=Harper, J. M.=, M.A., Ph.D., F.E.I.S., Quebec, the subject of the

following biographical sketch, was born on the 10th February, 1845, at

Johnstone, in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Dr. Harper is the son of the late

Robert M. Harper, printer, bookseller and publisher, of Johnstone, and

founder of the first weekly newspaper printed in that place. On the

maternal side, he is of Celtic origin. His granduncle, the late Robert

Montgomery, was for many years a prominent manufacturer in Johnstone,

where he was held in high esteem by his fellow citizens. Johnstone forms

part of the Paisley Abbey parish, a district famous for its schools, and

it was at one of the best of those that the subject of our sketch

received the rudiments of his education. From the parish school he went

to the Glasgow E. C. Training College, an institution founded by Stowe,

and one from which America has drawn several prominent educationists. He

entered college as a Queen’s scholar of the first rank, and after

completing the full course of study, retired with the highest

certificates granted by the lords of committee of Council on Education,

and with special certificates from the science and art department,

Kensington. After coming to this country, he became a graduate of

Queen’s University, Kingston, and some years ago he received the degree

of Doctor of Philosophy from the Illinois University, after completing

the three years post graduate course in the section of metaphysical

science. In 1881 he was unanimously elected a fellow of the Educational

Institute of Scotland, an honour seldom conferred upon teachers

labouring outside of Britain, and only upon those of advanced

experience. Before leaving Scotland he had received an appointment to an

academy in New Brunswick, where he laboured successfully for the full

term of his engagement. After several years residence in the Maritime

provinces, he was eventually appointed principal of the Victoria and

High Schools, St. John, N.B., the largest institution of the kind in

that section of Canada. Here, as elsewhere, he laboured to raise the

teaching profession in the estimation of the public, and endeavoured to

foster an _esprit de corps_ among the teachers themselves. He succeeded

in introducing many of the improved methods of imparting instruction by

holding meetings with the teachers, and otherwise followed up his

efforts in this direction by giving instruction in drawing, chemistry,

botany, and kindred subjects. In 1877 the Hon. L. H. Davies, premier of

Prince Edward Island, visited the educational institutions of St. John,

and meeting with the principal of the Victoria School, was not slow in

recognizing his worth as an educationist. After carefully examining the

system under which the St. John schools were being conducted, and no

doubt anxious to introduce such a system in his own province, he invited

Dr. Harper to accept the position of superintendent of Education in

Prince Edward Island. This generous offer, however, was declined, as the

head master of the Victoria School had no desire to leave his adopted

province. But not long after, the Victoria School building was destroyed

in the great fire of St. John, and, on hearing of the calamity, Mr.

Davies followed up his previous offer by asking Dr. Harper to assume the

principalship of the Provincial Normal School in Charlottetown. This the

latter did, but only on the understanding that he would be free to

return to St. John as soon as the Victoria School was rebuilt. While on

the island the value of his work was at once keenly appreciated. In a

letter written by the premier, in which he gives expression to the

general sentiment of the public in regard to educational progress on the

island, he says: “As a matter of fact, Mr. Harper organized the whole

school. What existed under the name of Normal School was merely a name.

He infused life and vitality into it. The bitterness of religious strife

was such when he took charge as to defy all attempts to make the school

in any sense a provincial one. By tact and judicious management, he

succeeded in overcoming all that, and under his rule the school has been

a great success. Intimately connected with him as I was for nearly two

years, I can speak of his ability, tact, and administrative power,

because he was, in addition to being principal of the Normal School,

also superintendent of the city schools. He succeeded in carrying out

the difficult task of grading Protestant and Catholic children in the

schools, so that entire satisfaction was given to the citizens. I

consider the province owes him a debt of gratitude for his successful

labours.” Nor is the testimony of others less explicit. “Mr. Harper,”

says the Rev. Mr. McLennan, “has occupied for some time the position of

principal of the Normal School of this province, and of superintendent

of the city schools, having been invited to occupy these offices by the

government for the purpose of establishing a system of training,

organization and equipment suitable to give effect to a Public School

Act, passed by the legislature in 1877. The high reputation which he

enjoyed as a teacher and writer on school affairs—the influential

situation he was filling at the time as principal of the Victoria

School, St. John, New Brunswick, and the recommendation of prominent

educationists who were acquainted with his career, pointed him out as

eminently fitted for the position offered to him in Prince Edward

Island. The heavy task which he undertook was performed with vigour,

ability, and acknowledged success. The condition of the city schools, in

point of organization and methods of instruction, was soon brought into

conformity with that which characterizes the best public schools in

other provinces. A superior public edifice was constructed at a cost of

$30,000; while in the Normal School the work of instruction and

training, conducted more immediately by himself, gave indications of the

value of that special work, virtually new in this province.” At the end

of a year or more, when Dr. Harper proposed to return to St. John, the

government of Prince Edward Island, being anxious to continue the work

of educational progress so successfully inaugurated, put forth every

effort to induce him to resign his position in New Brunswick, and to

take up his abode permanently in Charlottetown. After some delay they

succeeded, and for three years the subject of our sketch became a

resident of the island, holding during the last year of his residence,

when a change of government, in 1879, brought about the amalgamation of

the Normal School and the Prince of Wales College, the position of

professor in the amalgamated institution, with special supervision of

the department for the training of teachers. Beyond his professional

reputation, however, Dr. Harper has not failed to make his mark as a

gentleman of matured literary tastes. From his earliest years he has

taken a deep interest in literature and literary pursuits. In Nova

Scotia he took an active part in establishing a literary periodical,

devoted at its inception to the cultivation of Canadian literature, and

has continued more or less frequently to contribute to our periodical

literature in prose and verse. Many of his lyrics have been highly

praised, while some of his poems in the Scottish dialect merit a

prominent place in the literature of his native country. He also enjoys

a reputation of some distinction as a writer and compiler of school

text-books, and is the author of several excellent lectures, including

“Plato,” “The New Education,” “Cause and Effect in School Work,” and

others. The Literary and Historical Society of Quebec is indebted to him

for two valuable papers, published in the Transactions, and entitled,

“The Maritime Provinces,” and “The Development of the Greek Drama.” He

is also a contributor to the Transactions of the Royal Society of

Canada. For many years Dr. Harper was rector of the Quebec High School,

and for a season was also professor of mathematics in Morin College. At

present he holds the position of inspector of Superior schools for the

province of Quebec, being, besides, editor of the _Educational Record_,

examiner for teachers’ licenses, and secretary-treasurer of the

Protestant Board of School Commissioners. He is also president of the

teachers’ local association; vice-president of the Provincial

Association of Teachers; vice-president of the Quebec Literary and

Historical Society, and president of the St. Andrew’s Society. In the

rank of progressive educationists, Dr. Harper occupies a prominent

place. Few can show a fuller record of honest work done in the interests

of education in Canada. Indeed, he has always been most ready to lend

his experience, professional training, and literary ability to advance

the interests of a calling which is now being universally recognized as

second in importance to no other. He was married to Agnes, daughter of

William Kirkwood, of Stanley Muir, Paisley, by whom he has had two sons

and five daughters. Mrs. Harper died in 1883.

* * * * *

=Lyall, Rev. William=, LL.D., Professor of Logic and Psychology in

Dalhousie University, Halifax, is a Scotchman by birth, having been born

in Paisley, on the 11th of June, 1811. He received his primary education

in the Paisley Academy, then studied in the Glasgow College, and

afterwards spent two years in the Edinburgh University. He adopted the

ministerial profession, and was minister for some time of the Free

Church (Presbyterian), Uphall, Linlithgow. He came to Toronto, Ontario,

in 1848, and took a position as tutor in Knox College of that city. Two

years afterwards, in 1850, he removed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, receiving

the appointment of professor of classics and mental philosophy in the

Free Church College there. In 1860, on the union of the Free and United

Presbyterian churches in Nova Scotia, he held the same office in the

united colleges at Truro. In 1863, when the Collegiate Institution was

amalgamated with Dalhousie College, he was appointed to the

professorship of Logic and Psychology in the Dalhousie University,

Halifax, and this position he has continued to fill ever since.

Professor Lyall has contributed several papers on theological and

philosophical subjects to Canadian and foreign reviews. In 1855, he

published a volume on philosophy entitled “Intellect, the Emotions, and

the Moral Nature,” which was very favourably noticed by the reviewers at

the time, and which he has used as a text-book in his prelections ever

since. In 1864 he received the degree of LL.D. from McGill University,

Montreal. He is evangelical in his religious views.

* * * * *

=Johnston, Chas. Hazen Levinge=, M.D., L.R.C.S., Edinburgh, St. John,

New Brunswick, was born at St. John on the 21st December, 1843. He is

the youngest and only surviving son of the late John Johnston, who was a

graduate of King’s college, Windsor, Nova Scotia, barrister-at-law,

member of parliament for the city of St. John, and for many years police

magistrate for the same place; and grandson of Hugh Johnston, sr., who

settled in New Brunswick, in 1783, became one of the leading merchants

of St. John, and for seventeen years consecutively represented that city

and county in the legislature. This gentleman was married to Margaret

Thurburn, a Scotch lady, and a member of a very old family in

Roxburgshire. Charles H. L. Johnston, the subject of this sketch,

received his education at the Grammar School in St. John, New Brunswick,

King’s College, Aberdeen, and at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

After his return to St. John he began the practice of his profession,

and during the Fenian disturbance on the border, acted as assistant

surgeon to the militia forces. During 1876 he occupied the position of

surgeon to the Marine Hospital. Dr. Johnston joined the order of Masons

in 1872, and became worshipful master of Leinster lodge, No. 19, in

1876. He has travelled a good deal in Britain and on the continent of

Europe, and has profited professionally a good deal thereby. He has

always belonged to the Episcopal church. On June 30th, 1886 he married

Julia Augusta Barrett.

* * * * *

=Mercier, Hon. Honoré=, Premier of the Province of Quebec.—Among

contemporary Canadian statesmen, a foremost place must be assigned to

the present premier of the province of Quebec. The Hon. Honoré Mercier

is not only a man of mark by reason of his position at the head of the

government of one of the most important provinces of the Canadian

confederation, but he is a remarkable man in every sense of the term.

Speaking of him some years ago, while he was yet in opposition and

little known beyond the limits of his own province, an eminent public

writer said:—“He is certainly a man of much promise on whom this

country, quite as much as any party, can build hopes of great

usefulness.” This estimate is being daily realized. The great central

figure in a new _régime_ which commands the confidence and sympathy of

an ever increasing parliamentary and popular majority in the province of

Quebec, Mr. Mercier already fills a great space also in the eyes and

hopes of the Canadian people as a whole. His fame as a popular leader,

as a man of rare energy and ability, and as an exceptionally bold and

successful political tactician, is no longer merely local. Within a

remarkably brief period, it has extended all over the dominion, and his

name is now almost as familiar from Halifax to Vancouver as that of Sir

John A. Macdonald, whom he is said to resemble in many respects as a

strategist and a parliamentary athlete of the first rank. From

comparative provincial obscurity, he has sprung into a general

prominence and importance with a rapidity almost without parallel in

Canadian history. This circumstance is not so much due to his surprising

success as the head and front of the great so-called national movement

in the province of Quebec which followed the execution of Riel, and

obliterated to a large extent much of the old party lines there, as to

the bold and original stand which he has taken in defence of provincial

rights and interests; and which has identified him, so to speak, with

the cause of all the provinces of the Canadian confederation, against

what are termed the encroachments and centralizing tendencies of the

federal power. The subject of our sketch is a striking example of what

can be achieved by natural talent, indomitable energy and force of

character, coupled with political sagacity of a high order, and a ready

appreciation of men and opportunity. After the provincial elections of

1881, it seemed as if the Liberal party in Quebec had been irretrievably

beaten. They had been literally swept from the polls throughout the

entire province, and mustered only fifteen representatives in the House

of Assembly. It is beyond our purview to discuss the means by which this

result, as well as the party’s disaster at the federal elections in the

following year, came about. Suffice it to say that the cause seemed

hopelessly lost, and that the Conservatives appeared to have tightened

their hold more firmly than ever on the province of Quebec, which had so

long been the sheet-anchor of Toryism in Canada. Even the most ardent

Liberals, the most persevering champions of the party, were discouraged,

and if they continued the fight, it was more out of a sense of

patriotism and for the honour of the old flag than with any hope of

victory, near or remote. There was one of the number, however, who did

not despair at this dark hour of the party’s fortunes. This man was the

Hon. Honoré Mercier. With undaunted courage, with wondrous tenacity of

purpose and implicit confidence in the future, he began the work of

reorganization on the very morrow of defeat. The task of collecting the

scattered elements of the party and of leading them to victory seemed a

herculean if not an impossible one to accomplish. But Mr. Mercier did

not falter in it, and in the short space of four years he successfully

achieved what, under other circumstances, would have taken at least a

quarter of a century. Under his skilful leadership the vanquished of

1879 and 1881 have become the victors, and Mr. Mercier now reigns

supreme in the province of Quebec. Throughout his whole career he seems

to have been actuated by two grand ideas, one of which was to enlarge

his policy and the basis of his party, to close up the breaches in it,

to gather around him patriotic men without distinction of origin or

party, and to throw open to all a broad ground of conciliation; and the

other, which has been perhaps the most fruitful, to conquer the hearts

of the people and to make his cause a popular one in the fullest sense

of the term. Few public men have been better endowed by nature for the

purpose. Still in the hey-day of life and manly vigour, Mr. Mercier

combines great physical gifts with large magnetic personal influence.

His face is of the Napoleonic type, and suggestive of extraordinary

mental power and force of character. He looks in every sense of the

words a man born to command; but, behind the mask of imperiousness, lies

a fund of geniality and good nature which has earned for him the respect

of his adversaries and the undying devotion of his friends through good

and evil fortune. Much of his popularity no doubt is due to his

political capacity, but still more of it may be ascribed to the

generosity of his character and the fidelity of his personal and party

friendships. From his very first appearance in the public arena, it was

clear to every one that he was essentially a popular leader; but recent

events have proved that he possesses in an eminent degree also all the

qualities of a successful political leader,—ability, tact, diplomacy,

decision of character, foresight, the statesmanlike breadth of view

which soars beyond the triumphs of the hour to grasp the necessities of

the morrow, and that loyalty which inspires confidence and renders

alliances durable. As an orator, it may be fairly said that he has few

equals. Few public speakers of his day excel him in the art of swaying

an audience, whether cultured or illiterate. He touches their feelings

or appeals to their reason with a force and a logic that always tell. A

brilliant lawyer and a perfect master of parliamentary fence, he has

also been described as belonging to that class of men who are always

ready for duty, always equipped for a fight, and his blows invariably

tell with sledge-hammer force. At the same time it must be conceded that

he is a manly fighter, never taking an unfair advantage of an adversary,

and always showing the courteous and polished Frenchman’s aversion to

unnecessarily wound the feelings of others. His astonishing industry

also constitutes one of his chief claims to the admiration of his

friends, coupled with the courage and pluck which has carried him to

victory against what at one time appeared the most desperate odds. He

has lived a busy life, divided between journalism, law and politics; but

it is mainly in his public capacity that his assiduity and powers of

application have come to be most known and appreciated. Whether as

leader of the Opposition or of the Government, he has been and is an

indefatigable worker, always at his post and accomplishing more in a day

than other public men usually do in weeks. Another secret of his great

prestige among his fellow countrymen is to be found in his acute and

rapid perception of the drift of popular opinion in his province, and

the people’s growing confidence in the earnestness of his patriotism. As

already stated, Mr. Premier Mercier is still in the full prime and

vigour of life, his age being only forty-seven. He first saw the light

in Iberville county, in the year 1840. He comes of a family of simple

farmers, or _habitants_, as they are styled in Lower Canada, originally

from Old France, but settled for several generations in the county of

Montmagny, below the city of Quebec. His father was not wealthy, and had

to provide for the wants of a large household; but he was a man of

energy and foresight, and thought no sacrifice too great to arm his

children for the battle of life by means of a liberal education. At the

age of fourteen years, young Mercier was sent to the Jesuits’ College in

Montreal to complete his education, which he finally did after a

brilliant course of study; and, even to the present day, the premier of

Quebec reverts with pleasurable recollection to his early struggles

after knowledge, and loses no occasion to testify his affectionate and

grateful regard for the masters who first taught his “young idea how to

shoot.” The ardour with which he took up the cause of the Jesuits during

last session of the Quebec legislature, and championed it to victory in

the passing of their charter bill, is largely explained by this feeling,

strengthened by the conviction that the legislature had no warrant to

refuse to one religious order the ordinary privilege of civil rights

which it had so freely granted to others. Like the vast majority of his

French Canadian fellow countrymen, the premier of Quebec is, of course,

a Roman Catholic, and imbibed a lively faith in the doctrines of that

church from his parents and the teachers of his youth. That faith has

not diminished, but increased with his maturer years. Still there was a

time, and not yet very remote either, when, on account of his political

liberalism and alliances, his orthodoxy was more than once seriously

questioned by his political foes to his personal and party detriment.

However, this has all passed away. It is now conceded by Papal authority

that a man may be a Liberal in politics and yet a good Catholic; and the

Lower Canadian clergy have come to understand that Mr. Mercier is not

only a sincere Catholic in theory and practice, but that the interests

of their church are as safe in his hands as in those of the

self-constituted champions who proclaim their zeal for the faith from

the housetops. At the same time, he is no narrow-minded bigot. There is

probably no public man in the dominion free from religious or sectional

bias. He never asks “the brave soldier who fights by his side in the

cause of mankind, if their creeds agree.” A French Canadian in heart and

soul, and a thorough son of the soil, still strict and impartial justice

to all classes, races and creeds; undue favour to none, seems to be the

motto upon which he has always acted in the past and desires to act in

the future. Now, to return to the career of our subject. Some time after

leaving college, young Mercier decided to make the law his profession.

He accordingly entered the office of Laframboise & Papineau, at St.

Hyacinthe, and was admitted to practice in 1865. But, three years before

this event, he may be said to have entered public life, towards which

the ardent young man felt himself irresistibly attracted. In 1862, at

the age of twenty-two years, he became editor-in-chief of the _Courrier

de St. Hyacinthe_, and made his mark as a vigorous and trenchant

political writer. This was before confederation, during the Sandfield

Macdonald-Sicotte administration. To that government, with its liberal

and moderate policy, and its programme of conciliation between Upper and

Lower Canada, the young journalist gave a warm support. But in the

excited state of public opinion in the two provinces at the time, the

task of pacification which it had undertaken was beyond its strength,

and after a short and stormy existence, it succumbed. At this stage in

Canadian history the political situation was exceedingly strained. Not

only were parties in the legislature about evenly balanced, but Canadian

politics were complicated by such burning and difficult questions as the

Separate Schools, Representation by Population, and the construction of

the Intercolonial Railway. Finally, despairing of reducing this apparent

chaos to order, Mr. Sicotte retired, and Sandfield Macdonald

reconstructed the cabinet by taking in from Lower Canada Mr. Dorion, now

Sir A. A. Dorion, chief-justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench of the

province of Quebec, and by openly repudiating the principle until then

recognized of the double majority. Mr. Mercier who, in the _Courrier de

St. Hyacinthe_, had sustained the Sicotte administration, went over to

the opposition with his leader. He continued, with Cartier and a group

of moderate liberals, to form part of the opposition, which he then

regarded as a national opposition, and his powerful pen in the _Courrier

de St. Hyacinthe_ contributed immeasurably to the defeat of the

ministerial candidate when the seat for St. Hyacinthe became vacant by

Mr. Sicotte’s elevation to the bench. When the confederation scheme was

broached in 1864 as the only means of cutting the Gordian knot of the

political deadlock between the united provinces of Upper and Lower

Canada, Mr. Mercier, who had supported Cartier in his opposition to the

Macdonald-Dorion ministry, felt himself unable to approve his alliance

with George Brown for the establishment of confederation, believing that

the realization of the latter would be the death-warrant of the French

Canadian influence, that the project was only another expedient to

retain power in Tory hands, and that behind it, in the mind of Sir John

A. Macdonald, lurked a long-meditated design to force a legislative

union upon the provinces. His views, however, in this respect, were

shared only by a small minority, and he resigned in consequence the

editorial chair of the _Courrier de St. Hyacinthe_. But, later on, in

1865, when the project was regularly discussed in parliament, Mr.

Mercier’s objections to it found expression through an opposition on the

floor of the house; weak in numbers, it is true, but resolute and

untiring in their efforts to render it less obnoxious to the French

Canadians, and more favourable to the rights of the provinces. All or

nearly all of the causes of friction which have since developed between

the central and the local governments in the working of the new

constitution, were then exhaustively ventilated by the liberals. They

demanded, with Mr. Holton, that the Federal Act should expressly

recognise the sovereignty of the provinces, and that only restricted and

delegated powers should be conferred on the central government. They

protested against the mode of constituting the Senate, the principle of

the nomination of the lieutenant-governors by the federal ministry, and

the right of veto upon the acts of the Provincial legislatures. To every

assault upon the integrity of the scheme, Cartier invariably opposed the

stereotyped reply that the Federal Act was a “sacred compact,” and that

not one line of it could be altered without provoking a breach with the

other provinces. This _non possumus_ style of argument was successful in

procuring the rejection of all the amendments proposed in the parliament

of united Canada. But it found no echo in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,

whose legislatures, while approving the confederation principle, refused

to ratify the scheme in all its details. The whole question, with the

right of amendment, seemed to be thus thrown open anew, and the hopes of

the Lower Canadians, who looked to extract the most protection for their

province from the project, once more revived. Meanwhile, while these

events had been transpiring, Mr. Mercier had resumed the editorial

direction of the _Courrier de St. Hyacinthe_ in the month of January,

1866, having formed with Mr. de la Bruère, now speaker of the Quebec

Legislative Council, Mr. Bernier, now superintendent of Education in

Manitoba, and Paul de Cazes, his brother-in-law, a syndicate whose

programme, in view of the adoption of the new constitution, was to give

it _fair play_ and to endeavour to make the most of it, after

Lafontaine’s example in 1840. The opposition of the Maritime provinces

having re-opened, _de jure_, the right of amendment, Mr. Mercier and his

colleagues hailed the event with gratification; but, to their surprise,

in February, 1866, _La Minerve_, of Montreal, and other newspapers,

began to spread the rumour that the question would not be again

submitted to the Canadian legislature, and that Cartier had consented to

refer the settlement of the difficulties to Imperial arbitration.

Thereupon, the managers of the _Courrier de St. Hyacinthe_ published an

article in which they distinctly declared that, if the principle of

arbitration was accepted, they would go into opposition. A fortnight

later, Cartier proposed to refer the pending difficulties to Imperial

arbitration, and there was nothing left to Mr. Mercier and his

colleagues of the _Courrier_ but to execute their threat and transfer

their talents and influence to the opposition. They were unanimous on

the subject, and the article announcing their determination was prepared

by Mr. de la Bruère. But, before it could be published next morning,

Messrs. de la Bruère and Bernier, who have ever since remained

Conservatives and attached to the fortunes of Sir John A. Macdonald,

suddenly changed their views and refused to allow it to appear. A

rupture ensued between the partners, and Mr. Mercier and Mr. de Cazes

withdrew from the _Courrier de St. Hyacinthe_, this time for good. There

is reason to believe that the turn of events at this stage so disgusted

Mr. Mercier with politics that he resolved to abandon them altogether.

At all events he retired from public life, and during the next five

years devoted himself exclusively to the practice of his profession as a

lawyer, only reappearing on the scene in 1871, after confederation, on

the formation of the _Parti National_. As the occasion and objects of

this movement in the province of Quebec may be either forgotten or not

well understood at the present day, it may be useful to recall that the

attitude of the Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald on the

New Brunswick Separate School question in 1871, as later on the Riel

question in 1886, provoked a split among his Conservative following from

Lower Canada. A number of bold and ardent French Canadian spirits

conceived that the opportunity was a favourable one to make another

effort for the triumph of the principles for which they had so long and

unsuccessfully battled, to set aside all party divisions and to rally

under one standard all patriotic souls, Liberal and Conservative, in

order to secure the predominance of the provincial influence over the

hybrid alliances by which a majority was constituted and maintained in

the Federal parliament. In other words, the promoters of the national

movement held that in a confederation honestly and properly worked, the

representatives of the people should above all regard themselves as

plenipotentiaries of the provinces, and that instead of dividing into

conservatives and liberals, it was their first duty to group themselves

by provinces for the common defence of their provincial or national

interests. At the head of the new party were such men as Messrs. Holton,

Dorion, Loranger, Laframboise, Jetté, Mercier, F. Cassidy, L. O. David,

and Béique, in the Montreal district, and Messrs. Letellier de St. Just,

Joly, Thibaudeau, Langelier, Pelletier, and Shehyn, in the district of

Quebec. Their platform included protection, complete provincial

autonomy, and decentralization, vote by ballot, the trial of election

contestations by the law courts, the abolition of dual representation,

suppression of the Legislative Council, economy in the public

expenditure, and the suspension of the construction of the Canadian

Pacific Railway until the resources of the country warranted the

completion of that great work without saddling the people with the

burthens of a ruinous debt. Mr. Mercier threw himself heart and soul

into this movement, which promised to realize his dearest aspirations.

He lent powerful assistance to the election of his friend, Hon. F.

Langelier, for Bagot county, and in the following year, at the general

elections of 1872, he was himself returned as the federal member for

Rouville. On the meeting of the Dominion parliament in 1873, he took an

active and leading part in the exciting debate on the New Brunswick

Separate Schools question, and, with Hon. John Costigan from that

province, then plain Mr. Costigan, he also eloquently defended Rev.

Father Michot, a Catholic priest, whose goods had been destrained, and

person imprisoned for debt by the authorities of New Brunswick, because

of his refusal to pay tax towards the support of the Protestant schools.

The result was that the government was beaten by a majority of

thirty-five through the French Canadian vote, supported by the Liberals

of Ontario; but Sir John A. Macdonald refused to recognize this adverse

decision as a ministerial defeat, and announced his intention of

referring the question of the New Brunswick schools to the Imperial

government. A cabinet crisis was thus averted for the moment, but it was

destined to be not long delayed. The last echoes of the fierce debate on

the school question had hardly died away, when suddenly and almost

without a note of warning, the astounding revelations which have since

passed into history under the title of “The Pacific Scandal,” were

sprung upon the parliament and country. In the midst of the most intense

excitement all over the dominion, parliament adjourned in May, 1873, and

between that date and the following August, when it was to meet again,

Mr. Mercier was one of the most active in stumping the province of

Quebec against the government, and in promoting the petition to the

governor-general against the alleged intention to prorogue the house. To

the prayer of this petition, however, Lord Dufferin did not deem it

advisable to assent, and parliament was prorogued on the very day of its

reassembling in August. But it was called again towards the end of

October, and, after a seven days’ debate, which will remain forever

memorable in Canadian annals, Sir John A. Macdonald announced that he

had placed his resignation in the hands of his excellency. Two days

later, the Liberal government of Mr. Mackenzie was formed, followed two

months later, in January, 1874, by a dissolution of the Dominion

parliament. At the general elections which ensued, Mr. Mercier had

intended to again offer as a candidate for the county of Rouville in the

interest of the new Liberal ministry; but, as another Liberal candidate

of much local influence, Mr. Cheval, also proposed to run, he withdrew

from the field rather than create a division, which might throw the

constituency into Tory hands. In 1875 he once more reappeared on the

scene in Bagot, which he stumped in favour of Mr. Bourgeois, now a judge

of the Superior Court, with whom he had formed in 1873 one of the

strongest law partnerships in the country. In 1878, when Mr. Delorme,

the Liberal member for St. Hyacinthe, and now clerk of the Quebec

Legislative Assembly, retired from the representation of that county,

Mr. Mercier manned the breach in the Liberal interest; but was defeated

by Mr. Tellier, the Conservative candidate, who carried the seat by the

narrow majority of six votes. But for that disappointment he was

consoled in the very following year by the brilliant victory on the same

ground, which ratified his entry into the provincial government, and was

the prelude to a new and more important phase of his public life. In

March, 1879, when Hon. Mr. Joly, the then Liberal premier of Quebec,

invited Mr. Mercier to fill the cabinet vacancy created by the death of

Mr. Bachand, his ministry was virtually in a moribund condition. It did

not command a large enough majority, and above all one sufficiently

solid to survive the restoration of Sir John A. Macdonald to power at

Ottawa, after the fall of the Mackenzie government. Coming events were

already casting their shadows before; the Letellier question, as it was

called, had waxed in bitterness; and there is little doubt that Mr. Joly

and his colleagues foresaw clearly the near approach of their own

official death. But they had resolved, for the honour of the cause and

its future interests, to fight it out bravely and worthily to the end.

They needed the help of a sturdy and experienced spirit for the purpose,

and Mr. Mercier, who did not hesitate a moment about undertaking the

task, was a few days afterwards elected to the Quebec legislature for

St. Hyacinthe by the large majority of 307 votes. As solicitor-general

in Mr. Joly’s cabinet, Mr. Mercier’s official career was too brief to

permit of his displaying more than the qualities of an admirable law

officer of the Crown; but, on the floor of the Quebec Assembly, he at

once took a foremost place as an orator, debater and legislator. After

the fall of the Joly cabinet, Mr. Mercier momentarily entertained the

idea of retiring from public life for good and all, not that he

despaired of the righteousness in his own mind of the cause which he

supported, but more probably because this last attempt of the Liberals

to capture and hold Quebec province, in which he had been called to take

a too tardy part, had strengthened his long rooted conviction, that that

party as then constituted in Lower Canada, were acting on too narrow and

defective a basis to make successful headway against the existing

combination of Tory interests and prejudices. Accordingly, having in the

meantime removed in March, 1881, from St. Hyacinthe to Montreal, where

he had formed a new law partnership with Messrs. Beausoleil & Martineau,

he announced his intention to not come forward at the general elections

of that year. This announcement produced a most powerful sensation

throughout the province, but especially among his constituents of St.

Hyacinthe, who, regardless of their party divisions, rose as one man to

beg of him to reconsider his decision, which he finally did after long

and earnest reflection, when he was returned once more to the

legislature by acclamation. About this period of his career, or shortly

afterwards, occurred the incident of the coalition, which came very

nearly splitting up the Liberal party. Enlightened men in the ranks of

both parties in the province felt that the existing state of things

could not continue much longer; that their public men were wasting their

energies in fruitless contention; and that ruin, political and

financial, stared Quebec in the face unless the politicians on both

sides clasped hands to forget old feuds and to form a strong coalition

government on the broad national ground which might fearlessly apply the

heroic remedies demanded by the critical nature of the situation. Mr.

Mercier was all the more open to the advances made him from the other

side, both during the administrations of Mr. Chapleau and his successor,

the late Mr. Mousseau, in favour of this new departure, that he had

strenuously advocated a policy of conciliation and union for the

national good throughout his whole public life. He probably made a

mistake in supposing that the hour was ripe for the fruition of such a

policy, and that nothing more was needed to a general conviction of its

necessity. But even so, the error was a generous one, prompted by

patriotism. The proposals for a coalition, however, did not emanate from

Mr. Mercier, but from his adversaries, that he only consented to

entertain them upon certain well defined and strictly honourable

conditions, and that in the entire business he was true to the

controlling idea of his career as to the absolute necessity of union for

the salvation of his native province. In the beginning of the session of

1883, Hon. Mr. Joly resigned the direction of the provincial Liberal

party, and Mr. Mercier was unanimously chosen to succeed him, on Mr.

Joly’s own motion, as the leader of the opposition. In this new and

important role he at once found fitting opportunity and scope to display

the great qualities which in so brief a period have placed him in the

foremost ranks of French Canadian statesmen. Within the short space of

three years he successively showed what an able and intrepid leader can

do with the support of a small but disciplined and trusty band of

parliamentary followers, to retrieve the fallen fortunes of his party,

and to defend and lead to victory a popular cause the moment

circumstances placed it in his hands. During the first portion of his

task, Mr. Mercier maintained a struggle which cannot be otherwise

characterized than as heroic. With a following in the House of Assembly

reduced to fifteen members against fifty, he kept in check three

successive governments of his adversaries, and if he did not succeed in

defeating the two first by a vote, he at least forced them to take

flight. One after the other, Messrs. Chapleau and Mousseau were

compelled to retire from the field, admitting themselves to be too

grievously stricken to continue the fight any longer against so sturdy

an opponent, whose scathing denunciations of their policy and

administrative methods were gradually arousing public opinion from its

apathy with regard to the financial and political dangers that seemed to

threaten the safety of the province. During this period, too, as well as

during the rule of the succeeding Ross administration, Mr. Mercier not

only exerted a mighty influence on current legislation, but proved

himself the fearless and ardent defender of provincial rights, and lost

no occasion to condemn in forcible terms what he had characterized as

the grovelling and ruinous subserviency of the provincial conservatives

to the overshadowing influence of Ottawa. His sympathy with the cause of

constitutional liberty also found strong expression on more than one

occasion in support of the Irish Home Rule movement and against

coercion, and the various resolutions of the Quebec legislature on the

subject either owed their paternity to him or in a large measure their

adoption. From the session of 1886, the last of that parliament, the

Ross ministry emerged woefully crippled by the sustained vigour of Mr.

Mercier’s assaults, and with the outlook for the general elections

complicated and darkened for the success of the Tory cause by the Riel

affair. Still, even under the circumstances, it is doubtful whether,

with the influence and active assistance of the Ottawa government, and

in the usual way, Mr. Ross would not have carried a majority of the

constituencies but for the split in the conservative ranks and the

astounding energy and ability thrown by Mr. Mercier into the campaign,

which preceded the general elections, and which was probably the most

anxious and exciting ever fought in Lower Canada. As the accepted leader

of the new National party formed in that province out of a combination

of the liberals and conservative bolters, he not only directed the whole

movement, but personally traversed the province almost from end to end,

addressing as many as one hundred and sixty public meetings, and

everywhere making his influence felt for the promotion of the cause. The

elections came on in October, 1886, and resulted in a victory for the

Nationals. But for several months afterwards the country was kept in a

painful state of ferment by the refusal of the Ross government to

recognize their defeat or to call the legislature. It has been charged

that they spent the interval in endeavouring to seduce the few National

Conservatives elected from their allegiance to Mr. Mercier; but, if so,

they failed, and the circumstance only tends to further attest his tact

and skill as a political manager and strategist. Finally they were

compelled by the force of public opinion to meet the representatives of

the people in January, 1887, when Mr. Mercier and his supporters met

with a triumphal reception at the provincial capital, and the popular

verdict rendered against the Tories at the polls in October was ratified

by a majority of nine in the House of Assembly on the first vote for the

election of the speaker. Still the Ross ministry would not resign until

Mr. Mercier rendered their humiliation more complete by taking the

control of the house out of their hands, and carrying the adjournment

against their will, amid one of the most exciting scenes ever witnessed

in legislative halls. In a few more hours the Ross administration had

ceased to exist. Mr. Mercier was called upon by the lieutenant-governor

to form a new cabinet, and in less than twenty-four hours more, with his

usual decision and promptitude, he had made his choice of his

colleagues, and announced it to the legislature and the country, both of

which received it with marked satisfaction. He also demanded and

obtained an adjournment of both houses until the following March, in

order to allow of his own re-election and that of his colleagues (which

took place in each case by acclamation), and to get time to prepare his

programme for the regular work of the session, when the speech from the

throne was delivered, and he publicly appeared for the first time as

leader of the Government and the Assembly. Considering the shortness of

the time at their disposal for preparation, the policy formulated by the

new government constituted a very satisfactory instalment of the reforms

which Mr. Mercier and his friends had advocated while in opposition. Its

principal planks were the restoration of the finances to a sound basis,

the readjustment of the representation, and the better protection of

provincial rights and autonomy. The measures proposed for the purpose by

ministers, with the exception of that relating to the readjustment of

the representation which was held over for more exhaustive study until

another session, were all sanctioned by the house, and by the end of the

session the government’s majority had materially increased in the

Assembly, while in the Crown-nominated branch, the Legislative Council,

much less partisan obstruction was encountered than had been

anticipated. Its close left him more firmly seated in the saddle than

ever, and with an addition to his prestige and popularity, which has

been since largely increased by the marvellous success of his

administration as evidenced in the settlement of the long pending

dispute with Ontario, respecting the division of the Common School Fund,

and the unusually advantageous negotiation of the new provincial loan of

three and a half millions. These and a number of other happy incidents

of his official career thus far have been attributed by his adversaries

to good luck; but there is far more reason to think that they are

ascribable to good management. In his profession, Mr. Mercier has risen

to the highest honours. He is actually the attorney-general as well as

the premier of Quebec. He has been twice _bâtonnier_ of the bar of the

Montreal district, and the respect entertained for him by his legal

colleagues is so great that they unanimously elevated him not long since

to the still more distinguished eminence of _bâtonnier-général_ of the

bar of the province. It is not given to man to pierce the veil that

conceals the future from human ken, but, judging of Mr. Mercier’s future

by his past, there is reason to confidently hope for much solid and

lasting good to the province of Quebec and indirectly to the Dominion,

from his continuation at the head of the public administration of that

important member of the Canadian confederation where his presence has

already worked a marked change for the better. That he has been the

object of serious misrepresentation in the past there can be no manner

of doubt. Heralded to the world as the apostle of an advanced radicalism

which in reality has no representative in this country, he has not only

preached, but practised a different gospel, and in office has proved

himself to be unusually moderate and conciliatory, as well as a man of

broad and generous views, free from sectionalism, and exceedingly

anxious to do justice to all races, classes and creeds, yet fully

determined to work out the regeneration of his native province on the

great lines of reform which he has ever regarded as essential to that

desirable end. Alarmists, for partisan purposes, may affect to believe

that he is unfriendly to the rights and privileges of the English

speaking minority in the province of Quebec; but he has done nothing yet

to warrant that impression, and in the speech which he delivered at St.

Hyacinthe, on the 16th June last (1887), during the great demonstration

there in his honour, he emitted no uncertain sound on the subject. On

that occasion he made use of the following language, which should, it

seems, dissipate the last remnant of apprehension, if any be

entertained, as to the fair-minded spirit by which he is actuated:—

We have endeavoured during the last session to remove the

regrettable prejudices which our enemies have succeeded in

creating in the hearts of the Protestant minority against us,

and especially against myself. We did not concern ourselves with

the injustice of which we have been the victims, and we have

always been just and sometimes very liberal towards Protestants.

We were determined to revenge acts of injustice by acts of

justice, and to answer injuries by acts of kindness and words of

courtesy. All the English Protestant members of the legislature,

with the exception of one, have systematically and invariably

voted against us, and have refused to grant us that “British

fair play” of which Englishmen so much boast. This conduct on

the part of the minority has not made us deviate from the right

path—the path of justice; we have been just towards the

minority as if it had been likewise just towards us, and we will

continue to give it that “British fair play” which its

representatives in the legislature have so constantly refused to

accord to us. But let the Protestant minority permit me to say

now, before this immense audience, composed for three-fourths of

French Canadians and Catholics, that the National Party will

respect and cause to be respected the rights of that minority;

that the National Party desires to live in peace and harmony

with all races and creeds; and that it intends to render justice

to all, even to those who refuse to render it in return.

In private life the premier of Quebec is a charming conversationalist,

and one of the most genial of companions. He has been twice married,

firstly, to Léopoldine Boivin, of St. Hyacinthe, who died leaving one

daughter; and lastly, to Virginie St. Denis, also of St. Hyacinthe.

Madame Mercier is one of the most distinguished members of French

Canadian society, and fittingly adorns the prominent position to which

she has been called by the side of her eminent husband.

* * * * *

=Chamberlain, David Cleveland=, Insurance and General Agent, Pembroke,

Ontario, was born at Point Fortune, province of Quebec, on the 22nd

July, 1838. His father was Hiram Chamberlain, and his mother, Elizabeth

Minerva Hayes. The family removed from Point Fortune in 1842, to a place

on the Ottawa river, a new settlement in the township of Westmeath, in

Renfrew county, then known as the Head of Paquett’s Rapids. Though at

the time the place was little better than a wilderness, Mr. Chamberlain,

sen., began to manufacture lumber, and successfully carried on this

business until his death, which occurred in Quebec city in 1854, from

cholera. He left a family consisting of a widow and six children, the

subject of our sketch being the eldest. After securing some education at

the public school, David engaged himself as clerk with Alexander Fraser,

a lumber merchant, who, by the way, subsequently married his sister, and

with this gentleman he remained until 1868, when he removed to Pembroke,

and began business on his own account as a merchant. He continued to

trade until 1876, and then gave up mercantile pursuits, adopting in lieu

thereof a general insurance agency. Since then he has worked hard, and

has succeeded in building up a profitable business in that line. He now

represents in that district of country twelve of the principal English

and Canadian fire insurance companies, and the Standard Life Insurance

Company of Scotland, doing business in Canada. Outside of business, Mr.

Chamberlain has taken a part in the world’s work. He is a member of the

Oddfellows’ organization; has been a school trustee; was for twelve

years a member of the High School board; treasurer of the township of

Westmeath; and at present is treasurer of the school moneys of the town

of Pembroke. He belongs to the Methodist denomination; and in politics

is a Liberal-Conservative. On January 10, 1860, he married Martha Maria

Huntington, daughter of Erastus Huntington, and has a family of five

children living.

* * * * *

=Angers, Hon. Auguste Réal=, Judge of the Superior Court, Quebec, was

born in the city of Quebec on the 4th of October, 1838. His father, F.

R. Angers, was a lawyer who occupied a distinguished position at the

Quebec bar. Justice Angers studied at Nicolet College, in the province

of Quebec, and entered his father’s office to study law. He was admitted

to the bar in 1860, and practised his profession with marked success in

the law firm of Casault, Langlois and Angers. In 1874, he was made a

Queen’s counsel. When the Hon. J. E. Cauchon resigned his seat in 1874,

the electors of the county of Montmorency elected him to represent them

in the provincial parliament. In the same year the Hon. M. de

Boucherville was called upon to form a new cabinet, and he offered the

portfolio of solicitor general to Mr. Angers, whose brilliant reputation

had marked him as a future minister. He accepted, taking the oath on the

22nd of September, and therefore becoming a minister without ever having

occupied a seat in parliament. In 1875 Mr. de Boucherville taking a seat

in the Legislative Council, the leadership of the Assembly fell into the

hands of Mr. Angers, who became attorney-general on the 26th January,

1876. Messrs. Angers and de Boucherville worked harmoniously together,

both being scrupulously honest and equally devoted to the public

interests. At that time the North Shore Railway, which had been talked

about for thirty years, was yet in an embryo state, private enterprise

having failed to carry out the scheme; they resolved to build the road

as a government work, with the help of the municipalities which had

voted liberal grants towards the construction of the road, Montreal and

Quebec having given $1,000,000 each. The wonderful debating powers of

Mr. Angers, and his keen foresight in looking upon this railway as the

future link of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and probably of a direct

route to the seaboard, helped to carry the measure. Thanks to the

construction of the North Shore Railway, Montreal, the metropolis of

Canada, and Quebec became _de facto_ the terminal points of the Canadian

Pacific Railway, and since the completion of this gigantic national

highway, Montreal has added 40,000 to her population. As a legislator,

Mr. Angers ranks among the foremost representative men of the Dominion;

the Electoral Act and the Controverted Elections Act bear testimony to

his intimate knowledge of law. The former act has been universally

admitted by the courts to be superior to the Dominion act, while the

latter ranks equally high. The _enquête_ is made before one judge only,

and the case is pleaded before three judges, whose decision is final,

whereas in the case of the Federal law, a controverted election case

that can be carried in appeal to the Supreme Court is distasteful to the

people of the province of Quebec, and an appeal invariably entails long

delays and enormous costs. The Superannuated Fund law, providing for the

widows and orphans of civil servants, is also due to Mr. Angers. This

law is now in force, and gives satisfaction to all the parties

concerned. Not the least important of the laws introduced by Mr. Angers,

and carried through the Lower House, in 1876, was the act framed by the

government concerning education, and giving control to both Catholics

and Protestants over their respective educational matters. It was mainly

due to his efforts that the new departmental buildings were erected in

Quebec, this being a guarantee that the historic city and the capital of

letters of the Dominion will permanently retain the seat of provincial

government. Montreal and many other municipalities having failed to meet

their obligations with respect to the grants they had voted to the North

Shore Railway, a measure was introduced during the session of 1877-8, to

compel these municipalities to hand over the amounts they owed to the

provincial treasury. Great importance was attached to this measure,

inasmuch as the province would have had to pay the large amounts

subscribed by the municipalities if the latter were allowed to evade

their just liabilities. This bill, however, as well as another

government measure having for its object an increase of revenue, created

some agitation in political circles. The lieutenant-governor, Mr.

Letellier de Saint-Just, a strong Liberal partisan, who had been a

bitter enemy of the Conservative party during twenty years, dismissed

the de Boucherville administration from power on divers pretexts, proved

groundless since, alleging among other pretences, that the premier had

not obtained the consent of the Crown before introducing the two

measures above mentioned. It was shown afterwards that Mr. de

Boucherville had obtained from the lieutenant-governor a blank form for

the introduction of the government’s financial measures. On the

dismissal of Mr. de Boucherville, the subject of our sketch took the

leadership of the Conservative opposition, and caused the legislature to

adopt several votes of want of confidence in the Liberal government,

with Mr. Joly as premier. The latter appealed to the electorate, and at

the general election held on the 28th of May, 1878, Mr. Angers was

defeated in his constituency (Montmorency) by a vote of twelve. His

defeat was due partly to the united energies of the Liberal party, and

partly to the influence of the city of Quebec, whose million Mr. Angers

had endeavoured to obtain for the province, were thrown in the balance

against him. Thoroughly convinced that the conduct of the

lieutenant-governor was contrary to the usages of responsible

government, and that such a precedent would prove dangerous to

provincial rights, Mr. Angers determined to bend his energies towards

procuring the dismissal of Mr. Letellier, and when Sir John A. Macdonald

came into power at Ottawa, at the general elections of 1878, he (Mr.

Angers), together with Hon. J. A. Ouimet (now Speaker, 1887), and the

late Hon. Justice Mousseau, took steps to attain that object, and their

efforts were crowned with success. In 1880, Mr. Angers was elected a

member of the House of Commons for the county of Montmorency by an

enormous majority, and after sitting one session, was elevated to the

bench, to the great regret of his friends who had every reason to

believe that a brilliant political career was still in store for him.

After the election of 1886, the provincial premiership was offered to

Mr. Angers, but as his acceptance of the post involved a question of

principle, he did not feel inclined to accept it, and on the Hon. L. O.

Taillon’s resignation, Mr. Mercier was offered the position, which he

accepted. The parliamentary career of Mr. Angers showed that as a

debater he had no superior, and few equals in the country. A generous

heart, a manly, straightforward character, an unblemished reputation,

profound legal learning, such are the sterling qualities that will make

of Mr. Angers an honour and an ornament to the Canadian bench. It may be

added that he is a Canadian, in the sense it is understood by the men

who intend to make this Dominion a great country.

* * * * *

=Wood, Robert Edwin=, Barrister, Peterboro’, Ontario, was born on the

31st of August, 1847, in the township of South Monaghan, county of

Northumberland. His father, Robert Wood, emigrated from Yorkshire,

England, and settled in South Monaghan, in 1833, and died in 1857. His

mother was Sarah Armstrong, of Monaghan, Ireland. Robert was educated at

the Cobourg Grammar School and Victoria College. He graduated in arts in

1873, and immediately afterwards entered the law office of the late John

Coyne, then M.P.P. for the county of Peel. Upon this gentleman’s death,

he entered the office of the late W. H. Scott, M.P.P., Peterboro’, and

afterwards studied with Edward Martin, Q.C., Hamilton. He passed his

final examination in Trinity term, 1876, but owing to the fact that only

two years and nine months had elapsed between his primary and final

examination, he could not be called to the bar until Michaelmas term of

the same year. He then commenced the practice of law in Peterboro’, in

September, 1876, and has so continued to the present. He has a large and

increasing practice, and owes his present position mainly to his own

energy and exertions. In March, 1886, upon the elevation of C. A. Weller

to the bench, he received from the Ontario government the appointment of

county crown attorney, and clerk of the peace for the county of

Peterboro’ (on the 31st of March, 1886.) Mr. Wood takes a deep interest

in Masonry, and is master of Corinthian lodge, No. 101, A. F. and A. M.

He was master of the same lodge in 1883. Prior to his present

appointment to office, he took a leading part in all parliamentary

contests, on the Reform side, principally in advocating the principles

of this party from the platform. Mr. Wood is an adherent of the

Presbyterian church. He was married on the 17th of February, 1881, to

Henrietta Frances, daughter of the late Philip Roblin, of Rednersville,

Prince Edward county, Ontario.

* * * * *

=Flynn, Hon. Edmund James=, Q.C., LL.D., Quebec, M.P.P. for Gaspé

county, is a native of the county he so ably represents in the Quebec

legislature, having been born at Percé, on the 16th of November, 1847.

His father, the late James Flynn, who was of Irish descent, was during

his lifetime a trader and farmer in Percé, the place of his birth. His

mother, Elizabeth Tostevin, was also a native of Percé, though her

father was from the island of Guernsey, one of the English channel

islands in Europe. The Hon. Mr. Flynn was educated at the Quebec

Seminary, and at the Laval University, Quebec, graduating with honours,

having taken at Laval the degree of master-in-law (LL.L.), in July,

1873. And Laval again, in 1878, presented him with the degree of LL.D.

He adopted law as a profession, and in September, 1873, he was called to

the bar of Quebec, and has ever since continued to practice as

barrister, etc., in the ancient capital. Previous to this time, he, from

1867 to 1869, held the positions of deputy-registrar,

deputy-prothonotary, deputy-clerk of the Circuit Court of the Crown and

of the Peace, for the county of Gaspé, conjointly with that of

secretary-treasurer of Percé municipality. He has been a professor of

Roman law in Laval University since 1874. From the 29th of October,

1879, to the 31st of July, 1882, he was commissioner of Crown Lands for

the province of Quebec; commissioner of Railways, from the 11th of

February, 1884, till July, 1885, and solicitor-general from 12th May,

1885, till the 20th of January, 1887. The Hon. Mr. Flynn was made a

Queen’s counsel in 1887. He has taken an active part in political

affairs for the past fourteen years, and has been a candidate at eight

different elections for Gaspé county. First in 1874, when he presented

himself as a candidate for a seat in the House of Commons at Ottawa, but

afterwards withdrew from the field when he was made a professor in Laval

University, considering it incompatible to hold both offices. Again in

1875 and 1877, for the Quebec legislature, when he was defeated after a

very severe contest, there being only small majorities against him,

especially in 1877. This election he contested, and unseated his

opponent; and the following year, on the 29th of April, he was elected

by acclamation. On his entering the Chapleau cabinet in the fall of

1879, as commissioner of Crown Lands, he was again elected by

acclamation. At the general election held in 1881, Mr. Flynn was once

more elected by acclamation. On his accepting office in the Ross cabinet

in 1884, which necessitated an appeal to the electorate, he was stoutly

opposed by Major John Slous, but he beat this gentleman by a majority of

988 votes. At the general election held in October, 1886, he once more

presented himself for election, and was returned by acclamation by his

old friends at Gaspé. The Hon. Mr. Flynn has always been in principle a

Liberal-Conservative. By his struggles in the county of Gaspé, he has

succeeded in securing for the electors complete freedom and independence

in the exercise of their franchise, which had been affected by the

interference of certain large commercial firms. In the legislature the

part played by Hon. Mr. Flynn has been most prominent as regards

constitutional questions in particular. He has won for himself the

well-deserved reputation of being a strong and energetic upholder of

constitutional liberty; in proof of this it will suffice to refer to his

noble and manly defence of the liberty of the press in the case of the

_Nouvelliste_, in 1885, and his most eloquent speech on the question of

Home Rule for Ireland, etc. His attention has been given to many other

subjects of importance, such as that of colonization, which he has

always and ever endeavoured to promote. He is the author of a homestead

law for the benefit of settlers. His administration of the crown lands

was marked with an increase in the revenue, increase in the value of

timber limits, mineral lands,—and by many useful rules and regulations,

calculated to promote colonization and the welfare of the many persons

in the province who are occupiers of crown lands. Many other important

measures were framed by him and carried through the legislature through

him, namely: The Quebec General Mining Act of 1880; several acts

concerning the crown lands, railways, the protection of forests, and

encouragement of planting of trees, etc. He has also always taken a most

lively interest in the question of the construction of a railway from

Metapedia, on the Intercolonial Railway to Paspébiac and Gaspé Basin.

Grants in land were secured in 1882, whilst he was commissioner of Crown

Lands, and the same were converted into money grants under his auspices

as commissioner of railways. He believes that in the construction of

this line rests the future welfare of the population of the Gaspé

peninsula. His travels have been always directed towards the acquisition

of a complete knowledge of Canada, and the different parts thereof. In

religion he is a Roman Catholic. He was married on the 11th May, 1875,

to Maria Mathilde Augustine, daughter of Augustin Coté, editor of _Le

Journal de Québec_, and niece to the late Hon. Joseph Cauchon,

heretofore lieutenant-governor of Manitoba, etc. He has had eight

children, of whom six are still living. He resides in Quebec city.

* * * * *

=Hanington, Hon. Daniel L.=, Q.C., M.P.P. for the county of

Westmoreland, residence, Dorchester, New Brunswick, was born at Shediac,

N.B., on the 27th June, 1835. His father, Colonel Hanington, was for

long years a member of the Assembly and Legislative Council of New

Brunswick; and his mother Margaret Peters, a daughter of William Peters,

a U. E. loyalist, who for years represented Queens county in the New

Brunswick legislature. Daniel, the subject of this sketch, received a

Grammar School and academic education at Shediac and Sackville, in his

native county. After leaving school he commenced the study of law with

Charles Fisher, attorney-general, of Fredericton, and finished with

Judge A. L. Palmer, of Dorchester; was called to the bar of New

Brunswick in 1861; and on the 11th November, 1881, was appointed a

Queen’s counsel. Mr. Hanington has been very successful in his

profession, and has a large practice in the courts of his native

province, and as counsel in Nova Scotia and in the Supreme Court of the

Dominion. From 1867 to 1870 he occupied the position of clerk of

circuits and clerk of the county court of Westmoreland, when he resigned

those offices to contest the election of that year, and was chosen to

represent the county of Westmoreland in the New Brunswick House of

Assembly. He sat therein until the summer of 1874, when on again

appealing for re-election, he was defeated on the “Bible and religious

instruction in the Common Schools” question, which he advocated.

However, he was again chosen at the general elections of 1878, 1882, and

1886, to represent his old constituency. In July, 1878, he was appointed

a member of the Executive Council; and on the 25th May, of the year

1882, he became premier. In February, 1883, he resigned office with his

colleagues. Mr. Hanington has always taken a deep interest in

educational matters, and for about seventeen years was a school trustee.

In politics he is a Liberal of the old New Brunswick school of

politicians; is a supporter of the Liberal-Conservative government at

Ottawa, and took an active part in the last Dominion election. He is an

adherent of the Episcopal church, which he represents in the Diocesan

and also the Provincial Synod. In October, 1861, Hon. Mr. Hanington was

married to Emily Myers, daughter of Thomas Robert Wetmore,

barrister-at-law, and judge of probate, Gagetown, N.B. The fruits of

this marriage have been seven children, three sons and four daughters.

* * * * *

=Mellish, John Thomas=, M.A., Halifax, Nova Scotia, was born at Pownal,

Prince Edward Island, on January 26th, 1841. He is the eldest son of the

late James Lewis Mellish, of the same place, and Margaret Sophia, his

wife, daughter of John Murray, formerly of Tullamore, Ireland; grandson

of Thomas Mellish, known in his day as “a most loyal British subject,

and a devoted adherent of the Church of England;” and great grandson of

Thomas Mellish, an officer of the British army, and member of an old and

highly respectable English family, who settled on Prince Edward Island

in 1770. Captain Mellish was for many years provost marshal or sheriff

of the island, collector of customs, and a member of the Legislative

Assembly. An interesting trial took place at Charlottetown, in the early

part of 1779, arising from his seizure of the convoy ship _Duchess of

Gordon_, for smuggling. He took an active interest in the defence of the

colony during the American war, and was on military duty, assisting in

raising troops at Halifax and Fort Cumberland, during the winter of

1779-80, returning to the island in the following spring. James Lewis

Mellish, the father of John Thomas Mellish, died on the 14th June, 1886,

in the seventy-ninth year of his age. His mother, a native of New York,

was a daughter of the late James Lewis Hayden, J.P., a loyalist, who

removed from Shelburne, N.S., to the island in 1785, having left New

York in 1783. A newspaper extract says: “We have to record the death of

one of our oldest and most highly respected citizens. James L. Mellish,

Esq., late of Pownal, departed this life on the 14th inst., at the

residence of his son, Stewiacke, N.S., whither he had gone a short time

before on a visit. His remains were brought home for interment. In his

death the community loses a most worthy and upright citizen. Energy,

strength and integrity were united in his character. From his youth up

he was a devoted and active member and office-holder of the Methodist

church. He spent his life for the most part on his farm at the place of

his birth. Mr. Mellish married, March 25th, 1840, Miss Margaret Sophia

Murray, a lady of strong mind and superior attainments, of whose

companionship he was deprived by death about ten years ago. Their

married life was blessed with ten children, each one of whom is to-day

occupying a position of usefulness and responsibility.” John Thomas

Mellish, the subject of our sketch, was educated at Prince of Wales

College, Charlottetown, and Mount Allison College, Sackville, New

Brunswick, and holds from the latter the degrees of B.A. and M.A. On the

opening of Cumberland County Academy, Amherst, Nova Scotia, in 1865, Mr.

Mellish, who had been teaching at Guysborough, was selected to fill the

position of head master, but resigned in 1870, in order to accept a

situation in Mount Allison College and Male Academy, and was head master

of this academy from 1871 to 1874. In the latter year, he was appointed

on his own terms to the principalship of Albro Street School, Halifax,

the largest school in the province. At the close of 1880, the strain of

constant school work on Mr. Mellish’s health compelled him to place his

resignation in the hands of the Halifax school commissioners, although

that body the year before had raised his salary for the third time, and

designated him to the position in the High School, vacated by the late

Dr. H. A. Bayne, on his appointment to the Royal Military College,

Kingston. Official records and reports testify to the great value of Mr.

Mellish’s services in the cause of education. The Superior School grant

was awarded to him when at Guysborough, his school being ranked as best

in the county. While in charge of the academy at Amherst, he prepared a

large number of students to matriculate in the different colleges, and a

still larger number to pass the examinations for teachers’ licenses,

from the academy or grade A license down. The last year he was at Mount

Allison, it was found necessary to add six additional dormitories, in

order to accommodate the increased number of boarders in the academy.

Mr. Mellish has in his possession not less than a dozen complimentary

addresses and quite a number of pieces of plate, books, &c., presented

to him by his pupils, on anniversary and other occasions. In the summer

of 1874, he made the tour of Great Britain and Ireland, and has since

delivered on many occasions a lecture entitled, “My Visit to Scotland.”

He frequently lectures on different subjects, and contributes to the

newspaper press; is the author of various papers and pamphlets on

educational and kindred topics, and of several papers on scientific

subjects, published in the Transactions of the Nova Scotia Institute of

Natural Science; is a member of the institute, and was associate

secretary with the Rev. D. Honeyman, D.C.L., in 1875-80; has been

president of the Teachers’ Institutes, at different places; is a

magistrate, and a local examiner of the University of London; was for

several years a vice-president of the Halifax Young Men’s Christian

Association; and is a lay preacher of the Methodist church. Mr. Mellish

married, July 18th, 1867, Martha Jane, only surviving daughter of the

late Benjamin Chappell, of Charlottetown. They have six children

living,—Arthur, Alfred Ernest, Mary Sophia, Anne Elizabeth, Martha

Louise, and Frances, and one, John Thomas, died in infancy. All the

children old enough are going to school. Arthur belongs to No. 3 Co.,

82nd battalion militia, and with his company was called out and ordered

to proceed to the front during the North-West rebellion. Every

preparation was made to start, but after the company had been in

barracks about a fortnight, the order was countermanded on account of

the capture of Riel. Mr. Mellish has four brothers and five sisters:

Rev. I. M. Mellish, Methodist minister, Nova Scotia conference, formerly

captain in reserve militia; H. Pope, farmer, Stewiacke; James Roland,

chief agent British American Book and Tract Society, Halifax; Humphrey,

mathematical master, Pictou Academy, B.A., of Dalhousie College,

matriculated with honours, first division in London University; Anne,

wife of J. L. Archibald, J.P., of Halifax; Catharine Douglas, wife of

Philip Large, Charlottetown; Mary (widow of the late A. N. Archibald, of

Halifax), chief preceptress Mount Allison Ladies’ College, Sackville,

New Brunswick; Martha Janet, and Margaret Elizabeth, unmarried.

* * * * *

=Moody, Rev. John Thomas Tidmarsh=, D.D., Rector of Yarmouth, Nova

Scotia. This deceased divine was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the

25th of March, 1804. His father, John Moody, who was one of the earliest

merchants of Halifax, was born in New York, June 19th, 1779. His great

grandfather, John Moody, was born in London, and also his grandfather,

Thomas Moody, were loyalists. The family came to Nova Scotia about the

year 1783. His mother was Mary R. Tidmarsh, of Halifax. His parents were

married in 1800, and both lived to a great age, Mr. Moody to his 92nd

and Mrs. Moody to her 86th year. The Rev. Dr. Moody received his

education at King’s College, Windsor; took his B.A. degree in 1824; M.A.

in 1833, and had the degree of D.D. (hon.) conferred, at the Encœnia of

1883, only a few months before his death. He was ordained deacon by the

Rt. Rev. John Inglis, D.D., bishop of Nova Scotia, who also ordained him

priest in the following year. Immediately after his ordination as

deacon, he was appointed to the rectorship of Liverpool, N.S., where he

succeeded the Rev. W. Twining, the first rector, and had charge of this

parish for nearly twenty years. His work was largely of a missionary

character throughout the county of Queens; and he was also chairman of

the board of school commissioners during that time. Before leaving

Liverpool he had the satisfaction of seeing his parish church much

enlarged, two chapels and several school-houses erected in the rural

districts, and the communicants increased from 19 to 200. Rev. Dr.

Moody’s second appointment was that of rector of Yarmouth, in 1846. This

position he held to the time of his death, which took place, suddenly,

of apoplexy, on the morning of the 18th of October, 1883. During this

period he saw the number of communicants in his parish more than

trebled, and baptized, during his ministry of fifty-one years,

considerably over 2,000 persons. The present parish church, which bears

the name of Holy Trinity, was consecrated in 1872 by the late Rt. Rev.

Hibbert Binney, D.D., bishop of Nova Scotia. It is a very handsome brick

structure, in the early English period of architecture, and will seat

about 700 persons. There are also two handsome school-houses in this

parish. The church property is valued at about $40,000. One of the most

pleasing events of his later years was the celebration of his golden

wedding, on Tuesday, 14th of September, 1880. His surviving children

were all present on that occasion. His parishioners and other friends

took that opportunity of presenting him and his estimable wife with a

cordial address, accompanied with a valuable present, as a slight token

of their affectionate respect. We quote the following from his obituary

notice, which appeared in the Yarmouth _Herald_ of Oct. 25th, 1883:—

Surrounded by his sorrowing family, his sainted spirit passed

into the eternal sunlight before sickness had weakened his

frame, or age had dimmed his faculties. He died in the eightieth

year of his age, beloved and honored not merely in the church of

which, for thirty-seven years continuously, he had been pastor,

not in the wide family circle with which he was connected, but

universally wherever he was known, by people of all ages,

classes, and creeds. A well-rounded, complete, and in many

respects beautiful life had come to its close. Nothing was

lacking to the completion of his work. Dr. Moody was, in many

respects, a unique and singularly attractive character. As a

preacher his manner was expressive of sincerity of thought, love

for his people, and a deep desire to do good, which impressed

alike the thoughtless and the reverend. His discourses were

simple in outline, clear and unambiguous in expression, and

pervaded with the profoundest piety and love for souls. His

manner was singularly benignant and attractive, and his presence

amid scenes of sorrow and suffering was always effective and

consoling. His rendering of the noble ritual of the church has

ever been marked for its power and pathos, his voice being rich,

full, harmonious, and exquisitely modulated, without the least

appearance of study or affectation. There seemed very little

alloy of human passion in his humanity; the closer the

acquaintance the more complete, happy and more fully

satisfactory appeared the soul of the man as thus revealed to

the observer. He was firm in his adherence to the rules and

principles of his own communion, and conscientious to a degree,

in insisting upon their observance by all who sought his advice

or his sympathy, but he was broad in his sympathies and generous

in his charities, as well. Among all denominations he was

beloved and reverenced for his high-mindedness, his courtesy,

his unvarying avoidance of all unseemly controversies, and his

evident anxiety to promote affection and harmony among men of

all creeds. His manner was dignified, but winning; old and young

alike were attracted to him, recognizing instinctively, that he

was a Christian and a gentleman, and that his kindly interest in

them came from the sincere depths of a genuinely good nature.

He joined

Each office of the social hour

To noble manners, as the flower

And native growth of noble mind.

Dr. Moody was married on the 14th of September, 1830, to Sarah Bond,

eldest daughter of the late Henry G. Farish, M.D., of Yarmouth. His

widow survived him, but entered into her rest on the 20th of May, 1887,

universally beloved and revered. They had a family of nine children,

only four of whom; three daughters and one son, survive them. Their

eldest son, John T., rector of Tusket, N.S., died on the 4th of October,

1864, leaving a widow and three children. Their second son, Henry G.,

was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York,

and died on the 30th of July, 1873, leaving a widow. James C., the only

surviving son, is a graduate of the University of New York, and is

engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery at Windsor, Nova Scotia.

* * * * *

=Crinion, Rev. James Eugene=, Pastor of the Roman Catholic Church,

Dunnville, Ontario, was born on the 13th of April, 1859, in the parish

of Slane, county of Meath, Ireland, and came to Canada in 1874. He

received his primary education in St. Finian’s Academy, Navan, Meath

county, Ireland, and continued his studies at St. Michael’s College,

Toronto, completing his theological course at the Grand Seminary, at

Montreal. The Rev. Father Crinion was the youngest of the thirteen

students brought over from Ireland in 1874, by the late Bishop Crinnon,

the year that right rev. prelate was consecrated bishop. After leaving

Montreal, Mr. Crinion went to Hamilton, and was ordained a priest by

Bishop Crinnon on the 30th June, 1881, in St. Mary’s Cathedral, who then

appointed him assistant priest of the parish of Arthur, Wellington

county, Ontario. In this charge he remained two years, and then

revisited the scenes of his youth, in Ireland. On his return to Canada,

he was appointed curate of St. Basil’s Church, Brantford. From this

place, on the 8th September, 1886, he was transferred to Dunnville, and

made first resident pastor of that parish. Here he has done good work,

and succeeded in erecting a handsome new church, which is a credit to

him and his congregation, and an ornament to the village. Its foundation

or corner stone was blessed and laid on July 1st, 1886, by the Right

Rev. Dr. Carbary. The style of architecture is Italian. The building

consists of a nave seventy feet long by thirty-five feet wide, with

chancel eighteen feet deep by twenty-one feet wide, having on the east

side a beautiful Lady chapel, and on the west side a commodious

sacristy. The chancel arch is ornamented with pilasters, surmounted by a

rich classic moulding. The Lady chapel and entrance to sacristy have a

similar finish. The ceiling is covered with rich mouldings. Over the

front entrance is a good-sized gallery, calculated to accommodate over

one hundred persons, and exquisitely finished in front. The high altar,

the gift of Bishop Carbary to the church, is a splendid specimen of

classic design which adds a grace and beauty to the entire structure. It

consists of the altar proper, with super altar and tabernacle. The

reredos presents a large ope, with circular top, for picture of the

crucifixion. It is supported by two Corinthian pilasters, with

richly-carved capitals, supporting a frieze and entablature. On the

frieze is the inscription, “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” and in the pediment

of entablature is a dove, emblem of the Holy Ghost, surrounded by rays.

Then the entire altar is surmounted by a floriated cross. The altar was

painted by Mr. James, of Dunnville, in a flat white, with the carvings

and enrichments richly gilded. The work was executed by Cruickshank, of

Hamilton, and reflects great credit on the skill and taste of the

artificers. The pews, designed by R. Clohecy, the architect of the

building, were made by Messrs. Bennett, of London, and finished in their

usual careful manner. The entire appearance of the interior of this

church has a finished and pleasing effect. The front of the church has a

large circular window, with smaller windows at each side, and a great

door for principal entrance. On the east angle of the front is a

beautiful campanile rising to the height of seventy feet. In this

companile, or tower, is another entrance to the church for winter use.

It also contains a solid stairway to the gallery. The sides of the

church are pierced with windows, filled with ornamental glass. Between

the windows are buttresses, which give an air of strength and

massiveness to the structure. The greatest credit is due to the

accomplished architect, R. Clohecy, who has thus given a solid proof of

his high culture and good taste, and has produced a monumental work for

the good catholics of Dunnville mission. The entire cost is about

$8,000. The building was taken up by Father Crinion in September, 1885.

The care and watchfulness he bestowed on the work is now amply rewarded

by having one of the most beautiful churches of its size in the province

of Ontario in which to administer to the spiritual wants of his faithful

and devoted people. A new presbytery is now in course of construction,

which will be ready for occupation during the winter of 1888.

* * * * *

=King, Edwin David=, M.A., Q.C., Barrister, Halifax, was born at Onslow,

Colchester county, Nova Scotia, on the 26th of December, 1841. His

father, John King, was a Scotchman by birth and parentage, and, on his

mother’s side, was first cousin of the distinguished Scotch philosopher,

Thomas Carlyle. When an infant, he removed with his parents to Nova

Scotia, where he continued to reside until his death in June, 1887, in

the eighty-second year of his age. For a long period he had been an

active justice of the peace, having at one time, for some ten years,

filled the office of stipendiary magistrate, for the town of Truro,

where he resided at the time of his decease. In November, 1828, he

married Sarah Ann, only daughter of the late Nathaniel Marsters, of

Onslow, and the mother of the subject of our sketch. She is still living

at Truro. Mr. Marsters was a loyalist of English descent, and with his

parents removed to Nova Scotia at the time of the rebellion of the New

England colonies. He represented the township of Onslow for some years

in the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia. Edwin David King early

manifested a fondness for study, and could read very well (so we have

been told) when four years of age. He attended such schools as Onslow

provided, until the summer of the year 1856, when, being in feeble

health, he was sent to be a clerk in a store at Antigonish, with the

promise, however, that if at the end of two years his health improved,

and he still desired it, he should receive a legal education. He

accordingly left Antigonish in 1858, and took the high school course at

the Provincial Model School, Truro. Subsequently he studied at Acadia

College, Wolfville, where, in 1863, he graduated, taking the B.A. degree

in course, and in 1866, on submitting a thesis, he received the degree

of M.A. In September, 1863, he entered upon the study of the law, and

removed to Wallace, Nova Scotia, where he was articled as a law student

with Henry Oldright, barrister. He studied with Mr. Oldright two years,

during which time having acquired a knowledge of phonography, he spent

the winters in Halifax, as assistant reporter to the Legislative

Council, Mr. Oldright being the official phonographic reporter for that

body. In 1865, his articles of clerkship were transferred to James Royer

Smith, Q.C., an English barrister, registrar of the Court of

Vice-Admiralty, and practising at Halifax. He was admitted to the bar of

Nova Scotia in December, 1867, since which time he has practised his

profession at Halifax, and has also been a member of the Barristers’

Society, of Nova Scotia. He is now the senior member of the firm of King

& Barss—W. L. Barss, LL.B. (Harvard), having been admitted a partner

with him in January, 1877. In October, 1875, he visited Bermuda, on a

special retainer, as leading counsel for defendant in the celebrated

burial case of James _vs._ Cassidy. (This was an action of trespass

brought by Rev. Mr. James, rector of the parish of Hamilton, against

Rev. John Cassidy, then pastor of the Methodist Church there, for

reading the Methodist burial service, and officiating at the burial of

one of his own congregation, in the parish church yard, and, at the

time, was the occasion of intense excitement throughout the island). In

1884, he was called within the bar, and received letters patent,

appointing him a Queen’s counsel. Since 1875, he has been retained as

counsel in many important cases growing out of the Liverpool Bank

failure; insurances cases; actions involving the title to the

Shubenacadie Canal, etc. He has a large practice in the Supreme and

County Courts of Nova Scotia. Mr. King became actively associated with

the Nova Scotia militia in 1863, and in 1864 was commissioned as

adjutant of the 4th Cumberland regiment, with the rank of captain. On

removing to Halifax in 1865, he took command of a company in the 11th

Halifax regiment, and remained actively connected with that corps until

the re-organization of the militia, under the Dominion statutes and

regulations. He is a member of the Senate of the University of Acadia,

having been elected in 1882, and he is also a governor of Acadia

College, to which position he was elected in 1883. In 1876, he was

appointed one of the directors of the Halifax School for the Blind, and

held the office for one year. In 1872, the Halifax School Association

for promoting the efficiency of the public schools was formed, and he

was its first secretary, occupying that office for three years. He has

always been a total abstainer from alcoholic drinks, having joined the

cold water army when a child. In 1863, he first became a member of the

order of Sons of Temperance, and in 1865, was initiated into the Grand

Division of Nova Scotia. For some time past he has, however, ceased to

be an active member of this organization, owing to the pressure of other

duties. He is a prominent member of the Halifax Young Men’s Christian

Association, and is one of the six trustees in whom its property is

vested, having been first elected to that office in 1875. He has also

been a member of its executive committee for many years. In 1871, the

Sunday School Association of the Maritime provinces was formed, and he

has ever since been an active promoter of that work, and has thrice

filled the office of president of the association. He was also chairman

of its executive committee from 1872 until 1885, when separate

associations for the several provinces were organized. Since 1885, he

has been chairman of the executive committee of the Sunday School

Association of Nova Scotia. He is a Liberal-Conservative in politics,

and helped to kill repeal in February, 1887. He takes an active part in

elections, both Dominion and local. On the college question he is

opposed to “consolidation,” and in favour of placing higher education

outside the pale of state support or control. He believes that the

smaller, fairly well equipped colleges in our country, managed and

sustained by denominations or other independent agencies, can better

secure the guards and checks, and afford facilities for the mental,

moral, and Christian culture, demanded of the youth of our country. On

several occasions he has publicly supported these views. He is a

Baptist, as were his parents. He united with the Baptist Church at

Wolfville, in 1861, and since 1868, he has been a member of the first

Baptist Church in Halifax. He is one of its deacons, superintendent of

its Sunday school, and chairman of its finance committee. On the 6th of

February, 1869, he was married to Minnie S., eldest daughter of John W.

Barss, who is a banker and justice of the peace, residing at Wolfville,

Nova Scotia. This gentleman is well known in the Maritime provinces, by

his generous benefactions for benevolent purposes. Acadia College,

Wolfville, has been, perhaps, foremost among the objects of his bounty,

having received donations from him amounting in the aggregate to $10,000

and upwards. Mrs. King, who is a native of Halifax, received her

education there and at the Ladies’ Seminary, Warren, Rhode Island,

United States. They have no children of their own, but have adopted as

their daughter, a niece of Mrs. King’s, who lives with them at Halifax.

* * * * *

=Antliff, Rev. J. Cooper=, M.A., D.D., Montreal, was born at

Huddersfield, England, on the 1st February, 1844. He is the eldest son

of the late Rev. W. Antliff, D.D., who for fifty years enjoyed the

distinction of being one of the bright and shining lights of Methodism

in England. In 1862 he was made editor of the _Connexional Magazine_,

and for five successive years held that post; he was then called to take

charge of the Theological Institute opened at Sunderland, and for

thirteen years he acted as its principal. Rev. Dr. W. Antliff, we may

here add, held during his lifetime nearly all the positions of honour in

the power of his denomination to bestow. He was a forcible and effective

preacher, possessed of great natural force of character, of unbending

integrity, good literary ability, and possessed of administrative

talents of a high order. The Rev. J. Cooper Antliff, the subject of our

sketch, received his educational training in Haslingden Wesleyan School,

and at Edinburgh University. When only eighteen years of age he became

his father’s colleague to whose counsel and example he owes much of the

success that has so far attended his life work. After spending sixteen

years in the ministry in the British conference, in 1878 he was sent out

from England to take charge of the Primitive Methodist Church, Carlton

street, Toronto, for five years, when according to the arrangement of

the Conference he was to return to England. But owing to the union of

the Methodist bodies in Canada in 1883, he abandoned his home-going, and

was appointed to the office of secretary of the General Conference by

the united bodies, and thereby became custodian of the public documents

of the church and keeper of its records, an honour that has been highly

appreciated by his numerous friends. After a ministry of six years in

the Carlton street church, Dr. Antliff removed to Montreal to take

charge of the Methodist Church on Dominion square, where he is now doing

good work for the Master. While in Toronto he took part in every social

and moral reform, and was generally a favourite among all who had the

good of humanity at heart. For four years, from 1879 to 1883, he was

editor of the _Christian Journal_, the denominational paper of the

Primitive Methodist church in Canada. He was one of the founders of the

Ministerial Association, and was its secretary for two years, and

afterwards its president for one year. He had the degrees of M.A. and

B.D. in course conferred upon him by the University of Edinburgh, and in

1887 Victoria University conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.D.

He is a member of the Board of Regents of Victoria University, and of

the Senate of the Wesleyan Theological College at Montreal; and is also

a member of the court of appeal of the Methodist church, which consists

of six clergymen and six laymen. The Rev. Dr. Antliff is possessed of

good natural abilities, and has a highly cultivated mind, brimful of

knowledge. As a preacher and a lecturer he is highly popular, being

blessed with good oratorical powers, and a voice both sweet and

powerful. Matter, however, is of greater importance than even voice, and

of this he has an abundance. It is varied in character, being both

secular and sacred, ancient and modern, scientific and scriptural, and

he deals it out with no sparing hand. The style of his sermon varies: he

can handle a subject well, either textually or topically, while as an

expository preacher—perhaps partly the result of his five years

residence in Scotland—he shines with considerable lustre. His platform

utterances are generally excellent, and at times powerful, especially

when dealing with the cause of temperance. In politics he advocates

Liberal measures; but owing to his ministerial duties he does not give

prominence to his political views. Dr. Antliff has been twice married;

first, in Derby, England, to Fanny Holden, daughter of John Holden, of

Dalbury Lees, Derby. She died in Toronto in February, 1880, leaving

three children, two boys and a girl. Second, in Toronto, 1882, to Mrs.

Ray, widow of Dr. Ray, and daughter of the Rev. E. Gooderham.

* * * * *

=Robinson, Samuel Skiffington=, Barrister, Orillia, Ontario, was born in

the city of Montreal, Quebec province, on the 6th January, 1845. His

father, Arthur Guinness Robinson, was a civil engineer, and

superintended the works on the Lachine Canal, at Montreal, when they

were first being constructed. His mother was Mary Mulock. His uncle,

Charles J. Robinson, is now county judge for Lambton county. The mother

of the Hon. Edward Blake and the widow of the late Judge Connor were

half-sisters of Arthur G. Robinson. The grandfather of the subject of

our sketch, Samuel Robinson, M.D., belonged to Dublin, Ireland, and in

July, 1832—along with his son Arthur G.; William Hume Blake, his wife,

mother and sisters, and his brother, Rev. D. E. Blake; the late

Archdeacon Brough, who had married Miss W. Blake; the late Justice

Connor; and the late Rev. Mr. Palmer, archdeacon of Huron—sailed for

Canada. The vessel which they had chartered for the voyage—the _Ann_,

of Halifax—had scarcely been at sea three days when one of the crew was

seized with cholera and died, and the body before morning was thrown

overboard. In consequence of this untoward circumstance, the party felt

inclined to return to Ireland, but owing to the sanitary measures

adopted by Dr. Robinson the plague was stayed. After a voyage of seven

weeks they reached the St. Lawrence, and found that cholera had become

epidemic in Canada. They were subjected to a short quarantine at Grosse

Isle, and were then permitted to pursue their journey to Toronto (Little

York), where they remained about six weeks, and here the party

separated. Mr. Brough went to Oro, on Lake Simcoe, Dr. Skiffington

Connor to Marchmont village, Orillia township, and the Blakes to the

township of Adelaide, of which the Rev. D. E. Blake had been appointed

rector by Sir John Colborne, the then governor of the province. Dr.

Robinson returned to Ireland, taking his son Arthur G. with him, who,

the following season, returned with his brother Charles (now county

judge of Lambton), and settled in Orillia township, Charles going

farther west. Samuel Skiffington Robinson received his education in

Upper Canada College, from which he graduated; and having adopted the

law as a profession, he entered the office of Blake, Kerr, Lash &

Cassels, in Toronto, where he remained until he was called to the bar.

He shortly afterwards moved to the beautifully-situated town of Orillia,

which he has had the satisfaction of seeing rise from a backwoods

village to a thriving town of four thousand inhabitants. He has

succeeded well in his profession, and is at present solicitor for the

Dominion Bank agency there, and holds several other important positions.

Mr. Robinson has not entirely confined himself to his professional

duties, and as a consequence his fellow citizens have honoured him by

electing him mayor of the town, which position (1887) he now occupies.

He held the office of churchwarden in the St. James Episcopal Church of

Orillia, for a number of years; and for several years was president of

the Reform Association. He, too, has devoted some attention to the

militia, and holds an ensign’s commission in the Simcoe battalion. In

politics Mr. Robinson is a Liberal; and in religion is an adherent of

the Episcopal church. On the 13th December, 1871, he was married to

Elizabeth Millar. Mrs. Robinson’s brother, Melville Millar, was the

first mayor of Orillia, which position he held for several terms.

* * * * *