has been the means of making his name known in every corner of the
Dominion. Though not a Canadian either by birth or education, he is
permanently identified with Canadian enterprise, and his name is
distinctly and permanently recorded in our country's annals. He was born
at the seaport and market-town of Kirkcaldy, in Fifeshire, Scotland--a
distinction which he shares in common with the illustrious author of
"The Wealth of Nations." His father was an artisan named Andrew Greig
Fleming. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Arnot. The families to
which both parents belonged have been settled on the shores of Fife for
more than a century, and the names of Fleming and Arnot are common there
at the present day. The subject of this sketch was born on the 7th of
January, 1827. In his childhood he attended a small private school in
Kirkcaldy, and afterwards, when he was about ten years of age, passed to
the local grammar-school. He displayed much aptitude for mathematics,
and made great progress in that branch of study. When he was still a
mere boy he was articled to the business of engineering and surveying,
and after serving his time began to look about him for suitable
employment. He was fond of his profession, and conscious of his ability.
His prospects were not such as to satisfy his ambition, and in 1845 he
emigrated to Canada, and took up his abode in the Upper Province. For
some years after his arrival in this country his prospects did not seem
much more alluring than before. There was comparatively little
employment of an important character for a man of Mr. Fleming's
attainments in those days, and he made but slow headway. He resided for
some time in Toronto, and took an active part in the founding of the
Canadian Institute, "for the purpose of promoting the physical sciences,
for encouraging and advancing the industrial arts and manufactures, for
effecting the formation of a Provincial museum, and for the purpose of
facilitating the acquirement and the dissemination of knowledge
connected with the surveying, engineering, and architectural
professions." Soon afterwards--in 1852--he obtained employment on the
engineering staff of the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway, the first
section of which (from Toronto to Aurora) was opened to the public on
the 16th of May, 1853. Mr. Fleming took a conspicuous part in the work
of construction, and in process of time was promoted to the position of
Engineer-in-Chief of the line. He remained in the employ of the company
(the name of which was changed in 1858 to that which it has ever since
borne--the Northern Railway Company) about eleven years. During much of
this period he also did a good deal of professional work in connection
with the Toronto Esplanade, and other important enterprises. In his
professional capacity he visited the Red River country, to examine as to
the feasibility of a railway connecting that region with Canada. At the
request of the inhabitants there he proceeded to England on their behalf
in 1863, as bearer of a memorial from them to the Imperial Government,
praying that a line of railway might be constructed which would afford
them direct access to Canada, without passing over United States
territory. Upon Mr. Fleming's arrival in London he had repeated
conferences on the subject with the late Duke of Newcastle, who was then
Colonial Secretary. How this project was indefinitely postponed, and was
subsequently merged in the greater scheme of a Trans-continental line of
railway, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is well known to
every reader of these pages. Immediately after Mr. Fleming's return to
Canada in 1863 he was appointed by the Governments of Canada, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, and subsequently by that of the mother country,
to conduct the preliminary survey of a line of railway which should form
a connecting link between the Maritime Provinces and the Canadas. The
project of constructing such a road, though agitated at various times,
did not take a practical shape until the accomplishment of
Confederation, when the work of construction was made obligatory upon
the Government and Parliament of Canada by the 145th clause of the Act
of Union. The whole of this great undertaking was successfully carried
out under Mr. Fleming's supervision as Chief Engineer, and the
Intercolonial was opened throughout for public traffic on the 1st of
July--the natal day of the Dominion--1876. A few weeks later Mr. Fleming
published a history of the enterprise, under the title of "The
Intercolonial: an Historical Sketch of the inception and construction of
the line of railways uniting the inland and Atlantic Provinces of the
Dominion."
When British Columbia entered the Dominion, on the 20th of July, 1871,
it was agreed that within ten years from that date a line of railway
should be constructed from the Pacific Ocean to a point of junction with
the existing railway systems in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Mr.
Fleming's services in connection with the Intercolonial Railway marked
him out as the most suitable man in the Dominion to prosecute the
preliminary surveys of the Canadian Pacific. Accordingly his services
were secured by the Government for that purpose, and he was appointed
Chief Engineer. In the summer of 1872 he started across the continent on
a tour of inspection. He was attended by a capable staff of assistants.
Among the latter was the Rev. George M. Grant, the present Principal of
Queen's College, Kingston, who accompanied the expedition in the
capacity of Secretary. The party left Toronto on the 16th of July, 1872,
and travelling by way of Sault Ste. Marie, Nepigon, Thunder Bay,
Winnipeg, Forts Carlton and Edmonton, the Rocky Mountains, Kamloops and
Bute Inlet, reached Victoria, B.C., on the 9th of October following.
Those who wish to inform themselves as to the literary and social
aspects of that momentous journey may consult Mr. Grant's journal, as it
appears in the pages of "Ocean to Ocean." Those who wish to know the
scientific and more practical results of the expedition can only become
acquainted with them through Mr. Fleming's elaborate report.
Mr. Fleming continued to be the Government Engineer until about a year
ago, when he resigned his position, owing as it is understood, to some
difference of opinion with the Government as to the location of the line
of the Canadian Pacific Railway. His topographical knowledge of the
country is unrivalled, and his professional standing is such as might be
expected from the importance of the great public works which he has
superintended. In recognition of his talents, and of his services to
Canada and the Empire, Her Majesty some time ago conferred upon him the
dignity of a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.
In addition to the work on the Intercolonial already mentioned, and to
many elaborate and voluminous reports upon the various enterprises
wherewith he has been connected, Mr. Fleming has contributed numerous
interesting and instructive papers to the _Canadian Journal_ and other
scientific periodicals. He has also written many articles on subjects
connected with his profession for the daily press. Within the last few
months a proposition of his with respect to the establishment of a new
prime meridian for the world, 180° from Greenwich, has been approved of
by the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, Russia, the
secretary whereof recently conveyed information of the fact in a letter
addressed to the Governor-General of Canada.
In the autumn of last Year (1880) Mr. Fleming was elected Chancellor of
Queen's University, Kingston, and upon his installation delivered a very
eloquent inaugural address.
On the 3rd of January, 1855, he married Miss Ann Jean Hall, daughter of
the Sheriff of the county of Peterboro'.
THE HON. DAVID LEWIS MACPHERSON,
_SPEAKER OF THE SENATE._
Senator Macpherson is a member of the famous sept whose hereditary feud
with the McTavishes forms an episode in the history of the Highland
clans, and likewise forms the groundwork of one of the most
characteristic of Professor Aytoun's ballads. He is the youngest son of
the late David Macpherson, of Castle Leathers, near Inverness, Scotland,
where he was born on the 12th of September, 1818. He received his
education at the Royal Academy of Inverness. He was enterprising and
ambitious, and upon leaving school, in his seventeenth year, he
emigrated to Canada, where one of his elder brothers had long been
established in a very lucrative business as the senior partner in the
firm of Macpherson, Crane & Co., of Montreal. The business carried on by
this firm was known in those days as "forwarding," and consisted of
conveying merchandise from one part of the country to another. They
performed the greater part of the carrying business which is now
conducted by the various railway companies, and their operations were on
a very extensive scale. Their wagons were to be found on all the
principal highways, and their vessels were seen in every lake, harbour,
and important river from Montreal to the mouth of the Niagara, and up
the Ottawa as far as Bytown. The future senator entered the service of
this firm immediately after his arrival in the country, and remained in
it as a clerk for seven years, when (in 1842) he was admitted as a
partner. He directed such of the operations of the firm as came under
his supervision with great energy and judgment, and achieved a decided
pecuniary success. When the railway era set in, and threatened to divert
the course of trade from its old channels, he seized the salient points
of the situation, and began to interest himself in the various railway
projects of the times. In conjunction with the late Mr. Holton and the
present Sir Alexander Galt, he in 1851 obtained a charter for
constructing a line of railway from Montreal to Kingston. This scheme
was subsequently merged in the larger one of the Grand Trunk, and the
charter which had been granted to the Montreal and Kingston Company was
repealed. The principal members of that Company, including the subject
of this sketch, then allied themselves with Mr. Gzowski, under the style
of Gzowski & Co., and on the 24th of March, 1853, obtained a contract
for constructing a line of railway westward from Toronto to Sarnia. Mr.
Macpherson then removed to Toronto, where he has ever since resided. The
result of the railway contract was to make him thoroughly independent of
the world, and it is only justice to himself and his partners to say
that the contract was faithfully carried out.
In conjunction with Mr. Gzowski, Mr. Macpherson has since engaged in the
construction of several important undertakings, among which may be
mentioned the railway from Port Huron to Detroit, the London and St.
Mary's Railway, and the International Bridge across the Niagara River at
Buffalo. Mr. Macpherson was also a partner in the Toronto Rolling Mills
Company which was conducted with great success until the introduction of
steel rails caused its products to be no longer in great demand.
[Illustration: DAVID LEWIS MACPHERSON, signed as D. L. MACPHERSON]
Mr. Macpherson has never been known as a very pronounced partisan in
political matters, though his leanings have always been towards
Conservatism, and on purely political questions he has been a supporter
of that side. The structure of his mind, however, unfits him for dealing
effectively with party politics, and he never appears to less advantage
than when he ascends the party platform. His natural bent is the
practical. He believes in building up the country by means of great
public works, and in making it a desirable place of residence. His entry
into public life dates from October, 1864, when he successfully
contested the Saugeen Division for the Legislative Council. He was at
first opposed by the Hon. John McMurrich, who had represented the
Division for eight years previously. That gentleman, however, retired
from the contest, and another Reform candidate took the field, in the
person of Mr. George Snider, of Owen Sound. His opposition was not
serious, and Mr. Macpherson was returned by a majority of more than
1,200 votes. He sat in the Council for the Saugeen Division until
Confederation, when, in May, 1867, he was called to the Senate by Royal
Proclamation. He has ever since been a prominent member of that Body,
and has taken an intelligent part in its discussions. His speeches on
Confederation, and on the settlement of the waste lands of the Crown,
were broad and liberal in tone, and won for him the respect of many
persons who had previously known nothing of him beyond the fact of his
being a remarkably successful railway contractor. In 1868, at the
instance of the Ontario Government, he was appointed one of the
arbitrators to whom, in the terms of the British North America Act, was
to be referred the adjustment of the public debt and assets between the
Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. With him were associated the Hon.
Charles Dewey Day, on behalf of the Province of Quebec, and the Hon.
John Hamilton Gray--now one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of
British Columbia--on behalf of the Dominion. The case on the part of
Ontario was elaborately prepared by the Hon. E. B. Wood. Senator
Macpherson discharged his duties as an arbitrator with perfect fairness
and impartiality, alike to the Dominion and to the Province which he
represented. The conclusion arrived at by him and the arbitrator on
behalf of the Dominion, however, was not accepted by Mr. Day on behalf
of the Province of Quebec. It was accordingly contended by that Province
that the award was nugatory for want of unanimity. The matter was
appealed to the Privy Council in England, and the decision of that body
was confirmatory of the award. In 1869 he published a pamphlet on
Banking and Currency, which was widely read and commented upon.
After British Columbia became an integral part of the Dominion in 1871,
Senator Macpherson entered into negotiations with the Government at
Ottawa with a view to obtaining the contract for constructing the
Canadian Pacific Railway. A rival applicant for the contract was Sir
Hugh Allan of Montreal. The subsequent history of the negotiations is
too well known to need much recapitulation in this place. The Government
contracted obligations to Sir Hugh Allan which were nullified by its
fall in the month of November, 1873. Senator Macpherson not unnaturally
felt himself aggrieved at the treatment to which he had been subjected,
and for some time the cordial relations between him and his old
political associates were interrupted. After a brief interval, however,
harmony was reëstablished between them, and Senator Macpherson's support
has ever since been loyally accorded. During the five years' existence
of the Mackenzie Administration his opposition to that Administration
was very conspicuous. On the 19th of March, 1878, he called attention in
the Senate to the public expenditure of the Dominion; more especially to
that part of it which is largely under administrative control. He
arraigned the Government policy as extravagant and indefensible, and his
remarks gave rise to a long and acrimonious debate. Senator Macpherson's
speech on the occasion was considered by the Conservative Party as being
one of exceptional power and research. It was published in pamphlet
form, and distributed broadcast throughout the land. It was used as a
campaign document during the canvass prior to the elections of the 17th
of September, and was replied to by the Hon. R. W. Scott, Secretary of
State. On another occasion during the same session the Senator assailed
the policy of Mr. Mackenzie's Government with respect to the
construction of the Fort Francis Lock, and other public works in the
North-West. On the 10th of February, 1880, he was elected Speaker of the
Senate, which position he now holds. Almost immediately after his
election he was prostrated by a serious illness, and in order that
business might not be interrupted he temporarily resigned office, the
duties of which were for the time discharged by the Hon. A. E. Botsford.
In the month of June, 1844, he married Miss Elizabeth Sarah Molson,
eldest daughter of Mr. William Molson, of Montreal, and granddaughter of
the Hon. John Molson, who owned and (in 1809) launched _The
Accommodation_, the first steamer that ever plied in Canadian waters. By
this lady he has a family. He is connected with various important public
and financial institutions, being a member of the Corporation of
Hellmuth College, London; a Director of Molson's Bank; and of the
Western Canada Permanent Building and Savings Society. He has been
Vice-President of the Montreal Board of Trade, and President of the St.
Andrew's Society of Toronto.
JAMES YOUNG.
The present representative of North Brant in the Ontario Legislature is
a native Canadian who has made a creditable reputation for himself in
various walks of life. His Parliamentary career has been more than
moderately successful, and ever since his first entry into public life,
his speeches in the House have been listened to with an attention seldom
accorded to those of members of his age. As a public lecturer he enjoys
a more than local reputation, and as a journalist he deservedly occupies
a place in the front rank.
He is of Scottish descent, and is the eldest son of the late Mr. John
Young, who emigrated from Roxboroughshire to the township of Dumfries,
in what was then the Gore District, in 1834. His mother's maiden name
was Jeanie Bell. The late Mr. Young settled in Galt, where he engaged in
business, and resided until his death in February, 1859. The subject of
this sketch was born in Galt on the 24th of May, 1835, and has ever
since resided there. He was educated at the public schools in that town.
He early displayed great fondness for books, and has ever since found
time for private study, notwithstanding the multifarious labours of an
exacting profession.
In his youth he had a predilection for the study of the law, but finding
it impracticable to carry out his wishes, he chose the printing
business, which he began to learn in his sixteenth year. When he was
eighteen he purchased the Dumfries _Reformer_, which he thenceforward
conducted for about ten years. Under his management this paper--the
politics whereof are sufficiently indicated by its name--attained great
local influence, and was the means of making him known beyond the limits
of the county of Waterloo. During the earlier part of his proprietorship
the political articles in the paper were written by one of his friends,
Mr. Young himself taking the general supervision, and contributing the
local news. Upon the completion of his twentieth year he took the entire
editorial control, which he retained until 1863, by which time his
labours had somewhat affected his health. He then disposed of the
_Reformer_, and retired from the press for a time. He soon afterwards
went into the manufacturing business, and became the principal partner
in the Victoria Steam Bending Works, Galt, which he carried on
successfully for about five years.
During his connection with the _Reformer_ he had necessarily taken a
conspicuous part in the discussion of political questions, and his paper
was an important factor in determining the results of the local election
contests. He frequently "took the stump" on behalf of the Reform
candidate, and was known throughout the county as a ready and graceful
speaker. He took a conspicuous part in municipal affairs, and for six
years sat in the Town Council. He was an active member of the School
Board, and devoted much time to educational matters. He also took
special interest in commercial and trade questions, on which he came to
be regarded as a competent authority. In 1857 the Hamilton Mercantile
Library Association offered a prize of fifty dollars for the best essay
on the agricultural resources of the country. Mr. Young competed for,
and won the prize, and the essay was immediately afterwards published
under the title of "The Agricultural Resources of Canada, and the
inducements they offer to British labourers intending to emigrate to
this Continent." It was very favourably reviewed by the Canadian press,
and was the means of greatly extending the author's reputation. Eight
years later (in 1865) the proprietors of the Montreal _Trade Review_
offered two prizes for essays on the Reciprocity Treaty, which was then
about to expire. Mr. Young sent in an essay to which the second prize
was awarded. His success on this occasion procured him an invitation to
the Commercial Convention held that year at Detroit, and he thus had an
opportunity of hearing the great speech of the Hon. Joseph Howe.
He first entered Parliament in 1867, when he was nominated by the
Reformers of South Waterloo as their candidate for the House of Commons.
Mr. Young would have preferred to enter the Local Legislature, but
accepted the nomination, and addressed himself vigorously to the
campaign. It was the first election under Confederation, and he was
opposed by Mr. James Cowan, a Reform Coalitionist, who was also a local
candidate of great influence. Mr. Young had to encounter a fierce
opposition, the Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald, the Hon. William
McDougall and the present Sir William Howland taking the field on one
occasion on behalf of Mr. Cowan. These formidable opponents were
courageously encountered by Mr. Young single-handed, or with such local
assistance as could be procured. He was elected by a majority of 366
votes. When Parliament met in the following November he made his maiden
speech in the House on the Address. He also took a conspicuous part in
the debates of the session, and materially strengthened his position
among his constituents. He was twice reëlected by acclamation; first at
the general election of 1872, and again in 1874, after the accession to
power of Mr. Mackenzie's Government. Of that Government he was a loyal
and earnest supporter throughout. He was Chairman of the Committee on
Public Accounts for five consecutive sessions, and after the death of
Mr. Scatcherd became Chairman of the House when in Committee of Supply.
Among his principal speeches in Parliament were those on the
Intercolonial Railway, the Ballot, the admission of British Columbia,
with special reference to the construction of the Pacific Railway in ten
years, the Treaty of Washington (which was unsparingly condemned), the
Pacific Scandal, the Budget of 1874, the naturalization of Germans and
other aliens, and the Tariff question. Soon after entering Parliament he
proposed the abolition of the office of Queen's Printer and the letting
of the departmental printing by tender. This was ultimately carried, and
effected a large saving in the annual expenditure. In 1871 he submitted
a Bill to confirm the naturalization of all aliens who had taken the
oaths of allegiance and residence prior to Confederation, which became
law. In 1873 he brought in a measure to provide for votes being taken by
ballot. The Government subsequently took up the question and carried it.
On two occasions the House of Commons unanimously concurred in Addresses
to Her Majesty, prepared by him, praying that the Imperial Government
would take steps to confer upon German and other naturalized citizens in
all parts of the world the same rights as subjects of British birth, the
law then and still being that they have no claim on British protection
whenever they pass beyond British territory. In 1874 he proposed a
committee and report which resulted in the publication of the Debates of
the House of Commons, contending that the people have as much right to
know how their representatives speak in Parliament as how they vote.
At the election of 1878, chiefly through a cry for a German
representative, he was for the first time defeated. In the following
spring, the general election for the Ontario Legislature came on, and
Mr. Young was requested by the Reformers of the North Riding of Brant,
to become their candidate in the Local House. He at first declined, but
on the nomination being proffered a second time, he accepted it, and was
returned by a majority of 344. He still sits in the Local House as the
representative of North Brant.