Coursol, Captain Charles Joseph Quesnel, St. John’s, Quebec, was born 17th August, 1856, at Montreal. His parents are Charles J. Coursol, Q.C., M.P., and Helen Taché. The subject of this sketch was educated at the Jesuits’ College, Montreal, taking a full classical course. He received a commission as lieutenant in the Victoria Rifles of Canada in October, 1877; was transferred to the 65th Batt. in November, 1880, and promoted to a captaincy in April, 1881. He served for eighteen months with A Battery, R.C.A., and also several months with H.M. 19th or Princess of Wales’ Own Regiment, then stationed at Halifax. On the 21st December, 1883, he received a commission in the Infantry School Corps, now stationed at St. John’s, Quebec. In religion he is a Roman Catholic. He was married on the 18th October, 1882, to E. F. Pearce Serecold, daughter of the late Captain Pearce Serecold, of H.M. 66th regiment, and Miss Duval, daughter of the Hon. Justice Duval. Captain Coursol is also a grand nephew of the late Hon. F. A. Quesnel of the Legislative Council.
Pim, Richard, Toronto. This gentleman, who was a resident of Toronto for over fifty years, died on the morning of the 14th February, 1888, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He was a native of Herefordshire, England, and spent part of his early life in Russia, whither his father had gone to erect paper mills of the then most improved description for the Russian government. Upon the death of his father, at Helsingfors, near St. Petersburg, he returned to England, and married Mary Hargrave, grand-daughter of William Lane, a poet of considerable local distinction in Buckinghamshire. He emigrated to Canada in 1834, and during the stirring political events of 1837, served in the militia called out to repress the rebellion of that year, and was on guard below the Falls of Niagara when the American steamerCarolinewas cut loose by a British attacking party, and sent burning over the Falls. Mr. Pim led a quiet life, and was well-known in Toronto.
Irvine, Hon. George, Q.C., D.C.L., one of the best known and most eminent members of the Quebec bar, is the eldest son of the late Lieut.-Colonel Irvine, principal A.D.C. to the Governor-General of Canada, and grandson of the Hon. James Irvine, for many years a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils of Lower Canada, and of the Hon. Matthew Bell, of Three Rivers, P.Q., at one time member for St. Maurice in the Legislature of Lower Canada, and afterwards a member of the Legislative Council of that province. He was born at Quebec on the 16th November, 1826, and was educated at Dr. Lundy’s school in that city. Having chosen the law as his profession, he was called to the bar in 1848, after the usual course of study, and rapidly rose to distinction, his services being retained in nearly every important case, especially of a commercial nature. In partnership with the late C. G. Holt, Q.C., afterwards judge of the sessions of the peace for the Quebec district, and subsequently with E. H. Pemberton, he practised his profession with steady success and honor, and in 1867 was created a Q.C. in recognition of his leading position at the Quebec bar. Some years previously to this, in 1863, the electors of Megantic county, P.Q., had marked their appreciation of his abilities and exalted character, by returning him at the general election of that year to represent them in the Canadian House of Assembly, in which he continued to sit until confederation, when he was returned for Megantic to the Commons, and represented that county at Ottawa until the abolition of dual representation and the general election of 1872, when he declined re-election. He also represented the county in the Legislative Assembly of the province of Quebec from confederation until January, 1876, and during this period successively held the important Cabinet offices of solicitor-general and attorney-general of that province in the Chauveau and Ouimet administrations, being regarded as the leader of the English element in those governments, and the special champion of the English-speaking and Protestant minority in Lower Canada. In January, 1876, he resigned his seat in the Legislature, on being appointed one of the railway commissioners for the province, which office he also resigned in 1878, in order to present himself for re-election as a supporter of Mr. Joly’s administration, in which he was offered, but declined, a seat. At the general election of that year, he was again returned to represent Megantic in the Legislative Assembly, and once more at the general election of 1880, when he went with his leader, Mr. Joly, into opposition to the Chapleau and Mousseau governments, until June, 1884, when he resigned his seat on accepting the appointment of judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec. Throughout his public career, Mr. Irvine was one of the most conspicuous men in the house and before the country, and the organization and legislation of the province of Quebec, under confederation, still bear the impress of his powerful mind. A gentleman of wonderful tact and suavity of manner, a skilful parliamentarian, and a man of rare executive ability, he wielded an immense influence in the councils of that province, and on public opinion. As a speaker and debater, he was not only remarkable for his ready eloquence, but above all for his clearness, precision and logical force. He was a host in himself, and the side which received his support seldom failed to score a victory. As the representative of the English-speaking minority, he retained the public confidence to the last, as much by the independence and personal purity of his character as by his commanding talents. A Conservative by tradition and instinct, he nevertheless did not hesitate to separate himself from the party in provincial politics when the acts of some of his colleagues in the “Tanneries Land Swap” and other matters brought disgrace upon its escutcheon, and his conduct was not only ratified by his own immediate constituents of Megantic, but warmly approved by his fellow-countrymen generally. During the Joly administration he was the “power-behind the throne,” and afterwards, until his resignation of his seat in the house for good, the most conspicuous figure in the Provincial Opposition, next to the leader himself. Although actually the judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec, an Imperial appointment, the subject of this sketch still practises his profession in the other courts, and is generally found engaged in all the more important cases, both civil and criminal. He was formerly professor of commercial law in Morrin College, Quebec, and was also chancellor of the University of Lennoxville, P.Q., from which he received the honorary degree of D.C.L., in 1875. He has also beenbâtonnierof the Quebec bar and a vice-president of the Union Bank of Canada, at Quebec, which he helped to found. In religion he is a member of the Church of England, and has always taken a keen and active interest in its affairs. He has travelled a good deal on public and professional business, and has repeatedly crossed to England to plead before the Privy Council in appeals of great importance. Has two brothers living, the elder, Commissary-General Matthew Bell Irvine, C.B., C.M.G., and the younger, Lieut.-Col. Acheson Gosford Irvine, a member of the Council of the North-West Territories, and late Commissioner North-West Mounted Police. He married, in August, 1856, the third daughter of the late Henry Le Mesurier, a well-known merchant of Quebec, and formerly an officer in H.M. 48th regiment, and by her has had issue ten children.
Cadman, James, Civil and Mining Engineer, Quebec, is a good type of the men to whose professional skill and energy the eastern section of the Dominion is indebted for so much of its development by railways within the last twenty years. An Englishman, by birth, he has all the Englishman’s well known doggedness of character, and all the trained engineer’s abiding faith in the invincibility of science and the power of mind over matter. The word “impossible” has long since been erased from his lexicon, as illustrated especially by the great undertaking with which his name has been more prominently connected of late, the construction of the railway from Quebec to Lake St. John through a region of unparalleled difficulty from the engineering point of view. Mr. Cadman was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England, on the 31st January, 1832, his father’s name being also James Cadman, and his mother’s originally, Sarah Forrest Brown. He received a good plain English education at the Blue Coat School, Dudley, and studied civil and mining engineering under S. H. Blackwell, of Russell’s Hall Colliery, Dudley, of which he was afterwards appointed resident engineer. He subsequently distinguished himself in the same capacity in a number of the other great English collieries and iron works until 1862, when he came to New Brunswick as mining engineer for the New Brunswick Charcoal and Pig Iron Company. In 1867, he became connected as resident engineer with the European and North-American Railway, and in 1868 was appointed assistant engineer of the Intercolonial Railway, in the location and construction of which he took an active part until 1875, when he was retained for the survey of the Newfoundland Railway. On his return from Newfoundland, he was named locating engineer of the North Shore Railway, in which position he continued to act until 1879, when he was raised to the still more prominent and responsible post of chief engineer of the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway, which he still holds with great advantage to the success of that arduous and important enterprise. Mr. Cadman is a member of the Church of England, and a Freemason. He has never taken any part in politics in England or Canada, not even to vote. In his early manhood, he was for three years a member of the South Staffordshire Rifle Volunteers. In 1860, he married Margaret Doughty, a niece of the celebrated mining engineer, John Yardley, of East Worcestershire, by whom he has had a family of five children, three of whom are still living.
Kelly, Francis, J.P., Joliette, Quebec province, is a native of Ireland, having been born in Carlow, Leinster, on the 17th of March, 1819. His parents were James Kelly and Margaret Crosby, both natives of the same place. When he came to Canada he took up his residence in Montreal, where he received a commercial education. In 1845 he removed to New York, where he remained till 1850, and then went to California, and for some time worked in the gold mines. He spent four years travelling through the far west, and also visited Mexico and Cuba. Becoming surfeited with travel, he returned to Canada, and settled in Joliette. Here he began the lumbering business, in which he succeeded, and is now spending the remainder of his days in peace and comfort. In religion Mr. Kelly is a member of the Roman Catholic church; and in politics a Liberal. He was married on the 10th January, 1854, to Mary Collins.
Howe, Henry Aspinwall, T.C.D., M.A., LL.D., Rector of the High School, Montreal, province of Quebec, was born near Guildford, Surrey, England, 8th July, 1815. He is the elder and only surviving one of two sons of the late Captain Aspinwall Howe, formerly of the war office, Somerset House, latterly of her Majesty’s 88th regiment (Connaught Rangers), and Mary, eldest and very beautiful daughter of Charles Wickens, of Turnbridge, Surrey, England. The Howes are a branch of the Aspinwalls, an old county family in Lancashire. The subject of the sketch was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and Trinity College, Dublin, passing through both with high credit. He resided afterwards for some years in France, where he acquired a complete knowledge of the French language. Soon after leaving college he became private tutor to the youngest son of the Earl of Ellesmere, in whose family he became domesticated, and was indebted both to the Earl and his amiable Countess for their kind consideration and firm friendship. Mr. Aspinwall Howe was not desirous of making teaching his profession, but Lord Ellesmere considering that he was peculiarly fitted for it, persuaded him to accept the head mastership of the Montreal High School, which Lord Colbourne and Professor Pillans, of Edinburgh University, offered him. Thus, in 1848, he came to Montreal as rector of its High School, which office he has held with eminent success since that date, very many of his pupils having attained high and honorable positions in the Dominion, in the Mother Country and elsewhere. On first entering, however, upon his school duties, he had great cause for disappointment. The Board of High School Directors received him with marked kindness, but the school was undisciplined, and, still worse, in a bankrupt state. A regular income with residence had been promised—the former could not be realized from the funds of the school, the latter was a “mistake”—and many years elapsed before the school was prosperous enough to pay its rector a tolerably fair income. This proved a serious loss and trial, and obliged the rector to draw assistance from his resources at home. In the reconstruction of McGill College, some twenty-eight years ago, Dr. Aspinwall Howe, while retaining his position in the High School, occupied also the chair of mathematics and of natural philosophy in McGill College,without remuneration, retiring from these with the title of emeritus professor of three branches, when the university was sufficiently re-established to pay independent professors. He is also a fellow of the University, and has long been matriculation examiner to the medical faculty of McGill College. He has likewise for some years been president of the Board of Examiners for the preliminary examination of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Province of Quebec. Dr. Aspinwall Howe is a prominent member and liberal supporter of St. John the Evangelist Church of England, in Montreal. His moral influence over the many young people who come in contact with him in school and elsewhere is excellent. Dr. Aspinwall Howe is an exception to most highly educated scholars in that his attainments are varied; he excels in classics as well as in mathematics, and has a taste for the arts and for games of skill. He attained a high degree of perfection in drawing; is an accomplished amateur musician, and is well known as a strong player of the royal game of chess. In 1847 he married Louisa, daughter of the late Rev. J. C. Fanshawe, formerly of Franklin Hall, near Exeter, of Coelhaey’s Park, Devon, etc., and of Fanny Delia, daughter of Chancellor Carrington, of Evington, in Devonshire, by whom he had issue as follows:—Louisa Blanche Fanny, married to Hon. Henry, second son of Right Hon. Lord Aylmer; Amelia Egerton; Catharine Maria Fanshawe Coke, deceased; Henry South Leïdebach; Arthur Fanshawe Vernon, deceased; Fanshawe Gardiner, deceased; and others. Mrs. Aspinwall Howe is also Countess Nürenallen de Leïdebach, an honorable recognition given to her branch of the family for valuable service, rendered during the continental troubles of 1814-15.
Guest, Sheriff Geo. Hutchinson, Yarmouth, N.S., was born on 14th July, 1849, at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and is the son of Robert and Mary (Utley) Guest. His grandfather, John Guest, was born in Waterford, Ireland, and settled in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He was for some years a leading merchant in St. John’s. He married Dorothy Eustace, of Tor Bay. Robert Guest, the father of the sheriff, arrived in Yarmouth, in the year 1827, and became identified with the business of shipping, then, as now, the leading industry of the place. Robert Guest died February, 1867. His wife, Mary Utley, was a daughter of Nathan Utley, and grand-daughter of the Nathan Utley who represented Yarmouth county in the Provincial legislature from 1800 to 1806. Mrs. Guest died in September, 1887. Sheriff Guest was educated at the Yarmouth Academy. He engaged in the shipping business, and is a shipowner. He was a director of the Yarmouth Marine Insurance Association until it ceased to do business. In politics he is a Liberal, and when T. B. Flint resigned the office of high sheriff of the county, in January, 1887, Mr. Guest received the appointment from the local government. He is connected with the Methodist church, holding the position of a trustee of Providence Church. On the 11th of November, 1874, he married M. E. Lovitt, youngest daughter of the late John Lovitt, who was a grandson of Andrew Lovitt, who settled in Yarmouth in 1766. The Lovitts have always been identified with the best interests of Yarmouth. They have been prominently connected with the shipbuilding and other industries, and the county is at present represented in the Dominion House of Commons by one of the family.
Moore, Alvan Head, Magog, Quebec, was born in Hatley, county of Stanstead, province of Quebec, April 20th, 1836. His father, Thomas Moore, was born in Concord, N.H., United States, Dec. 5th, 1787. His mother, Margaret Moore, whose maiden name was Margaret Dickey, was born near Concord, N.H., July 24th, 1795. They were married Dec. 6th, 1812, and came to Canada in the beginning of the present century. They were amongst the early pioneers who settled Stanstead county. His father was on duty during the war of 1812-14 and the rebellion of 1837-8. He held a commission dated August, 1811, as lieutenant in the Eastern Townships Royal Volunteers and ensign in the militia of 1837-8. The subject of this sketch was liberally educated in Canadian academies and United States collegiate institutes, and at the present time is mayor of Magog, postmaster, commissioner of Superior Court, superintendent of the Government Fish Hatchery, justice of the peace for the district of St. Francis, president of the Waterloo & Magog Railway Company, director in the Stanstead, Shefford & Chambly Railroad Company, director in the Magog Textile and Print Company, was for years president of the Stanstead County Agricultural Society, chairman of the school commissioners of Magog, and secretary and treasurer of the above mentioned W. & M. R. Co., which office he resigned in 1887 to take the presidency of the company. He has been connected with and was one of the principal promoters of all the public enterprises of the place, the most important of them being the Waterloo & Magog Railway and Magog Textile and Print Works. He was an active promoter of both schemes, and has a large amount of money invested in them. He is an active politician, and has been engaged in every political contest which has taken place in the county since confederation. Being a protectionist, he is consequently a Conservative. He has been looked upon as the successor of the present member in the House of Commons, but so far has steadily refused to accept any nomination for parliamentary honors. He is and has always been a temperance man and opposed to the license system, and one of the few men of his age who never signed a requisition for a license. The adoption of the Temperance Act of 1878 in the county of Stanstead was largely due to his exertions. He is a Protestant in religion, and in favor of the alliance and amalgamation of all Christian denominations, and the destruction of sectarian walls that serve to divide and weaken the members of the Christian church. He was married August 12th, 1858, to Julia Ann Merry, eldest daughter of the late Ralph Merry, of Magog, who was one of the most prominent and most public-spirited men of his time, and was for many years mayor of Magog. At the time of his death he was president of the Waterloo & Magog Railway Company; vice-president of the Stanstead, Shefford & Chambly Railroad; and one of the early promoters of both schemes. Mrs. Moore was born at Magog, March 13th, 1838, was educated in Canadian and United States academies, and was also for some time a student in the convent at Longueuil, near Montreal. Immediately after their marriage they went to Kentucky, U.S.A., where they lived for nearly two years and engaged in teaching in the Pleasant Green Seminary until it was accidentally burned, Jan. 1, 1860. The war cloud being about ready to burst over the slavery question, they returned to Canada in the spring of 1860. Mr. Moore became associated in that year with his father-in-law (Mr. Merry) in building the Waterloo & Magog Railroad and in mercantile business. They continued in partnership until 1867, when Mr. Merry retired from the firm and Mr. Moore continued, and is now one of the largest and most successful merchants in the eastern townships. They have three children living, Ralph Merry Moore, born in Kentucky; Catharine Louise Moore and Elizabeth Florence Moore, the two last born in Magog, province of Quebec.
Freer, Lieut. Harry Cortlandt, 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regt., and Lieutenant and Brevet Captain and Adjutant, B Company, R.S.I., St. John’s, Quebec, was born at Sherbrooke, Quebec, on the 9th of May, 1859. His father, Cortlandt Freer, of the Grand Trunk Railway engineer staff, is a son of Noah Freer, late captain in the Nova Scotia Fencibles, and at one time A.D.C., or military secretary, to Sir George Prevost. His mother, M. A. Sicotte, is the eldest daughter of the Hon. L. V. Sicotte, judge of the Superior Court, St. Hyacinthe. The subject of this sketch was educated at Trinity College School, Port Hope, and afterwards graduated at the Royal Military College, Kingston. He entered the British service, and served a year each in Malta and Ireland. On the breaking out of the Egyptian war he served with the 1st battalion South Staffordshire regiment, and served throughout the campaign of 1882, receiving the Queen’s and Khedive’s medals for his gallantry. After his return to Canada, the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 again called him to active service, and he was appointed A.D.C. to Major-Gen. Sir Frederick Middleton, K.C.M.G., and was present at Batoche. For his gallantry on that occasion he was mentioned in the despatches, and received the medal with clasp. He has been an extensive traveller both in Europe and the East, as well as in our own country, having travelled as far west as British Colombia. In religion he is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and is unmarried.
Montgomery, Donald, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Chief Superintendent of Education for Prince Edward Island, was born at Valleyfield, 3rd May, 1848. His parents came to the island from Scotland in 1840. Mr. Montgomery received his education at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown, the foremost seat of learning in Prince Edward Island, and at McGill University, Montreal. He progressed rapidly in his chosen profession of teacher, and in 1874 was appointed principal of the Provincial Normal School. This position he held for three years. The progress of education in the island has been very gradual. At the original distribution of the land in 1767, thirty acres were reserved in each township for a schoolmaster, and there the matter rested until 1821, when a national school was opened at the capital. Later on a board of education was appointed for the island and other schools were opened. In 1836 a central academy was established in Charlottetown. In 1837, John McNeil was appointed the first superintendent of schools. At this time the total population of the island was about thirty-five thousand, and therewere only fifty-one schools, with a total attendance of 1,533. Means were scanty and the schoolmaster was literally “abroad” most of his time, removing from house to house, as he got his board among the different families of his district. In 1842, there were 121 schools and 4356 pupils. In 1852, a free school act was passed by the Legislature. In 1853, the office of general superintendent for the island, abolished in 1848 (a county superintendent for each county being substituted), was re-established. In 1855, a bill was passed establishing a Normal School, which was opened in 1856. The question as to whether the Bible should be read in the Central Academy and the Normal School was earnestly debated by the people and brought to the notice of the Legislature in 1858. The House decided against the use of the Bible in the schools. In 1861, however, was passed an act admitting the Bible into the schools. The Prince of Wales College was established in the same year. Many of the best men in the island have received their earlier education at this institution, which, however, they frequently supplement by a course at other seats of learning in the Dominion, the United States and Great Britain. In 1878, Mr. Montgomery embarked in politics, and on the 20th September in that year was elected to a seat in the local legislature for his native district of Belfast. This was a bye-election caused by the resignation of William Welsh. At the general election, Mr. Montgomery again offered, and was re-elected in April, 1879. He was a moderate Conservative. He resigned his seat in the House in the summer of that year, and on the 26th September, 1879, was appointed to the position of chief superintendent of education. This position he has continued to hold up to the present time. He is connected with the Presbyterian denomination. He married, on 10th August, 1887, Mary Isabella, daughter of William McPhail, of Orwell. His residence is situated on Prince street, in Charlottetown. A man in the very prime of life and usefulness, Mr. Montgomery occupies a position of the highest importance.
Rivard, Antoine Majorique, M.D., Sheriff for the district of Joliette, was born on the 24th September, 1838, at St. Leon, district of Three Rivers, province of Quebec. He is descended from a family that came from France, and settled at Batiscan, province of Quebec, in 1660. His father was Pierre Celestine Rivard, merchant at St. Leon, and his mother Marie Angèle Caron. He was educated at the Lanigan Academy, Three Rivers, and Nicolet College. He was admitted as a physician and surgeon on October 8th, 1861, and practised at St. Leon until 1865, when he removed to Joliette, where he has since resided. He has been councillor and mayor of the town of Joliette, vice-president of the Agricultural Society, county of Joliette, president of School Commissions, director of La Compagnie Manufacturier de Tabac Canadien de Joliette, secretary of the Medico-Surgical Association of the district of Joliette, and surgeon of the 83rd battalion since 1874. He was a governor of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the province of Quebec from 1877 to 1880, collector of inland revenue from 1880 to 1882, and was made sheriff on the 24th February, 1885. Dr. Rivard was married on the 16th February, 1863, to Marie Corine Asilda Lemaitre Angé, of Rivière du Loup,en haut, and has always been a strict adherent of the Roman Catholic faith. He is an ornament to the profession which he has made the study of his life, and his talents are only second to his indomitable energy and perseverance.
Cartier, Sir George Etienne.This illustrious statesman was born in the village of St. Antoine, in the county of Verchères, on the 6th of September, 1814. It was claimed for him that he was descended from one of the nephews of Jacques Cartier, the adventurous Breton navigator, who showed to France the ocean pathways to a western empire. But George Etienne stood in no need of the dim and flickering lustre reflected from remote family achievement. He made for himself, in the history of his country, a name and a fame which, by right of native ability and resolute and fortunate effort, are permanently his own. His immediate ancestors were of the better class of French Canadians. His grandfather, a successful merchant, was one of the first members chosen for the county of Verchères, when the Constitutional Act of 1791 gave to Lower Canada the right to representative institutions. In Lower Canada, in the early days of George Etienne Cartier, two avocations possessed, and still possess, a strong attraction for the more gifted amongst the younger population. These avocations were the church and the bar. Cartier chose the latter. To qualify himself for his intended profession, he pursued, for eight years, a course of study at the college of St. Sulpice, in the city of Montreal. There is no tradition to show that he was a brilliant student. In this respect he adds another to the number of eminent men who reserved, not for the ideal world of the school-room, but for the actual world of after life, powers and faculties previously unsuspected, because undisplayed. After leaving college he entered upon the study of the law, and in 1835 he began practice in the city of Montreal. The legal profession, crowded at that period, overcrowded at the present time, still affords, to use the simile of Daniel Webster, “room in the upper story.” To that place of vantage Cartier made his way. The explanation of his success is not far to seek. He possessed at that time, and until the end of his life, an industry that never knew cessation, an energy that never faltered, and an ever-present consciousness of his own ability. But, for young Cartier, another pursuit besides law presented imperative claims to attention. This was politics. To him, and to the majority of his countrymen, they seemed to mean political existence, and the preservation of their language and institutions. Cartier had scarcely begun the practice of his profession when he was drawn into the vortex. Louis Joseph Papineau, speaker of the Legislative Assembly since the year 1817, had been flaming, like a portentous meteor, in the troubled sky of Canadian politics. Under his influence, Cartier, like the overwhelming majority of French Canadians, fell. It was no wonder. Papineau was an impetuous leader; he had a popular cause; he appeared to be fighting an unequal battle. To narrate in detail the causes which created a leader out of Papineau, and which attracted to his banner all the more enthusiastic among the French Canadians, would be to fill volumes: to write a history of a country, and not the brief biography of a man. But a few words may serve to convey a faint idea of the political condition of Lower Canada, at the time when Cartier ventured into the perilous pathways of the provincial politics of that epoch. From the conquest of Canada, in 1760, to 1791 (the year of the passing of the Constitutional Act), Canada was a portion of the British empire, but was an alien in respect to British institutions. This Act divided what was known as the Province of Quebec into two new provinces—Upper and Lower Canada. A legislature was, by the Act, established in each province. It consisted of a House of Assembly and a Legislative Council. The people elected the Assembly; the Crown nominated the Council. Herein lay the monstrous defect of the Constitutional Act; the poisonous leaven that corrupted the body politic in Upper and Lower Canada; the pestilent germ that developed into outrageous misgovernment, jeopardy of British connection, and ultimate rebellion. The Upper House, nominated by the Crown, was not only irresponsible to the people, but set their wishes at absolute defiance. The popular Assembly might pass necessary measures; the Council expunged the provisions that made them useful, or trampled them under foot. The oligarchy, which was continually in a minority in the Assembly, but always in a majority in the Council, lorded it over Lower Canada in contemptuous indifference to the wishes of the French Canadian majority.[4]The Governor, who was commissioned to represent the King, was the mere puppet of the oligarchy. While they flattered him they ruled him, and cajoled while they enslaved. Thus, for long and weary years, was enacted the wretched drama of despotism under a constitutional mask. There seemed no sign of relief. The governors and the oligarchy, by their machinations, had gained the ear of the imperial authorities, and tricked them into the belief that to rule in contempt of British institutions was the only means of perpetuating British rule in Upper and Lower Canada. With the intention to act justly, the British government, above all others, seemed, at this period, to be beyond the reach of the warnings of experience; seemed doomed never to know the truths as to the dismal history of colonial misgovernment. The loss of the thirteen colonies had been a lesson taught in vain. Not until the Earl of Durham, in a state paper which eclipses, for ability, conscientiousness, vast industry, and fearless truthfulness, any other of the kind in the diplomatic literature of the British American colonies—not until he laid bare the ulcers and festering wounds on the Canadian body politic, did the imperial authorities learn the truth, and set themselves to prepare a remedy. In the year 1837 the patience and prudence of the French Canadian leaders gave way. The pleading for reform had been scouted as treason; now insurrection was about to take the place of argument. Among the deplorable elements engendered in the long struggle for a better state of things was that of race-hatred. For this dangerous passion, Papineau, often violent in language and unwise in denunciation, was more responsible than his opponents. To this passion, Cartier, even in his hot youth, would not surrender himself. But, when the movement which Papineau for nearly a quarter of a century had fostered, burst away from his control, and leapt from agitation into rebellion, George Etienne Cartier, throwing to the winds considerations of selfishness and prudence, boldly took his life in his hand, and appealed to the arbitrament of the sword. The autumn of 1837 was ominous of coming troubles. The government, even if no other source of information had been at their command, could not fail to perceive in the speeches of the more impetuous of the French Canadian leaders that an appeal to arms was in immediate contemplation. After waiting for a period which to their friends seemed perilously prolonged, the authorities determined at length to grapple with the incipient insurrection. On the 16th of November, 1837, warrants for high treason were issued against the Montreal agitators who were inciting the people to rebellion. Papineau was included in the number, but he had been warned in time. He placed the St. Lawrence between himself and arrest, and made good his way towards the Richelieu river. His arrival in that locality brought to a focus the latent elements of revolt. The disaffected peasantry of the surrounding districts trooped to their headquarters, a village named Debartzch, in the parish of St. Charles. But, in addition to the encampment at St. Charles, there was another and more memorable mustering-place of the “patriots.” This was at St. Denis, on the Chambly river. The leader of the patriots was Dr. Wolfred Nelson, a man whose energy, courage and principles won him the unshaken confidence of the peasantry. At St. Denis we find George Etienne Cartier. A British force under Colonel Gore, a Waterloo veteran, was sent against St. Denis. Accompanying the expedition was a deputy-sheriff armed with a warrant for the arrest of Dr. Wolfred Nelson on a charge of high treason. On the morning of the 23rd of November, 1837, the troops, after twelve hours’ march through the sloughs, mud, and pit-falls of a winter road in Lower Canada, approached the village of St. Denis. A contemporary account thus narrates the result of the attack on the position of the insurgents: —
The necessary orders were given for the troops to advance; an order which was promptly obeyed, notwithstanding the harassing and fatiguing march of the night. Towards the north-eastern entrance of the village of St. Denis there is a large stone house, of three or four stories, which was discovered to be full of armed men, who opened a sharp and galling fire upon the troops. The skirmishing party here consisted of the light company of the 32nd, under Captain Markham. Within a quarter of an hour after the firing commenced, Captain Markham was severely wounded in the leg; and, almost at the same moment, received two dangerous wounds in the neck, which brought him to the ground. In conveying him to the rear, he received another wound, a proof of the dexterity and precision of the fire kept up by the patriots. It was found by Colonel Gore that the infantry, deprived of the assistance of Colonel Wetherall’s force, was inadequate to cope with the terrible fire of the musketry that was kept up and directed against them from the stone house. The field-piece, accordingly, was brought to bear upon this fort of the insurgent army, and injured it considerably, sending many of the inmates to their final account. Notwithstanding, as the ammunition was nearly exhausted, it was deemed prudent to retire, in order to maintain the communication with Sorel, as many of the inhabitants were seen gathering from all directions to the scene of action. About half-past two in the afternoon, the order to fall back was given; and, with the loss of six men killed and ten wounded, a retreat was commenced. The roads were so bad it was impossible to get farther than three miles that night, and Colonel Gore was under the necessity of bivouacking till daylight of Friday morning (24th), when he again commenced his march upon Sorel, which he reached that afternoon.
The necessary orders were given for the troops to advance; an order which was promptly obeyed, notwithstanding the harassing and fatiguing march of the night. Towards the north-eastern entrance of the village of St. Denis there is a large stone house, of three or four stories, which was discovered to be full of armed men, who opened a sharp and galling fire upon the troops. The skirmishing party here consisted of the light company of the 32nd, under Captain Markham. Within a quarter of an hour after the firing commenced, Captain Markham was severely wounded in the leg; and, almost at the same moment, received two dangerous wounds in the neck, which brought him to the ground. In conveying him to the rear, he received another wound, a proof of the dexterity and precision of the fire kept up by the patriots. It was found by Colonel Gore that the infantry, deprived of the assistance of Colonel Wetherall’s force, was inadequate to cope with the terrible fire of the musketry that was kept up and directed against them from the stone house. The field-piece, accordingly, was brought to bear upon this fort of the insurgent army, and injured it considerably, sending many of the inmates to their final account. Notwithstanding, as the ammunition was nearly exhausted, it was deemed prudent to retire, in order to maintain the communication with Sorel, as many of the inhabitants were seen gathering from all directions to the scene of action. About half-past two in the afternoon, the order to fall back was given; and, with the loss of six men killed and ten wounded, a retreat was commenced. The roads were so bad it was impossible to get farther than three miles that night, and Colonel Gore was under the necessity of bivouacking till daylight of Friday morning (24th), when he again commenced his march upon Sorel, which he reached that afternoon.
On the 25th of November, 1837, Lieutenant-Colonel Wetherall and a British force drove the patriots from their position at St. Charles. A few days after this event Colonel Gore, with his command reinforced marched upon St. Denis. But the victory at St. Charles had caused defections in the ranks of Dr. Nelson. He did not wait a second attack, but abandoned his position, and sought to make his escape to the United States. Thus ended the operations on the Richelieu, and with them the rebellion south of the River St. Lawrence. George E. Cartier was with Dr. Nelson in the combat at St. Denis. In after life, a political opponent would sometimes taunt him with cowardice on that occasion. To such reproaches he never replied, and hence there were some persons who suspected that there might be truth in the accusation. But Cartier himself knew better, and could afford to be silent. Ten years or so after St. Denis his conduct was described by Dr. Nelson, who was qualified to speak on the subject. InLa Minerve, of Montreal, under date of September 4th, 1848, Dr. Nelson’s “attestation,” dated Montreal, 21st August, 1848, was published in French. “Seeing,” says the Doctor, “that an appeal has been made to me to give my testimony concerning certain events at St. Denis, in 1837, I will do so in the interest of truth and justice. I owe this to my friends, and to the country in general.”
It is true thatM. Henri Cartier[5]remarked that it would be well to retreat, seeing the destruction caused by the discharges of the enemy, the want of munitions, and the flight of a number of persons of consequence. I strongly opposed this retreat; but, notwithstanding that, Mr. Henri Cartier vigorously supported us during all the day.M. George Cartiernever made allusion to the retreat, and he like his cousin, M. H. Cartier, valiantly and effectively contributed to the success of this struggle. And these gentlemen only left me when I was myself obliged to leave, nine days after this event, when the second expedition of troops moved against St. Denis; resistance then having become impossible, I sent M. George Cartier, towards two o’clock in the afternoon, for some stores to St. Antoine, and he promptly returned with succour, after about an hour’s absence. Mr. George Cartier did not wear atuque bleu[6]on the day of the battle.Wolfred Nelson.Montreal,21st August, 1848.
It is true thatM. Henri Cartier[5]remarked that it would be well to retreat, seeing the destruction caused by the discharges of the enemy, the want of munitions, and the flight of a number of persons of consequence. I strongly opposed this retreat; but, notwithstanding that, Mr. Henri Cartier vigorously supported us during all the day.M. George Cartiernever made allusion to the retreat, and he like his cousin, M. H. Cartier, valiantly and effectively contributed to the success of this struggle. And these gentlemen only left me when I was myself obliged to leave, nine days after this event, when the second expedition of troops moved against St. Denis; resistance then having become impossible, I sent M. George Cartier, towards two o’clock in the afternoon, for some stores to St. Antoine, and he promptly returned with succour, after about an hour’s absence. Mr. George Cartier did not wear atuque bleu[6]on the day of the battle.
Wolfred Nelson.
Montreal,21st August, 1848.
The authority of Dr. Wolfred Nelson must be accepted as conclusive evidence respecting the personal courage of Cartier, who, it would seem, acted in the capacity ofaide-de-campto the valiant doctor. Cartier, at this battle, was in the twenty-third year of his age. It was also charged against him by some of his political opponents, that for his participation in the events of 1837, a reward was offered for his head. The present writer has not been able to verify this fact. The name of Cartier does not appear in the lists of those for whose apprehension the governor proclaimed rewards. Some time after the fight at St. Denis, Cartier took refuge in the United States. Although he was unnamed in the proclamations, his course of action was well known to the government. He would have been arrested at the time if it had been possible, and his fate would probably have been like that of his commander at St. Denis—banishment. He returned secretly from the United States to Canada, and remained in hiding for a time. His seclusion, however, was not of very long duration. An intimation from the authorities assured him that on presenting himself in public he would not be arrested. The promise was faithfully kept. The result of Mr. Cartier’s participation in the rebellion of 1837 was that for nearly ten years after its close he took no active part in public life. In 1848, yielding to the pressure of his friends, he was returned to parliament as the representative of his native county of Verchères. He could not have made his entry into public life at a more favorable moment for a man of the liberal tendencies which then dominated him. The governor-general was the Earl of Elgin, the greatest man, with the exception of the Earl of Durham, ever commissioned by the British government to perform the functions of viceroy of Canada. The Lafontaine-Baldwin cabinet, never before or since excelled for ability and administrative talent, swayed the political destinies of the province. A seat in the House of Assembly, for two sessions, in the time of Baldwin and Lafontaine, was in itself a political education. Cartier was an apt learner. In the session of 1850 he showed how well he understood the needs of his native province. In that year Lafontaine proposed, in the House of Assembly, a series of resolutions for the abolition of the Seignorial Tenure. Like every other abuse which has the plea of age for its defence, the Seignorial system found determined advocates. But its opponents were not only more numerous, but had an infinitely better cause. Some great debates arose on this subject, for it was one that went home to the whole body of the French Canadian peasantry. It appealed, also, to the dearest interests of the seigneurs. Cartier was one of those who offered strong opposition to the tenure. As the representative of a purely agricultural county he could take no other course, but the position he assumed was in accordance with his convictions. In his place in the house he boldly stated that that portion of the province which had been settled under the Seignorial Tenure had not made as much progress as the part which had been settled under the Free Tenure. He contended that it was as much the advantage of the seigneur as of the tenant to abolish the Feudal System; and that the proper time for so doing had presented itself. The general opinion of the house was that the session was too far advanced to deal effectively with the question. It was also considered that the seigneurs had not had time enough afforded them to plead their cause. The Hon. Robert Baldwin and Mr. Cartier were in favor of settling the Seignorial question at once, and would have prolonged the session for that purpose; but Mr. Lafontaine refused to consent. He considered that the legal remedies proposed would not lead to a definite settlement of the problem. He had no desire to reform and perpetuate the Tenure; he wished to sweep it out of existence. The Tenure was abolished in the year 1854, by the Hincks-Morin administration. Those two leaders having retired in 1855, Sir Edmund Head, then governor-general, called upon Sir Allan MacNab to form a Cabinet. Sir Allan allied himself with Colonel E. P. Taché; and the latter on the 27th of January, 1855, selected Mr. Cartier as provincial secretary. He was not eager for office. Under the previous administration he had refused the position of commissioner of public works. The Legislature, in 1856, devoted a great deal of attention to the subject of public education. Mr. Cartier entered heartily into the question. He had the principal share in preparing two measures which were adopted by the house. The one provided for the establishment of a Council of Public Instruction for Lower Canada, and for allowing school municipalities to levy their own quotas. The other authorized the establishment of Normal schools in Lower Canada, and erected a permanent fund of $88,000, to be devoted to superior education in that province. Part of this money was made up out of the revenues of the Jesuits’ estates; $20,000 of it came from the Consolidated Fund. A sum of $20,000 was at the same time voted for the purposes of superior education in Upper Canada. The opposition endeavored to alter these two measures. It was contended that the distribution of $88,000 by the superintendent of education, under an Order in Council, would be placing means of corruption in the hands of the government. It was further contended that it was unconstitutional to deprive the House of Assembly of the right to vote, annually, the public moneys. The arguments of the opposition were sound, but were urged in vain, and the government measures were carried. The MacNab-Taché administration, in 1856, fell to pieces. There was weakness within its membership. There was, in addition, the disturbing question of the settlement of the seat of government. The house, at the end of a long and exciting debate, resolved that, after the year 1859, the city of Quebec should be the permanent capital of Canada. A considerable number of the representatives of Upper Canada were discontented with this arrangement. They considered that Quebec was too far removed from the centre of the province. The government, in accordance with the resolution of the house, placed in the estimates the sum of $200,000 for the erection of public buildings. The Hon. Luther Hamilton Holton proposed the following amendment:—“That the conduct of the administration on the subject of the question of the seat of government, and on other questions of public importance, has disappointed the just expectation of the great majority of the people of this province.” The discussion which followed lasted some days. The amendment of Mr. Holton was defeated by a majority of twenty-three. But, among the forty-seven yeas, were thirty-three members from Upper Canada; while, from that province, twenty-seven only voted with the ministry. The vote was followed by the resignation of two members of the government, Messrs. Spence and Morrison. These gentlemen belonged to the Upper Canada section of the ministry. The Hon. John A. Macdonald was the next to secede. He was of opinion that the vote on the question of the capital had weakened the government, and as there was no security that the same votes would not be repeated he thought it best to remain no longer in the Cabinet. The Hon. Mr. Cayley, also from Upper Canada, followed the footsteps of Mr. Macdonald. Sir Allan MacNab was reluctantly forced to resign. The governor-general requested Colonel Taché to form a new administration. He chose for his colleague the Hon. John A. Macdonald, in the stead of Sir Allan MacNab. The new ministry was virtually a continuation of the old one, with two exceptions: Mr. Vankoughnet replaced Sir Allan MacNab in the Upper Canada section; Mr. Terril replaced Mr. Drummond in the Lower Canada section. Mr. Cartier, in passing from one ministry to the other changed his portfolio. He became attorney-general for Lower Canada, in the place of Mr. Drummond. His new office was no sinecure. The session which opened on the 26th of February, 1857, was signalized by a ministerial project which was of far-reaching importance to Lower Canada. This was the codification of the Civil Laws, and of the Laws of Procedure. The measure was the work of Attorney-General Cartier. He expended on it great industry; he made it a labor of love. As he himself observed, the necessity of codification made itself felt the more because the province was settled by people of different races. The knowledge which everyone should possess of the laws of his country could only be attained by codification. The sources whence those laws were derived were so varied that an acquaintance with them demanded great research. Part of the civil laws of Lower Canada had been borrowed from the Roman law; part from a body of jurisprudence known as the Custom of Paris; part was found in the Edicts and Ordonnances, and in the Provincial Statutes. The time was ripe for this great and beneficent work. The peasantry of Lower Canada had been emancipated from the control of the seigneurs. The land laws which had ruled them had been swept away, and an improved system of jurisprudence, suited to the new state of things, was demanded. Mr. Cartier was determined to satisfy this demand. But there were those in parliament who wished to proceed farther than he then wanted to go. The Hon. Mr. Drummond, attorney-general in the late administration, and an able jurist, was of opinion that the laws of both provinces should be assimilated, so that there might be but one code for Canada. The reply of Attorney-General Cartier was to the effect that it was necessary to begin first with the codification, of those laws which Lower Canada imperatively demanded. After this, it would be time to think about accomplishing what was proposed. The measure passed through the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council without opposition. The commissioners appointed by the government to codify the laws began their labors in 1859, and finished them in 1864. Some readers of this sketch will remember the occasion on which, in the Legislative Assembly in the city of Quebec, Attorney-General Cartier rose to move the resolution which would make the Civil Code the law of the land. He addressed the house in French, and with more seriousness and deliberation than marked his ordinary utterances. He spoke with the feeling of a man who is conscious that he is placing the crowning stone on an edifice which has cost him years of labor and anxiety to build. As he finished with the words, “I desire no better epitaph than this—‘He accomplished the Civil Code,’” the house did honour to itself and to him by a hearty burst of applause. The eastern townships of Lower Canada are peopled mainly by an English-speaking population. But the French Canadians, in course of time, found their way into these districts. The result was, that there were two systems of civil law. To remedy this evil, Mr. Cartier prepared and carried through parliament a measure which introduced the French Civil laws into the eastern townships, and rendered uniform the holding of lands. Another most important measure which he succeeded in passing during the session of 1857 was an Act for the Decentralization of Justice. Its object was to cheapen justice, and to render it more easily attainable. “The administration of justice in criminal cases, and in all civil matter where the amount involved was over fifty pounds, was confined to seven places: Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, St. Francis, Aylmer, Sherbrooke and Gaspé, in a country exceeding seven hundred or eight hundred miles in length.” The act divided Lower Canada into nineteen judicial districts, adding twelve to those already mentioned. It provided for the erection of courts of justice and prisons in the new districts, increased the number of the judges of the Superior Court to eighteen, and the number of the judges of the Court of Appeal to five. The act provided that there should be four terms of the Court of Appeal in Quebec, and made other regulations respecting procedure and the salaries of the judges. The care and labor which this statute imposed on Mr. Cartier, in originating it, in passing it through the house, and in devising the multifarious machinery necessary to put it into successful operation, were enough to have overcome a man of less mental and physical energy. The majority of the people of Lower Canada welcomed the Act with open arms, and it endeared its author to his French Canadian fellow-countrymen. The parliament of 1857 had not been long in session when the question of the permanent seat of government again came to the front. In the previous session, as we have seen, the Assembly had decided that Quebec should be the capital and had authorized the expenditure of $200,000 for the erection of necessary buildings. But the Legislative Council had refused its assent to the supplies. The question, therefore, in 1857, was practically undecided: and so thought a great many of the members. The ministry decided to overlook the Assembly’s vote last session in favor of Quebec; and resolved to leave the question of the permanent seat of government to the decision of the Queen. The ministry further proposed that a vote of $900,000 should be taken for the erection of new parliamentary and departmental buildings. Attorney-General Cartier was of opinion that many of the members could not have been serious in voting in favor of Quebec; his reason being that they had voted immediately afterwards against the expenditure of the $200,000. Besides, the Legislative Council had refused assent to the supplies. The government would not act unless the two branches of the legislature were in agreement; but it was impossible to have the consent of the Council. The better plan, therefore, in his opinion, was to leave to her Majesty the selection of the future capital of Canada. This proposition was opposed by many members from the lower province. Mr. J. E. Thibaudeau moved an amendment to the effect that it was not expedient to take into consideration the question of the seat of government, because it had been decided the previous session. He contended that the rejection of the supplies by the Legislative Council was not a sufficient ground for annulling the decision of the Legislative Assembly, the more especially as many councillors from Lower Canada were absent when the vote was taken. The amendment was lost. The same fate befell a motion to make Montreal the seat of government. The result was that an address to the Queen, praying her to select the capital, was carried by a majority of nine. Her Majesty selected Ottawa as the seat of government. On the 25th of November, 1857, Colonel Taché the nominal head of the administration, resigned office, and the Hon. John A. Macdonald was called upon to form a new government. He made no change in the Upper Canada section of the cabinet. At his request, Mr. Cartier proceeded to select the ministers for Lower Canada. His object was to combine the two political parties in his native province. Two moderate Liberals, Messrs. Belleau and Sicotte, accepted office under Mr. Cartier. The offer of a portfolio to the Hon. A. A. Dorion was, with the consent of Mr. Cartier, made through Mr. Sicotte. But Mr. Dorion refused the inducement, and remained true to his political allegiance. The Macdonald-Cartier administration was formed on the 26th of November, 1857. Mr. Cartier was the only Lower Canadian minister who belonged to the old cabinet. His colleagues from that province were all new men. On the 28th of July, 1858, Mr. Piché moved an amendment: “That, in the opinion of this chamber, the city of Ottawa ought not to be the seat of the government of this province.” The amendment was carried by a majority of six. The ministry, on account of this vote, tendered their resignation next day, the 29th of July. Sir Edmund Head requested Mr. George Brown to form an administration. This gentleman, as the leader of the Opposition, had for years waged a resolute battle against the party represented by the defeated ministry. Following constitutional precedents, it was the duty of the governor-general to ask Mr. Brown to form a cabinet. It was also his duty to smooth the way for the accomplishment of the object he wished Mr. Brown to accomplish. But the governor, instead of removing obstacles from Mr. Brown’s path, was the first to place them in that gentleman’s way. He would not give to Mr. Brown the promise of a dissolution, but he would consent to a prorogation, if one or two measures were passed, and if a vote of credit were taken for the supplies. Mr. Brown was thus over-weighted from the very beginning. Still, with that political courage which had always characterized him, he undertook the formation of a cabinet. He chose as his colleague, and as leader of the Lower Canada section of the government, the Hon. A. A. Dorion, a gentleman with an untarnished political record. On the 2nd of August, 1858, Mr. Brown had completed his task, and the cabinet took the oath of office. The existence of this administration was brief, in fact the shortest known to our history, it having existed for only two days when it resigned, being defeated on a motion of want of confidence. The governor-general having in vain requested Mr. Galt to form a cabinet, Mr. Cartier became the head of a new Administration. He chose the Hon. John A. Macdonald as the leader of the Upper Canada section. The government was completed on the 6th of August. Then followed what is known as the “Double-Shuffle.” By the Independence of Parliament Act of 1857, it was provided that if a cabinet minister in either house should resign his office, and within a month afterwards accept another, he should not go back to his constituents. Some of the members of the Macdonald-Cartier government, who had entered the Cartier-Macdonald government, took advantage of this law in order to avoid the ordeal of re-election. They accepted, on the 6th of August, in the Cartier-Macdonald cabinet, offices different from those they had held in the Macdonald-Cartier cabinet. But on the 7th of August they discarded their portfolios of the 6th, and resumed those which they had held in the Macdonald-Cartier administration when it resigned on the 29th of July. Mr. Cartier, when he resigned, on the 29th of July, was attorney-general for Lower Canada. On the 6th of August he became inspector-general. On the 7th of August he resumed the office of attorney-general. This constituted the “Double Shuffle.” The action cannot be defended, and he never attempted to defend it. The ministry seemed to be ashamed of the part they had played. Many of their own supporters blamed them. The political conscience of the country seemed to have become sensitive, when it fully realized the extent of the wrong which had been done to constitutional and parliamentary government. The ministry were forced, by public opinion, to repeal the Independence of Parliament Act, under which they had accomplished the “Double-Shuffle.” The Cartier-Macdonald administration, after it had been formed, announced that it would give serious attention to the question of a Federal Union of the Provinces of North America. They further promised that they would approach the imperial authorities on the subject, and also enter into communication with the governments of the Maritime provinces. After the session of 1858, Messrs. Cartier, Galt and Ross visited England in the interest of a Federal Union. To communications from the colonial secretary on the subject of union, the government of the Maritime provinces answered by requesting time for the consideration of the project. The result was that no action was at that time taken. The Cartier-Macdonald government proceeded no farther in the direction of union. On this visit to England, Attorney-General Cartier was, for three days, the guest of the Queen at Windsor Castle. Parliament was opened, in Toronto, in the month of January, 1859. The question of the seat of government again came to the front. The ministry stated that they were obliged to uphold the Queen’s decision in favor of Ottawa. Mr. Sicotte, who had left the cabinet on this question, proposed an amendment to the Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne. He had seceded because he held that, after the vote of the Legislative Assembly at its last session, the government could not abide by the decision of the Queen without violating the principle that the majority should rule. The amendment he now proposed was to the effect that the principles of the Constitution required that the opinion of the majority should be respected; and that, in declaring, during the preceding session, that Ottawa should not be the capital, the house had expressed its views in conformity with the ordinary and constitutional exercise of its privileges. Mr. Langevin seconded the amendment. He was of opinion that Attorney-General Cartier could not make any one believe that Ottawa was the most convenient place for the seat of government. The capital ought not to be fixed before the question of Confederation was decided. Mr. Cartier argued that the conduct of the cabinet in this matter was constitutional. The simple declaration, by the house, that Ottawa ought not to be the capital, did not suffice to set aside the Queen’s decision, and bind the ministry to take account of it. The choice of Ottawa was a good one, because the immediate pressure of public opinion would make itself less felt there than elsewhere. The French-Canadians would find, in Ottawa, a population in part Catholic, and having the same institutions. The result of the debate was a government majority of only five. The Upper Canada Opposition contributed to the victory so narrowly won. Ottawa, sorely pressed, snatched the capital from the other competitors. The session of 1859 was marked by another advantage secured by Mr. Cartier for his native province. This was an Act to amend the Seignorial Act of 1854. The object of his measure was the complete redemption of the Seignorial rights, with one exception. It was stated that the funds provided by the Seignorial Act of 1854 had proved insufficient for the redemption of certain feudal obligations still pressing upon thehabitants. For this purpose a new appropriation of between $1,600,000 and $2,000,000 was demanded by Mr. Cartier. With the exception of one member, Mr. Somerville, all the Lower Canada representatives supported this measure. But the Upper Canada Liberals, led by the Hon. George Brown, assailed the proposal with the utmost vigor. They proclaimed that it was nothing more than an attempt to rob Upper Canada. They opposed it in the press, and combated it with unflinching courage on the floor of the house. But in vain: the Lower Canada phalanx voted down all attempts to amend the measure, and with them voted their Upper Canada allies. The end was, that the law was carried by 66 to 28. The session of 1861 was marked by a long and vehement debate on the question of Representation by Population. It was opened by Mr. Ferguson proposing an amendment to the Address. The amendment declared the regret of the house that the governor-general had not been advised to allude to the recent census of the people, which census the house could not but regard as preliminary to legislation upon the great question of Parliamentary Reform, based upon the numbers and wealth of the people, etc. The amendment was voted down by 72 to 38. The Lower Canada phalanx and its Upper Canada allies were again victorious. Mr. Ferguson then proposed a measure in modification of the existing system of representation. The new project was to give to a county of at least 15,000 inhabitants one representative; to a county of 20,000, two representatives. Mr. Cartier, in a strong and uncompromising speech, announced his unalterable opposition to what he styled the unjust pretensions of Upper Canada. He maintained that the upper province had no right under the Union Act, to claim a larger representation than Lower Canada. The union had been consummated with the understanding that the equality of the representation would be maintained. He concluded in protesting that he would never sacrifice the rights of Lower Canada. The government of which he was first minister would not yield Representation by Population, in spite of the efforts of the members from Upper Canada who advocated that measure. It must be admitted that, on this particular question, Mr. Cartier shows to great disadvantage. The lawyer and the sectionalist are seen everywhere: the statesman and the Canadian nowhere. Because the Union Act was silent on the subject of representation, the great upper province must chafe under a galling injustice. Containing 285,000 people more than Lower Canada, this vast number was to remain without a voice to make known their wishes in the councils of the country. In this instance, Mr. Cartier showed himself devoid of that rare element, political equity: the element that distinguishes the statesman from the politician. After a discussion prolonged through several days, the measure of Mr. Ferguson was defeated by a majority of 18. For the motion 49; against it, 67. Upper Canada had 49 representatives who voted for the motion, and a dozen who voted against it. If Mr. Cartier had been a man of ordinary political prescience on this question he would have foreseen, from this vote, that Upper Canada was determined to have her claims satisfied, and that it would not be possible much longer to refuse them. The parliament was prorogued on the 18th of May, 1861. On the 16th of June following, it was dissolved by proclamation. In the general election which followed, Mr. Cartier defeated Mr. Dorion in Montreal East. The seventh parliament of the province of Canada was opened on the 20th of March, 1862. In the debate on the Address, the burning question of Representation by Population again came up. The Hon. William Macdougall, one of its most able and ardent supporters, moved an amendment to the Address. It set forth that, by the recent census, the population of Upper Canada exceeded that of Lower Canada, in February, 1861, by no fewer than 285,427 souls. The amendment expressed the regret of the house that the governor-general had not been advised to recommend some measure for securing to this large population in Upper Canada their rightful share of the parliamentary representation, and their just influence in the government. The Hon. John Hillyard Cameron, though Conservative as he was, raised his eloquent voice in favor of the claims of Upper Canada. But facts, reasoning, justice, pleaded in vain. The Lower Canada majority, to a man, voted down Mr. Macdougall’s proposition; but he was supported by forty-two of the representatives of Upper Canada. Mr. Cartier, this session, failed again to see that the headlong voting of his followers was paralyzing the constitution which, in their common political blindness, they fancied they were perpetuating. But the day of his supremacy was drawing to a close. His colleague, the Hon. John A. Macdonald, brought forward a measure intended to increase the efficiency of the militia. It was based on the suggestions of a special commission, amongst whose members were Mr. Cartier and Mr. Macdonald. The commissioners recommended that an active force of 50,000 men should submit to a drill extending over twenty-eight days in each year; and that a reserve of an equal number should be embodied. The opposition at once began to question the ministry. The Hon. Mr. Galt, the minister of finance, informed them that he would ask for $850,000 to set the new scheme in operation. After this outlay, the annual expenditure would be about $500,000. The French Canadian constituencies took the alarm. They dreaded a conscription which would every year take away so many thousands of needed workers from their homes and farms. They raised their voices against the enormous increase of the provincial liabilities which this new scheme would necessitate. Some of the friends of the government sought in vain to induce them to modify the measure. They defied a vote. On the second reading the vote was taken. The government was beaten by 61 to 54. Mr. Macdonald was supported by a majority of seven votes from Upper Canada; but Mr. Cartier was left in a minority of thirteen. His political power was shattered. On the 21st of May, 1862, he tendered his resignation. The Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald, at the invitation of Lord Monck, succeeded in forming a cabinet. How it was compelled to resign, and how successive cabinets were subjected to a similar ordeal; how the scheme of Confederation was matured, as the only way out of the dead-lock, it will be the province of other sketches to detail. At present, our concern is with Mr. Cartier alone. To those who can remember the political events of 1863 and 1865, it is needless to say that Mr. Cartier succeeded in forcing the scheme of Confederation on Lower Canada. He had managed to array on his side, amongst other influences, those of the Roman Catholic church. Against a scheme thus supported the efforts of the Liberals were directed in vain. The cry of Confederation swept Lower Canada like a hurricane. Under the new system of Confederation, Mr. Cartier was, on the 18th of July, 1867, appointed minister of defence for the Dominion. In August, 1868, he was created a baronet of the United Kingdom. He represented Montreal East in the Quebec Legislature from the union until the general election of 1871, when he was chosen as member for Beauharnois. He remained in the local parliament until the abolition of dual representation. To his credit be it said that the majority of the British population of Lower Canada looked up to him, when he was a member of the Quebec Assembly, as their special champion. This they did, to the setting aside of the timid and trimming representatives of their own nationality. It must be admitted that, from the era of Confederation, the political stature of Sir George Cartier began to grow less. Larger interests than those of Lower Canada usurped the public attention. His province had no grievances to bring into the Confederation. He was still her foremost man, but she needed him no longer as her champion. In the general election of 1872 he suffered the mortification of defeat in Montreal East. He sought political shelter in the distant Manitoba county of Provencher, a region wherein he had never set foot. He was in England when, in 1873, the Pacific Scandal burst, like a thunderclap, upon the people of Canada. That Sir George was deeply implicated in the degrading bargain was only too clear. He died in England, on the 20th of May, 1873. On the 13th of June following, his remains were accorded, in Montreal, the honor of a public funeral. Men of all ranks and nationalities made up the multitudes who escorted his remains to their last resting-place, in the cemetery on the Montreal mountain.