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Title: The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 4
Date of first publication: 1881
Author: John Charles Dent (1841-1888)
Date first posted: Jan. 5, 2018
Date last updated: Jan. 5, 2018
Faded Page eBook #20180106
This eBook was produced by: Marcia Brooks, David T. Jones, Howard Ross & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
In 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 Cyclopædia 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 mere 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 The Canadian Portrait Gallery contain, in addition to the title pages and tables of contents, 960 printed pages. The number of sketches is 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 personal 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 be 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 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 Protectorate 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 pronounced by the late Chancellor Vankoughnet, 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. G. 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. H. 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.
Toronto, June 1st, 1881.
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 history, not of Nova Scotia alone, but of the British Empire, in which it must ever occupy 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 to 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 achievements, but he is fully entitled to repose under the shade of his laurels for the remainder of his days, surrounded by
He comes of military stock on both sides of his house. His father, of whom he is the only surviving son, was Thomas Williams, 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 December, 1800.1 He had an elder and only brother, Lieutenant Thomas Gregory Townsend Williams, of the Royal Artillery, who served under Wellington in the Peninsula and in France, and who died after the combat 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 developed a passion for a military life, and studied military tactics with extraordinary diligence. In 1821 he passed a very successful examination, and in 1825 was gazetted to a second lieutenancy in the Royal Artillery. Two years later he was promoted [Pg 6]to a first lieutenancy, and was stationed at Gibraltar. In 1829 he was transferred to the East Indies, and was stationed in the island of Ceylon. He spent considerable 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 Horton, he obtained an appointment in the department of the Surveyor-General of Ceylon, 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 proceeded to Syria and Constantinople, and, after a somewhat prolonged sojourn at the Turkish capital, returned to England in 1839 and rejoined 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, Mehemet Ali, had nearly succeeded in throwing off. The young English officer had thus had an opportunity of personally estimating 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 Sultan died about this time, and was succeeded by his son Abdul Medjid, who inherited but a very moderate share of his father's statesmanship and energy. Great Britain, being then, as in times much more recent, suspicious of Russian intrigues, and having resolved upon "maintaining the integrity" of the Ottoman Empire, prepared to interfere in the quarrel between the Sultan and his insubordinate vassal. While the preparations 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 numerous deficiencies which were believed to exist, 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 Constantinople, and served in the arsenals there for three years. Towards the close of the year 1843 he received his majority, and immediately afterwards proceeded as British Commissioner to the conference held at Erzeroum, in Upper Armenia, with a view to a settlement of the boundary-line between 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 territory lying between Mount Ararat and the head of the Persian gulf. The survey occupied several years more, during the greater part of which period the commissioners were compelled to endure many privations and hardships. They slept under canvas tents, and were exposed to terrible vicissitudes of alternate heat and cold. While engaged in his labours he was prostrated by a serious illness, and was compelled to return to England.
For 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 [Pg 7]by the Russians under Prince Bebutoff. The intelligence was regarded as momentous, as it was considered certain that the Russians would follow up their success by renewed efforts in Asia. It was highly desirable 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 August, 1855, and put himself into immediate communication with Lord Raglan, Commander 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, accompanied only by three men, viz.: Lieutenant Teesdale, Mr. Churchill, and Dr. Sandwith. On the 24th of September the little party reached Kars, and Colonel Williams forthwith 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 refused 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 insubordination prevailed. Drill was altogether neglected, and many of the troops were absolutely 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 despatches 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 Stratford de Redclifte submitted the situation to the Turkish Government, and urged them to find a remedy. In response to this appeal 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 reorganization. The Colonel, after much routine and delay, was appointed a Lieutenant-General in the Sultan's service. In his commission he was styled Williams 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 previously been to bestow Moslem names upon such officers, when promoting them to positions of distinction. In the following November Lieutenant-General Williams, repaired to Erzeroum, which he placed in as efficient a state of defence as the means at his disposal rendered possible, leaving Lieutenant 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 reconstructed, 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 attempt 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 contend against official stupidity, corruption, delay; he could get nothing done without having first to remove whole mountains of [Pg 8]obstruction, and to quicken into life and movement an apathy which seemed like that of a paralyzed system. He concentrated his efforts at last upon the defence of Kars, and he held the place against overpowering Russian forces, and against an enemy far more appalling, starvation itself. With his little garrison he repelled a tremendous 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 surrender at last to famine; but the very articles 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 companions—Colonel Lake, Major Teesdale, Major Thompson and Dr. Sandwith—had done as much for the honour of their country 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 comrades in arms were taken to Russia as prisoners of war—first to Moscow, and afterwards 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 acclamations of the entire British nation, in May, 1856. Honours flowed in upon General 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 mismanagement 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 below those of the more fortunate conquerors of Sebastopol." The Sultan of Turkey conferred 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 Emperor of the French created him Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, and personally 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 Assembly 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 Williams 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 resolution—which passed unanimously—in eloquent 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 [Pg 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 requited for all I have gone through during the eventful years of the last terrible struggle."
In the way of lesser honours, the University of Oxford, at the annual commemoration of 1856, conferred upon General Williams 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 appointed 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 received 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 Government 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 departure 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, 1868, 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 Governor-General of Gibraltar, as successor to Lieutenant-General Sir R. Airey. He administered 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 several months, he retains a large measure of vigour.
Archbishop Taschereau is descended from Thomas Jacques Taschereau, a French gentleman who emigrated from Touraine to Canada during the early years of the seventeenth century, and whose descendants have ever since been conspicuous 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 1736 he received a grant of a seignory on the banks of the River Chaudière. 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 cleverness. In 1836, when he was in his seventeenth year, he visited Rome in company with the Abbé Holmes, of the Seminary, and in the following year received the tonsure at the hands of Monseigneur Piatti, Archbishop of Trebizonde, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Later in the same year he returned to Quebec, and commenced his theological 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 September, 1842, at the Church of Ste. Marie de 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 emigrants, 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 emigrants 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 off 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 enables him to walk up to the mouth of a cannon. Father Taschereau felt the call of duty, and volunteered his services to assist the Rev. Father McGavran, who was then [Pg 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 Catholic 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, 1856, 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 Canada Council of Public Instruction. In 1860 he became Superior of the Seminary and Rector of Laval University. In 1862 he accompanied Archbishop Baillargeon to Rome, and upon his return the same year, was appointed Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Quebec. In 1864 he again visited Rome on business connected with the University. His term of office as Superior having expired in 1866, he was again appointed Director of the Grand Seminaire, which office he held for three years, when he was reëlected Superior. He again accompanied Archbishop Baillargeon to Rome when the Œcumenical 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 administered 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 Toronto officiating. From that time down to the present, Archbishop Taschereau has discharged 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 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 gentleman 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 Prerogative for Ireland. The future Chief Justice received his early education at a private 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 useful life. It is to be regretted that a scholastic career of such promise should have been so early broken off. He did not remain 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 Canada. In the course of the following year he reached Toronto, which had been incorporated 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 language 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 confine himself to the profession in which he had already won a proud position. He interested himself in municipal affairs, however, and in 1847 was an Alderman of the [Pg 13]city. In course of time he formed a partnership with the late Mr. John Crawford, who in after years represented East Toronto in the Canadian Assembly, and finally became Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. This partnership, which was carried on under the style of Crawford & Hagarty, existed 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 Administration, he was appointed a Queen's Counsel, and he frequently thereafter represented the Crown in important cases, both civil and criminal.
In the society—and more especially in the most cultivated literary society—of Toronto, Mr. Hagarty had ever since his arrival been regarded as a decided acquisition. He had fine taste, brilliant powers of conversation, 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 contributed several poetical effusions to the "Maple Leaf," a costly illustrated Annual set on foot, in 1847, by his friend and fellow-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 Reform," 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 paragraphs of that day were attributable to his pen.
Mr. Hagarty was also an active member of the Canadian Institute, in the proceedings 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 organization 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 Puisné Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. This dignity he retained until the 18th of March, 1862, when he was transferred to the Court of Queen's Bench, where he remained until the 12th of November, 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. Immediately 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 expositions of the law are clear and lucid. His quickness of perception has long been proverbial 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 opposing counsel to urge it upon the attention of the Court. His judicial humour is another 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 humorous 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 elegance of diction and profound learning.
The Bishop of Rupert's Land is a son of Mr. Robert Machray, advocate, of Aberdeen, Scotland. He was born at Aberdeen in the year 1832, and in his early boyhood entered King's College, University of Aberdeen, for the purpose of receiving a clerical education. He graduated in 1851, and subsequently entered Sidney College, Cambridge, 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 Foundation 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 1856 he was advanced to the Priesthood by the same Prelate. In 1858 he was elected Dean of his College. In 1860 and 1861 he was University Examiner, and in 1865 he became Ramsden University Preacher.
For several years prior to his elevation to the Episcopate he officiated as Vicar of Madingley, a village situated about five miles west of Cambridge. In 1865 he was appointed by the Crown as Bishop of Rupert's Land, and was consecrated at Lambeth Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted 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 Carpenter Bumpus, the present Bishop of Athabasca, 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 bishoprics curtailed the See of its proportions. The See of Rupert's Land now consists of the Province of Manitoba, with part of the District 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 Metropolitan, under the Primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is held in very high esteem throughout his diocese, and has done much to promote the cause of education. He is Chancellor and Warden of St. John's College, Manitoba, and is also Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Theological College. His sermons and charges to his clergy are marked by practical good sense, and his manner, whether in the pulpit 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 capable of rising, upon an important occasion, to a high degree of eloquence and spiritual fervour.
The honour of being the original discoverer of the American continent is commonly 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-mythical 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 beyond 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 mainland of America—the first man to set foot upon its shore, and to hold personal communication with its inhabitants—was the intrepid navigator whose name stands at the head of this sketch.
Sebastian Cabot was of Venetian extraction, 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, and was engaged in various maritime operations of considerable magnitude, which compelled him to reside almost entirely in England 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 accorded 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 authors, 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, borne a 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 [Pg 16]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 contemporary 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 returned agayne into England with his father after certayne years, whereby he was thought 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 honourably enrolled this deserving foreigner in the list of her citizens." Since the publication 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 respect to his youth is that he was carefully instructed in mathematics and navigation, and that he made several more or less extended voyages in his father's company before he was twenty years of age. There is ground for believing that one of these voyages extended to Iceland, and probably as far as Greenland. The great discoveries of Columbus 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 King 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 services of Columbus, was willing enough to encourage such an undertaking. On the 5th of March, 1496, a patent was granted to John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian and Santius, authorizing them to seek out, subdue and occupy, at their own charges, any regions which before had "been unknown to all Christians." Permission was given to the patentees to set up the royal banner of England, and to possess any territories discovered by them as the king's vassals. The expedition consisted of five vessels, and sailed from Bristol in the month of May, 1497. There is no evidence that either John, Lewis or Santius accompanied it, though the weight of testimony is in favour of the father's having done so. Sebastian was learned and mature beyond his years, and was certainly the chief director of the expedition. He embarked on board the Matthew, and sailed in a north-westerly course until he reached the fifty-eighth degree of north latitude,2 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 Prima Vista, because it was his first view of a region hitherto unknown 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 [Pg 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 Saguenay. Much must necessarily be matter of conjecture. The map of the course pursued by the expedition, which was made either by Cabot himself or under his personal 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 approach 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 Sebastian Cabot, during the summer of 1497, sighted and landed on the American continent—probably on the coast of Labrador—and that he was the first European who had done so since the days of the Norse expeditions of several centuries before.
Cabot returned to England with his vessels, and landed at Bristol in August, 1497. The king, as may well be supposed, was much gratified at the result of the expedition 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 authorized 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 completed, and the two sons, Lewis and Santius, are supposed about this time to have settled in Italy. The expedition sailed from Bristol, under the command of Sebastian, in the following May. It seems tolerably certain that he penetrated into Hudson's Bay during this voyage, whatever may have been the fact with reference to that of the preceding year. He appears to have been accompanied by about three hundred men, with a view to colonization. The accounts of this second voyage, however, are exceedingly 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 icebergs and the various perils and discomforts of Arctic exploration, they refused to proceed 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 subsequently entered the naval service of Ferdinand 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 America. 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 England, and was actively employed in maritime 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, however, [Pg 18]whether such an office ever existed 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 distinguished by the organization of a company, 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 physical and mental activity, was a long, and upon the whole a glorious one. His personal 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 published at Venice, in 1583, entitled "Navigatione 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 Burrough, 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 Sebastian) 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 "History of Britain," and from him has been copied by scores of writers who have been content to adopt blunders without investigation. 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 titular 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.
Concerning the early life of Louis 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 appears 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 twenty-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 commanded 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 maréchal de 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 remarkable figure, in its bold and salient individuality 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 marriage, which took place at the church of St. Pierre aux Bœufs, 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 companion 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 protection, and attached herself to the suite of Mademoiselle de Montpensier. The attachment between the two ladies was not permanent. They quarrelled, and the beautiful young Countess was dismissed. The latter seems to have intrigued to get her husband [Pg 20]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 extravagant mistress of the king, Louis XIV. He had, however, an imperious and at times ungovernable temper, and had run through his fortune. In 1669 he was chosen by the great Marshal Turenne to conduct a campaign against the Turks in Candia, where he displayed dauntless courage and high military 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 appointment. 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 society, 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 disposed him to melancholy," says Mr. Parkman, "there was much in his position to awaken it. A man of courts and camps, born and bred in the focus of a most gorgeous 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 action. 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 number 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 informed his subjects that fealty to him was not only a duty, but an inestimable privilege. He also established a sort of municipal government at Quebec. He took kindly to the Indians, over whom he gained an extraordinary 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 influence, which they were by no means content 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 [Pg 21]extravagant in his professions of orthodoxy. Religion, with him, was a mere sentiment, though, by mere force of custom, he continued 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 Récollets, whom he befriended at first out of a mere spirit of opposition to the Bishop and the Jesuits, and afterwards, it may be believed, from a feeling of genuine kindness. These Récollets 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 minister—"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 exploration. 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 sketched in an earlier volume. "There was between them," says Mr. Parkman, "the sympathetic attraction of two bold and energetic 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." Frontenac'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 English 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 become 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 Frontenac often took counsel of the explorer, who, on his part, saw in the design a possible 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 convinced Frontenac that the most appropriate site for his projected fort was at the mouth of the River Cataraqui; and there, on the site where now stands the city of Kingston, the fort was built accordingly, during the month of July, 1673. Frontenac's patronage of La Salle continued throughout the former's tenure of the Governorship. He [Pg 22]also patronized other enthusiastic western travellers, and sent Marquette and Joliet to explore the regions of the Mississippi. Meantime his quarrels with the clergy were incessant, 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 quarrels, charges and counter-charges, that ensued 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, 1682, 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 recourse to Frontenac, who was at this time (1689) 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 devastation 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 Governor 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 terrible massacre which had taken place at Lachine only a few months before was almost forgotten in the ardour of the approaching 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. Various 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 Winthrop 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 October, (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 garrison in an efficient state of defence. When the envoy presented his summons to Frontenac in the Castle of St. Lewis, he was [Pg 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 answer 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 successive generations of translators, was as follows: "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 colony 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 rebelled against their lawful prince." Then, turning with a smile to the officers about him: "Even if your general offered me conditions a little more gracious, and if I had a mind to accept them, does he suppose that these brave gentlemen would give their consent, 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 discomfited, 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 person 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 [Pg 24]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 mortal 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 Récollet 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 character, 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 humanitarianism; yet he was no whit more ruthless 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 capacity and vigour. When civilized enemies were once within his power, he treated them, according to their degree, with a chivalrous 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 conciliation. 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.
Mr. Burpee, one of the most distinguished members of the Liberal Party in the Province of New Brunswick, is descended 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 remained 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 Atlantic, and founded a little colony upon the rugged coast of Massachusetts Bay. They settled in what is now the State of Massachusetts, and there they and their descendants 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, Massachusetts, to Maugerville, on the north shore of the St. John River, in what is now the Province of New Brunswick. His descendants have ever since resided in that Province, and many of them have held important public offices there.
The immediate ancestor of the subject of this sketch was Isaac Burpee, of Sheffield, N.B., who married Phœbe, daughter of Moses Coban. The present Isaac Burpee was the eldest son of this couple, and was 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 commercial life, and soon succeeded in building up a large and prosperous business connection. The senior partner acquired a very prominent position, not only as a merchant, but as a man of large views and public spirit. He took an interest in all questions affecting 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 affairs 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 position for several successive years.
[Pg 26]On the 8th of March, 1855, he married Miss Henrietta Robertson, the youngest daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Robertson, 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 admitted as a member. It was almost a matter 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 rôle 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 giving the Government of Sir John A. Macdonald 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 disclosures. Since then Mr. Burpee has been a vigorous opponent of the Conservative Party, and has been able to indulge his Liberal prepossessions. Upon the formation of Mr. Mackenzie's Administration he accepted the portfolio of Minister of Customs, and upon presenting himself to his constituents for reëlection he was returned by acclamation. Upon accepting office he retired from his connection with the commercial 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 contest with Mr. Bristow, who was then Secretary of the United States Treasury, respecting the navigation of the New York canals, proved him to be possessed of a far higher degree of statesmanship than he had previously been credited with. As a Parliamentary speaker he at first had to contend with the difficulties attendant upon inexperience and a want of readiness in expressing himself. These difficulties, however, were erelong surmounted, and he became a ready and effective speaker. He mastered every detail of his own department, 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 defeated. 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 Association; of the Victoria Coal Mining Company; and of the New Brunswick Deaf and Dumb Institution. He has filled the office of Treasurer of the St. John Industrial 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.
Lieutenant-Governor Haviland is a son of the late Hon. Thomas Heath Haviland, formerly of Gloucestershire, England, who for many years prior to the introduction of Responsible Government in Prince Edward Island, in 1851, was a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils, and Colonial Secretary of the Province.
He was born at Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island, on the 13th of November, 1822, and received his early education 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 represented 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 occasions; viz., during part of 1866 and 1867, and from September, 1870, until April, 1872. During part of the year 1865 he was Solicitor-General of the Province, and was created a Queen's Counsel just prior to his appointment 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 admitted 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 appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of his native Province, which took place on the 14th of July, 1879.
He has occupied various positions of dignity and importance, including that of Master 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 Elizabeth Grubbe, daughter of Mr. John Grubbe, of Horsenden House, Buckinghamshire, England.
The late Mr. Macdonald occupied a place in Canadian politics which it is not easy to define. He acted alternately with Conservatives 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 dictated to. He was probably in jest when he referred to himself on the floor of the Assembly as "the Ishmael 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 indifferent to public opinion as a prominent member of Parliament very well can be. He made many enemies, and took little pains to conciliate them. Circumstances, however, combined to give him a factitious importance. 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 representation by population and separate schools. He lived in and represented a constituency so near the boundary-line between 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 contrive to render something like a reason for the political faith that was in him. He occupied a prominent place among the public 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 to have any very lofty conception of a legislator's responsibilities. He was, however, an excellent man of business and an admirable tactician. Some desirable reforms in the practice of the courts were carried out under his auspices, and some features which characterized his Administration 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 serious physical debility. Few men so handicapped would have accomplished so much. He retained his popularity among the Scottish 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 completely 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 Revolutionary War. They were not U. E. Loyalists, [Pg 29]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 latter seems to have been a characteristic Gael, fond of having his own way, and little disposed 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 conveyed 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 negotiating 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 abruptly 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 surprising 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-hopper" by some unwashed urchins on the street. From that moment, it is said, his situation became odious to him, and he began 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 result 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 diligent study he might hope to qualify himself 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 constitution 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 consumption. 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 Cornwall, 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 1840. 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 abilities 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 predictions [Pg 30]of the physicians. He was successful at the Bar, and increased both his knowledge of law and his pecuniary resources. Immediately after his call to the Bar, in 1840, he married Miss Waggoman, a daughter of the Hon. George Waggoman, a United States Senator who resided in Louisiana, where he owned a large plantation and several hundred slaves.3
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 allegiance. Whatever party he served seemed to make no difference to his constituents, who stood by him loyally, and did not attempt 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 1844, 1848, 1852 and 1854, either by acclamation or by sweeping majorities, and his constituency came to be regarded as a pocket-borough. Upon the formation of the second Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration, 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 motion of Mr. Hincks. He held that position until the dissolution in 1854. On the assembling of Parliament in that year he recorded 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 compelled 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 remained closed during the remainder of his life. His physicians insisted upon his cessation from the turmoil of politics, as the only means whereby he could hope to prolong his life, even for a few months. He accordingly started for Europe on a holiday [Pg 31]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 improved 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 political 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 Highlanders 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 Glengarry" was not to be interfered with. On matters unconnected with religion he generally spoke and voted on the side of progress; but he regarded every question, as it arose, upon what seemed to him to be its particular 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 vigorously on the "double majority" question, contending that in matters of local concern 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 frequently 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 determined to render his public life less arduous by putting his brother into Parliament for Glengarry, and choosing a smaller constituency for himself. He accordingly introduced his younger brother, Donald Alexander Macdonald, the recent Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, to his constituents, who forthwith accepted him as their representative. John Sandfield offered himself to the electors of Cornwall, who returned him at the head of the poll, and he thenceforward continued to represent them until his death.
Not long after his first election for Cornwall he and Mr. Brown began to work more cordially together. Upon the formation of the short-lived Brown-Dorion Ministry in August, 1858, he accepted office as Attorney-General West. Brief as was the existence of this Administration (even according 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 between them became wider and wider. The western Reformers repudiated Mr. Macdonald, who returned the compliment by repudiating them. For some years after this time he called himself "an Independent Member," which, as matter of fact, he always had been. All through the tenure of office of the Cartier-Macdonald Administration he showed his independence by attacking alternately the Government and the Opposition.
Upon the defeat of the Cartier-Macdonald Ministry on the Militia Bill, in March, 1862, the Governor-General, somewhat to the public surprise, applied to the subject of this [Pg 32]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 ensued. The two parties were so evenly divided that it was impossible that any purely party measure could count upon a large majority. It was therefore thought not improbable that a man who could not strictly be claimed as belonging to either party might be able to form a stronger Government than an adherent of either one side or the other. Mr. Macdonald responded favourably to the Governor-General's appeal, 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 Sandfield Macdonald, Attorney-General West; Louis Victor Sicotte, Attorney-General East; Thomas D'Arcy McGee, President of the Council; William Pearce Howland, Minister of Finance; William McDougall, Commissioner of Crown Lands; Antoine Aimé Dorion, Provincial Secretary; Ulric Joseph Tessier, Commissioner of Public Works; Adam Wilson, Solicitor-General West; J. J. C. Abbott, Solicitor-General East; François Evanturel, Minister of Agriculture; Michael Hamilton Foley, Postmaster-General; 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; retrenchment in the public expenditure; a new insolvency law; a new militia bill; and various reforms in the conduct of the departments. 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 Government which did not make rep. by pop. the first plank in its platform. The Globe opposed the new Ministry nearly as vigorously 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 formation 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 Government held office by a frail tenure. There were motions in favour of direct representation 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 feeling 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 majority of five a direct vote of want of confidence. Parliament was prorogued with a view to its immediate dissolution, which soon afterwards followed. Before the ensuing elections Mr. Macdonald tried the experiment of a reconstruction—a reconstruction so sweeping as to practically result in a new Ministry. Some of Mr. Brown's followers from the Upper Province were admitted, 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 colleagues, 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 [Pg 33]had to encounter the fierce opposition of the ousted members, Messrs. Foley, McGee, 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 contrived 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 majority. They accordingly resigned, and were succeeded by the Administration formed under the auspices of Sir Etienne P. Taché and the Hon. John A. Macdonald.
John Sandfield Macdonald was not favourable to the scheme of Confederation, and opposed 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 successfully 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 characteristic 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 somewhat 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 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 Government's having appropriated a large sum for railway subsidies without taking a vote on the appropriations to the several roads subsidized. 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 Stormont and Glengarry, as well as by a wide circle of other friends. His personal independence, 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 quoting liberally from the Athanasian Creed in ordinary conversation. Many readers of these lines will remember the Strathroy episode; and if they were personally acquainted with Mr. Macdonald their memories 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 critical 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.
Dr. McKnight was born at Dalmellington, Ayrshire, Scotland, and studied the Arts Course in the University of Glasgow 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 congregation 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 functions incidental to the Hebrew Chair; but in 1868 he resigned the charge of the Dartmouth congregation, and undertook Exegetics in addition to Hebrew, in connection with the College. In 1871, after the retirement of the Rev. Dr. King, he was transferred 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 Professor in the Free College, Halifax, subsequently in the Theological Hall of the Presbyterian 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 Provinces, of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. By a vote of the Assembly at Hamilton he was appointed Principal in 1878. He commands 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 comparatively little part in the Assembly's discussions; 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 intellectual power, and all of them entertain for him the most profound respect and affection.
Dr. Wilson is the second son of the late Mr. Archibald Wilson, of Edinburgh, Scotland, in which city he himself was born in 1816. He was one of a numerous 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 Professors 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, deriving 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 newspapers and periodicals of that time, most of which have now ceased to exist. He had—and has—a fondness for archæological researches, and his studies in that line were destined to produce abundant results. He became an enthusiastic member of the Scottish 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 especially 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 popularity, and was pronounced by the London Athenæum 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 compiled from Noble, Foster, Daubeny and Carlyle. In 1851 a more ambitious attempt than either of the works above mentioned appeared, viz., "The Archæology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland." It was published 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 [Pg 36]of readers than any of his previous contributions to literature. It may be said, indeed, to have given him a world-wide reputation among archæologists. 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 independent judgment." The Westminster Review spoke of it in terms equally laudatory, saying that "The Scandinavian antiquaries 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 archæological evidences of primitive history which had ever been written. In 1863 a second edition of the work, revised and largely re-written, appeared under the title of "Prehistoric 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 University College, Toronto. This appointment was conferred in 1853, and has ever since been held by the recipient with entire satisfaction 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 lecturer, examiner, and member of the University 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 accomplishments. 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 Archæology 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 examination questions, which ought to be of such a kind as at once to test the student's knowledge 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 History, 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-sectarian 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 archæology and [Pg 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 Origin 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 Edinburgh 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 judicious and clear, in its style vigorous, expressive and distinct. The topic is not only vast in range, complex in material, and difficult from its nature, but brings the man who ventures to discuss it into contact with momentous and perplexing questions touching 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 remarkably cordial, and a third edition has since been published. In 1869 appeared "Chatterton: 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 republished in London with numerous additions, under the title of "Spring Wild Flowers." His latest separate work is "Reminiscences of Old Edinburgh," published in two volumes at Edinburgh in 1878, and profusely illustrated by phototypes from the author's original designs. He also contributed various articles to the eighth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica; and to the ninth edition—now in course of publication—he has already contributed the articles on "Archæology," "Canada," "Chatterton," 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 consist chiefly of papers read by him before the Canadian Institute, of which he has long been one of the most prominent members, 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 interest in promoting the higher education of women. He filled several times in succession 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 appointment in August last to the Presidency of University College.
Mr. Chapleau comes of an old French family which settled in the Seigniory of Terrebonne nearly a century before the Conquest, and has ever since resided there. He was born at Ste. Thérèse de Blainville, in the county of Terrebonne, on the 9th of November, 1840. He was a remarkably bright and intelligent boy, and was early intended by his parents for a professional life. He received his education first at the College of Terrebonne, and afterwards at the College of St. Hyacinthe, at both of which seats of learning he won a high reputation for brilliancy and cleverness. Having passed through the college curriculum at St. Hyacinthe with much credit, he fixed upon the law for a profession, 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 became 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, 1861, he having attained his majority only about a month previously. He entered into partnership with his former principals, and began practice at the Montreal 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 important 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 feeling was very much aroused upon the subject 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 reputation 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, 1874, on a charge of murdering Thomas Scott, will be remembered by many of our readers as a masterly forensic effort. He has also frequently 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 contest he threw his influence into the struggle on behalf of the Conservative side. In the [Pg 39]beginning of the year 1862 he acquired a pecuniary interest in a tri-weekly newspaper 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 representation being the Hon. Louis F. R. Masson), and has ever since been returned as such—several times by acclamation. At the opening of the first session of the first Provincial Parliament of Quebec Mr. Chapleau was entrusted with the presentation of the Address 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 railway 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 Provincial 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 Opposition, and acted in that capacity until the resignation of Mr. Joly's Ministry, in October, 1879. Being called upon to form a new Administration, Mr. Chapleau readily accomplished that task, he himself becoming Premier and Minister of Agriculture and Public Works. His Ministry still remains in power. It is well known that Mr. Chapleau has more than once been urged to accept office in the Dominion Government 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. Chapleau was an unsuccessful candidate for the representation of the county of Verchères 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 Foncier du Bas 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, Brigade Major, Sherbrooke.
Lord Lisgar, who, prior to his elevation 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 Bailieborough 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 entered 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 situated, 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 ministerial 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 became Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. For some years prior to this time he had been a magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant 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 Government 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 position, having been appointed in 1860 Governor 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 [Pg 41]Governor-General of the Dominion on the 29th of December following. His administration of Canadian affairs lasted till the month of June, 1872, when he was succeeded 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 Custos 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 administration 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 residence 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 extraordinary 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 Edward 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 accomplishments and fine social qualities made for her many friends during her three years' sojourn in Canada—contracted a second marriage, with Sir Francis Fortescue Turville, K.C.M.G.
Mr. Pardee's grandparents emigrated from the State of New York to Upper Canada towards the close of the last century, 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 11th 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 student in the office of Mr. (now Sir) William Buell Richards. In those days the marvellous achievements of "the Argonauts of '49" caused the eyes of many enterprising young men to be turned in the direction of California. Young Pardee caught the prevailing infection, abandoned his studies, and turned his steps in the direction of the setting 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 districts. He then returned to his native land, and resumed his legal studies in the office of Mr. Joshua Adams, of Sarnia. Having completed the term of his articles he was admitted 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 influence. He embraced the Reform side in politics, and at the first general election under Confederation came out as the anti-Coalition candidate for a seat in the Ontario Legislature 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 Society 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 reëlection 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 600. At the last general local election 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 Department have been carried out under his auspices. He married Miss Emma K. Forsyth, a daughter of Mr. J. K. Forsyth, of the township of Sombra, in the county of Lambton. He was created a Queen's Counsel in 1876.
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, Stirlingshire, Scotland, on the 29th of July, 1799. He was educated at Glasgow University with a view to entering the profession of the law. In 1814 his father, accompanied by his family, emigrated to America, settled in Nova Scotia, and opened a store. Father and son traded together as merchants 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 determination and zeal the study of law, in the office of Charles Rufus Fairbanks, an eminent lawyer of the period, and once Solicitor-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 entered 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 Education." He was also the founder of the Nova Scotian newspaper—a journal afterwards 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 returned [Pg 44]to Parliament as one of the representatives 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 Government 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 temperate 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 election 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 colony he fought against its opponents with great determination and spirit. He seconded Howe's memorable attack on the Legislative 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 duration 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, delivered 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-Governor from Lord Glenelg. It was in reply to certain representations which had been made by the popular branch of the Legislature as to the fees exacted by the Chief Justice and the Puisné Judges of the Province. 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 original 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 debate which ensued Mr. Young in a forcible speech pronounced the deliberate opinion that "the exaction of the fees, though sanctioned 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 Province. The Governor-General greeted the [Pg 45]delegates with much cordiality, and pleasant relations were established between them. Mr. Young presented a communication complaining 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 authorities, became so overcome by his feelings 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 Huntington, 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 certain proposed reforms. After considerable time had elapsed the delegates returned home, having succeeded in obtaining the following concessions: Cumberland, Parrsboro', 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 hundred 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 might from time to time demand. A Bill was subsequently prepared by the delegates, and sanctioned by the Ministry, which guaranteed the privilege to actual settlers of purchasing Crown lands as low as one shilling sterling per acre.
In 1840 Mr. Young took an active part in the demonstrations against Sir Colin Campbell, 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 support 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 witnessing the recall and departure of the Governor. 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 understand. 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 Revenue, 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 elevated to a seat in the Executive Council, but had resigned on his appointment to the Speakership, was reëlected Speaker. This gave much satisfaction throughout the country, for the great majority of the people sympathized with the Reformers. Mr. Young's name spread far and wide, and he was regarded as one of the leading champions in the tremendous struggle for Responsible Government which was then agitating the whole of British North America. He visited Upper Canada while Speaker, and the Reformers of Toronto and the neighbouring townships invited him to a public dinner, as a mark of the high consideration entertained of the able conduct displayed by [Pg 46]himself and his colleagues in their contest with Lord Falkland for constitutional government. The banquet took place on the 23rd of September, in the Hall of the Reform 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 Reformers were successful. The new House met on Saturday, 22nd January, 1848. The former Speaker was reëlected, after a ballot of 28 to 22, and the Howe-Uniacke Ministry came into power.
In the session of 1850 a commission, consisting of Mr. Young, Jonathan McCulley, J. W. Ritchie and Joseph Whidden, was appointed 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 reconstruction of the Cabinet was necessary. The Hon. Mr. Young, late Speaker, was entrusted by the Lieutenant-Governor with the task of forming a Government. He accepted the duty, and the office of Attorney-General, after which he issued a proclamation to his constituents at Inverness, in which he presented an able exposition of the principles by which the new Administration proposed to be guided. All the members of the Ministry, on seeking reëlection, 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 constancy 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 Parliament.
In 1857 the Mining Lease Act came up for settlement. Mr. Young, as we have already said, had expressed very decided but temperate 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 formation of a new Ministry. Dr. Tupper (now Sir Charles) became Provincial Secretary. In 1859 general elections were held throughout the country, after which the Liberal Party, headed by Mr. Young, their leader, petitioned the Lieutenant-Governor, and [Pg 47]asked for an early session, stating that they had a majority of members. Dr. Tupper returned 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 disregarding the royal instructions, and compromising the position of strict impartiality between political parties. The House met in January, 1860, and in the election for Speaker the Opposition carried their candidate by a majority of three votes. The Government contended that five or six members 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 advised 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 Brenton Haliburton, Mr. Young was appointed to that position—an office which he continues 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 important 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 colleges are rich in graceful allusion, and exceedingly 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 evening were characterized by great beauty of style and diction. His interest in the colleges and educational establishments, the charities and public institutions of the country, has never waned, and he has always found time to devote a large amount of personal attention to them. An active member 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 occasion was marked by a characteristic deed of benevolence, several charitable organizations 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 harness." He could have had the Lieutenant-Governorship of his Province, but he preferred his own position to that of any other within the gift of the Crown. He has enjoyed almost half a century of public life.
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 parents 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 boyhood, 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 subsequently 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 friendship which endured until Mr. Blake's death in 1870; and when the subject of this sketch was called to the Bar of Upper Canada 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 Connor entered the firm, the style became Blake, Morrison & Connor. Upon Mr. Blake's elevation 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 Parliament under the Union for the West Riding of the county of York. In politics he was what was known in those days as a Baldwin 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 Administration. 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 reëlection 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 September, 1854, having been reëlected to the Fifth [Pg 49]Parliament by his constituents in Niagara during the preceding month of August. On the 19th of April, 1856, he became a member of the Executive Council, and on the 24th of May following he became Receiver-General in the Taché-Macdonald Administration, and a Member of the Board of Railway Commissioners. His constituents again testified their approval of his acceptance of office, and of his Parliamentary career generally, by reëlecting him upon his presenting himself before them in the following August. He remained in the Ministry after Mr. Taché's retirement (in the Macdonald-Cartier Administration) and held office as Receiver-General until the expiration of the Fifth Parliament. At the general election of 1857 he was an unsuccessful 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 constituency 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 Canada. In January, 1859, he was appointed Registrar of the city of Toronto, and retained 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 Puisné Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. On the 24th of August in the following year he was promoted to the Court of Queen's Bench, where he remained until the 30th of November, 1877, when he was transferred to the Court of Appeal. He is now the Senior Puisné Judge of all the Courts in the Province of Ontario.
While at the Bar he attained high distinction, and was connected with many important 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;4 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 Parliament and Minister of the Crown he was identified with the advocacy of the secularization of the Clergy Reserves and the abolition of the Seignorial Tenure. He has always taken a warm interest in all educational 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 public interest, among which may be mentioned 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 sentenced 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—formerly known as St. Paul's Road—which separates Yorkville from Toronto.
The Right Hon. Thomas Douglas, 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 practical effect. His published works display native powers of mind of a high order, carefully disciplined by training and thought. He encountered a great deal of that opposition 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 capacity, 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 subject 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 manhood, 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 lordship, who was a Representative Peer of Scotland, and Lord Lieutenant of the Stewartry 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 published a work entitled "Observations on the Present State of the Highlands of Scotland, with a view of the Causes and Probable Consequences of Emigration." It had received the commendation of such diverse authorities as Blackwood's Magazine, John Ramsay McCulloch, the eminent political economist, and Francis Horner, in the Edinburgh Review. [Pg 51]Another work on "National Defence," published by him in 1808—being an expansion of the views enunciated 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 reprinted so lately as 1860. Several smaller works on Parliamentary Reform, the Scottish Peerage, and the Philosophy of Malthus, bore testimony alike to his industry and 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 beneficent and charitable to the poor, and was most considerate and generous in his dealings with his own tenantry. His views, as has been intimated, were in advance of the times, and they found many vigorous opponents, 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 important 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 operations 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 coureurs de bois had already found their way in quest of furs. The first white man whose foot is known to have traversed those remote regions subsequently known as the Red River Settlement, was M. Varennes de la Verandrye, a seigneur of Nouvelle France, and an ancestor of the present Archbishop of St. Boniface. This gentleman, who was born at the old town of Three Rivers, at the mouth of the St. Maurice, was one of the most dauntless 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 1763 the fur-trade in these regions seems to have been almost abandoned. It was gradually resumed, however, chiefly by private traders, many of whom were Scotchmen resident in Montreal. The traffic was prosecuted under many disadvantages, for agents sometimes proved faithless, and there were large incidental losses. It was nevertheless attended on the whole with much pecuniary success. The Hudson's Bay Company found that in order to protect their own interests it would be necessary for them to engage in the traffic themselves. 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 coöperate for their mutual benefit. In 1783 a number of these private traders formed themselves into an organization under the name of the North-West Company of Montreal. They had ample capital, and [Pg 52]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 extent of their operations may be formed from the fact that they had as many as five thousand 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 founding 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 Highlanders 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 maintenance would give the Company practical control over the surrounding districts. A colony 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 colonists 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 ultimately 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 redundant population of the Old World. He accordingly resolved to take a number of poor Highland families from Sutherlandshire, 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, including 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, [Pg 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 hundred miles to the north of the point of disembarkation. 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 demolished, 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 Company's emissaries, having heard of Lord Selkirk's project, had busied themselves in setting up the Indians of the district to oppose the settlement of the emigrants. They also made it their business to oppose the settlement on their own account. If an agricultural 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 Gaël (who were about a hundred in number, inclusive of women and children), and forbade 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 Pembina, at what is now the frontier line between 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 combined Indians and whites, acting under specific instructions from the North-West Company, the directors whereof had formally resolved upon the destruction of the colony. 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 reinforced by the arrival of a number of additional emigrants from Scotland. The entire colony now set to work to rebuild their habitations, 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 Douglas, in honour of the family name of the founder of the colony, and it stood on the site now known as Point Douglas. The opposition to which the unfortunate colonists were subjected made them lose heart, and in 1815 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 necessary, additional means of defence against the encroachments of the North-West Company [Pg 54]and their scarcely more savage allies. During an ignominious skirmish which occurred on the 19th of June, 1816, between a party of emissaries of the North-West Company and a few of the colonists, Governor 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 breaking 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 attention at this juncture. One of these was on Lake St. Clair; the other was at the mouth of the Grand River, in Upper Canada. He visited both these colonies in turn, and made certain arrangements for the comfort 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 Lagimonière, 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 Lagimonière, 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 himself 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 Regiment, 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 proceedings with an aspect of legality. Placing 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 hastened 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 [Pg 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 imparting some measure of his own determination to the colonists. He felt himself responsible for their presence there. He supplied them with seed-grain and agricultural implements at his own expense. Notwithstanding his benevolence, the settlers suffered terrible privations. When their crops were nearly fit for harvesting the grasshoppers 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 Indian title to so much of the lands as was required for purposes of colonization. This was effected by an instrument dated the 18th 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 project an accomplished fact. He did not leave Red River until he saw his colonists in what, for them, must have been regarded as comfortable circumstances. Then he took his departure for his native land, his constitution seriously impaired by the exposure and hardships to which he had been subjected, 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 October, 1818, were acquitted for want of evidence. The Earl, however, does not seem to have tried very hard to secure their conviction. He did not wait for the trials, but went home to Great Britain during the previous year. He published several volumes giving a full account of the Red River settlement, 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, however, was too much impaired, and he died at Pau on the 8th of April, 1820.
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 verdicts for false imprisonment were obtained against him at York after his departure from Canada, the amounts whereof his executors were called upon to pay. One of these verdicts was in favour of William Smith, Under-Sheriff of the Western District, and was for £500. Another was for the formidable sum of £1,500, and was recovered by Daniel McKenzie, a former partner in the North-West Company.
In 1836 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 pecuniary 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.
Mr. 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 commensurate with his political standing. This estimate, however, is not universally acquiesced in by his political opponents, by many of whom he is regarded with a very moderate degree of respect, and to whom his personality 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 narrative 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 England 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, supporting 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 characteristic 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 Assembly for the county of Shefford. The contest resulted in a "tie," and there was [Pg 57]consequently no return, as the then-existing Parliament expired before the election committee 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 return. He has ever since represented Shefford 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 conspicuous for his scathing criticism of measures whereof he disapproved. His energy and good judgment also made him useful as a member of committees. Upon the reconstruction of the late John Sandfield Macdonald's Administration in May, 1863, he became an Executive Councillor, and accepted the Solicitor-Generalship for the Lower Province. He retained office until the resignation of the Government in March, 1864, when the Taché-Macdonald Government succeeded to power.
It has been said that Mr. Huntington's political views were of an "advanced" character; 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 independence, 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 annexationist in disguise. His almost isolated position in this respect interfered, to some extent, with his usefulness to his Party, but he never made any attempt to conceal or dissemble his views, and had the full courage of his opinions. After the accomplishment of Confederation he yielded his allegiance to the new order of things. He arrayed himself on the side of the Opposition, and was from first to last one of the most uncompromising opponents of Sir John A. Macdonald's Government. His opposition 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 possessed of information which convinced him that there had been a corrupt bargain between Sir Hugh Allan and the Government, and he proceeded quietly to get his materials together with a view to bringing the subject before the attention of Parliament. With the assistance of his partner, Mr. Laflamme, he erelong succeeded in obtaining such evidence as to justify him, in his opinion, 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 anticipation 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 [Pg 58]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 being 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 elections 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 mentioned, 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 capitalists under the agreement with him: It is Ordered that a committee of seven members be appointed to inquire into all the circumstances 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, and 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 supporters became moody and dissatisfied with his policy of reticence. On the following day, accordingly, he himself gave notice that on the next Government day—Tuesday, the 8th—he would move for the appointment 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 appointed chairman, but the question of examining the witnesses upon oath having been raised, it was deemed necessary to postpone the proceedings until a Bill empowering Parliamentary Committees to administer oaths should become law. The requisite Bill was passed on the 3rd of May, and as doubts were expressed as to its legality 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. Huntington 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 [Pg 59]important additional evidence, and on the 15th of May he informed the House that original documents of the greatest importance 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 circumstances, 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 possession, so far as possible, of the character of the papers and the nature of the information 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 competent 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 correspondence, 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 little 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 unable to proceed with the inquiry, having no power to examine witnesses under oath, although Mr. Huntington was personally in attendance for the purpose of substantiating 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 committee 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 Commission 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 afterwards the famous Allan-McMullen correspondence 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 Macdonald Ministry was sealed. When Parliament met, pursuant to adjournment, on the 13th of August, the members were in a decidedly investigating mood. His Excellency, [Pg 60]however, by the advice of his Ministers, prorogued Parliament, amid a tumultuous scene which will not soon be forgotten by those who beheld it. A Royal Commission, 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 Commissioners that they should investigate the charges made by Mr. Huntington, and report 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 preferred 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 inconsistent with my duty as a member of Parliament, and a breach of the undoubted privileges of the House, to recognize any inferior or exceptional tribunal, created to inquire into charges still pending before the Commons, and so essentially affecting the privileges, dignity, and independence of Parliament. 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 acquiescence 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 fundamental 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 misdemeanour cognizable by the Courts, and consequently 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 followed Mr. Huntington's example, and declined to appear before the Commission. [Pg 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 Parliament met in the following autumn Mr. Blake made a speech which produced a telling effect upon the House, and upon the country at large. The Ministry resigned office, and were succeeded by Mr. Mackenzie'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 reëlected by acclamation. He retained the office of President of the Council until October, 1875, when he succeeded the Hon. Telesphore Fournier as Postmaster-General, which position he retained until the resignation of the Government in October, 1878.
The foregoing facts, we think, will sufficiently explain the hostile feelings entertained towards Mr. Huntington by certain members of the Conservative Party; but he has also been subjected to a good deal of adverse criticism on other grounds. For some time previous to 1873 he had given considerable 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 negotiations 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. Huntington. 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 conspicuous 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 prominently connected with the editorial department of the Montreal Herald.
Dr. Hill, one of the most distinguished living inhabitants of the Province of Nova Scotia, was born in the city of Halifax, on the 9th of November, 1824. His life has been one of very remarkable industry and mental activity, and has been attended with noteworthy results to the educational, social, and literary interests of his native Province. In his case, a rare capacity for hard work is happily blended with vigorous mental endowments, and a high and honourable purpose in life. His capacity 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 conclusive 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 dissemination 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 College, 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 constitution. 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 graduated 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 important mission on behalf of King's College, Windsor. He acquitted himself of this mission greatly to the satisfaction of all parties concerned, and on his return, after an absence of several months, his alma mater conferred upon him the appointment of Professor of Pastoral Theology. For five years [Pg 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 incumbent, 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 contemporary 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 Halifax (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 au fait and enthusiastic in all that pertains to his celebrated 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 themselves 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 appointment was accepted by all as a fitting tribute to his great learning and high personal character. His discharge of the duties of the position has fully borne out the expectations formed of him. Under his direction the Senate of the University has made gratifying progress in harmonizing the higher educational forces of the Province.
Dr. Hill's contributions to literature have been many in number, and various in character. 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 pamphlet form. Of this production the Halifax Express eulogistically 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 characterized. From the commencement to the close, each period seemed to surpass in classic elegance that which had preceded it; and the simple narrative was so adorned and embellished as to appear the sublime conception of the poet and the scholar." During the same year Dr. Hill delivered and published a sermon entitled "A Review of the Rise and Progress of the Church of England 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 inauguration of the Welsford and Parker Monument, 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 Haliburton, 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 literature. It deals with the life and actions of a good and great colonist who distinguished himself, during the most stirring periods of our colonial history, as a soldier, statesman, and jurist; and in the eyes of [Pg 64] those who knew him best he was most admired 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 affection; 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 unwritten. Though now in his fifty-seventh year, he is still in the prime of his intellectual 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. Nothing 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 constantly, 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 Institute, President of the Board controlling St. Paul's Almshouse of Industry, and Governor of the Orphan Asylum. He is also Vice-President both of the British and Foreign Bible Society and of the Tract Society. His degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the University of King's College, Windsor.
Chief Justice Dorion was born in the parish of Ste. Anne de la Pérade, in the county of Champlain, in the Province of Lower Canada, on the 17th of January, 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 Pérade, and was a gentleman of much local influence and reputation, having represented the county of Champlain in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada from 1830 to 1838. The Chief Justice's mother was Geneviève, daughter of the late Mr. P. Bureau, who also occupied a seat in the Provincial 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 afterwards entered upon the practice of his profession 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 pronounced opinions on the Liberal side from his earliest youth, and he had not been 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 recognized leader of the Rouge Party in the House, and was long the steadfast ally of the late Mr. Brown. He continued to represent the city of Montreal until 1861. When Mr. Brown formed his short-lived Administration in the month of August, 1858, Mr. Dorion accepted office in it as Commissioner 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 Cartier-Macdonald Government Mr. Dorion arrayed 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 [Pg 66] he remained out of Parliament, but upon the formation of the Sandfield Macdonald-Sicotte Government in May, 1862, he accepted 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 retain office in the Cabinet, as then constituted, 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, 1863, he resigned, and was succeeded in his post of Provincial Secretary by the Hon. J. O. Bureau. He remained out of office until the month of May following, when the Government 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 returned to the House of Commons for the constituency of Hochelaga. In 1872 he announced his intention of retiring from public life, and was tendered a complimentary banquet, along with Mr. Holton, by his friends in Montreal, but at the general elections 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 remained in public life. He resumed his old position at the head of his Party, and opposed Sir John Macdonald's Government until its downfall in November, 1873. Upon the formation of Mr. Mackenzie's Administration immediately afterwards, Mr. Dorion accepted office in it as Minister of Justice, which position he retained until his appointment 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 Counsel in 1863; was several times elected Batonnier 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 successor 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 linguist, a polished scholar, and a judge whose decisions are held in high respect. Of his Parliamentary manner Mr. Fennings Taylor, 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 representative 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 manners equable. If he speaks in English, you will think him an Englishman with a foreign 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 diplomatic services of the greater States of Europe; 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 race."
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 consequently at the present time a nonagenarian. 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 Hastings, 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 Ontario Legislature, was then fresh from Victoria 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 politics, but Mr. Wood has frequently acknowledged his indebtedness to Dr. Boulter's early instructions, and a warm personal friendship has always subsisted 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, Northumberland and Durham, and York and Peel. Immediately on obtaining his certificate he began to teach one of the schools in Sidney. He afterwards taught at Prince Albert, in North Ontario, and elsewhere. About 1856 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 1860 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 interest in all public matters, and more especially 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 resigned, after holding it about a year.
He early allied himself with the Reform Party in politics, and took an active part in [Pg 68] the election campaigns of the times. His enterprise, public spirit and popularity marked him out as a fitting candidate for Parliamentary 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 Conservative, 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 candidature was successful, and he was returned by a majority of more than 300 votes. He soon made his mark in the House as an industrious, hard-working member, and took an intelligent part in the debates, more especially 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 influence, 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 devolved upon the Hon. A. S. Hardy. Mr. Crooks became Minister of Education, and Mr. Wood became Commissioner of Agriculture and Provincial Treasurer. These offices he still retains. In his departmental capacity he has under his management the Agricultural College at Guelph, the Reformatory 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 Insurance 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 affecting agricultural affairs in Ontario.
On the 17th of June, 1856, Mr. Wood married Miss Charlotte M. Parkinson, of the township of Mariposa.
Mr. 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 seaport 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 established, 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, 1863, to December, 1864, when he was appointed Financial Secretary in the Government led by the Hon. Dr. Tupper, which he continued to hold until the Union. He was one of the Commissioners (representing Nova Scotia) appointed to open trade relations between the West Indies, Mexico and Brazil, and the British American Provinces in 1865-66.
In 1867 he was created a Queen's Counsel, and during the same year, at the first general election under Confederation, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the representation 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 Commons. He was returned to the Commons immediately afterwards, and remained a member of that House until 1874, when he was unsuccessful in securing his reëlection. At the general election held in September, 1878, he was again returned to the Commons for the county of Pictou by a considerable majority, and he now sits for that constituency. He is a Conservative in politics, and upon the formation of the present Government 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 intellectually 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.
Sir John Rose is not a Canadian by birth, nor has he resided in this country for some years past, but the greater part of his life was spent among us, and it was here that the foundation of his political and financial 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, daughter of Captain James Fyfe. He was educated 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 Province, whither he accompanied them. He for a short time engaged in the useful and honourable, but in those days not very lucrative 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 commanding 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 Company. He also conducted a good many cases on behalf of the Government of the day, and acquired an intimate acquaintance with political questions. In 1848 he was created a Queen's Counsel. During the existence of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government 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 himself 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 connection 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 Parliamentary career. On the 26th of November in that year he accepted office in the Macdonald-Cartier Administration as Solicitor-General for Lower Canada. At the general [Pg 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 prominent members of the Conservative Party were opposed by the Hons. A. A. Dorion, Luther H. Holton, and Thomas D'Arcy McGee. Mr. Rose, who appealed to the electors of Montreal Centre, was the only one of the ministerialists whose candidature was successful. 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 office after the brief interval of the Brown-Dorion Government, Mr. Rose, after a nominal 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 1860. 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 Confederation. In 1864 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 election, under Confederation, in 1867, Mr. Rose declined a requisition to contest his old constituency, in deference to an influential minority of the electors who desired a commercial man as their representative in Parliament. 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. Galt from the Government at the beginning of the following November, Mr. Rose was appointed a member of the Privy Council and Minister of Finance. He returned to his constituents in Huntingdon, who testified their approval of his acceptance of office by reëlecting him by acclamation. The difficulties with which he had to contend as Minister of Finance were considerable. 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 expenditure 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 position. 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 reädjustment of the tariff. In July, 1868, he [Pg 72] went to England and successfully floated half of the Intercolonial Railway Loan. During the session of 1869 he introduced a series of resolutions on currency and banking, but as they proved unsatisfactory to a large majority of western members, 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 Commons, and thus brought to a close his twelve years term of Parliamentary service in this country. He soon afterwards removed to London, England, where he became a partner in the well-known banking firm of Messrs. Morton, Bliss & Co., the style of which thenceforward became Morton, 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 Canada 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 married Miss Charlotte Temple, a daughter of the late Mr. Robert Temple, of Rutland, in the State of Vermont, by whom he has a family of three sons and two daughters.
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—notoriety; and the impetus thus given to his fortunes 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 persistently jolly under depressing circumstances than was Allan MacNab during the greater part of his life. He took the world remarkably easy, and society seemed to have entered into a tacit conspiracy to push him forward. He took the results, as he took everything else, with comfortable self-complacency. And yet it would be most unfair to say that his success was wholly undeserved. He merely received liberal payment 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 respective characters of sailor, soldier, legislator, Speaker to the Assembly, and Prime Minister. High dignities descended upon him. For his military services he received the dignity of knighthood. Later on he in turn became proprietary lord of Dundurn, Baronet, Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty, and honorary 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 certainly 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 sufficiently indicated by his name. His grandfather, Captain Robert MacNab, was an officer in the Forty-second Royal Highlanders, or "Black Watch," and resided on a small estate called Dundurn, at the head of [Pg 74] 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. William Jarvis. The impecuniosity which attended 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 laboured under the combined disadvantages of aristocratic tastes and prejudices, and a very insufficient income. The father was always in pecuniary difficulties, and was frequently 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 published 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 captivity 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 circumstances, but he was never free from debt, [Pg 75] and was frequently at his wits' end to procure the necessaries of life for his family. The house in which he resided for many years before his death is still, or was recently 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 popular 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 he always sojourned with his relative at the above-mentioned 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 observed of all observers. It is said that on one occasion he entered the Court of King's Bench at York, clad in this peculiar costume, while a trial was proceeding before the Chief Justice, Sir William Campbell. The haughty Gaël, like the famous Chieftain 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 uncover, he replied that "The MacNab of MacNabs 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 Simcoe. When he was nine years old he began to attend the Home District School.5 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 history 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 defended against the foe, and after the blowing up of the magazine, and the death of Brigadier-General Pike, the forces, under the command of Sir Roger H. Sheaffe, retreated 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 attracted the attention of the Commander-in-Chief, [Pg 76] 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—probably because promotion seemed afar off—he left the navy and joined the 100th Regiment, 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 marked the progress of hostilities. In the beginning of December, 1813, the Americans set fire to Newark, which was almost entirely consumed. By way of retaliation for what was a wanton and uncalled-for piece of cruelty, Colonel Murray determined upon the storming 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 MacNab 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 admiration 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 Regiment, 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 after 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 proceeded to Montreal, where he joined his new regiment. In September, 1814, he marched with the land forces under Sir George Prevost to the attack on Plattsburg, a village situated on the Saranac River, at its entrance 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.6 There was however not much further occasion for his services at this time. After the proclamation 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.
[Pg 77]He returned to the paternal home at Little York. He was nearly eighteen years of age, and as a military career was no longer feasible, it was high time for him to think about some means of earning a livelihood. 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 current among the old Family Compact society of Little York—a philosophy which would be simply outrageous if it were not so irresistibly 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 sensitive scions of a sort of bastard aristocracy, 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 for 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 MacNab would voluntarily forfeit his caste by learning a trade. He must embrace one of the learned professions. Which? His choice 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 duties of such a position. The Hon. D'Arcy Boulton, Attorney-General of the Province, who had recently returned from confinement 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. Equally unnecessary to say that he was unable to make his income square with his expenditure. He displayed the true hereditary 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 degree. 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 practical 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 destiny to move in the circles of fashion, for he's dipt in debt, and makes a merit of telling it," says Doctor Pangloss. The tastes of Allan MacNab were quite as exclusive in this particular as erst were those of Master Dick Dowlas. But the creditor was not always to be bilked: the bailiff was not always to be hoodwinked. As the years went by, our young friend became more and more embarrassed, and it was no uncommon state of affairs with him to be "on the limits." At [Pg 78] 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 frequently 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 abomination 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 various 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 himself 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 permanently 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 lawyers were less numerous in those days than now, and his high spirits and bluff, hearty manners, more than atoned for any intellectual 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 Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Colborne (afterwards Lord Seaton) was exhibited in effigy in the streets of Hamilton.7 During the ensuing session of Parliament, Dr. Rolph moved that a Committee should be appointed 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, alleging that he could not do so without implicating himself. Dr. Baldwin, father of Robert, accordingly moved that the recalcitrant 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 [Pg 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 necessary, and it was determined that Allan MacNab should be sent to Parliament as a recompense for the indignity he had endured. He was returned to the Assembly as one of the representatives of the county of Wentworth. During the ensuing session he was appointed to move the hostile motion against William Lyon Mackenzie, by whose instrumentality he himself had been committed to gaol as above narrated. The purport of that motion, and its results, are detailed in the sketch devoted to Mr. Mackenzie'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 consistently with the Tory Party. He often addressed the House, and made a considerable 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 1837 he was elected Speaker to the Assembly, 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 returned for the town of Hamilton. Meanwhile, 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 Montgomery's Tavern they accompanied him westward to the London District, where the smouldering fires of rebellion were soon quenched. They then repaired to the Niagara frontier, Mackenzie and his sympathizers having quartered themselves on Navy Island. To Allan MacNab was assigned the command of the Canadian land forces, the naval arrangements being under the direction of Lieutenant Drew. The project of cutting-out the Caroline is said to have originated with the former. At any rate he gave it his hearty coöperation, and the ill-fated steamer was set on fire and sent rushing over the mighty cataract below. After the "dwarfish war" had been effectually disposed of, Allan MacNab received the honour of knighthood, and also the thanks of Her Majesty and of the Provincial Legislature. Henceforth he will be known to us as Sir Allan MacNab.
His professional business at Hamilton was flourishing 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 Provinces, upon which occasion he defeated the Hon. Samuel Bealey Harrison, the Provincial Secretary in the Government which had just been formed under the new order of things. He continued to represent Hamilton until 1857. Soon after the Union he [Pg 80] became leader of the Conservative Opposition. After the defeat of the first Baldwin-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 Opposition upon the accession to power of the second Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration, and during the stormy debates on Mr. Lafontaine's Rebellion Losses Bill he distinguished 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 complacency on Mr. Lafontaine's famous measure. He even went to England, as the representative of his Party, to invoke Imperial interference. The Home Government, however, in spite of a warm remonstrance from Mr. Gladstone, supported Lord Elgin, and refused 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 Administration. 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 leaders. Sir Allan represented the Upper Canadian section of the Cabinet, Mr. Morin the Lower Canadian section. Sir Allan became President 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 favour of secularizing the Clergy Reserves, his Party would no longer oppose that measure. It therefore fell to the lot of his Administration 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 Reciprocity 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 attacks 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 doctrine of the survival of the fittest thus received another exemplification. Sir Allan left the Cabinet with no good will, and it is doubtful if he ever quite forgave the ambitious statesman who had supplanted him in the leadership of his Party. The time was past, however, when Sir Allan's patronage 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 resigned 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 permanently 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 green old age. He took up his abode on the south coast, near Brighton, and the soft [Pg 81] breezes of that beautiful region worked wonders on his frame. In the spring of 1859 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 election 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 opposition 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 century. The latter's agent by some means obtained 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 withdrawn 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 allowance 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 1860. Scarcely 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, Colonel Prince, who represented the Western Division in the Legislative Council, accepted the position of Judge of the District of Algoma. The representation of the Western Division was thus left vacant, and a deputation waited on Sir Allan with a request 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 disabilities, 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 subject of the colonial defences, and, in recompense for the advice then given, he now received 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 1860. 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 apparent, however, that he was physically unequal to the duties of that office. He was perpetually harassed by attacks of gout, and was sometimes completely prostrated by excessive 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 been made to a son who was born to him by his first wife. This son died in 1834, and as Sir Allan never had another son there was no heir to the baronetcy. He also had a daughter (named Ann Jane) by his first [Pg 82] wife, who in 1849 married Assistant Commissary-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 daughters. 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 Albemarle. 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 1861, 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 profession, in Parliament, and elsewhere, Sir Allan MacNab's bête noir of impecuniosity never left him entirely at peace. His expenditure was always lavish, and always in excess of his income. Reference has been made to the devices to which he was compelled to resort in the early part of his career 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 resembled 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 considered 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 intentionally 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 hospitality, and he always entertained his guests in a lordly fashion. During the last few 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 June, 1862. [Pg 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 attend 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 startling 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, confirmation 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 MacNab, is no more." said the reverend gentleman. "You have all heard the sad announcement, and it has stirred the feelings of your inmost hearts. His venerable form, his manly, honest countenance, beaming with kindness and benignity, have been long familiar to us. For seven and twenty years he has worshipped with this congregation. 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, however, of his old and familiar friends—for the satisfaction of this congregation, and of the whole community, I now solemnly declare 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 dear 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 [Pg 84] his death Sir Allan had afforded a home and shelter to his sister-in-law, the widow of his brother David. This lady, who acquired great influence over the baronet in his declining years, and took charge of his household—he had been a widower ever since 1846—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 unconscious of what was passing around him. Under such circumstances, it was said, the administration of any religious rite requiring, 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 and 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 intimate friends, "I am about to take an important step." When Bishop Farrell called on him as a friend, during his illness, he (the Bishop) was, according to his own account, 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 western Canada, and was greatly scandalized by these proceedings. It spoke with an unmistakable frankness, and characterized the performance of the rites by Bishop Farrell as an outrage of the grossest kind. Commenting upon the defence set up, it expressed 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 communion in the Church of England, and regularly 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 possession of his faculties, sent for Bishop Farrell, and while still conscious, took the communion from him, there is no need to fall back [Pg 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 Catholic 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 consequently, 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 Justice 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 few individuals paid the last tribute of respect 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 posse of special constables. The day passed off, however, without any disturbance, 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. 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 frequently 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, supplemented by private instruction, young Crawley, when he was seventeen years of age, was qualified to matriculate in King's College, 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 degrees of A.B. and M.A. He studied law under the late James W. Johnston, subsequently Judge in Equity, and was called to the Bar of Nova Scotia and also of New Brunswick in 1822. He practised his profession with marked success, and a brilliant career was, humanly speaking, certain.
Fifty-five years ago the Rev. J. T. Twining, then curate of St. Paul's Church, Halifax, of which the late Bishop Inglis was Rector, commenced to preach with earnestness the doctrines held by the Evangelical school in the Church of England. The congregation 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. Twining from the curacy. Mr. Twining and his friends, embracing three-fourths of the congregation, set up separate services which were exceedingly popular. A church was erected, and it was hoped that connection with the Anglican Church could be maintained. [Pg 87] The opposition of the Bishop, however, 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 appointed 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 referred to. He was quickly recognized as one of the leaders of the Church, and became closely associated with such men as James W. Johnston, J. W. Rutting, John Ferguson and others whose influence was quickly felt throughout the whole denomination in the Maritime Provinces. Shortly after identifying himself with the Baptists, Mr. Crawley gave up the practice of law and devoted himself to the ministry of the Gospel. He spent a year at Andover Seminary, Massachusetts, as a resident graduate, attending the lectures of Moses Stuart, at that time facile princeps of American exegetes and theologians. He was appointed agent for collecting funds for the support of Wolfville Academy, and in following up his work he travelled extensively throughout the Atlantic 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 persuasion Mr. Crawley collected a very handsome amount. The institution for which he thus toiled was to some extent his own creation. In 1828 he, as one of the delegates to the Baptist Association at Horton, proposed the formation of the Baptist Education Society for the purpose of founding and supporting, first an academy at Horton, and then a college. The Baptist 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 College. The desirableness of having an educated 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 preëminent success. His discourses bore the impress of a thoroughly logical and philosophical mind. They were well ordered, accurate and precise. His language was withal poetical, giving expression to the feelings of a warm, generous and philanthropic heart. His elocution 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 sermons 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 congregation with a sense of the petitioner being alone with God. He seemed as if his whole heart and soul were set free in the exercise of humble worship. Large congregations crowded to hear him, and his preaching was by far the most popular and powerful in the city.
[Pg 88]In 1840 he took the Chair of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in Acadia College—entering thus upon a field which was attractive 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 battle Dr. Crawley took an active and influential 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 controlling 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 subjects.
In 1847 Dr. Crawley returned to the pastorate of Granville Street Church, and continued therein with his wonted vigour and success until 1852, 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 denomination, 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 denomination. 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 Fredericton in that year, Dr. Crawley proposed that a weekly religious newspaper be established in place of the magazine. The proposition was cordially adopted, and the Christian Messenger 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 Maritime 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 afterwards in South Carolina. In 1866 he renewed 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 Department of the College. This position Dr. Crawley now holds, and its duties he discharges with distinguished success.
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 contemporaries at the Canadian Bar who have not attained to anything approaching an equal degree of professional eminence. His industry 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 country, 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 marriage with Miss Frances Butler, of Newton 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 his birth. While he was still a mere child the family removed from Markham to Toronto, where he 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, Toronto, where he took his degree of B.C.L. in 1855, and that of D.C.L. about four years later. Having fixed upon the law as his 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 destined 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 supervision of Mr. (now Sir) James Lukin Robinson, who was then the authorized reporter 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 & Harrison's Digest." It was most successful, and, as has been intimated, brought Mr. Harrison's name prominently before the legal profession. This was the only legal work he wrote during the time he was a law student, though he was a frequent contributor to the magazines and newspapers of the 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 subsequently migrated to Trinity College. He [Pg 90] did not receive his Bachelor's degree, as above mentioned, until a short time subsequent to his call to the Bar in 1855. He was also a prominent member of the Toronto Literary and Debating Society, and of the Osgoode Club. In 1853 he transferred his services to the office of Messrs. Crawford & Hagarty, then perhaps the leading law firm of the Province, the members whereof were the late Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, and the present Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench for Ontario. During the following year he 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 appointment 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 Colonist, 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 1857 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 Procedure Acts, with the new Rules of Practice. He laboured diligently at this very exacting task for more than a year. Upon the publication of the work in 1858 it was received with greater favour by the profession than any of his former works, and was commended by the professional press throughout the English-speaking world. The London legal press placed him in the front rank of those commentators who had undertaken to edit the Acts embodied in his work. The Jurist, one of the most critical professional periodicals in England, in reviewing the result of Mr. Harrison's labours, said: "These are the Acts which have revolutionized the law of Upper Canada, after their progenitors had exercised a like radical influence in the old country. They are in effect an amalgamation of our Procedure Acts of 1852 and 1854, together with an Act applying 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, wherever it was possible, those principles of which the decisions are either suggestive or illustrative." A second and enlarged edition of this valuable work was published in 1870.
Notwithstanding the exactions of a large and steadily-increasing business, Mr. Harrison [Pg 91] still found time for literary work in connection with his profession. He was for several years joint editor of the Upper Canada Law Journal, to the columns of which he also contributed many valuable editorial articles. In 1859 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 Haldimand, at the autumn assizes in 1857, and known as Regina vs. Townsend alias McHenry. In this extraordinary case, the merits of which are still warmly disputed throughout the county of Haldimand, Mr. Harrison appeared for the Crown; the prisoner 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 Counsel who defended the ministers for violating the Independence of Parliament Act by the perpetration of the Double Shuffle. In the famous Habeas Corpus case of John Anderson, the negro, he gained his case before 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 engaged in a general legal practice. In 1859, however, he resigned his clerkship; and formed a partnership with the late Mr. James Patterson. The firm of Patterson & Harrison commenced practice as barristers, attorneys and solicitor's in Toronto, and was a rising one from the date of its original formation. Mr. Patterson, the senior partner, was recognised as one of the best office lawyers in the profession, and Mr. Harrison's standing at the Bar was in the front rank. The firm was subsequently reinforced by Mr. Thomas Hodgins, and later still by Mr. John Bain. On the death of the senior partner, the firm of Harrison, Osler & Moss was formed, having as leading members the subject of this memoir, the late Chief Justice Moss, and Mr. Featherstone Osler, now a Puisné 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 $12,000 to $14,000 per annum.
Mr. Harrison was created a Queen's Counsel 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 Association 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 1867, when he contested West Toronto for the House of Commons in the Conservative interest, and successfully opposed Mr. John Macdonald, who had represented the Division during the last Parliament of the old Province of Canada. He continued a member of the House of Commons until 1872, but he did not figure conspicuously in political 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 Miscellaneous and Private Bills. During his Parliamentary career he gave a general support to [Pg 92] the Administration of Sir John Macdonald. After his withdrawal from political life he confined his attention entirely to his professional duties, and it was at this period that the business attained its largest dimensions.
In the autumn of 1875, upon the promotion 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 appointment 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 Ontario to that of a Chief Justice, a circumstance by no means common in the history of judicial appointments. He received congratulatory addresses from members of the Bar in various parts of the Province. He entered upon his duties with the same unconquerable 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 Regina 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 appointment 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 arbitration. 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 professional works which he has left behind him.
He was twice married: first in 1859, to Anna, daughter of Mr. J. M. Muckle, formerly 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.
Mr. Ferrier adds one more to the number of those hard-headed Scotchmen 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 coëval 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 Montreal, 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 approved his loyalty by volunteering his services 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 1841 he became a member of the Municipal Council of the city. In 1844 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 office two terrible fires took place in Quebec, [Pg 94] 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 munificently on her own behalf. Mr. Ferrier, who had occasion to visit Quebec in his official capacity, had an opportunity of seeing 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-General, Lord Metcalfe, and besought his Lordship'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 consequences. Contributions to the amount of $40,000 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 subsequently became President.
In 1846 Mr. Ferrier formed a regiment of about seven hundred troops, consisting of members of the city Fire Brigade. This regiment 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 seat in the Legislative Council, in the deliberations whereof he has ever since taken an intelligent part. When the railway era set in he took part in the organization of various great enterprises. He projected the railway from Montreal to Lachine, which was chartered in 1846, but which was subsequently swallowed by the larger scheme. He also took a prominent part in the reëstablishment of McGill College on a sound financial basis. To enumerate the many other projects with which he is or has been 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 Canadian 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 prominent Temperance and Prohibitory Associations. 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 Legislative 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 embraced Wesleyan Methodism while he was engaged in commercial business in Montreal. He has ever since been a very prominent member of that Body, to the advancement of which his best energies have frequently been directed. He resides in Montreal, which has been his home ever since his arrival in Canada sixty years ago.
Judge Armour was born in the township of Otonabee, 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 favourably known throughout that part of Upper 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 College, Toronto. In 1847 he matriculated at King's College, an institution which subsequently developed into the University of Toronto. His University career was brilliant. He gained the first University scholarship 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, 1853, and began practice in Cobourg, where he formed a partnership with the late Hon. Sidney Smith. This partnership lasted till the 7th of November, 1857, when Mr. Armour began to practise without a partner. He subsequently formed a partnership with Mr. H. F. Holland, which lasted until between three and four years since, when Mr. Armour was raised to the Bench.
Various other offices of more or less importance were from time to time held by Mr. Armour. On the 26th 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, 1861, 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 30th of November, 1877, when he was appointed a Puisné Judge of the Court of Queen's Bench, which position he has ever since filled.
Judge Armour is by heredity and tradition 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. He is a man of wide reading, multifarious knowledge, and great shrewdness and common sense.
On the 28th of April, 1855, 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 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 Townships. He is said to be of U. E. Loyalist stock. We have no particulars of his career prior to the year 1854, when he was an unsuccessful candidate for the representation of the county of Compton in the Canadian Assembly. In 1857, he was returned in the Conservative interest for that county, and has ever since represented it in Parliament—in the Assembly up to Confederation, 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 Agriculture. He retained office until the downfall of the Government in November, 1873, owing to the Pacific Railway disclosures. He remained in Opposition during Mr. Mackenzie'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. He 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 Canada British population who has done credit to his constituency. At the time of his original appointment to office a high contemporary 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 Parliament or out of it, he says with a terse vigour 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 intelligent appreciation of the wants of the country, and a well-studied Parliamentary experience of nearly half an average lifetime. 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 organization of the different branches of the public [Pg 97] service over which he is now about to preside." 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 immigration, and, this at the expense of the Dominion Government. That the matter was a mere oversight no man, we presume, seriously doubts, but it was the result of a degree of carelessness for which a Cabinet Minister must in fairness be held responsible. On the other hand, Mr. Pope has earnestly endeavoured to gain for the Dominion a share of the tenant-farmer immigration from Great Britain. In the autumn of 1879 he caused a number of representative agriculturists in the United Kingdom to be invited to come to Canada, to examine into its resources, and to report upon its advantages as a field for settlement. The invitation 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 England 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 entitled 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 commanded the Cookshire Volunteer Cavalry for a good many years, and retired from that service, retaining his rank as a Major, in 1862.
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 colonies from the control of the mother country, 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 disbanded, and soon afterwards Mr. Merritt and his wife removed to New Brunswick. The climate then proving uncongenial, he returned, after a brief sojourn, to the neighbourhood of the old family homestead in Westchester County, where the subject of this sketch was born on the 3rd of July, 1793. 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 downright 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 Simcoe to persons settling in the Province attracted 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 immediate 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 privations 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 Hamilton, of Queenston, who had already built a storehouse there for the purpose of furnishing supplies to the settlers in the neighbouring townships; but there was no actual settlement there until the summer of the [Pg 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 1800 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 afterwards, 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," according 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 subsequently formed a commercial partnership.
It must be confessed that the prospects of the first settlers in this part of the Province 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 Indians. 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 Grantham—by such of them, at least, as paid anything—was 7-1/2d. per acre. Even then these figures, ridiculous as they appear to us at the present day, do not represent the lowest price at which lands were purchased on the peninsula. There is at least one well-authenticated 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 stamina 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 Niagara, 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 fifteen years of age he was sent on a long visit to an uncle at St. John, New Brunswick. 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 important 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. He formed a partnership 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 he sold his interest [Pg 100] 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 1803. Soon afterwards the War of 1812 broke out, and young Merritt left the farm to take care of itself, while he fought the battles of his Sovereign. He had previously joined the militia, and had obtained an ensign'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 engagement 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 hostilities were brought to a close.
Captain 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 Corners, 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 1,119, and the average price of land had increased to fifty shillings per acre. During the same year Mr. W. H. Merritt purchased from Mr. Hamilton a part of the latter's property, on the site of the village, which was re-surveyed 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 return. The village, however, was of slow growth, and gave little promise of becoming a large and prosperous town, the chief inland 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 important 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 Niagara 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 exertions the canal would finally have been constructed in United States territory instead [Pg 101] of in Canada. Having thought out some of the leading features of his scheme, Mr. Merritt 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 the scheme at a moderate cost. He presented to the Legislature a petition, signed by himself and most of the influential settlers in the neighbourhood, asking for an appropriation for a more 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 subject. 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 Company, the corporate style of which was, "The Welland Canal Company." Mr. Merritt 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. Keefer. 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 arrived 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 thenceforward 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 incalculable. The obstruction to trade between 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 transhipment. 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 hydraulic 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 quadrupled, and in 1843 was 2,354.
In tracing the history of the great enterprise 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 Haldimand. 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 cattle with the United States. Another of his early speeches was in favour of a Bill for the abolition of imprisonment for debt. [Pg 102] During the session he wrote and published a pamphlet on the inland navigation of the Canadian Provinces, advocating an extension of the canal system. Throughout the whole of his public career he took special interest in promoting public works and improvements, more especially that magnum opus which had been successfully inaugurated 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 presided at this meeting, and certain measures were taken for the desired end. A few suspected persons were arrested and examined, but no one was imprisoned, and a general policy of moderation was observed. After the Union of the Provinces he accepted the Reform nomination for the county of Lincoln, in which he resided. He was returned for that county, and represented it continuously for about nineteen 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 promoted the Welland Railway Company, and obtained its charter of incorporation.
Within a few months after the formation of the second Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration, in 1848, Mr. Merritt accepted office in it as President of the Council. This office he retained until April, 1850, when he became 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 economical 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 independence 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 observed 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 Government 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 subjects of progress and improvement, and their relation to the almost inexhaustible resources of Canada. The truth seems to be that he was neither a party man nor a politician, in the exact sense of those terms. Government as a science had, as we conjecture, been but slightly studied by him. His popularity sprang from his independence, his purity of character, and the practical nature of his aims. Those who most differed from him never questioned the honesty [Pg 103] 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 always 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 constant 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 estimate of his character contained in the preceding 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 columns of the Niagara Gleaner. He made frequent journeys to Europe in furtherance of his various projects, as well as to the principal cities of the United States. On the 29th of September, 1860, he was elected a member of the Legislative Council by acclamation for the district of Allanburg. This position he held until his death. During the winter of 1860-61, he advocated the establishment of a line of large-sized propellers 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 Dunkirk 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 evidently breaking down. Early in 1862 he suffered a serious bereavement by the death of his wife, who had long been an invalid. His own health continued uncertain throughout the rest of the winter. Upon the approach of spring he started for the sea-side, by advice of his medical attendant. He proceeded down the St. Lawrence to Montreal, where he was attacked by erysipelas in the head. He was given to understand that in all probability he would not recover, and immediately started to return 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. J. P. Merritt, of St. Catharines, from whose account the foregoing sentence has been extracted.
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 received his education at the Theological College there. After some years' attendance he became a pupil teacher in that institution, under the direction of the Rev. G. P. Harris, a distinguished graduate of Cambridge. After occupying that position about two years he accepted a situation as teacher in one of the Public Schools, where he acquitted himself very creditably, and received high commendations from the Secretary 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 Canterbury, 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 coming into notice as a favourable field for emigration. 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 incumbent of St. James's Church, Winnipeg. During the absence of Mr. Molyneux St. John, the first Superintendent of Protestant Schools in Manitoba, Mr. Pinkham performed the duties incidental to that office, and in the month of September, 1871, he was regularly appointed to the position by Lieutenant-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 degrees 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 Education to represent that body on the Senate of the University of Manitoba. A local authority 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 consisting of the peculiar views of the different races of the Province. The system is based on the fundamental principles of sound education, as wrought out in all enlightened countries; and in the standard required for teachers, and in other important features, it is deserving of high commendation."
The late Judge Aylwin possessed one of the shrewdest and keenest intellects that ever adorned the Canadian Bench. His knowledge of criminal jurisprudence and his skill as a forensic and Parliamentary 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 behind him the record of a truly great man. But he paid the penalty of a too early maturity. His physical powers declined before he could be said to have passed middle life, and for some years before he sank into his grave he was both physically and mentally a mere shadow of what he had once been. He will long be remembered, however, 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 primary education 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, Massachusetts. It does not appear that he graduated there, but he was known for a youth of great intellectual precocity, and was 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 directions, during which he paid special attention to criminal law, he transferred his services to the office of the late Judge Thompson, of Gaspé. 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 brilliancy. He was especially noted among his brother practitioners for his skill in detecting 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 partnership with the late Judge Short, of Sherbrooke. He had strong political leanings on the Reform side, and took an active part in the discussion of the various exciting 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 1837 and '38, he contributed many slashing and effective newspaper articles to the provincial press. He was an unsparing assailant of Lord Gosford and [Pg 106] 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 Constitutional Association of Quebec, the leading 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 consummation of the Union of the Provinces in 1841, when he was returned to the First Parliament of United Canada for the constituency of Portneuf. In the following year he joined the first Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration, and became Solicitor-General for Lower Canada, an office which he filled from the 26th of September, 1842, until the 11th 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 distribution of Crown patronage. Mr. (afterwards 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 exposing 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 satisfaction to the old clients of the Solicitor-General." From the time of his resignation 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 Assembly. 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 Baldwin-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 reputation. 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 sophistries of a lame defence with merciless [Pg 107] severity. The students and young advocates 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 admirable 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 conclusive sentences all the skilfully woven sophistries of the defence. Many of his charges were remarkable specimens of forensic eloquence, 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 wonderful 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 intellect, 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 thenceforward 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.
Principal Jack was born at Tinwald, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on the 23rd of November, 1819. His father, a stone-mason and master builder, came of a Perthshire family, but removed to Dumfriesshire 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 advanced 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 interest in his career. He graduated at St. Andrews, and in 1840 took his Master's degree. 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 Natural Philosophy in the University of New Brunswick—then King's College—Fredericton. 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 (being 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 Professorship. 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 institution, 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 prominently 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 constitution. 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-Governor 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, Windsor, 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 assaults, arising from the exclusive nature of their charters, which virtually made them [Pg 109] Church of England institutions. In New Brunswick, scarcely five years after the granting of the charter and the Act of Endowment, public dissatisfaction had risen to such a pitch that a deputation was sent by the House of Assembly to the Home Government 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 amendment in several important particulars. In 1845, a Provincial Act was passed by the Legislature for the amendment of the charter, and in 1846 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, together with the composition of the Council, which was still largely Episcopalian, served as a continued bone of contention; and during 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 inquire into its condition, management and utility; and among the members of the Commission were the eminent educationists 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 establishing a comprehensive system of education 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 adversaries 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 1858, when a Bill passed both branches of the Legislature and received the assent of the Lieutenant-Governor, withholding all money grants from the College. The royal assent, however, was refused, chiefly on account of the representations 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 estimation of the people, and the popular prejudice which was so long and persistently kept up against King's College has not been perpetuated with respect to the University of New Brunswick.
In 1861 the subject of this sketch was appointed President of the University, which position he has ever since retained, in addition to his Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. During his Presidency 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 all vantages of a University training and the inducements thereto afforded by the Provincial University. His efforts have been attended 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 has 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 been fond of astronomical studies, and has engaged in various important experiments connected with that branch of science.
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 settled 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 present 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 conveyance 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 agricultural pursuits until the year 1839, when he removed into the town which had meanwhile sprung up, and after an interval of several years entered into business as a brewer. A few years later, Mr. Thomas Carling, having amassed a competence, retired 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. Carling, Senior, for some years took an active 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 establishments in town. He devoted himself to acquiring a knowledge of the brewing business, and employed himself in the establishment from the time of leaving school. When he was twenty-one years of age he married Miss Hannah Dalton, eldest daughter of Mr. Henry Dalton, of London. Previous to his marriage he succeeded to a share in the active management of the business 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 December, 1857, was returned to the old Canadian Assembly as member for the city of [Pg 111] London. He thenceforward continued to represent that constituency in the Assembly until Confederation; and after Confederation he represented it both in the House of Commons and the Local Legislature of Ontario until the abolition of Dual Representation. 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 Administration for a short time before it went to pieces in 1862.
When the late Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald 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 Government 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 Agricultural College, and a measure for the drainage 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 another ever since his first entry into public life, more than twenty-three years ago. He is connected with various important companies, and is an excellent man of business. He has been a school trustee and an alderman of the city of London, and was for many years a Director of the Great Western Railway Company. He was also a prominent Director of the London, Huron and Bruce and London and Port Stanley Railways. 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.
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 1836 till 1848. He was elected again in 1852. In 1858 he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, a position 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 1864. He practised his profession with industry and success, but always looked forward to a public career, and took the deepest interest in the political questions of the day. In 1857 he originated the Colonial Standard, a weekly political paper, which he continued to edit with marked ability and success till he became Premier, in 1878.
The editor of a party newspaper must keep up a minute acquaintance with the public affairs of the country where he desires to exercise his influence. Mr. Holmes watched the doings and sayings of public men in Nova Scotia 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 fueling. The change involved in Confederation was so great that the agitation against it rose and swelled into stormy popularity. Mr. Holmes, however, was an ardent Confederate; and when candidates for the local Legislature were required he did not hesitate to stand in the gap. He made a sturdy fight, although he and his colleagues went 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 constituency, and by increasing majorities.
In 1875 he became leader of the Opposition [Pg 113] in the Assembly, and this position he held till the change of Government resulting from the elections of 1878. 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 administration. 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 continued 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 disagreeable financial predicament—to equalize revenue and expenditure, which had fallen sadly away from the safe condition of balancing—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 $200,000. A debt of $350,000 had been incurred. The railways aided with the greatest liberality by the Legislature had not been completed, and having exhausted 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 hundred miles of railway, maintain roads and bridges, meet the current expends of administration and legislation, and give $200,000 in aid of education—all out of a revenue of $600,000.
Mr. Holmes when in opposition was an advocate of municipal incorporation—local self-government—for the counties. One of the earliest and most valuable acts of his administration was the maturing and enacting of an incorporation law suited to the counties. The Act has been in operation for over a year, and is giving entire satisfaction. No previous administration felt strong enough (or had the courage) to grapple 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 bitter 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 Railway Act—which will effectually prevent the recurrence of such a difficulty.
Nova Scotia has still a Legislative Council which adds considerably to the cost of legislation. It is a part of Mr. Holmes's policy to abolish this "Upper Chamber." For the present a large majority of the Council are in opposition to the policy of the Cabinet on this point; but the Premier has declared his determination to use every legitimate 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 to the point, and elaborates it to the minutest detail. He usually rises from particulars to generals, and concludes by presenting a subject in its largest and most impressive aspects. When dealing with a favourite theme, such as the duty of maintaining the educational system in its integrity, or preserving intact the credit of the country, he attains to genuine eloquence. His power is largely in quiet persistence and common sense. He is in the prime of life, and is likely to be heard of in the wider sphere of Dominion politics, as a statesman of whom his country needs not to be ashamed.
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 Parliamentary 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 conclusive 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 training, and by native predilection, he was allied to the Party which had long enjoyed a monopoly 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 aristocracy 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 [Pg 115] to give them a commanding influence in a primitive community. In such a community, be it understood, a very moderate degree of learning and aptitude for public life counted for much. Young John Beverley 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 cannot be denied that he realized their expectations. 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 advocated Responsible Government. He would have known that the fiat had gone forth; and that any attempts to prevent the inevitable 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 knowledge of the facts of the case as John Beverley 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 forever submit to the domination of an ecclesiastical 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 followed 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, gentleman, 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 immediate 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, commanded by Colonel Simcoe, who afterwards became the first Governor of Upper Canada. He served in that regiment until the close of hostilities, when, with many of his self-exiled compatriots, he 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 River, a few miles below Fredericton. In 1784—the year which witnessed the creation of the Province of New Brunswick—he married Miss Esther Sayer, a daughter of the Rev. John Sayer, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, formerly resident in Fairfield, Connecticut. In 1788 he removed to the parish of L'Assomption, in the Province [Pg 116] 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 Governor Simcoe, immediately after his arrival in Canada, in 1792, used his best endeavours 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, accompanied 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 represented 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 Legislative Assembly for many years. He subsequently became a member of the Legislative 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 positions of influence, including that of representative 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 capital. Christopher, the father, died within a few months after this event, leaving a family of three sons and three daughters but slenderly 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, truthful 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 Admirable 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 expanded; 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 continued by the school in which he was reared. He was [Pg 117] never entirely emancipated from the thraldom of the school-room, and throughout his whole political career was more or less subject to Dr. Strachan's influence.
At the age of sixteen he entered upon the 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 Province of Upper Canada," published at London 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 Clerk to the House of Assembly. For his services in the latter capacity he received 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 vessel in which the latter took passage was seized by a French privateer during its progress across the Atlantic, and the passengers and crew—including Mr. Boulton—were conveyed 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 invader. On the 18th of June, 1812, the President of the United States declared war against Great Britain, and proceeded to invade Canada as the most vulnerable point of the Empire. The story of the western 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 General 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 obtained a lieutenant's commission under Colonel 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 Robinson drew up the articles of capitulation signed on the surrender of the fort—an assertion of which we have not been able to find any confirmation, and which does not seem to be very probable. There is abundant evidence, however, that he bore himself 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 he accompanied it any farther east than York we have not been able to ascertain. 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 indifference to personal danger. Colonel Coffin, in his work, "The War and its Moral," draws a flattering, albeit a just portraiture of the intrepid young lieutenant. "The men of Lincoln," he says, "and the 'brave York volunteers,' with 'Brock' on their lips and revenge in their hearts, had joined in the last desperate charge, and [Pg 118] among the foremost, foremost ever found, was John Beverley Robinson, a U. E. Loyalist, a lawyer from Toronto, and not the worse soldier for all that. His light, compact, 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 position of Chief Justice of the Province, and to the rank of an English Baronet." The young soldier was also mentioned with fitting honour in Sir Roger H. Sheaffe's despatch to Sir George Prevost, giving an official account of the memorable engagement 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 successor 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 Dummer Powell, who was then a Puisné Judge of the Court of King's Bench, and a man of high influence with the Government. Mr. Powell declared that the appointment 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 with public approval. Solicitor-General 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 confirmed 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, 1815, when Mr. Boulton, having been liberated, and having returned to Canada, succeeded 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 himself 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, 1818, 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 urioters and the unfortunate Robert Gourlay. With the particulars of the prosecutions against Mr. Gourlay readers of these pages are already familiar.8 The trials of the [Pg 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 justification, although it is certain that the Attorney-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 enlightened 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 moreover the enemy of the North-West Company, which had very powerful friends in Upper Canada, among whom must be numbered Dr. Strachan himself. His Lordship did not appear in person at the trial, and 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 understood before his election that he was to become 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 Toryism. 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 republicanism. His was the solitary voice raised in the Assembly in 1821 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 integrity which in themselves are worthy of all praise. His politics, however, were the politics 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 legislator has been indicated in the opening paragraphs. For the rest, he was a fluent and finished speaker, with an admirable facility in the art of putting things. He was naturally kind and amiable, and his temper was under perfect control, so that he made fewer personal enemies than might have been expected from the very decided stand which he took in matters political. He framed a good many statutes of more or less importance, which afford evidence that he was an adept in the mechanical part of legislation. His presence was particularly fine and commanding, and from first to last he was the foremost figure in the Assembly.
In 1822 he was charged with an official mission to Great Britain, the object sought to be attained being the settlement of certain 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 [Pg 120] 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 reëlected to the Assembly for the town of York by a majority of only three votes over his opponent, the late Coroner Duggan. About the same time the Imperial Government offered him the lucrative post of Chief Justice of the Island of Mauritius, 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 excellent, 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 practice 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, fines, imprisonments 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 superiors, 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 performing mere official duties, when he personally prosecuted poor Francis Collins of the Freeman 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 prisoner 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 altercations, in which he had always been worsted. The most notable of these passages of arms is worthy of special mention. The Attorney-General, while addressing the Court (Judge Willis) on a prosecution, remarked that during his ten years' tenure of office he had never made a practice of instituting proceedings until a formal complaint had been made. "That," remarked Judge Willis, "is a proof that your practice has been uniformly wrong." The Attorney-General had not been accustomed to have either his practice or his judgment called in question. 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 Attorney-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, "understand [Pg 121] 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 them." 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 Attorney-General Robinson. Remarks hostile 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 probable 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 circumstance soon afterwards enabled him to follow his inclinations in this particular. Sir William Campbell, Chief Justice of Upper Canada, retired from the Bench, and the important position thus left vacant was offered to, and accepted by, Attorney-General 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 Registrar of the county of Kent, which after the lapse of a few days he resigned, and took his seat on the Bench. His appointment bears date the 3rd of August, 1829. He was succeeded in the office of Attorney-General by the Hon. Henry John Boulton.
As Chief Justice of the Province he was President of the Executive Council, and at the beginning of the following year he was nominated Speaker of the Upper House. He was formally introduced on the 8th of January by his old friend Dr. Strachan, who had by this time become Archdeacon of York. Thenceforward until the Union 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 Reserves, and that he fought against Responsible 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 estimated 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 beneath 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, under the title of "Canada and the Canada Bill." Its object was to show that the division of the Provinces in 1791 had been very beneficial, and that their reünion 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 England, but the Atlantic was not to be turned back by any such means. During his absence in England he was offered 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-two 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 be [Pg 122] 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 estimate. 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 unnecessarily 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 hesitation that his successors have ventured to disturb any of his dicta. Only one of his judgments, we believe, was reversed on appeal to the Privy Council.
One of the last cases of permanent public importance which engaged his attention was the famous Anderson extradition case, which was decided in the winter of 1861-62. Anderson, as many persons will remember, was a fugitive negro slave from the Southern 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 country 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 discharged on a technicality, which left the principles of the decision in the Queen's Bench untouched.
In 1850 Chief Justice Robinson was appointed to the dignity of a Companion of the Bath. In 1854 he was created a Baronet of the United Kingdom; and on the occasion of his last visit to England, in 1856, the honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford. In June, 1862, he resigned the position of Chief Justice, and accepted the less onerous one of President of the Court of Appeal. He possessed a strong constitution, 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 increased with his advancing years. Early in January, 1863, he presided for the last time in the Court of Appeal. A few days after he was subjected to an attack of exceptional 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 immense 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 Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Ontario. His third son, Christopher, has long been one of the foremost and most highly respected members of the local Bar.
Judge Gwynne is a son of the late Rev. William Gwynne, D.D., a clergyman 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 private tuition at home he entered Trinity College, 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 emigrated 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 before 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 lawyer and politician in those days, who represented 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 partnership. In Trinity Term, 1837, he was called to the Bar, and began practice in Toronto. He was for some years in partnership 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 profession. 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 Reformers in power, under the leadership of Messieurs 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 Parliament since that time. He had meanwhile devoted himself to other schemes, and it is not improbable that his wish to enter Parliament was largely due to a desire for their furtherance. In the early years of the railway era in Canada he had formed a company for the construction, as part of a scheme of colonization, of a line of railway [Pg 124] 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 developed into the Toronto and Guelph Railway 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 companies 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 continued to devote himself to his profession, and obtained high repute as an Equity pleader. Without coming 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, 1868, he was appointed a Puisné Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, as successor to the Hon. Adam Wilson, who had been transferred from that Court to the Queen's Bench. In 1871 he was appointed a member of the Law Reform Commission, and in 1873 became a member of the Senate of the University of Toronto. In the month of May, 1874, he was nominated by the Hon. A. A. Dorion, who was then Minister of Justice in the Reform Government 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, chapter 7, providing for the appointment of three additional Judges to the Court of Appeal, 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, 1879, 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 College, 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 December, 1872, and died within a few days afterwards. The late Dr. Gwynne, one of the medical lecturers to King's College, was also one of his brothers.
Bishop Fuller is a native Canadian, and was born at Kingston, Upper Canada, on the 16th of July, 1810. His father, Thomas Richard Fuller, was a native of Ireland, and a Major in the Forty-first Regiment of Foot. His mother was a daughter of Captain England, of the Forty-seventh Regiment of Foot, who was a cousin of Sir Richard 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 uncommon degree of quaint humour. His writings were well known to his contemporaries, and were popular for many years after his death. During the present century, mainly through the appreciative criticisms 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 Chippewa. Through the kindness of this lady, who is said to have been possessed of great personal attractions, as well as high intellectual attainments and force of character, Mr. Fuller received the best education which the country 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 acting as catechist and Scripture reader among the Protestant settlers in the neighbourhood. He was ordained Deacon in 1833, in the Cathedral of Quebec, by the Right Rev. Dr. Stuart, and after a brief residence at the Bay of Quinté 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. Atkinson he laboured day and night amid the awful scenes of the pest houses, amid the dying and the dead. He took part in establishing a free service in a neglected part of the city, which has since developed into the parish of St. George. In 1833 he became curate at Adolphustown. In January, 1835, he was ordained to the priesthood at Toronto, by the Bishop of Quebec, and a few months later he married Cynthia, eldest [Pg 126] daughter of the late Mr. Samuel Street, of Niagara District. In or about the year 1836 he removed to Chatham, in the western part of Upper Canada, where he laboured 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 several 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 centre 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 present 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 irreparable 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 done his utmost to promote kindly and liberal feelings among the neighbouring clergy, by inducing them to effect interchanges of services and lectures in each other's parishes. The high estimation in which he was held by the clergy throughout the district where he had spent so much of his life was proved by the touching address 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 commercial depression, had seriously embarrassed 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 condition.
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 missionaries of the Church. He also took an active part in promoting various educational and benevolent projects. In 1875 the Diocese of Niagara was created, consisting of the counties of Lincoln, Welland, Haldimand, 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 complimentary 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 results to his Diocese. As a churchman he is moderate in his sentiments, sound and consistent 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 1856.
The late Chancellor Vankoughnet 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 remained there until the close of the Revolutionary War. Upon the breaking out of that struggle they took part with the royalists 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 Vankoughnet, the subject of this sketch, was born at Cornwall, on the 26th of January, 1823. He received his education there under Dr. Urquhart, who it is said prophesied for him a brilliant career. It was the 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 as 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 aptitude 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 Easton Burns—who, like himself, was subsequently raised to a seat on the Bench—and Mr. Oliver Mowat, the present Premier of Ontario; the style of the firm being Burns, Mowat & Vankoughnet. The senior partner, Mr. Burns, was at that time Judge of the Home District Court, having jurisdiction over the present counties of York, Ontario and Peel. Upon the passing of the Act whereby judges were prohibited from engaging in practice, he withdrew from the firm and from business, in order to confine his attention exclusively to his judicial duties. After his withdrawal, Messrs. Mowat & Vankoughnet continued in partnership for [Pg 128] 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 industry." This, however, must be taken with a due measure of allowance. He was certainly less industrious than were some of his competitors in those days, but it is inconceivable 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 unrivalled as a cross-examiner. During the later years of his practice he gave his attention chiefly to Equity, and was a formidable rival of Mr. Mowat, Mr. Strong, Mr. Roaf, and other prominent Chancery barristers. He was for some time lecturer on Equity Jurisprudence at Trinity College, Toronto. A writer in the Upper Canada Law Journal, 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, 1858. As Mr. Vankoughnet was a Conservative in his political views, and had always acted with the Party opposed to that Administration, his appointment must he accepted as a tribute to his acknowledged eminence at the Bar, and as such was creditable alike to himself and the Ministry.
In 1856, when he had been twelve years at the Bar, he was earnestly importuned by the Attorney-General—the present Sir John A. Macdonald—to enter the Government of the day. He yielded to the importunity, and on the 24th of May in that year accepted the office of President of the Executive Council and Minister of Agriculture, as successor to Sir Allan MacNab. 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 his 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 instrumental 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 become popular. He had previously had but little to do with politics, and felt himself in an unfamiliar sphere. He at last succeeded in accommodating himself to his surroundings, but it cannot be said that politics ever became a thoroughly congenial pursuit with him. He of course shared the fate of the Ministry at the end of July, 1858, when it was defeated on the seat of Government 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 Department he did good service to the country by introducing many much-needed changes. He introduced the system of selling townships en bloc, and amalgamated the Indian Department with that of the Crown Lands. [Pg 129] He administered his department with great diligence, and got rid of many arrears of long standing. From the time of his election to the Legislative Council he was the Government leader of that body, and he conciliated 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 depended 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 authorities on the subject of the International Railway.
He was appointed to the dignified position of Chancellor of Upper Canada on the 18th of March, 1862. The position was an onerous one, for there were large arrears of work in the Court of Chancery. The long illness 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 some years out of practice, and could not be expected to step upon the Bench with all his legal lore fresh in his mind. It was 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 proportion of cases pronounced judgment without leaving his seat. His courtesy and consideration made him highly esteemed by the Chancery Bar. To say that he was always impartial and open to conviction is simply to say what, it is to be hoped, might be avouched 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 presided. 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 residence in Toronto on Sunday, the 7th of November, 1869, 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 conscientious; 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 deciding, and that he was generally accurate as well as prompt is shown by the fact that his decrees were generally (I believe) as seldom appealed from successfully as those of any judge we ever had. Whatever those opposed to him, politically, may have thought of the measures or proceedings of the Government 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."
He married early in life the daughter of Colonel Turner, an officer of one of the regiments of the line. He left several children.
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 Cameron 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 sergeant of a Highland regiment. His mother was Euphemia, daughter of Mr. Duncan McGregor, of Perthshire. Malcolm was born at Three Rivers, at the mouth of the St. Maurice, Lower Canada, on the 25th of April, 1808. The regiment to which his father 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 1822, 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 admonitions. The combined result of daily experience 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 temperament, 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 charge of a ferry-boat. The neighbouring settlement [Pg 131] was largely peopled by quondam Glasgow weavers, who were radicals of the most pronounced stripe, and who lost no opportunity of proclaiming the gospel of radicalism to all who came in their way. Sitting at the feet of these Gamaliels, young Malcolm 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 disagreed 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 whatever, 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 obtained 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 were devoted 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 as came in his way. His education proceeded steadily, and, though he never became what can properly be called an educated man, he amassed a great fund of knowledge, useful and otherwise.
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 McGregor, daughter of his mother's brother, Mr. Robert McGregor, cotton spinner, of Glasgow. The marriage took place on the 29th of April. Three years later, in 1836, he was returned to the old Upper Canadian Assembly as member for the county of Lanark. This was during the Lieutenant-Governorship 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 oligarchy both on the floor of the house and elsewhere, and did good service in the ranks of the Reform Party. He fought on behalf of Responsible Government, the entire separation of the connection between Church and State, and the Union of the Provinces. After the Union he was reëlected for Lanark, and is said to have been offered 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 conferred upon Mr. Hincks. Under Lord Sydenham's successor, Sir Charles Bagot, he accepted office as Inspector of Revenue, but without a seat in the Cabinet. During his tenure of office he did much to improve the [Pg 132] 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 general election after the Union, he successfully contested the county of Kent, which then included Lambton, for the Assembly, and thenceforward sat for that constituency 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 impassioned 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 second Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration, in 1848, Mr. Cameron became a member of the Cabinet. During subsequent modifications and reconstructions of that Administration he held the various offices of President of the Council, Commissioner of Public Works, Minister of Agriculture, and Postmaster-General. He was too advanced a radical to get on with Mr. Baldwin, and withdrew from the Government in February, 1850. Previous to his withdrawal he had attacked Mr. Merritt's method of administering the Public Works Department, and had made that gentleman's position very uncomfortable. Upon the reconstruction under Mr. Hincks and Mr. Morin in October, 1851, Mr. Cameron accepted office as President of the Council, but upon presenting himself to his constituents for reëlection after accepting office he was opposed by the late Mr. Brown, who succeeded in defeating him. He took refuge in Huron, which constituency he represented 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 Government, 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 therewith. He also visited Washington in connection with the Reciprocity Treaty. He was a vigorous advocate of canal and railway construction, and of all public works for opening up and increasing the trade of the country. In 1854, when Mr. Hincks brought about an appeal to the people, his Government was condemned by the country. Mr. Cameron shared in the general condemnation, 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 Vancouver 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 themselves as being under an obligation to him. A numerously signed petition was sent over [Pg 133] to England, addressed to the Secretary of State, in which it was prayed that Mr. Cameron might be appointed Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.
In 1863 he withdrew from Parliament to accept the office of Queen's Printer, conjointly with the late Mr. George Desbarats. He held that office for about four years. In 1869 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 candidate for the Local Legislature. In 1872 contested the county of Russell for the Commons, and was once more unsuccessful. In 1874 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, 1876. He had outlived 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 independently of their husbands' control, of vote by ballot, and of international arbitration instead of war. As an advocate of temperance he has not left his equal behind him. During several sessions of Parliament he formed societies solely composed of members 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 frequently appeared on the temperance platform as a lecturer. 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 member 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 possess the faculty of successfully dealing with details. He was at different times a storekeeper, miller, lumberer, land speculator, journalist, and what not. As a public man he kept his hands clean, and died comparatively poor.
Mr. Keefer was born at Thorold, Upper Canada, on the 4th of November, 1821. His father was the son of a French Huguenot of German extraction, who emigrated from Alsace, near Strasbourg, 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 espoused 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, following 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 Engineering. 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 Public Works when the Union of the Canadas took place in 1841. He has been connected with all the principal public works of Canada 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 College, where his name is now emblazoned on the walls as the winner of the Elgin Prize Essay. He entered the College during the administration of its founder, Sir John Colborne (Lord Seaton), whose sons were pupils, and was a school-fellow of many distinguished Canadians. Upon leaving 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 inmate of his father's house. Upon the Union of the Canadas in 1841, the purchase by the Government of the Welland Canal from [Pg 135] the private Company which had constructed it was determined upon. Its enlargement was proceeded with, and Mr. Keefer was appointed Assistant Engineer for the southern division, where he remained until 1845, 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 1848, 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 attention to that question. In 1849 he published 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 Government 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 every year; that we could not have manufactures without them; and that their want was an actual tax on the industry of the country. Early in the following year (1850) 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 following 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 dictate that spirit of compromise which is the leaven of all good government. We believe there is a freedom of commercial intercourse which need not be unlicensed, and an encouragement of native industry, when judiciously directed, not incompatible 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 native born adults of both sexes—are wandering 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 enterprising, 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 bereaved. Any policy, therefore, which offers a reasonable prospect of extending the variety 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 Canada, 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 reëntered 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 Brunswick via Lake Temiscouata. After the completion of the surveys Mr. Keefer was sent by the Government to Boston to assist Mr. Andrews, the United States Consul, in preparing his first report on reciprocal trade with Canada. A second report being called for, Mr. Keefer (who had again left the [Pg 136] Government service) was sent for by Mr. Andrews in 1852 to New York, and contributed largely to the final report. In acknowledgement of his services the consular 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 survey 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 practicability of bridging the St. Lawrence at Montreal, notwithstanding the formidable ice movements which had led other engineers 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 approaches, 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 Commissioners by Lord Elgin in the previous year.
In 1852 Mr. Keefer was appointed Chief Engineer for the construction of the Montreal water-works, in which he was engaged until their completion in 1857. In 1853 he became Engineer of the Montreal Harbour Commission. In 1854, when the repeal 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 1856 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 appointed a Commissioner to the second International Exhibition, and went over to London to relieve the late Sir William Logan, who had organized the Canadian Department there.
In 1864, Mr. Keefer (who had removed from Hamilton to Toronto in 1860) returned to Ottawa, where for several years his time was chiefly occupied with a family estate; but in 1869, immediately after the acquisition by Canada of the claims of the Hudson's Bay Company to the North-West Territories, he commenced a series of letters in the Montreal and Ottawa papers, pointing out that "a continuous railway on Canadian 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 by the early construction 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 1870, Mr. Keefer brought about a convention of municipal delegates from the [Pg 137] Ottawa Valley and from Montreal, in favour 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 London, 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 Commissioner fully comprehended the importance of a favourable début 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 exhibition, 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 departments, commerce, agriculture, mines, fisheries, education, railways, canals, etc., so that a European about to emigrate could supplement what was wanting in the Exhibition 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 distributed 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 become a member of the International Jury in the class of Engineering. England acknowledged 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 Society of Civil Engineers, New York.
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 questions long before he had attained his majority, 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 extending 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 member 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 Canadian 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 practical 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 Parliamentary 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 Montmorency stuck to him through evil report and good report, and he never appealed to their suffrages in vain. But there were a querulousness and pugnacity about him which constantly provoked bitter enmities, and these enmities he seldom or never attempted [Pg 139] to allay. He seemed to take delight in ridiculing and exasperating his opponents. This was perhaps a weakness, but, if 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 dangerous antagonist and an undesirable ally. Then, there were certain pecuniary transactions which, whether rightly or wrongly, enveloped him in an atmosphere of disrepute. 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 Ishmaelite, and his intellectual fibre was such that he scarcely seemed even to regret his isolation. His unpopularity, however, became so wide-spread that his usefulness as a public man was seriously interfered 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 himself 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 family that originally settled at L'Ange Gardien—a parish situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, a few miles below Quebec—in the year 1636. The founder of the Canadian branch of the family appears to have been a gentleman of position and influence. 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, Cauchon de Laverdière, 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 married Miss Marguerite Vallie, of the same city. The present Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba is one of the fruits of that marriage, and was born at St. Roch's, Quebec, on the 31st of December, 1816.
He began political life with the advantage of a much more thorough mental training than has fallen to the lot of most of our public men. After receiving a rudimentary education, he entered the Petit Séminaire 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 boyish prejudices in the columns of Le Liberal, a newspaper which was at that time published in Quebec in the interests of the French-Canadian party. In 1837, while he was still a student at the Seminary, he entered 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 institution, 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 [Pg 140] 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 seriously 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 exclusively to journalistic pursuits. He was a regular contributor to Le Canadien, the leading exponent of French-Canadian opinion, which was then edited by Mr. Etienne Parent, an eloquent and vigorous, but injudicious writer, who had paid the penalty of imprisonment for his demonstrative expression of his opinions during the troubles of 1837-8. Upon Mr. Parent's election to Parliament, 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 unnoticed. As he turned a deaf ear to all admonitions, 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 account, and, with the assistance of his brother-in-law, Mr. Coté, he established the Journal de Quebec. He threw himself into this new enterprise with characteristic energy, and made a personal canvass of his native city for subscribers and advertisements. He succeeded in obtaining a satisfactory subscription list, and the first number 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 Canadien. His fame as a writer spread far beyond the limits of Quebec, and he was repeatedly solicited by more than one constituency 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 continuously 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 constitution. The first Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration 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 Francis Hincks, Thomas Cushing 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 columns of the Journal de Quebec. His speeches, during the early part of his Parliamentary career, were marked by a hesitation of utterance begotten of redundancy of ideas, but this drawback was soon surmounted, and apt words flowed from his [Pg 141] lips like a torrent from an Alpine fastness. He developed extraordinary powers of sarcasm and objurgation—and also developed an extraordinary faculty for making enemies. Long before the Reform Party returned to power in 1848 he was recognized as a Parliamentary gladiator who, so far as readiness of repartee and eloquence of vituperation were concerned, was without a peer in the Assembly. In later times he had sundry passages of arms with his fellow-countryman, Louis Joseph Papineau, but the sceptre of the "old man eloquent" had departed from him, and he never appeared to less advantage than when exchanging left-handed compliments with the member for Montmorency across the floor of the House.
Mr. Cauchon supported his leader, Mr. Lafontaine, until that gentleman's retirement to private life in 1851. Upon the accession to power of the Hincks-Morin Administration 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, representing the "Clear Grit" element in the House, were specially distasteful to him, and he directed all his energies to their mortification. 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 1852 arrayed himself in determined opposition. He made an attempt to form a separate 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 distinct Opposition, and contented himself with attacking the Ministry upon every available opportunity. Among other projects which he advocated at this time with great vehemence was that of constructing 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 MacNab-Morin Coalition Government, in 1854, he yielded it his cordial support. He supported the Acts abolishing the Seignorial Tenure and secularizing the Clergy Reserves. Upon Mr. Morin's retirement from the Government in the beginning of 1855, 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 introduced 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 Ministry 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 construction 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 resignation, however, was accepted almost without remonstrance. Soon after the perpetration of the Double-Shuttle he began to give a more or less cordial support to the Cartier-Macdonald Government. As time passed his support became more firm, and in June, 1861, he accepted office in it as Commissioner of Public Works. He held that portfolio until the defeat of the Government in May, 1862, when he resigned with his colleagues.
[Pg 142]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-failing ability. He was offered a seat in the Taché-Macdonald Administration in 1864, 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 acclamation, 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 Premiership to Mr. Cauchon; but that gentleman, 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 discharged by him with becoming dignity, and his tenure of office was marked by a liberal and profuse hospitality. He resigned the Speakership in July, 1872, in order to reënter 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 supporting the Opposition under Mr. Mackenzie'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 circumstances 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 conceive 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 neighbourhood, and the Government placed such lunatics 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 satisfactory to the Government. After the lapse of some years Dr. Douglas sold the establishment to one Dr. Roy. The latter was a gentleman of comparatively small means, and it was surmised that he must have received 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 purchase had been derived. This, however, was merely rumour, though the matter was frequently hinted at in the House, and suspicions very uncomplimentary to Mr. Cauchon 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 continued to be quartered at the Beauport [Pg 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 Government contractor. After making this declaration 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 proceeded with. The result was most disastrous 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 $38,000. He took from Dr. Roy a mortgage on the asylum for $58,000, the additional $20,000 being an honorarium for his services in connection with the matter. It was alleged that Mr. Cauchon had subsequently taken advantage of Dr. Roy's impecuniosity, placed him upon a salary of $1,600 a year, and retained all the profits of the establishment, amounting to something like $15,000 annually. Early in 1872, Dr. Roy had become 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 embarrassing dilemma. If he admitted that he was a contractor with the Government he would become liable to a penalty of $1,000 for every day he had sat in Parliament 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 arranged to settle the matter by paying Mr. Cauchon $50,000. Mr. Cauchon was to relinquish 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 denunciations. Mr. Cauchon, in order to avoid expulsion, was compelled to resign his seat in the Quebec Parliament, but he was speedily reëlected 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 confidence 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 reëlection to the House of Commons for Quebec Centre. At the general election of 1874 he was returned for that constituency by acclamation, and the same result followed when he returned to his constituents for reëlection after accepting office in Mr. Mackenzie's Government in December, 1875. Mr. Mackenzie was subjected to some criticism for receiving such a colleague, and it is certain that the latter was a source of weakness, rather than strength to the Government. [Pg 144] Mr. Cauchon's intellectual qualifications for office, however, were of a high order. His connection with the Beauport Asylum was wholly indefensible, but Mr. Mackenzie ascertained, by careful investigation, 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 believe, not without serious misgivings—admitted him to his Government, and he was duly installed as President of the Council. On the 8th of June, 1877, he was transferred to the Department of Inland Revenue, as successor to the Hon. T. A. R. Laflamme. 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 undesirable. 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 wholehearted 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 consideration at their hands. In the early autumn 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 understanding between the rival races there. He accepted 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 satisfaction, but the appointment was an accomplished fact, and as such was acquiesced in. The hopes entertained prior to his appointment 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 administered the Government with justice and impartiality.
Mr. Cauchon has contributed several works to the literature of his native Province, the most important of which are reproductions of some of his articles in his newspaper, the Journal de Quebec. One of these reproductions, published in 1865, under the title of "L'Union des Provinces de l'Amerique Britannique du Nord," is said to have done much to influence public opinion 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 indomitable will, Mr. Cauchon possesses great individuality 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 expose the weakness of his adversary's argument rather than exhibit the strength of his own. He does not resort to sophistry, being careful only to assert truth, or what he believes to be truth. He conciliates by accident, while he controls by habit. Force [Pg 145] is his normal condition, and intellectual activity is the life of that condition. He delights 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 opponent."
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 native city, and has also been Lieutenant-Colonel of the Ninth Battalion of Volunteer Militia, or Chasseurs de Quebec.
The Chancellor of Ontario belongs to a Dorsetshire (England) family, but was born at New Cross, one of the Surrey suburbs of London, in 1807. His father, the late Mr. Joseph Spragge, was by profession 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 William, 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 profession in York. When the late Hon. John Hillyard Cameron was called to the Bar in Michaelmas Term, 1838, Mr. Spragge admitted him to a partnership, which was maintained for some years under the style of Spragge & Cameron. While at the Bar Mr. Spragge had a very large agency business, and was considered the ablest Equity draughtsman in the Province.
Upon the creation of the Court of Chancery of Upper Canada, in 1837, Mr. Spragge received the appointment of Master in Chancery. He subsequently, in accordance with the practice then in vogue, attended the sittings of the Legislative Council in that capacity. From July, 1836, until the Union of the Provinces in 1841, he was Surrogate Judge of the Home District. On the 13th of July, 1844, he was appointed Registrar of the Court of Chancery. He was subsequently elected a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, and in 1850 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 1847 he wrote and published in pamphlet 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 judgments are more highly respected than his.
While at the Bar he married a daughter of the late Dr. Alexander Thorn, Staff Surgeon, and Medical Superintendent of Military Settlements on the Rideau.
Mr. McDougall 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 expected 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 intercourse with mankind. His knowledge of Canadian affairs is accurate and comprehensive, 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 he does so cannot be denied, although, for various reasons, his influence for some years past has not been commensurate with his abilities. His enemies say that he is not to be trusted. Without endorsing 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 subservient to any leader; and that he has thus failed to meet the full requirements of party discipline. There is moreover an aggressiveness 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 independence of action. He calls himself a Conservative Liberal, and the phrase represents his position pretty accurately.
He was born in the town of York, now the city of Toronto, on the 20th of January, 1822. 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 Commissariat service during the Revolutionary War. After the close of hostilities, John [Pg 148] 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 arrival 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 conspicuous in public life.
William McDougall received his preliminary education at various public and private 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 doubtless laid the foundation of the robust physique 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, however, and was admitted as an attorney and solicitor in Michaelmas Term, 1847. He entered 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 Agriculturist, 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 venture 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. McDougall 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 property qualification for Parliamentary representatives. 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 Canadian [Pg 149] Parliament to regulate commercial intercourse with other nations. 8. Law Reform, 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 purposes. 10. The abolition of the Rectories. 11. The abolition of all laws giving special privileges to particular religious denominations. 12. Modification of the Usury laws. 13. The abolition of the doctrine of Primogeniture 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 municipal 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 Baldwin-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 political 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 formation of the Hincks-Morin Administration the North American became its mouthpiece, 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 defeated in both constituencies—North Wentworth and Waterloo—the experience gained by him was valuable, as it gave him perfect confidence in himself on the political platform, 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 consequences, 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 reconciled 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 staff 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 gentlemen 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 candidate for the representation of the county of Perth, against Mr. T. M. Daly. In the autumn of 1858 he offered himself as a candidate 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 [Pg 150] 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 remarkably 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 severance from Mr. Brown and the Globe in 1860. In Hilary Term, 1862, 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 Macdonald-Sicotte Administration in May, 1862, Mr. McDougall accepted office therein as Commissioner of Crown Lands. He was left undisturbed in his portfolio at the reconstruction of the Ministry in 1863, when the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Government was formed. He held office until March, 1864, when he retired, with his colleagues, owing to an adverse vote in the Assembly. He about the same time abandoned as impracticable the scheme of Representation by Population, and advocated a federal union of the Provinces on the plan he had proposed at the Reform Convention in 1859. He was of course assailed by Mr. Brown and the Globe for relinquishing Rep. by Pop. At the general election of 1863 he was returned for North Ontario, which he thenceforward represented 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 Taché-Macdonald Administration he remained in Opposition. 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 Reformers 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 Provincial 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 1864, 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 disregarding 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 1865 and '66 Mr. McDougall was Chairman of the Commission appointed to open trade relations with the West Indies, Mexico, 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 acclamation 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 [Pg 151] Mr. McDougall had taken much interest in all matters relating to the North-West. "The North-West question," says a Canadian 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 settlement; how to acquire them for Canada; were with him questions of serious and frequent 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 defences of the Dominion and the acquisition of the North-West Territory. The negotiations, in so far as they related to the latter subject, were successful. The arrangement, as finally completed, gave general satisfaction 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-West, were deserving of some public recognition. It was deemed fitting that he should be offered the responsibility of organizing the Government of those territories, and preparing the way for the progress of immigration and the establishment of municipal and other local institutions within their boundaries. On the 28th of September, 1869, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor 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 system 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 throughout the territory were in a sullen and dissatisfied 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 question. Colonel Dennis notified the authorities at Ottawa of this state of things, but it was not supposed that the hostility was serious, and but little importance was attached to it. Mr. McDougall started for Fort Garry, the proposed seat of his Government, 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 compose 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. Provencher, 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 attempt 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 whereof he was forbidden to enter [Pg 152] 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 proceeding with their surveys, a party of about twenty half-breeds, headed by the afterwards famous Louis Riel, having interfered with their operations, and forbidden them to proceed any farther. No violence had been employed, but Riel 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-attended 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 Territory. The English-speaking settlers were not rebellious, but many of them were unenthusiastic 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. McDougall that if he were to reach Fort 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 accordingly remained at the Hudson's Bay Company'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 informed that neither himself, Mr. McDougall, 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 fourteen armed horsemen approached Mr. McDougall'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 having 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. McDougall 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 escorted by the half-breeds, and when they reached the post which marks the 49th parallel of latitude, one of the band peremptorily 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 [Pg 153] farm-house several miles south of the boundary-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 authority had attained serious proportions, and assumed the form of active rebellion. A "Provisional Government" had been formed, with Mr. John Bruce as its nominal President, and Louis Riel 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 various other matters, that he, as Her Majesty's representative, would always be ready to redress all well-founded grievances, and assuring 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 Territory had been transferred from the Imperial Government to Canada. The 1st of December was the date which had been fixed upon for the transfer, but, owing to the state of the country, no peaceful transfer was possible at that time. The insurgents were aware of this fact, and consequently paid no respect to the proclamation. Mr. McDougall also issued a commission to Colonel Dennis as his "Lieutenant and Conservator of the Peace in and for the North-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 Sandfield Macdonald—Government Trustee of the Canada Southern Railway Municipal Bonds; and in 1871 he was appointed Commissioner for the Province of Ontario for the settlement of the North-Western boundary. In 1872, upon presenting himself for reëlection to his constituents in North Lanark, he was defeated, and for three years afterwards he was without a seat in Parliament. 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 making arrangements in Scandinavia and the Baltic Provinces on behalf of the Emigration Department. After his return he became 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 Campbell vs. Gordon, 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. McDougall with marked energy and ability before the Senate of the Dominion on behalf of Mrs. Campbell, against the application of her husband for a divorce a vinculo. [Pg 154] Turning the tables, he claimed a divorce a mensa et thoro, and maintenance for the wife, in both of which contentions he succeeded. 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 Government until the general Dominion election held in September, 1878, when he resigned his seat in order to contest the representation 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 recollection. 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 abandonment of his platform, he declined. On the defeat of the Conservative Government in 1864, Sir Etienne P. Taché, 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 principle in Lower Canada, the offer was declined. Mr. McDougall admitted that there was a dead-lock, and that the state of parties and the conflict between the Provinces on the subject of Representation did not encourage either side to appeal to the country a second time upon the questions at issue between them. He further admitted that as "Her Majesty's Government must be carried 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. McDougall 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 accepted 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 majority 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 Confederation of all the Provinces as its ultimate aim, would have been indefinitely postponed.
While Minister of Public Works, Mr. McDougall 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, having been made a sine qua non by the Imperial Government, nothing could be accomplished by resignation.
It is understood that Mr. McDougall was offered a judgeship by the present Government last year, and that he may; if so inclined, accept one of the Lieutenant-Governorships [Pg 155] 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 mental powers are unimpaired, and his physical 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 rôle.
As a legislator Mr. McDougall is responsible 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 Grammar 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 Inventions. We find his views on local matters thus laid down in the pages of a contemporary: "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 he 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 Provincial Constitution," a pamphlet published at Toronto in 1872.
Mr. McDougall has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1845, while he was a student-at-law, was previously Miss Amelia Caroline Easton, a daughter of Mr. Joseph Easton, of Millbank, in the county of York. This lady, by whom he had several children, survived her marriage 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 daughter of Dr. John Beatty, formerly a Professor in the University of Victoria College, Cobourg.
Mr. Fréchette has occupied a seat in the House of Commons, but his highest triumphs have been achieved in literature, rather than in political life. He was born at Levis, commonly known as Point Levi, on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, opposite Quebec, on the 16th of November, 1839. He received his education at the Quebec Seminary, at Ste. Anne's College, and at the College of Nicolet. He subsequently 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 imagination or fancy are wont to liberate their souls at a very tender age by the perpetration of more or less absurdity in the form of versified effusions. Judging from traditional reports, however, young Fréchette'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 years 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 remarkably good that the statement seemed incredible to the professor, who resolved to put the lad's poetic powers to a practical test. Master Fréchette 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 Shakspeare 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 informed, "dashed off an admirable little poem," which is still preserved among the archives of the college.
A fondness for literature, and more especially for poetry, has been the guiding impulse of Mr. Fréchette's life. While prosecuting 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. For a short time, in 1861, 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 commendation from no less an authority than the author of "Evangeline." He also published several dramas which have been publicly [Pg 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 decided talent for poetry, the exacting profession of the law would not be the most congenial of occupations. In 1866 he removed to Chicago, where he succeeded Mr. Thomas Dickens, brother of Charles Dickens, as foreign correspondent to the Land Department of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. 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 general election of 1871 as their representative in the Local Legislature of Quebec. His candidature was not successful, and his opponent, 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. Fréchette 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 September, 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. Fréchette removed to Montreal, where he has ever since resided, devoting himself entirely to literary pursuits. He writes prose with remarkable 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, notwithstanding 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. Fréchette had won the Prix Montyon, the most important and the most envied reward offered annually by the French Academy to the best literary production 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 "Pêle-Mêlee," in 1877. "Les Fleurs Boreales" has since been reprinted in Paris, and is just now obtaining a large sale.
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 subject of this sketch. Sir Francis was descended 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 Egerton, 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 subsequently became a Fellow of Merton College at the same University. He graduated as M.A. in 1830, and in 1834 was appointed University Examiner. His entire University career was marked by a very unusual degree of diligence, and by great classical attainments. We have had wiser and greater Governors in Canada than Sir Edmund Head, but we have had none who could pretend to anything like equal learning. His researches, though chiefly directed to classical studies, were by no means confined to them. He devoted some time to the study of politics as a science, and took a special interest in all matters relating to the colonies. Whether this interest, which was undoubtedly 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 contributed to the periodical press of London. A remarkably clever article of his in the Foreign Quarterly Review attracted the attention 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 [Pg 159] study. He had not long to wait for patronage. Scarcely had he begun to read ecclesiastical law when he was appointed to an Assistant Poor-Law Commissionership, at a salary of £1,000 per annum. Like his kinsman, Francis, he possessed a decided faculty for Poor-Law administration. He acquitted himself so satisfactorily that he erelong received an appointment as a Chief Commissioner 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 grand-daughter of the Hon. and Right Rev. James Yorke, D.D., Lord Bishop of Ely, and fifth son of the eminent Lord Chancellor, Philip Yorke, first Earl of Hardwicke. In October, 1847, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, a position which he held from the time of entering on the duties of his office in the following 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 renewal of his term of office. He was a painstaking man, very often giving more attention 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 literary pursuits. In this line his name is not unknown. He obtained considerable reputation 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 Government in this country until October, 1861, when he returned to England, where he was soon afterwards appointed a Civil Service 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 University 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, 1868. Upon his death the baronetcy became extinct, his only son, John, having unfortunately been drowned on the 25th of September, 1859, while bathing 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.
Mr. Pope is the second son of the Hon. Joseph Pope, of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and is descended, on the paternal side, from a Huguenot family which fled from France in consequence of the revocation 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 Centreville, in Prince County, Prince Edward Island, on the 11th of June, 1826. He received 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 mercantile business. He entered public life in 1857, when, at a partial election, he was returned to the Prince Edward Island Assembly for Prince County. At the general elections 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 Edward Island from 1865 to 1867, when he retired 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 hostile 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 forwarded 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 Government was defeated. He was again returned to the Assembly at the general election 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 [Pg 161] the general election which followed the retirement from office of Sir John A. Macdonald's Government in that year he did not seek reëlection. 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 represented Queen's County in the House of Commons, 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 of 88. At the last general election, in September, 1878, his majority was increased to 883 votes. Upon the formation of the Government in the following October he took office in it as Minister of Marine and Fisheries, and still retains that portfolio. In 1852 he married Miss Pethick, a daughter of Mr. Thomas Pethick, of Charlottetown.
Charles Stanley, fourth Viscount Monck, who was Governor-General of Canada when the scheme of Confederation was carried into effect, was born at Templemore, 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 expedition of his in the autumn of the year 1066, and who after the Conquest was invested with the Lordship of the Manor of Potheridge, 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 education 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 representation 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, 1851, he was appointed a Commissioner of charitable donations and bequests in Ireland. He first obtained a seat in Parliament in July, 1852, as member for Portsmouth, which he thenceforth represented in the House of Commons until the general elections of 1857, when he was defeated. While in Parliament he occupied one or two miner posts of emolument. Upon the formation of Lord Palmerston's Administration, after the resignation of Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet in February, 1855, he was appointed a Lord of the Treasury, and retained the appointment until he lost his seat, as above mentioned, in 1857. He then unsuccessfully contested the representation of Dudley, in Worcestershire. From the time of this latter defeat he did not come conspicuously 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 appointed Governor-General of the Dominion.
He administered the Government in this country during a very troubled period. Almost 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 [Pg 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 carrying on the Government became greater and greater every year, owing to the nearly even balance of parties, and the impossibility of any administration being able to command 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, 1868, and was succeeded by Sir John Young, afterwards created Lord Lisgar. His subsequent career has not been in any respect remarkable.
During his residence in Canada (in 1866) he was created a peer of the United Kingdom, by the title of Baron Monck of Ballytrammon, in the county of Wexford. In 1874 he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the county of Dublin. 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 Rathdowne, by whom he has several children.
Mr. O'Connor, it is almost superfluous to say, is of Irish descent. His parents, 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 January 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 practice in Windsor, and was successful, not only in gaining a profitable 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 Education of Windsor. He has also been admitted 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 186l, but succeeded in 1863 in unseating the then sitting member, Mr. Arthur Rankin, and in obtaining 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 return was made to the House by the Returning 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 following he was transferred to the position of Postmaster-General, which office he retained until the fall of the Ministry in the following November. At the general election of 1874 Mr. O'Connor again presented himself to his constituents in the county of Essex for reëlection. He was opposed by Mr. William 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 returned [Pg 165] for the county of Russell, and upon the formation of Sir John Macdonald's Government in October Mr. O'Connor took office in it as President of the Council. He retained 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 nationality. 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 department.
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, published in 1870.
In April, 1849, he married Miss Mary Barrett, eldest daughter of Mr. Richard Barrett, formerly of Killarney, Ireland.
Lord Cathcart cannot be said to have stamped his name very distinctly upon Canadian history during his administration of affairs in this country, but in pursuance 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 Dapifer 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 history. 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 successor was an ambassador to the Court of Russia. 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, daughter 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, whereby 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 soldierly qualities during the campaign, and was slightly wounded. After the return of his regiment to England he spent several years at the military college at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. In 1803 he again entered upon active service, and it is no exaggeration to say that from this time forward his life forms a brilliant chapter in the military history of England. There is no need to follow him through his numberless 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 Peninsular War. He had a horse shot under him at the battle of Barossa, and was honourably mentioned in the official despatches. [Pg 167] He also took part in the battles of Salamanca 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 Anglesey 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 he was about to fall. He also bore his Lordship from the field, and was present at the amputation of his limb. For several years afterwards he was with the army of occupation 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 second Earl and eleventh Baron upon the death of his father, on the 16th of June, 1843. In 1845 he was appointed Commander-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 Governor-General, Sir Charles Metcalfe, for England, in November, 1845, the Administration of the Government devolved upon Lord Cathcart, and was conducted by him as Administrator until March of the following year, when he was appointed Governor-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 experience was required at the head of Canadian affairs. He showed a wise and discreet judgment in keeping aloof from the disputes of the rival political parties of that period. He confined his functions to administering 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 influential member of society. He died at St. Leonards-on-Sea, in the county of Sussex, on the 16th of July, 1859. He was succeeded by his son Alan Frederick Cathcart, the present representative. His widow survived him about thirteen years, and died in 1872.
Mr. Caron is the eldest surviving son of the late Hon. René 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. He is a lineal descendant of Robert Caron, who came from France with Samuel de Champlain, the first Governor of Canada. Robert Caron married Marie Crevet, at Quebec, in or about the year 1637, and lived there until his death in 1656. His widow married Noël 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 families in Canada have been so continually engaged 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 conciliating manners and practical good sense have long since won appreciation. He today 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 graduated as a B.C.L. in 1865. During the same year he was called to the Bar of Lower Canada, having studied in the office of Mr. L. G. Baillairgé, 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. François Baby, who for some years represented the Stadacona 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 returned to the Commons for the county of Quebec, 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 opposed by the Hon. Isidore Thibaudeau, of Quebec, but was returned by a majority of more than 600. On the 19th of May, 1879, [Pg 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 capacity 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 consolidate 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 welfare 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 militia 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 withdraw from the position of a candidate, "considering that this county only elect Ministers of the Crown." "I am the very man you want, then," happily answered Mr. Caron, "for I intend to be your representative, and also a Minister of the Crown very soon."
He was a Director of the Stadacona Bank of Quebec, and also of the Anticosti Company. He has held (in 1867) the position of Vice-President of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec.
Mr. Allan was born at Little York, the Provincial capital of Upper Canada, 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 enjoyed fair educational advantages, of which he had duly availed himself. Persons combining 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 simultaneously. 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-'15, 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 important 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 education. 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 pecuniarily 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 Toronto. He was called to the Bar of Upper Canada in Hilary Term, 1846, and almost immediately afterwards entered into partnership 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 [Pg 171] which he went abroad, and remained away several years. During his absence he engaged in what in those times was considered a very extensive tour, embracing not only every country in Europe except Russia, but extending to Egypt, up the Nile, and into the then little known recesses of Syria. He is believed to have been the first Canadian who ever stood upon the summit of the Great Pyramid. During his journeyings 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 Canada 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 elected Mayor of the city, and served in that capacity throughout the year. In 1858 he presented himself as a candidate for the representation of York Division in the Legislative Council of Canada. He was elected by an overwhelming majority, and sat in the Council from that time until Confederation. In May, 1867, 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 Committee of the Legislative Council; and on the first meeting of the Dominion Parliament 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 influential offices. Since 1865 he has been Chief Commissioner of the Canada Company. He is also Chancellor of the University 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; Lieutenant-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 Society; 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 spacious 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 reputation of the late Mr. Paul Kane. He purchased, and is now the owner of a fine collection 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 illustrating 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 present generation. He has also been a prominent 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 1846 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 second wife, who was Miss Adelaide Harriett Schreiber, third daughter of the Rev. T. Schreiber, formerly of Bradwell Lodge, in the county of Essex, England.
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 emigrated from Scotland to Upper Canada in 1832, were farmers, and he was brought up amid the prosaic but healthful and invigorating 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 attendance 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 apprentice 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—remarkably 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 stationed at Guelph. He became a member of the Methodist Church, and was soon after seized with a desire to preach the gospel. 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 circuit, where he spent the year intervening between the Conferences of 1855 and '56. The genius of Methodism, while never opposed to the highest education, has been practical enough to consider half a loaf better than no bread—where it has not been able to educate men for the ministry, it has endeavoured to educate men in the ministry; and has thus thrust out into active and useful work many a man who has compensated for scholastic deficiencies by native talent, business training, and that familiarity 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 [Pg 173] Conference of 1856 he was received on trial, and appointed to the Galt and Berlin circuit. After remaining on that circuit a year he was stationed at Berlin, where he spent another year. He was then permitted 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 remained from 1870 to 1873, when he removed to St. James Street Church, Montreal. Connexional demands allowed him to remain only a year and a half there, since which time he has been entrusted with general 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 Church 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 Secretary of that legislative body, and was also reëlected Secretary of the Missionary Society by acclamation. In his present position 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 Society incurred a debt of about $75,000. By a special effort in 1879 this incubus was removed, a total Relief and Extension Fund of $116,000 was contributed, and the Society, 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 minister, he might have been a successful journalist, 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 readable and successful religious magazine published by Dr. Sutherland from 1873 to 1877 in Toronto. In the latter year it was merged in the Canadian Methodist Magazine. In January, 1881, appeared the first number of The 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 fascinating scenes of that mysterious land, and pointed out many confirmations of the truth of Old Testament history. Numerous sermons 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, 1879. On the 10th of June, 1859, he married Miss Mary Jane Moore, eldest daughter of Mr. Hugh Moore, of Dundas.
Dr. Nelson won a high local reputation 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; something more than a vigorous and sensible writer; and he was regarded as an authority on many subjects of more general interest than acute laryngitis.9 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 permitted 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 extend 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, Miss Dies, was the daughter of a U. E. Loyalist 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 education, which he subsequently improved by an extensive course of general reading, began to qualify himself for the medical profession. He studied under Dr. Carter, a retired army surgeon, who practised at William Henry, now called Sorel, on the Richelieu 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 January, 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 profession. 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 adviser to many of the people of St. Denis and its neighbourhood. When the War of [Pg 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 military 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 displayed 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 acquired a competent fortune. He took a warm interest in public affairs, and his sympathies 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 Attorney-General, at the general election of 1827. The contest lasted seven days. It was conducted with a keenness almost unexampled, even in those days, and resulted in Mr. Nelson's return by a majority of two votes. He subsequently charged his opponent, on the floor of the Assembly, with having been guilty, during the election, of conduct exceedingly unbecoming in an official of his station, and with having abused his office to oppress and tyrannize over those who had voted against him. A Parliamentary 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 Aylmer. From the time of his first entry into Parliamentary life, Dr. Nelson was a prominent 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 returned 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 recapitulate the many grievances to which the people of the Lower Province were subjected. 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. Continued 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 enjoyed in other parts of the world. His influence in the part of Lower Canada in which he resided was very great, and he had no difficulty in securing the coöperation 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 attended it from all parts of the Lower Province, but it consisted chiefly of the inhabitants [Pg 176] of the counties of Richelieu, St. Hyacinthe, Rouville, Chambly and Verchères, 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 resorted 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 political economist, judged by a modern standard, but he was wise enough to know that the suggested remedy would be wholly inefficacious. He had been trained in an allopathic school, and had no faith in homœopathy 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 playing at revolution, and before he sat down advocated armed resistance. He had kindled the spark, and the atmosphere reëchoed 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 displayed 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 veteran who had fought under Wellington at Waterloo. Accompanying the Colonel was a deputy-sheriff, who bore with him a warrant 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 Lieutenant-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 arrangements made by him for the coming engagement. He posted his men in his distillery, 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 insurgents 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 profession 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 attack, and more than twice that number had been wounded. Of the insurgents thirteen were slain, and from twenty to thirty wounded.10 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 horseback 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 exposed himself to danger with the most dauntless intrepidity, advancing several times from the barricade, and finally heading 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. Nelson took charge of the latter, whom he treated with the greatest kindness, attending to their comforts himself, and doing [Pg 177] everything in his power to relieve their sufferings. His conduct shows in bright contrast 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 fruitless endeavour to induce the American Congress 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 induced 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 captured on the night of the 22nd, with despatches for Colonel Wetherall, is the darkest feature in the history of the St. Denis episode of the rebellion. It is of course unnecessary to say that Dr. Nelson had no hand in that villainous transaction, but it was perpetrated by his allies, and the question arises how far he should be held responsible for it. The Doctor's own account of the affair is as follows:—"A gentleman in coloured clothes was brought to Dr. Nelson'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 32nd Regiment. Appearing fatigued and cold, Dr. Nelson ordered his servants to place before him some refreshments, which he declined, but accepted of some whiskey punch. He was urged to retire to bed and repose, but he preferred sitting up. Three respectable persons were desired to keep him company, and of these one was Dr. Kimber, of Chambly, 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 himself a prisoner, which might be the case in a very short time. Nothing more came under the immediate knowledge of Dr. Nelson, after he left his house to meet the advancing 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 mildness. 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 inflicted mortal wounds upon him. Thus, through his own imprudence and rashness, to say the least, was this fine young man killed, almost before he had attained complete manhood. When Dr. Nelson heard of this sad event he expressed his utter abhorrence 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 prisoner,' and it is mere justice to these individuals [Pg 178] 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 catastrophe 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 historical truth to give the above outline of an accident that cast the profoundest gloom over a large community, including Dr. Nelson and his friends—an occurrence which, until the real facts of the case were known, naturally excited unusual regret and condemnation.
Mr. Christie, in his "History of Lower Canada," makes a comment upon the foregoing account which may properly be inserted here as a set-off to Dr. Nelson's version. "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 circumstances and manner in which Lieutenant Weir was put to death, and is evidently intended to be palliative of this most atrocious and revolting homicide (never contemplated, 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 prisoner), 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 calèche, for conveyance to St. Charles—consequently any assault, so pinioned, that he could possibly make on his guards, cannot have been formidable, and it was in this defenceless state, after—on hearing the discharge 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 mercilessly shot, sabred, hacked and stabbed to death by the monsters who, as his guards, had him in charge, and of which his mangled 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 homicide. It is to be recollected that poor Weir, when slain, was alone, in the hands of excited enemies, without one kindred heart among them to sympathize with him, or friendly eye to witness and relate the occurrences that preceded and caused his death—that even the facts offered in palliation of the cruelty exercised upon him, and of his assassination, come entirely from those who were either the actual perpetrators or tacit accomplices, previous to, during or after the fact, and who therefore naturally 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-barbarous allies. How far Dr. Nelson was justified 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 opposite 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 [Pg 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 unscathed out of the battle, and recognized the fact that, as Miles Standish says, "war is a terrible trade." Before any line of action had been decided upon intelligence reached them of the defeat of their coadjutors at St. Charles, where the troops, under 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, except 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 hitherto 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 in a rapid stream. It was soon after deemed advisable by the little band that they should separate. They suffered 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 captured a few miles from the frontier on the morning of the 12th. The place of his capture was an out-of-the-way spot in the township of Stukely, in the county of Shefford. His captors were four of Colonel Knowlton's militia, by whom he was handed over to a detachment of Missisquoi volunteers. 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 companions, 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 kindness and consideration. After a brief interval of rest he was conveyed to Montreal, where he was lodged in gaol. His sufferings and privations brought on an attack of dropsy, to which complaint he continued to be subject at intervals during the remaining 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 conceived 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 attack 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.
[Pg 180]Soon after Lord Durham's arrival in Canada, 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 sentenced—illegally, but wisely—to be banished 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 Government 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 distillery, together with other valuable buildings, all of which had been reduced to ashes.
Upon landing at Bermuda Dr. Nelson and his fellow-exiles won the respect of everyone by their manly and independent deportment. 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 desirous of acting with justice and kindness towards the colonists. They maintained that the root and mainspring of their oppressions 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, forcing the people into disaffection and ultimately 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 return to Canada. He then took up his abode in Montreal, where he continued to reside during the twenty-one years remaining 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 professional 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 President of the Executive Council in the Government formed under the auspices of Sir Charles Metcalfe and Mr. Draper. Dr. Nelson worsted the Government candidate, and thenceforward represented the county of Richelieu in the second and third Parliaments 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 stigmatized [Pg 181] 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 myself 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 Sovereign is to be guilty of high-treason, then I am a rebel indeed. But I tell those gentlemen 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 honourably, by my own exertions, acquit my dues, advanced as I am in years. But there are hundreds of others with less encouraging 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 improvement of our prison discipline in the care of convicts and the preservation of public hygiene, 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 immigrants, at the risk of his own life; and during the cholera years, as Chairman of the Board of Health, he was also most zealous. He was twice elected President of the College 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 preserved a name unsullied by any baseness. He carried into politics and official life a heart tender as a child's, excitable and romantic 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 expense 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.
Abraham Cunard, a thrifty and enterprising mechanic in the Halifax lumber-yard, saved enough money to commence business on a small scale as a grocer and West India merchant. He early associated his son Samuel with him in the business, 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 industry, 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 lumbering operations in Miramichi, New Brunswick. But his name was destined to come with special prominence before the world in connection with ocean steam navigation. 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 summer of that year the Savannah, of 350 tons, left New York for Liverpool, and made the voyage safely in twenty-four days. Commercially 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 voyage. 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 courageous 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, [Pg 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 steamer, 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 10th) 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 1838 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 Liverpool 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 represented by Messrs. Burns, of Glasgow; the other by Messrs. MacIver, of Liverpool. Mr. Cunard 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 approved of the great enterprise, and expressed their willingness to embark in it. Their rivals, Messrs. MacIver, also were brought in. Mr. Cunard laid his plans before the Admiralty, and met there with all the success he could wish. The contract for carrying the mails for seven years was secured; the company was fully organized, and the work of construction entered upon without delay.
Thus originated "The Cunard Company," the name and fame whereof have long been world-wide. The mails were to be carried fortnightly between Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston. The steamers were to be so constructed as to be available for the transport of troops and warlike stores if the Government should require them. Four steamers were built with the least possible delay—the Britannia, the Acadia, the Caledonia and the Columbia. They were but small in comparison with the gigantic structures of these days—namely, each 1,200 tons register, and 440 horse-power. The Britannia, the pioneer 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 Atlantic 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 wonder 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 undertaken by the Cunard Company by paying an annual subsidy of first £145,000 sterling; and then, when the service embraced 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 [Pg 184] her arrival, in honour of Mr. Cunard, and to celebrate the establishment of postal communication 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 presented to him with the following inscription: "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 supplemented, 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 commercial nation might justly be proud.
The Cunard fleet now crossing the Atlantic numbers twenty-eight vessels, many of them among the finest afloat. They have ever been remarkable for regularity, strength and safety. The crews are disciplined with the utmost care, and none but the best class of captains are put in charge. The Company at one time came into curious prominence in the House of Commons. The "Galway 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 Ireland, who asked the Secretary of the Treasury, 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 undeviating regularity 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 Atlantic service are: Mediterranean and Havre; Liverpool and Glasgow; Glasgow and Belfast; Glasgow and Derry; Halifax and Jamaica.
Mr. Cunard was created a Baronet on the 9th of March, 1857, the honour being hereditary 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 Taché—more familiarly known as "Colonel" Taché—was in his day one of the most distinguished personages connected with public life in this country. He was descended from an old French family, various members 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 descendants will be found in the sketch of the Most Rev. Alexandre Antonin Taché, Archbishop of St. Boniface, contained in the third volume of the present series. By reference 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 immediately afterwards placed on duty on the frontier. He served all through the campaign, and until peace was proclaimed. The authorities are unanimous in bearing testimony to his gallantry and chivalrous patriotism. During the progress of the war 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 Chateauguay, in October, 1813, where a mere handful 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 achievements in the history of the War. A gallant American officer who had the misfortune to be present was accustomed to say in after years that no American officer with any regard for his reputation would willingly acknowledge that he had taken part in that engagement. Young Etienne Taché 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 pardonable garrulity half a century afterwards.
After the close of hostilities the naval and military establishments were reduced, and young Taché'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 obscurity until the Union of the Provinces in 1841. "Comparative" is a saving word. His close attention to his professional pursuits prevented him from becoming widely [Pg 186] known beyond his own immediate neighbourhood. There, however, he was a power, professionally, politically, and socially. During the troublous times which culminated in the rebellion of 1837-'38 he sympathized heartily with the efforts made by his fellow-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 constituency through the First Parliament of United Canada, during which he distinguished 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 continent 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 without respect to Party. At the general election for the Second Parliament, held in 1844, he was reëlected 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 Taché, and by that name he is still commonly referred to by many of his contemporaries.
Upon the formation of the second Baldwin-Lafontaine Government, in March, 1848, Colonel Taché, 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 reënter Parliament. He accordingly accepted a seat in the Legislative Council, and was sworn in on the 23rd of May. He held the Commissionership of Public Works until the 27th of November, 1849, when, on the retirement of the Hon. L. M. Viger, 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 Taché retained his portfolio. He also retained office after the formation of the Coalition Government known as the Macnab-Morin Administration, in 1854; and when Mr. Morin several months afterwards retired from the Government, and accepted a seat on the Bench, as a Judge of the Superior Court, Colonel Taché became leader of the Lower Canadian section of the Cabinet. The Coalition is thenceforward known to history as the Macnab-Taché Administration. Sir Allan Macnab retired in May, 1856, and the present Sir John A. Macdonald succeeded to his place as leader of the Upper Canadian Conservatives. As matter of fact, the leading spirit of the Government was Mr. Macdonald, though Colonel Taché 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 formation of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, and the guarantee by the Province of [Pg 187] three thousand pounds per mile towards its construction, Colonel Taché was appointed one of the Government Directors. He retained his Directorship until the month of July, 1857, when the Act abolishing the office came into operation.
When Colonel Taché resigned office as above mentioned in November, 1857, it was his intention to retire permanently to private 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 temporarily, for he was a life-member of the Legislative Council, and continued to attend the deliberations of that Body after his retirement from the Government. A year afterwards Her Majesty, in recognition of his long and important public services, conferred 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 1860.
After an absence of nearly seven years from official life, Sir Etienne was again constrained 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 parties had become so nearly even that no Government could feel safe, and legislation was almost impossible. When the Sandfield 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 Taché, 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 moderate 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 pressure 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, unless upon sufferance. The Taché-Macdonald Government was defeated before it had been in existence three months. Then followed the negotiations which resulted in Confederation. Sir Etienne lent his assistance to bring about the new order of things, and presided as Chairman at the Quebec Conference. But he was by this time nearly seventy years old, and the strain and excitement 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.
Dr. Punshon's residence in Canada was of only about five years' duration, but it was fraught with such important results to the religious Body wherewith 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 Methodism, 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 magistrates of the Borough. The entire family connection were in comfortable circumstances, and during his early years William Morley Punshon enjoyed excellent educational advantages, of which he duly availed 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 reverse 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 Doncaster to Hull. He developed unusual talents for business, and was soon entrusted with the performance of important duties such as are commonly assigned only to persons 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 contemporary English writer as "people who made religion the practice as well as the profession of their lives—who put on religion, 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 conceived any serious impressions while he remained 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. [Pg 189] In his eighteenth year he united himself to the Wesleyan Methodists, and almost immediately 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 impressive delivery. He preached his first sermon soon after completing his eighteenth year, at a village called Ellerby, in the neighbourhood of Hull. Notwithstanding his youth, the sermon is said to have been characterized, 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 mercantile 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 religious 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 devote his future life. He enlisted himself in the service as a "local preacher," a preparatory 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 College at Richmond, in Surrey, he was appointed to his first pastoral charge at Marden, in the county of Kent. His congregation there was chiefly composed of persons 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 presented 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, including Newcastle-on-Tyne, Sheffield, and Bristol. Wherever he went he attracted a large share of attention, and did much towards strengthening the Wesleyan Body. He visited London on several occasions, and there, as elsewhere, his addresses, whether from the pulpit or the platform, received very wide and favourable recognition. In 1858 he removed to London, where he published a volume of poems, entitled "Lays of Hope;" and also several lectures, including those on "John Bunyan," and "The Huguenots," with which Canadian audiences are familiar. He for some time ministered to [Pg 190] 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 Conference for the appointment of Mr. Punshon as their President. The British Conference 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 departure 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 Conference, held in July of that year. He was subsequently reëlected to the Presidential Chair five times in succession.
Canadian Methodism has always been well able to hold its own without any extraneous aid, but there is no manner of doubt that Mr. Punshon's five years' residence here gave an impetus to the Body which will be felt for many generations to come. He preached and lectured to immense 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 literally 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 animating eloquence there was a deep, faultless 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 Toronto that the accommodation at their disposal was inadequate to their requirements, and unworthy of the high and influential position which they occupied in this community. 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 proportionate 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 frequently reëchoed 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 [Pg 191] the Canadian Church at the Annual Wesleyan Methodist Conference held in Manchester in July of that year. He was enthusiastically welcomed there; and during his stay in England preached in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Newington Butts, London, on behalf of the Wesleyan Metropolitan 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 commented upon alike by the religious and the secular press, as an illustration of that liberal spirit which impels really great spirits to discard tradition and lay aside sectarian 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 Conference 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 Conference." His residence in Canada was also marked by his successful exertions in promoting 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 received with regret throughout the land, not by the Methodist Body alone, but by a large number of the adherents of other religious 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 substantial 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 Wesleyan 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. Punshon'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 engenders, the disciples of John Wesley are no longer looked upon as composing a different order of humanity from Episcopalians. All men and all sects have been compelled 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 position 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 exerted 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 contributed in a higher degree to compel its wide recognition than has William Morley Punshon.
In addition to the works already mentioned, Mr. Punshon has published a second volume of poems, entitled "Sabbath Chimes," and a volume of four sermons on [Pg 192] 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 marriage 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 October, 1871, awakened a wide-spread sympathy for the bereaved husband, both in Canada and in England. This second marriage, 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.
Mr. Mousseau was born at Berthier, in Lower Canada, in the month of July, 1838. He is a son of M. Louis Mousseau, by Sophie Duteau de Grand Pré, and a grandson of M. Alexis Mousseau, who for many years occupied a seat in the Legislative 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 Puisné Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec; second, in the office of the Hon. Thomas Kennedy Ramsay, now a Puisné Judge of the Court of Queen's Bench for that Province; and third, in the office of the late Judge Drummond 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 Publique, 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 Duguet, victimes de 1837-38.
In 1873 he was created a Queen's Counsel. He first entered public life at the general election of 1874, when he was returned in the Conservative interest as the representative of the county of Bagot in the House of Commons. He represented that constituency all through the Third Parliament. At the general election held on the 17th of September, 1878, he presented himself to his constituents for reëlection, 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 discussion of the question of amnesty to the insurgents in the North-West. He advocated "a full and complete amnesty, covering all offences committed in the North-West previous to the establishment of a Constitutional Government there." Throughout his whole Parliamentary career he has taken an intelligent part in the debates on economical 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 debates of the House. He took an uncompromising 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, 1878, was, under the circumstances, unwise and subversive of the position accorded to the advisers of the Crown since the concession of the principle of Responsible Government to the British North American Colonies. This was exactly the same resolution [Pg 194] as had been offered by Sir John Macdonald during the session of 1878, and defeated. Mr. Mousseau, in renewing it, expressly 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 government, which in his estimation Mr. Letellier had violated in dismissing the De Boucherville Administration. He reviewed exhaustively the correspondence in the case, contending (1) that even were the reasons alleged by His Honour for that act substantially 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 exaggerated and incorrect, and he repudiated the statement that the coup d'état had received the bona fide support of the people of the Province of Quebec.
On the 6th of February, 1879, Mr. Mousseau 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 complimentary 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 accept 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 institutions of the mother country."
Mr. Mousseau married Marie Louise Herselie, 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.
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 endowed 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 professional career for which he had been preparing, he beheld the famine-stricken people dying and starving around him. He remained among them until 1849, doing what he could to help them in their struggles with the destroyer. In the spring of that year he emigrated to St. John, New Brunswick, where he soon made for himself a comfortable home. He turned his attention to journalism, for which profession his talents and abilities were peculiarly suited. He possessed a good English education, had a liberal acquaintance with the Latin language, and considerable knowledge of English and foreign contemporary politics. Erelong he found himself occupying a leading position in his new home. With the assistance of some friends who recognized his intellectual worth he, in August, 1849, 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 succeeded in exerting great influence on the local political thought of the day. It always 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 supported the Liberal Party then in power. The Government, however, permitted the Prohibitive 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 Prohibitionists, to take this view of the case, and separate 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 Prohibitory Act was repealed, but the Government was not a strong one, and in the following year (1857) it collapsed, and the Liberals, [Pg 196] with Mr. Tilley, again took charge of affairs, Mr. Charles Fisher becoming Attorney-General. Mr. Anglin, however, continued 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 disapproved of it. Mr. Anglin never changed his mind regarding that Act, and the attitude assumed towards it by the Liberal Administration.
In 1860 he was elected one of the representatives 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 matters 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 Railway, now a portion of the Intercolonial. These efforts for some years appeared hopeless 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 accepting those terms. When the Fisher Cabinet proposed to buy out the contractors and build the road through Commissioners, he approved of that proposal also, and gave the Government what assistance he could, though he afterwards attacked them severely because he fancied he detected the germs of jobbery in the manner in which the work was carried on. When a proposal was made that the Intercolonial 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 opposition 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 connection, 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. Anglin was a successful candidate for the city and county of St. John. The Anti-Confederates were returned by overwhelming majorities, and Mr. Anglin became a member, 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 constructed, owned and managed by the country. 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 being 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 appearing 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 coöperate [Pg 197] with him and resist British tyranny, lent colour to these charges. The Fenians promised the New Brunswickers legislative independence if they would link their fortunes with them, and in other ways attempted to prominently identify themselves with the anti-Union movement. Of course the disunionists paid no heed to the blandishments of the ruffians over the border. Ridiculous as this Fenian excitement appears now, it did wonderful service in changing the minds of the people during the memorable struggle of 1866. The religious 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-Confederates 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 candidate for the county of Gloucester. He was returned, his majority being nearly four hundred. In 1872 he was reëlected, 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 his 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 conspicuous 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 courage of his opinions, and a good deal of his strength was expended in his denunciation of the New Brunswick School Act. Thoroughly 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 Bowell moved a resolution to the effect that the printing contract held by the Speaker with the Government was an infringement of the Independence of Parliament Act. An active debate followed, and the next day the motion 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 day 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 reëlected by his constituents. On Parliament assembling in 1878 he was again chosen Speaker. He filled this responsible office with great dignity and ability. His rulings, often involving immense research among conflicting constitutional authorities, were always rendered with strict impartiality and justice. In September, 1878, when the general elections were held throughout the Dominion, he was elected for Gloucester without opposition. Sir John Macdonald returned to power, and the ex-Speaker took his seat as one of the leading members of the Opposition.
He has been twice married: first in 1853, to his cousin, Margaret O'Ryan; and second in September, 1862, to Miss McTavish, daughter of the late Alexander McTavish, of St. John, N.B.
Lieutenant-Governor Wilmot belongs to the same family as the late Judge Wilmot, whose life has already appeared 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 Harriet Wiggins, daughter of Mr. Samuel Wiggins, a prominent merchant of St. John.
He was born at Fredericton, New Brunswick, on the 16th of October, 1809. When he was in his fifth year his parents removed to St. John, where he soon afterwards began to attend school, and where his education has been chiefly received. Upon reaching manhood he engaged in business as a shipowner and miller at St. John. He subsequently 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 Assembly of New Brunswick as representative of the city and county of St. John. He represented that constituency for a continuous period of fifteen years, during which he was twice a member of the Executive Council—viz., from 1851 to 1854, when he held office as Surveyor-General in the Partelow Government; and again from 1856 to 1857 in the Wilmot and Gray Government. He made an excellent 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 Confederation, when, in the month of May, 1867, he was called to the Senate by Royal Proclamation. Upon the formation of Sir John Macdonald's Government in October, 1878, Mr. Wilmot was sworn of the Privy Council, without portfolio. He was immediately afterwards appointed Speaker of the Senate, 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 Barron Chandler.
He has always held strong views in favour 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-General of the Province of New Brunswick from 1851 to 1854, and Provincial Secretary from 1856 to 1857. In 1865 he was a delegate on behalf of his Province to the Confederate Council of Trade held at Quebec; and in December, 1866, 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.
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 off 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 talented 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 Charlesbourg. 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 Canadien found acceptance among scholars, his letters on politics and social topics won for him many words of praise from the readers of Le Courrier des Etats Unis, 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 consult 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 [Pg 200] open arms. When the Rebellion Losses Bill was up for debate in 1849, Mr. Chauveau advocated in a striking speech the claims of the Bermuda exiles, and in the same year he obtained a committee to inquire 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 Secretary, 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 l'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 visited Europe, the British Isles and the United States, for the purpose of studying the various educational systems in those countries, 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 Quebec House of Assembly. He took his seat in both Houses. In August, 1867, Mr. Cauchon, unable to form a stable Government 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 position 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 followed by his letters to Le Courrier 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 Fantasque, and La Revue Canadienne. Later he contributed to various Lower Canadian periodicals. His novel—"Charles Guérin"—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 monument dedicated to the memory of those who fell on the Plains of Abraham, was a performance 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 followed, 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'Instruction Publique au Canada, a statistical 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 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 Brunswick. 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 grandson of Mr. Peter Fisher, a U. E. Loyalist, of the Province of New York, who settled in New Brunswick about the time of its being constituted a separate Province. Peter Fisher had a son, also named Peter Fisher, who engaged in business as a lumber-merchant in Fredericton, where his son, the subject 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 Executive Council, who subsequently became a Judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. He was admitted as an Attorney in 1831, and began to practise in his native city. In 1853 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 evidences that it would erelong attain a lusty manhood. Charles Fisher entered upon his share of the struggle with no less conscientiousness 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 1848, prepared the resolution to the effect that Earl Grey's despatch of the previous year was as applicable to New Brunswick as to Nova Scotia.11 The history of the contest which ended in the establishment of Responsible Government has been given at sufficient length in previous sketches. Mr. Fisher was associated with all the Liberal measures by which the history of the contest was marked, including [Pg 202] the reforms in the Civil Service and the securing of equal rights for all religious bodies. He continued to sit in the Assembly for the county of York until 1850, when he was defeated. In 1848 he became a member of the Executive Council, but declined 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 defence made by them was that their principles had triumphed upon the accomplishment 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 delegate. In 1852 he was appointed a Commissioner to codify and consolidate the statute law of New Brunswick, and to inquire into the procedure of the Courts of Law and Equity and into the law of evidence. In 1854 he was again elected for York, and thenceforward continued to represent that constituency in the Assembly until 1865. In 1855 he was created a Queen's Counsel. At the general election of 1857, the Government of the day was defeated on an appeal to the country, and Mr. Fisher, being on the winning side, entered the new Government as Attorney-General. He held office about four years, when, in 1861, he resigned both his office and his seat in the Government, in consequence of certain land troubles in which he was involved. He retained his seat as a private member. He espoused the Confederation project with much fervour, and attended the Quebec Conference in 1864 as a delegate on behalf of his native Province. His Union proclivities cost him his seat for York at the election of 1865; but he was reelected in March, 1866, and sat in the Assembly for his old constituency until the Union. He accepted office as Attorney-General in the Government which, in 1866, succeeded the Anti-Confederate Government led by the Hon. (now Sir) Albert James Smith, and retained office until Confederation was accomplished. He attended the final Conference in London to secure the passage of the British North America Act in 1866-67. 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 Intercolonial 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, 1868, when he was appointed a Puisné Judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, on the appointment of his old colleague, Lemuel Allan Wilmot to the Lieutenant-Governorship of the Province. On the 14th of October, 1868, he was appointed Judge of the Court of Divorce and Matrimonial Causes for New Brunswick. From that date down to the month of December last he continued to discharge his judicial duties with great efficiency. He was painstaking and conscientious, 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, and it 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 Judge was a man of fine [Pg 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 inflammation, 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 member of the Senate of the University of New Brunswick, and an honorary member of the New Brunswick Provincial Teachers' Institute. He received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the University of New Brunswick in 1866. He was an extensive reader, and had a finely cultivated mind. He was an open-handed, large-hearted man, a warm friend and a generous opponent. As lawyer, politician and private citizen, he deserved well of his native Province, and of his country.
From the foregoing outline it will be apparent that Charles Fisher played an important 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 position to which he attained during his life, 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 institutions 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 institutions which he was instrumental in securing 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 generally based on the broad principles of equity and justice."
Lieutenant-Colonel Clarke was born in the grand old cathedral city of Lincoln, England, within sound of the famous 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 connection with the Chartist movement, and consequent 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 Lincolnshire, 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 education he served his apprenticeship as a draper with Mr. John Norton of Lincoln, a prominent Radical, a warm advocate of Free Trade, and a personal friend of John Bright and Richard Cobden. Brought up amid such influences, 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 unrestricted commerce with foreign nations and the abolition of the Corn Laws. He was even in those early days an ardent believer in Free Trade and the rights of the people, and the years that have since passed over his head have witnessed no abatement 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 township 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. Having found commercial employment there, he amused 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 resided, 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 Express. He was invited to contribute other articles, and the connection led to his engagement as sub-editor of that paper. The Journal and Express was a faithful supporter of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration (which was then in power) although opposed to radical reforms. The young journalist in a few months obtained full control of its editorial columns, and launched into the advocacy of measures which were then [Pg 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 Conservatives 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 movement in favour of extended reforms not reached Canada. The young editor found the work upon a semi-weekly journal insufficient 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 Mirror, the organ of the Irish Roman Catholic party, then edited by Dr. Joseph Workman. These letters attracted considerable attention, as their radicalism was of the most pronounced character, 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 and Express terminated in 1850, when he removed to Elora, and shortly afterwards engaged in mercantile pursuits. He still, however, continued to write for the press, and was requested by Mr.—now the Hon.—William McDougall, then editing the North American, to prepare a series of articles for that paper. He furnished 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 Runner, Paris Star, Toronto Examiner and other Reform journals.
In 1852, a weekly newspaper, the Backwoodsman, was commenced in Elora, by a joint-stock company. Mr. Clarke acted as its political editor for some time, persistently 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 everyday life, were of service to her husband in facing many of the inevitable difficulties that arise during every long and busy public 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 defeated by one vote. He acted as a School Trustee for many years, and is now a member of the Elora High School Board, taking a warm interest in educational progress. While occupying a seat in the County Council he was a constant supporter of public improvements, and largely assisted in carrying out the 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 county.
In August, 1861, he was appointed Lieutenant in a Volunteer Rifle Company formed [Pg 206] in Elora. In 1866 he rose to the Captaincy, having served about three months at Chatham and Point Edward previous to and during the Fenian Raid. He was gazetted Senior Major of the 30th Wellington Battalion of Rifles, upon its formation in September 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 politics, and for many years acted as Secretary of the Reform Association of the North Riding. At the general election in 1871, he was unanimously nominated by a Reform Convention as candidate for the representation of Centre Wellington in the Ontario Legislature. He was elected over his opponent, Mr. Alexander McLaren, by a majority of 674, replacing a Conservative who had previously represented the constituency. In 1875 he was elected by acclamation, and in 1879 was reëlected by a majority of 660, his opponent 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 particular 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 second reading by a large majority. The Government 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 session, Mr. Mowat proposed a comprehensive measure, which became law, and was followed 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 Parliament 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 respected as any man in the county of Wellington. He is remarkably fond of a joke, and enjoys it, even if told at his own expense. 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 charitable in thought, word and deed.
Mr. Morgan was born in the city of Quebec, on the 14th 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 ladder. He was self-reliant, and lost no opportunity 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 Harrison, 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 latter event he had become Private Secretary to the Hon. Isaac Buchanan, who was President of the Council in the Taché-Macdonald Administration, and on the retirement of that gentleman he was appointed Private Secretary to the Hon. William McDougall, C.B., who held the office of Provincial Secretary in the Coalition Governments of Taché-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 Gamgee, of London, who had been charged with 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 control 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 historical 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 1875 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 1858, at Toronto. He also served in a similar capacity at Quebec and Ottawa, and has filled the editorial chair of two daily papers. He was associated with the late Chief Justice Harrison in editing The Poker, a humorous [Pg 208] weekly paper published at Toronto. He has also contributed to the British American Magazine, Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia, Appleton's New American Cyclopædia, etc.
In 1860 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 accompanied the Prince on his visit, testified in private letters to Mr. Morgan to the accuracy, 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 drawbacks, due chiefly to the youth and inexperience 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—missionaries, warriors, judges, statesmen, authors, officials and teachers. In the same year Mr. Morgan, after consultation with Captain Dod, commenced the publication of The Canadian Parliamentary Companion, modelled on the same plan as the English work. The Companion was continued annually by Mr. Morgan up to 1876, when he disposed of the copyright to the present proprietor. In Mr. Morgan's hands it became widely known throughout the country, and was acknowledged as a trustworthy authority on matters parliamentary, political and official.
Mr. Morgan's magnum opus is his "Bibliotheca Canadensis, or a Manual of Canadian Literature," which after long and arduous labour, lasting five years, was published in 1867. It is the only complete bibliographical 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 Directory," which embraced a full and authentic 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 indispensable to the future historian of Canada. 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, published 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 1866, 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 Geographical Society; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries of Denmark; and one of seven honorary Fellows of the Royal Colonial Institute of England.
Mr. Morgan married in 1873, Emily, second daughter of the Hon. Albert Norton Richards, Q.C., Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of British Columbia.
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 University. He emigrated to the United States while still a young man, and completed his educational training at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was afterwards for a short time a teacher of Greek in that institution. Not long before the rebellion he removed to Lower Canada, and was for some time engaged in journalism in Montreal. He edited the Morning 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 Commissioner "for the adjustment of certain important affairs affecting the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada." After serving for some time on the Education Commission Mr. Dunkin was appointed Secretary of the Post Office Commission. In 1839 he contributed to the North American Review, published at Boston, Massachusetts, a thoughtful paper on British American politics. Upon the consummation of the Union of 1841, he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Lower Canada, a position which he retained until the month of May, 1847. He had meanwhile studied law in the office of the late Mr. Alexander Buchanan, Q.C., of Montreal, and afterwards in the office of Mr. Francis Godschall Johnson, now a Puisné 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 representation of the county of Drummond in the Canadian Assembly. His successful competitor was Mr. R. N. Watts. He did not again seek Parliamentary honours until the general election of 1857, when he was returned to the sixth Parliament of Canada by the electors of Drummond and Arthabaska. 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 constituency.
Mr. Dunkin, during his Parliamentary [Pg 210] 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 recorded his votes irrespective of Party considerations. On the great question of Confederation 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 confusions 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 1864. Eventually, however, when it became apparent that no opposition on his part would be effective in defeating the project, he, during the session of 1866, avowed his determination 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 minorities in both Upper and Lower Canada. In 1867 he was created a Queen's Counsel.
In July, 1867, he was invited by the Hon. Mr. Chauveau to join the Local Cabinet of the Province of Quebec. He accepted the invitation, and entered the Quebec Cabinet as Provincial Treasurer. His duties in this position were necessarily 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 he acted with considerable deliberation, but it cannot be said that he acted otherwise than in accordance with his pledge as given in 1866, 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, 1869, when he accepted office in the Dominion Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture and Statistics. The resignation of the Hon. (now Sir) John Rose had left the British population of Quebec without a representative in the Privy Council, and Mr. Dunkin, who enjoyed the fullest 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 Puisné Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec, as successor 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 6th 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 coupled with his name, but which is more correctly 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 Canadian writer portraying Mr. Dunkin during his tenure of office as Minister of Agriculture 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 reasoning; in fact, he has sometimes been regarded as reasoning so closely as to demolish both sides of the question, and leave his audience in utter perplexity. The elaboration of detail, which is a characteristic of the legal mind, frequently obscures the [Pg 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. Dunkin 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 patriotic 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 maintaining 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 by 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 mentioned, the subject of this sketch published an address delivered at the Bar of the Legislative Assembly of Canada on behalf of certain proprietors of Seignories against the second reading of the Bill intituled "An Act to define Seignorial Rights in Lower Canada, and to facilitate the redemption thereof." This was published at Quebec in 1863. In 1855 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."
Mr. 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 Montreal, 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, 1872, 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 College, Richmond, P.Q.
Dr. Blanchet is a descendant of an old French family which settled in this country at an early period of our history, and has ever since resided in the Province of Quebec. His father was the late Louis Blanchet, of St. Pierre, Rivière du Sud, and he himself was born there on the 7th of June, 1829. He received his education at the Quebec Seminary, and at the Ste. Anne College. He chose to devote himself to the medical profession, and upon completing his professional studies he settled down to practice as a physician at the town of Lévis—commonly known as Point Levi—on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Quebec. He enjoyed a successful professional career, and acquired much popularity among his fellow-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 representation of the town of Lévis in the Canadian Assembly. At the general election of 1861 he made the attempt a second time, and was successful. He thenceforth represented Lévis in the Assembly until Confederation. At the first general election under the Union he was returned by acclamation to the House of Commons by his old constituents in Lévis; and at the election for the Local Legislature of the Province of Quebec he was also returned at the head of the poll for Lévis. Dual representation 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 electors, and was returned on the 23rd of November. He sat for Bellechasse until the close of the Third Parliament. At the general election held on the 17th of September, 1878, he offered himself as a candidate for the Commons to the electors of Lévis, in opposition to Mr. L. H. Frechette, whom he defeated by a majority of 118 votes. He now sits in the House for Lévis. Upon the assembling of the Fourth Parliament on the 13th of February, 1879, he was nominated by Sir John Macdonald, the [Pg 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 Opposition, in commenting upon the nomination, said there was no gentleman on the Ministerial 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 command 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 Lévis 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.
Christopher Salmon Patterson comes of Irish stock, but was born in London, England—where his parents at that time resided—in the year 1823. He received his primary education in London, 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 immediately 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 afterwards 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 became a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper 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 appointed 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 witnesses, 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 dignified position.
An account of the life of Jacques Cartier cannot be omitted from a work devoted 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 explore 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 discoverer of Canada.
But little is known with respect to his early life. He was born at the ancient seaport 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 battlements of ragged stone—a stronghold of privateers, the home of a race whose intractable and defiant independence neither time nor change has subdued." It had been the home of the Cartier family for many years. The presumed date of the birth of the discoverer of Canada is the 31st of December, 1494. 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 before he engaged in the more extended enterprises 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 accounts 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 monarch in Europe. Among others, Francis I., of France, determined upon securing a share of the spoil. He resolved to found an American 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 despatched 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 behalf of his sovereign. To him the world is indebted for the earliest written description [Pg 216] known to exist of the coasts which he explored. 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 expedition similar to that previously undertaken 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 thorough equipments in the following spring.
The spring of 1535 was far advanced before 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.
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 frowning cliffs 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 voyage. The favourable account given by the latter—whose names were Taignoagny and Domagaya—of the treatment they had received from their captors at once gained for the explorers the good-will of the Indians, who came flocking about them in great numbers. Next day the native potentate, whose name was Donnacona, attended by his followers 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 Indian 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 bec!"—"What a beak!" [Pg 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.12 The word kebec, in the language of the natives who were then settled on the banks of the St. Lawrence, signifies "a strait"—and this expression might very properly have been applied to the narrowing of the river at this point. After partaking of the Indian prince's hospitalities, Cartier resolved to proceed up the St. Lawrence, to Hochelaga, which was described by the natives as a great city farther up the river, and a good many days' journey. 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 intrepid white men from beyond the great salt water, urgently dissuaded him from so doing. He set sail on the 19th of September, 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 destination, and on the following morning made the rest of the journey on foot. How different 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 held converse through the medium of the two Indians, who had by this time acquired some knowledge of the French language.13 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 natives were greatly edified—and offered up a prayer, after which the party were conducted 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 accompanied him on his expedition. It was built after a fashion very different from the villages of Brittany, though subsequent explorers 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 [Pg 218] 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 sufficient number of chambers for the accommodation 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 inspecting the interior of many of the habitations, 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 neighbouring city. The Agouhanna, regarding the Breton mariner and his companions as the direct emissaries of the Great Spirit, overwhelmed 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 season 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 conveyed them on board his vessels, whereupon the sails were spread, and the expedition returned to St. Malo, arriving thither on the 16th of July, 1536. 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."
[Pg 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 appears from the facts stated above, a falsehood. The Indians, not unnaturally, were sullen and suspicious, and declined to promote a European settlement in their country. 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 uncomfortable winter. During the following summer he made occasional incursions into the surrounding country in search of precious metals. He found only a few small specimens 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. Cartier 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 neighbourhood 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 afterwards learned that the tribe which had formerly 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 resist the continual incursions of the warlike Iroquois. So that even the name of the tribe to which Jacques Cartier's entertainers belonged is unknown. From certain peculiarities in their language and architecture it is presumable that they were an offshoot 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. Lawrence 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 [Pg 230] have been revealed to the gaze of civilized mankind, and even the old world has undergone 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 establishment 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 journeying out a mile or two into the suburbs he would find the seignorial mansion of Limoilou 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 anywhere 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, abounding 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 disconsolate 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 serpents and howling beasts of prey. The mudbank 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 mountain 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, attractive suburban villas, and many other objects indicative of an advanced state of civilization. And instead of a sparse population of about a hundred and fifty Indian families gaining a rude livelihood by hunting, fishing, and primitive agriculture, Sailor Jacques would, in these days, find an active, energetic people to the number of more than a hundred thousand—composed largely of descendants of his own countrymen—engaged in almost every branch of trade under the sun, and rapidly increasing in numbers, in wealth, and in general commercial 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.
| Vol. | Page. | |
| Abbott, Hon. J. J. C., | III. | 229 |
| Aikins, Hon. J. C., | III. | 191 |
| Allan, Hon. G. W., | IV. | 170 |
| Allan, Sir Hugh, | II. | 38 |
| Allen, Hon. J. C., | I. | 185 |
| Allison, David, | III. | 149 |
| Anglin, Hon. T. W., | IV. | 195 |
| Archibald, Hon. A. G., | I. | 86 |
| Armour, Hon. J. D., | IV. | 95 |
| Aylwin, Hon. T. C., | IV. | 105 |
| Baby, Hon. F. G., | II. | 131 |
| Bagot, Right Hon. Sir C., | III. | 77 |
| Baldwin, Hon. Robert, | I. | 17 |
| Bidwell, M. S., | II. | 108 |
| Binney, Right Rev. Hibbert, | III. | 200 |
| Blake, Hon. Edward, | I. | 120 |
| Blake, Hon. S. H., | III. | 177 |
| Blake, Hon. W. H., | III. | 48 |
| Blanchet, Hon. J. G., | IV. | 212 |
| Bond, Right Rev. W. B., | III. | 154 |
| Bowell, Hon. M., | III. | 58 |
| Brant, Joseph, | I. | 59 |
| Brock, Sir Isaac, | I. | 129 |
| Brown, Hon. George, | II. | 3 |
| Burns, Rev. Alex, | II. | 41 |
| Burns, Rev. R. F., | III. | 13 |
| Burpee, Hon. Isaac, | IV. | 25 |
| Burton, Hon. G. W., | III. | 114 |
| Cabot, Sebastian, | IV. | 15 |
| Cameron, Hon. Malcolm, | IV. | 130 |
| Cameron, Hon. M. C., | III. | 130 |
| Campbell, Sir Alexander, | III. | 217 |
| Carling, Hon. John, | IV. | 110 |
| Carman, Rev. A., | II. | 167 |
| Caron, Hon. J. P. R. A., | IV. | 168 |
| Caron, Hon. R. E., | I. | 116 |
| Cartier, Hon. Sir G. E., | I. | 73 |
| Cartier, Jacques, | IV. | 215 |
| Cartwright, Hon. Sir R. J., | III. | 172 |
| Cathcart, Lord, | IV. | 166 |
| Cauchon, Hon. J. E., | IV. | 138 |
| Caven, Rev. William, | II. | 190 |
| Chauveau, Hon. P. J. O., | IV. | 199 |
| Champlain, Samuel De, | I. | 157 |
| Chapleau, Hon. J. A., | IV. | 38 |
| Chandler, Hon. E. B., | I. | 118 |
| Church, Hon. L. R., | III. | 220 |
| Clarke, Hon. Charles, | IV. | 204 |
| Connolly, Thomas Louis, | II. | 54 |
| Crawley, Rev. E. A., | IV. | 86 |
| Crooks, Hon. Adam, | II. | 139 |
| Cunard, Sir Samuel, | IV. | 182 |
| Daly, Sir D., | III. | 69 |
| Dawson, J. W., | II. | 133 |
| De Boucherville, Hon. C. E. B., | III. | 44 |
| Dewart, Rev. E. H., | II. | 221 |
| Dorchester, Lord, | III. | 116 |
| Dorion, Hon. A. A., | IV. | 65 |
| Douglas, Rev. George, | II. | 94 |
| Douglas, Sir James, | I. | 202 |
| Draper, Hon. W. H., | II. | 70 |
| Dufferin, Earl of, | III. | 1 |
| Dunkin, Hon. C., | IV. | 209 |
| Durham, Lord, | II. | 27 |
| Elgin, Lord, | II. | 97 |
| Ferrier, Hon. James, | IV. | 93 |
| Fisher, Hon. C., | IV. | 201 |
| Fleming, Sandford, | III. | 203 |
| Fournier, Hon. T., | III. | 132 |
| Fraser, Hon. C. F., | III. | 201 |
| Fréchette, L. H., | IV. | 156 |
| Frontenac, | IV. | 19 |
| Fuller, Right Rev. T. B., | IV. | 125 |
| Fyfe, Rev. R. A., | II. | 104 |
| Galt, Sir A. T., | II. | 181 |
| Galt, Hon. T., | III. | 152 |
| Geoffrion, Hon. F., | III. | 193 |
| Gourlay, R. F., | III. | 240 |
| Gowan, J. R., | III. | 236 |
| Grant, Very Rev. G. M., | I. | 167 |
| Gwynne, Hon. J. W., | IV. | 123 |
| Gzowski, Lieut.-Col. C. S., | III. | 91 |
| Hagarty, Hon. J. H., | IV. | 12 |
| Hannan, Most Rev. Michael, | III. | 128 |
| Hardy, Hon. A. S., | II. | 215 |
| Harrison, Hon. R. A., | IV. | 89 |
| Haviland, Hon. T. H., | IV. | 27 |
| Head, Right Hon. Sir E. W., | IV. | 158 |
| Head, Sir F. B., | II. | 169 |
| Hellmuth, Right Rev. Isaac, | II. | 213 |
| Henry, Hon. W. A., | II. | 205 |
| Hill, Rev. G. W., | IV. | 62 |
| Hincks, Hon. Sir F., | I. | 229 |
| Holmes, Hon. S. H., | IV. | 112 |
| Holton, Hon. L. H., | II. | 193 |
| Howe, Hon. Joseph, | II. | 115 |
| Howland, Hon. Sir W. P., | III. | 124 |
| Huntington, Hon. L. S., | IV. | 56 |
| Jack, Williams B., | IV. | 108 |
| Jameson, Anna, | II. | 57 |
| Joly, Hon. H. G., | III. | 56 |
| Jones, Hon. A. G., | III. | 167 |
| Keefer, T. C., | IV. | 134 |
| Laflamme, Hon. T. A. R., | I. | 91 |
| Lafontaine, Hon. Sir L. H., | III. | 104 |
| Laird, Hon. David, | III. | 41 |
| Langevin, Hon. H. L., | II. | 164 |
| La Salle, | III. | 79 |
| Laurier, Hon. W., | III. | 75 |
| Laval-Montmorency, Mgr. F. X., | III. | 233 |
| Letellier, Hon. Lue, | I. | 47 |
| Lewis, Right Rev. J. T., | III. | 17 |
| Lisgar, Lord, | IV. | 40 |
| Lorne, Marquis of, | I. | 1 |
| Lynch, Most Rev. J. J., | I. | 141 |
| Macdonald, Hon. James, | IV. | 69 |
| Macdonald, Hon. Sir J. A., | I. | 5 |
| Macdonald, Hon. J. S., | IV. | 28 |
| Machray, Most Rev. R., | IV. | 14 |
| Mackenzie, Hon. A., | I. | 246 |
| Mackenzie, W. L., | II. | 44 |
| Mackerras, Rev. J. H., | I. | 209 |
| MacNab, Hon. Sir Allan N., | IV. | 73 |
| Macpherson, Hon. D. L., | III. | 206 |
| Medley, Most Rev. John, | II. | 1 |
| Merritt, Hon. W. H., | IV. | 98 |
| Metcalfe, Lord, | III. | 19 |
| Monck, Lord, | IV. | 162 |
| Montcalm, | II. | 79 |
| Morgan, H. J., | IV. | 207 |
| Morris, Hon. Alex., | III. | 23 |
| Morris, Hon. Williams, | III. | 135 |
| Morrison, Hon. J. C., | IV. | 48 |
| Moss, Hon. Thomas, | I. | 254 |
| Mousseau, Hon. J. A., | IV. | 193 |
| Mowat, Hon. O., | II. | 86 |
| McDougall, Hon. William, | IV. | 147 |
| McGee, Hon. T. D., | III. | 138 |
| McKnight, Rev. Dr., | IV. | 34 |
| McMaster, Hon. William, | III. | 72 |
| McVicar, Rev. D. H., | II. | 67 |
| Nelles, Rev. S. S., | III. | 45 |
| Nelson, Wolfred, | IV. | 174 |
| Norquay, Hon. John, | III. | 170 |
| O'Connor, Hon. John, | IV. | 164 |
| Osgoode Hon. William, | III. | 133 |
| Papineau, Hon. L. J., | II. | 199 |
| Pardee, Hon. T. B., | IV. | 42 |
| Patterson, Hon. C. S., | IV. | 214 |
| Pelletier, Hon. C. A. P., | III. | 225 |
| Perry, Hon. Peter, | III. | 212 |
| Pinkham, Rev. W. C., | IV. | 104 |
| Pope, Hon. J. C., | IV. | 160 |
| Pope, Hon. J. H., | IV. | 96 |
| Proudfoot, Hon. William, | III. | 227 |
| Punshon, Rev. W. M., | IV. | 188 |
| Rand, T. H., | III. | 98 |
| Richards, Hon. A. N., | III. | 15 |
| Richards, Hon. Sir W. B., | I. | 212 |
| Richardson, Rev. James, | III. | 60 |
| Richmond, Duke of, | III. | 222 |
| Ritchie, Hon. W. J., | II. | 25 |
| Robinson, Hon. J. B., | III. | 231 |
| Robinson, Hon. Sir J. B., | IV. | 114 |
| Robitaille, Hon. T., | III. | 175 |
| Rose, Hon. Sir John, | IV. | 70 |
| Ryerson, Rev. E., | I. | 187 |
| Schultz, Dr., | III. | 109 |
| Seaton, Lord, | III. | 66 |
| Selkirk, Lord, | IV. | 50 |
| Simcoe, Governor, | I. | 174 |
| Smith, Hon. Sir A. J., | II. | 218 |
| Smith, Goldwin, | I. | 150 |
| Spragge, Hon. J. G., | IV. | 146 |
| Stafford, Rev. M., | II. | 187 |
| Strachan, Right Rev. John, | I. | 94 |
| Strong, Hon. S. H., | II. | 179 |
| Sutherland, Rev. Alexander, | IV. | 172 |
| Sweatman, Right Rev. A., | II. | 161 |
| Sydenham, Lord, | II. | 207 |
| Taché, Most Rev. A. A., | III. | 181 |
| Taché, Hon. Sir E. P., | IV. | 185 |
| Talbot, Hon. Thomas, | III. | 27 |
| Taschereau, Most Rev. E. A., | IV. | 10 |
| Taschereau, Hon. H. E., | III. | 165 |
| Tecumseh, | II. | 144 |
| Tilley, Hon. Sir S. L., | I. | 54 |
| Topp, Rev. Alexander, | III. | 54 |
| Tupper, Hon. Sir C., | II. | 73 |
| Vankoughnet, Hon. P. M. M. S., | IV. | 127 |
| Walkem, Hon. G. A., | II. | 158 |
| Williams, Hon. Sir W. F., | IV. | 5 |
| Williams, Right Rev. J. W., | III. | 90 |
| Wilmot, Hon. L. A., | III. | 156 |
| Wilmot, Hon. R. D., | IV. | 198 |
| Wilson, Hon. Adam, | III. | 215 |
| Wilson, Daniel, | IV. | 35 |
| Wolfe, Major-General James, | I. | 215 |
| Wood, Hon. E. B., | I. | 146 |
| Wood, Hon. S. C., | IV. | 67 |
| Young, G. P., | III. | 129 |
| Young, James, | III. | 209 |
| Young, Hon. John, | III. | 194 |
| Young, Sir William, | IV. | 43 |
1 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.
2 There is some evidence that he advanced several degrees farther northward than is stated above. It is impossible at this date to fix the latitude with certainty.
3 Senator Waggoman was shot in a duel about three years after his daughter's marriage to Mr. Macdonald.
4 An account of this Canadian cause célèbre will be found in Mrs. Moodie's "Life in the Clearings, versus the Bush."
5 It was opened in 1807, under the auspices of Dr. Stuart, and young Allan MacNab was one of the first pupils.
6 The same story is told of other British officers after the defeat of Plattsburg. It is, however, quite in accordance with the well-known impetuosity of Sir Allan MacNab's character.
7 See Vol II., p. 110.
8 See Vol. III., p. 247.
9 One of his best known contributions to medical literature was on this subject.
10 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.
11 See Vol. III., p. 161.
12 See the sketch of Champlain in Vol. I.
13 So say the old chronicles, but there is evidently some mistake or omission. The two Indian boys did not belong to the same nation as 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 converse which took place was chiefly by signs.
By comparison with a second digitized copy of this book, it was determined that the pages bearing the portraits for three individuals, The Most Rev. Robert Machray, The Hon. Joseph Edouard Cauchon, and The Hon. Pierre J. O. Chauveau, contained handwritten comments. These comments have been erased.
[The end of The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 4 by John Charles Dent]