appointed to an 
Assistant Poor-Law Commissionership, at a 
salary of 1,000 per annum. Like his kins- 
man, Francis, he possessed a decided faculty 
for Poor-Law administration. He acquitted 
himself so satisfactorily that he erelong re- 
ceived an appointment as a Chief Commis- 
sioner at a salary of 2,000. 

He had meanwhile succeeded to the 
family title as eighth baronet, upon the 
death of his father, on the 4th of January, 
1838. On the 27th of November following 
he married Anna Maria, daughter of the 
Rev. Philip Yorke, Prebendary of Ely, and 
granddaughter of the Hon. and Right Rev. 
James Yorke, D.D., Lord Bishop of Ely, 
and fifth son of the eminent Lord Chancel- 
lor, Philip Yorke, first Earl of Hardwicke. 
In October, 1847, he was appointed Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of New Brunswick, a posi- 
tion which he held from the time of enter- 
ing on the duties of his office in the follow- 
ing year until September, 1854, when he was 
promoted to be Governor-General of British 
North America, as successor to Lord Elgin. 
He succeeded to the Government of Canada 
at an important time, and administered it 
through an eventful period. He was a 
man of considerable self-will, not disposed 
to act as a mere figure-head to the land over 
the destinies whereof he had been placed. 
When the Brown-Dorion Government came 
into power, in 1858, he refused to grant 
them a dissolution, on the ground that as 
a general election had taken place but a few 
months before he would not be justified in 
throwing the country so soon after into the 
turmoil of another contest. For having 
taken this stand he was fiercely denounced 



in the Reform newspapers of the day, but 
he had the satisfaction of seeing his course 
approved in England by the subsequent re- 
newal of his term of office. He was a pains- 
taking man, very often giving more atten- 
tion to the details of departmental work 
than some of his ministers thought was 
quite the thing for the representative of 
the Sovereign. He never put his signature 
to a public document without reading it 
through, and finding out all the particulars 
relating to it. Quiet and unobtrusive, he 
was not well adapted for the rough-and- 
tumble of political life, his natural leanings 
being rather in the direction of quiet liter- 
ary pursuits. In this line his name is not 
unknown. He obtained considerable repu- 
tation by his work on " The Handbook of 
Spanish Painters," and he was the author 
of a small book, better known in Canada, 
entitled " Two Chapters on Shall and Will." 
He continued to administer the Govern- 
ment in this country until October, 1861, 
when he returned to England, where he 
was soon afterwards appointed a Civil Ser- 
vice Commissioner. He was also elected 
Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
a position which he thenceforth occupied 
for the remainder of his life. He received 
the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the Uni- 
versity of Oxford, and that of LL.D. from 
the University of Cambridge. He died at 
his town house, 29 Eaton Square, London, on 
the 28th of January, 1808. Upon his death 
the baronetcy became extinct, his only son, 
John, having unfortunately been drowned 
on the 25th of September, 1859, while bath- 
ing near the falls of Shawanegan, on the 
St. Maurice River, a few miles north of the 
town of Three Rivers. At the time of his 
death he was in his twentieth year. 



THE HON. JAMES COLLEDGE POPE, 

MINISTER OF MARINE AND FISHERIES. 



MR. POPE is the second son of the Hon. 
Joseph Pope, of Charlottetown, Prince 
Edward Island, and is descended, on the pa- 
ternal side, from a Huguenot family which 
fled from France in consequence of the re- 
vocation of the Edict of Nantes, in the year 
1685. The family took refuge in England, 
and settled in the county of Cornwall, 
whence in due time their descendants found 
their way to this side of the Atlantic. The 
present Minister of Marine and Fisheries 
was born at the village of Bedeque, or Cen- 
treville, in Prince County, Prince Edward 
Island, on the llth of June, 182G. He re- 
ceived his primary training at home, and 
subsequently went to England, where his 
education was completed. Upon his return 
to his native land he embarked in mer- 
cantile business. He entered public life in 
1857, when, at a partial election, he was re- 
turned to the Prince Edward Island Assem- 
bly for Prince County. At the general elec- 
tions of 1858 and 1859 he was successively 
returned for the same constituency, which 
he thenceforward continued to represent for 
some years. He was Premier of Prince Ed- 
ward Island from 1865 to 1867, when he re- 
tired from politics, retaining by permission 
of Her Majesty the rank and precedence of 
an Executive Councillor. He was a strong 
opponent of the scheme of Confederation 
as applied to his native Province, and during 
the session of 1866 moved and carried a 
resolution in the Assembly to the effect that 



" this House deems it to be its sacred and 
imperative duty to declare and record its 
conviction, as it now does, that any Federal 
Union of the North American Colonies that 
would embrace this island would be as hos- 
tile to the feelings and wishes, as it would be 
opposed to the best and most vital interests 
of its people." This resolution was adopted 
by a vote of twenty-one to seven, and an 
address founded upon it was adopted and for- 
warded to England to Her Majesty. Later 
on in the same year Mr. Pope personally 
visited England, where the negotiations for 
Confederation were then in progress. In 
1868, in consequence of his views on the 
School question, which temporarily alienated 
many of his friends, he was an unsuccessful 
candidate for the representation of Prince 
County in the Assembly. Two years later 
he was returned to the Assembly, and again 
became Premier. In 1871 he carried a bill 
for the construction of the Prince Edward 
Island Railway ; and in April, 1872, on an 
appeal being made to the country, the Gov- 
ernment was defeated. He was again re- 
turned to the Assembly at the general elec- 
tion of 1873, and became again Premier, 
when more favourable terms having been 
secured for his Province he succeeded in 
carrying the resolutions under which Prince 
Edward Island entered the Dominion. In 
1873 he resigned his seat in the House of 
Assembly, and was elected a member of the 
House of Commons for Prince County. At 



THE HON. JAMES COLLEDGE POPE. 



161 



the general election which followed the re- 
tirement from office of Sir John A. Mac- 
donald's Government in that year he did not 
seek reelection. In 1875 he was elected 
by acclamation to represent Prince County 
in the House of Assembly. Next year, in 
consequence of his views on the School 
question, he was an unsuccessful candidate 
for Charlottetown. Towards the close of the 
same year the Hon. David Laird, who repre- 
sented Queen's County in the House of Com- 
mons, was appointed Lieutenant -Governor 



of the North-West Territories, and thus left 
his constituency without a representative 
at Ottawa. Mr. Pope accordingly offered 
himself, and was returned by a majority 
I of 88. At the last general election, in Sep- 
tember, 1878, his majority was increased to 
883 votes. Upon the formation of the Gov- 
ernment in the following October he took 
office in it as Minister of Marine and Fish- 
eries, and still retains that portfolio. In 
1852 he married Miss Pethick, a daughter 
of Mr. Thomas Pethick, of Charlottetown. 



IV 22 



THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT MONCK. 



/CHARLES STANLEY, fourth Viscount 
\J Monck, who was Governor-General of 
Canada when the scheme of Confederation 
was carried into effect, was born at Temple- 
more, in the county of Tipperary, Ireland, 
on the 10th of October, 1819. Persons who 
are enthusiastic about matters genealogical 
trace his descent back to William Le Moyne, 
a Norman gentleman who accompanied 
William the Conqueror on that famous ex- 
pedition of his in the autumn of the year 
1066, and who after the Conquest was in- 
vested with the Lordship of the Manor of 
Pothcridge, in the county of Devon. It is 
sufficient for the purposes of the present 
sketch to say that the peerage dates from 
the year 1797, when Charles Stanley Monck, 
the head of the family for the time being, 
was created Baron Monck of Ballytrammon, 
Wexford, in the Peerage of Ireland. Three 
years later he was created a viscount (Irish). 
The subject of this sketch is the fourth 
viscount, and is the eldest son of Charles 
Joseph Kelly, third Viscount Monck, who 
died on the 20th of April, 1849. His mother 
was Bridget, youngest daughter of John 
Willington, of Killoskehane, in the county 
of Tipperary, Ireland. He received his edu- 
cation at Trinity College, Dublin. After 
leaving college he studied law, and was 
called to the Irish Bar at the King's Inns 
in 1841. In the month of May, 1848, he 
was an unsuccessful candidate for the repre- ' 
sentation of the county of Wicklow in the 



House of Commons. He succeeded to the 
family title and estates upon the death of 
his father on the date previously indicated. 
In February, 18.51, he was appointed a Com- 
missioner of charitable donations and be- 
quests in Ireland. He first obtained a seat 
in Parliament in July, 1852, as member for 
Portsmouth, which he thenceforth repre- 
sented in the House of Commons until the 
general elections of 1857, when he was de- 
feated. While in Parliament he occupied 
one or two miner posts of emolument. Upon 
the formation of Lord Palmerston's Admin- 
istration, after the resignation of Lord Aber- 
deen's Cabinet in February, 1855, he was ap- 
pointed a Lord of the Treasury, and retained 
the appointment until he lost his seat, as 
above mentioned, in 1857. He then unsuc- 
cessfully contested the representation of 
Dudley, in Worcestershire. From the time of 
this latter defeat he did not come conspicu- 
ously before the public until October, 1861, 
when he was appointed Governor-General of 
Canada, as successor to Sir Edmund Walker 
Head. He retained that office until the 
Union of the Provinces, when he was ap- 
pointed Governor-General of the Dominion. 
He administered the Government in this 
country during a very troubled period. Al- 
most immediately after his succession to the 
administration the " Trent " affair occurred, 
and for a time it seemed not improbable 
that there would be war between Great 
Britain and the United States, in which 



THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT MONCK. 



163 



case, of course, Canada would have been 
the fighting-ground, and the consequences, 
both moral and material, would have been 
momentous to Canada. The threatened 
danger passed by, but the difficulty of carry- 
ing on the Government became greater and 
greater every year, owing to the nearly 
even balance of parties, and the impossibil- 
ity of any administration being able to com- 
mand a safe majority in Parliament. One 
Government succeeded another, only to be 
dispossessed of the reins of power in its 
turn, until matters arrived at a dead-lock. 
How these manifold difficulties were finally 
surmounted by the scheme of Confederation 
has already been told elsewhere. The St. 
Alban's raid and the Fenian invasions and 
trials were also disquieting episodes in Lord 
Monck's administration of affairs in this 
country. Of that administration as a whole 
it may be said to have been marked by 
much good sense and right feeling, and by 



an honest desire to carry out the wishes of 
the people. 

Lord Monck was retained in office until 
the new order of things had been brought 
fully into operation. He sailed from Quebec 
for England on the 14th of November, 1808, 
and was succeeded by Sir John Young, 
afterwards created Lord Lisgar. His subse- 
quent career has not been in any respect 
remarkable. 

During his residence in Canada (in 18G6) 
he was created a peer of the United King- 
dom, by the title of Baron Monck of Bally- 
tramrnon, in the county of Wexford. In 
1874 he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant 
and Gustos Rotulorum of the county of Dub- 
lin. He is also a Deputy-Lieutenant of the 
county of Wicklow. 

On the 22nd of July, 1844, he married 
his cousin, Lady Elizabeth Louise Mary 
Monck, daughter of the first Earl of Rath- 
downe, by whom he has several children. 



THE HON. JOHN O'CONNOR, Q.C. 



MR. O'CONNOR, it is almost superfluous 
to say, is of Irish descent. His par- 
ents, both of whom were named O'Connor, 
were representatives of two distinct branches 
of that family, and emigrated from the 
county of Kerry to Boston, Massachusetts, 
in the year 1823. The subject of this sketch 
was born at Boston in the month of Janu- 
ary following. When he was four years old 
his parents removed to Upper Canada, and 
settled in the township of Maidstone, in the 
county of Essex, where the future Secretary 
of State grew up to manhood. After his 
school days were over he studied law in 
Windsor. In Trinity Term, 1852, he was 
admitted as an attorney, and in Hilary 
Term, 1854, he was called to the Bar. He 
settled down to pi-acticc in Windsor, and 
was successful, not only in gaining a profit- 
able business, but in acquiring a good deal 
of local influence, political and otherwise. 
He was for a considerable period Reeve of 
the town of Windsor. He was also Warden 
of Essex County for three years, being twice 
elected by a unanimous vote of the County 
Council ; and for twelve years he performed 
the duties of Chairman of the Board of Edu- 
cation of Windsor. He has also been ad- 
mitted to practise as a member of the Bar 
of the State of Michigan. In politics he is a 
Conservative, and in religion he is a Roman 
Catholic. He was an unsuccessful candidate 
for the representation of the county of Essex 
in the Canadian Assembly in 1861, but suc- 



ceeded in 1863 in unseating, the then sitting 
member, Mr. Arthur Rankin, and in obtain- 
ing a new election. He was then returned, 
and sat until the dissolution of Parliament 
in May of that year. He again contested 
the same seat in 1863, when a special re- 
turn was made to the House by the Return- 
ing Officer. Both candidates petitioned to 
be declared seated. The petition of Mr. 
O'Connor's opponent, Mr. Rankin, was 
granted, and Mr. O'Connor was thus once 
more left without a seat in Parliament. At 
the first general election after Confederation 
he was returned to the House of Commons 
for the county of Essex, and the same good 
fortune attended him in 1872. On the 2nd 
of July in the year last named he was sworn 
of the Privy Council, and thenceforward 
was President of that Body until the 4th of 
March, 1873, when he became Minister of 
Inland Revenue. On the 1st of July fol- 
lowing he was transferred to the position of 
Postmaster-General, which office he retained 
until the fall of the Ministry in the follow- 
ing November. At the general election of 
1874 Mr. O'Connor again presented himself 
to his constituents in the county of Essex 
for reelection. He was opposed by Mr. Wil- 
liam McGregor, who was elected by a large 
majority over the ex-Postmaster-General. 
During the next four years the country 
had not the advantage of being served by 
Mr. O'Connor. At the general election of 
the 17th of September, 1878, he was re- 



THE HON. JOHN O'CONNOR, Q.C. 



1G5 



turned for the county of Russell, and upon 
the formation of Sir John Macdonald's Gov- 
ernment in October Mr. O'Connor took office 
in it as President of the Council. He re- 
tained that office until January, 1880, when 
he became Postmaster-General. In the 
shifting of portfolios which took place just 
prior to the last session of Parliament he 
became Secretary of State, which portfolio 
he holds at the time of this present writing. 
He is regarded as a representative Roman 
Catholic, and has a considerable following 
among his co-religionists of his own nation- 



ality. He is not particularly effective as 
a speaker, but can make a clear and lucid 
matter-of-fact statement, and is quite equal 
to the not very exacting duties of his de- 
partment. 

He was created a Q.C. upon accepting 
office in 1872. He is the author of a series 
of letters addressed to the Governor-General 
of Canada on the subject of Fenianism, pub- 
lished in 1870. 

In April, 1849, he married Miss Mary 
Barrett, eldest daughter of Mr. Richard Bar- 
rett, formerly of Killarney, Ireland. 



THE RIGHT HON. EARL CATHCART. 



LORD CATHCART cannot be said to 
have stamped his name very distinctly 
upon Canadian history during his adminis- 
tration of affairs in this country, but in pur- 
suance of our plan to include in the present 
work sketches of the lives of all Governors- 
General since the Union of 1841, it has been 
thought desirable to present a brief outline 
of his career. He sprang from a Scottish 
family of great antiquity. Reinaldus de 
Kethcart appears as a subscribing witness 
to a grant by Alan, the son of Walter Dapi- 
fer Regis, of the patronage of the church of 
Kethcart to the monastery of Paisley, in 
the year 1178. The family was ennobled 
in 1447, when Sir Allan Cathcart, the chief 
representative at that date, was created 
Baron Cathcart in the peerage of Scotland 
by James II. His descendants have ever 
since been more or less conspicuous in his- 
tory. One of them fell " on Flodden's fatal 
field," in 1513. Another was slain at the 
battle of Pinkie, in 1547. The eighth Baron 
fought and distinguished himself at the 
battle of Sheriffmuir, in 1715. His succes- 
sor was an ambassador to the Court of Rus- 
sia. In 1807 William Schaw, tenth Baron 
Cathcart, who was the father of the subject 
of this sketch, was appointed commander-in- 
chief of the expedition to Copenhagen, and 
on his return, received a British peerage, as 
Viscount Cathcart and Baron Greenock. He 
was advanced on the 16th of July, 1814, to 
the dignity of Earl Cathcart. On the 10th 



of April, 1779, he married Elizabeth, daugh- 
ter of Andrew Elliot, Governor of New 
York, and uncle of the first Earl of Minto. 
By this lady he had three sons, the eldest 
of whom died in his father's lifetime, where- 
by the subject of this sketch who was the 
second son became heir-apparent to the 
title, to which he eventually succeeded. 

Charles Murray Cathcart was born on the 
21st of December, 1783, at Walthams, in 
the county of Essex, England. He received 
his education at Eton, and early adopted 
the family profession of arms. He became 
an Ensign in the 40th Regiment in 1799, 
and formed one of the expedition to North 
Holland in that year. He displayed sol- 
dierly qualities during the campaign, and 
was slightly wounded. After the returti of 
his regiment to England he spent several 
years at the military college at High Wy- 
combe, Buckinghamshire. In 1803 he again 
entered upon active service, and it is no ex- 
aggeration to say that from this time for- 
ward his life forms a brilliant chapter in 
the military history of England. There is 
no need to follow him through his number- 
less campaigns. It was a fighting age, and 
the future Lord Cathcart proved himself to 
be fully in sympathy with it. He fought 
under his father at the siege of Copenhagen. 
Later, he saw service all through the Penin- 
sular War. He had a horse shot under him 
at the battle of Barossa, and was honour- 
ably mentioned in the official despatches. 



THE RIGHT HON. EARL CATHCART. 



167 



He also took part in the battles of Sala- 
manca and Vittoria, by which time he had 
risen to the rank of a Colonel. In 1815 he 
fought at Waterloo, when he had three 
horses shot under him. When Lord Angle- 
sey received the wound in his knee which 
rendered necessary the amputation of his 
leg, the subject of this sketch was by his 
side, and received him in his arms as be 
was about to fall. He also bore his Lord- 
ship from the field, and was present at the 
amputation of his limb. For several years 
afterwards he was with the army of occu- 
pation in France. He received many foreign 
honours and decorations, and was made a 
Companion of the Bath. During his service 
in France, on the 30th of September, 1818, 
he married Miss Henrietta Mather, second 
daughter of Thomas Mather. The marriage 
was subsequently solemnized in England on 
the 12th of February, 1819. 

During the next quarter of a century he 
was constantly alternating between staff 
duty and diligent study. He was very fond 
of military and scientific studies, and was 
regarded by his friends as a man of much 
learning. He succeeded to the title as sec- 
ond Earl and eleventh Baron upon the 
death of his father, on the IGth of June, 
184:3. In 1845 he was appointed Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Forces in British 
North America, as successor to General Sir 
Richard D. Jackson. He introduced many 
important reforms among the troops in this 
country. Upon the departure of the Gov- 



ernor-General, Sir Charles Metcalfe, for 
England, in November, 1845, the Admin- 
istration of the Government devolved upon 
Lord Cathcart, and was conducted by him 
as Administrator until March of the fol- 
lowing year, when he was appointed Gov- 
ernor-General. The relations between Great 
Britain and the United States were not 
very cordial at that period, and it was 
very properly thought that a gentleman of 
Lord Cathcart's military knowledge and ex- 
perience was required at the head of Cana- 
dian affairs. He showed a wise and dis- 
creet judgment in keeping aloof from the 
disputes of the rival political parties of that 
period. He confined his functions to ad- 
ministering the Government and directing 
the arrangement of the military forces. At 
the end of January, 1847, he resigned both 
his positions, and was succeeded by Lord 
Elgin. 

Upon his return to his home in Scotland 
he was appointed to the command of the 
northern and midland district of England, 
which position he retained about six years. 
He also sat as a Commissioner on several 
important military committees, and was, as 
became his rank, an honoured and influen- 
tial member of society. He died at St. 
Leonards-on-Sea, in the county of Sussex, 
on the 16th of July, 1859. He was suc- 
ceeded by his son Alan Frederick Cathcart, 
the present representative. His widow sur- 
vived him about thirteen years, and died in 
1872. 



THE HON. JOSEPH P. R. A. CARON, B.C.L., Q.C., 



MINISTER OF MILITIA. 



M 



R. CARON is the eldest surviving son 
of the late Hon. Rene Edouard Caron, 
Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec, and 
afterwards Lieutenant -Governor of that 
Province, a sketch of whose life appeared 
in the first volume of this series. Ho is a 
lineal descendant of Robert Caron, who 
came from France with Samuel de Cham- 
plain, the first Governor of Canada. Robert 
Caron married Marie Crevet, at Quebec, in 
or about the year 1G37, and lived there un- 
til his death in 1G5G. His widow married 
Noel Langlois, one of Sir George Etienne 
Cartier's ancestors. The Caron family is 
now represented in the district in and around 
Quebec by several hundred people bearing 
about fifty different names. 

The present Minister of Militia was reared 
in a political atmosphere, for very few fami- 
lies in Canada have been so continually en- 
gaged in public life as his. For nearly half 
a century the house occupied by the late 
Lieutenant- Governor of Quebec was the 
rendezvous of the Conservative Party of the 
Lower Province. The present Minister of 
Militia has been known to the leaders of 
that Party ever since his youth, and his con- 
ciliating manners and practical good sense 
have long since won appreciation. He to- 
day represents what is termed the political 
tradition of that old National Party, which 
kept cool when Mr. Papineau set on foot 
his too advanced movement. 

Mr. Caron was born at Quebec in the year 



1843, and received his education at the 
Quebec Seminary, at Laval University, and 
finally at McGill University, where he grad- 
uated as a B.C.L. in 1865. During the same 
year he was called to the Bar of Lower Can- 
ada, having studied in the office of Mr. L. G. 
Baillairge, and subsequently in that of the 
Hon.(now Sir) John Rose. He began practice 
at Quebec, and has ever since resided there. 
He has been more than fairly successful in 
his profession, and is now a member of the 
well-known law firm of Messrs. Andrews, 
Caron & Andrews. On the 25th of June, 
1867, he married Miss Alice Baby, only 
daughter of the late Hon. Francois Baby, 
who for some years represented the Stada- 
cona Division in the Legislative Council of 
Canada. 

As may be inferred from his holding 
office in the present Administration, Mr. 
Caron is in politics a Conservative. At the 
general election of 1872 he unsuccessfully 
contested the representation of the county of 
Bellechasse in the House of Commons. In 
March of the following year he was return- 
ed to the Commons for the county of Que-_ 
bee, which constituency he has ever since 
represented there, having been returned at 
both the general elections which have since 
taken place. At the last general election, 
on the 17th of September, 1878, he was op- 
posed by the Hon. Isidore Thibaudeau, of 
Quebec, but was returned by a majority of 
more than 600. On the 19th of May, 1879, 



THE HON. JOSEPH PHILIPPE RENfi ADOLPHE CARON, B.C.L., Q.C. 169 



he was created a Queen's Counsel, and upon 
the readjustment of portfolios which took 
place in the month of November last he 
entered the present Government in the ca- 
pacitv of Minister of Militia. His political 
platform announces that he will not " vote 
blindly with any particular clique, but will 
give a loyal support to all measures which 
he shall consider good, and likely to con- 
solidate the Confederation, to develop the 
resources of our country, and to protect 
our institutions." Personally Mr. Caron is 
highly popular with the members, and is a 
man of many friends. His tenure of office 
has been too brief at the time of the present 
writing to enable the public to pronounce 
any decided opinion upon it. He has never 
missed any opportunity of contributing by 
his activity and influence towards the wel- 
fare of his fellow-citizens. While yet a 
young man he identified himself with more 



than one important movement. He has 
assisted materially in the setting up of the 
volunteer system in Quebec, and he is 
still remembered in the rank and file by 
many who are now proud of seeing him at 
the head of the mjlitia of the Dominion. 
It is stated that when he went before the 
electors of the county of Quebec, in 1873, 
one of the electors requested him to with- 
draw from the position of a candidate, "con- 
sidering that this county only elect Minis- 
ters of the Crown." " I am the very man 
you want, then," happily answered Mr. 
Caron, " for I intend to be your representa- 
tive, and also a Minister of the Crown very 
soon." 

He was a Director of the Stadacona Bank 
of Quebec, and also of the Anticosti Com- 
pany. He has held (in 1867) the position 
of Vice-President of the Literary and His- 
torical Society of Quebec. 



IV 23 



THE HON. GEORGE WILLIAM ALLAN, D.C.L. 



MR. ALLAN was born at Little York, 
the Provincial capital of Upper Can- 
ada, on the 9th of January, 1822, more than 
twelve years before it developed into the 
city of Toronto. His father, the late Hon. 
William Allan, was a well-known resident 
of Little York, of which he was one of 
the pioneer settlers. He took up his abode 
there during Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe's 
tenure of office, and continued to reside 
there until his death in 1853. He was a man 
of energy and public spirit. He had en- 
joyed fair educational advantages, of which 
he had duly availed himself. Persons com- 
bining such qualifications were much more 
rare in Upper Canada in those days than 
they are now, and Mr. Allan was called 
upon to fill many important offices simul- 
taneously. He was the first Postmaster of 
York, and the first Custom House Collector 
of the Port. He served as a Lieutenant- 
Colonel in the militia during the War of 
1812-'lo, and the subject of this sketch 
still has in his possession the flags of his 
father's old regiment. In later times Mr. 
Allan was the first President of the Bank of 
Upper Canada. He filled other less impor- 
tant positions without number. He was for 
many years a member of the Legislative 
Council of Upper Canada, and during the 
Administration of Francis Bond Head and 
Sir George Arthur he occupied a seat in the 
Executive Council of the Province. His 
wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, 



was Leah Tyrer, fourth daughter of the late 
Dr. John Gamble, a U. E. Loyalist, and a 
surgeon in the Queen's Rangers, a corps 
raised in Upper Canada after Lieutenant- 
Governor Simcoe's arrival in the Province, 
and named in honour of the veteran corps 
formerly commanded by him during the 
Revolutionary War. 

When George William Allan was eight 
years old Upper Canada College was opened, 
and it was there that he received his edu- 
cation. During the rebellion, at which 
period he was in his sixteenth year, he joined 
the Bank corps, as it was called, and served 
in it for about eighteen months, after which 
he returned to college. He was fortunately 
born to a position which rendered him pecu- 
niarily independent of the world, but after 
completing his education he resolved to 
acquire a profession. He fixed upon that 
of the law, and studied in the office of his 
uncle, Mr. Clarke Gamble, Barrister, of To- 
ronto. He was called to the Bar of Upper 
Canada in Hilary Term, 1846, and almost 
immediately afterwards entered into part- 
nership with Mr. James Lukin Robinson, 
the eldest son of the late Sir John Beverley 
Robinson, and the inheritor of the baronetcy. 
The partnership lasted somewhat more than 
three years, during which period Mr. Allan 
emulated his father's example by taking an 
active interest in public affairs. He was 
elected Alderman for St. David's Ward, and 
served in that capacity for a term, after 



THE HON. GEORGE WILLIAM ALLAN, D.C.L. 



171 



which he went abroad, and remained away 
several years. During his absence he en- 
wao-ed in what in those times was consid- 

O O 

ered a very extensive tour, embracing not 
only every country in Europe except Rus- 
sia, but extending to Egypt, up the Nile, and 
into the then little known recesses of Syria. 
He is believed to have been the first Cana- 
dian who ever stood upon the summit of 
the Great Pyramid. During his journey- 
ings through the East he had some exciting 
experiences, and it is to be regretted that he 
has never seen fit to publish any account of 
his wanderings into a region which was then 
not much better known to Europeans than 
Equatorial Africa is at the present day. 

His father's death, which occurred in 
1853, soon after Mr. Allan's return to Can- 
ada from a second visit to the East, entailed 
upon him the necessity of taking charge of 
a large estate, and thus left him neither time 
nor inclination for resuming the practice of 
his profession. He has ever since been one 
of Toronto's most prominent citizens. In 
January, 1855, he was ejected Mayor of the 
city, and served in that capacity through- 
out the year. In 1858 he presented him- 
self as a candidate for the representation of 
York Division in the Legislative Council of 
Canada. He was elected by an overwhelm- 
ing majority, and sat in the Council from 
that time until Confederation. In May, 
1807, he was called to the Senate of the 
Dominion, and has ever since taken his 
share in the deliberations of that Body. 
Some years prior to Confederation he was 
elected Chairman of the Private Bill Com- 
mittee of the Legislative Council ; and on 
the first meeting of the Dominion Parlia- 
ment in 1867 he was elected to a similar 
position in the Senate. In politics he is a 
Conservative, and a supporter of the present 
Government. 

Mr. Allan holds many dignified and in- 
fluential offices. Since 1805 he has been 
Chief Commissioner of the Canada Com- 



pany. He is also Chancellor of the Uni- 
versity of Trinity College, Toronto, from 
which institution he received his degree of 
D.C.L. He is President of the Western 
Canada Loan and Savings Company ; Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of the Regimental Division 
of East Toronto ; and an honorary member 
of the " Queen's Own " Rifles. He is also 
President of the Upper Canada Bible So- 
c ; ety ; a Fellow of the Royal Geographical 
Society, and of the Zoological Society. He 
is, and has been for twenty-five years, 
President of the Horticultural Society of 
Toronto, and it is to his gift, in 1857, of five 
acres of valuable land, that the present spa- 
cious and attractive gardens of the Society 
owe their origin. He is known as a liberal 
and discriminating patron of art, and did 
much to advance the fortunes and repu- 
tation of the late Mr. Paul Kane. He pur- 
chased, and is now the owner of a fine col- 
lection of Mr. Kane's paintings, embracing 
more than a hundred views illustrative of 
Indian life and customs, and of the wild 
and picturesque scenery of the North-West, 
from Lake Huron to Vancouver's Island. 
The collection is perfectly unique, as illus- 
trating the features, manners and customs 
of a race which is rapidly passing away, 
and an aspect of the country which will not 
much longer meet the eyes of even the pres- 
ent generation. He has also been a promi- 
nent member of the Canadian Institute, 
Toronto, and has several times occupied the 
position of President. He has contributed 
to the Canadian Journal, published under 
the auspices of the Institute. 

In 1840 Mr. Allan married Miss Louisa 
Maud Robinson, third daughter of the late 
Sir John Beverley Robinson, Bart., C.B. 
This lady died at Rome in 1852. On the 
27th of May, 1857 he married his sec- 
ond wife, who was Miss Adelaide Harriett 
Schreiber, third daughter of the Rev. T. 
Schreiber, formerly of Bradwell Lodge, in 
the county of Essex, England. 



THE REV. ALEXANDER SUTHERLAND, D.D. 



DR. SUTHERLAND was born in the 
township of Guelph, in the county of 
Wellington, Upper Canada, on the 17th of 
September, 1833. His parents, who emi- 
grated from Scotland to Upper Canada in 
1832, were farmers, and he was brought 
up amid the prosaic but healthful and in- 
vigorating surroundings of Canadian farm 
life. He was the youngest of four children. 
From his earliest years he was possessed 
by an ardent thirst for knowledge, and was 
a very diligent student while in attend- 
ance at the "section school" during the 
winter. He lost his father when he was 
nine years of age, and it was soon evident 
to him that it would be necessary for him 
to work his own way through the world. 
When he was fourteen he became an ap- 
prentice to the printing business in the 
town of Guelph. He worked as a printer 
about seven years, during which period he 
also wrote paragraphs and local articles for 
the newspaper published in the office in 
which he was employed. He thus became 
a ready and practised writer. He was an 
insatiable reader, and seems to have carried 
on his reading with much discrimination, 
for by the time he had reached manhood 
he was considering his age and the limited 
educational advantages he had enjoyed re- 
markably well informed on a great variety 
of subjects. During his nineteenth year he 
was awakened by the preaching of the Rev. 
George Goodson, a well-known Methodist 



minister of those days, who was then sta- 
tioned at Guelph. He became a member 
of the Methodist Church, and was soon 
after seized with a desire to preach the gos- 
pel. He had long taken an active interest 
in the Sunday school and the temperance 
movement, and used sometimes to address 
audiences on the subject of temperance. 
Soon after completing his apprenticeship he 
was sent out, under the auspices of Mr. 
Lewis Warner, on trial to the Clinton cir- 
cuit, where he spent the year intervening 
between the Conferences of 1855 and '56. 
The genius of Methodism, while never op- 
posed to the highest education, has been 
practical enough to consider half a loaf bet- 
ter than no bread where it has not been 
able to educate men for the ministry, it has 
endeavoured to educate men in the minis- 
try ; and has thus thrust out into active and 
useful work many a man who has compen- 
sated for scholastic deficiencies by native 
talent, business training, and that familiar- 
ity with the rough hard work of the world 
which has enabled him to win the hearts of 
the toiling masses. Now that the country is 
developed, Methodism is flexible enough to 
change its methods ; and no man to-day in 
the Methodist Church is more strenuous in 
his efforts to raise the educational standard 
for all ministerial candidates than is Dr. 
Sutherland. 

The Clinton Circuit gave him a taste of 
the old-fashioned itinerant life. By the 



- 










THE REV. ALEXANDER SUTHERLAND, D.D. 



173 



Conference of 1856 he was received on 
trial, and appointed to the Gait and Berlin 
circuit. After remaining on that circuit 
a year he was stationed at Berlin, where 
he spent another year. He was then per- 
mitted to attend Victoria College, Cobourg, 
for a year. At the Conference of 1859 
he was received into full connection, and 
placed in charge of the Niagara circuit, 
where he remained till the summer of 1861. 
Then followed two years in Thorold and 
one year at Drummondville. From 1864 
to 1867 he was the colleague of the Rev. 
Dr. Ephraim B. Harper, at Hamilton. He 
was then stationed at Yorkville, where he 
spent another term of three years, after 
which he was transferred to the circuit of 
Richmond Street, Toronto. There he re- 
mained from 1870 to 1873, when he re- 
moved to St. James Street Church, Mont- 
real. Connexional demands allowed him to 
remain only a year and a half there, since 
which time he has been entrusted with gen- 
eral Connexional offices alone. 

He filled the Secretary's office in the old 
United Conference in 1870 and 1871. He 
filled the appointment of fraternal delegate 
to the General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Chxirch in the United States, 
which assembled in Brooklyn, New York, 
in 1872. At the first General Conference 
of the Methodist Church in Canada, in 
1874, he was elected Secretary-Treasurer of 
the Missionary Society. At the General 
Conference of 1878 he was elected Secre- 
tary of that legislative body, and was also 
reflected Secretary of the Missionary So- 
ciety by acclamation. In his present posi- 
tion he has travelled through the greater 
part of the Dominion, as well as beyond 
it. As Secretary of the Missionary Society 
he has not only displayed business talent in 
routine work, but has by his speeches at 
missionary meetings done much to kindle 
enthusiasm. During the hard times of the 
last four or five years the Missionary So- 



ciety incurred a debt of about $75,000. By 
a special effort in 1879 this incubus was 
removed, a total Relief and Extension Fund 
of SI 16,000 was contributed, and the So- 
ciety, under Dr. Sutherland's management, 
seems about to enter upon a new era of 
prosperity. 

Dr. Sutherland is a man of great energy 
and versatility. Had he not been a min- 
ister, he might have been a successful jour- 
nalist, politician, or man of business ; and 
it is the combination of such varied abilities 
that has made him so useful to the Church. 
His early interest in the temperance cause 
has never flagged. For some time he was 
President of the Ontario Temperance and 
Prohibitory League, since merged in the 
Dominion Alliance. In 1871 he published 
a temperance sheet under the title of Pure 
Gold, which subsequently passed into other 
hands and ultimately ceased to be published. 
Earnest Christianity was the title of a read- 
able and successful religious magazine pub- 
lished by Dr. Sutherland from 1873 to 
1877 in Toronto. In the latter year it was 
merged in the Canadian Methodist Maga- 
zine. In January, 1881, appeared the first 
number of Tlie Missionary Outlook. In the 
New York Methodist Quarterly Review for 
April, 1875, appeared a valuable article on 
" Egypt and the Pentateuch," in which the 
Doctor guided his readers through the fasci- 
nating scenes of that mysterious land, and 
pointed out many confirmations of the truth 
of Old Testament history. Numerous ser- 
mons and addresses by Dr. Sutherland have 
also been published. 

Dr. Sutherland is held in very high 
esteem throughout the Methodist Body, 
and bids fair to become one of the foremost 
representatives of Methodism in Canada. 
His degree in divinity was conferred upon 
him by Victoria College, Cobourg, in May, 
Is7'.. On the 10th of June, 1859, he mar- 
ried Miss Mary Jane Moore, eldest daughter 
of Mr. Hugh Moore, of Dundas. 



WOLFRED NELSON, M.D. 



DR. NELSON won a high local reputa- 
tion as a medical practitioner, and as 
a prolific writer on various topics connected 
with his profession, but if he had never 
signalized himself in any other manner it 
would hardly have been deemed necessary 
to assign him a place in THE CANADIAN 
PORTRAIT GALLERY. He was something 
more than a physician and surgeon ; some- 
thing more than a vigorous and sensible 
writer ; and he was regarded as an authority 
on many subjects of more general interest 
than acute laryngitis.* He was an earnest 
politician, a not ineffective speaker, and an 
ardent constitutional reformer. With the 
single exception of Mr. Papineau, he was 
the most conspicuous figure in the Lower 
Canadian Rebellion, and if all his coadjutors 
had possessed a tithe of his energy, ability 
and good sense, that rebellion would have 
assumed a much more serious aspect than 
under existing circumstances it was permit- 
ted to do. At the present day it is quite 
possible to rejoice at the non-success of the 
rising of 1837-8, and at the same time to ex- 
tend a certain measure of sympathy to the 
men who fought and suffered on its behalf. 
Wolfred Nelson was descended, on his 
father's side, from a respectable English 
family. His father, Mr. William Nelson, 
was the son of a victualling officer in the 
Royal Navy of Great Britain. His mother, 

* One of his best known contributions to medical litera- 
ture was ou this subject. 



Miss Dies, was the daughter of a U. E. Loyal- 
ist formerly resident in the Province of New 
York, who took refuge in Canada after the 
close of the Revolutionary War. He was 
born in the city of Montreal, on the 10th of 
July, 1792, and after receiving a fair educa- 
tion, which he subsequently improved by 
an extensive course of general reading, be- 
gan to qualify himself for the medical pro- 
fession. He studied under Dr. Carter, a 
retired army surgeon, who practised at Wil- 
liam Henry, now called Sorel, on the Riche- 
lieu River. During his student days he for 
some time had charge of a small military 
hospital, where he acquired a familiarity 
with difficult surgical operations. In Janu- 
ary, 1811, he obtained a license to practise, 
and established himself at the village of St. 
Denis, in the county of St. Hyacinthe a 
spot which, as will presently be seen, was 
afterwards rendered memorable to him by 
achievements unconnected with his profes- 
sion. He was very skilful as a surgeon, and 
was recognized by all who came in contact 
with him as possessing more than average 
intelligence. He was kind and generous 
in his dealings with mankind, and soon 
won wide popularity among the French- 
Canadian population, whose language was 
as familiar to him as his own. He enjoyed 
a large and profitable practice, and even 
in his youth acted as a sort of general ad- 
viser to many of the people of St. Denis 
and its neighbourhood. When the War of 



WOLFRED NELSON, M.D. 



175 



1812 broke out he volunteered his services 
as an active member of militia, and is said 
to have expressed a desire to be the right- 
hand man of his regiment. His services in 
a professional capacity, however, were of 
more value to the authorities than any mili- 
tary services he could have been expected 
to render, and he served all through the 
War as surgeon of the battalion raised in 
his district. He seems to have possessed 
much natural aptitude for a military life, 
and during his service on the frontier he dis- 
played a marked fondness for everything 
connected with the profession of a soldier. 
It is not unlikely that the lessons learned 
by him during this period stood him in 
good stead in the troubles of after years. 
After the close of the War he returned to 
his patients and his practice at St. Denis. 
He grew steadily in public favour, and ac- 
quired a competent fortune. He took a 
warm interest in public affairs, and his sym- 
pathies were all on the popular side. His 
going to Parliament was only a matter of 
time, but he refused all overtures to enter 
actively into political life until he could see 
his way to doing so with advantage to the 
country. His opportunity came to him when 
he was in his thirty-fifth year. In response 
to urgent entreaties, he consented to contest 
the representation of " the Royal Borough 
of William Henry," as it was called, with 
Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Stuart, the At- 
torney-General, at the general election of 
1827. The contest lasted seven days. It 
was conducted with a keenness almost un- 
exampled, even in those days, and resulted 
in Mr. Nelson's return by a majority of two 
votes. He subsequently charged his op- 
ponent, on the floor of the Assembly, with 
having been guilty, during the election, of 
conduct exceedingly unbecoming in an offi- 
cial of his station, and with having abused 
his office to oppress and tyrannize over those 
who had voted against him. A Parliamen- 
tary inquiry was instituted into the matter, 



which, after having given rise to heated and 
prolonged debate during several sessions, 
resulted in Mr. Stuart's suspension from 
office by the Governor-General, Lord Ayl- 
mer. From the time of his first entry into 
Parliamentary life, Dr. Nelson was a promi- 
nent figure in the House, and before the 
Province. He found plenty of work ready 
to his hand, and he did it like a man. He 
seems to have sat only in one Parliament at 
this time, however, and to have then re- 
turned to his professional pursuits at St. 
Denis, where he also owned and carried on 
a brewery and distillery. There is no time 
nor, indeed, is this the place to recapit- 
ulate the many grievances to which the 
people of the Lower Province were subject- 
ed. Many enthusiastic persons were foolish 
enough to suppose that these grievances 
could be remedied by the strong hand. Dr. 
Nelson knew better, and moreover it was 
very hard for him to make up his mind to 
take up arms against the authorities. Con- 
tinued misgovernment, however, seems to 
have warped his usually sound judgment. 
He at last allied himself with the projects of 
Mr. Papineau and the Sons of Liberty. His 
object was not mere notoriety, as was the case 
with some of his colleagues. His only desire 
was to gain for British subjects in Canada 
the same rights which British subjects en- 
joyed in other parts of the world. His in- 
fluence in the part of Lower Canada in 
which he resided was very great, and he 
had no difficulty in securing the cooperation 
of a large and determined body of men. At 
the famous " meeting of the six counties," 
as it was called, held at St. Charles, on the 
River Richelieu, on the 23rd of October, 
1837, he attended as a delegate from St. 
Hyacinthe, and was elected chairman. He 
presided over the meeting, which was the 
largest that had ever been convened for 
political purposes in Canada. Delegates at- 
tended it from all parts of the Lower Prov- 
ince, but it consisted chiefly of the inhab- 



176 



WOLFRED NELSON, M.D. 



itants of the counties of Richelieu, St. 
Hyacinthe, Rouville, Chambly and Ver- 
cheres, with a deputation from Acadie. Mr. 
Papineau, who was present, made a speech 
which astonished many of his audience by 
the moderateness of its tone. He deprecated 
an appeal to arms, and recommended that 
constitutional resistance only should be re- 
sorted to. The most effectual method of 
constitutional resistance, he urged, would be 
to buy nothing from Great Britain. Dr. 
Nelson was not a thoroughly trained politi- 
cal economist, judged by a modern stand- 
ard, but he was wise enough to know that 
the suggested remedy would be wholly in- 
efficacious. He had been trained in an allo- 
pathic school, and had no faith in ho- 
moeopathy for either political or physical 
maladies. He felt that the die was cast, 
and that the conflagration was not to be 
quenched by casting water upon it with a 
teaspoon. He protested loudly against play- 
ing at revolution, and before he sat down 
advocated armed resistance. He had kindled 
the spark, and the atmosphere reechoed 
with applause from the excited crowd. 
From that time forward he acted as one of 
the principal organizers and directors of the 
revolutionary party. That party was soon 
arrayed in open rebellion. Dr. Nelson dis- 
played a military knowledge and skill 
which would not have disgraced a veteran, 
and won the only important victory that 
was gained by the insurgents. This was at 
St. Denis, where, on the 23rd of November, 
he and his insurgent forces were attacked 
by a body of infantry and volunteer cavalry 
under the command of Colonel Gore, a vet- 
eran who had fought under Wellington at 
Waterloo. Accompanying the Colonel was 
a deputy-sheriff, who bore with him a war- 
rant for Dr. Nelson's arrest on a charge of 
high treason. The insurgents had on the 
previous night captured Lieutenant Weir, 
who was the bearer of despatches to Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Wetherall, at St. Charles, 



and Dr. Nelson had thus become aware of 
the intended attack, and was ready to repel 
it. His skill was made manifest by the ar- 
rangements made by him for the coming 
engagement. He posted his men in his dis- 
tillery, a large three-story stone building, 
and in several houses adjoining. When 
Colonel Gore and his forces arrived they 
made repeated attempts to dislodge the in- 
surgents from the advantageous position 
which they occupied, but the valiant Doctor 
proved himself as great an adept at military 
defence as if he had been bred to the pro- 
fession of a soldier. After the engagement 
had lasted between five and six hours the 
Colonel was compelled to retreat. Six of 
his men had lost their lives during the at- 
tack, and more than twice that number had 
been wounded. Of the insurgents thirteen 
were slain, and from twenty to thirty 
wounded.* From first to last the Doctor 
had demeaned himself like one who has 
been a man of war from his youth. Early 
in the morning he had gone out on horse- 
back to reconnoitre the advancing troops, 
and had gone so far that it needed hard 
spurring to enable him to get back to St. 
Denis. With the assistance of some of his 
voluntaries he had then broken down several 
bridges, so as to retard the advance of the 
troops, and to give him time to perfect his 
arrangements. Throughout the siege he ex- 
posed himself to danger with the most 
dauntless intrepidity, advancing several 
times from the barricade, and finally head- 
ing a detachment and driving the regulars 
from the field. When the Colonel and his 
forces had retreated, leaving five of their 
wounded behind them on the field, Dr. Nel- 
son took charge of the latter, whom he 
treated with the greatest kindness, attend- 
ing to their comforts himself, and doing 

* Among the French-Canadian insurgents intrenched 
within the walls of the historic distillery on this 23rd of 
November, was a young gentleman who in after life took 
a very conspicuous part in public affairs in Canada 
George Etienne Cartier. See Vol. I., pp. 75,76. 



WOLFRED NELSON, M.D. 



177 



everything in his power to relieve their .suf- 
ferings. His conduct shows in bright con- 
trast to that of Mr. Papineau, who fled from 
St. Denis before the engagement began, and 
after the defeat of the insurgents at St. 
Charles, made good his escape to the United 
States, where he spent some time in a fruit- 
less endeavour to induce the American Con- 
gress to embark in the struggle on behalf 
of himself and his allies. The whole truth 
with respect to this escape of Mr. Papineau 
will probably never be known. It is alleged 
on his behalf that he was willing, and even 
anxious, to stay and take his part in the 
conflict at St. Denis, but that he was in- 
duced to depart by the representations of 
Dr. Nelson and others of his colleagues, who 
claimed that his life was too precious to be 
risked at that time. Dr. Nelson, however, 
in after years told a different story, and in 
any case Mr. Papineau, to whom more than 
to any other man the rebellion was due, 
does not appear to great advantage in the 
affair. 

The barbarous murder for such it must 
be called of the unfortunate Lieutenant 
Weir, who, as we have seen, had been cap- 
tured on the night of the 22nd, with de- 
spatches for Colonel Wetherall, is the dark- 
est feature in the history of the St. Denis 
episode of the rebellion. It is of course un- 
necessary to say that Dr. Nelson had no 
hand in that villainous transaction, but it 
was perpetrated by his allies, and the ques- 
tion arises how far he should be held re- 
sponsible for it. The Doctor's own account 
of the affair is as follows : " A gentleman 
in coloured clothes was brought to Dr. Nel- 
son's house at about one o'clock a.m. on the 
day of the battle. After some reluctance 
he acknowledged that his name was Weir, 
and that he was a Lieutenant in the .S2ml 
Regiment. Appearing fatigued and cold, 
Dr. Nelson ordered his servants to place be- 
fore him some refreshments, which he de- 
clined, but accepted of some whiskey punch. 
IV 24 



He was urged to retire to bed and repose, 
but he preferred sitting up. Three respect- 
able persons were desired to keep him com- 
pany, and of these one was Dr. Kimber, of 
( 'humbly, distinguished alike for his warm- 
heartedness and his bravery. Mr. Weir was 
told that he must submit to be detained in 
custody for a few hours, but that he would 
be perfectly safe, and should be treated with 
respect and kindness, such as the Doctor 
said he would wish to receive were he him- 
self a prisoner, which might be the case in 
a very short time. Nothing more came 
under the immediate knowledge of Dr. Nel- 
son, after he left his house to meet the ad- 
vancing force. Previous to going, he gave 
Mr. Weir in charge of three elderly and 
trustworthy habitants, with injunctions to 
prevent his escape, but to do this with mild- 
ness. However, on hearing the firing, at 
a short distance, which occurred from the 
conflict of the soldiers and patriots, the 
Lieutenant made efforts to leave the house, 
whereupon his guards, without any orders 
to that effect, put him into a carriage to 
take him to the camp at St. Charles. As 
the unfortunate prisoner and his escort 
reached the upper part of the village of St. 
Denis, he jumped into the road and struck 
at his guards. A scuffle ensued, and a couple 
of persons proceeding to the spot where the 
contest was already becoming warm one 
armed with a sabre and another with a gun 
-attacked Mr. Weir, who was said to be a 
spy, and in the excitement of the fray in- 
flicted mortal wounds upon him. Thus, 
through his own imprudence and rashness, 
td say the least, was this fine young man 
killed, almost before he had attained com- 
plete manhood. When Dr. Nelson heard of 
this sad event he expressed his utter abhor- 
rence of it, and most severely blamed and 
reproached those who had been concerned 
in it, saying that, ' being three in number 
they could easily have secured their pris- 
oner,' and it is mere justice to these indi- 



178 



WOLFRED NELSON, M.D. 



viduals to mention that, on reflection, they 
expressed in the most poignant terms their 
regret and sorrow of their precipitancy. 
Under the stupid impression that the catas- 
trophe could be concealed, some persons 
made a hole, in the night, on the beach of 
the river, and there buried the body of the 
unfortunate gentleman." It is due to his- 
torical truth to give the above outline of an 
accident that cast the profoundest gloom 
over a large community, including Dr. Nel- 
son and his friends an occurrence which, 
until the real facts of the case were known, 
naturally excited unusual regret and con- 
demnation. 

Mr. Christie, in his "History of Lower 
Canada," makes a comment upon the fore- 
going account which may properly be in- 
serted here as a set-off to Dr. Nelson's ver- 
sion. " The above," says Mr. Christie, " as 
far as it goes, is, no doubt, in accordance 
with facts ; but it avoids very pardonably, 
I am willing to admit the cruel circum- 
stances and manner in which Lieutenant 
Weir was put to death, and is evidently 
intended to be palliative of this most atro- 
cious and revolting homicide (never con- 
templated, I am very certain, by Dr. Nelson, 
to whatever liabilities, in a legal or moral 
sense, he may have subjected himself by 
making the unfortunate gentleman a pris- 
oner), and I therefore cannot allow it to 
pass without observing, that I do not, nor 
will my readers, I imagine, find in it one 
solitary extenuating circumstance of the 
guilt of those who, in cold blood, slew poor 
Weir. His arms were tightly bound with a 
rope previous to, or on his being put into a 
cart, or caleche, for conveyance to St. Charles 
consequently any assault, so pinioned, that 
he could possibly make on his guards, can- 
not have been formidable, and it was in this 
defenceless state, after on hearing the dis- 
charge of musketry he had leaped, very 
foolishly, it must be admitted, from the cart 
in which he was, under which, when assailed, 



he vainly sought shelter, that he was merci- 
lessly shot, sabred, hacked and stabbed to 
death by the monsters who, as his guards, 
had him in charge, and of which his man- 
gled body, when found, afforded too many 
shocking evidences ; and all this, it seems, 
in the presence of a multitude of spectators 
tamely looking on at this heartrending homi- 
cide. It is to be recollected that poor Weir, 
when slain, was alone, in the hands of ex- 
cited enemies, without one kindred heart 
among them to sympathize with him, or 
friendly eye to witness and relate the oc- 
currences that preceded and caused his 
death that even the facts offered in pal- 
liation of the cruelty exercised upon him, 
and of his assassination, come entirely from 
those who were either the actual perpetra- 
tors or tacit accomplices, previous to, during 
or after the fact, and who therefore natur- 
ally would seek to palliate the appalling 
deed. We know, indeed, actually nothing 
of the real facts attendant upon this young 
gentleman's untimely end, but such as those 
more or less implicated in it have chosen to 
give us, in which, however, there is more 
than enough of horror to sicken the most 
unfeeling heart." 

We are disposed to view the murder of 
Lieutenant Weir as one of those unhappy 
concomitants of a struggle in which it is 
necessary to employ savage and semi-bar- 
barous allies. How far Dr. Nelson was jus- 
tified in participating in the rebellion is a 
question which every reader will answer for 
himself, according to his individual notions 
of right and wrong. As matter of history 
it is proper to present the subject from op- 
posite points of view. This has now been 
done, and here we leave it, with the single 
additional remark that if Dr. Nelson is to be 
held responsible for the young Lieutenant's 
murder, it is hard to see how William Lyon 
Mackenzie can be acquitted of responsibility 
for the shooting of Colonel Moodie. 

The successful repulse of Colonel Gore at 



WOLFRED NELSON, M.D. 



179 



St. Denis merely postponed the inevitable 
result. After the departure of the troops 
Dr. Nelson called his friends around him. 
and consulted as to what was best to be 
done. He advocated resistance to the last. 
His friends, however, had not come un- 
scathed out of the battle, and recognized 
the fact lhat, as Miles Standish says, "war 
is a terrible trade." Before any line of ac- 
tion had beeu decided upon intelligence 
reached them of the defeat of their coad- 
jutors at St. Charles, where the troops, un- 
der Colonel Wetherall, had won a signal 
victory. From that moment all attempts 
on the Doctor's part to rouse his adherents 
to further_; united action was out of the 
question. He found himself deserted, ex- 
cept by seven staunch friends who declared 
their determination to act according to his 
behests. There was of course nothing for 
it but prompt and rapid flight. They started 
through back roads and dense forests for 
the United States. The Doctor himself, 
having taken a tearful farewell of his hither- 
to happy home and attached family, started 
for the frontier with his staunch friends. 
A reward of two thousand dollars had been 
offered for his apprehension, and scouts were 
out in every direction looking for him. It 
was of course necessary to proceed with the 
utmost care and circumspection. On the 
second day out Dr. Nelson himself was 
nearly engulfed iu a rapid stream. It was 
soon after deemed advisable by the little 
band that they should separate. They suf- 
fered terrible privations from cold, hunger, 
and scant clothing. During the early days 
of December Dr. Nelson traversed scores of 
miles of wilderness, and was finally cap- 
tured a few miles from the frontier on the 
morning of the 12th. The place of his cap- 
ture was an out-of-the-way spot in the 
township of Stukely, in the county of Shef- 
ford. His captors were four of Colonel 
Knowlton's militia, by whom he was handed 
over to a detachment of Missisquoi volun- 



teers. He was famished with cold and 
hunger, and during the seven preceding 
nights had slept without covering in the 
woods, exposed to the biting blasts of an 
unusually cold December. His only com- 
panions, at the time of his arrest, were a 
French Canadian named Celestin Parent, 
and an Indian whom he had picked up in 
the wilderness and engaged as a guide. He 
was, for the time, a mere wreck of his former 
self, and one of his captors, who had known 
him in the days of his prosperity, was melted 
to tears. He was treated with great kind- 
ness and consideration. After a brief in- 
terval of rest he was conveyed to Montreal, 
where he was lodged in gaol. His suffer- 
ings and privations brought on an attack 
of dropsy, to which complaint he continued 
to be subject at intervals during the remain- 
ing years of his life. His mind, however, 
soon recovered its tone, and his spirit was 
unbroken. He made no supplications for 
mercy, and sought no sympathy. He had 
played a desperate game, and had lost it, 
and was not the man to complain of his ill 
fortune. He had made up his mind from 
the first that no favour would be shown 
him, nor did he on any occasion endeavour 
to palliate his acts. He boldly proclaimed 
his sense of justification in resisting as he 
did, and that as the fates were against him, 
he was prepared for the worst. He con- 
ceived that he would be deemed far more 
culpable than the French Canadians, whose 
dissimilarity of faith and origin might plead 
in extenuation of their acts, but that he, the 
son of an Englishman and a Protestant, 
should be found sympathizing with the 
former, would appear a crime of very great 
magnitude, and much enhanced by the fact 
of his having successfully resisted the at- 
tack of the troops. Meanwhile most of the 
friends who had set out with him from St. 
Denis for the frontier had been captured, 
and lodged, like himself, in the Montreal 
gaol. 



180 



WOLFRED NELSON, M.D. 



Soon after Lord Durham's arrival in Can- 
ada, Dr. Nelson and seven of his fellow- 
prisoners addressed a letter to His Lordship 
expressing their readiness to plead guilty, 
in order to avoid the necessity of a trial, 
and to prevent the probable effusion of 
blood ; for there were many hundreds of 
persons in the Province who would have 
taken up arms in case of the Government's 
having proceeded to extremities with them. 
The course adopted by Lord Durham in the 
very difficult circumstances in which he was 
placed have been fully detailed in the sketch 
of that nobleman's life. Wolfred Nelson 
was one of those prisoners who were sen- 
tenced illegally, but wisely to be ban- 
ished to Bermuda. After being confined in 
the Montreal gaol for seven months he was 
despatched thither in one of Her Majesty's 
vessels. Long before this time the Govern- 
ment troops under Colonel Gore had again 
attacked St. Denis. Some of the soldiers, 
acting, it is said, on their own authority, 
and not on instructions from their Colonel, 
had set fire to Dr. Nelson's house and dis- 
tillery, together with other valuable build- 
ings, all of which had been reduced to 
ashes. 

Upon landing at Bermuda Dr. Nelson and 
his fellow-exiles won the respect of every- 
one by their manly and independent de- 
portment. They did not attempt to revile 
the Home Government, but on the contrary 
acquitted it of all blame. They felt and 
knew that the English authorities were de- 
sirous of acting with justice and kindness 
towards the colonists. They maintained 
that the root and mainspring of their op- 
pressions lay entirely in the corrupt set of 
office-holders, who, like their kin, the old 
oligarchy in the Thirteen Colonies, were 
traitorously deceiving their Sovereign, and 
were, by incessant injury and insult, forc- 
ing the people into disaffection and ulti- 
mately resistance, as well in vindication of 
their rights and privileges as subjects, as in 



the maintenance of their dignity and self- 
respect as men. 

The sojourn of Dr. Nelson and his friends 
in Bermuda was very brief. Lord Durham 
was declared to have exceeded his authority, 
and their banishment was pronounced to 
have been illegal. They were accordingly 
allowed to depart. Dr. Nelson proceeded 
to the United States, and took up his abode 
at Plattsburg, as near to his native land as 
he could easily get. His family joined him, 
and he practised his profession there until 
the amnesty of 1842 permitted him to re- 
turn to Canada. He then took up his 
abode in Montreal, where he continued to 
reside during the twenty-one years remain- 
ing to him. He soon gained a large medical 
and surgical practice, and was once more a 
prosperous man. 

He had lost none of his old energy. He 
found time in the midst of his large practice 
to contribute a number of papers on various 
medical and surgical subjects to the pro- 
fessional periodicals of the time. Experts 
have pronounced some of these papers to be 
of the highest value. His political career, 
however, was not yet over. At the general 
election of 1844 he presented himself to 
the electors of the county of Richelieu, in 
opposition to the Hon. Denis Benjamin 
Viger, who had accepted the office of Presi- 
dent of the Executive Council in the Gov- 
ernment formed under the auspices of Sir 
Charles Metcalfe and Mr. Draper. Dr. Nel- 
son worsted the Government candidate, and 
thenceforward represented the county of 
Richelieu in the second and third Parlia- 
ments under the Union. He was therefore 
a member of the Assembly at the time of 
the fierce debate on Mr. Lafontaine's famous 
Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849. He spoke 
strongly in favour of the Bill, and was on 
several occasions taunted with the part he 
had played in the rebellion which gave rise 
to the measure. After a taunt of more than 
usual coarseness, in which he was stigma- 



WOLFRED NELSON, M.D. 



181 



tized by a Lower Canadian member as a 
rebel and a traitor, he rose to reply. " Those 
who call me and my friends rebels," said 
he, " I tell them they lie in their throats ; 
and here and everywhere else, I hold my- 
self responsible for the assertion. But, Mr. 
Speaker, if to love my country quite as 
much as myself, if to be ardently attached 
to the British crown and our glorious Sov- 
ereign is to be guilty of high-treason, then 
I am a rebel indeed. But I tell those gen- 
tlemen to their teeth, that it is they, and 
such as they, who cause revolutions, who 
pull down thrones, trample crowns into the 
dust and annihilate dynasties. It is their 
vile acts that madden people, and drive 
them to desperation. As for my own great 
losses, wantonly inflicted as they were, I 
cheerfully make no claim for them ; but I 
call on you to pay those whose property 
you destroyed in my hands ; and I am 
happy, for I feel that with the protection 
of an Almighty Providence, I may yet hon- 
ourably, by my own exertions, acquit my 
dues, advanced as I am in years. But there 
are hundreds of others with less encourag- 
ing prospects before them, whose only crime 
was, reposing confidence in the man they 
loved and trusted ; pay these unhappy men, 
I ask no more." 

His Parliamentary career closed in 1851, 
when he accepted the post of Inspector of 
Prisons. His reports on the Penitentiary, 
Prisons and Public Health contain many 
valuable suggestions towards the improve- 
ment of our prison discipline in the care of 
convicts and the preservation of public hy- 



giene, many of which were adopted by the 
Government. In 1859 he became Chairman 
of the Board of Inspectors. During the 
ship fever of 1847 he had rendered great 
services to the poor, sick and dying immi- 
grants, at the risk of his own life ; and du- 
ring the cholera years, as Chairman of the 
Board of Health, he was also most zealous. 
He was twice elected President of the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons for Lower 
Canada. He was also twice elected Mayor 
of Montreal. He preserved his vigour up 
to within about a year of his death, which 
took place at his home in Montreal on the 
17th of June, 1863. His end was calm and 
peaceful, and he was mourned by a wide 
circle of attached friends. Faction had long 
ceased to busy itself with the errors of his 
past life, and at the time of his death he 
was respected by persons of all shades of 
political opinion. " Through a life full of 
adventure as that of a hero of romance," 
says one of his contemporaries, " he pre- 
served a name unsullied by any baseness. 
He carried into politics and official life a 
heart tender as a child's, excitable and ro- 
mantic as a woman's. His aims were always 
high, never sordid or base. Possessed once 
of wealth, he sacrificed it on the altar of 
(what he esteemed) his duty to his country ; 
and, in his later years, when other men were 
accused of enriching themselves at the ex- 
pense of the country, his escutcheon ever 
escaped unstained." He left two sons, both 
of whom attained to considerable eminence 
in the ranks of the medical profession in 
Montreal. 



SIR SAMUEL CUNARD, BART. 



A BRAHAM CUNARD, a thrifty and en- 
lA. terprising mechanic in the Halifax 
lumber-yard, saved enough money to com- 
mence business on a small scale as a grocer 
and West India merchant. He early associ- 
ated his son Samuel with him in the busi- 
ness, and their frugality and sagacity. were 
rewarded with more than average success. 
Samuel Cunard was born on the 15th of 
November, 1787. He grew up a sturdy, 
hardy, well-built boy, and early manifested 
the courage, the patience, the self-control 
and decision of character which ultimately 
.placed him among the merchant princes of 
the world. Tradition tells how he " endured 
hardness " when a boy, and how bravely 
he bore up under it, and developed into a 
strong and self-reliant man. His education 
was only such as Halifax could afford in 
the earlier years of this century. Indeed 
Samuel Cunard was virtually a self-taught 
man. 

.Mr. Cunard's industry, mercantile tact, 
and high honour placed him, while still a 
young man, in the front rank among the 
merchants of his native town. For some 
years he prosecuted the whale fishery with 
success ; but about sixty years ago that in- 
dustry, owing to successive failures, became 
defunct, so far as Halifax was concerned. 
He also had an interest in extensive coal 
mines in the county of Pictou and in the 
Island of Cape Breton, and also in lumber- 
ing operations in Miramichi, New Bruns- 



wick. But his name was destined to come 
with special prominence before the world 
in connection with ocean steam naviga- 
tion. Thus far he was " the son of his own 
deeds," and he continued throughout his 
whole career to exhibit the same sterling 
qualities of head and heart. 

It was in 1819 that the first attempt was 
made to cross the Atlantic by steamer ; and 
the attempt was successful. In the sum- 
mer of that year the Savannah, of 350 tons, 
left New York for Liverpool, and made the 
voyage safely in twenty-four days. Com- 
mercially the experiment was so disastrous 
that there was no disposition to repeat it. 
The engines and the fuel occupied nearly the 
whole available space in the vessel. She used 
sails as well as steam, and the weather having 
been exceptionally fair, the wind had no 
doubt much to do with the success of the voy- 
age. For nearly twenty years no second effort 
was made to cross the Atlantic by steam ; 
and indeed the conviction became universal 
that it was impossible to do so in safety. 
Had not Lardner demonstrated with all the 
precision of mathematical science that no 
steamer, however large, could carry coals 
enough to enable her successfully to reach 
the western continent ? However, in 1838, 
a company of English merchants were cou- 
rageous enough, in the face of mathematical 
conclusions, to despatch two steamers, the 
Sirius and the Great Western, across the 
ocean. Both arrived at New York in safety, 





i. .**'* 







SIR SAMUEL CUNARD, BART. 



183 



the Sirius in eighteen and a-half days, and 
the Great Western in fourteen and a-half 
days. The Sirius was only a coasting steam- 
er, and did not continue in the trade. The 
Great Western continued her voyages for 
ten years, crossing the Atlantic in periods 
ranging from thirteen to fifteen days. 
Several other steamers soon ventured to 
face the stormy ocean. In 1840 (March 
l()th) the President, a Thames-built steamer, 
sailed from New York with freight and 
passengers, and was never heard of again. 
This was the first great steamboat disaster 
upon the Atlantic. In 1838 the British 
Government invited a tender for carrying 
the mails by steamships between England, 
Halifax, and Boston. The owners of the 
Great Western made an offer which was not 
accepted. Mr. Cunard carefully watched 
what was going on. In the summer of 1 838 
he proceeded to England with the hope of 
being able to tender for carrying the mails 
on conditions acceptable to the Admiralty. 
He first laid his plans before leading Liver- 
pool merchants, but none of them could see 
their way to run the risks involved. He 
was equally unsuccessful in London. His 
attention was attracted by the splendid rival 
lines of steamers plying between Liverpool 
and Glasgow by far the best then in the 
world. These steamers had been built and 
equipped by Robert Napier, the foremost 
engineer of the time. One line was repre- 
sented by Messrs. Burns, of Glasgow ; the 
other by Messrs. Maclver, of Liverpool. Mr. 
< 'unard proceeded to Glasgow and laid his 
plans before Mr. Napier, who entered into 
them with enthusiasm. He introduced Mr. 
Cunard to Messrs. Burns, who at once ap- 
proved of the great enterprise, and expressed 
their willingness to embark in it. Their 
rivals, Messrs. Maclver, also were brought 
in. Mr. Cunard laid his plans before the 
Admiralty, and met there with all the suc- 
cess he could wish. The contract for carry- 
ing the mails for seven years was secured ; 



the company was fully organized, and the 
work of construction entered upop without 
delay. 

Thus originated " The Cunard Company," 
the name and fame whereof have long been 
wo rid- wide. The mails were to be carried 
fortnightly between Liverpool, Halifax, and 
Boston. The steamers were to be so con- 
structed as to be available for the transport 
of troops and warlike stores if the Govern- 
ment should require them. Four steamers 
were built with the least possible delay the 
Ei'itu n n in, the Ai'udiu, the Caledonia and 
the Columbia. They were but small in com- 
parison with the gigantic structures of these 
days namely, each 1,200 tons register, and 
440 horse-power. The Britannia, the pio- 
neer of the Cunard fleet, left Liverpool on 
the 4th of July, 1840, reached Halifax in 
eleven days, and Boston in fourteen days 
and eight hours, including the detention of 
twelve hours at Halifax. Up to this date 
(1840) the mails were borne across the At- 
lantic in Government ten-gun brigs, usually 
known as " coffins." The voyage occupied 
from six weeks to three months according 
to wind and weather. It often happened 
in the spring months that these packets 
were lost with all on board. It is no won- 
der that there was an eager desire for 
swifter and safer modes of communication 
and travel. The Government showed its 
sense of the importance of the service un- 
dertaken by the Cunard 'Company by pay- 
ing an annual subsidy of first 145,000 
sterling ; and then, when the service em- 
braced New York, 197,000 sterling. 

Mr. Cunard accompanied the Britannia 
on her first voyage. His welcome in his 
native city was most flattering, and could 
not have been more cordial. But Boston 
went fairly wild over the new arrival. The 
good ship came to her moorings late on a 
Saturday evening, and was received with 
salutes of artillery and a popular ovation. 
A public banquet was held three days after 



184 



SIR SAMUEL CUNARD, BART. 



her arrival, in honour of Mr. Cunard, and to 
celebrate the establishment of postal com- 
munication by steam between Great Britain 
and the United States. Mr. Cunard received 
no fewer than one thousand eight hundred 
invitations to dinner during the first two 
days of his stay in Boston. As a lasting 
mark of the kindly appreciation of the 
citizens a massive piece of plate was pre- 
sented to him with the following inscrip- 
tion : "Presented by the citizens of Boston, 
Massachusetts, to the Hon. Samuel Cunard 
of Halifax, Nova Scotia, whose enterprise 
established the line of British Mail Steam 
Packets between Liverpool, Halifax, and 
Boston, United States of America, 1840." 

The original four steamers were supple- 
mented, or rather superseded, by larger and 
still larger ones. Paddles were succeeded by 
the screw ; wood by iron ; and iron by steel. 
The Company, as occasion required, rendered 
signal service to the Government, during 
the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, and 
during the troublous days of the American 
Civil War. It justified its reputation as a 
national " institution," of which a great com- 
mercial nation might justly be proud. 

The Cunard fleet now crossing the At- 
lantic numbers twenty-eight vessels, many 
of them among the finest afloat. They 
have ever been remarkable for regularity, 
strength and safety. The crews are disci- 
plined with the utmost care, and none but 
the best class of captains are put in charge. 
The Company at one time came into curi- 
ous prominence in the House of Commons. 
The "Gal way subsidy " had been withdrawn 



, on account of the inefficiency of the service 
rendered, or attempted to be rendered. This 
gave offence to certain members from Ire- 
land, who asked the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, Mr. F. Peel, for a return of the number 
and date of the breaches of contract by the 
Cunard Company during the first two years 
of their service, and the penalties imposed ; 
and in how many instances such penalties 
had been remitted by the Treasury. After 
due investigation Mr. Peel announced to the 
House, amid ringing cheers, that the Cunard 
Company had never broken contract, had 
incurred no penalties, and had never asked 
any indulgence from the Government. They 
had carried the mails with undeviatino- reo-u- 
larity during the twenty-one years that the 
contract had been in force. 

The Company pays about one-seventh of 
the steam tonnage dues of Liverpool. Its 
tonnage amounts to about one hundred 
thousand tons, and the number of vessels 
exceeds fifty, with, say, 20,000 horse-power. 
The lines in operation besides the Atlan- 
tic service are : Mediterranean and Havre ; 
Liverpool and Glasgow ; Glasgow and Bel- 
fast; Glasgow and Derry; Halifax and 
Jamaica. 

Mr. Cunard was created a Baronet on the 
9th of March, 18.57, the honour being heredi- 
tary in his family. During the latter half 
of his life he resided in England. He died 
on the 28th of April, 1865, aged seventy- 
eight years. Till the close of his life he 
devoted all his energies to the business of 
the Company, and he succeeded in amassing 
a large fortune. 



SIR ETIENNE PASCAL TACHE. 



SIR ETIENNE PASCAL TACHE 
more familiarly known as " Colonel " 
Tache was in his day one of the most dis- 
tinguished personages connected with pub- 
lic life in this country. He was descended 
from an old French family, various mem- 
bers of which have attained distinction in 
Canada, both before the Conquest and since. 
Some facts relating to the founder of the 
Canadian branch of the family and his de- 
scendants will be found in the sketch of the 
Most Rev. Alexandre Antonin Tache, Ai-ch- 
bishop of St. Boniface, contained in the 
third volume of the present series. By re- 
ference to the genealogy there delineated, it 
will be seen that the subject of this sketch 
was an uncle of the Archbishop, and not a 
brother, as has been asserted in previous 
biographies. He was born at the village 
of St. Thomas, in the Lower Province, in 
1795. He was educated partly by private 
tuition, and partly at one of the seminaries. 
He does not seem to have made any choice 
of a profession until after the breaking out 
of the War of 1812-15, when, with the 
military instinct inherent in his race, he 
joined the incorporated militia as an Ensign 
in the Fifth Battalion, and was almost im- 
mediately afterwards placed on duty on the 
frontier. He served all through the cam- 
paign, and until peace was proclaimed. The 
authorities are unanimous in bearing testi- 
mony to his gallantry and chivalrous pa- 
triotism. During the progress of the war 
IV 25 



he was promoted to a lieutenancy in the 
Canadian Chasseurs, with which corps he 
took part in several engagements. He was 
present at the famous battle of Chateau- 
guay, in October, 1813, where a mere hand- 
ful of his gallant fellow-countrymen, under 
Colonel de Salaberry, defeated a force of 
between four and five thousand Americans 
under General Hampton and Colonel Purdy. 
This was one of the most brilliant achieve- 
ments in the history of the War. A gal- 
lant American officer who had the misfor- 
tune to be present was accustomed to say 
in after years that no American officer with 
any regard for his reputation would wil- 
lingly acknowledge that he had taken part 
in that engagement. Young Etienne Tache 
bore himself as might have been expected 
from one of his lineage. For his services 
there he received a medal which he was 
wont to contemplate with pride, and on 
which he used to expatiate with pardon- 
able garrulity half a century afterwards. 
After the close of hostilities the naval 

' and military establishments were reduced, 
and young Tache's occupation as an officer 
was at an end. He then studied medicine, 
and in due time obtained a medical degree. 

| He settled down to practice in his native 
village, and remained in comparative ob- 
scurity until the Union of the Provinces 
in 1841. "Comparative" is a saving word. 
His close attention to his professional pur- 
suits prevented him from becoming widely 



186 



SIR ETIENNE PASCAL TACHE. 



known beyond his own immediate neigh- 
bourhood. There, however, he was a power, 
professionally, politically, and socially. Du- 
ring the troublous times which culminated 
in the rebellion of 1837-'38 he sympathized 
heartily with the efforts made by his fel- 
low-countrymen to obtain redress for their 
grievances ; but when those efforts took the 
shape of armed resistance he drew back, 
and remained staunch in his allegiance to 
the Government. At the first general 
election after the Union he was returned 
to the Assembly as representative for the 
county of L'Islet. He sat for that con- 
stituency through the First Parliament of 
United Canada, during which he distin- 
guished himself by the enlightened stand 
which he took on several questions of 
national importance. The tone of his mind 
was essentially Conservative. He was a 
zealous upholder of monarchy, and on one 
occasion declared, in the course of a speech 
in the Legislature, that the last gun fired in 
support of British supremacy on this conti- 
nent would be fired by the hand of a French 
Canadian. There were certain questions, 
however, on which he entertained decidedly 
Liberal views, and whenever a vote was 
taken upon any of these his own vote was 
always recorded conscientiously, and with- 
out respect to Party. At the general elec- 
tion for the Second Parliament, held in 
1844, he was reelected for the county of 
L'Islet. He sat for that county until the 
end of June, 1846, when he accepted the 
appointment of Deputy Adjutant-General 
of Militia for Lower Canada. His rigid 
habits of discipline and his early military 
experience combined to fit him to discharge 
the duties of this position with efficiency. 
It was upon his accession to this office that 
he first became known as Colonel Tache, 
and by that name he is still commonly re- 
ferred to by many of his contemporaries. 

Upon the formation of the second Bald- 
win-Lafontaine Government.in March, 1848, 



Colonel Tache, at Mr. Lafontaine's request, 
accepted office in it as Commissioner of 
Public Works, with a seat in the Executive 
Council. This step rendered it necessary 
that he should vacate his office of Deputy 
Adjutant-General, and that he should also 
reenter Parliament. He accordingly accept- 
ed a seat in the Legislative Council, and 
was sworn in on the 23rd of May. He held 
the Commissionership of Public Works un- 
til the 27th of November, 1849, when, on 
the retirement of the Hon. L. M. Vigor, 
he became Receiver-General. This position 
he retained between six and seven years. 
Upon the reconstruction of the Government 
under Messieurs Hincks and Morin, towards 
the close of 1851, Colonel Tache retained 
his portfolio. He also retained office after 
the formation of the Coalition Government 
known as the Macnab-Morin Administra- 
tion, in 1854 ; and when Mr. Morin several 
months afterwards retired from the Gov- 
ernment, and accepted a seat on the Bench, 
as a Judge of the Superior Court, Colonel 
Tache became leader of the Lower Cana- 
dian section of the Cabinet. The Coalition 
is thenceforward known to history as the 
Macnab-Tache Administration. Sir Allan 
Macnab retired in May, 1856, and the pres- 
ent Sir John A. Macdonald succeeded to 
his place as leader of the Upper Canadian 
Conservatives. As matter of fact, the lead- 
ing spirit of the Government was Mr. Mac- 
donald, though Colonel Tache was the 
actual Premier. The Colonel was elected 
Speaker of the Legislative Council. He 
retained that office until his withdrawal 
from the Administration, on the 25th of 
November, 1857. For about four months 
prior to his withdrawal he also discharged 
the duties of Commissioner of Crown Lands, 
which office had been left vacant by the 
resignation of the Hon. J. E. Cauchon. It 
must also be mentioned that upon the for- 
mation of the Grand Trunk Railway Com- 
pany, and the guarantee by the Province of 



SIR ETIENNE PASCAL TACHE. 



187 



three thousand pounds per mile towards its 
construction, Colonel Tache" was appointed 
one of the Government Directors. He re- 
tained his Directorship until the month of 
July, 1857, when the Act abolishing the 
office came into operation. 

When Colonel Tache resigned office as 
above mentioned in November, 1857, it was 
his intention to retire permanently to pri- 
vate life. As the event proved, he was 
only permitted to do so temporarily. He 
cannot, indeed, be said to have absolutely 
withdrawn from public life, even tempora- 
rily, for he was a life-member of the Legis- 
lative Council, and continued to attend the 
deliberations of that Body after his retire- 
ment from the Government. A year after- 
wards Her Majesty, in recognition of his 
long and important public services, confer- 
red upon him the dignity of Knighthood. 
In 1860 he was appointed, jointly with Sir 
Allan Macnab, to the honorary rank of a 
Colonel in the British army, and Aide-de- 
Camp to Her Majesty the Queen, and in this 
capacity he formed one of the suite of His 
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales during 
his tour in Canada in the autumn of 18GO. 

After an absence of nearly seven years 
from official life, Sir Etienne was again con- 
strained to come to the front as the head 
of an Administration. The circumstances 
under which he did so are well known to 
most of our readers. The balance of par- 
ties had become so nearly even that no 
Government could feel safe, and legislation 
was almost impossible. When the Sand- 
field Macdonald-Dorion Government fell, 
in February, 1864, there was practically a 
dead-lock in public affairs. The late Mr. 



Blair, who had been Provincial Secretary 
in the deposed Administration having failed 
to get together a Cabinet, the Governor- 
General applied to Sir Etienne Tache, upon 
whom the hopes of the Conservatives at 
this time were centred. Sir Etienne had 
come through the ordeal of a long official 
life, at a time when party feeling ran high, 
and when the party press was not over- 
scrupulous in its attacks upon public men, 
without a stain upon his name, and moder- 
ate men looked to him as the man above 
all others calculated to bring confidence 
to an Administration, and to secure for it 
that support which would be essential to its 
success. Sir Etienne yielded to the pres- 
sure brought to bear upon him, and with 
the assistance of his old colleague, Mr. John 
A. Macdonald, formed an Administration 
which bears their joint names. It did not 
stand, however. It was indeed impossible 
that any Administration should stand, un- 
less upon sufferance. The Tache"-Macdonald 
Government was defeated before it had been 
in existence three months. Then followed 
the negotiations which resulted in Confed- 
eration. Sir Etienne lent his assistance to 
bring about the new order of things, and 
presided as Chairman at the Quebec Con- 
ference. But he was by this time nearly 
seventy years old, and the strain and ex- 
citement of the times told seriously upon his 
health. After the Conference he returned 
to his home at St. Thomas an unmistakable 
invalid. He continued to take an interest 
in public affairs during the few months of 
life that remained to him, but his own share 
in them was over. He died on the 30th of 
July, 1865. 



THE REV. WILLIAM MORLEY PUNSHON, 



M.A., LL.D. 



DR. PUNSHON'S residence in Canada 
was of only about five years' dura- 
tion, but it was fraught with such impor- 
tant results to the religious Body where- 
with he is immediately connected a Body 
forming a large and influential element in 
Canadian life as to well entitle him to a 
place in these pages. 

William Morley Punshon, the greatest 
living pulpit exponent of Wesleyan Method- 
ism, was born at Doncaster, in the West 
Riding of Yorkshire, England, on Royal 
Oak Day the 29th of May 1824. He 
was an only child, and was named in honour 
of his maternal grandfather, Mr. William 
Morley, a timber merchant and shipowner. 
His father was a linen draper carrying on 
business in Doncaster. His mother was a 
daughter of the abovenamed Mr. William 
Morley, and a sister of Sir Isaac Morley, of 
Beechfield, Doncaster, a magistrate of the 
West Riding, and one of the senior magis- 
trates of the Borough. The entire family 
connection were in comfortable circum- 
stances, and during his early years William 
Morley Punshon enjoyed excellent educa- 
tional advantages, of which he duly avail- 
ed himself. He attended various private 
schools in his native town, and in his 
thirteenth year entered the local Grammar 
School, with a view to preparing himself 
for matriculation at a university. Why 
this intention was not carried out does not 
appear. It seems probable that some re- 



verse of fortune had occurred in the family 
affairs, as it was deemed necessary that the 
young man should be put in the way of 
earning his living. In 1838, when he was 
fourteen years of age, he was placed in the 
service of his maternal grandfather, Mr. 
William Morley, who had some time before 
removed his place of business from Don- 
caster to Hull. He developed unusual tal- 
ents for business, and was soon entrusted 
with the performance of important duties 
such as are commonly assigned only to per- 
sons of mature age and experience. He 
had not long been engaged in commercial 
life before he became seriously impressed 
on the subject of religion. His religious 
training had been strict, for his parents 
were God-fearing people, with high ideas 
on the subject of man's responsibilities to 
his Maker. They are described by a con- 
temporary English writer as '' people who 
made religion the practice as well as the 
profession of their lives who put on relig- 
ion, not as a conventional garb like the 
evening dress which now-a-days passes as 
the emblem of respectability, but as the 
armour which was to protect them through 
the trials and temptations of life." Their 
son, however, does not appear to have con- 
ceived any serious impressions while he re- 
mained under the parental roof. It was 
not until after he had gone out into the 
world, and had seen something of its ways, 
that the lessons of his childhood bore fruit. 



THE REV. WILLIAM MORLEY PUNSHON, M.A., LL.D. 



189 



In his eighteenth year he united himself to 
the Wesleyan Methodists, and almost im- 
mediately afterwards felt himself called 
upon to embrace the profession of the 
ministry. For this calling he possessed 
many natural advantages, among which 
must be numbered a large and robust frame, 
a commanding presence, a rich fund of 
choice language, and a remarkably impres- 
sive delivery. He preached his first sermon 
soon after completing his eighteenth year, 
at a village called Ellerby, in the neighbour- 
hood of Hull. Notwithstanding his youth, 
the sermon is said to have been charac- 
terized, not only by singular power and 
eloquence, but by a maturity and depth of 
thought such as is not often heard, even 
from a preacher of advanced years and long 
experience in the pulpit. Soon, after this 
time his uncle retired from commercial life, 
and the subject of this sketch, though he 
was fully resolved to become a preacher 
upon reaching manhood, continued for a 
short period to occupy himself with mer- 
cantile affairs. He was transferred to the 
seaport town of Sunderland, in the county 
of Durham, where an extensive branch of 
the business was carried on by his uncle's 
successors. While stationed there his re- 
ligious convictions became strengthened, 
and he devoted to study every moment that 
he could spare from his business pursuits, 
in order to qualify himself for the sacred 
calling to which he had determined to de- 
vote his future life. He enlisted himself in 
the service as a " local preacher," a prepara- 
tory ministerial office, the duties of which 
are always exacted of candidates aspiring 
to enter the Wesleyan pastorate. Four 
years later, and after he had passed a short 
probationary term at the Wesleyan Col- 
lege at Richmond, in Surrey, he was ap- 
pointed to his first pastoral charge at Mar- 
den, in the county of Kent. His congre- 
gation there was chiefly composed of per- 
sons who had seceded from the Episcopal 



Church in consequence of the ritualistic 
observances of the clergyman of the parish. 
The earnestness and eloquence of the young 
Wesleyan, as well as his personal character, 
made him very acceptable as a pastor to the 
little congregation at Marden. Persons who 
bore but a scant degree of good-will to 
"Dissenters" in general sometimes present- 
ed themselves at the chapel to listen to his 
earnest appeals and glowing oratory. He 
remained in his charge only a few months, 
however. At the Conference held in 1845 
at which period he was only twenty-one 
years of age he was appointed to a charge 
in the north-western part of Cumberland, 
where he had to encounter much opposition 
from the local magnates, who looked upon 
all phases of dissent with very unfavourable 
eyes. He was next transferred to the more 
responsible charge of Whitehaven, in the 
same county. His reputation had preceded 
him thither, and people flocked from all 
parts of the country to be thrilled by his 
powerful eloquence. He completed the 
term of his probation at Carlisle, and in the 
summer of 1849 he was regularly ordained 
to the ministry at the Oldham Street 
Chapel, in Manchester, upon which occasion 
he delivered a thrilling address wherein 
was embodied an account of his own 
spiritual experiences. He subsequently 
ministered in various parts of England, in- 
cluding Newcastle-on-Tyne, Sheffield, and 
Bristol. Wherever he went he attracted a 
large share of attention, and did much to- 
wards strengthening the Wesleyan Body. 
He visited London on several occasions, and 
there, as elsewhere, his addresses, whether 
from the pulpifc or the platform, received 
very wide and favourable recognition. In 
1S5S he removed to London, where he pub- 
lished a volume of poems, entitled " Lays of 
Hope;" and also several lectures, including 
those on " John Bunyan," and " The Hugue- 
nots," with which Canadian audiences are 
familiar. He for some time ministered to 



190 



THE REV. WILLIAM MORLEY PUNSHON, M.A., LL.D. 



a congregation in Bayswater, one of the 
most attractive districts of London ; and 
afterwards had charge of Islington Chapel, 
in the northern reaches of the capital. 

His reputation as an eloquent preacher 
had long been known in this country, and 
at the General Conference of the Wesleyan 
Methodist Church of Canada, held in 1867. 
it was resolved to apply to the British Con- 
ference for the appointment of Mr. Pun- 
shon as their President. The British Con- 
ference acceded to this request on the part 
of their Canadian brethren, and granted 
Mr. Punshon leave to go to Canada, with 
permission to remain, if desired to do so by 
the Canadian Conference. Mr. Punshon 
availed himself of the permission so granted. 
The very flattering terms of an address 
which was presented to him on his depar- 
ture from his native land affords abundant 
testimony of the high estimation in which 
he was held by the Methodist Body there. 
He arrived in Canada in the early summer 
of 1868, and presided at the Annual Con- 
ference, held in July of that year. He was 
subsequently reflected to the Presidential 
Chair five times in succession. 

Canadian Methodism has always been 
well able to hold its own without any ex- 
traneous aid, but there is no manner of 
doubt that Mr. Punshon's five years' resi- 
dence here gave an impetus to the Body 
which will be felt for many generations to 
come. He preached and lectured to im- 
mense crowds in nearly every important 
city and town of the Dominion, and every 
sermon and lecture was a fresh triumph. 
His pulpit oratory, though calm and free 
from adventitious display, was marvellously 
powerful and effective. His elocution was 
almost perfect. Some of his lectures, on 
the other hand, were marked by lofty and 
impassioned flights of oratory which liter- 
ally took his audiences by storm. Among 
those which will long be remembered by all 
who heard them were his two discourses on 



"Macaulay," and "Daniel in Babylon." " Mr. 
Punshon's lectures," says the English writer 
previously quoted, " brought him much and 
immediate popularity from the Canadian 
people. Throughout his vigorous and ani- 
mating eloquence there was a deep, fault- 
less vein of human sympathy a sympathy 
which at once lays strong hold of his hearers, 
softening their passions, and intensifying 
their affections. The newspapers were 
daily aglow with the praises of the man, 
and Canadian Methodism reflected back, so 
to speak, the light which English Methodism 
for the time being had lost." In addition 
to his ministrations in Canada he delivered 
frequent sermons and lectures in the United 
States, where he was received with as much 
enthusiasm as here. 

For some years prior to Mr. Punshon's 
arrival in Canada a strong feeling had been 
growing among the Wesleyan Body in To- 
ronto that the accommodation at their dis- 
posal was inadequate to their requirements, 
and unworthy of the high and influential 
position which they occupied in this com- 
munity. The year of his arrival (1868) was 
marked by active measures, in which he 
took a prominent part, for the erection of a 
central church edifice which should be pro- 
portionate in splendour and accommodation 
to the status of Wesleyan Methodism in 
Toronto. Magill Square, comprising three 
and a quarter acres of land, was purchased, 
and the erection of the Metropolitan Church 
was proceeded with. Upon its completion 
it was pronounced by Mr. Punshon himself 
who was entitled to speak with authority 
on such a subject to be unequalled among 
the Methodist churches of the world. It 
was at one time hoped that Mr. Punshon 
might be induced to accept the pastorate, 
but though its vaulted aisles have fre- 
quently reechoed to the reverberating tones 
of his eloquence, he could not see his way to 
taking up his permanent abode in Canada. 
Early in 1871 he was chosen to represent 



THE REV. WILLIAM MORLEY PUNSHON, M.A., LL.D. 



191 



the Canadian Church at the Annual Wes- 
leyan Methodist Conference held in Man- 
chester in July of that year. He was en- 
thusiastically welcomed there ; and during 
his stay in England preached in the Metro- 
politan Tabernacle in Newington Butts, 
London, on behalf of the Wesleyan Metro- 
politan Chapel Building Fund. It can 
hardly be necessary to inform the reader 
that " The Tabernacle " is the spacious place 
of worship in which Mr. Spurgeon has for 
many years preached. The great Baptist 
preacher gave up his pulpit to Mr. Punshon 
for the occasion, and occupied the rostrum 
by his side. This episode was widely com- 
mented upon alike by the religious and the 
secular press, as an illustration of that lib- 
eral spirit which impels really great spirits 
to discard tradition and lay aside secta- 
rian differences for the advancement of true 
Christianity. 

Mr. Punshon returned to Toronto in 
September. During the following year he, 
as one of the representatives of the British 
Conference, attended the General Confer- 
ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 
the United States, held at Brooklyn, upon 
which occasion he delivered what has been 
described as " one of the most finished and 
persuasive, beautiful and brilliant utterances 
ever delivered before the General Confer- 
ence." His residence in Canada was also 
marked by his successful exertions in pro- 
moting an adequate endowment to the 
University of Victoria College, Cobourg. 

He returned to England in June, 1873. 
When his intention to leave Canada was 
made known, the announcement was re- 
ceived with regret throughout the land, not 
by the Methodist Body alone, but by a large 
number of the adherents of other religious 

O 

bodies. It was felt that he had brought a 
blessing with him, and that his going would 
be a loss. The loss was of course felt most 
keenly by the Methodist community, and 
he took with him flattering and substan- 



tial testimonials of their appreciation of the 
great service he had done them. Soon after 
his arrival in England he was appointed 
pastor of Warwick Chapel Kensington ; and 
in July, 1874, he was elected President of 
the Conference for the ensuing year. From 
that time down to the present he has been 
one of the missionary secretaries of the Wes- 
leyan Missionary Society, whose emissaries 
are to be found, as is well known, in every 
part of the world. Dr. Punshon is now the 
senior secretary of that Society. 

It is generally conceded that Mr. Pun- 
shon's services to Methodism in England 
have been paramount to those of any living 
divine. Even in a land which maintains 
a connection between Church and State, 
hampered by all the aristocratic traditions 
which such a connection of necessity en- 
genders, the disciples of John Wesley are 
no longer looked upon as composing a dif- 
ferent order of humanity from Episcopa- 
lians. All men and all sects have been com- 
pelled to recognize the fact that Methodism 
is a mighty influence for good, and a potent 
factor in society. Its preachers number 
among their ranks men of learning and 
ability, fit to cope with the divines of any 
creed, and of a character and social posi- 
tion which no State can affect to despise. 
Their influence is more or less felt in every 
parish of the United Kingdom, and, to their 
praise be it spoken, it has always been ex- 
erted on the side of human liberty and 
human progress. This state of things has 
of course not been brought about by one 
man or by one generation ; but it has 
never been so apparent as during the last 
quarter of a century, and no one has con- 
tributed in a higher degree to compel its 
wide recognition than has William Morley 
Punshon. 

In addition to the works already men- 
tioned, Mr. Punshon has published a sec- 
ond volume of poems, entitled " Sabbath 
Chimes," and a volume of four sermons on 



192 



THE REV. WILLIAM MORLEY PUNSHON, M.A., LL.D. 



the Prodigal Son, besides several pamphlets 
on theological subjects. 

He has been thrice married. His first 
wife, to whom he was united during his 
residence at Newcastle-on-Tyne, shortly 
after his ordination, was Miss Vickers, of 
Gateshead. This lady survived her mar- 
riage about ten years. His union with his 
second wife, who was a sister of the first, 
took place soon after his removal from 
England to Canada ; and her death, in Oc- 
tober, 1871, awakened a wide-spread sym- 
pathy for the bereaved husband, both in 
Canada and in England. This second mar- 
riage, which was not in accordance with 



prevalent law and usage, evoked much 
comment and criticism at the time, but 
did not affect Mr. Punshon's popularity or 
usefulness. On the 17th of June, 1873, 
he married his third wife, who was Miss 
Mary Foster, a daughter of the late Mr. 
William Foster, of Sheffield. This lady 
still survives. He has several children by 
his first wife. His degree of M.A. was 
conferred upon him many years ago by 
the Middletown University, in the State 
of Connecticut. His degree of LL.D. was 
conferred by the University of Victoria 
College, Cobourg, during his residence in 
Canada. 



THE HON. JOSEPH ALFRED MOUSSEAU, Q.C. 



MR. MOUSSEAU was born at Berthier, 
in Lower Canada, in the month of 
July, 18:38. He is a son of M. Louis Mous- 
seau, by Sophie Duteau de Grand Pre", and 
a grandson of M. Alexis Mousseau, who for 
many years occupied a seat in the Legis- 
lative Assembly of the Province of Quebec. 

He received his education chiefly at the 
Berthier Academy, and after completing it 
he studied law, first in the office of the Hon. 
Louis Auguste Olivier, now a Puisne Judge 
of the Superior Court of Quebec ; second, in 
the office of the Hon. Thomas Kennedy 
Ramsay, now a Puisne Judge of the Court 
of Queen's Bench for that Province ; and 
third, in the office of the late Judge Drum- 
mond and the present Judge Belanger. In 
1860 he was called to the Bar of his native 
Province, at which he soon won a creditable 
place. Like many other young professional 
men, he took a keen interest in journalism, 
and contributed largely to the periodical 
press. He was one of the founders of Le 
Colonisateur newspaper, in 1862, and of 
L'Opinion P-Mique, in 1870. He is the 
author of a pamphlet published in 1867 in 
defence of the scheme of Confederation. 
He also wrote a brochure entitled Cardinal 
et Durjuet, victimes de 18,37-38. 

In 1873 he was created a Queen's Coun- 
sel. He first entered public life at the gen- 
eral election of 1874, when he was retui m.l 
in the Conservative interest as the repre- 
sentative of the county of Bagot in the 
IV 26 



House of Commons. He represented that 
constituency all through the Third Parlia- 
ment. At the general election held on the 
17th of September, 1878, he presented him- 
self to his constituents for reelection, and 
was returned by a majority of 161 votes 
over his opponent, Mr. Chagnon. During 
his first Parliamentary session, from 1874 to 
1878, he took a prominent part in the dis- 
cussion of the question of amnesty to the 
insurgents in the North-West. He advo- 
cated "a full and complete amnesty, covering 
all offences committed in the North-West 
previous to the establishment of a Consti- 
tutional Government there." Throughout 
his whole Parliamentary career he has taken 
an intelligent part in the debates on eco- 
nomical questions. The Supreme Court 
and the insolvency laws have also engaged 
a due share of his attention as a member 
of Parliament. During the session of 1879 
he took a specially active part in the de- 
bates of the House. He took an uncom- 
promising stand on the Letellier question, 
and early in the session moved and carried 
a resolution declaring that the dismissal by 
the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec of his 
Ministers on the second day of March, 
1S71S, was, under the circumstances, unwise 
and subversive of the position accorded to 
the advisers of the Crown since the conces- 
sion of the principle of Responsible Govern- 
ment to the British North American Colo- 
nies. This was exactly the same resolu- 



194 



THE HON. JOSEPH ALFRED MOUSSEAU, Q.C. 



tion as had been offered by Sir John Mac- 
donald during the session of 1878, and de- 
feated. Mr. Mousseau, in renewing it, ex- 
pressly denied that he was actuated by any 
political motive, but protested that he had 
in view simply to uphold the great political 
principle of free and responsible govern- 
ment, which in his estimation Mr. Letellier 
had violated in dismissing the De Boucher- 
ville Administration. He reviewed ex- 
haustively the correspondence in the case, 
contending (1) that even were the reasons 
alleged by His Honour for that act substan- 
tially accurate as to the facts, they would 
have formed no sufficient justification of his 
conduct ; and (2) that the reasons alleged 
were valueless, and were characterized by 
serious errors and inaccuracies. He quoted 
various constitutional authorities to show 
that Mr. Letellier's conception of the rights 
and privileges of the Crown were exagger- 
ated and incorrect, and he repudiated the 
statement that the coup d'etat had received 
the bona fide support of the people of the 
Province of Quebec. 



On the 6th of February, 1879, Mr. Mous- 
seau delivered a lecture on " Lord Durham, 
1837-1877," before the Conservative Club 
of St. Hyacinthe, which was responded to 
by a very flattering address on the part of 
the Club, and which was reviewed by the 
newspapers of the day in very compliment- 
ary terms. Mr. Mousseau's abilities, and 
his eminent services to the Conservative 
Party, obtained recognition in the month of 
November last, when he was invited to ac- 
cept a seat in the Cabinet as President of 
the Council. He responded favourably to 
the invitation, and was duly sworn into 
office. His political platform is represented 
by a contemporary as being, " to have 
British North America erected into a grand 
empire under the auspices and with the in- 
stitutions of the mother country." 

Mr. Mousseau married Marie Louise Her- 
selie, eldest daughter of Leopold Des Rosiers, 
notary, of Berthier. He is at present senior 
partner in the well-known Montreal law 
firm of Messrs. Mousseau, Archambault \: 
Monk. 



THE HON. TIMOTHY WARREN ANGLIN. 



MR. ANGLIN was born at Clonakilty, 
Cork County, Ireland, on the 31st of 
August, 1822. His father, Francis Anglin, 
was for many years an officer in the civil 
service of the East India Company. His 
mother was Joanna, daughter of Timothy 
Warren and Isabel Haliburton. He was 
originally intended for a profession, and 
received a liberal education at the en- 
dowed Grammar School of his native town. 
The dreadful famine of 1846-7, however, 
changed the whole current of his plans. 
While struggling to save from ruin the 
property on which his relatives depended 
for support, and from which he had hoped 
to derive the means of pursuing the pro- 
fessional career for which he had been pre- 
paring, he beheld the famine-stricken peo- 
ple dying and starving around him. He 
remained among them until 1849, doing 
what he could to help them in their strug- 
gles with the destroyer. In the spring of 
that year he emigrated to St. John, New 
Brunswick, where he soon made for him- 
self a comfortable home. He turned his at- 
tention to journalism, for which profession 
his talents and abilities were peculiarly 
suited. He possessed a good English edu- 
cation, had a liberal acquaintance with the 
Latin language, and considerable knowledge 
of English and foreign contemporary poli- 
tics. Erelong he found himself occupying 
a leading position in his new home. With 
the assistance of some friends who recog- 
ni/t:d his intellectual worth he, in August, 



18-19, established the Weekly Freeman. 
This journal he published until the autumn 
of 1850, when it was suspended, and in 
February, 1851, the Morning Freeman (tri- 
weekly) was founded. The latter was a 
thoroughly Liberal paper, and soon suc- 
ceeded in exerting great influence on the 
local political thought of the day. It al- 
ways maintained its high character as a 
well-written journal, was the recognized 
mouthpiece of the Roman Catholics of New 
Brunswick, and while it lacked certain 
features of the true newspaper, was always 
valuable as the medium through which Mr. 
Anglin addressed his readers. He support- 
ed the Liberal Party then in power. The 
Government, however, permitted the Pro- 
hibitive Liquor Bill to become law, and this 
greatly displeased Mr. Anglin, who opposed 
the measure, and took the ground that in a 
matter of such importance the Ministry must 
be held responsible for what was done by the 
Legislature. When he failed to induce the 
Liberal leaders, who were not Prohibition- 
ists, to take this view of the case, and sepa- 
rate themselves from the ultra-temperance 
party, he felt it to be his duty to go into 
active Opposition, and to support Messrs. 
Wilmot and Gray and their associates, as 
the only means of getting rid of a measure 
which he thought so injurious to the country. 
Under the new Administration the Prohibi- 
tory Act was repealed, but the Government 
was not a strong one, and in the following 
year (18">7) it collapsed, and the Liberals, 



196 



THE HON. TIMOTHY WARREN ANGLIN. 



with Mr. Tilley, again took charge of af- 
fairs, Mr. Charles Fisher becoming Attor- 
ney-General. Mr. Anglin, however, con- 
tinued to support the Party he had used to 
get rid of the Prohibitory law, and he did 
so with much zeal and vigour, because he 
had lost faith entirely in the men who, as 
he thought,' had allowed the Prohibitory 
Bill to become law when they really dis- 
approved of it. Mr. Anglin never changed 
his mind regarding that Act, and the atti- 
tude assumed towards it by the Liberal Ad- 
ministration. 

In 1860 he was elected one of the repre- 
sentatives of the city and county of St. John 
in the House of Assembly. He was the 
first Roman Catholic, it is said, who was ever 
elected to represent that constituency, which 
is largely Protestant. He at once took an 
important part in the discussion of all mat- 
ters which affected the public interest. He 
was an active mover in the first efforts 
which were made for the construction of 
the European and North American Rail- 
way, now a portion of the Intercolonial. 
These efforts for some years appeared hope- 
less enough, and when Mr. Archibald and 
the representatives of Messrs. Peto, Brassey 
& Co. proposed to build it on terms which 
seemed favourable, he was prompt in ac- 
cepting those terms. When the Fisher 
Cabinet proposed to buy out the contrac- 
tors and build the road through Commis- 
sioners, he approved of that proposal also, 
and gave the Government what assistance 
he could, though he afterwards attacked 
them severely because he fancied he de- 
tected the germs of jobbery in the man- 
ner in which the work was carried on. 
When a proposal was made that the In- 
tercolonial should be constructed under 
an arrangement which would throw two- 
sevenths of the whole cost on the Province 
of New Brunswick, he opposed it. When 
the question of Confederation was proposed 
he became one of the leaders in opposi- 



tion to the movement. With his tongue 
and pen he argued against the adoption of 
the Quebec scheme, on the grounds that 
he did not believe, as some declared, that 
the proposed Union of the Provinces was 
absolutely necessary for the purposes of 
defence, or the continuance of British con- 
nection, and that a very large increase in 
the rate of taxation in New Brunswick 
would be the direct result of the political 
change contemplated. He also condemned 
the Union because he considered that it 
would act disadvantageously towards the 
manufacturing interests of the Province. 
When the Legislature was dissolved and the 
question submitted to the people, Mr. Ang- 
lin was a successful candidate for the city 
and county of St. John. The Anti-Con- 
federates were returned by overwhelming 
majorities, and Mr. Anglin became a mem- 
ber, without office, of the Albert J. Smith 
Administration. During the campaign he 
pledged himself to build the road intended 
to connect the Province with the United 
States as a Government work, contending 
that so important a main road should be con- 
structed, owned and managed by the coun- 
try. Some months later, when his colleagues 
in the Government resolved to let the work 
to a company formed in St. John which had 
really no capital, and to approve of its be- 
ing built by a party of speculators from 
over the border, he resigned his seat in the 
Council. He continued, however, to support 
the Government, because it was opposed to 
Confederation. A popular agitation set in, 
the cry of " No Popery " was raised, and 
Roman Catholicism, always very strong in 
Mr. Anglin, was bitterly attacked. He was 
charged with being disloyal to the Empire, 
and declared to be a Fenian of the worst 
type, and a small body of these gentry ap- 
pearing at a convenient time on the New 
Brunswick border, and the proclamation 
which their leader, Mr. B. D. Killian, issued, 
inviting the Anti-Confederates to cooperate 



THE HON. TIMOTHY WARREN ANGLIN. 



197 



with him and resist British tyranny, lent 
colour to these charges. The Fenians prom- 
ised the New Brunswickers legislative in- 
dependence if they would link their for- 
tunes with them, and in other ways at- 
tempted to prominently identify themselves 
with the anti-Union movement. Of course 
the disunionists paid no heed to the bland- 
ishments of the ruffians over the border. 
Ridiculous as this Fenian excitement ap- 
pears now, it did wonderful service in 
changing the minds of the people during 
the memorable struggle of 1866. The re- 
ligious question was also imported into the 
fight, and men were openly told that by 
voting for Mr. Anglin they would encourage 
the worst form of Ultramontanism. The 
Province became thoroughly alarmed and 
disorganized. The Smith Government was 
wedged out and the Legislature dissolved. 
A general election followed, the Anti-Con- 
federates were signally defeated, and Mr. 
Anglin lost his election in St. John. In 
the elections which followed in 1867, for 
the House of Commons, he became a candi- 
date for the county of Gloucester. He was 
returned, his majority being nearly four 
hundred. In 1872 he was reelected, and in 
1874 he was returned by a show of hands. 
Mr. Anglin has contrived to do a great 
deal in the way of influencing public opinion 
in his adopted home. In debate he has few 
equals in the Canadian Parliament, and 
liis wonderful memory for figures and facts, 
his skill in attack, and his vast political 
knowledge at once proclaim him a man of 
no ordinary mind. Up to 1867 he was con- 
spicuous only for the prolific and powerful 
character of his pen. It is since then that 
he has achieved his fame as a public speaker 
and debater. He has always had the cour- 
age of his opinions, and a good deal of his 
strength was expended in his denunciation 
of the New Brunswick School Act. Thor- 
oughly in accord with the views of the 
Catholic bishops and laity, he took strong 



ground on this question, and was so far 
successful in his labours that in many parts 
of the Province a compromise was effected 
which gave to those of his faith permission 
to have their own schools and teachers, and 
to give religious instruction before or after 
school hours. 

On the 26th of March, 1874, Mr. Anglin 
was unanimously elected Speaker of the 
House of Commons. On the 7th of April, 
1877, Mr. Mackenzie Bo well moved a reso- 
lution to the effect that the printing con- 
tract held by the Speaker with the Gov- 
ernment was an infringement of the In- 
dependence of Parliament Act. An active 
debate followed, and the next day the mo- 
tion was negatived by 111 to 72, when 
Mr. Casey moved that the question of Mr. 
Anglin's printing contract be referred to 
the Committee on Privileges and Elections. 
This Committee did not report until the da}' 
of prorogation, at too late an hour for the 
House to take action on the question. The 
decision at which the Committee arrived, 
however, was that the seat was voided, 
and during the recess which followed, the 
Speaker resigned and was reelected by his 
constituents. On Parliament assembling in 
1878 he was again chosen Speaker. He 
filled this responsible office with great dig- 
nity and ability. His rulings, often involv- 
ing immense research among conflicting 
constitutional authorities, were always ren- 
dered with strict impartiality and justice. 
In September, 1878, when the general elec- 
tions were held throughout the Dominion, 
he was elected for Gloucester without op- 
position. Sir John Macdonald returned to 
power, and the ex-Speaker took his seat as 
one of the leading members of the Oppo- 
sition. 

He has been twice married : first in 1853, 
to his cousin, Margaret O'Ryan ; and sec- 
ond in September, 1862, to Miss McTavish, 
daughter of the late Alexander McTavish, 
of St. John, N.B. 



THE HON. ROBERT DUNCAN WILMOT, 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 



T IEUTENANT-GOVERNOR WILMOT 
-LJ belongs to the same family as the late 
Judge Wilmot, whose life has already ap- 
peared in these pages. He is a grandson of 
the Major Lemuel Wilmot mentioned in the 
former sketch, and a son of the late John M. 
Wilmot, who for many years represented 
the county of St. John in the Legislative 
Assembly of New Brunswick. His mother, 
prior to her marriage, was Miss Susan Har- 
riet Wiggins, daughter of Mr. Samuel Wig- 
gins, a prominent merchant of St. John. 

He was born at Fredericton, New Bruns- 
wick, on the 16th of October, 1809. When 
he was in his fifth year his parents removed 
to St. John, when 1 he .soon afterwards began 
to attend school, and where his education 
has been chiefly received. Upon reaching 
manhood he engaged in business as a ship- 
owner and miller at St. John. He subse- 
quently resided in Liverpool, England, but 
returned to St. John about 1840. 

He first entered public life in 1846, when 
he was returned to the Legislative Assem- 
bly of New Brunswick as representative of 
the city and county of St. John. He repre- 
sented that constituency for a continuous 
period of fifteen years, during which he 
was twice a member of the Executive Coun- 
cil viz., from 1851 to 1854, when he held 
office as Surveyor-General in the Partelow 
( !os eminent ; and again from 1856 to 1857 
in the Wilmot and Gray Government. He 
made an exo-Heiil head of a Department. 



From 1861 to 1865 he remained out of 
Parliament. During the last-named year 
he was again returned for St. John, and 
sat for that constituency until Confedera- 
tion, when, in the month of May, 1867, he 
was called to the Senate by Royal Procla- 
mation. Upon the formation of Sir John 
Macdonald's Government in October, 1878, 
Mr. Wilmot was sworn of the Privy Coun- 
cil, without portfolio. He was immediately 
afterwards appointed Speaker of the Sen- 
ate, as successor to the Hon. David Christie, 
a position which he retained until the 10th 
of February, 1880, when he resigned, and 
accepted the Lieutenant-Governorship of 
his native Province, as successor to the late 
Hon. Edward Barren Chandler. 

He has always held strong views in fa- 
vour of protection, and has also been a 
strenuous advocate of paper currency in 
New Brunswick. 

In 1833 he married Miss Mowatt, of St. 
Andrews. In 1849 he was Mayor of the 
city of St. John. He was Surveyor-Gen- 
eral of the Province of New Brunswick 
from 1851 to 1854, and Provincial Secretary 
from 1856 to 1857. In 1865 he was a dele- 
gate on behalf of his Province to the Con- 
federate Council of Trade held at Quebec ; 
and in December, 18G6, attended the Union 
Conference held in London, England. In 
1876 he was a Commissioner on behalf of 
Canada to the Centennial Exhibition held 
at Philadelphia. 



* , 







THE HON. PIERRE J. O. CHAUVEAU, 



Q.C., D.C.L., LL.D. 



MR. CHAUVEAU unites the qualities of 
the astute politician with those of the 
graceful man of letters. His life has been a 
series of surprises to his friends, and while 
he has never developed remarkable capacity 
as an administrative officer, his fine personal 
qualities have enabled him to carry himself 
and his Party successfully through many a 
bitter and exciting period. He has generally 
been happy in his surroundings, and though 
utterly unskilful in attack, he has made 
himself famous by the boldness, defiance 
and vigour with which he has conducted 
himself in defence. He has never led a 
charge, but many a formidable blow has 
been turned and warded oft' with the skill 
and adroitness of a complete master of fence. 
He has always interested himself in the 
cause of education, and for forty years his 
name has been conspicuous as one of the 
brightest minds in that poetic and romantic 
school of literature which a coterie of talent- 
ed young French Canadian journalists and 
lawyers inaugurated in the Lower Province 
as far back as 1840 a literature which is 
native to the soil, and has its counterpart 
in no other part of the globe. 

He was born on the 30th of May, 1820, 
at Quebec. His father was a merchant, and 
the lineal descendant of one of the oldest 
and most respectable families of Charles- 
bourg. He died while his son was but a 
child, and the early training of the boy was 
confided to the care of Mr. Joseph Roy and 



Judge Hamel, his grandfather and uncle 
respectively. Under such tutorship he made 
good progress. He went through a course 
of studies at the old Seminary of Quebec, 
and after graduating with high honours, 
entered the law offices of Messrs. Hamel & 
Roy, and (later) those of Mr. afterwards 
Judge Stuart. He at one time intended 
to become a priest, but subsequently changed 
his mind, and took up the legal profession 
as his calling in life. 

At an early age he began writing for the 
newspapers. His efforts were appreciated 
by the public, and while his poems in Le 
CiinaJien found acceptance among scholars, 
his letters on politics and social topics won 
for him many words of praise from the 
readers of Le Coiirrier </cx Etts r/iis, in 
which journal they appeared regularly for 
about eleven years. In 1844 he was returned 
to Parliament for Quebec County, beating 
his opponent, the Hon. John Neilson, by a 
majority of over 1,000 votes. From that 
year until 1855 he continued a member of 
the Assembly, always representing the same 
constituency. Up to 1848 he supported Mr. 
Lafontaine, but at the close of the elections 
in that year the popular Reformer found 
himself so strong that the Quebec support 
was not essential to him. He failed to con- 
sult the members for the district, and Mr. 
Chauveau, smarting under the slight, at once 
withdrew his allegiance, and transferred it 
to Mr. Papineau, who welcomed him with 



200 THE HON. PIERRE JOSEPH OLIVIER CHAUVEAU, Q.C., D.C.L., LL.D. 



open arms. When the Rebellion Losses 
Bill was up for debate in 1849, Mr. Chau- 
veau advocated in a striking speech the 
claims of the Bermuda exiles, and in the 
same year he obtained a committee to in- 
quire into the causes of the emigration of 
French Canadians to the United States. 
In November, 1851, under the Hincks- 
Morin Administration, he became Solicitor- 
General for Lower Canada, a post which he 
gave up in August, 1853, to take the position 
of Provincial Secretaiy, with a seat in the 
Executive Council. This office he held until 
January, 1855, when he retired from the 
Government, and on being appointed in 
July Chief Superintendent of Education, as 
the successor to Dr. Meilleur, he devoted 
all his energies to the administration of the 
affairs of the department. In 1856 Le 
Journal de I' Instruction Publique and The 
Journal of Education were founded under 
his auspices. He was the editor of the 
former, and a frequent contributor to the 
latter. During his superintendency he visit- 
ed Europe, the British Isles and the United 
States, for the purpose of studying the 
various educational systems in those coun- 
tries, with a view towards the adoption in 
Canada, of the better points of each. 

He remained at the head of the schools 
until Confederation, when he was returned 
as the representative of Quebec County to 
both the House of Commons and the Que- 
bec House of Assembly. He took his seat 
in both Houses. In August, 1867, Mr. 
Cauchon, unable to form a stable Govern- 
ment in Quebec, made way for Mr. Chauveau, 
who at once undertook the responsibility, 
and formed a strong Ministry. In 1873, 
owing to a difference between himself and 
his colleagues, he resigned his seat in the 
Cabinet, and subsequently was defeated 
in Charlevoix by Mr. Tremblay. On the 
21st of February he was appointed Speaker 
of the Senate, and remained in that posi- 
tion until the 8th of January, 1874, when 



the Administration of Mr. Mackenzie came 
into power. He then resigned his seat in 
the Upper House. In September, 1877, he 
was nominated Sheriff of Montreal, which 
office he now fills with great acceptance. 
On the 22nd of May, 1878, Laval University 
conferred on him the honorary degree of 
LL.D. In 1840 he married Miss Moss, of 
Quebec, by whom he has had seven children. 
His literary life has been active, and he 
has made a name for himself which extends 
beyond the limits of his home. His poems 
delicate and graceful compositions first 
brought him into fame. These were fol- 
lowed by his letters to Le Con ///>/ des Etats 
Unis, which were regularly copied into the 
Canadian papers of the time, from 1841 
to 1852. From 1847 to 1850 he wrote in 
poetry and prose, for Le Castor, La Fan- 
tasque, and La Revue Canadienne. Later 
he contributed to various Lower Canadian 
periodicals. His novel " Charles Guerin " 
a really clever story, appeared in 1852, 
and made a marked sensation in Montreal 
and Quebec. His oration in July, 1855, at 
the laying of the corner stone of the monu- 
ment dedicated to the memory of those who 
fell on the Plains of Abraham, was a per- 
formance that elevated him into the front 
rank of Canadian orators. It was afterwards 
published in pamphlet form. A sketch of 
the Prince of Wales's tour in America fol- 
lowed, in French and in English, in 1861, 
and in September, 1867, he pronounced the 
funeral oration over the grave of his dead 
friend, F. X. Garneau, the historian. L' In- 
struction Publique au Canada, a statisti- 
cal and historical account of the progress 
of Education in Canada, was published in 
1876. Since then Mr. Chauveau has written 
for the newspapers and magazines in the 
spare moments which he has been able to 
snatch from other duties. His literary style 
has been much admired, and among living 
French Canadian writers he ranks as the 
acknowledged head. 



THE HON. CHARLES FISHER, A.M., D.C.L. 



THE late Judge Fisher, though he was 
possessed of few or none of those 
qualities which it is customary to associate 
with greatness, was one of the most useful 
and highly respected men in New Bruns- 
wick. He figured largely in the two most 
important epochs in the Provincial history 
of his time Responsible Government and 
Confederation and though he necessarily 
had to encounter bitter opposition, he seems 
to have made no personal enemies, and to 
have left behind him a host of pleasant and 
kindly remembrances. He was the grand- 
son of Mr. Peter Fisher, a U. E. Loyalist, of 
the Province of New York, who settled in 
New Brunswick about the time of its be- 
ing constituted a separate Province. Peter 
Fisher had a son, also named Peter Fisher, 
who engaged in business as a lumber-mer- 
chant in Fredericton, where his son, the sub- 
ject of this sketch, was born in the month 
of September, 1808. 

Young Charles Fisher's boyhood gave no 
special promise. He was simply a good- 
tempered and by no means brilliant youth, 
who was attentive to his studies, and whose 
mind matured somewhat late. In his 
twentieth year he matriculated at King's 
College, and three years later graduated as 
B.A. He studied law in the office of the 
late Hon. G. F. Street, a member of the Ex- 
ecutive Council, who subsequently became 
a Judge of the Supreme Court of New 
Brunswick. He was admitted as an At- 
IV 27 



torney in 1831, and began to practise in his 
native city. In 1.S53 he was called to the 
Bar of New Brunswick. In September, 
1836, he married Miss Amelia Halfield, 
seventh daughter of Mr. David Halfield, 
also a U. E. Loyalist from the Province of 
New York. Next year he entered public 
life as the colleague of Lemuel Allan 
Wilmot in the representation of the county 
of York in the Provincial Assembly. The 
struggle for Responsible Government was 
.still in its infancy, but there were evi- 
dences that it would erelong attain a lusty 
manhood. Charles Fisher entered upon his 
share of the struggle with no less conscien- 
tiousness and determination than his more 
brilliant colleague. Those were days when 
it needed no slight courage on the part of 
a young man beginning life to fight the 
battle of the people against the oligarchy. 
The subject of this sketch fought side by 
side with Mr. Wilmot until Responsible 
Government was conceded, and it was his 
hand which, in LS48, prepared the resolu- 
tion to the effect that Earl Grey's de- 
spatch of the previous year was as appli- 
cable to New Brunswick as to Nova Scotia.* 
The history of the contest which ended in the 
establishment of Responsible Government 
has been given at sufficient length in pre- 
vious sketches. Mr. Fisher was associated 
with all the Liberal measures by which the 
history of the contest was marked, inclu- 

See V..1. III., ]>. 161. 



202 



THE HON. CHARLES FISHER, A.M., D.C.L. 



cling the reforms in the Civil Service and the 
securing of equal rights for all religious 
bodies. He continued to sit in the Assem- 
bly for the county of York until 18."><K when 
he was defeated. In 1848 he became a 
member of the Executive Council, but de- 
clined to accept any office of emolument. 
He and his friend Mr. Wilmot were strongly 
censured by many members of the Liberal 
Party for entering the Government, which 
was a Conservative one. They were charged 
with desertion of their principles. The de- 
fence made by them was that their prin- 
ciples had triumphed upon the accomplish- 
ment of Responsible Government, and that 
they were indisposed to wage a mere war 
for office. 

In 1850 Mr. Fisher attended the famous 
Railway Convention at Portland, as a dele- 
gate. In 1852 ho was appointed a Com- 
missioner to codify and consolidate the 
statute law of New Brunswick, and to in- 
quire into the procedure of the Courts of 
Law and Equity, and into the law of evi- 
dence. In 1854 he was again elected for 
York, and thenceforward continued to rep- 
resent that constituency in the Assembly 
until 18<;.">. In 1855 he was created a 
Queen's Counsel At the general election 
of 1857, the Government of the da}- was 
defeated on an appeal to the country, and 
Mr. Fisher, being on the winning side, en- 
tered the new Government as Attorney- 
General. He held ollice abmi t four years, 
when, in 1861, he resigned both his office 
and his seat in the Government, in con- 
sequence of certain land troubles in which 
he was involved. He retained his seat as a 
private member. He espoused the Confe- 
deration project with much fervour, and 
attended the Quebec Conference in 1804 as 
a delegate on behalf of his native Province. 
His Union proclivities cost him his seat for 
York at the election of 180-3 ; but he was 
reflected in March, I860, and sat in the As- 
sembly for his old constituency until the 



Union. He accepted office as Attorney- 
General in the Government which, in 1806, 
succeeded the Anti-Confederate Govern- 
ment led by the Hon. (now Sirj Albert 
James Smith, and retained office until Con- 
federation was accomplished. He attended 
the final Conference in London to secure 
the passage of the British North America 
Act in 1800-07. Eight years prior to this 
time (in 1858) he had visited England as 
the co-delegate of the Hon. Albert James 
Smith, on business connected with the In- 
tercolonial Railway. At the first election 
after Confederation he was returned to the 
House of Commons for the county of York, 
and sat until the 3rd of October, 1808, when 
he was appointed a Puisne Judge of the 
Supreme Court of New Brunswick, on the 
appointment of his old colleague, Lemuel 
Allan Wilmot to the Lieutenant-Governor- 
ship of the Province. On the 14th of Oc- 
tober, I,s(i8, lie was appointed Judge of the 
Court of Divorce and Matrimonial Causes 
for New Brunswick. From that date down 
to the month of December last hecontinued 
to discharge his judicial duties with great 
efficiency. He was painstaking and con- 
scientious, rather than profoundly learned 
or brilliant, but he was an exceedingly well- 
read lawyer, and in constitutional law he 
was regarded as the highest authority in 
New Brunswick. In private life he was 
an exceedingly kind and amiable man. His 
death was a sudden and great surprise, for 
up to two or three days before he passed 
away he was apparently in the enjoyment 
of excellent health, audit was believed that 
years of unpretending usefulness were still 
before him. True, he had passed by nearly 
two years the allotted term of three score 
and ten, but he came of one of the old 
patriarchal families of New Brunswick, 
and it is by no means uncommon to find 
members of those families in the enjoyment 
of good health and considerable vigour at 
fourscore. The .fudge was a man of fine 



THE HON. CHARLES FISHER, A.M., D.C.L. 



203 



physical development, robust constitution, 
and regular domestic habits, so that there 
was every reason to predict that he would 
live to an advanced age. As matter of fact, 
such a prediction was often made by the 
Judge's friends, and it would doubtless have 
been verified but for accidental causes. 
During the first week of December last he 
caught a severe cold, which settled upon 
his lungs, and produced an exhausting in- 
flammation, to which he rapidly succumbed. 
He died at his home in Fredericton on the 
morning of the 8th of December, 1880. 

At the time of his death he was a mem- 
ber of the Senate of the University of New 
Brunswick, and an honorary member of the 
New Brunswick Provincial Teachers' Insti- 
tute. He received the honorary degree of 
D.C.L. from the University of New Bruns- 
wick in 18GG. He was an extensive reader, 
and had a finely cultivated mind. He \v;is 
an open-handed, large-hearted man, a warm 
friend and a generous opponent. As law- 
yer, politician and private citizen, he de- 
served well of his native Province, and of 
his country. 

From the foregoing outline it will be 
apparent that Charles Fisher played an im- 
portant part in the public life of his native 
Province for an exceptionally long period. 
That he played it with credit is sufficiently 
proved by the high and honourable posi- 
tion to which he attained during his lii'e, 



and by the numerous laudatory tributes to 
his memory from persons of all shades of 
political opinion after his death. " He was 
a Liberal," says a local organ of opinion, " in 
the largest and true meaning of the word. 
He was a thorough believer in the right of 
the people to rule and in popular institu- 
tions of every kind. He favoured vote by 
ballot, municipal institutions, railways, free 
schools, and constitutional rule. He was a 
born loyalist, every impulse of his soul being 
in the direction of the support of British 
laws and institutions. He was also a great 
lover of the Protestant faith in which he 
had been educated, while he exercised the 
largest charity towards all who differed 
from him in religious opinion. It may 
truthfully be said of Charles Fisher that he 
was an ardent lover of his Province. His 
public career covered all the time within 
which the great improvements of the age 
have been worked out, and his brain aided 
to secure many of these for the benefit of 
his fellow-citizens of New Brunswick. He 
was certainly the first constitutional lawyer 
among New Brunswickers. The institu- 
tions which he was instrumental in secur- 
ing for our Province he was ever ready to 
defend. Although so much of his life was 
spent in the public service, he was a well- 
read lawyer, and his judgments were gener- 
ally based on the broad principles of equity 
and justice." 



THE HON. CHARLES CLARKE, 

SPEAKER OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO. 



T IEUTEN ANT -COLON EL CLARKE 
J-J was born in the grand old cathedral city 
of Lincoln, England, within sound of the fa- 
mous bell known as " Great Tom," on the 
28th of November, 1826. In his boyhood 
he was the pupil of Mr. now the Rev. 
Thomas Cooper, well known from his connec- 
tion with the Chartist movement, and conse- 
quent imprisonment in Stafford jail and 
likely to be known to future generations by 
his remarkable epic poem, " The Purgatory 
of Suicides." Mr. Clarke received his more 
advanced education at Waddington, in Lin- 
colnshire, under the tuition of Mr. George 
Boole, who is known as the author of several 
mathematical works, and who became first 
Professor of Mathematics in Queen's College. 
Cork, Ireland. After completing his educa- 
tion he served his apprenticeship as a draper 
with Mr. John Norton of Lincoln, a promi- 
nent Radical, a warm advocate of Free Trade, 
and a personal friend of John Bright and 
Richard Cobden. Brought up amid such in- 
fluences, it is not to be wondered at that 
Mr. Clarke early imbibed advanced ideas on 
social, commercial and political questions. 
At the time when he was expanding from 
boyhood to youth, England was agitated 
from end to end on the questions of un- 
restricted commerce with foreign nations 
and the abolition of the Corn Laws. He 
was even in those early days an ardent be- 
liever in Free Trade and the rights of the 
people, and the years that have since passed 



over his head have witnessed no abate- 
ment of his ardour. He is a Liberal of the 
Liberals. 

Some of his family connections having 
emigrated to Canada in 1843, he followed 
during the next year, settling in the town- 
ship of Canboro', in the Niagara District. 
Here he gave himself up to farming pursuits 
for about four years, when, in 1848, having 
suffered for some time from fever and ague, 
then common in that part of the country, 
he took up his residence in Hamilton. Hav- 
ing found commercial employment there, 
he anlused himself by writing two or three 
contributions for the press descriptive of 
the scenery in the neighbourhood of Elora, 
where some of his family connections re- 
sided, and where he had been a frequent 
visitor. The wild and rugged beauty of that 
region afforded, and still affords, a suitable 
theme for a writer endowed with graphic 
power of description, and Mr. Clarke's 
contributions attracted the attention of the 
editor of the Hamilton Journal and Ex- 
/'/vxs. He was invited to contribute other 
articles, and the connection led to his en- 
gagement as sub-editor of that paper. The 
Journal and AV///rxx was a faithful sup- 
porter of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Adminis- 
tration (which was then in power) although 
opposed to radical reforms. The young jour- 
nalist in a few months obtained full control 
of its editorial columns, and launched into 
the advocacy of measures which were then 



THE HON. CHARLES CLARKE. 



205 



thought to be altogether in advance of the 
times, but most of which have since been 
engrafted upon the statute-book, and are 
now defended by Reformers and Conserva- 
tives alike. 

The times were stirring. Europe was 
moved to its foundations with democratic 
excitement. Old institutions were falling 
with a crash in every direction, and it would 
have been indeed strange had the move- 
ment in favour of extended reforms not 
reached Canada. The young editor found 
the work upon a semi-weekly journal in- 
sufficient for his energies. Thoughts were 
breathing within him that must find a 
burning expression by means of some other 
channel. In 1850 he contributed, under ! 
the pseudonym of " Reformator," a series of 
letters to the Toronto Miri-nr, the organ of 
the Irish Roman Catholic party, then edited 
by Dr. Joseph Workman. These letters at- 
tracted considerable attention, as their radi- 
calism was of the most pronounced char- 
acter, and were generally attributed to the 
pen of Dr. John Rolph. They were widely 
copied, and freely commented upon by the 
Reform press. Mr. Clarke's connection with 
the Hamilton Journal am/ AVy/vN.x termi- 
nated in 1850, when he removed to Elora, 
and shortly afterwards engaged in mercan- 
tile pursuits. He still, however, continued 
to write for the press, and was requested by 
Mr. now the Hon. William McDougall, 
then editing the 3 m'/li A n-i-i<:<i u, to prepare 
a series of articles for that paper. He fur- 
nished these under the heading of " Planks 
of our Platform," each article dealing with 
one of the reforms then advocated by the 
editor. About this time also he contributed 
to the Dundas liiium r, Paris ,s7<>/-, Toronto 
/J, ni in iiier and other Reform journals. 

In 1852, a weekly newspaper, the Brk- 
woodaman, vra commenced in Elora, by a 
joint-stock company. Mr. Clarke acted as 
its political editor for some time, persistent- 
ly defending the interests of the settlers, 



who were then filling up the country from 
the Grand River to Lake Huron. His pen 
was always employed in defence of Reform 
principles. The Backwoodsman obtained a 
fair circulation, and continued to exist for 
some years, doing a fair share of work in 
determining the political bias of the locality. 
In 1852, he married Emma, daughter of Mr. 
James Kent, of Selkirk, in the county of 
Haldimand. Until the time of her death in 
1878, Mrs. Clarke was truly a helpmeet. 
She was possessed of remarkable activity of 
body, was a clear and incisive thinker, a 
pleasant but not profuse conversationist, 
and a mother among ten thousand. Her 
broad common-sense views, and her cheerful 
application of them in the affairs of every- 
day life, were of service to her husband in 
facing many of the inevitable difficulties 
that arise during every long and busy pub- 
lic life. By this marriage Mr. Clarke had 
five children. His only son, Charles Kirk, 
is now a resident physician at the Hamilton 
Asylum for the Insane. 

In 1857 Elora was incorporated, and Mr. 
Clarke was elected to the first Council. 
Next year he was appointed Reeve, and for 
many years thereafter he occupied a seat 
in the County Council of Wellington. He 
was nominated for Warden, but owing to 
sectional political differences he was de- 
feated by one vote. He acted as a Sch< x >1 
Trustee for many years, and is now a mem- 
ber of the Elora High School Board, tak- 
ing a warm interest in educational progress. 
While occupying a seat in the County Coun- 
cil he was a constant supporter of public 
improvements, and largely assisted in carry- 
ing out flic system of gravel roads which 
did so much to develop the material interests 
of Wellington. He has taken a fair share, 
too, in the support of the various railway 
projects brought before the people of the 
coiintv. 

In August, 1861, he was appointed Lieu- 
tenant in a Volunteer Rifle Company formed 



206 



THE HON. CHARLES CLARKE. 



in Elora. In 1866 he rose to the Captaincy, 
having served about three months at Chat- 
ham and Point Edward previous to and 
during the Fenian Raid. He was gazetted 
Senior Major of the 30th Wellington Bat- 
talion of Rifles, upon its formation in Sep- 
tember of that year. Upon the resignation 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Higinbotham, he was 
promoted to the command of the Battalion, 
and still holds this position. As a military 
officer he is highly esteemed by the men 
under his command. 

From his first settlement in Wellington 
he took an active share in polities, and for 
many years acted as Secretary of the Re- 
form Association of the North Riding. At 
the general election in 1871, he was unani- 
mously nominated by a Reform Convention 
as candidate for the representation of Centre 
Wellington in the Ontario Legislature. He 
was elected over his opponent, Mr. Alex- 
ander McLaren, by a majority of 674, re- 
placing a Conservative who had previously 
represented the constituency. In 1S75 he 
was elected by acclamation, and in 1879 was 
reflected by a majority of 660, his oppo- 
nent having obtained a trifling majority in 
only two of the polling sub-divisions of the 
Riding. 

During his Parliamentary career Mr. 
Clarke has introduced and carried several 
bills dealing with matters of interest to the 
farming community, among which may be 
enumerated the Insectivorous Birds Bill, 
and a Bill for the protection of life and limb 
from accidents in connection with threshing 
machines. He however directed his particu- 
lar attention to the question of the Ballot. 
In 1873 he brought in a Bill providing for 



the use of the secret vote at parliamentary 
elections, and succeeded in securing its sec- 
ond reading by a large majority. The Gov- 
ernment requested him to withdraw this 
Bill, promising to deal with the question 
during the following session, and, believing 
that a matter of so much importance ought 
to be in the hands of the leader of the 
House, he consented. In the following ses- 
sion, Mr. Mowat proposed a comprehensive 
measure, which became law, and was fol- 
lowed by another, extending the Ballot to 
municipal elections. Colonel Clarke acted 
as permanent Chairman of the House in 
the Third Parliament, and as Chairman of 
Standing Committee on Public Accounts for 
three sessions. On the re-opening of Par- 
liament in 1880, he was nominated for the 
Speakership by the Premier, seconded by 
the Hon. R. M. Wells, the retiring Speaker, 
and supported by Mr. Meredith, the leader 
of the Opposition, who expressed confidence 
in the selection made by the Government 
and the House. 

Socially, Colonel Clarke is uniformly 
obliging to all, and is to-day as highly re- 
spected as any man in the county of Wel- 
lington. He is remarkably fond of a joke, 
and enjoys it, even if told at his own ex- 
pense. He has a liking for natural science 
and art, and is generally well-informed. He 
is a keen observer of men and things, quick 
at repartee, and sharp as a needle. He is 
somewhat given to satire, and has been 
known to alienate acquaintances by his 
impromptu sarcastic remarks and home 
thrusts. As a rule, however, he is a genial 
companion, of kindly feelings, and is chari- 
table in thought, word and deed. 



HENRY JAMES MORGAN, 

KEEPER OF THE RECORDS, CANADA. 



i/fR. MORGAN was born in the city of 
Quebec, on the 14fch of November, 
1842. His father, who had served in the 
army, died when the subject of this sketch 
was only four years of age, leaving his widow 
in straitened circumstances. The son was 
taken from school by his mother when he 
was eleven years of age to enter the public 
service, which he did at the foot of the lad- 
der. He was self-reliant, and lost no oppor- 
tunity of improving his mind and condition. 
He attended night-school, passed the civil 
service examination, and, thanks to Sir John 
Macdonald and the late Chief Justice Harri- 
son, obtained his promotion. Leaving the 
civil service in 1861, he attended the Arts 
course of Morrin College, Quebec, and later 
on, he followed the law course at McGill, ! 
supporting himself and his mother the while 
by his contributions to the press. He was 
called to the Bar of Quebec and to that of 
Ontario in the same year. Prior to this lat- 
ter event he had become Private Secretary 
to the Hon. Isaac Buchanan, who was Presi- 
dent of the Council in the Tach^-Macdonald 
Administration, and on the retirement of 
that gentleman he was appointed Private 
Secretary to the Hon. William McDougall, 
C.B., who held the oilier of Provincial 
Secretary in the Coalition ( loveriimeiitsi of | 
Tache-Macdonald and Belleau-. Macdonald. 
When Confederation was accomplished Mr. 
Morgan was appointed to the Department 
of State, to which branch of the public 



service he still belongs. In 1868, during 
the prevalence of the Texan cattle plague, 
he proceeded to the Western States as a 
Commissioner to report on the nature and 
extent of the disease, a duty he successfully 
performed, in company with Professor Gam- 
gee, of London, who had been charged witli 
a similar mission by the British authorities. 
In October, 1873, he was appointed to the 
charge of the public records of Canada, 
which, by law, are under the care and con- 
trol of the Secretary of State. He took 
charge of the State records lying at Ottawa, 
and proceeding to Montreal, removed from 
there to the capital all the ancient and his- 
torical records which had been lying in 
the vaults of the old Government House in 
Montreal for many years -some of them 
since the Conquest. The whole, which forms 
a very respectable collection in size, is now 
being assorted, classified and indexed. In 
Ls7"> Mr. Morgan attained to the rank of 
Chief Clerk in the Civil Service, with the 
title of Keeper of the Records, he being the 
first to hold that office in Canada. 

Mr. Morgan is best known by his published 
works. He began writing when young, for 
he was Parliamentary correspondent to an 
Eastern journal during the session of 18">S, 
at Toronto. He also served in a similar 
capacity at Quebec and Ottawa, and lias 
filled the editorial chair of two daily papers. 
He was associated with the late Chief Jus- 
tice Harrison in editing The Poker, a hu- 



208 



HENRY JAMES MORGAN. 



morous weekly paper published at Toronto. 
He has also contributed to the Brit'ixl 
American Magazine, Johnson's Universal 
Cyclopaedia, Appleton's New American Cy- 
clopcedia, etc. 

In I860 he published his first volume, 
being an account of the tour of the Prince 
of Wales through Canada and the United 
States. It was well received by the press, 
and had the additional merit of earning for 
the author the thanks of Her Majesty the 
Queen, of the late Prince Consort, and of 
the Prince of Wales. The late Duke of 
Newcastle and General Bruce, who accom- 
panied the Prince on his visit, testified in 
private letters to Mr. Morgan to the accu- 
racy, taste and care with which the book 
had been prepared. 

" Sketches of Celebrated Canadians and 
Persons connected with Canada" followed 
in 1862. This was an 8vo volume of nearly 
800 pages, and was a more ambitious effort. 
Notwithstanding some blemishes and draw- 
backs, due chiefly to the youth and inex- 
perience of the author, this book possesses 
many merits, the chief of which is that it 
furnishes a readable account of eminent and 
notable Canadians of .the past mission- 
aries, warriors, judges, statesmen, authors, 
officials and teachers. In the same year 
Mr. Morgan, after consultation with Cap- 
tain Dod, commenced the publication of 
Tl <' Canadian Parliamentary Companion, 
modelled on the same plan as the English 
work. The Companion was continued an- 
nually by Mr. Morgan up to 1876, when he 
disposed of the copyright to the present pro- 
prietor. In Mr. Morgan's hands it became 
widely known throughout the country, and 
was acknowledged as a trustworthy author- 
ity on matters parliamentary, political and 
official. 

Mr. Morgan's magnum opus is his " Bib- 
liotheca Canadensis, or a Manual of Cana- 
dian Literature," which after long and ardu- 
ous labour, lasting five years, was published 



in 1867. It is the only complete biblio- 
graphical work yet published in Canada 
Faribault's being only, as its name indicates, 
a catalogue. Many leading literary men 
and periodicals of Europe and America have 
borne testimony to the great value of Mr. 
Morgan's labour and researches. His next 
publication was " The Canadian Legal Di- 
rectory," which embraced a full and authen- 
tic account of the several courts of law, 
their forms and proceedings, with the names 
of the members of the legal profession, and 
biographical sketches of the members of the 
Judiciary. It was published in 1878, and 
was a successful venture. In 1879 Mr. 
Morgan began to publish " The Dominion 
Annual Register and Review," of which two 
volumes have already appeared. Both of 
them are highly creditable to Mr. Morgan's 
industry and discrimination, and will be in- 
dispensable to the future historian of Can- 
ada. They have received very high and 
well -deserved encomiums from the press, 
and from leading writers and statesmen. 
Mr. Morgan was also editor of a book, pub- 
lished in 1864, bearing the title of "The 
Industrial Politics of America," embracing 
the opinions of Mr. Isaac Buchanan, then 
M.P. for Hamilton, in behalf of Protection 
to Home Industries; and of a lecture, printed 
in pamphlet form in 1806, on " The Place 
British Americans have won in History." 
This lecture was widely read and quoted 
from, and won for the lecturer unmeasured 
praise from the Canadian press. 

Mr. Morgan is a corresponding member of 
the Historical Societies of Buffalo, Quebec 
and New York, and of the American Geo- 
graphical Society ; a Fellow of the Royal 
Society of Northern Antiquaries of Den- 
mark ; and one of seven honorary Fellows 
of the Royal Colonial Institute of England. 

Mr. Morgan married in 1873, Emily, sec- 
ond daughter of the Hon. Albert Norton 
Richards, Q.C., Lieutenant-Governor of the 
Province of British Columbia. 



THE HON. CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN, Q.C., D.C.L. 



JUDGE DUNKIN was an Englishman 
by birth, descent, and early education. 
He was born on the 24th of September, 1811, 
and was educated first at the University of 
London, and afterwards at the Glasgow Uni- 
versity. He emigrated to the United States 
while still a young man, and completed his 
educational training at Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was after- 
wards for a short time a teacher of Greek in 
that institution. Not long before the re- 
bellion he removed to Lower Canada, and 
was for some time engaged in journalism in 
Montreal. He edited the Mom /'//// Chronicle 
of that city from the month of May, 1837, to 
the summer of 1838. In the last-named 
year he was appointed Secretary to the 
Education Commission under the Earl of 
Durham, who arrived in Canada in May, as 
Governor-General and Lord High Commis- 
sioner " for the adjustment of certain im- 
portant affairs affecting the Provinces of 
Upper and Lower Canada." After serving 
for some time on the Education Commis- 
sion Mr. Dunkin was appointed Secretary 
of the Post Office Commission. In 1839 he 
contributed to the North American Re- 
view, published at Boston, Massachusetts, a 
thoughtful paper on British American poli- 
tics. Upon the consummation of the Union 
of 1841, he was appointed Assistant Secre- 
tary for Lower Canada, a position which he 
retained until the month of May, 1847. He 
had meanwhile studied law in the office of 
IV 28 



the late Mr. Alexander Buchanan, Q.C., of 
Montreal, and afterwards in the office of 
Mr. Francis Godschall Johnson, now a 
Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of the 
Province of Quebec. In 1846 he was called 
to the Bar of the Lower Province, and in 
May of the following year he resigned his 
Assistant Secretaryship in order to devote 
himself exclusively to his profession. He 
practised for some years in Montreal, in 
partnership with Messieurs William Collis 
Meredith (the present Chief Justice of the 
Superior Court of Quebec) and Strachan 
Bethune, Q.C. 

At the general election of 1844 he was 
an unsuccessful candidate for the represen- 
tation of the county of Drummond in the 
Canadian Assembly. His successful com- 
petitor was Mr. R. X. Watts. He did not 
again seek Parliamentary honours until the 
general election of 1857, when he was re- 
turned to the sixth Parliament of Canada 
by the electors of Drummond and Artha- 
baska. He represented that constituency 
in the Assembly until the general election 
of 1861, when he was defeated. He then 
offered himself to the electors of Brome, 
and was returned at the head of the poll. 
He sat in the Assembly for the county of 
Brome from January, 1862, until the Union, 
when he was returned to the House of 
Commons by acclamation by the same con- 
stituency. 

Mr. Dunkin, during his Parliamentary 



210 



THE HON. CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN, Q.C., D.C.L. 



career, acted with the Conservative Party, 
and was always regarded as belonging to 
that side of politics, though he conducted 
himself with great independence, and record- 
ed his votes irrespective of Party considera- 
tions. On the great question of Confedera- 
tion he differed widely from those with 
whom he usually acted. He attacked the 
project as immature, faulty in detail, and 
likely to lead to embarrassments and con- 
fusions worse than those it was designed to 
remove. Though suffering from illness at 
the time of the Confederation debate, he 
made a long and impressive speech wherein 
he assailed nearly every proposition of the 
Quebec Conference of LSG-k Eventually, 
however, when it became apparent that 
no opposition on his part would be effec- 
tive in defeating the project, he, during 
the session of 1866, avowed his determina- 
tion to assist in making the then proposed 
Confederation beneficial to the country at 
large. He took an active part in maturing 
the necessary preparatory legislation, and 
was one of the most prominent advocates 
of the educational interests of the minori- 
ties in both Upper and Lower Canada. In 
1867 he was created a Queen's Counsel. 

In July, 18G7, he was invited by the 
Hon. Mr. Chauveau to join the Local Cabi- 
net of the Province of Quebec. He accept- 
ed the invitation, and entered the Quebec 
Cabinet as Provincial Treasurer. His du- 
ties in this position were necessiirily of 
an intricate character, from the unsettled 
accounts between the two sections of the 
old Province and the Dominion. In the 
negotiations that took place towards the 
final adjudication of these claims ho acted 
with considerable deliberation, but it can- 
not be said that he acted otherwise than 
in accordance with his pledge as given in 
18G6, to exert his utmost influence to make 
the Union a success. He occupied the post 
of Provincial Treasurer of Quebec until the 
month of November, 18G9, when he accept- 



ed office in the Dominion Cabinet as Minis- 
ter of Agriculture and Statistics. The re- 
signation of the Hon. (now Sir) John Rose 
had left the British population of Quebec 
without a representative in the Privy Coun- 
cil, and Mr. Dunkin, who enjoyed the full- 
est confidence of his large and influential 
constituency, and was held in high personal 
esteem by all classes of the community, 
was regarded as a fitting substitute for 
Mr. Rose. He held office until the 25th of 
October, 1871, when he was elevated to a 
seat on the Judicial Bench as a Puisne Judge 
of the Superior Court of Quebec, as succes- 
sor to the late Hon. Mr. Justice Short. He 
filled that position until his death, which 
took place at his home at Knowlton, near 
Montreal, on the Gth of January last. He 
was succeeded as Minister of Agriculture by 
the gentleman who now holds that office 
the Hon. John Henry Pope. 

As a legislator Mr. Dunkin obtained wide 
recognition by the Act (respecting the sale 
of intoxicating liquors and the issue of 
licenses therefor) which is commonly coup- 
led with his name, but which is more cor- 
rectly intituled the Canada Temperance 
Act of 1864. This important measure has 
since been frequently amended, and portions 
of it have been repealed. Such clauses of 
it as are still in force are embodied in the 
Canada Temperance Act of 1878. A Cana- 
dian writer portraying Mr. Dunkin during 
his tenure of office as Minister of Agricul- 
ture referred in the following terms to 
that gentleman's career as a legislator : " In 
proportion to his physical strength, Mr. 
Dunkin is a man of extraordinary mental 
energy. As a Parliamentary debater he is 
distinguished by the closeness of his reason- 
ing ; in fact, he has sometimes been regard- 
ed as reasoning so closely as to demolish 
both sides of the question, and leave his 
audience in utter perplexity. The elabora- 
tion of detail, which is a characteristic of 
the legal mind, frequently obscures the 



THE HON. CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN, Q.C., D.C.L. 



211 



main feature of an argument in the view of 
less carefully trained intellects, and thus 
usually the best lawyers are considered 
'hair splitters' when they enter into the 
discussion of political questions. Mr. Dun- 
kin did not escape this imputation on his 
first entry into public life, and has, perhaps, 
scarcely yet lived it down. But his course 
on public questions has given evidence of 
statesmanlike capacity, as well as of patri- 
otic devotion to the public good. He has 
been to the Lower Canada Conservatives 
somewhat as the Hon. J. S. Macdonald to 
the Upper Canada Reformers -of the Party 
by association and conviction, but maintain- 
ing his own peculiar views." 

As a lawyer and judge he was conspicuous 
for his comprehensive knowledge of French, 
as well as English, law and practice. He 
was regarded by his brother judges and h\- 
the profession at large as one of the most 
learned and large-minded men on the Bench 
of the Lower Province. 

In addition to the papers already men- 
tioned, the subject of this sketch published 
an address delivered at the Bar of the Legis- 
lative Assembly of Canada on behalf of cer- 



tain proprietors of Seignories against the 
second reading of the Bill intituled "An Act 
to define Seignorial Rights in Lower Can- 
ada, and to facilitate the redemption there- 
of." This was published at Quebec in 1863. 
In 18-55 he published at Montreal the "Case 
(in part) of the Seigniors of Lower Canada, 
submitted to the Judges of the Court of 
Queen's Bench and of the Superior Court 
for Lower Canada." 

Mi\ Dunkin married Miss Mary Barber, 
daughter of the late Dr. Jonathan Barber, 
afterwards of McGill University, Montreal. 
He held various offices of dignity. He was 
President of the Shakspeare Club of Mont- 
real, and a member of the Council of Public 
Instruction. He was also an active promoter 
of the volunteer movement, and in 1866 
issued a " memorandum " relative to the 
militia system. From 1856 to 1859 he was 
Lieutenant -Colonel of the Montreal Light 
Infantry; and from September, 1866, to 
June, 1^72, was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
52nd ("Bedford") Battalion of V. I. He 
was also a Governor of McGill University, 
Montreal, and a Trustee of St. Francis Col- 
lege, Richmond, P.Q. 



THE HON. LIEUT.-COL. J. G. BLANCHET, M.D., 

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 



DR. BLANCHET is a descendant of an 
old French family which settled in 
this country at an early period of our his- 
tory, and has ever since resided in the Prov- 
ince of Quebec. His father was the late 
Louis Blanchet, of St. Pierre, Riviere du 
Sud, and he himself was born there on the 
7th of June, 1829. He received his edu- 
cation at the Quebec Seminary, and at the 
Ste. Anne College. He chose to devote him- 
self to the medical profession, and upon 
completing his professional studies he set- 
tled down to practice as a physician at the 
town of Levis commonly known as Point 
Levi on the southern shore of the St. 
Lawrence River, opposite Quebec. He en- 
joyed a successful professional career, and 
acquired much popularity among his fel- 
low-townsmen, who elected him Mayor of 
the town on six different occasions. In the 
month of August, 1850, he married Emilie, 
daughter of M. G. D. Balzaretti, of Milan, 
in Italy. 

In politics Dr. Blanchet has always 
acted with the Conservative Party. He 
first aspired to 'political honours in 1857, 
when he unsuccessfully contested the rep- 
resentation of the town of LeVis in the 
Canadian Assembly. At the general elec- 
tion of 180 1 he made the attempt a second 
time, and was successful. He thenceforth 
represented Levis in the Assembly until 
Confederation. At the first general election 
under the Union he was returned by accla- 



mation to the House of Commons by his 
old constituents in Levis ; and at the elec- 
tion for the Local Legislature of the Prov- 
ince of Quebec he was also returned at the 
head of the poll for Levis. Dual representa- 
tion was then permissible, and Dr. Blanchet 
occupied a seat in both Legislatures until 
the passing of the Act prohibiting such 
a course in 1874, when he resigned his seat 
in the Commons in order to remain in the 
Local Assembly, in which he had ever since 
the meeting of the first Parliament after 
the Union occupied the position of Speaker. 
At the general election held in the following 
year (1875) for the Local Parliament he was 
defeated. During the same year the Hon. 
Telesphore Fournier, the representative of 
the county of Bellechasse in the House of 
Commons, was raised to the Bench of the 
Supreme Court, and a vacancy was thus left 
in the representation of that constituency. 
Dr. Blanchet presented himself to the elec- 
tors, and was returned on the 23rd of No- 
vember. He sat for Bellechasse until the 
close of the Third Parliament. At the 
general election held on the 17th of Sep- 
tember, 1878, he offered himself as a candi- 
date for the Commons to the electors of 
Levis, in opposition to Mr. L. H. Frechette, 
whom he defeated by a majority of 118 
votes. He now sits in the House for Levis. 
Upon the assembling of the Fourth Parlia- 
ment on the 13th of February, 1879, he was 
nominated by Sir John Macdonald, the 



THE HON. LIEUT.-COL. JOSEPH GODERIC BLANCHET, M.D. 



213 



Premier, for the office of Speaker of the 
Commons, and the nomination was seconded 
by the Hon. (now Sir) Samuel Leonard 
Tilley. The Premier spoke in high terms 
of Dr. Blanchet's qualifications for the post, 
and Mr. Mackenzie, leader of the Opposi- 
tion, in commenting upon the nomination, 
said there was no gentleman on the Minis- 
terial side of the House in whom he and his 
friends on the Opposition benches would 
have greater confidence. 

In 1863 Dr. Blanchet raised the 17th 
Battalion of Volunteer Infantry, of which 
he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel, and 



which he has ever since commanded. He 
also commanded the Third Administrative 
Battalion in frontier service during the St. 
Alban's Raid in 1865, and was in com- 
mand of the Active Militia Force on the 
south shore of the St. Lawrence, Quebec 
District, during the Fenian Raid in 1866, 
and again in 1870. In 1871 he was elected 
President of the Cercle de Quebec, and in 
1872 he was elected President of the Levis 
and Kennebec Railway. In 1873 he was 
appointed a member of the Catholic section 
of the Council of Public Instruction for the 
Province of Quebec. 



THE HON. CHRISTOPHER S. PATTERSON. 



/CHRISTOPHER SALMON PATTER- 

\J SON comes of Irish stock, but was 
born in London, England where his par- 
ents at that time resided in the year 1823. 
He received his primary education in Lon- 
don, and afterwards attended the Royal 
Academical Institution, Belfast, Ireland. 
He emigrated to Canada in 1845, when he 
was in his twenty-second year, and settled 
at the town of Picton, in the county of 
Prince Edward, Canada West. He imme- 
diately afterwards entered upon the study 
of the legal profession in the office of Mr. 
Philip Low, Q.C., at Picton, and remained 
there until the expiration of his articles. 
He was admitted as an Attorney on the 7th 
of September, 1850. In Hilary Term of 
the following year he was called to the Bar 
of Upper Canada, and immediately after- 
wards formed a partnership with his former 
principal, Mr. Low, and settled down to 
practice at Picton. This partnership lasted 
until the year 1856, when the subject of 
this sketch removed to Toronto, and entered 
into partnership with Mr. Adam Wilson 
(the present Judge of the Court of Queen's 
Bench) and Mr. James Beaty, Q.C., the style 
of the firm being Wilson, Patterson & Beaty. 
The firm enjoyed a large and profitable 
business of the best class, and had a very 
large agency connection. Upon Mr. Wilson's 
elevation to the Judicial Bench, in May, 
1863, the style of the firm became Patterson 
& Beaty, and afterwards underwent various 



modifications. In 1866 Mr. Patterson be- 
came a Bencher of the Law Society of Up- 
per Canada, and in 1871, when the Act 
came into operation whereby Benchers were 
elected by the profession at large, he was 
elected to that dignity. During the last- 
mentioned year he was also appointed a 
member of the Law Reform Commission. 
In 1872 he was created a Queen's Counsel. 

On the 6th of June, 1874, he was elevated 
to the Bench as a Justice of the Court of 
Appeal a position which he has ever since 
filled. In the autumn of 1877 he was ap- 
pointed a Commissioner to investigate and 
report upon certain charges of partiality 
and official misconduct which had been 
made against the Central Committee of 
Examiners of the Educational Department 
of Ontario. The investigation occupied 
several weeks, and rendered necessary the 
examination of a large number of wit- 
nesses, including several of the leading 
publishers of Toronto. Judge Patterson's 
report fully exonerated the Committee from 
the charges which had been brought against 
them. 

In 1853, while engaged in practice at 
Picton, he married Miss .Mary Dickson, a 
daughter of the late Mr. Andrew Dickson, 
of Glenconway, in the county of Antrim, 
Ireland. He is known as an industrious, 
painstaking, and well-read lawyer, and his 
decisions inspire the respect due to his dig- 
nified position. 



JACQUES CARTIER. 



AN account of the life of Jacques Cartier 
cannot be omitted from a work de- 
voted to Canadian biography, and had there 
been any attempt to preserve chronological 
order it must have appeared very early in 
the first volume, instead of at the end of 
the fourth. To Jacques Cartier belongs the 
honour of being the first European to ex- 
plore the interior of the land upon the coast 
of which Cabot and his companions had. 
merely set foot, and for this reason he is 
rightly accredited with being the real dis- 
coverer of Canada. 

But little is known with respect to his 
early life. He was born at the ancient sea- 
port town of St. Malo, in Brittany ; that 
nursery of intrepid mariners, which Mr. 
Parkman describes as " thrust out like a 
buttress into the sea, strange and grim of 
aspect, breathing war from its wall and bat- 
tlements of ragged stone a stronghold of 
pi'ivateers, the home of a race whose in- 
tractable and defiant independence neither 
time nor change has subdued." It had i 
the home of the Cartier family for many 
years. The presumed date of the birth of 
the discoverer of Canada is the olst of De- 
cember. 14!) 4. His youth, like that of many 
of his adventurous contemporaries, seems to 
have been passed chiefly on the water, and 
it is conjectured that he had made several 
voyages to the Banks of Newfoundland be- 
fore he engaged in the more extended enter- 
prises which were destined to gain for him a 
patent of nobility, and to transmit his name 



to a remote posterity. While still young 
he married the Demoiselle Catherine des 
Granches, with whose hand he seems to have 
acquired some property of more or less value 
in the neighbourhood of St. Malo. Not much 
is definitely known as to his achievements, 
however, until he was about forty years of 
age, when he was despatched by Phillippe 
de Chabot-Brion, Admiral of France, acting 
for King Francis I., on a voyage of discovery 
to the western world. 

The discovery of the American continent 
led to the settlement of those colonies in 
Mexico and Peru which proved so fruitful 
a source of wealth to Spain, and the ac- 
counts of which so effectually aroused the 
enterprise of other European Powers. The 
achievements of Cortez and Pizarro more 
or less inflamed the cupidity of every mon- 
arch in Europe. Among others, Francis I, of 
France, determined upon securing a share of 
the spoil. He resolved to found an Ameri- 
can colony which should in the first place 
serve to deplete his kingdom of its surplus 
population, and which might eventually 
contribute to fill his treasury with the newly- 
discovered mineral wealth of the New 
World. In 1524 John Verazzano was de- 
spatched across the Atlantic on a voyage of 
discovery. That intrepid navigator coasted 
along the seaboard of the greater part of 
what is now the United States, and took 
nominal possession of the territory on be- 
half of his sovereign. To him the world is 
indebted for the earliest written description 



216 



JACQUES CARTIER. 



known to exist of the coasts which he ex- 
plored. He seems to have made a second 
voyage next year, with rather barren results, 
after which an interval of nearly ten years 
elapsed without any further attempts at 
western colonization on behalf of France. 
In 1534 Jacques Cartier was sent on an ex- 
pedition similar to that previously under- 
taken by Verazzano. 

He sailed for Newfoundland from St. 
Malo on the 20th of April, with a view to 
exploring the unknown expanse beyond the 
fishing-grounds. He passed through the 
Straits of Belle Isle, and advanced up the 
St. Lawrence to within sight of Anticosti. 
He had no doubt that the mighty stream 
upon which he was embarked connected 
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and that 
he had at last discovered the true western 
route to India and China. The weather, 
however, was very stormy, and he was not 
provisioned for an extended voyage ; so, 
after luring two young Indians from the 
mainland on board his vessel, he set sail for 
France, resolving to return with more thor- 
ough equipments in the following spring. 

The spring of 153o was far advanced be- 
fore he started on his second voyage. On 
the 19th of May, in that year, he set sail 
with his officers and crew in a little fleet 
consisting of three vessels, the largest of 
which was only of 120 tons burthen. 

"In the seaport of St. Malo 'twas a smiling morn in 
May, 

When the Commodore Jacques Cartier to the west- 
ward sailed away ; 

In the crowded old cathedral all the town were on 
their knees 

For the safe return of kinsmen from the undiscov- 
ered seas ; 

And every autumn blast that swept o'er pinnacle 
and pier, 

Fill'd many hearts with sorrow, and gentle hearts 
with fear." 

So sings, or sang, the late Thomas D'Arcy 
McGee. 

The hardy mariners crossed the ocean in 



safety, and again ascended the St. Lawrence, 
past the Island of Anticosti, past the frown- 
ing cliff's which guard the entrance to the 
Saguenay, and early in September anchored 
in a quiet channel between a richly-wooded 
island and the northern bank of the river. 
The foliage of the trees on this island was 
almost hidden from view by innumerable 
dark clusters of fast ripening grapes, for 
which reason Cartier named it the Isle of 
Bacchus. It is now called the Island of 
Orleans. Here he disembarked and went 
ashore, accompanied by his officers and part 
of his crew, and by the two young natives 
whom he had captured on his former voy- 
age. The favourable account given by the 
latter whose names were Taignoagny and 
Domagaya of the treatment thev had re- 
ceived from their captors at once gained for 
the explorers the good-will of the Indians, 
who came flocking about them in great num- 
bers. Next day the native potentate, whose 
name was Donnacona, attended by his fol- 
lowers in twelve canoes, paid Cartier a visit 
in state, and the interview was marked by 
mutual protestations of friendship. Having 
thus established amicable relations with the 
natives, Cartier proceeded up the river in a 
small boat in search of a secure place of 
anchorage for his little fleet. He ascended 
to the head of the island, and there beheld 
"a mighty promontory, rugged and bare" 
looming before him, with a primitive In- 
dian village at its base. The village was 
Donnacona's capital, and occupied the site 
now covered by St. Roque and St. John, two 
districts of Quebec. It consisted merely of 
a few rude wigwams, and rejoiced in the 
name of Stadacona. A short distance up the 
stream now called the St. Charles which 
here joins the St. Lawrence, Cartier found 
the desired haven for his ships, which were 
forthwith brought up and anchored there. 
It is said that when the lofty promontory 
was first beheld by the French sailors they 
exclaimed, " Quel bee ! "" What a beak ! " 



JACQUES CARTIER. 



217 



and thus give rise to the name " Quebec." 
Another derivation, however, seems much 
more probable, and has come to be generally 
accepted as the true one.* The word kebec, 
in the language of the natives who were 
then settled on the banks of the St. Law- 
rence, signifies " a strait " and this expres- 
sion might very properly have been applied 
to the narrowing of the river at this point. 
After partaking of the Indian prince's hospi- 
talities, Cartier i-esolved to proceed up the 
St. Lawrence, to Hochelaga, which was de- 
scribed by the natives as a great city farther 
up the river, and a good many days' jour- 
ney. Cartier determined to pay a visit to 
this remote city, the more especially as 
Donnacona, " the Lord of Stadacona," full 
of inward misgivings concerning these in- 
trepid white men from beyond the great 
salt water, urgently dissuaded him from so 
doing. He set sail on the 19th of Septem- 
ber, 1535, in a pinnace, with two smaller 
boats in tow. His crew consisted of twenty- 
eight sailors, the two natives, and four 
French gentlemen who had accompanied 
him on his expedition, one of whom was 
Claudius de Ponte Briand, cupbearer to the 
Dauphin of France. Upon arriving at the 
head of Lake St. Peter they found the water 
so shallow that recourse was had to the 
small boats. On the 2nd of October the 
company landed below the current of St. 
Marie, six miles from their intended desti- 
nation, and on the following morning made 
the rest of the journey on foot. How dif- 
ferent from a journey over the same ground 
at the present day ! They were one and all 
delighted with the variegated appearance 
of the country, a great part of which was 
covered with stately oak trees resplendent 
in their autumn foliage, the ground beneath 
being plentifully bestrewn with acorns. 
When about two-thirds of the distance had 
been traversed they were met by a chief 
and a number of natives, with whom they 

* See the sketch of Champlain in Vol. I. 
IV 29 



held converse through the medium of the 
two Indians, who had by this time acquired 
some knowledge of the French language.f 
They proceeded towards the village. The 
path was well beaten, and they soon emerged 
from the forest into spacious fields of corn, 
by which the village was surrounded on all 
sides to the distance of nearly a mile. As 
they approached the entrance to the village 
they were met by the Agouhanna, " the King 
of the country," who was carried aloft on the 
shoulders of the natives, and who had come 
forth to do homage to his visitors, whom he 
believed to be angels sent down by the Great 
Spirit to heal the diseases of His children. 
Cartier read a portion of the Gospel of St. 
John whereby, it is to be presumed, the na- 
tives were greatly edified -and offered up a 
prayer, after which the party were conduct- 
ed through the solitary gateway whereby 
entrance was effected into the village. 

It must have been a queer spot, indeed, 
that Indian village of Hochelaga, when first 
beheld by Jacques Cartier and the handful 
of adventurous Frenchmen who accom- 
panied him on his expedition. It was built 
after a fashion very different from the vil- 
lages of Brittany, though subsequent ex- 
plorers of the territory inhabited by the 
Hurons and Iroquois found many others of 
similar construction. It was circular in 
form, and surrounded by a rude wall. In 
front of the rampart were three rows of 
strong wooden palisades about eleven feet 
in height, which seemed to have been put 
together with some rudimentary knowledge 
of the principles of fortification. Along 
the inside of the two outer rows ran narrow 
galleries, accessible by means of scaling- 
ladders placed at regular intervals of a few 

t So say the old chronicles, but there is evidently some 
mistake or omission. The two Indian boys did not belong 
to the same nation aa the inhabitants of Hochelaga, and 
must have spoken a different language or dialect. How 
then could they have acted as interpreters between the 
latter and the Frenchmen ? It is probable that any con- 
verse which took place was chiefly by signs. 



218 



JACQUES CARTIER. 



yards apart. All along the galleries were 
placed piles of stones and knotted clumps 
of wood of all sizes, to be used as missiles 
in case of an attack upon the place. The 
houses, of which there were about fifty, 
were of uniform size and pattern. They 
are described as being about fifty paces long 
by twelve or fifteen broad, and were made 
of wood, covered with bark " as broad as 
any board, and cunningly joined together." 
They were tunnel-shaped, with court-yards 
in the middle, and each contained a suffi- 
cient number of chambers for the accommo- 
dation of several families. The inhabitants 
understood the mysteries of bread-making, 
and kept their corn, beans, pumpkins and 
squashes in garrets or upper chambers. The 
gate by which ingress and egress to and 
from the enclosure were obtained was rudely, 
but strongly, fortified with huge wooden 
stakes and bars. Such, according to Jacques 
Cartier's description, was the Indian village 
of Hochelaga. 

After spending several hours in walking 
to and fro within the enclosure, and in in- 
specting the interior of many of the habi- 
tations, Cartier ascended the mountain and 
surveyed the magnificent prospect visible 
from its summit. He was much impressed 
by the beauty of the scenery, and christened 
the elevation " Mont Royal" a name which, 
in the slightly modified form of " Montreal," 
was subsequently applied to the neighbour- 
ing city. The Agouhanna, regarding the 
Breton mariner and his companions as the 
direct emissaries of the Great Spirit, over- 
whelmed them with kindness, and entreated 
them to prolong their stay ; but Cartier had 
seen sufficient to take the keen edge off his 
curiosity, and after learning such particulars 
respecting the country farther west as the 
natives were able to give, he started on his 
return to Stadacona about sunset on the 
evening of the day of his arrival. Upon 
reaching the mouth of the St. Charles 
called by him the St. Croix he found his 



crew busy constructing a palisade round his 
vessels, as it had been determined to pass 
the winter there. Before the rigorous sea- 
son was far advanced a malignant type of 
scurvy broke out among the Europeans, 
which carried off 25 out of the 110 men 
composing the expedition. The disorder 
was at last arrested by a decoction of the 
bark and leaves of the spruce fir, a tree 
called by the natives anneda. The hardy 
Frenchmen who survived passed a dreary, 
miserable winter, and upon the arrival of 
spring they prepared to return to France. 
Before leaving Stadacona they were guilty 
of an act of base treachery and ingratitude, 
after the manner of the explorers of those 
times. They had been well treated by the 
Indian sovereign, who had extended to them 
many acts of kindness. He had, however, 
told Cartier many strange stories of the 
country farther westward, and some of these 
narratives were so extraordinary that the 
latter was unwilling to stake his reputation 
with the French king by retailing them 
without proof. He accordingly resolved to 
capture Donnacona and some of his chiefs, 
and carry them back with him to the French 
court, where the King could hear all those 
marvels from their own lips. Having lured 
them into an ambuscade, he seized and con- 
veyed them on board his vessels, whereupon 
the sails were spread, and the expedition 
returned to St. Malo, arriving thither on the 
the 16th of July, 153G. The inhabitants of 
the old seaport may well have wondered 
when they heard the marvellous tale which 
their adventurous fellow-townsman had to 
tell them. 

The luckless captive sovereign and his 
chiefs did not long survive their abduction 
from their native wilds. Excellent care, 
however, was taken of their souls. " In 
due time," says Mr. Parkman, " they had 
been baptized, and soon reaped the benefit 
of the rite, since they all died within a year 
or two." 



JACQUES CARTIER. 



219 



On the 23rd of May, 1541, Cartier, with 
a fleet of five vessels, was despatched on a 
third expedition to the St. Lawrence. Upon 
reaching Stadacona he was asked by the 
natives for intelligence of their chief and 
the other warriors who had been abducted. 
He informed them that Donnacona was 
dead, and that the other chiefs had married 
wives and determined to remain in the old 
world. The latter statement was, as ap- 
pears from the facts stated above, a false- 
hood. The Indians, not unnaturally, were 
sullen and suspicious, and declined to pro- 
mote a European settlement in their coun- 
try. Cartier accordingly deemed it prudent 
to withdraw from Stadacona, and proceeded 
up the river to Cap Rouge, where he built 
a small fort and passed another uncomfort- 
able winter. During the following sum- 
mer he made occasional incursions into the 
surrounding country in search of precious 
metals. He found only a few small speci- 
mens of gold in the beds of some of the 
rivulets, and a few small diamonds on the 
promontory where the citadel subsequently 
arose. His supplies soon ran short, and he 
once more made up his mind to return to 
France. Putting into the harbour of St. 
John, Newfoundland, he encountered the 
Sieur de Roberval who had been appointed 
Governor of New France accompanied by 
nearly 200 people, whom he had brought 
out to form the nucleus of a colony. Car- 
tier continued his homeward journey, and 
arrived safely at his destination. This was 
his last western voyage, or at any rate the 
last as to which any positive information 
has come down to us. It is said by some 
writers that during the autumn of 1543 he 
returned to the assistance of Roberval, but 
the evidence on this point is to say the least 
doubtful. All that is certainly known as 
to his subsequent career is that Francis I. 
granted him a patent of nobility, and created 
him Seigneur of Limoilou ; and that he died, 
leaving no issue behind him, in 1554. His 



seignorial mansion, a rude stone structure, 
still stands almost intact in the outskirts of 
the village of Limoilou, in the neighbour- 
hood of St. Malo. 

There is no evidence that Hochelaga was 
ever again seen by European eyes for many 
years after the date of Cartier's visit. The 
statement to be found in guide-books and 
elsewhere to the effect that the place was 
settled by a small colony from Brittany in 
1542 is entirely without foundation. When 
Samuel Champlain visited the spot, in 1603, 
he found it deserted, and he shortly after- 
wards learned that the tribe which had for- 
merly inhabited it had been exterminated 
by their enemies. When he again visited 
the neighbourhood in 1611 he found the 
village occupied by the Hurons, who had 
formed a treaty with the Algonquins to re- 
sist the continual incursions of the warlike 
Iroquois. So that even the name of the 
tribe to which Jacques Cartier's entertain- 
ers belonged is unknown. From certain 
peculiarities in their language and architec- 
ture it is presumable that they were an off- 
shoot or kindred tribe of the Hurons, but 
nothing definite is known as to their origin 
or subsequent history. The name of their 
village survives, being perpetuated by the 
name of an eastern suburb of Montreal, and 
by the name of the county in which it 
is situated. If it were permitted to Jacques 
Cartier to revisit the scenes of some of his 
former exploits on this planet, he would 
find many evidences around him that the 
world has not stood still during the three- 
hundred-and-odd years which have elapsed 
since he lived and moved among men. 
Since those days when the Emerillon first 
ploughed the limpid waters of the St. Law- 
rence under his guidance, generations have 
come and gone, dynasties have arisen and 
fallen, and many places and things which 
then were living realities have crumbled 
into dust and become faded memories of 
a past age. The mysteries of a new world 



220 



JACQUES CARTIER. 



have been revealed to the gaze of civilized 
mankind, and even the old world has under- 
gone such startling transformations that the 
hardy mariner of Brittany would find in it 
comparatively little to remind him of those 
far-away times when he had his habitation 
therein. In his native town of St. Malo he 
might, perhaps, be able to find his way 
along once familiar streets to the site of the 
little house near the Quai St. Dominique 
which he was wont to call his home ; but 
the house itself has given way to an es- 
tablishment for the sale of ships' stores, and 
the little church where he was wont to 
attend mass has been metamorphosed into 
a refuge for disabled seamen. By journey- 
ing out a mile or two into the suburbs he 
would find the seignorial mansion of Limoi- 
lou still standing, and looking sufficiently 
like its former self to recall to his memory 
the days when it served the purpose of his 
country-seat. But if he were wafted to 
these western shores, and set down any- 
where within the limits of what is now the 
city of Montreal, his would be a lost spirit 
indeed. On the site where, on the morning 
of the 3rd of October, 1535, he found large 
fields of Indian corn and a few rude Indian 
huts covered with bark, he would to-day 
behold a great and prosperous city, abound- 
ing with stately temples of commerce, and 
with palatial private mansions beside which 
the most pretentious structures of his native 
town would appear poor and insignificant. 
Instead of languid stalks of corn, more or 
less stunted by the severity of the northern 
climate, lofty cathedral towers and church 
spires now raise their tall points cloud-ward, 
and myriad human feet tread the streets 
which once echoed only to the shrill war- 



whoop of the barbarian and to the discon- 
solate wail of the forest. The noble river 
still rolls by on its way to the sea, and the 
neighbouring mountain still rears its front 
in the distance ; but the banks of the one 
no longer present an uninviting face of 
slime and mud, and the heights of the other 
are no longer the abodes of poisonous ser- 
pents and howling beasts of prey. The mud- 
bank has given way to a long unbroken 
front of sculptured stone, by the side of 
which are moored stately ships which bear 
the choice products of the land to every 
port in the known world. On the moun- 
tain where the swarthy savage roamed at 
his own sweet will in pursuit of wolves and 
deer, the eye now encounters beautifully 
laid out drives and pleasure-grounds, attrac- 
tive suburban villas, and many other objects 
indicative of an advanced state of civiliza- 
tion. And instead of a sparse population 
of about a hundred and fifty Indian fami- 
lies gaining a rude livelihood by hunting, 
fishing, and primitive agriculture, Sailor 
Jacques would, in these days, find an ac- 
tive, energetic people to the number of 
more than a hundred thousand composed 
largely of descendants of his own country- 
men engaged in almost every branch of 
trade under the sun, and rapidly increasing 
in numbers, in wealth, and in general com- 
mercial importance. Such are the changes 
which three and a half centuries of time 
have brought about. The bewildered ghost 
of the erewhile skipper of St. Malo might 
well be excused if it failed to recognize 
anything familiar in the landscape which 
once aroused his enthusiasm, and which 
he was the first European to behold and 
describe. 



t 

Abbott Hon J J C 


I 

VOL. 
III. 


ND 

I'AI.K. 

339 

191 
170 
38 
185 
149 
195 
86 
96 
106 

131 

77 
17 
108 
200 
120 
177 
48 
212 
L54 
58 
59 
129 
3 
41 
13 
26 
114 

L6 
130 

100 


EX. 

Campbell, Sir Alexander . . 


. . III. 


\ 

PA<;E. 

217 
110 
167 
168 
116 
73 
215 
172 
Ititi 
138 
190 
199 
157 
38 
118 
220 
204 
54 
86 
139 
182 

69 
133 
44 
221 
116 
c,:, 
94 

LM 11' 
70 

1 

209 


Aikins, Hon. J. C 
Allan Hon G W. . . . 


. III. 

. IV. 




IV. 


t'arman, Rev. A 
Caron Hon. J. P. R. A 


. . II. 
. . IV. 




II 


Allen Hon J C . . 


I. 


n, Hon. R, E 
Cartier, Hon. Sir G. E 


. . I. 
. . I. 




Ill 


Anglin Hon T W . . . . 


. IV. 


Carlii'r. .lacijlies 
Cartwright. Hon. Sir R. J. . 


. . IV. 

. . III. 


Archibald Hon \ <i 


I 




. IV. 


I 'at heart, Lord 
('aiirhon Hon. J. E. .... 


. . IV. 
. . IV. 


Aylwin. Hon. T. C 

I'mby. Hon. F. ti 

Iti'dit Hun Sir C 


. IV. 

. II. 

III. 




II 


Chauveau, Hon. P. J. O. 


. . IV. 


<'liaiii]>lain. Saiiuu-1 De .... 


. . I. 


IJ;ild\vin Hon. KolltTT . 


. I. 


Chapleau, Hon. J. A 
Chandler, Hon. E. B 
Church, Hon. L. R 
Clarke, Hon. Charles 


. . IV. 

. . I. 
. . III. 

. . IV. 


Uiihvell M.S. 


. II. 


Binney. Hu;ht Krv. Hihbert . . . 
Blake Hon. Edward . 


. III. 
I 


Blake Hon S H 


III 


Connolly, Thomas Louis . 


. . n. 


Blake Hnn \V H 


III 


Crawley, Rev. E. A 


. . IV. 


Blanchet Hun J G 


IV 


<'n>oks H< >ii. Adam 


. . 11. 


Bond Ri"ht Rev W B 


III 


I'linaril Sir Samuel 


. . IV. 


Bowell. H..II. M 


. III. 
I 


Dalv, Sir D 


. . III. 




I 


1 *:i\vs< til. .) . NN 


. . II. 




Jl 


IV BolK'lKTVllle. Hull. *'. E. B. . 


. . III. 


1 iunis, Krv. -\lr\. 


11 


Dewart, K^v. E. H 
Dort'lu sti-i . Lord 


. . II. 

. . III. 

. . IV. 


Burns, Rev. K. V. 


III 




IV 




J ] I 




. . II. 




IV 




. . I. 


I)r-i|T Hon \V H 


. . ir. 




IV 


DiitU-rin Earl of 


. in. 


C;iineron, H<m. M. 


. Ill 


Dunkin Hon C. 


. . IV. 







222 




INDEX. 






Durham, Lord 


VOL. ] 
. . II. 


PAOB. 

27 

97 

93 
201 
203 
132 
201 
156 
19 
125 
104 

181 
152 
193 
240 
236 
17 
123 
!>1 

12 

128 

L' 1 B 

89 
87 

158 
169 
213 
206 
62 
229 
112 
193 
115 
124 
56 

108 
57 
56 

107 


Reefer, T. C. . . . 


VOL. ] 
IV 


>A(iK. 

134 

91 
104 
41 
164 
79 
75 
233 
47 
17 
40 
1 
141 

69 

5 
28 
14 
246 
44 
209 
73 
208 
1 
98 
19 
162 
79 
207 
23 
L36 
48 
2:>4 
L93 
86 
147 
L38 
34 
72 
07 

4:. 
174 
170 


Elgin, Lord 


. . II. 
IV 


Laflamme, Hon. T. A. R. 


I 


Lafontaine, Hon. Sir L. H. . . . 


III 


Laird, Hon. David 


. III. 




TV 


Langevin, Hon. H. L. ... 


. II. 






LaSalle 


. . III. 






LaurierJ Hon. W 


. . III. 


Fraser, Hon. C. F 
Frechette, L. H 


. . III. 

. . IV. 
TV 


Laval-Montmorency, Mgr. F. X. . 
Letellier, Hon. Luc . 


. III. 
I 


Lewis, Right Rev. J. T 


. III. 




TV 


LisL'ar, Lord 


. IV. 






Lome, Marquis of 


. . I. 


Gait, Sir A. T. 


. . ii. 


Lynch, Most Rev. J. J. 


I 


M.-u-ilonald, Hon. James . 


IV 


Gait, Hon. T 


. . in. 


Manlonald, Hon. Sir J. A. 


I. 


Geoflrion, Hon. F 


. . in. 


Macdonald, Htm. J. S. 


IV 


Gourlay, R. F. . . . 


. . HI. 


Machray, Most Rev. R. . 


IV 


Gowan J. R. 


HI 


Mackenzie, Hon. A. 


I 


Grant, Very Rev. G. M 


. . i. 


.Mackenzie, \\ . L. 


II 


G\\ ynne, H.i. J. W 
G/owski Lieut.-Col. C. S. 


. . IV. 

in 


Mackerras, Rev. J. H. . . 


I 


.MucNali, Hon. Sir Allan N. 


IV 


Hagarty, Hun. J. H 


. . IV. 


.Macpherson, Hon. D. L. . 


III 






Hannan, Most Rev. Michael 
Hardy, Hun. A. S 


. . III. 
. . 11. 


Mcrritt, Hon. W. H 

Metealfe, Lnrd 


. . IV. 

. . III. 

IV 


Harrison, Hon. R. A 


. . IV. 


Haviland, Hon. T. H 
Head, Right Hon. Sir E. W. . . 


. . IV. 

. . IV. 


-Moiitcalm 


II 




IV 


Head, Sir F. B 


. . II. 




III 


Hellmuth, Right Rev. Isaac 
Henry, Hon. W. A 


. . II. 
. . II. 


Moii-is. Hon. William 


III 




IV 


Hill, Rev. G. W 


. . IV. 




J 


Hincks, Hon. Sir F 


. . I. 




TV 


Holmes, Hon. S. H 


. . IV. 






Holton, Hon. L. H 


. . II. 


McDoii"all Hon William 


IV 


H()\V(', Hon. .losepll 


. . n. 


Mi/Gee Hon T D 


11 1 


Howland, Hon. Sir W. P. . . . 


. . in. 


MrKnHit Rev Dr 


IV 


Huntington, Hon. L. S 


. . IV. 




1 11 


Jack, William B 
Jameson, Anna 


. . IV. 

. . n. 


Me Vicar, Rev. D. H. . 


II 


Nelles, Rev. S. s 
Nelson \\ olfi'ed 


. . III. 

IV. 


Joly, Hon. H. G 
Jones, Hi in. A. G 


. . in. 

. in 


Noi'uuay Hon. John 


. . III. 


. 













INDEX. 




223 




VOL. I 
IV 


>AGK. 
1C4 

133 

199 
42 
214 
225 
212 
104 
160 
96 
287 
188 

98 
15 
212 
60 
222 
25 
231 
114 
1?:. 
70 
187 

L09 
66 

50 
174 
IMS 
150 
146 
is? 


Strachan, Ri- r ht Rev. John . 


\ '].. PAGE. 
. I. 94 




. . III. 


Strong, Hon. S. H 
Sutherland, Rev. Alexander 
Sweatman, Right Rev. A. ... 


. II. 
. . IV. 
. II. 


179 
172 

161 

'-'07 

181 
185 
-'7 
10 
166 
144 
54 
54 
73 

127 

158 
."i 
90 
166 
198 
216 
35 
216 
146 
117 

129 
200 

1114 

(3 




II. 


Pardee, Hon. T. B. ... 
Patterson Hon C S 


. . . IV. 
. ... IV. 


Sydenham, Lord . ... 


. . 11. 


Tache', Most Rev. A. A. ... 


. . III. 


Pelletier Hun C -I P 


. . III. 




. . III. 


Tache', Hon. Sir E. P 
Talbot Hon Thomas 


. . IV. 
Ill 


Pinkham Rev W. C . . 


. ... IV. 


Pope Hon. J. C 


. . . .IV. 


Taschereau, Most Kcv. E. A. 


. . IV. 


Pope Hon. J. H 


. . . . IV. 


Taschereau Hon. H. E. 


Ill 




III. 


Tecumseli 
Tillev Hon. Sir S. L. 


. . II. 
I 


Puns-lion, Rev. W. M. . . 
Rand, T. H 


. . . . IV. 

. . . . III. 


Topp, Rev. Alexander .... 


. . III. 


Tupper, Hon. Sir C. 


n 


Ricliards, Hon. A. N. . . . 


. ... in. 


Vankou^hnet Hon. P M M. S 


IV 


Richards Hon. Sir W. B. 


i. 


Richardson, Rev. James . . 


. . . . in. 
in 


Walkem, Hon. 0. A 


. . ii. 










Williams, Hon. Sir W. F. . . . 


. . IV. 


l!"l>insoii, Hon. Sir J. B. 
Robitaille, Hon. T. . . . 


. ... IV. 

. . . . in. 

IV 


Williams Ri"ht Rev. J. \V. 


Ill 


\\ilmot, Hon. L. A 


. . III. 


Wilmot, Hon. R. D 


. . LV. 




j 


Wilson, Hon. Adam 


. . III. 


Sehult/, Dr 
Seaton, Lord 
Selkirk. Lord 
Simes. e (Governor .... 


. . . . 111. 
. . . . III. 
. . . . IV. 
. . . . I 


Wilson, Daniel 
Wolfe, Major-General Jamet 

Wood, Hon. E. B 


. . IV. 
. . I. 
. . I. 


Wo,,d, Hon. S. C 


. . IV 


Yomi", 0. P 


. . III. 


Smith H< >ii Sir V. J. 


II 


Smith, (ioldwin .... 


. . . . I. 

IV 


Voinii,'. James 
Youn" Hon. John .... 


. . III. 
Ill 


Station! Rev M 


II 


Y< ma" Sir Y\ illiam 


IV