Bar of his native Province, and his personal appearance is familiar to a
greater number of persons than is that of any professional man in
western Canada. For some years prior to his elevation to the Bench he
was also prominent in political life, but it was at the Bar that his
greenest laurels were won, and it is by his professional achievements
that he will be longest remembered. He was born at Dundas, in the county
of Wentworth, on the 2nd of October, 1822. His father, the late Mr. John
McAlpin Cameron, was, as his name imports, of Celtic stock. The latter
emigrated from the Highlands of Scotland to Upper Canada in 1819, and
settled at Dundas, where he engaged in commercial pursuits. In 1826 he
became Deputy Clerk of the Crown for the Gore District, and removed to
Hamilton. He subsequently entered the service of the Canada Company, and
remained in it for many years. He died at his home in Toronto, at an
advanced age, in 1866. His wife, the mother of the subject of this
sketch, was English. She was a native of the county of Northumberland,
and her maiden name was Miss Nancy Foy. She died in Toronto many years
ago.
The subject of this sketch was the youngest of his family, and was the
only member of it born on this side of the Atlantic. He was named after
Mr. Matthew Crooks, of Ancaster, a brother of the Hon. James Crooks, and
an uncle of the present Minister of Education. At the time of the
removal of the family from Dundas to Hamilton he was about four years of
age; and he soon afterwards began to attend his first school, which was
a small local establishment presided over by a Mr. Randall. Later, he
was placed at the Home District Grammar School, on the corner of Newgate
and New Streets--now Adelaide and Jarvis Streets--Toronto, where many
boys who subsequently became distinguished in Canadian public life
received their early training. In 1838 he entered Upper Canada College,
where he remained nearly two years. His educational career was cut short
in 1840 by an accident which was destined to affect the whole course of
his future life. One day, while out shooting with two of his
schoolfellows in the neighbourhood of Toronto, one of the latter, who
does not seem to have been a very skilful marksman, carelessly fired off
his gun at an inopportune moment, and young Cameron received the charge
in his ankle, part of the joint of which was completely blown away. He
was conveyed home, and was confined to his room for months. It was out
of the question that he should ever recover the perfect use of his
disabled ankle, and it was announced to him that he must never hope to
walk again without the assistance of a crutch. It must have been a cruel
blow to him, for he was a boy of joyous nature, full of activity and
life, and by no means given to injuring his health by close application
to his studies. From this time forward his habits and train of thought
underwent a change. There were no more frivolity and thoughtlessness, no
more shooting expeditions, no more of the active sports and pastimes of
happy boyhood. Life, thenceforward, was to be contemplated from its
serious side. He did not return to college. His choice of the legal
profession was largely due to the fact that his two elder brothers, John
and Duncan, had already embraced that calling. He entered the office of
Messrs. Gamble & Boulton, barristers, of Toronto, and served the term of
his articles there. He studied with much diligence, and gave evidence of
great aptitude for his chosen profession. In Trinity Term, 1848, he was
admitted as an attorney and solicitor, and in Hilary Term of 1849 he was
called to the Bar.
He at once began to go on circuit, and he had not been many months at
the Bar before he was in the very front rank. When it is borne in mind
that his competitors were such men as Henry Eccles, John Hillyard
Cameron, Philip Vankoughnet, and the present Mr. Justice Hagarty, it
will be admitted that a young man who could hold his own against such
rivals must have possessed exceptional abilities. Mr. Cameron's most
salient qualifications consisted of a competent knowledge of his
profession, a subtle power of analyzing evidence, a ready command of
language, an impressive utterance and delivery, and--more than all--a
manner which was open and confidential without being familiar, and which
to most jurymen was suggestive of honest conviction. Though of somewhat
contracted physique, he contrived to get through an amount of work which
few men endowed with greater robustness of frame could have
accomplished. His popularity grew apace, and erelong his practice was
second to that of no man at the Bar of this Province. His popularity and
practice were not confined to any particular neighbourhood, but extended
throughout the whole of western Canada; and the only two counties in
which he has not held briefs are the counties of Lanark and Renfrew. His
briefs embraced every variety of pleading, civil and criminal. In all
sorts of cases, and with all classes of jurors, he was thoroughly at
home, and his efforts were generally crowned with that best proof of
ability--success.
At the outset of his career at the Bar he was perhaps more assiduous in
his attendance at assizes in the Gore District than elsewhere, as his
brother John practised his profession in Hamilton--and afterwards in
Brantford--and was able to throw a good many briefs in his way. As the
years passed by, the question became, not how to obtain briefs, but how
to get through the labour they imposed. Mr. Cameron, however, is not
only endowed with great capacity for hard work, but has a genuine liking
for it. His exceeding quickness of perception and apprehension was very
often displayed during his career at the Bar, and it was said of him
that he could acquire a more accurate knowledge of his case after it had
been opened than most of his competitors could obtain by a week's
preparation.
Soon after completing his legal studies Mr. Cameron formed a partnership
with his former principal, the late Mr. William Henry Boulton. Several
years later he entered into partnership with the Hon. William Cayley,
who held the portfolio of Minister of Finance in the Government formed
under the auspices of Sir Allan Macnab in 1854. Mr.--now Dr.--Daniel
McMichael was subsequently admitted, and the firm of Messrs. Cayley,
Cameron & McMichael long had a business second to that of no firm in the
Province. The partnership subsequently underwent various modifications,
but its members have always maintained its position as one of the
leading legal firms in Toronto.
The first ten years of his legal career were devoted by Mr. Cameron
almost exclusively to his profession. He then began to take part in
municipal affairs. In 1859 he represented St. James's Ward in the
Toronto City Council. In January, 1861, he was an unsuccessful candidate
for the mayoralty. He was possessed of strong political convictions, and
was frequently importuned to enter Parliament. He was a very pronounced
Conservative in his views, as his father before him had been, and at the
general election of 1861 he offered himself to the electors of North
Ontario as a candidate for a seat in the Assembly. He secured his
return, and sat in the House until the general election of 1863, when,
upon presenting himself to his constituents for reëlection he was
defeated. A vacancy occurring in the representation for North Ontario in
the summer of 1864, he once more offered himself as a candidate, and was
on this occasion returned. He continued to represent North Ontario in
the Assembly until Confederation, when he was unsuccessful in his
attempt to secure his return for the House of Commons. He accordingly
accepted office in the Sandfield Macdonald Coalition Administration in
Ontario, and was returned for East Toronto, in which constituency he
resides, and which he continued to represent in the Local Legislature
until the close of his Parliamentary career. He held the offices of
Provincial Secretary and Registrar from July, 1867, until the 25th of
July, 1871, when he became Commissioner of Crown Lands. The latter
office he held until the fall of the Government in the following
December, in consequence of the adverse vote of the House on the
railroad subsidy question. Upon the formation of a new Government under
the premiership of the Hon. Edward Blake, Mr. Cameron became leader of
the Opposition, and continued to act in that capacity for a period of
four years. His Parliamentary career was marked by sterling honour and
integrity, and by inflexible devotion to his Party. Mr. Cameron is one
of the few men who have taken a very prominent part in public life in
this country during the last few years, and yet have escaped charges of
political corruption and dishonesty. No man in Canada believes him to be
capable of a corrupt or dishonest act, for the advancement either of his
own interests or those of his Party. It must be confessed, however, that
he was not seen at his best on the floor of Parliament. Some of his
political ideas are widely at variance with prevailing tendencies, and
some of his Parliamentary utterances had an unmistakable flavour of the
lamp. The Halls of the Legislature were not a thoroughly congenial
sphere for him, and the full measure of his strength was seldom or never
put forward there. He was sometimes commonplace, and sometimes carping
and fretful. Before a jury, on the other hand, he was always a
formidable power, and was always master of himself. His duties as a
Cabinet Minister were somewhat onerous, but his capacity for hard work
enabled him to get through them more easily than most persons could have
done under similar circumstances, and his attendance on circuit was
never interrupted for any considerable time. His preëminence at the Bar
was undisputed, and his influence over juries suffered no diminution. He
had been a Queen's Counsel since 1863, and a Bencher of the Law Society
of Ontario since 1871; and when he was elevated to the Judicial Bench on
the 15th of November, 1878, the appointment was regarded by the legal
profession and the country at large as a fitting tribute to his
character and professional standing. His rank is that of Senior Puisné
Judge of the Court of Queen's Bench. As a Judge, he displays the same
characteristics by which he was distinguished while at the Bar, viz.,
quickness of perception, and a ready grasp of the main points of an
argument. He has rendered several important judgments, the points of
which are well known to members of the legal profession.
Mr. Cameron was concerned in organizing the Liberal-Conservative
Association of Toronto, and was President of it from the time of its
formation until his elevation to the Judicial Bench. He was also
Vice-President of the Liberal-Conservative Convention held in Toronto in
September, 1874. Apart from his strictly professional and political
duties, Mr. Cameron has held various positions of more or less public
importance. As far back as 1852 he was appointed by the Hincks-Morin
Government a Commissioner, jointly with the late Colonel Coffin, to
inquire into the causes of the frequent accidents which had then
recently occurred on the Great Western Railway. He was one of the
original promoters and Directors of the Dominion Telegraph Company, and
of several prominent Insurance Companies. He is a member of several
social, charitable and national associations, including the Caledonian
and St. Andrew's Societies. He is a widower. On the 1st of December,
1851, he married Miss Charlotte Ross Wedd, of Hamilton, who died on the
14th of January, 1868. He has a family, the members whereof all reside
with him in Toronto.
THE HON. SIR LOUIS H. LAFONTAINE, BART.
The name of Sir Louis Lafontaine is intimately associated in the public
mind with that of his friend and associate Robert Baldwin. What the
latter was in Upper Canada, such was Sir Louis in the Lower
Province--the leader of a numerous, an exacting, and a not always
manageable political party. These two statesmen were the leading spirits
on behalf of their respective Provinces in two Governments which are
known in history by their joint names. Their personal intimacy and
active co-operation extended over only about ten years, but the bond of
union between them during that period was closely knit, and their mutual
confidence was complete. They fought side by side with perfect fealty to
each other and to the State, and their retirement from public life was
almost simultaneous. Their mutual relations, both public and private,
were marked by an almost chivalrous courtesy and respect, and even after
they had ceased to take part in the struggles with which both their
names are identified, they continued to think and speak of each other
with an enthusiasm which was not generally supposed to belong to the
nature of either.
Sir Louis was in some respects the most remarkable man that Lower Canada
has produced. Though he identified himself with many important measures
of Reform, the temper of his mind, more especially during his latter
years, was eminently aristocratic and Conservative. His disposition was
not one that could properly be described as genial. He was not a perfect
tactician, and had not the faculty of making himself "all things to all
men." Coriolanus himself had not a more supreme contempt for "the
insinuating nod" whereby the elector is wheedled out of his vote. His
demeanour was generally somewhat cold and repellent, and though he was
thoroughly honourable, and respected by all who knew him, he was not a
man of many warm personal friends. In the sketch of Robert Baldwin's
life we have given Sir John Kaye's estimate of that gentleman's
character and aspirations, as reflected in the letters and papers of
Lord Metcalfe. The estimate is so wide of the mark that our readers will
probably be disposed to place little reliance upon Sir John's capability
for gauging the public men of Canada. In the case of the subject of the
present sketch, however, Lord Metcalfe's biographer has contrived to
stumble upon a much more accurate judgment. Speaking of Mr. Lafontaine,
during his tenure of office as Attorney-General for Canada East, in
1843, he tells us that "all his better qualities were natural to him;
his worse were the growth of circumstances. Cradled, as he and his
people had been, in wrong, smarting for long years under the oppressive
exclusiveness of the dominant race, he had become mistrustful and
suspicious; and the doubts which were continually floating in his mind
had naturally engendered indecision and infirmity of purpose. But he
had many fine characteristics which no evil circumstances could impair.
He was a just and an honourable man. His motives were above all
suspicion. Warmly attached to his country, earnestly seeking the
happiness of his people, he occupied a high position by the force rather
of his moral than of his intellectual qualities. He was trusted and
respected rather than admired." If we omit the reference to indecision
and infirmity of purpose, we may accept the foregoing as being, so far
as it goes, a not inaccurate estimate of the character of Mr.
Lafontaine. The excepted reference, however, shows how little the writer
could really have known of the subject of his remarks. So far from being
undecided or infirm of purpose, Mr. Lafontaine was almost domineering
and tyrannical in his firmness. He was very reluctant to receive
discipline, and was generally disposed to prefer his own judgment to
that of any one else. It will be news, indeed, to such of his colleagues
as still survive, to learn that Sir Louis Lafontaine was infirm of
purpose. Sir Francis Hincks, who is able to speak with high authority on
the subject, declares in one of his political pamphlets that he never
met a man less open to such an imputation. Other equally trustworthy
authorities have borne similar testimony, and indeed the whole course of
his political life furnishes a standing refutation to the charge. Sir
Louis was intellectually far above most of those with whom he acted, and
he was endowed by nature with an imperious will. He brooked
contradiction, or even moderate remonstrance, with an ill grace. Had he
been of a more conciliating temper he would doubtless have been vastly
more popular. His sincerity and uprightness have never, so far as we are
aware, been called in question.
[Illustration: LOUIS H. LAFONTAINE, signed as L. H. LAFONTAINE]
He was born near the village of Boucherville, in the county of Chambly,
Lower Canada, in October, 1807. He was the third son of Antoine Menard
Lafontaine, of Boucherville, whose father sat in the Lower Canadian
Legislature from 1796 to 1804. His mother's maiden name was Marie J.
Bienvenu. There is nothing to be said about his early life. He studied
law, and in due time was called to the Bar of Lower Canada, and settled
in Montreal. He succeeded in his profession, and while still a very
young man achieved a prominent position and an extensive practice. He
accumulated considerable wealth, which was augmented by an advantageous
marriage, in 1831, to Adèle, daughter of A. Berthelot, a wealthy and
eminent advocate of Quebec. He entered political life in 1830, when he
was only twenty-three years of age, as a Member of the Legislative
Assembly for the populous county of Terrebonne. He at this time held and
advocated very advanced political views, and was a follower of Louis J.
Papineau. He was not always subordinate to his leader, however, and as
time passed by he ceased to work cordially with Mr. Papineau. Their
differences were of temperament rather than of principle, and erelong a
complete estrangement took place between them. Mr. Lafontaine, however,
still continued to advocate advanced radicalism, not only from his place
in Parliament, but through the medium of the newspaper press. He
continued to sit in the Assembly as representative for Terrebonne until
the rebellion burst forth, in which he was so far implicated that a
warrant was issued against him for treason, and he deemed it wise to
withdraw from Canada. He fled to England, whence he made good his escape
across the channel to France. His residence there, unlike that of
Papineau, was only of brief duration. He returned to his native land in
1840, having gained wisdom by experience. He was opposed to the project
of uniting the Provinces, and spoke against it from the platform at
Montreal and elsewhere with great vehemence; but after the passing of
the Act of Union he acquiesced in what could no longer be avoided, and
in 1841 he offered himself once more to his old constituents of
Terrebonne, as a candidate for a seat in the Parliament of the United
Provinces. His candidature was not successful, but, chiefly through the
instrumentality of Robert Baldwin, who had just been honoured with a
double return, he was on the 21st of September elected for the Fourth
Riding of the county of York, in Upper Canada. It will be understood
from this alliance that Mr. Lafontaine's views had undergone
considerable modification. He now perceived that the rebellion of 1837-8
had been not merely a crime, but a political blunder, as there had never
been any chance of its becoming permanently successful. With regard to
the Union of the Provinces, he looked upon it as a scheme which had been
forced upon the Lower Canadian French population, but which, having been
accomplished, might as well be worked in common between his compatriots
and Canadians of British origin. By taking a part in the work of
Government he would not only win an honourable position, but would be
able to obtain many favours and concessions for Lower Canadians which he
could not hope to obtain as a private indvidual. Actuated by some such
motives as these, he in 1842 joined with Mr. Baldwin in forming the
first Ministry which bears their joint names, he himself holding the
portfolio of Attorney-General for the Lower Province. Having vacated his
seat on accepting office on the 16th of September, he was on the 8th of
October following reëlected for the Fourth Riding of York. He
represented that constituency until November, 1844, when he was returned
to the Second Parliament of United Canada by the electors of Terrebonne.
He sat for Terrebonne until after his acceptance of office as
Attorney-General for Lower Canada in the second Baldwin-Lafontaine
Administration, formed in March, 1848, after which he was returned for
the city of Montreal, which he thenceforward continued to represent in
Parliament so long as he remained in public life.
Soon after Mr. Lafontaine's acceptance of office, in the autumn of 1842,
he proposed to Sir Charles Bagot, who was then Governor-General, that an
amnesty should be granted to all persons who had taken part in the
rebellion in 1837-8. To this proposal His Excellency was not disposed to
assent without careful consideration, and probably until he could
communicate with the Imperial Government. Mr. Lafontaine then urged
that, if an amnesty was for the present considered unadvisable, the
various prosecutions for high treason pending at Montreal might be
abandoned. To this Sir Charles, after careful consideration, expressed
his willingness to assent, except in the single case of the
arch-conspirator, Louis Joseph Papineau. Mr. Lafontaine had long ceased
to sympathize with Mr. Papineau's political views, but he was not
disposed to acquiesce in the proposed exception, and for a time the
negotiations fell through. It was subsequently renewed, but before any
definite steps could be taken in the matter the Governor-General's
health gave way, and he rapidly sank into his grave. After the accession
of Sir Charles Metcalfe, Mr. Lafontaine urged his proposal upon the new
Governor, and finally succeeded in carrying his point. Mr. Lafontaine,
as Attorney-General, was instructed to file a _nolle prosequi_ to the
indictments against Mr. Papineau, as well as to those against other
political offenders. He obeyed his instructions with promptitude, and
Mr. Papineau soon afterwards returned to this country. Erelong the "old
man eloquent" found his way into Parliament, where he for several years
made himself a thorn in the flesh to some of his old colleagues of the
ante-Union days.