Montreal, was born in England in the very year and month in which our
Gracious Queen ascended the throne, June, 1837, and in a place renowned
in history for its association with a line of English kings, the ancient
town of Lancaster. It is the capital of the important county which
comprises those great centres of trade and industry, Liverpool and
Manchester. But Mr. Stephenson was not destined to spend more than his
early years on the banks of the Lune. Early in life he was induced to
come to Canada, where the railway movement initiated by the enterprise
of British capitalists, seemed to hold out prospects of success to
energetic young men. It was not, however, in the railway, but in the
telegraphic service that he began his career. In 1855 he obtained a
situation in the British American Telegraph Company, and in the
following year, on the amalgamation of that company with the Montreal
Telegraph Company, he was offered a position on the Grand Trunk, and
severed his connection with his former employers. It was at the Don
Station, Toronto, that, in September, 1856, he made his _début_ in the
new calling which was henceforth to be the business of his life. Two
months later an event occurred, which may be regarded as the
starting-point of a new era for Canada—the great Grand Trunk
celebration at Montreal, inaugurating the completion of the connecting
link between Montreal and Toronto. To have been a railway man at that
date, makes good his title to the ranks of veteran. The first duties
that were entrusted to Mr. Stephenson were those of ticket clerk and
operator, but in 1858, he succeeded to the agency of the station. It was
the first of many steps forward. In 1860, he was appointed
train-despatcher; in 1862, divisional telegraph superintendent and agent
at Belleville; in 1864, assistant superintendent; and in June, 1881,
general passenger agent. But the promotion of Mr. Stephenson did not
stop here, for in July, 1884, the Company recognizing his great ability,
he was promoted, to the satisfaction of his colleagues and the public,
to the responsible position which he still holds. Mr. Stephenson is a
true Briton, and was not the man to look on inactive, when in 1866—a
year which not a few of our people have had cause to remember—Canada
was the victim of unprovoked attack from the Fenian element of the
United States. He buckled on his armour with thousands of other brave
men to meet and repel the invader. He was quickly raised to the rank of
captain, and in March, 1867, had earned his majority. In October, 1871,
he retired, retaining his rank. His certificates of qualification are
dated 2nd class, March, 1867; 1st class, May, 1867. He married in
September, 1866, Agnes Frances, eldest daughter of the late Captain
Richard Arnold, of Toronto. In private life Major Stephenson is much
respected and has many friends.
* * * * *
=Masson, James=, Q.C., Barrister, Owen Sound, Ontario, M.P. for North
Grey, was born on the 17th February, 1847, in Seymour township,
Northumberland county, Ontario. He is the eldest son of Thomas W. S.
Masson, of Seymour, and grandson of Captain Thomas Masson, R.N., St.
Andrews, Scotland. James Masson, the subject of this sketch, received
his educational training in the public school of his native place and at
the Grammar School, Belleville, and having selected law as a profession,
he entered the office of W. H. Penton, Belleville, where he completed
his legal studies. He was called to the bar of Ontario, Michaelmas term,
1871, and removing to Owen Sound, commenced the practice of his
profession shortly afterwards, and has succeeded in building up a good
business. He occupied the position of Master in Chancery at Owen Sound
from 1873 to December, 1885; and in October, 1885, he was created a
Queen’s counsel. In 1873 Mr. Masson first began to take an interest in
politics, and at the general election of 1887 he was chosen to serve in
the House of Commons at Ottawa as the representative of North Grey. He
is a Liberal-Conservative in politics, and was for many years previous
to this an advocate and supporter of the national policy. He served with
the 15th battalion of volunteers at Prescott in 1866. He married in
July, 1873, Jessie, fourth daughter of the Rev. D. Morrison, of Knox
Church, Owen Sound.
* * * * *
=Mills, John Burpee=, M.P., of Annapolis, N.S., was born at Granville
Ferry, in Annapolis county, 24th July, 1850. Granville Ferry is very
prettily situated, being on the opposite side of the Annapolis river,
about three miles from Annapolis Royal, the seat of so many historic
associations. The country about there is occupied by many
comfortable-looking, square-built, old English houses, built by military
people in the days when Annapolis was a garrison town and the capital of
Nova Scotia. There is a fine field for writers of imaginative literature
in the early and even the later story of Annapolis. Of a pleasant
afternoon in September there is no pleasanter drive to be enjoyed than
that along the road from Bridgetown to Granville Ferry, on the right
bank of the Annapolis river, when the tide is in. All along the highway
is a succession of orchards of apples and plums. On the low meadows
beside the river, stacks of hay stand on roughly made frameworks. The
breeze comes down from the north mountain and sweeps through orchard and
meadow. Mr. Mills belongs to a Baptist family and received his college
education at Acadia College, Wolfeville, N.S., the headquarters of
Baptist educational forces in the maritime provinces, which was founded
and long sustained by the self-denying labors of “Father” Manning, Rev.
Theodore Harding, the venerable and accomplished Dr. Crawley—who is
still living near the seat of his life-long labors—Rev. Dr. Cramp, the
historian of the Baptist denomination, and other able scholars and
business men. Mr. Mills completed a successful course in May, 1871, when
he took his bachelor’s degree, graduating with honors. He took an active
interest in field sports whilst pursuing his studies with assiduity, and
was for some terms captain of the college cricket eleven. In those days
Acadia boasted a good cricket team, and in contests with elevens of
neighboring towns, scored numerous victories. Continuing his love of
Alma Mater after striking out in active life, in 1877 he presented
himself again at old Acadia, and was honored with the degree of M.A. He
has long been a member of the alumni of Acadia College. But before this
he attended the law school of Harvard for one year, and completed his
studies in law in Nova Scotia. He was called to the bar on 20th July,
1875. Immediately upon entering into business, he obtained a large
practice which he still holds, being at the head of the firm of Mills &
Gillies. They do a large business in conveyancing and real estate
transactions. Mr. Mills’ father, John Mills, of Granville Ferry, is a
merchant and shipbuilder, and the subject of this sketch is also largely
interested in shipping. He has for some years taken a great interest in
politics, and two years previous to the last Dominion general election,
was nominated as candidate of the Conservative party in Annapolis
county. He at once entered upon the canvass, and for a year previous to
the election devoted much of his time to political work. His opponent
was Colonel W. H. Ray, a man widely known and popular in the county, and
then representing it at Ottawa. Parties are pretty evenly matched in
Annapolis, and a candidate’s work is never easy there. Mr. Mills
canvassed the county thoroughly, visiting every section of it, and
seeing the leading men everywhere. In the May election for the local
house in 1886, one Liberal, Attorney-General Longley, and one
Conservative, Frank Andrews, were returned by very narrow majorities.
The question of Repeal had decided the local contest in favor of the
Liberals, and it was not known how far the same cry might prevail in the
Dominion election. Mr. Mills secured 1758 votes, against 1730 polled by
Col. Ray. He took his seat in the House of Commons last winter as a
supporter of the government. As yet he has not taken a leading part in
the debates, but with experience, may be expected to give a good account
of himself in the political arena. At Ottawa it is only the men of many
fights as a rule that are expected often to address the House. The
principal part of every debate is by mutual consent relegated to the
acknowledged leaders on either side, and younger and less practical
statesmen have opportunities of studying the moves in the play of the
principals. While devoting so much of his time to law and politics, Mr.
Mills has taken an interest in most of the business enterprises of his
native town, and is a director in several local corporations. A large
part of the apple crop of the Annapolis valley is exported from
Annapolis Royal. There is a direct line of steamers plying between the
town, Portland, Me., and Boston. The town has suffered much from the
ravages of fire, otherwise it would be one of the largest and most
flourishing towns in the province, its natural resources and advantages
being so great, and public-spirited citizens having at various times
expended large sums of money in many business and industrial
enterprises. Mr. Mills was a member of the municipal council from 1882
to 1887. He married, 23rd Oct., 1878, Bessie, daughter of A. W. Corbett,
of Annapolis.
* * * * *
=Roy, Rouer Joseph=, Q.C., Barrister, Montreal, was born on the 7th
January, 1821, in Montreal, province of Quebec. His father was Joseph
Roy, who represented the city of Montreal in the Quebec legislature,
before 1837. On the occasion of his death, which occurred in 1856, the
Hon. Joseph Papineau thus spoke of him:—“The one we have lost has left
us none but noble examples to imitate, and not one act or one word that
requires to be excused.” His mother, Miss Lusignan, belonged to a family
of Italian origin, which was allied to the noble house of the Rouer de
Villeroy of France. Mr. Roy, the subject of our sketch, was educated at
the Montreal College, where he took a full classical course, under
Messire Baile, completing his studies in 1838. He then began the study
of law under the Hon. M. O’Sullivan, formerly solicitor-general for
Lower Canada, and afterwards chief justice of Quebec. On Mr. Sullivan
being elevated to the bench as chief justice in 1840, Mr. Roy continued
his studies under the Hon. Andrew Stuart, also one of the
solicitor-generals of the province, and completed them some eighteen
months before he became of age. He was called to the bar of Quebec in
February, 1842. After a brilliant career as a barrister and leading
attorney, he was, in 1862, appointed joint city attorney for the city of
Montreal, and acted in that capacity up to the year 1876, when he became
the sole legal adviser of the city, which position he still holds. In
1856 he was unanimously elected by his brother barristers syndic of the
bar of Quebec, which position he held for four years. He was appointed
Queen’s counsel in 1864, and since 1864 he has been president of the
library committee of the bar. In 1887 he was elected _bâtonnier_ of the
bar of Quebec. He was appointed by the Fabrique, in 1870, churchwarden
of the parish of Notre Dame. This is an honor conferred upon a very
limited and selected number of persons, Mr. Roy being only the second
member of the profession who has held this honorable position. He is a
linguist of no mean ability, is a thorough Latin and Italian scholar, is
well versed in Greek lore, and is familiar with the English language, as
well as his native French. He was a captain of the Voltigeurs in 1849,
shortly after the burning of the parliament buildings in Montreal.
During his career as a practising barrister, he had the important case
of Grant vs. Beaudry, arising out of the Orange troubles of 1878, which
was carried to the Supreme Court and there decided in favor of his
client. He has been intrusted with several cases before Her Majesty’s
Privy Council in England, notably the St. James street case, which was
the cause of much excitement at the time, also the case of Castonguay
and LeClere, and more particularly the case of Lachevrotiere _dit_
Chavigny and the city of Montreal. This case arose out of a dispute with
regard to one of the principal squares of the city. Mr. Roy was married
on the 22nd of January, 1857, to Corinne Beaudry, daughter of the Hon.
Jean Beaudry, who, for many years was a member of the Legislative
Council of Canada, and mayor of the city of Montreal. Mr. Roy has a
family of eight children, seven daughters and a son, who to-day ranks
among the rising civil engineers of Canada.
* * * * *
=Weeks, Otto Swartz=, Halifax, Nova Scotia, M.P.P. for the county of
Guysborough, is a native of Nova Scotia. His father was the Rev. Otto
Weeks, a clergyman of the Church of England, who entered King’s College,
Windsor, in the year 1820, and graduated B.A. in 1824, taking his degree
of M.A. in 1827. The family is of New England extraction. Mr. Weeks
received his early education in Halifax and studied law with A. James,
judge in equity for Nova Scotia. His talents attracted the attention of
the late Hon. Joseph Howe, who took a great interest in his progress.
Mr. Weeks began life as a newspaper reporter, and it being one of his
duties to report the speeches in the House of Assembly during the palmy
days of provincial eloquence and statesmanship, when giants like the
late Hon. J. W. Johnston, George R. Young, William Young, late Chief
Justice of Nova Scotia, James B. Uniacke, Joseph Howe, Herbert
Huntingdon, and many others strove for the honors, limited enough, which
the province had to offer, he early acquired a style of colloquial and
forensic speaking which materially aided him in later life. He was
admitted to the bar, 28th November, 1853, began practice at Brooklin,
Hants county, but shortly removed to Windsor, the shire town and seat of
the courts and public offices. Here he built up an extensive practice,
his partner for some years being his cousin, John W. Ouseley, at present
clerk of the House of Assembly. His business extended over the counties
of Hants, Kings and Annapolis, and he became leader of the midland
circuit, having for opponents at the bar, among others, John C. Hall,
Hiram Blanchard, Hon. John W. Ritchie, ex-equity judge, and Hon. James
McDonald, Chief Justice of Nova Scotia. His wife is Miss Ruggles, a
sister of T. W. Ruggles, barrister, of Bridgetown, Annapolis county,
N.S. Mr. Weeks has always been identified with the Liberal party, and in
December, 1874, was invited to fill the office of attorney-general in
the government of which Hon. P. Carteret Hill, D.C.L., was premier. He
at once took the field in the constituency of Guysborough, and having
for an opponent Captain Hadley, a well-known local politician, was
elected by a narrow majority in 1875. After this victory, Hon. P. C.
Hill, Mr. Weeks, and others, made a tour of the western counties holding
public meetings in Windsor and Bridgetown. Mr. Weeks brought great
strength to the government, especially in the debates in the house,
where his most formidable antagonist was Douglas B. Woodworth, ex M.P.
for King’s county, Nova Scotia. He held the office of attorney-general
for one year when he resigned it, but still kept his seat in the house,
and maintained his reputation as a keen and incisive debater. At the
general election in 1878 Mr. Weeks again contested Guysborough but was
defeated, there being a third Liberal candidate, D. C. Fraser, of New
Glasgow, N.S., in the field. After assuming the duties of the
attorney-generalship, Mr. Weeks relinquished his practice in Windsor,
and removed to Halifax where he has since resided. At the general
election of 1882 and 1886 he was elected for Guysborough. In former
years he occasionally came before the public as a lecturer on literary
topics, and always with marked success. Among his lyceum efforts
delivered in Windsor may be mentioned those on Music and on the modern
English poets. He excels as a reciter of poetry, and has a keen
appreciation of the beauties of English literature. Although a great
admirer of Hon. Joseph Howe, when that gentleman engaged in the famous
campaign of 1869, after accepting a seat in the cabinet of Sir John A.
Macdonald, Mr. Weeks took the stump against him and met him on many
platforms in the county. As a lawyer he possesses the most wide-spread
reputation of any man in the province, having great influence with
juries. His manner is very deliberate, but gives added force to the
pungency of his repartees, in making which he has no equal in Nova
Scotia. He has not been prominently connected with any of the social
movements of the time, although he took some degree of interest, in its
early days, of the volunteer movement. His whole attention has been
absorbed in the struggles of politics and the practice of his
profession. A bill which passed the house whilst he was a member of the
Hill government gave rise to the somewhat celebrated Great Seal Case of
1877. The point was raised by J. Norman Ritchie, now one of the judges
of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, as to whether the local legislature
could interfere with the precedence which his letters patent as Queen
counsel appointed by the Canadian Government. This question was decided,
after being argued with great ability by the full benches of the Supreme
Court of Nova Scotia and of Canada, in favor of Mr. Ritchie’s
precedence.
* * * * *
=Purcell, Patrick=, M.P. for Glengarry, was born in Glengarry, Ont., May
1st, 1833. He unites in himself the best qualities of the two great
branches of the Celtic race, his father having been a native of
Kilkenny, Ireland, while his mother was from the Western Highlands of
Scotland, a native of Argyleshire. He had but slight educational
advantages in his youth, and, though quick of perception and remarkable
from an early age for great shrewdness, was not of a temperament to be
much improved by the merely literary methods of the schools. Had he been
privileged in his younger days to attend some institutions such as the
great technical colleges of today, in which not the memory only but the
perceptive faculties and manual abilities are trained and developed, he
would undoubtedly have made even a greater mark in life than he has
done. But in the great technical school of life in which he had to make
his own way from an early age, Mr. Purcell secured a training which has
brought him out as one of Canada’s most remarkable citizens. When but 19
years of age Mr. Purcell married Isabella McDonald, daughter of Angus
McDonald, a Glengarry farmer. Beginning life as a laborer, he worked his
way rapidly forward until he began to take small contracts on his own
account on some of the works on which he was employed. While still a
young man he was the sole contractor on some important government works
such as great capitalists band together to undertake. In this respect he
is a worthy son of Glengarry. It is hard to say what America, and
especially Canada, would have done to carry on its remarkable industrial
development had they not had such shrewd, hard-working, responsible men
as the great contractors who have come out of Glengarry. Dozens of names
could be mentioned, and many will suggest themselves to the mind of the
reader who is at all acquainted with the history of great public works
in America. But among them all, none has shown more remarkable qualities
as a business man or earned more signal success than Patrick Purcell.
Among the great works which he has constructed are St. Peter’s Canal,
Nova Scotia; section 21 of the Intercolonial Railway; 250 miles of the
Canadian Pacific Railway west of Port Arthur (this last a work of
greater difficulty under the circumstances probably than any section of
railway of equal length in the world), and many others both in Canada
and the United States. In the last general election he was elected to
the Commons in the Liberal interest for his native county of Glengarry
after a hard contest, his opponent being the sitting member, Mr. Donald
McMaster, also a native of the county. The seat has been contested, and
at this writing the case is still pending before the Supreme Court. Mr.
Purcell is not only a shrewd business man, but a man of broad and
generous sympathies. He uses his great wealth to help his friends,
loaning money at nominal interest in a way to win the gratitude of many
men who but for him would find it impossible to get a good start in
life. He also gives large sums for charitable and benevolent purposes.
In religion Mr. Purcell is a Roman Catholic.
* * * * *
=Nantel, Guillaume Alphonse=, St. Jerome, Quebec, M.P.P. for Terrebonne,
Editor of _La Press_ and _Le Nord_ newspapers, was born in November,
1852, at St. Jerome, in the county of Terrebonne, Quebec province. His
father, Guillaume Nantel, was in his lifetime a lieutenant in the
militia, and although he came from St. Eustache, was a thorough
loyalist. He died in February, 1857, leaving a family of nine children.
His mother, Adelaide Desjardiner, was born in Ste. Therese, Terrebonne
county. One of his brothers, the Rev. A. Nantel, has been superior of
the Ste. Therese Seminary for about fifteen years, and in 1883
established a fine college in that place. Another brother, P. Nantel, is
a school inspector, and his youngest brother, Bruno Nantel, has been for
a long time a law partner of the Hon. M. Taillon, and is now practising
at St. Jerome. He is the rising barrister for the county of Terrebonne.
Young Nantel, the subject of our sketch, received his education at the
college of Ste. Therese, and was a very successful student, having
carried off several first-class prizes. In 1873 he obtained a second
class certificate at the Montreal military school, and in 1881 he was
made first lieutenant in the eighth company of the 65th battalion. He
takes a deep interest, with Father Labelle, in colonization, and is
greatly interested in the settlement of the northern townships of the
Ottawa valley. He is a director of the Montreal and Western Railway
Company, which proposes to build a railroad—already largely subsidized
by the government—from St. Jerome to Nominingue Lake, in the county of
Ottawa, and from Nominingue Lake up to Torrierdeninque Lake, which line
when built will cross the most fertile belt, in which is found the
finest timber and minerals in Ottawa and Pontiac counties. Is also
interested in the “Le Grande Nord” railway from St. Jerome to St.
Julienne, in Montcalm county. Mr. Nantel was called to the bar of Quebec
province on the 10th July, 1875, and practised his profession alone in
Montreal, up to January, 1877, when he joined in partnership the Hon. M.
J. A. Ouimet, M.P., and now Speaker of the House of Commons. This
partnership having been dissolved, he again practised alone for a year,
when, in 1881 he left Montreal, and joining his brother, B. Nantel, in
St. Jerome, successfully carried on business in that place till the 1st
of May, 1886. In April of that year, Mr. Nantel, along with C. Marchand,
purchased _Le Nord_, a local and colonization newspaper, but his partner
having given up his connection with the paper the following December, he
has himself since then conducted it. In November, he and Mr. Wintele
bought out _La Press_, one of the leading French papers. In 1882, at the
general election of that year, he was elected a member of the Quebec
legislature for the county of Terrebonne, beating his opponent, E. A.
Poivier, by a majority of seven hundred and fifty-three votes. Mr.
Nantel is a strong Conservative in politics, and contends that Canadians
should govern Canada, and each province be permitted to stand by itself,
that we must have a national policy, such as shall foster our own trade
and commerce, agriculture, etc., so as to make our country independent
of all outsiders. He strongly advocates in his papers the building of
railways, the opening up of mines, the advancement of agriculture, the
creation of factories, industrial learning, manual training in our
seminaries of learning, and everything else possible that can make the
people more learned and prosperous. In 1884, while a member of the
Quebec legislature, Mr. Nantel was one of the commissioners appointed to
investigate the charges preferred against Hon. Mr. Mercier and the late
Judge Mousseau. In religion he is a Roman Catholic, but favors the most
liberal tolerance to all other sects. He thinks there is room enough in
Canada for people professing all the different creeds of Christendom,
and also for men of all nationalities, and would be only too happy to
see the indigent and down-trodden people of Europe make their home with
us, and become partakers with us in all the liberty and independence we
possess. He was opposed to the execution of Riel.
* * * * *
=Macdonald, Right Hon. Sir John Alexander=, K.C.M.G., D.C.L., LL.D.,
Premier of Canada, was born in Glasgow, on the 11th January, 1815. He
came to Canada in 1820 with his parents, who first settled near
Kingston, but after a few years removed to a farm on the Bay of Quinté.
Meanwhile the future premier of Canada was left at Kingston, the grammar
school of which he attended until he was about fifteen years of age,
when he began the study of law. When he had reached his twenty-first
year he was called to the bar. He has been described by a writer in _The
Week_ as a lively youth, a good scholar, and a voluminous reader; but
his talents were not considered extraordinary and he owed his election
as member for Kingston, thirteen years after his call to the bar, more
to his personal popularity than to his abilities. In a democratic
country a good memory for faces and names, a frank and cordial manner of
speech, a willingness to say yes rather than no, are wonderful aids to
an aspirant in public life. Add readiness of speech in public, and
self-confidence, and they will outweigh, for a time at least, the
soundest judgment, the most extensive knowledge, and the warmest
patriotism. It is not wonderful, therefore, that Mr. Macdonald’s popular
address should have brought him early into the political field. In 1841
(says the writer from whom we have already quoted), Canada was granted a
constitution, as the Liberals understood it, a transcript of that of
Britain—the Governor in place of the Queen, bound to accept the
legislation voted by the people’s representatives, and to receive
advisers of whom they approved. Sir Charles Bagot accepted this view of
the constitution, but when Sir Charles Metcalfe became governor there
came a change of tactics. Responsible government was a new idea in
colonial politics, and to very many unwelcome. Metcalfe was an honest,
and in some ways, an able man; but he had served in India, and could not
accept readily the notion that a dependency of the empire could be at
once free and loyal. He refused to make an appointment asked by his
ministers; they resigned; he called in others and appealed to the
people. In Upper Canada he was sustained by an enormous majority; in
Lower Canada he was defeated as decisively; his ministers had only a
small majority, varying from two to eight. Lord Metcalfe, who was in ill
health gave up the contest and his office. Lord Elgin succeeded him;
another election was held, and the friends of responsible government
returned to power, supported by a large majority in the House of
Assembly. In this contest Mr. Macdonald was a loyal supporter of Lord
Metcalfe, and took office in his government first as receiver-general
and afterwards as commissioner of crown lands. It is improbable that a
politician so shrewd as he could have been sanguine of preventing the
introduction of responsible government into Canada for any length of
time. But he was then, and is now, in spite of many concessions to
popular feeling, a Conservative of the British type, on the side of the
classes, distrusting the masses, and resolved at whatever cost to
maintain inviolate the supremacy of the Crown. In this fact is to be
found the key to his policy during his forty-three years of public life.
Fond of power, eager for success, indifferent as to the means of
obtaining it, he has throughout been true to his flag. The ministry
formed by Messrs. Baldwin and Lafontaine, under Lord Elgin, did not
remain long in power. It was assailed by the Conservatives for proposing
to pay losses incurred by residents of Lower Canada during the
rebellion, a measure not called for by the country at large, but pressed
upon the government by Mr. Lafontaine, a man of great ability and
strength of will. Mr. Macdonald opposed the bill temperately, and was
not believed to have given countenance to the violent proceedings which
followed its passage. Nor did he take an active part in the crusade
against the financial policy of the government which the Conservatives
undertook after the removal of the executive and parliament to Toronto.
In that movement the Conservatives were aided, and Messrs. Baldwin and
Lafontaine ultimately coerced into resignation, by the “original Clear
Grits,” under the leadership of Hon. Malcolm Cameron and Hon. W. H.
Merritt. Mr. Baldwin was the most venerable figure in our political
history, pure, honorable, high-minded, and during the struggle for
responsible government rendered incalculable service to his party and
cause. But he was a Whig rather than a Radical, a High Churchman, and
therefore opposed to the secularisation of the clergy reserves, and
incapable of stooping to the arts of the politician. He retired with Mr.
Lafontaine, and Mr. Hincks became premier. During his brief reign George
Brown commenced his agitation for representation by population, the
secularisation of the clergy reserves, and against the further extension
of the Separate School system in Upper Canada, and at the election of
1854 John A. Macdonald took an active part in inducing Conservative
candidates to accept the secularisation plank of Mr. Brown’s platform,
receiving in return the support of the powerful section of Reformers who
went into opposition to Mr. Hincks on that and other questions. The
result was the defeat of the government and the return of the
Conservatives to office under the leadership of Sir Allan MacNab and Mr.
Morin, Mr. Macdonald taking the office of attorney-general west, and
practically the leadership of the Legislative Assembly being infinitely
superior to his nominal chief in all that constitutes an effective
parliamentarian. Mr. Macdonald then became, for the first time, an
influential legislator, in the prime of life and fullest measure of his
intellectual power. Mr. Macdonald took care in commuting the claims of
existing clerical incumbents that great liberality should be shown.
Simultaneously with this measure—the price in fact paid to the French
Canadians for permitting the secularisation of the reserves—a bill was
passed to abolish the seignorial tenure in Lower Canada, and emancipate
the _habitants_ from their feudal dues. Hitherto Mr. Macdonald had been
opposed to French Canadians as a class, and he now appeared as their
ally. He himself had no fancy for reform or change, and rightly judged
that the French would prefer conservatism to liberalism. The alliance
thus formed was not broken till the execution of Riel, and the effects
of that deed of justice are not likely to be lasting. It must not be
inferred, however, that Sir John has placed himself under the control of
the French. He has helped to build their railways in liberal fashion,
but has resisted successfully many demands besides the pardon of Riel.
They would gladly have had a land endowment for the Catholic church in
Manitoba and aid to send French emigrants thither, but he yielded
neither. At critical moments they have forced concessions from him, but
he has always made a stout fight, and the money demanded has generally
been spent in the development of the resources of the province. Very
early in his career as minister, Mr. Macdonald was met by a demand for
further subsidies to the Grand Trunk Railway, and he gave them freely.
His warmest admirer will not say that he is an economist even now, when
old age might have been expected to bring carefulness. But in youth he
was lavish both in his own expenditure and that of the country. His best
defence as to the latter is that the country has advanced under his
care; that though the public debt is large, there is a great deal to
show for it. The inception of the great public works of the country,
however, did not come from him. The Grand Trunk was commenced by the
late Sir Francis Hincks, the annexation of the North-West was pressed
upon parliament by the late Hon. George Brown, and the Canadian Pacific
was begun, and large sums spent upon it, by Hon. Alexander Mackenzie.
But Sir John carried all these to completion, and may fairly claim
renown on their account. He cannot be said to have a creative mind, but
in dexterity, perseverance, and courage in carrying through important
measures he stands unrivalled among Canadian statesmen, and few
elsewhere can be held to have surpassed him. Sir John was singularly
favored by circumstances in the construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway. Mr. Mackenzie helped him by the construction of the line from
Pembina and Port Arthur to Winnipeg. Sir John made a _fiasco_ with Sir
Hugh Allan in 1871, and the latter was no longer available as a
contractor in 1878. But it happened that three Canadians had lately
acquired great fortunes in railway enterprises, and were able and
willing to enter upon new efforts. But for these circumstances Sir John
might have been compelled to build the Canadian Pacific with public
loans, by very slow degrees. With the aid of these capitalists he had
but to guarantee an issue of government debentures to secure immediate
construction of the road from the Atlantic to the Pacific. His policy
was assailed, and not without reason, because the difficulties were
great and the means of overcoming them not obvious to the public. But
the result has justified Sir John’s audacity, and there are few who now
question the wisdom of his policy. The road may not pay a large return
to its shareholders at once, but it will do its work as a colonising
agent, and ultimately must be a triumphant financial success, as well as
of advantage to the great territory through which it takes its course.
It is a triumph of Canadian enterprise, energy, and liberality, and has
directed to the Dominion admiring eyes in every quarter of the globe.
Sir John’s extraordinary capacity for conciliating contending factions
and individuals has carried the confederated provinces through twenty
years of their union. Difficult questions are now coming to the front,
and the wonder is not that they should now appear, but that they should
have been delayed so long. The British-American Act is a bundle of
compromises put together to bring the provinces together, and not meant
to be permanent. If Sir John should live to assist in revising its terms
it will be a happy augury of success. At his age he cannot be expected
to be fully in accord with the spirit of the rising generation, but his
address, his personal influence, his vast knowledge, have always been of
eminent service to the State. In the settlement of difficulties at
various periods with the United States his influence has been used
wholly for good. This was manifested particularly in the Washington
treaty of 1871. His ambition and jealousy of rivals have sometimes led
him astray, but when he is called away his errors will be forgotten; it
will be said of him even by his political opponents that he was the
greatest politician in Canada, the one who spent most of his time and
strength in her service, and did more than any other to forward her
material progress. “For forty years,” (says another writer), “a
representative of the people in parliament, for thirty years the trusted
and beloved leader of the great Conservative party, and for twenty-five
years the premier of the Dominion of Canada, the career of Sir John A.
Macdonald, is in one respect at least unique in the history of
parliamentary institutions.” When the Parliamentary deadlock occurred in
1864, in consequence of the bitter antagonisms that had sprung up
between our Canadian politicians, he joined with leading men of both
parties in bringing about, in 1867, the confederation of the British
North American provinces, which had the effect at the time of smoothing
over many difficulties; and, in 1878, when the Mackenzie government
fell, he was successful in inaugurating what is known as the National
Policy, which has been instrumental in developing the industries of the
country, and in no little degree in maintaining his hold of power. In
the success of these public measures, Sir John owes much to his
astuteness and dexterity, as well as to his personal magnetism and
phenomenal influence over the great body of the electorate. Quite
recently, it has been said that the premier himself has come under an
influence which has hitherto been new to him, that of religion, and that
some Ottawa revivalists, in his old age, have brought about in his case
a change of heart. This is a matter too sacred for the biographer to
touch, and must be left to him whom alone it concerns. Though he has
never been known as what is called a religious man, and however lax have
been his political ethics, no enemy has ever charged him with being
personally corrupt. His own words in 1873, when defending himself from
charges arising out of the Pacific Railway scandal, may be accepted and
reechoed, that “there does not exist in Canada a man who has given more
of his time, more of his heart, more of his wealth, or more of his
intellect and powers, such as they may be, for the good of this Dominion
of Canada.”
* * * * *
=Weller, Charles Alexander=, Peterborough. Judge of the County Court,
Local Judge of the High Court Of Justice, and Local Master of the
Supreme Court of Judicature, was born at Toronto, on the 29th March,
1830, and took up his abode in Cobourg in 1838, with his parents,
William Weller and Mercy Wilcox Weller, now both deceased. Judge Weller
received his education at the Cobourg Seminary (now Victoria College),
and at Upper Canada College, Toronto. Having determined to adopt the
profession of law, he studied with Boulton & Cockburn, and Hector &
Weller, barristers, in Toronto. In 1852 he was admitted as an attorney,
and the following year was called to the bar of Upper Canada. Having
removed to Peterborough in 1852, he began the practice of his profession
and soon succeeded in building up a good business. In February, 1857, he
received the appointments of county crown attorney and clerk of the
peace for Peterborough; and in March, 1875, that of master in chancery
for the same place. In March, 1886, Mr. Weller was created judge of the
County Court, retaining the master’s office. Since that period he has
won golden opinions for himself as a just and upright judge, and one who
takes a deep interest in all that pertains to the building up of the
town in which he has so long resided, and the welfare of his fellow
citizens. On the 20th October, 1852, he was married to Martha, eldest
daughter of the late Dr. Gilchrist, of Colborne. The fruit of the union
was two children, a son and daughter, Henry Boucher, late of Millbrook,
barrister, deceased; and Eliza, who is married to H. B. Dean, barrister,
Lindsay, and son of Judge Dean.
* * * * *
=Belanger, Louis-Charles=, Advocate, Sherbrooke, Quebec province, was
born on 19th May, 1840, at Rapide Plat, province of Quebec (Flat
Rapids), on the Yamaska river, about seven miles below the city of St.
Hyacinthe, in the parish of Ste. Rosalie, county Bagot. He is the eldest
son of Charles Belanger, farmer and master blacksmith, and Angélique
Renault-Blanchard. The subject of our sketch, Mr. Belanger, has six
brothers and six sisters, all living, ten of whom are in the province of
Quebec, and two in Worcester, Mass. The last named two brothers edit _Le
Courrier de Worcester_, a leading French newspaper in New England. One
of his brothers, Louis-Arthur, is the managing editor of _Le Progrès de
l’Est_, a lively newspaper published at Sherbrooke, and the only
bi-weekly paper in the Eastern Townships. His paternal grandfather, Paul
Belanger, came from Beauce, and was one of the pioneer settlers in the
St. Hyacinthe district. The late Louis Renault-Blanchard, his maternal
grandfather, sat in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, before
1841. This gentleman took an active part in the troubles of 1837-’38,
and was forced to take refuge in the United States, along with one of
his sons, the late L. P. R. Blanchard, C.E. and P.L.S. Mr. Belanger
studied at St. Hyacinthe College from 1853 until 1860, when he removed
to Sherbrooke, and spent two years as professor in the old Commercial
French College of those days, and in this town he has resided ever
since. He began the study of law in 1862, with the late William-Locker
Felton, Q.C., who sat in parliament for Richmond and Wolfe, during the
years 1854-’58, and took an active part in the separate school bill then
before the house,—his wife being a Roman Catholic and one of the most
accomplished women of her time—and was admitted to the bar of Quebec
province, in October, 1866. On the 13th October, 1866, he entered into
partnership with H. C. Cabana, now joint prothonotary of the Superior
Court for the district of St. Francis, as advocates, etc., and with him
established the _Pionnier de Sherbrooke_ newspaper, being the first
French newspaper published in the Eastern Townships. In July, 1874, the
partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Belanger practised law alone for a
while. In the autumn of that year, he and his brother, L. A. Belanger,
purchased the _Sherbrooke News_ and started the _Progrès_, both of which
they published until May, 1878, when they sold their establishment to a
company by which the _Pionnier_ has been published ever since. In 1882,
he started the _Progrès de l’Est_, which he handed to his brother now
with him, and to which he is an active contributor. He was a member of
the 53rd battalion from 1882 until 1885, as active captain of No. 4
company, composed chiefly of French Canadians. From 1881 until 1883, he
occupied a seat in the council, and was president of the St. Jean
Baptiste Society in 1874, at the time of the National Convention at
Montreal, and also in 1884, when the great celebration took place in the
same city. Was one of the organizers of the St. Joseph Society, a
Workingmen’s Mutual Benefit Society, in 1874. He has also been a school
commissioner ever since 1865. In August, 1874, he was made honorary
member of the St. Patrick’s Society, of Sherbrooke and vicinity. In
1876, he contested Richmond and Wolfe with Lieutenant-Colonel Hanning
for the House of Commons, secured a majority of 114 in Wolfe, but was
defeated by a larger majority against him in Richmond. Again, in
February 1887, he contested the seat in Sherbrooke with R. N. Hall, the
sitting member. There had been no contested election in that
constituency for the Commons up till this time, since 1867, but after a
most gallant fight, he was defeated. He had conducted the Crown business
(French cases), ever since 1878, and he is now the sole Crown Prosecutor
for the district of St. Francis, since February, 1887. In religion, he
is a Roman Catholic, but well-known for his liberal views in religious
and educational matters. In politics, he is an independent Conservative,
but separated from the present government on account of the North-West
troubles. On October 23rd, 1865, whilst studying law, he married
Margaret Henrietta Bradshaw Unsworth, daughter of the late James
Unsworth, who came from England to this country about the year 1852, and
was engaged on the editorial staff of the Montreal _Gazette_ for a
while, after which he removed to St. Hyacinthe, where he held the office
of agent for the Grand Trunk Railway Company, and died of cholera in
1854. Mr. Unsworth left four sons, one of whom, Joseph, is
superintendent of the government railway on Prince Edward Island. His
widow, still living in Sherbrooke, is the sister of the well-known
English composer, John Hatton, who died a couple of years ago, in
London. Mr. Belanger has only one child, a daughter, having lost two in
their infancy. Mr. Belanger’s motto is “Live and let live!” He stands up
for equal rights to all men, and is a thorough Canadian. In 1867, Mr.
Belanger’s father and family removed from Ste. Rosalie to Cookshire,
county of Compton, where he purchased a large farm, now carried on by
Mr. Belanger and his youngest brother. His father died two years ago,
much regretted by a large circle of friends.
* * * * *
=Berryman, John=, M.D., M.P.P., of St. John, N.B., is of Irish
extraction, his father, John Berryman, being a native of Antrim, who
emigrated to St. John, and married Miss Wade, a lady of U. E. Loyalist
parentage. Dr. Berryman was born in St. John, 9th December, 1828, and
received his early education at the grammar school in that city. After
leaving school he began life as a clerk in a flour store in St. John,
then in a hardware shop, and for a half year in a flouring mill owned by
his father. In 1848 he visited the West India Islands of Trinidad,
Jamaica, and Cuba; Santa Fe De Bogata and Rio Hacha in New Granada. In
1849 he built, in St. John, a steam meal mill for grinding corn, and ran
it until the fall of 1851, when he sold out and left for the Cape of
Good Hope, and subsequently Australia, where he resided for five years,
and carried on business as a miner, merchant, truckman, builder, and
carpenter. Having early manifested a strong bent for the profession of
medicine, after his return from Australia he entered upon a careful
course of studies, at first in St. John and afterwards at the University
of Edinburgh, where he assisted, in his professional labors, Professor
Sir J. Y. Simpson, and resided in his house for two years. It is part of
the course of a good student to engage in actual work either in the city
of Edinburgh or at the university. In this way a medical student
acquires in the rough duties of a city physician a practical knowledge
of the minutiæ of his arduous employment, which must afterwards be of
great service to him, especially when, as so often happens, he elects
his field of labor in some remote country town, or on the outskirts of
civilization, where books are not to be had, and consultations with
other physicians are necessarily few and far between. Students at
Edinburgh frequently attend to outside patients, furnish statistics of
mortality to the official registrars, and deliver lectures on
professional subjects. It so happened that Dr. Berryman’s fate cast him
very soon into a field of work which tested his practical knowledge and
his natural resources to the utmost. The war of the United States
rebellion broke out in 1861, and the demand for men and scientific skill
of all kinds, but particularly for skilled physicians, became enormous.
Dr. Berryman went to the front and tendered his services, which, being
accepted, found a large field. He was appointed by Surgeon-General
Hammond a member of an examining board in connection with Professors
Stillie, DeCosta, Weir, Mitchel, and Gross, of Philadelphia, and Dr.
Smith, an army surgeon, to decide what disposition should be made of the
three thousand soldiers under treatment in the hospital. He saw many
thrilling scenes in the field of battle and in the crowded war hospital.
In the rough exigencies of army life, and amid the countless horrible
cases which war engendered, he had an ample field for his abilities, and
at the same time had opportunities of perfecting himself as a surgeon in
most difficult and delicate surgical operations. The training so
acquired has been of inestimable value to him in his subsequent career
in St. John and elsewhere. After the war was over he settled down in his
native city and speedily worked up an extensive and lucrative practice.
There was a great demand for the services of an army doctor. He took an
interest in the volunteer movement, and served as surgeon of the
garrison artillery of St. John from 18th April, 1864, to September,
1875. He was also surgeon of police from 1863 to 1875. Besides these
appointments and the calls of his large city practice, he has frequently
been sent for to attend severe cases of disease in other parts of New
Brunswick and also Nova Scotia. Dr. Berryman first came before the
public in the role of a candidate at the general election held on the
26th of April, in 1886. He and his colleague, John V. Ellis, were
elected to represent the city of St. John in the House of Assembly, the
vote standing, Ellis, 1673; Berryman 1611; defeating E. McLeod, 1500;
and R. F. Quigley, 1220. Dr. Berryman is a Liberal and will, no doubt,
before long give a good account of himself on the floor of parliament.
His large practical experience of men and manners gives him a great
advantage in politics. In 1850 he was made a Mason in Hibernia Lodge,
St. John. He married, on the 16th March, 1864, Mary A., daughter of G.
S. Brodie, of London, England.
* * * * *
=Jaffray, Robert=, Toronto, is a Scotchman by birth, having been born at
Bannockburn, Scotland, in 1832. He is the second son of William Jaffray
and Margaret Heugh. His father carried on farming near the celebrated
battlefield where King Robert Bruce defeated the English army of
invasion led by King Edward, and gave Scotland her freedom. Here Robert
passed his early days, and when only twelve years of age, his father
dying, he was thrown on his own resources. After attending school at
Stirling, until he was about fifteen years of age, he entered the
service, as an apprentice, of J. R. Dymock, grocer and wine merchant,
Edinburgh, Scotland, where he remained for five years. At the expiration
of this time, he sailed for Canada, and arrived in Toronto in the fall
of 1852. Here he joined his brother-in-law, John B. Smith, grocer and
wine merchant, and was appointed as his manager. The establishment was
situated on the site now occupied by Jaffray & Ryan, corner of Yonge and
Louisa streets, then the most northern shop on Yonge street. Three years
later Mr. Jaffray became a partner in his brother-in-law’s business, and
the new firm traded under the name of Smith and Jaffray. In 1858 a
disastrous fire swept away Mr. Smith’s lumber yard and sash and door
factory on Niagara street, by which a great loss was sustained, and
shortly after this event, Mr. Smith retired from the firm, leaving Mr.
Jaffray to carry on the business alone. Being possessed of great energy
and perseverance, he soon succeeded in building up a lucrative trade,
and such was his success that in 1883 he was able to retire with a
competency, handing the business over to his brother, George Jaffray,
and James Ryan, who now carry it on. During Mr. Jaffray’s residence in
Toronto he has been, outside his own business connected with many
successful enterprises. He was appointed by the Hon. Alexander
Mackenzie, one of the directors of the Northern Railway Company, in
which capacity he served three years looking after the country’s
interests, the government of Canada having advanced a large sum of money
to that corporation at various times. From information furnished by Mr.
Jaffray, a royal commission was appointed by the government to look into
the affairs of the “Northern,” which resulted in a satisfactory
settlement of the then existing claims. He was afterwards chosen a
director of the Midland Railway Company, of which board he is at present
an efficient member. In 1874 he took an active part in organizing the
Toronto House Building Society (now the Land Security Company), of which
he is vice-president. He is president of the Toronto Real Estate
Investment Company; and is also a director of the Toronto Trust Company,
director of the _Globe_ Printing Company, director of the Sovereign
Insurance Company, director of the North America Life Insurance Company,
director of the Peterborough Real Estate Investment Company, director of
the Central Canada Land Investment Company, director of the Ontario and
Sault Ste. Marie Railway Company, director of the Imperial Bank, and
director of the Homewood Retreat or Private Asylum for Inebriates and
Insane at Guelph. He is a member of the Caledonian and St. Andrew’s
societies. In politics, Mr. Jaffray has identified himself with the
Reform party, and although often solicited to accept nominations for
civic and parliamentary honors, he has invariably declined. Immediately
after the exciting political campaign of 1879, one of the most daring
attempts was made to kidnap several of the leading men of the Reform
party, ostensibly with the object of, extorting from them a large
ransom. Among those marked for this object were the late Hon. George
Brown, Hon. Oliver Mowat, and the subject of this sketch. Through a
chain of circumstances, Mr. Jaffray was drawn into the snare, and taken
from his residence at a late hour at night under pretence of arrest, he
giving himself up to his captors on their producing a document
purporting to be signed by Judge Wilson, acting for the minister of
justice at Ottawa, directing him to be immediately brought to the
judge’s residence for examination relative to certain charges of a grave
character. Mr. Jaffray went with his captors, having no suspicion of
foul play; but instead of being taken to Judge Wilson’s home, he was
driven to a lonely spot on the east side of the Don and Danforth road,
where, it afterwards appeared, his captors intended to imprison him in a
cave they had previously prepared for his reception. The place was
afterwards discovered by two detectives while they were searching in the
neighborhood. It was dug out of the hill on a farm owned by Mr. Playter,
and was capable of accommodating several persons. Mr. Jaffray, on
alighting from the carriage, in the neighborhood of the cave, and
finding himself the victim of a dastardly plot against his personal
liberty, struggled with his captors and managed to get out of their
clutches. He then succeeded in awakening the inmates of a house in the
neighborhood, when his abductors made their escape. The officers of the
law at once made great efforts to discover the perpetrators of the
outrage, and suspicion having fallen on two brothers—Thomas and Ross
Dale, they were arrested and tried for the crime. Thomas was found
guilty, and sentenced by Judge Burton to two years in the county jail,
Ross Dale being discharged. Thus ended one of the boldest plots to
deprive several leading citizens of their liberty ever known in the
province of Ontario. In 1860, he married Sarah, youngest daughter of
John Bugg, by whom he has two sons and two daughters.
* * * * *
=Jamieson, Philip=, Clothier and Outfitter, Toronto, is a native of
Scotland, having been born in Edinburgh, on the 31st July, 1850. His
father, Hugh Jamieson, carried on the tailoring business in “Auld
Reekie,” and his mother, Elizabeth Marshall, was born near Musselburgh.
Young Jamieson received his education in Bell’s School in his native
city, and after receiving a fair commercial education, was apprenticed
to a jeweller. Here he served seven years, and at the end of his term
was considered a first-class workman. After working a short time at his
trade in Edinburgh he left for Canada, and reached Toronto in March,
1873. He brought with him a stock of ready-made clothing, and shortly
afterwards opened a store on Queen street west. Business succeeding, he
opened a branch store, further west on the same street. At this time he
had a partner named Spain, and they traded under the name of Spain and
Jamieson. This partnership continued about two years, when Mr. Jamieson
elected to carry on the business alone, and from this time may be dated
the success of his business, now grown to large dimensions. He shortly
afterwards secured the large premises he now occupies on the corner of
Yonge and Queen streets, and further extended his operations by opening
branch establishments on Queen street west, and in the city of Hamilton.
And Mr. Jamieson has now the largest retail clothing and outfitting
establishment in the Dominion of Canada. He employs eight salesmen in
his retail shop, five cutters, and over one hundred and fifty operative
tailors. In politics, Mr. Jamieson, like the majority of the intelligent
Scotch in Canada, is a hard-working and enthusiastic Reformer, and does
not hesitate when the occasion calls for it to spend both time and money
for party purposes. In religion he is an adherent of the Presbyterian
church. On the 11th of March, 1873, he was married to Dorcas Wilson
Menzies, daughter of William Menzies, of Edinburgh, and has a family of
six children, four girls and two boys.
* * * * *
=Schiller, Charles Edward=, Montreal.—The late Mr. Schiller was a
descendant of an old family which originally came from Hamburg, and was
related to the great poet of that name. His grandfather, Augustus
Schiller, was the first of the family to arrive in Canada, having come
in the capacity of surgeon to one of the Hessian regiments in 1778. His
father, Benjamin Schiller, served with great distinction and valor in
the _Voltigeurs Canadien_ at the battle of Chateauguay, under Colonel de
Salaberry, and was promoted from lieutenant to captain on the field of
battle for bravery in carrying his captain when wounded to the ambulance
under a heavy fire. Charles Edward Schiller was born on the 17th
September, 1819, at Rivière du Loup (_en haut_), and was educated at
Benjamin Workman’s Academy, Montreal. He entered the court house in
1835, where he soon became chief clerk, and in 1847 was appointed deputy
clerk of the crown and peace. He assisted at the famous trial of
Jalbert, who was accused of the murder of Lieutenant Weir at St. Denis,
during the rebellion of 1837. He also took a prominent part as officer
of the court in the trial of the St. Alban’s raiders, in 1864, as well
as in the trial of the Fenians after the invasion of 1866. Mr. Schiller
was appointed joint clerk of the peace with Mr. Carter. On Mr. Carter’s
leaving the office, Mr. Schiller was appointed clerk of the crown, and
acted as such for a number of years. At the advent of the Joly
government, at Quebec, in 1880, Mr. Brehaut, the then acting police
magistrate, was appointed jointly with Mr. Schiller, as clerk of the
crown. On the sudden death of Mr. Brehaut in 1882, the present clerk of
the crown, L. W. Sicotte, was named Mr. Schiller’s partner. Mr. Schiller
was, without doubt, the person who possessed the largest criminal
experience in the Dominion, having had cognizance of the most important
trials that took place since 1853. He was an excessively hard worker,
and the only holidays he took during his term of office of fifty years,
was one month when he went to New Orleans. Holidays and Sundays, from
morning to night, he continued his labors. His time was so much taken up
during the week in giving information and advice to gentlemen of the
bar, that the routine work naturally fell behind, but when the new week
began, the work of the past one was always completed. The employés in
the offices of the clerk of the crown always found a true and kind
friend in him, and when the supplies were refused by the Legislative
Council in 1880 to the Joly government, Mr. Schiller paid the salaries
of the clerks of the police court and of his own office out of his
private means. The late Judge Ramsay, as well as Justice Johnson and
Justice Aylwin, were warm personal friends of the deceased, and placed
unbounded confidence in his experience. Judge Ramsay frequently
consulted Mr. Schiller in criminal matters, and every crown officer who
prosecuted for the crown, always found him willing to supply them with
any information. In his entire public career, Mr. Schiller won the
confidence and esteem of all with whom he dealt, and counted as his
friends many of the most influential public men of the day. Always a
staunch Conservative, he was a special protégé of the late Sir George
Cartier, who had great confidence in him, and of the Hon. Mr. Chapleau.
Mr. Schiller at one time took an active part in the local militia, and
held the rank of captain. He nearly lost his life in the Gavazzi riots
in 1853, having been in the midst of the firing by the troops. He leaves
one sister, married to M. P. Guy, Montreal’s oldest notary. He died 25th
April, 1887, after fifty-two years of consistent attendance to his
active duties.
* * * * *
=Ouellette, Rev. J. R.=, President of St. Hyacinthe College, Quebec
province, was born at Sandwich, Ontario, on the 26th of December, 1830.
He received his education in the college he now so ably presides over.
Father Ouellette was ordained a priest at Paris, on the 20th of
December, 1856, and in 1857 was appointed assistant at St. Mary’s
Church, Toronto, under the Rev. John Walsh, now bishop of London,
Ontario. Shortly after his settlement in St. Mary’s, he was transferred
to St. Michael’s Cathedral, in the same city, as assistant, and later on
was appointed rector. Two years afterwards, in 1859, he resigned his
position in St. Michael’s Cathedral, and joined the teaching staff of
St. Hyacinthe College. In 1882, on the retirement of the Rev. Joseph
Sabin Raymond, who had been president of the college for a great number
of years, he was chosen to fill the vacancy, and has since successfully
conducted this popular institute of learning. He is one of the titular
canons of the cathedral chapter of St. Hyacinthe.
* * * * *
=Grant, Henry Hugh=, Collector of Inland Revenue, Halifax, Nova Scotia,
was born at Newport, Hants county, N.S., on the 15th April, 1839. His
parents were John Nutting Grant and Margaret McCallum. Captain John
Grant, grandfather of John N., first came to America with his regiment,
the 42nd Highlanders, or “Black Watch.” He married in New York, and
having retired from the army, he settled in Brooklyn, N.Y. He afterwards
served, under Sir William Johnston, in some provincial corps raised in
New York for operations against the Indians, and saw some hard service
in Western New York, as well as in Ohio, where he distinguished himself
in a number of engagements with the famous chief, Pontiac. His wife’s
family favoring the rebels at the breaking out of the American
revolution, induced him to leave for the West Indies, where, however,
his loyalty and sense of duty did not allow him to remain. He soon
returned and finding his regiment in New York ready to receive him, he
joined again as captain, and with it fought at the battle of Long
Island, when Washington was defeated, in 1776. At the conclusion of the
war he removed to Nova Scotia, his property in Brooklyn having been
confiscated. On his arrival there the Crown granted him a tract of land
in Kempt, Hants county, and the part of this property on which he
resided he named “Loyal Hill,” and here he remained until his death.
Margaret McCallum was the granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Moreau, who
came out to Halifax as chaplain and secretary to Lord Cornwallis. He was
the first Episcopal clergyman to land in Halifax, and his son,
Cornwallis Moreau, was the first male child born there after its
settlement. Mr. Moreau was a relative of Napoleon’s celebrated general
of that name. He was a convert from the Roman Catholic faith, having
been educated for and taken priests’ orders in that church in France,
Mr. Grant, the subject of our sketch, received his academic education in
the Collegiate School at Wolfville, N.S. He afterwards spent some years
as clerk in mercantile establishments, first in Windsor, N.S., and
afterwards in New York. He returned from New York in 1871, and engaged
in shipbuilding and mining enterprises, at the old homestead, Loyal
Hill. In October, 1879, he was appointed to the civil service as
exciseman, and served in the Toronto division until September, 1880,
when, after passing a first-class examination, he was removed to
Halifax, and promoted to the collectorship in October, 1882. He served
several years in the 7th regiment of militia in the county of Hants, and
holds a captain’s commission dated October 10th, 1867. Mr. Grant was
appointed United States consular agent at Kempt in April, 1873, but
resigned the office, on his removal from there, in 1877. He was made a
master Mason, in Walsford Lodge, No. 924, Windsor, N.S., in 1866, and
has ever since taken a deep interest in the order. He is a Conservative
in politics, and in religion leans towards the Episcopal church. Mr.
Grant was married at Newport, Hants county, on January 25th, 1872, to
Georgie, daughter of George Allison. The fruit of this union has been
five children, only two of whom are living, viz., Marion Allison, aged
13, and Frank Parker, aged 8.
* * * * *
=Webster, Walter Chester=, Hardware Merchant, Coaticook, Quebec
province, was born in Hatley, P.Q., on the 27th November, 1841. His
father, Oscar F. Webster, was a farmer. His mother, Eliza Watson, was a
native of Antrim, Ireland. Mr. Webster received a sound commercial
education at Hatley Academy. Before settling down to business he devoted
some time to travel, and spent about three years in California. On his
return to Canada, he turned his attention to farming, which he
successfully prosecuted for eight years, and then adopted a mercantile
life. In 1876 he opened a hardware and crockery store in Coaticook, and
through close attention to business he has succeeded to his entire
satisfaction. In 1873 Mr. Webster was appointed a justice of the peace
by the Joly government, and for a number of years he has been a member
of the municipal council of Coaticook, and also that of the township of
Barnston. He was one of the original promoters of the Coaticook Knitting
Company; and holds a considerable amount of this company’s stock. He is
also a director of the Stanstead and Compton Agricultural Society. Mr.
Webster takes a deep interest in the Independent Order of Oddfellows,
and is an active member of this benevolent organization. Recently he was
offered the position of mayor of the town by his fellow citizens, but
owing to the pressure of business he was forced to decline the proffered
honor. But, nevertheless, though refusing to take office, it is not to
be presumed he lacks public spirit. There is no man in the community
that does more to promote the prosperity of the place of his adoption
than he does. He is always to be found amongst its workers, and is often
consulted by both political parties when anything is on the _tapis_ for
the promotion of the interests of either town or county. In politics,
Mr. Webster is a Liberal, and in religion, a member of the Episcopal
church. He was married, on the 20th September, 1865, to Adella A.
Kennedy, second daughter of Washington Kennedy, of Hatley, and to them
have been born six girls and one boy, a very promising youth of eighteen
years, and named after his grandfather.
* * * * *
=Papineau, Hon. Louis Joseph=, was born in Montreal, 7th October, 1786.
He was the son of Joseph Papineau, a well-known notary of his day, and
one of the principal promoters of the constitution of 1791, and a member
of the first parliament after the conquest. Louis Joseph was educated
chiefly at the seminary of Quebec, and having studied law was admitted
to the bar of Lower Canada in 1811. So brilliant were his prospects and
his talents even before this that in 1809, and while still a student, he
was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the county of Kent, now
Chambly, and in 1815 was appointed speaker of the house. This office Mr.
Papineau held, with only two years’ intermission during his mission to
England as delegate of the Assembly in 1822-’23, for the long period of
twenty years, or until the year 1837, the year of the unfortunate
troubles, when he threw himself heartily into what he considered the
right and lawful course of action to gain that which the present
generation enjoys, through his and his _confrères’_ endeavors
then,—Responsible Government—and all the liberties of the British
Constitution which had so long been denied in practice. In 1820, when
Lord Dalhousie became governor, he appointed Mr. Papineau to a seat in
the Executive Council, but this post was soon declined by him, when he
found it a vain honor without the influence the council should have had
on the determination of the governor. In 1822, the union of Upper and
Lower Canada having been upon the _tapis_, and the subject being
distasteful to many, Louis Papineau and John Neilson went to England,
and were successful in getting the union postponed for the next two
years. In 1827, unfortunate difficulties arose between the governor and
Mr. Papineau, and to such a height did they reach that the former
refused to acknowledge Mr. Papineau as speaker, though duly elected to
that high office by a large majority of the Assembly. The Assembly
triumphed, and Lord Dalhousie resigned his office as governor, after
having dissolved the Assembly. He was succeeded by Sir James Kempt, who,
after the next election, duly accepted Mr. Papineau as the speaker again
appointed, and giving him, perhaps, one of the greatest triumphs ever
achieved by any person in the political arena of any country. Political
troubles grew worse as years rolled on, and in 1836 they culminated in
the events of that and the next two years, which for the time threw
Canada into a state of turmoil and anxiety, now happily all passed away,
leaving only the fruits so bravely and indomitably sought for,
constitutional government and unbiased representation. The so-called
leaders of the disturbance having had rewards for apprehension placed on
their heads, Mr. Papineau, as one, fled to the United States, where he
resided from 1837 to 1839. He then removed to Paris, France, where he
lived till 1847, when the issue of the amnesty proclamation enabled him
to return to his native land. He again entered parliament, and was
continued there until 1854, when he retired into private life, and for
the next seventeen years enjoyed the calm of a green and sturdy old age,
the love of books and horticulture, and the personal esteem of those who
best knew his character. His death took place on Saturday, the 23rd
September, 1871, at his residence at MonteBello, at the patriarchal age
of eighty-five. His son, Louis Joseph Amédée Papineau, is the present
joint-prothonotary of Montreal.
* * * * *
=Greenwood, Stansfield=, Manager of the Coaticook Cotton Company,
Coaticook, Quebec province, was born in Lancashire, England, on the 28th
of June, 1853. His father, Edward Greenwood, was a manager of a large
cotton mill in Lancashire, His mother was Mary Chadwick, a descendant of
the celebrated Sir Joshua Chadwick, of Lancashire. Mr. Greenwood, the
subject of our sketch, was educated at Longholme Normal School,
receiving an elementary education. After leaving school he entered the
cotton mill in which his father was manager, and there learned all the
details of the business. At the age of twenty-two, he came to Canada,
and took charge of one of the departments of the Valleyfield Cotton
Mills, which position he filled for six years. After that period he
entered into a partnership with Wallace Bros., and started the Chambly
Cotton Company at Chambly Canton, P.Q. This partnership lasted a year,
when it was turned into a limited liability company. After another term
of two years he retired from that company and took entire charge of the
works of the Coaticook Cotton Company. Their mill, under the skilful
management of Mr. Greenwood, has paid a good dividend, and still
continues to do so. Mr. Greenwood is a Liberal of the Gladstone style,
and in religion a Methodist. He was married on the 12th August, 1874, to
Mary Ann Bury, daughter of John Bury, of Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, and
the fruit of the union has been three sons and a daughter.
* * * * *
=Smith, Rev. James Cowie=, M.A., B.D., Pastor of St. Andrew’s Church,
Guelph, province of Ontario, was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the
17th January, 1834. His father, James Smith, followed the calling of a
farmer. His mother was named Jane Cowie. The future divine received his
elementary education at Smith’s Classical Academy, at Fordyce, Scotland,
and on coming to Canada entered Queen’s University, Kingston, where he
graduated, taking the degrees of B.A. in 1862, M.A. in 1864 (holding the
first place in the university examinations), and B.D. in 1880. He was
licensed to preach the gospel by the presbytery of Kingston, and was
inducted into the pastorate of Cumberland and Buckingham Presbyterian
congregations, July 11th, 1864. During this pastorate, he discharged the
duties of local superintendent of schools, in the township of
Cumberland, and acted as chairman of the Grammar School board. He was
translated, in 1868, to St. Andrew’s Church, Belleville, where he
remained some years, acting as inspector of schools in the town, in
addition to his ministerial duties. About this time, having met the
requirements for county school inspector, he was officially declared
eligible for such a position by the chief superintendent of education of
Ontario. Having been called to the vacant pastorate of St. Paul’s
Church, Hamilton, Rev. Mr. Smith was translated thither about 1872, when
he was again called to succeed the Rev. Dr. Hogg, deceased, in his
pastorate charge, St. Andrew’s Church, Guelph. At different times Rev.
Mr. Smith has served, in the capacity of stated clerk, successively in
the presbyteries of Ottawa and Kingston; and while pastor in St. Paul’s
Church, Hamilton, was appointed moderator of the Synod of Hamilton and
London. For several years he has also been chosen to, and still holds at
present, the responsible position of member of university council,
Queen’s University, Kingston. He was at one time called to St. Andrew’s
Church, Peterborough, and twice to St. Andrew’s Church, St. John, New
Brunswick, both of which invitations he declined. Rev. Mr. Smith is very
popular among his congregation, and takes a deep interest in all matters
calculated to improve the social and spiritual condition of the people
among whom his lot has been cast. He is in full harmony with the
doctrines of his church, and can always be depended on to defend its
standards. He was married, June 21st, 1866, to Emily Georgina, third
daughter of the late Captain Archibald Petrie, R.N., of Cumberland,
Ontario.
* * * * *
=Carling, Hon. John=, London, Ontario, Minister of Agriculture of the
Dominion, M.P. for the City of London, Ontario, is the youngest son of
Thomas Carling, a native of Yorkshire, England, who came to Canada in
1818, and settled in the county of Middlesex the following year. The
future minister of state was born in the township of London, on the 23rd
of January, 1828, and received his education in the public school of his
native city. While quite young he became a member of the brewing firm of
Carling & Co., London, and was an active member of it for a number of
years. He took part in nearly all public matters, and was for several
years a director of the Great Western Railway Company; the London, Huron
& Bruce Railway Company; the London & Port Stanley Railway Company, and
was also chairman of the Board of Water Commissioners of the city of
London. In 1857 Mr. Carling aspired to parliamentary honors, on the
Conservative side, and was returned by a considerable majority over the
Liberal candidate, Elijah Leonard, and continued to represent London in
the Legislative Assembly of Canada continuously down to the time of
confederation. In 1862 Mr. Carling made his first appearance as a
cabinet minister, having been appointed receiver-general that year. At
the general election, after the consummation of confederation, Mr.
Carling was elected to the House of Commons, and was likewise returned
as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. In the Ontario
Assembly he was appointed minister of agriculture and public works,
under the Sandfield-Macdonald administration, and this portfolio he
retained till 1871, when fortune went against the administration, and it
was forced to resign. In 1878 Hon. Mr. Carling was again returned to
parliament, and took his seat in the House of Commons, at Ottawa, but he
did not hold a portfolio in the new cabinet. However, in 1882, he was
made postmaster-general, and this office he held until the 25th
September, 1885, when he became minister of agriculture, and he has held
this office ever since. At the general election of 1887 he was
re-elected to the House of Commons, after a lively contest with Charles
S. S. Hyman, a local Liberal, his majority over his opponent being
thirty-nine votes. Hon. Mr. Carling is not a demonstrative member, but
the same clear-headedness and calm judgment that had served him so well
in his important successful business affairs has stood him in good stead
as a parliamentary representative. He has proved himself a capable
minister of the crown, and although he seldom makes a speech in the
House of Commons, yet when he does he always speaks to the point. In
politics Hon. Mr. Carling is a Liberal-Conservative, and in religion he
belongs to the Methodist church. He is married to Hannah, eldest
daughter of the late Henry Dalton of London, Ontario.
* * * * *
=Smith, Arthur Lapthorn=, B.A., M.D., Montreal, member of the Royal
College of Surgeons of England, fellow of the Obstetrical Society of
London, lecturer on diseases of women in the medical faculty of Bishop’s
College, Montreal, consulting physician to the Montreal Dispensary, is
the second son of William Smith, deputy minister of marine, Ottawa, and
was born on the 6th June, 1855, at St. John, New Brunswick, where his
father was at that time comptroller of customs. His mother was Jane
Busby, a granddaughter of the late Colonel Bayard, of Nova Scotia, at
one time on the staff of the Duke of Kent. He received his early
education at private schools, and from tutors in St. John and Chatham,
New Brunswick, and in Melrose and Galashiels, in Scotland. He then
entered the classical course at the University of Ottawa, where, after
four years’ study, he graduated as B.A. in 1872. He then began his
medical studies at Laval University, Quebec. At the end of his second
year he took the degree of B.M., and at the end of his fourth year he
obtained the degree of M.D., and the Sewell prize in 1876. He then
proceeded to London, and studied during two winter sessions at Guy’s and
the London hospitals, after which he passed the examinations of the
Royal College of Surgeons. He spent two summers in Paris and Vienna.
During six months of his stay in London, he held the position of
resident clinical assistant at the East London Children’s Hospital. On
his return to Canada, in 1878, he began practice in Montreal, where he
has ever since remained. Shortly after his arrival he was appointed
assistant demonstrator of anatomy in Bishop’s College Medical School,
and attending physician to the Montreal Dispensary. He was also elected
a member of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, in whose proceedings he has
always taken an active part. He was for some time treasurer of this
society. He soon became demonstrator of anatomy, and two years later he
was appointed professor of botany, and held this position for two years,
when he was given the chair of medical jurisprudence. In 1887 he was
appointed lecturer on the diseases of women in the same university. He
has always taken great interest in temperance matters, and was twice
elected president of the Band of Hope, and for three years he was
president of the Young Men’s Association of St. Andrew’s Church, of
which he is now the youngest elder. He has long been a Mason, and has
held the position of secretary of Royal Albert Lodge for several years.
He has also reached the eighteenth degree in the ancient and accepted
Scottish rite. He has been surgeon of the 6th Regiment of Cavalry for
the past eight years, and has regularly camped out with his regiment
when it was necessary to do so. Although he has a large practice as a
specialist for diseases of women, he still finds time to contribute
numerous articles to the medical journals, to deliver an occasional
lecture on popular science before the Young Men’s Association, as well
as to take an active interest in everything that concerns the welfare of
his adopted city. As an instance of his energy, we may mention that,
having heard of a new application of electricity to the treatment of
hitherto incurable diseases of women, he immediately started for Paris,
and remained with the inventor, Dr. Apostoli, until he had become
thoroughly acquainted with all its details, and he subsequently
published a translation of Dr. Apostoli’s latest work on this subject.
Dr. Smith’s amiable manner and sympathetic nature has won for him the
affection and esteem of his pupils and patients, especially among the
poor. In politics, he is an ardent supporter of the policy of the
Conservative party, which he considers will be the means of ultimately
building up, in the north-west part of this continent, a great and
wealthy nation. In 1884 he was married to Jessie Victoria, third
daughter of Alexander Buntin, of Montreal, by whom he has had a son and
a daughter.
* * * * *
=Boak, Hon. Robert=, Halifax, N.S., President of the Legislative Council
of Nova Scotia, was born in Leith, Scotland, on the 19th of September,
1822. His father was Robert Boak, of Shields, in the county of Durham,
England, who, on his retirement from the army, became an officer in her
Majesty’s Customs, in Halifax in 1839, and retained that position until
he was superannuated. His son, Robert Boak, the subject of our sketch,
came to Halifax in 1831, and in 1847 became a member of the firm of John
Esson & Co., wholesale grocers. In 1854 he retired from that firm, and
formed the firm of Esson, Boak & Co., and engaged in the West India
trade. In 1864 this latter firm was dissolved, and he then continued
business in his own name, and under the firm style of Robert Boak & Son,
until 1875, when he retired from business. Mr. Boak was president of the
Nova Scotia Repeal League in 1869; became a member of the Legislative
Council in 1872, and president of that body in 1878; and a member of the
government, being treasurer of the province from December, 1877, to
October, 1878. At present he is president of the Acadia Fire Insurance
Company; vice-president of the Union Bank, and the Nova Scotia Sugar
Refinery; also a director of the Gas Light Company. He has always been a
Liberal in politics, and has done yeoman service for that party in the
maritime provinces during the last decade.
* * * * *
=Normand, Telesphore Euzebe=, Contractor, Three Rivers, Quebec, was born
on the 18th August, 1833, at Quebec city. His father, Edward Normand,
was a well-known contractor of that city, and was the leading contractor
of his time, having built the St. Maurice bridge in 1832, and again in
1841; also Montmorency, Chaudière and other bridges, as well as the
greater part of the wharves at Quebec. His mother was Louise Martin, of
Quebec. He was educated at Nicolet College; stood high in his class, and
exhibited considerable promise as a student. On leaving the college, he
went to Three Rivers, in 1851, and has resided there since then. He
began life as a notary clerk under V. Guillet, with whom he was engaged
from 1853 to 1858; and concurrently with this he was engaged in the
office of the St. Maurice public works. In 1858 he set up for himself as
a public notary, but in 1871 abandoned the legal profession for the
purpose of following his father’s business. From 1861 to 1865 he was
city councillor and school board commissioner at Three Rivers. He was
elected mayor in 1873, defeating Mr. Bureau in the contest, after which
he was elected by acclamation each year for the three following years,
when he resigned. During the time he was mayor he was the means of
consolidating the city debt, and carried out other important matters. He
was captain of the city volunteers from 1863 to 1865. In politics he is
a Conservative, and has given valuable assistance to his party. In 1871
he contested the seat for Champlain, but was defeated, by Senator
Trudel, by forty-eight votes. As a contractor he stands in the foremost
rank, and has a deservedly high reputation for first-class work. He was
the contractor for the bridge over the St. Maurice, which is considered
one of the most skilful pieces of workmanship—so far as wood bridges
are concerned—in the province, if not indeed in the Dominion. The
bridge in question is built in two sections, one of which is 1,400 feet,
and the other 700 feet in length. The whole structure is built of the
best material obtainable, and is a most excellent specimen of
first-class work. Mr. Normand has constructed many other public works,
such as wharves, piers, booms and railways, at Three Rivers, Quebec and
Crane Island. Among other projects he carried out was that of the system
of water-works which the city of Three Rivers possesses—a system which
is inferior to none in the Dominion. Not only is Mr. Normand entitled to
great credit for the energetic manner in which he pushed the work to
completion, but also, what was even more needful, for obtaining the
money wherewith to carry on the work—which he did by securing
subscriptions in Quebec and England. He is held in the highest regard by
the community, and is deservedly popular with all classes, not only in
Three Rivers, but in Quebec city, where he is well-known. He was married
in October, 1856, to Alphonsine, daughter of Joseph Giroux, one of the
wealthiest and most prominent merchants in Three Rivers, who died in
1856, universally regretted. By this marriage there have been born nine
children, five of whom survive.
* * * * *
=Duhamel, Most Rev. Joseph Thomas=, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa,
is a native of Quebec province, having been born at Contrecœur, Quebec,
on the 6th November, 1841. His parents were François Duhamel and Marie
Joseph Audet-Lapointe, both of whom were born in Quebec province, but
died in Ontario. The future archbishop’s father was a farmer, and having
removed to Ottawa, sent his son to the college there, where he was
educated under the direction of the Oblate Fathers, receiving a thorough
classical education. On the completion of his studies, he decided to
consecrate his life entirely to God, and accordingly entered the Ottawa
Seminary, where, in prosecuting his theological studies, he evinced
wonderful powers of mind. He was ordained sub-deacon, on the 21st June,
1863; deacon, 2nd November of the same year, and on the 19th December he
was ordained priest. He was then appointed to the vicarage of
Buckingham, county of Ottawa, where he proved himself to be possessed of
many noble virtues and rare administrative qualities. On the 10th
November, 1864, he went to St. Eugene, in the township of East
Hawkesbury, county of Prescott, to reside as parish priest. At that time
the parish of St. Eugene was one of the poorest in the diocese, and
hence the young priest found it hard to carry on his work, especially as
he had the difficult task before him of completing a church which was
left unfinished by his predecessor. He found many obstacles to surmount,
but by dint of persistent and energetic endeavors, and the exercise of
his great abilities, he succeeded, and completed what is now, without
doubt, one of the finest churches in the diocese, costing upwards of
$25,000. Education, previously neglected in this parish, found in him an
ardent friend and promoter, and at the present time there are many
institutions in St. Eugene which owe their existence to him, and will
long remain as monuments of his zeal. And the parishioners, too, by all
of whom he was deeply beloved, will not forget their priest and guide,
who for ten years went in and out among them. Father Duhamel accompanied
his Grace Bishop Guigues to Rome at the time of the Œcumenical Council,
but, receiving word of the serious illness of his mother, whom he loved
tenderly, he was forced to leave the Eternal City and return to Canada a
couple of weeks after his arrival there. Unhappily, he did not reach St.
Eugene in time to see his mother alive, she having expired a few days
previous to his arrival. Bishop Guigues continued to honor Father
Duhamel, and in many ways gave him unmistakable marks of his confidence
and esteem. In the month of October, 1873, Father Duhamel accompanied
Bishop Guigues as a theologian to the reunion of bishops at Quebec,
where the young priest’s talents and acquirements were generally
acknowledged. After the death of his beloved friend, Bishop J. E.
Guigues, the first bishop of Ottawa, he was chosen as his successor, on
the 1st September, 1874, and on the 28th of the following month he was
consecrated as the second bishop of Ottawa. Many persons were surprised
that such a young man—he being then only thirty-two years of
age—should have been selected to fill such an important office in the
church; but those who had known Father Duhamel for years felt that his
Holiness Pope Pius IX. had made a wise choice, and, moreover, that the
records of the church would testify that even younger men than this
father had been promoted to high positions. Mgr. Laval was only
thirty-five years of age when he was called to occupy the episcopal seat
at Quebec, Mgr. de Pontbriand was only thirty-two, and Mgr. Plessis only
thirty-seven when consecrated, and Mgr. Tache was scarcely twenty-seven
when he was appointed to succeed Mgr. Provencher, who was himself only
about thirty-three when made a bishop. His lordship Bishop Duhamel, is a
gentleman of pleasing manners, and easy of access, and possessed of
great energy and tact. He speaks with ease and fluency, and while his
sermons denote deep thought, they are not wanting in graceful form and
style. His store of knowledge is of the purest and most substantial
kind, and he speaks the French and English languages with ease. He takes
a great interest in the cause of education, and gives every
encouragement to the Catholic educational establishments in the city of
Ottawa and his diocese at large, and in his pastoral letters often calls
the attention of the clergy and the parents to the importance of the
secular and religious training of children. In 1875 he wrote: “The
future of the country and of religion depends entirely, it may be said,
on the good or bad education which youth shall receive. Parents are
strictly bound to give their children a truly Catholic education. This
obligation is founded on the law of God. We do not hesitate to add, very
beloved brethren, that parents are obliged to fully comply with this
duty to establish, encourage and support Catholic schools, and to have
the children attend them.” (Tenth pastoral letter.) In September, 1878,
he thus wrote to the clergy of the diocese: “Another scholastical year
has just commenced, numerous pupils are rapidly filling the houses of
higher education and elementary schools. Everywhere those who are
devoted to the instruction of youth rival one another in zeal and ardor
to secure the success of the great work that occupies them. These
efforts should undoubtedly be seconded by the pastors of souls, since it
is their duty to continue the mission instituted by our Divine Master,
when he said, ‘Go, teach all nations.’ You will, then, judge it right,
beloved co-operators, if I invite you to give this year, again, and
always, your whole attention and most constant care to the cause of
education. Remind parents of the strict obligation for each one to
instruct his children or have them instructed according to his condition
and the means Providence has given him. Frequently visit the schools of
your parish.” Archbishop Duhamel having made known to Pope Leo XIII. all
that the Rev. J. H. Tabaret, O.M.J., had done for education during the
many years he had been superior of the College of Ottawa, his holiness
granted this great instructor of youth the title, honors, and privileges
of doctor of divinity, as a well-merited reward, which was also given to
several of the professors. To give further encouragement to education,
Archbishop Duhamel presents every year to the College of Ottawa, to the
Literary Institute of the Grey Nuns, and to the educational
establishment of the sisters of the Congregation de Notre Dame, silver
medals to be awarded to merit, and otherwise he spares neither trouble
or expense in providing for them all possible means of attaining a good
education. Under his lordship’s care, the system of teaching has been
considerably improved, as may be seen by the present high standing of
the philosophy class in the University of Ottawa, directed by the Oblate
Fathers. One of his first acts was to order that no young man should be
permitted to begin his ecclesiastical studies before he had followed a
regular collegiate classical course, including two years of philosophy,
and then that, before he could be ordained priest, he should during four
years (three years previously required) study dogmatical and moral
theology, holy scriptures, canon law and ecclesiastical history. Shortly
after his consecration, Bishop Duhamel, with the assistance of his
clergy, had a magnificent monument erected in the interior of the
cathedral at Ottawa to the memory of the lamented Right Rev. J. E.
Guigues, his predecessor. In the autumn of 1878, Bishop Duhamel went to
Europe, and on visiting Rome was kindly received by the new Pope, and
among the favors bestowed by his Holiness was that of raising the
Cathedral of Ottawa to the dignity of minor basilica. In 1882, his
lordship spent some months in Rome, in order to have the diocese divided
by the Holy See. He was successful; the Sacred Congregation of
Propaganda having admitted that the division asked for was required for
the good of souls and the progress of religion, the Pope erected the
vicariate apostolic of Pontiac, with the Right Rev. N. Z. Lorrain as
first bishop. During his stay in the eternal city his Holiness was
pleased to honor Bishop Duhamel with the titles of Assistant to the
Pontifical Throne, Roman Count, etc. On May 8th, 1886, his lordship was
made first archbishop of Ottawa, and on the 10th of May, 1887, was made
metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Ottawa. Archbishop
Duhamel takes a great interest in the material as well as the spiritual
progress and advancement of the parishes and missions in his diocese,
and when paying his pastoral visit never fails to stimulate the
generosity of his flock to build churches to replace the wood chapels
built years ago, and in this he has been very successful. Since the year
1874 he has dedicated ten new substantial stone churches, of which the
smallest is one hundred feet long; and during the same period he has
formed thirty-three new missions, nearly all of which have large and
commodious churches. Twenty of these missions have become parishes with
residing pastors, which brings the number of regular parishes to about
eighty. During his administration the Cathedral of Ottawa has been
entirely renewed inside, and now presents a neat, rich and beautiful
appearance, and may be numbered among the best cathedrals in Canada. His
grace has always taken a special interest in the charitable institutions
of the diocese, which number he has increased by four, and which now
comprise four hospitals, three asylums for the orphans and aged people,
two for fallen women, and one foundling hospital. To enable these
institutions to perform their good work, the archbishop has ordered that
each institution be patronized by a few parishes and missions, _i.e._,
that the nuns to whose care these institutions are entrusted will be
permitted to take up in these missions yearly collections from house to
house. His grace has also established a monastery of the Sisterhood of
the Precious Blood, whose aim is contemplative life.
* * * * *
=Woodward, James Robertson=, B.A., General Manager of the Quebec Central
Railway, Sherbrooke, was born at Sherbrooke, on the 1st July, 1846. His
father, Albert G. Woodward, came from New Hampshire, United States, to
Canada in 1837, and is now coroner for the district of St. Francis. His
mother is a daughter of Major Longee of Compton. Mr. Woodward, the
subject of our sketch, was educated at Lennoxville, and is a B.A. of
Bishop’s College University. Some time after leaving school he joined in
a partnership with E. C. Brown, and began business as contractor. In
1869, the firm built and equipped sections of the Quebec Central
Railway, and afterwards part of the Waterloo and Magog Railway. They
also built railways in Brazil and Buenos Ayres in South America. In
1881, Mr. Woodward became the general manager of the Quebec Central
Railway, and this office he still holds. For three years he held the
position of secretary-treasurer for the county council of Sherbrooke;
and for the same length of time was a member of the city council of
Sherbrooke. He is a director of the Eastern Township’s Agricultural
Association, and at various times he held the same position in other
public bodies. In politics he is a Conservative, and at present chairman
of the Liberal-Conservative Association of the district comprising the
counties of Sherbrooke, Stanstead, Richmond and Wolfe, and Compton. He
is a public spirited gentleman, and is highly respected by his fellow
citizens. In religion he is an adherent of the Episcopal church. He is
unmarried.
* * * * *
=Hall, Robert Newton=, B.A., LL.D., Q.C., Member of Parliament for
Sherbrooke, P.Q., was born at Laprairie, 26th July, 1836. He is the son
of Rev. R. V. Hall, English church clergyman. He received the principal
part of his scholastic training in the University of Burlington, Vt.,
from which he has his degree of B.A., graduating in 1857. On returning
home he entered upon the study of law, and in 1861 was called to the bar
of Lower Canada. A year later he married Lena, daughter of the late A.
W. Kendrick, of Compton, Quebec. In his practice of the law, he has all
his life been exceedingly successful, and has long been recognized as a
leading member of his profession. He held the honorable office of
_bâtonnier_ of St. Francis section of the bar from 1877 to 1881, and in
1878 became _bâtonnier_ of the bar of the whole province. He has long
been dean of the faculty of law in Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, from
which college also he holds his doctor’s degree. All his life, Mr. Hall
has been a leader of the public enterprises of his native province, his
name being regarded as a tower of strength to any organization with
which he becomes identified. He not only has the character of a man of
spotless honor, but his public spirit, his great business ability, and
his capacity for hard work, are guarantees of the success of anything to
which he puts his hand. He was one of the chief promoters of the Eastern
Townships Agricultural Association, and became the first president of
that society when it entered upon active work. The railway development
of his own section of the country has occupied a great deal of his
attention. He is a director of the Quebec Central Railway a most
important road; and president of the Massawippi Railway, a local line of
great advantage to the district. When the first scheme for building the
Canadian Pacific Railway was arranged, he was appointed one of the
government directors on the general board, this appointment being a
flattering recognition of the prominent part he had taken in railway
affairs. When Judge Brooks, who for a long time represented Sherbrooke
in the House of Commons, was appointed to his present position, the
nomination of the Conservative party for the seat was offered to Mr.
Hall, and when he accepted it, so complete was the confidence of all
classes in his judgment and honor, that he was elected by acclamation.
In the general election of 1887 Mr. Hall was opposed for the reason that
the policy of both parties was to allow no elections by acclamation. But
there was no serious expectation of defeating him, and his second return
was received without surprise. In the house, Mr. Hall has the reputation
of a careful and painstaking representative. He makes remarkably few
speeches, considering the ability he displays when he does address the
house, and the attention and respect with which he is listened to by
both sides. Outside of the cabinet, he is by all odds the most prominent
and influential representative of the Eastern Townships’ constituencies.
* * * * *
=Raymond, Rev. Joseph Sabin=, Vicar-General of the Diocese of St.
Hyacinthe, Quebec province, was born at St. Hyacinthe, on the 13th
March, 1810. He received his classical education in St. Hyacinthe
College, and belonged to the first class that graduated from this
institution. At the early age of seventeen, he began teaching, and
continued as a teacher in the same college to the last day of his life.
He was ordained priest in 1832. In 1847 he was elected president of St.
Hyacinthe College, and occupied this position, except during an interval
of six years, till 1883. Rev. Mr. Raymond, named vicar-general in 1852,
was twice administrator of the diocese, during the absence of the bishop
in Rome, and attended the five first Provincial Councils of Quebec, in
the capacity of theologian to the bishop of St. Hyacinthe. He
contributed largely to the foundation of the Order of Contemplative
Religious of the Precious Blood in St. Hyacinthe. In 1874 he was named
domestic prelate to his Holiness Pope Pius IX., and terminated a long
and useful life in St. Hyacinthe, on Sunday, 3rd July, 1887, whilst
robing to say mass. He was considered as one of the foremost men in the
literary field of Quebec; he was a prolific and brilliant writer, and
devoted his varied acquirements to the education of youth and devotional
works. He was extensively read, especially in history and literature.
His works, if collected, would form quite an important collection.
* * * * *
=Montagu, Walter H.=, M.D., M.P. for Haldimand, Dunnville, Ontario, was
born in Adelaide township, county of Middlesex, Ontario, on the 21st day
of November, 1858, and is therefore, as we write, under thirty years of
age, and one of the youngest members of the House of Commons. He is the
youngest of the six sons of Joseph Montagu, an intelligent farmer, who
was one of the most highly-respected residents of the county of
Middlesex. His mother was a daughter of John Humphries, who came to
Canada in 1832, and settled in Adelaide. Dr. Montagu was only five years
old when his father died, when on a visit to friends in the United
States, and has had, in great measure, to carve out his own career. He
has, like many who have risen to eminence, had to educate himself, and
this he began while engaged as an errand boy in a country store. He
qualified for a teacher’s certificate in August, 1874. As a teacher he
was employed successfully at various points, after which he entered
Woodstock College, to devote himself to university studies. In 1882 he
graduated in medicine in Ontario, and, desiring to pursue this
profession, he then proceeded to Edinburgh. Here, later in the same
year, he passed the examinations of the Royal College of Physicians, and
received the diploma of the college. He then returned to Canada, and
began the practice of his profession at Dunnville, county of Monck,
where he now resides. A few months after settling at Dunnville he
reluctantly accepted the nomination of the Liberal-Conservative
Convention of Monck, to contest the riding in an election then pending
for the Local Legislature. Though only a few days in the field he polled
an immense vote, his own village giving him the largest Conservative
majority it had ever given to its parliamentary representative. In 1886
he was again asked to run, but refused. In February of the following
year he was placed in nomination for the House of Commons, as the
representative of the county of Monck, but this he also declined, though
a unanimous nomination by the party was offered him. At this time no
candidate could be found to come out against Mr. Colter, the Reform
member for Haldimand, who three months previously had been returned for
the county by 126 of a majority over his opponent, Mr. W. Hamilton
Merritt, a large property owner in the constituency, who had had the
hearty support of the leading men of the Conservative party in the
district. A new election was now to be held, and still no one dared to
come out against the opposition candidate until the day before
nomination. At almost the twelfth hour Dr. Montagu, at the urgent
solicitation of his friends, Senator McCallum and Colin G. Snider,
president of the Haldimand Conservative Association, stepped into the
breach, and after a spirited campaign carried the county, but only by a
majority of one, on a recount of ballots before the county judge. Dr.
Montagu took his seat in the House of Commons, and by his qualities of
head and heart gained the respect of both parties in parliament. His
first and only speech during the session was called forth by an attack
made upon the manner of his election. Brief and comparatively
unimportant as it was, the speaker commanded the closest attention of
the house. A protest, however, was entered against his return; and after
three days’ trial of the petition, Dr. Montagu agreed with his opponent
to hold a new election. This came on in November, 1887, and was watched
with the keenest interest by the whole country, for until the preceding
February Haldimand had never before in her history returned a
Conservative, and that return, it was alleged, was not a proper one. The
contest was fought, on the Reform side, by Mr. Colter, assisted by M.
Laurier, Sir Richard Cartwright, Messrs. Charlton and Patterson, Hon.
Jacob Baxter, and a dozen other prominent Reformers. Dr. Montagu,
representing the Conservatives, fought alone and almost single-handed;
and though the most desperate means were employed to defeat him, he
succeeded in carrying the county by seventeen of a majority. In the
contest, Dr. Montagu’s public addresses attracted immense audiences, the
people turning out everywhere in great numbers to hear him. Another
recount was demanded, the result being that the majority was reduced to
twelve. A protest was then entered against him, and tried in January
before Justice Street. During five days’ trial the petitioners utterly
failed in their charges, and not a single stain attached itself to the
representative. In the present (1888) session, he had the honor paid him
by the Dominion administration of being called to move the address to
the throne. This he did with great credit to himself and with much
gratification to his party. Dr. Montagu is a supporter of Sir John A.
Macdonald, but at the same time he holds liberal views upon public
questions, and brings a broad and comprehensive mind to their
consideration and discussion. He is thoroughly Canadian in his aims and
aspirations, and has an earnest and enthusiastic faith in the future of
the country. His wife is Angie, daughter of Elias Furry, reeve of South
Cayuga, Ontario.
* * * * *
=Willets, Rev. Charles E.=, M.A., (Corpus Christi, Cantab.), D.C.L.
(King’s, Windsor), Windsor, Nova Scotia, is a native of
Northamptonshire, England, where he was born about forty years ago. He
received his early education at Corpus Christi College, in the
University of Cambridge, where he graduated in 1872. He took holy orders
and was ordained in the same year by the Right Reverend George Augustus
Selwyn, bishop of Lichfield. After his ordination, he accepted the
position of curate of Gaily-cum-Hatherton, in Staffordshire, which
office he held for one year. In 1873 he came to Canada, and was
appointed to the position of sub-rector of Bishop’s Collegiate School,
at Lennoxville, Quebec. Here he remained for three years, teaching and
fulfilling his other duties with great success. The honorary degree of
M.A. was conferred upon him by Bishop’s College in 1874. He next removed
to the Collegiate School, Windsor, N.S., the position of headmaster of
which happened to fall vacant in June, 1876. This school was the
original seed of King’s College, which is the oldest degree-conferring
university in British America. The school was started in 1788, a scheme
for its establishment being warmly urged by the Right Rev. Dr. Charles
Inglis of New York, first bishop of Nova Scotia, and also by his son,
John Inglis, who solicited aid for it in England. A royal charter was
obtained in 1802. A large number of the sons of the wealthiest class in
the maritime provinces were educated in it during the first years of its
history. Among distinguished men who received their early training in
the school, or King’s College, may be mentioned Chief Justice Neville
and Robert Parker, master of the rolls of New Brunswick; Judge W. B.
Bliss; Judge Haliburton (“Sam Slick”); General Sir John Inglis, son of
the second bishop of Nova Scotia, and a man who made his mark in the
defence of Lucknow; the late Archdeacon McCawley; Archdeacon Gilpin of
Halifax; administrator of the diocese of Nova Scotia; R. G. Haliburton;
Rev. Dr. Hill, formerly rector of St. Paul’s, Halifax, and the late Rev.
Dr. J. M. Hensley. Among head masters of the collegiate school were Rev.
William Grey, Rev. Dr. Blackman, Dr. Salt, Rev. W. C. King, Rev. George
B. Dodwell, M.A. (Cantab.), and Rev. John Butler. The original school
building was of freestone, which was erected with great care under the
supervision of Bishop Charles Inglis, but was unfortunately burnt down,
20th September, 1871. For two years the school was carried on at Martock
House, near Windsor. A new handsome wooden building was erected on the
original site in 1877, and Rev. Dr. Willets has continued in charge of
the school ever since. The school has prospered under his management,
and now accommodates upwards of forty boarders and a number of day
scholars. There are two assistant masters, Mr. Richardson, formerly of
King Edward VI. School, Retford, England, a distinguished linguist and
chess-player, and Mr. Fullerton, B.A., of King’s College, also special
instructors in drill and gymnastics and penmanship. Boys are prepared
for matriculation in all of the provincial colleges and for the civil
service examinations, Ottawa. The school possesses one of the handsomest
sites in Nova Scotia, just below King’s College, and looking over the
king’s meadow towards the south mountain. The honorary degree of D.C.L.
was conferred upon Dr. Willets by King’s College in 1882. He was also
elected a governor of King’s College in 1885.
* * * * *
=Matheson, David=, Superintendent of the Savings Bank Branch of the Post
Office department, Ottawa, is a Scotchman by birth, he having been born
in the parish of Canisbay, near John O’Groat’s, Caithness-shire, on the
25th October, 1840, and emigrated to Canada in 1861. Mr. Matheson joined
the civil service in 1863, and was appointed private secretary to the
postmaster-general. In 1868 he, with another officer, was appointed to
organize the Post Office Savings Bank, and specially designed the plan
of accounts which has made the Canadian system of savings banks a credit
to our own country, and a model that other countries have been pleased
to adopt. Mr. Matheson, in recognition of his services, was appointed,
in 1881, assistant superintendent of the Savings Bank Branch of the Post
Office department, and in February, 1888, he was made superintendent.
* * * * *
=Cardin, Louis Pierre Paul=, Sorel, Quebec province, M.P.P. for the
county of Richelieu, is of a hardy, honest, and industrious stock, his
father being a well-to-do yeoman of Isle Madame, adjoining the
north-eastern corner of the Island of Montreal. He is still in the prime
of life, having been born on the 21st May, 1841, a year important in
Canadian annals for the consummation of the union which preceded the
system of confederation. He was educated at the College of L’Assomption,
an institution which has given to Canada a large number of men
distinguished in the church, the legal and medical professions, and the
ranks of commerce and industry. Mr. Cardin selected the honorable
calling of a notary, in which he was destined to make his way to the
front in a comparatively brief time. He was fortunate in being
associated, during his early professional career, with a worthy
gentleman of Sorel, the late Mr. Precourst, from whose office he was
admitted to practise in October, 1868. He still remained with his
esteemed employer, until his death, in 1872, when he succeeded to his
large and profitable business. Laborious, obliging and conscientious,
Mr. Cardin won the confidence and respect of all who had dealings with
him in his professional capacity, or intercourse with him in private
life. His ability and public spirit made his services in high demand in
municipal and educational affairs. It was natural, also, that he should
take a deep interest in all that concerned the agricultural progress of
his country, and he soon found ample occupation for his leisure hours.
He has been successively secretary of the council for Sorel, secretary
of the Dissentient School Board, secretary of the Agricultural Society,
president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society, secretary of the
municipality of Sainte Victoire, and has filled various other offices of
trust with entire satisfaction to the public. To him also was due the
organization of the first militia company of Sorel, and in order to
qualify himself for military command, he obtained certificate of the
first and second class, which enabled him to take, if necessary, any
commission up to and including that of lieutenant-colonel. Courteous,
benevolent, grave and affable, Mr. Cardin is a man whose character
invites confidence and wins esteem. His appearance is also in his favor.
Of middle height, he has impressive features, a large forehead and
animated eyes, while his long beard of silky texture, gives him an air
of distinction. As a speaker, he is at once fluent and choice in his
language, uniting calmness with earnestness, and can wither with scorn
or melt with pathos, as the occasion demands. In politics Mr. Cardin is
more Conservative than Liberal, but was not an active partizan until
November, 1885, when he joined the National party. In September, 1886,
he was selected by the convention of Richelieu as the candidate of his
party in that county and was victorious in the election which followed.
Since then he has acquitted himself entirely to the satisfaction of his
supporters, giving a conscientious but independent support to the Hon.
M. Mercier. He has been indefatigable in his efforts to improve the
condition of Sorel, and to ensure the county of Richelieu its fair share
of attention from the government.
* * * * *
=LaRocque, Right Rev. Charles=, was born at Chambly, November 15th,
1809. He received his education at the Seminary of St. Hyacinthe, where,
in 1828, he commenced studying theology, after completing his classical
course. From 1828 to 1831 he filled with great distinction and
efficiency a professor’s chair in the same seminary; and after one year
exclusively spent in the study of theology, was ordained priest on the
29th of July, 1832. From 1832 to 1866 he is seen displaying his
sacerdotal zeal as vicar in the parishes of St. Roch de l’Achigan and
Berthier, as curé in the parishes of St. Pie de Bagot, Ste. Marguerite
de Blainville, and St. John Dorchester, which he ruled during the long
period of twenty-two years. There he founded several educational
institutions, and built a magnificent church, of which the St. John
parishioners may well feel proud. On the 20th March, 1866, he was
elected bishop of St. Hyacinthe; on the 29th July he was consecrated,
and the 31st of the same month he took possession of the see. The chief
work of his career as bishop, a work for which he is rightly considered
the greatest benefactor of the diocese of St. Hyacinthe, was the
restoring of the finances. The heavy debt which weighed upon the
bishopric was completely paid off through his wise and prudent
financing. He died July 15th, 1875, aged sixty-five years, deeply
regretted, and, according to his own expressed will, was buried in the
vault of the Church of the Hotel Dieu at St. Hyacinthe.
* * * * *
=Prince, Right Rev. John C.=, The late Bishop Prince of St. Hyacinthe,
was born at St. Gregory, in the district of Three Rivers, on the 13th of
February, 1804. After a brilliant course of classical studies in the
College of Nicolet, he taught literature in the same college, and also
in the College of St. Hyacinthe. Whilst thus engaged, from 1822 till
1826, he also pursued a complete course of theology, and fitted himself
for the sacred order of priesthood, to which dignity he was raised in
1826. From 1826 to 1830 he was director of St. James Grand Seminary at
Montreal; from 1830 to 1840, director of the seminary at St. Hyacinthe,
and from whence he was called to Montreal by Right Rev. Bishop Bourget,
to share with him the burden of the administration of his vast and
important diocese. He was appointed canon of the Cathedral of Montreal
on January 21st, 1841. On July 5th, 1844, he was appointed coadjutor to
the bishop of Montreal and bishop of Martyropolis, and on July 25th,
1845, was consecrated. In 1851 he was deputed by the bishops of the
Ecclesiastical Province of Quebec to carry to Rome the decrees of the
first Council of Quebec. On the 8th June, 1852, whilst in Rome, he was
appointed by Pope Pius IX. bishop of the newly erected see of St.
Hyacinthe, of which he took possession on the 3rd of November of the
same year. In 1841 he founded a review, the _Mélanges Religieuse_, and
remained its chief editor for ten years. He also founded a convent of
the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame, in Kingston. Having ruled
the diocese of St. Hyacinthe with remarkable zeal and prudence for eight
years, during which he established the Sisters of the Presentation of
Mary for the education of young ladies; the Gray Nuns’ Hospital;
established twenty parishes, and built the present magnificent episcopal
residence in St. Hyacinthe. He died on the 5th of May, 1860, aged
fifty-six years. His remains now repose in the vault of the cathedral.
* * * * *