Taschereau, Hon. Jean Thomas, LL.D., Quebec, late Judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion of Canada, is a gentleman, the simple mention of whose name recalls a family famous in the political annals of Lower Canada, and which has given more eminent men to the church and bench than probably any other in the country. It has almost passed into a proverb among the French Canadians of the province of Quebec that “there is always a Taschereau on the bench.” As a matter of fact, three generations of the family have been represented on it, and five Taschereaus in all have exercised the highest judicial functions in the province or in the dominion. In the case of our distinguished subject not only was he himself a judge, but his father before him was a judge, his son after him is a judge of the Superior Court of the province, and another of his relatives, the Hon. Elzear Taschereau, is at present one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the Dominion. Still another member of the family, Hon. Andrée Taschereau, now deceased, was resident judge of the Superior Court in the Kamouraska district, and one of the most eminent jurists of his day. Others again have held the office of sheriff of the Beauce district; one is now a prominent member of the bar of that district, and was the representative of Beauce county in the Canadian House of Commons during the last parliament; and one, Lieutenant-Colonel Taschereau, holds one of the most important military commands in the Quebec district. But the judicial, political, and military distinction of the Taschereau family is altogether eclipsed by the lustre conferred upon it by the fact that the first Canadian wearer of the Roman purple was selected from among its members. His Eminence, Cardinal Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec, is a brother of our subject, and the “bright particular star” whose elevation to the exalted dignity of a Prince of the Roman Catholic church, has made the name of Taschereau famous all over the civilized world. The family is also one of the oldest and most distinguished in Lower Canada, its founder there being Thomas Jacques Taschereau, of Touraine, France, who was a son of Christopher Taschereau, King’s counsellor, director of the mint and treasurer of the city of Tours, and who came to New France towards the beginning of the last century, was appointed by the French viceroy as treasurer of the marine, and in 1736 obtained from the French Crown the grant of a valuable seigniory along the banks of the river Chaudière in Beauce, P.Q. Our subject’s father was the Hon. Jean Thomas Taschereau, senior, long a prominent member of the parliament of Lower Canada, and one of the advocates and champions of constitutional liberty in that province, who suffered imprisonment for their opinions in 1810. He was afterwards raised to the dignity of puisne judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench for his native province, and distinguished himself as an able and upright magistrate. Our subject was one of his sons by his wife, Maria Panet, daughter of the late Hon. Jean Panet, first speaker of the Lower Canadian House of Assembly (an office which he held for twenty consecutive years), and was born in the city of Quebec, on the 12th December, 1814. He was educated at the Quebec Seminary, where, like his brother, the present cardinal, he greatly distinguished himself in different branches, taking the leading prizes, especially for Latin, mathematics, etc. On the completion of his classical course, he studied law with two of the most eminent local practitioners of the day, Hon. Henry Black, afterwards judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec, and Andrew Stuart, Q.C., afterwards Her Majesty’s solicitor-general for Lower Canada, and was called to the bar of that province in 1836, subsequently following several law courses in Paris, France. On his return to Canada, he opened a law office in the city of Quebec, and for the next twenty years practised his profession with success and distinction. In 1855, he was honored by Laval University with the title of LL.D., and in September of the same year he was called by the government to act as assistant judge of the Superior Court in the place of one of the regular judges of that court, during the sitting of the special court formed under the act to abolish feudal rights and seignorial dues in Lower Canada. Twice afterwards, in 1858 and in 1860, in which last mentioned year he was also created a Q.C., was he honored by a similar mark of the government’s appreciation, and in 1865 he was definitely appointed to the bench as a puisne judge of the Superior Court, as successor to the Hon. A. N. Morin, deceased. On the 11th February, 1873, he mounted another rung of the judicial ladder, being appointed puisne judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec, and some two years later on, the 8th October, 1875, he was elevated to the still more exalted position of puisne judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion, which he retained until the 19th October, 1878, when he resigned on account of ill-health, and retired on his well-earned pension, after having served the public in all nineteen years on the bench as a judge. Our subject enjoyed to the utmost the confidence of the bar and the people, as well for his scrupulous and painstaking character, as for the almost invariable soundness of his decisions. It is needless to say that his religion is the Roman Catholic. In the spring of 1887, the Roman Pontiff, Leo XIII., conferred on him the decoration or cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great. He has been twice married—firstly, in 1840, to Louise Adele, daughter of the late Hon. Amable Dionne, M.L.C., who died in 1861; and lastly in 1862, to Marie Josephine, daughter of the late Hon. R. E. Caron, second lieutenant-governor of the province of Quebec, and a sister of Sir A. R. Caron, Dominion minister of militia. He is the father of twelve children, ten of whom survive. His eldest son, Hon. Henri Thomas Taschereau, formerly Liberal M.P. for Montmagny, has been a judge of the Superior Court for the province of Quebec since 1878; and another son, by his second union, is now a rising member of the Quebec bar.
Morin, Eusebe, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec province, was born on the 14th of July, 1853. He is the son of François Morin, merchant, and Marguerite Maheux. At the age of ten years he entered the St. Hyacinthe Seminary, which he left after taking a classical course of education. At the age of sixteen years he entered as clerk with L. V. Sicotte, dry goods merchant, but after spending one year in this establishment he left, and entered into partnership with Mr. Lamoureux, and traded under the firm name of Lamoureux & Morin for about fifteen months, when he bought his partner out, and assumed the business himself. When he entered into this business, a friend lent him $800 to start with, and this money he honorably paid with interest about a year after he had received it. He continued alone in business until he was twenty-three years of age, in the meantime becoming the first merchant in St. Hyacinthe, in his line, thus proving what can be done by close attention to business. After this, and by the time he had reached his twenty-seventh year, he had established small wholesale and retail houses, trading under the various names of Morin & Lamothe, Morin & Dion, Morin & Robitaille, Morin & Brodeur, both in the city of St. Hyacinthe and the neighboring country. Being of delicate health, he was almost given up by the doctors, and was obliged to liquidate the firms in order to proceed to Europe for the benefit of his health. After an extensive tour through England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy, he returned to Canada with a large and varied assortment of European goods, and was thus enabled to re-establish his trade on a sound and more extensive basis than ever, creating the following firms:—Morin & Co., in the liquor trade; Morin & Laline, general store; Morin & Bergeron, dry goods, all in St. Hyacinthe, with a capital of $200,000, he being principal partner in all the above establishments. When thirty-two years of age, becoming tired of the retail trade, he sold to his partners his interest in all the stores he had established, with the object of embarking in real estate transactions, and in this he has proved equally successful. He has built one of the finest private residences in the city of St. Hyacinthe, and finds himself, at the age of thirty-three, the most important property owner in the county of St. Hyacinthe. He enjoys a good reputation, and his numerous partners and friends have reason to be thankful to him for his aid at various times. The city of St. Hyacinthe is also indebted to him for the erection of numerous blocks of magnificent stores, and several private residences. Although Mr. Morin is yet comparatively young, he is exceedingly popular in his district, and has been several times requested to enter public life, but has invariably declined, on the ground that he could be of greater use to his friends and the country at large, in promoting private and public enterprises. He is looked upon as the Vanderbilt of St. Hyacinthe.
MacDowall, Day Hort, Prince Albert, M.P. for Saskatchewan, North-West Territory, was born in 1850, at Carruth House, Renfrewshire, Scotland. He is the second son of Henry MacDowall, of Garthland, Renfrewshire, Scotland,vide“Nesbitt’s Heraldry.” Mr. MacDowall was educated at Windlesham, Surrey, England, and Trinity College, Glenalmond, Scotland. He was a captain in the Renfrewshire Rifle Volunteers from 1872 to 1879. He accompanied Gen. Middleton’s force through the Northwest rebellion of 1885, and took charge of the party dispatched by the general through the rebel district from Humboldt to Prince Albert. He was a member of the North-West Council for the district of Lorne, from June, 1883, to October, 1885; and was returned to Parliament, as the member for Saskatchewan, at the general election in 1887. He is a Conservative in politics. He was married August 12th, 1884, to Alice Maude Blanchard, daughter of Charles Blanchard, Truro, N.S. He is a member of the Manitoba Club, Winnipeg; Wanderers’ Club, Pall Mall, London, Eng., and Rideau Club, Ottawa, Ont.
Prévost, Oscar A., Brevet-Major, (late of the regiment Canadian artillery, then A and B batteries, permanent artillery), Quebec, was born in Montreal on the 9th of May, 1845. His father, Amable C. Prévost, was a descendant of an old French family of Anjou, (Prévost de la Boutèlière). He was a merchant of Montreal, very successful in business, leaving an estate of over half a million dollars. He died in February, 1872. His mother, Rosalind E. Bernard, was born in Montreal, educated at Notre Dame congregation, and was married to Amable C. Prévost, March, 1838. The subject of this sketch was educated at St. Mary’s College, Montreal, taking a classical course, including mathematics and natural philosophy; he afterwards studied law; was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada in October, 1866, and practised his profession until 1870. He joined, as lieutenant, the 4th battalion in the year 1865; served on the frontier during the Fenian raid of 1866; was transferred in 1870 to the Quebec rifle regiment of the North-West expeditionary force under Colonel (now General, Sir) Garnet Wolseley; remained stationed in the North-West till February, 1872, being transferred in July, 1872, to the School of Gunnery, Quebec, and gazetted to B battery as lieutenant with rank of captain; was adjutant of the School of Gunnery B battery, August, 1873, till February, 1880. He went to Woolwich, England, for a special course in the Royal Arsenal, and on his return was appointed superintendent of the government cartridge factory at Quebec, and still holds that appointment. In 1882 he was sent by the minister of militia and defence, Sir A. P. Caron, to England to purchase machinery required for a small ammunition factory to be erected in the government buildings in Quebec. The plans, specifications, alterations to buildings, placing machinery, including boilers and steam engines, and putting the whole plant in working order, was done under his immediate supervision, bringing forth his ability as a practical engineer, and his scientific attainments. This factory has now been at work since 1883. It produced 2,000,000 rounds of ball ammunition, in three months, during the North-West rebellion of 1885, and now supplies the whole Dominion with service ammunition. It can give employment to four hundred hands. He submitted to a board of artillery officers in September, 1886, a new projectile for light and heavy rifled guns, which increased the range and accuracy of guns in a remarkable degree. A foundry, in connection with the cartridge factory, was erected for the manufacture of these projectiles, in July, 1887, and the work now goes on daily. Thus two entirely novel industries have been started in Canada, and the military efficiency of the Dominion increased. In 1876 he travelled through France, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Germany, being authorized to visit the imperial arsenal at Vienna, and obtain information with regard to the new field ordnance and carriages at that time introduced into the Austrian service. Major Prévost was married on 25th May, 1874, to Louisa J., daughter of Hon. Juschereau Duchesnay, of Quebec, ex-senator for the division of Lassale, province of Quebec; seigneur of the seigniories of Fossambault and Gaudarville. Hon. Mr. Duchesnay’s father commanded a company ofVoltigeursunder Colonel de Salaberry, his cousin, at the victorious battle of Chateauguay, in 1812. The Juschereau Duchesnay family were connected to Robert Giffard, first seigneur of Beauport, near Quebec, to whom this seigniory had been granted in 1635 by the “Compagnie de la Nouvelle France,” under authority of the French King. The Duchesnays inherited this seigniory in 1668, and they owned it for over two hundred years.
Champlain, Samuel de.—Standing on the summit of one of the rocky eminences at the mouth of the Saguenay, and looking back through the haze of two hundred and eighty-five years, we may descry two small sailing craft slowly making their way up the majestic stream which Jacques Cartier, sixty-eight years before, christened in honor of St. Lawrence. The vessels are French build, and have evidently just arrived from France. They are of very diminutive size for an ocean voyage, but are manned by hardy Breton mariners for whom the tempestuous Atlantic has no terrors. They are commanded by an enterprising merchant-sailor of St. Malo, who is desirous of pushing his fortunes by means of the fur trade, and who, with that end in view, has already more than once navigated the St. Lawrence as far westward as the mouth of the Saguenay. His name is Pontgravé. Like other French adventurers of his time, he is a brave and energetic man, ready to do, to dare, and, if need be, to suffer; but his primary object in life is to amass wealth, and to effect this object he is not over-scrupulous as to the means employed. On this occasion he has come over with instructions from Henry IV., King of France, to explore the St. Lawrence, to ascertain how far from its mouth navigation is practicable, and to make a survey of the country on its banks. He is accompanied on the expedition by a man of widely different mould; a man who is worth a thousand of such sordid, huckstering spirits; a man who unites with the courage and energy of a soldier a high sense of personal honor and a singleness of heart worthy of the Chevalier Bayard himself. To these qualities are added an absorbing passion for colonization, and a piety and zeal which would not misbecome a Jesuit missionary. He is poor, but what the poet calls “the jingling of the guinea” has no charms for him. Let others consume their souls in heaping up riches, in chaffering with the Indians for the skins of wild beasts, and in selling the same to the affluent traders in France. It is his ambition to rear thefleur-de-lisin the remote wilderness of the New World, and to evangelize the savage hordes by whom that world is peopled. The latter object is the most dear to his heart of all, and he has already recorded his belief that the salvation of one soul is of more importance than the founding of an empire. After such an exordium it is scarcely necessary to inform the student of history that the name of Pontgravé’s ally is Samuel De Champlain. He had already figured somewhat conspicuously in his country’s annals, but his future achievements were destined to outshine the events of his previous career, and to gain for him the merited title of “Father of New France.” He was born some time in the year 1567, at Brouage, a small seaport town in the province of Saintonge, on the west coast of France. Part of his youth was spent in the naval service, and during the wars of the League he fought on the side of the King, who awarded him a small pension and attached him to his own person. But Champlain was of too adventurous a turn of mind to feel at home in the confined atmosphere of a royal court, and soon languished for change of scene. Erelong he obtained command of a vessel bound for the West Indies, where he remained more than two years. During that time he distinguished himself as a brave and efficient officer. He became known as one whose nature partook largely of the romantic element, but who, nevertheless, had ever an eye to the practical. Several important engineering projects seem to have engaged his attention during his sojourn in the West Indies. Prominent among these was the project of constructing a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama, but the scheme was not encouraged, and ultimately fell to the ground. Upon his return to France he again dangled about the court for a few months, by which time he had once more become heartily weary of a life of inaction. With the accession of Henry IV. to the French throne the long religious wars which had so long distracted the country came to an end, and the attention of the government began to be directed to the colonization of New France—a scheme which had never been wholly abandoned but which had remained in abeyance since the failure of the expedition undertaken by the brothers Roberval, more than half a century before. Several new attempts were made at this time, none of which were very successful. The fur trade, however, held out great inducements to private enterprise, and stimulated the cupidity of the merchants of Dieppe, Rouen and St. Malo. In the heart of one of them something nobler than cupidity was aroused. In 1603, M. De Chastes, governor of Dieppe, obtained a patent from the King conferring upon him and several of his associates a monopoly of the fur trade of New France. To M. De Chastes the acquisition of wealth—of which he already had enough, and to spare—was a matter of secondary importance, but he hoped to make his patent the means of extending the French empire into the unknown regions of the far West. The patent was granted soon after Champlain’s return from the West Indies, and just as the pleasures of the court were beginning to pall upon him. He had served under De Chastes during the latter years of the war of the League, and the governor was no stranger to the young man’s skill, energy, and incorruptible integrity. De Chastes urged him to join the expedition, which was precisely of a kind to find favor in the eyes of an ardent adventurer like Champlain. The King’s consent having been obtained, he joined the expedition under Pontgravé, and sailed for the mouth of the St. Lawrence on the 15th of March, 1603. The expedition, as we have seen, was merely preliminary to more specific and extended operations. The ocean voyage, which was a tempestuous one, occupied more than two months, and they did not reach the St. Lawrence until the latter end of May. They sailed up as far as Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, where a little trading-post had been established four years before by Pontgravé and Chauvin. Here they cast anchor, and a fleet of canoes filled with wondering natives gathered round their little barques to sell peltries, and (unconsciously) to sit for Champlain for their portraits. After a short stay at Tadousac the leaders of the expedition, accompanied by several of the crew, embarked in a batteau and proceeded up the river past deserted Stadacona to the site of the Indian village of Hochelaga, discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1535. The village so graphically described by that navigator had ceased to exist, and the tribe which had inhabited it at the time of his visit had given place to a few Algonquin Indians. Our adventurers essayed to ascend the river still farther, but found it impossible to make headway against the rapids of St. Louis, which had formerly presented an insuperable barrier to Cartier’s westward progress. Then they retraced their course down the river to Tadousac, re-embarked on board their vessels, and made all sail for France. When they arrived there they found that their patron, De Chastes, had died during their absence, and that his company had been dissolved. Very soon afterwards, however, the scheme of colonization was taken up by the Sieur, de Monts, who entered into engagements with Champlain for another voyage to the New World. De Monts and Champlain set sail on the 7th of March, 1604, with a large expedition, and in due course reached the shores of Nova Scotia, then called Acadie. After an absence of three years, during which Champlain explored the coast as far southward as Cape Cod, the expedition returned to France. A good deal had been learned as to the topographical features of the country lying near the coast, but little had been done in the way of actual colonization. The next expedition was productive of greater results. De Monts, at Champlain’s instigation, resolved to found a settlement on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Two vessels were fitted up at his expense and placed under Champlain’s command, with Pontgravé as lieutenant of the expedition, which put to sea in the month of April, 1608, and reached the mouth of the Saguenay early in June. Pontgravé began a series of trading operations with the Indians at Tadousac, while Champlain proceeded up the river to fix upon an advantageous site for the projected settlement. This site he found at the confluence of the St. Charles with the St. Lawrence, near the place where Jacques Cartier had spent the winter of 1535-6. Tradition tells us that when Cartier’s sailors beheld the adjacent promontory of Cape Diamond they exclaimed, “Quel bec!”—(“What a beak!”)—which exclamation led to the place being calledQuebec. The most probable derivation of the name, however, is the Indian wordkebec, signifying a strait, which might well have been applied by the natives to the narrowing of the river at this place. Whatever may be the origin of the name, here it was that Champlain, on the 3rd of July, 1608, founded his settlement, and Quebec was the name which he bestowed upon it. This was the first permanent settlement of Europeans on the American continent, with the exception of those at St. Augustine, in Florida, and Jamestown, in Virginia. Champlain’s first attempts at settlement, as might be expected, were of a very primitive character. He erected rude barracks, and cleared a few small patches of ground adjacent thereto, which he sowed with wheat and rye. Perceiving that the fur trade might be turned to good account in promoting the settlement of the country, he bent his energies to its development. He had scarcely settled his little colony in its new home ere he began to experience the perils of his quasi-regal position. Notwithstanding the patent of monopoly held by his patron, on the faith of which his colonization scheme had been projected, the rights conferred by it began to be infringed by certain traders who came over from France and instituted a system of traffic with the natives. Finding the traffic exceedingly profitable, these traders erelong held out inducements to some of Champlain’s followers. A conspiracy was formed against him, and he narrowly escaped assassination. Fortunately, one of the traitors was seized by remorse, and revealed the plot before it had been fully carried out. The chief conspirator was hanged, and his accomplices were sent over to France, where they expiated their crime at the galleys. Having thus promptly suppressed the first insurrection within his dominions, Champlain prepared himself for the rigours of a Canadian winter. An embankment was formed above the reach of the tide, and a stock of provisions was laid in sufficient for the support of the settlement until spring. The colony, inclusive of Champlain himself, consisted of twenty-nine persons. Notwithstanding all precautions, the scurvy broke out among them during the winter. Champlain, who was endowed with a vigorous constitution, escaped the pest, but before the advent of spring the little colony was reduced to only nine persons. The sovereign remedy which Cartier had found so efficacious in a similar emergency was not to be obtained. That remedy was a decoction prepared by the Indians from a tree which they calledAuneda—believed to have been a species of spruce—but the natives of Champlain’s day knew nothing of the remedy, from which he concluded that the tribe which had employed it on behalf of Cartier and his men had been exterminated by their enemies. With spring, succours and fresh immigrants arrived from France, and new vitality was imported into the little colony. Soon after this time, Champlain committed the most impolitic act of his life. The Hurons, Algonquins, and other tribes of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, resolved upon taking the war-path against their enemies, the Iroquois, or Five Nations—the boldest, fiercest, and most powerful confederacy known to Indian history. Champlain, ever since his arrival in the country, had done his utmost to win the favor of the natives with whom he was brought more immediately into contact, and he deemed that by joining them in opposing the Iroquois, who were a standing menace to his colony, he would knit the Hurons and Algonquins to the side of the King of France by permanent and indissoluble ties. To some extent he was right, but he underestimated the strength of the foe, an alliance with whom would have been of more importance than an alliance with all the other Indian tribes of New France. Champlain cast in his lot with the Hurons and Algonquins, and accompanied them on their expedition against their enemies. By so doing he invoked the deadly animosity of the latter against the French for all time to come. He did not foresee that by this one stroke of policy he was paving the way for a subsequent alliance between the Iroquois and the English. On May 28th, 1609, in company with his Indian allies, he started on the expedition, the immediate results of which were so insignificant—the remote results of which were so momentous. The war-party embarked in canoes, ascended the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Richelieu—then called the River of the Iroquois—and thence up the latter stream to the lake which Champlain then beheld for the first time, and which until that day no European eye had ever looked upon. This picturesque sheet of water was thenceforward called after him, and in its name his own is still perpetuated. The party held on their course to the head waters of the lake, near to which several Iroquois villages were situated. The enemy’s scouts received the intelligence of the approach of the invaders, and advanced to repel them. The opposing forces met in the forest on the south-western shore, not far from Crown Point, on the morning of the 30th of July. The Iroquois, two hundred in number, advanced to the onset. “Among them,” says Mr. Parkman, “could be seen several chiefs, conspicuous by their tall plumes. Some bore shields of wood and hide, and some were covered with a kind of armour made of tough twigs, interlaced with a vegetable fibre, supposed by Champlain to be cotton. The allies, growing anxious, called with loud cries for their champion, and opened their ranks that he might pass to the front. He did so, and advancing before his red companions-in-arms stood revealed to the astonished gaze of the Iroquois, who, beholding the warlike apparition in their path, stared in mute amazement. But his arquebuse was levelled; the report startled the woods, a chief fell dead, and another by his side rolled among the bushes. Then there arose from the allies a yell which, says Champlain, would have drowned a thunder-clap, and the forest was full of whizzing arrows. For a moment the Iroquois stood firm, and sent back their arrows lustily; but when another and another gunshot came from the thickets on their flank they broke and fled in uncontrollable terror. Swifter than hounds, the allies tore through the bushes in pursuit. Some of the Iroquois were killed, more were taken. Camp, canoes, provisions, all were abandoned, and many weapons flung down in the panic fight. The arquebuse had done its work. The victory was complete.” The victorious allies, much to the disgust of Champlain, tortured their prisoners in the most barbarous fashion, and returned to Quebec, taking with them fifty Iroquois scalps. Thus was the first Indian blood shed by the white man in Canada. The man who shed it was a European and a Christian, who had not even the excuse of provocation. This is a matter worth bearing in mind when we read of the frightful atrocities committed by the Iroquois upon the whites in after years. Champlain’s conduct on this occasion seems incapable of defence, and it was certainly a very grave error, considered simply as an act of policy. The error was bitterly and fiercely avenged, and for every Indian who fell on the morning of that 30th of July, in this, the first battle fought on Canadian soil between natives and Europeans, a ten-fold penalty was exacted. “Thus did New France rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of the Five Nations. Here was the beginning, in some measure doubtless the cause, of a long succession of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and flame to generations yet unborn. Champlain had invaded the tiger’s den; and now, in smothered fury the patient savage would lie biding his day of blood.” Six weeks after the performance of this exploit, Champlain, accompanied by Pontgravé, returned to France. Upon his arrival at court he found De Monts there, trying to secure a renewal of his patent of monopoly, which had been revoked in consequence of loud complaints on the part of other French merchants who were desirous of participating in the profits arising from the fur trade. His efforts to obtain a renewal proving unsuccessful, De Monts determined to carry on his scheme of colonization unaided by royal patronage. Allying himself with some affluent merchants of Rochelle, he fitted out another expedition, and once more despatched Champlain to the New World. Champlain, upon his arrival at Tadousac, found his former Indian allies preparing for another descent upon the Iroquois, in which undertaking he again joined them; the inducement this time being a promise on the part of the Indians to pilot him up the great streams leading from the interior, whereby he hoped to discover a passage to the North Sea, and thence to China and the Indies. In this second expedition he was less successful than in the former one. The opposing forces met near the confluence of the Richelieu and St. Lawrence rivers, and though Champlain’s allies were ultimately victorious, they sustained a heavy loss, and he himself was wounded in the neck by an arrow. After the battle, the torture-fires were lighted, as was usual on such occasions, and Champlain for the first time was an eye-witness to the horrors of cannibalism. He soon afterwards began his preparations for an expedition up the Ottawa, but just as he was about to start on the journey, a ship arrived from France with intelligence that King Henry had fallen a victim to the dagger of Ravaillac. The accession of a new sovereign to the French throne might materially affect De Monts’ ability to continue his scheme, and Champlain once more set sail for France to confer with his patron. The late king, while deeming it impolitic to continue the monopoly in De Monts’ favor, had always countenanced the latter’s colonization schemes in New France; but upon Champlain’s arrival he found that with the death of Henry IV. De Monts’ court influence had ceased, and that his western scheme must stand or fall on its own merits. Champlain, in order to retrieve his patron’s fortunes as far as might be, again returned to Canada in the following spring, resolved to build a trading post far up the St. Lawrence, where it would be easily accessible to the Indian hunters on the Ottawa. The spot selected was near the site of the former village of Hochelaga, near the confluence of the two great rivers of Canada. The post was built on the site now occupied by the hospital of the Grey Nuns of Montreal, and even before its erection was completed a horde of rival French traders appeared on the scene. This drove Champlain once more back to France, but he soon found that the ardor of De Monts for colonization had cooled, and that he was not disposed to concern himself further in the enterprise. Champlain, being thus left to his own resources, determined to seek another patron, and succeeded in enlisting the sympathy of the Count de Soissons, who obtained the appointment of lieutenant-general of New France, and invested Champlain with the functions of that office as his deputy. The count did not long survive, but Henry de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, succeeded to his privileges, and continued Champlain in his high office. In the spring of 1613 Champlain again betook himself to Canada, and arrived at Quebec early in May. Before the end of the month he started on his long deferred tour of western exploration. Taking with him two canoes, containing an Indian and four Frenchmen, he ascended the Ottawa in the hope of reaching China and Japan by way of Hudson’s Bay, which had been discovered by Hendrick Hudson only three years before. In undertaking this journey Champlain had been misled by a French impostor called Nicholas Vignan, who professed to have explored the route far inland beyond the head waters of the Ottawa, which river, he averred, had its source in a lake connected with the North Sea. The enthusiastic explorer, relying upon the good faith of Vignan, proceeded westward to beyond Lake Coulange, and after a tedious and perilous voyage, stopped to confer with Tessouat, an Indian chief, whose tribe inhabited that remote region. This potentate, upon being apprised of the object of their journey, undeceived Champlain as to Vignan’s character for veracity, and satisfied him that the Frenchman had never passed further west than Tessouat’s own dominions. Vignan, after a good deal of prevarication, confessed that his story was false, and that what the Indian Chief had stated was a simple fact. Champlain, weary and disgusted, abandoned his exploration, and returned to Quebec, leaving Vignan with the Indians in the wilderness of the Upper Ottawa. His next visit to France, which took place during the summer of the same year, was fraught with important results to the colony. A new company was formed under the auspices of the Prince of Condé, and a scheme was laid for the propagation of the gospel among the Indians by means of Recollet missionaries to be sent out from France for the purpose. These, who were the first priests who settled in Canada, came out with Champlain in May, 1615. A province was assigned to each of them, and they at once entered upon the duties of their respective mission. One of them settled among the Montagnais, near the mouth of the Saguenay; two of them remained at Quebec; and the fourth, whose name was Le Caron, betook himself to the far western wilds. Champlain then entered upon a more extended tour of westward exploration than any he had hitherto undertaken. Accompanied by an interpreter and a number of Algonquins as guides, he again ascended the Ottawa, passed the Isle of Allumettes, and thence to Lake Nipissing. After a short stay here he continued his journey, and descended the stream since known as French River, into the inlet of Lake Huron, now called Georgian Bay. Paddling southward, past the innumerable islands on the eastern coast of the bay, he landed near the present site of Penetanguishene, and thence followed an Indian trail leading through the ancient country of the Hurons, now forming the northern part of the county of Simcoe, and the north-eastern part of the county of Grey. This country contained seventeen or eighteen villages, and a population, including women and children, of about twenty thousand. One of the villages visited by Champlain, called Cahiague, occupied a site near the present town of Orillia. At another village, called Carhagouha, some distance farther west, the explorer found the Recollet friar Le Caron, who had accompanied him from France, only a few months before, as above mentioned. And here, on the 12th of August, 1615, Le Caron celebrated, in Champlain’s presence, the first mass ever heard in the wilderness of western Canada. After spending some time in the Huron country, Champlain accompanied the natives on an expedition against their hereditary foes, the Iroquois, whose domain occupied what is now the central and western part of the State of New York. Crossing Lake Couchiching, and coasting down the north-eastern shore of Lake Simcoe, they made their way across country to the Bay of Quinté, thence into Lake Ontario, and thence into the enemy’s country. Having landed, they concealed their canoes in the woods and marched inland. On the 10th of October, they came to a Seneca[7]village, on or near a lake which was probably Lake Canandaigua. The Hurons attacked the village, but were repulsed by the fierce Iroquois, Champlain himself being several times wounded in the assault. The invading war-party then retreated and abandoned the campaign, placing their wounded in the centre, while armed warriors guarded the front and rear, returning to where they had hidden their canoes, in which they embarked and made the best of their way back across Lake Ontario, where the party broke up. The Hurons had promised Champlain that if he would accompany them on their expedition against the Iroquois, they would afterwards furnish him with an escort back to Quebec. This promise they now declined to make good. Champlain’s prestige as an invincible champion was gone, and, wounded and dispirited, he was compelled to accompany them back to their country near Lake Simcoe, where he spent the winter in the lodge of Durantal, one of their chiefs. Upon his return to Quebec in the following year, he was welcomed as one risen from the dead. Hitherto, Champlain’s love of adventure had led him to devote more attention to exploration than to the consolidation of his power in New France. He determined to change his policy in this respect, and crossed over to France to induce a larger emigration. In July, 1620, he returned with Madame de Champlain, who was received with great demonstrations of respect and affection by the Indians upon her arrival at Quebec. Champlain found that the colony had rather retrograded than advanced during his absence, and for some time after his return various causes contributed to retard its prosperity. At the end of the year, 1621,[8]the European population of New France numbered only forty-eight persons. Rival trading companies continued to fight for the supremacy in the colony, and any man less patient and persevering than the Father of New France, would have abandoned his schemes in despair. This untoward state of things continued until 1627, when an association, known to history by the name of “The Company of the One Hundred Associates,” was formed under the patronage of the great Cardinal Richelieu. The association was invested with the vice-royalty of New France and Florida, together with very extensive auxiliary privileges, including a monopoly of the fur trade, the right to confer titles and appoint judges, and generally to carry on the government of the colony. In return for these truly vice-regal privileges the company undertook to send out a large number of colonists, and to provide them with the necessaries of life for a term of three years, after which land enough for their support and grain wherewith to plant it was to be given them. Champlain himself was appointed governor. This great company was scarcely organized before war broke out between France and England. The English resolved upon the conquest of Canada, and sent out a fleet to the St. Lawrence, under the command of Sir David Kertk. The fleet having arrived before Quebec, its commander demanded from Champlain a surrender of the place, and as the governor’s supply of food and ammunition was too small to enable him to sustain a siege, he signed a capitulation and surrendered. He then hastened to France, where he influenced the cabinet to stipulate for the restoration of Canada to the French Crown, in the articles of peace which were shortly afterwards negotiated between the two powers. In 1632, this restoration was effected, and next year Champlain again returned in the capacity of governor. From this time forward he strove to promote the prosperity of the colony by every means in his power. Among the means whereby he zealously strove to effect this object, was the establishment of Jesuit missions for the conversion of the Indians. Among other missions so established was that in the far western Huron country, around which theRelations des Jesuiteshave cast such a halo of romance. The Father of New France did not live to gather much fruit from the crop which he had sown. His life of incessant fatigue at last proved too much even for his vigorous frame. After an illness which lasted for ten weeks, he died on Christmas Day, 1635, at the age of sixty-eight. His beautiful young wife, who had shared his exile for four years, returned to France. But few particulars have been preserved with reference to Madame de Champlain’s life. Her maiden name was Helen Boullé, and she was the sister of a friend and fellow-navigator of her husband’s. After her return to France she renounced the Protestant faith, and became a devout Roman Catholic. Having resolved upon adopting a conventual life, she became an Ursuline nun, under the name of Mother Helen de St. Augustine. She founded a convent at Meaux, in which she immured herself during the remainder of her life. She survived her husband nearly nineteen years, and died on the 20th of December, 1654, at the age of fifty-six. There was no issue of the marriage, and the patrimony descended to a cousin of the founder of New France. Champlain’s body was interred in the vaults of a little Recollet Church in the Lower Town, Quebec city. This church was subsequently burned to the ground, and its very site was not certainly known until recent times. In the year 1867, some workmen were employed in laying water-pipes beneath the flight of stairs called “Breakneck Steps,” leading from Mountain Hill to Little Champlain street. Under a grating at the foot of the steps, they discovered the vaults of the old Recollet Church, with the remains of the Father of New France enclosed.
[7]The Senecas were one of the Five Nations, composing the redoubtable Iroquois Confederacy. The Tuscaroras joined the League in 1715, and it is subsequently known in history as the “Six Nations.”
[7]
The Senecas were one of the Five Nations, composing the redoubtable Iroquois Confederacy. The Tuscaroras joined the League in 1715, and it is subsequently known in history as the “Six Nations.”
[8]In this year, Eustache, son of Abraham and Margaret Martin, the first child of European parentage born in Canada, was born at Quebec.
[8]
In this year, Eustache, son of Abraham and Margaret Martin, the first child of European parentage born in Canada, was born at Quebec.
Lacerte, Elie, M.D., Three Rivers, was born on the 15th November, 1821, at Yamachiche, county of St. Maurice, district of Three Rivers, province of Quebec. He is a son of Pierre Lacerte, farmer, of the same place, who was born 11th September, 1792, and died 29th April, 1885, in the suburb of Three Rivers. His grandfather emigrated from the city of Angers, France, in 1671. In 1812 this gentleman enlisted as lieutenant in the Canadian militia, under the late Lieut.-Colonel C. B. A. Gugy, and served up to 1815. On his return he married Louise Blais, of Yamachiche. After a classical course at Nicolet College, Elie Lacerte, the subject of our sketch, began the study of medicine at Three Rivers, and in 1843 went to continue them at the University of Harvard, Cambridge, Mass., where he graduated doctor of medicine on the 5th of March, 1845. He practised as a physician in Boston for some time, then returning to Yamachiche on the 19th November, 1847, where he continued to practice. On the 26th June, 1853, he was appointed justice of the peace for the district of Three Rivers; and in March, 1857, was appointed as postmaster of his town. In 1864 the Post-Office department entrusted him with the conveyance of mails from Montreal to Three Rivers, and this service he faithfully performed up to 1868, when he was elected member of the House of Commons for the county of St. Maurice. In 1872 he was re-elected by acclamation, and in the following session he presented the address in answer to the speech from the throne, but in 1874 he was defeated on the Pacific Scandal question. In 1875 he was elected to a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, and he sat in this house until the 2nd of March, 1878, when the De Boucherville cabinet was dismissed by Lieut.-Gov. Le Tellier. He then withdrew from active public life, without, however, becoming indifferent to the success of the Liberal-Conservative party to which he always belonged. On the 13th October, 1886, he accepted the agency of the lands and forests of the Crown, in the district of St. Maurice, and that position he still holds. Some years ago Dr. Lacerte commenced a mercantile business, and succeeded very well, but growing tired of this kind of life, in 1884 he handed the business over to one of his sons, who has successfully conducted it ever since. In religion the doctor is a Roman Catholic. He married, 1848, Louise Lamy, and by her has had eleven children, six sons and five daughters. Four sons are still living, and the eldest, Arthur, succeeded his father in 1868 as postmaster.
Kerr, William Warren Hastings, Q.C., Montreal, was born at Three Rivers, in November, 1826. He was the son of James Hastings Kerr, a respected land agent of Quebec. His grandfather, a distinguished English barrister, settled at Quebec in 1797, and was appointed by Imperial commission as judge of the Vice Admiralty Court at Quebec, on the 19th August, 1797; appointed judge of the King’s Bench, in 1807; called to the Executive Council in 1812; to the Legislative Council in 1821, and later on was speaker of the Legislative Council. Mr. Kerr received his early education at Lundy’s College, Quebec, and ultimately he proceeded to Queen’s College, Kingston, and at both institutions his love of legal studies was made conspicuous. He completed his legal studies at Quebec, first with Mr. (later on judge) Jean Chabot, and lastly with Mr. (now Sir) Andrew Stuart, chief justice, S.C. On the 1st May, 1854, he entered into partnership at Quebec with J. M. Le Moine, under the style of Kerr & Le Moine. In May, 1858, this partnership having been dissolved, he entered into partnership with Archibald Campbell, an old friend and fellow student. After practising with success for a few years at Quebec, under the well remembered style of Campbell & Kerr, he sought in Montreal a wider field for his splendid talents. The silk gown of a Queen’s counsel was conferred upon him in 1873, and McGill University granted him the degree of D.C.L. in the same year. He was dean of the Faculty of Law in McGill University and professor of International Law. He was electedbâtonnierof the bar in 1878. In politics, Mr. Kerr was always of a markedly independent turn of mind, and it is generally conceded that if he had taken a more decided position in the political world he would have been elevated to the bench, which he would have ornamented. Twice he unsuccessfully contested parliamentary seats, once running against Sir John Rose in Huntingdon, in the first parliament; and secondly against the late H. A. Nelson for the Quebec legislature. Mr. Kerr’s position at the Montreal bar was one of the very foremost. In every branch of law, civil, criminal, international and constitutional, his opinion was generally regarded as final. Among the prominent trials in which he has figured may be noted the case of the St. Albans’ raiders and the Consolidated Bank; in the latter he defended the directors and secured their final acquittal. His contention as to the status of lieutenant-governors was accepted as final in the famous Letellier case. The news of his death on 12th February, 1888, was received with the deepest regret by hisconfrèresat the bar, and the courts were adjourned out of respect to his memory, in order that the members of the bar might attend his funeral in a body. Hon. Mr. Justice Davidson, at the opening of the Superior Court, in speaking of the death of Mr. Kerr, said: “During the years that I led in the Crown business of this district, there were few great cases in which he was not retained. As a consequence, I had many opportunities of being impressed with his deep knowledge of the principles and intricacies of criminal jurisprudence, his fertility of resource and his subtle powers as a cross examiner. On the civil side of the courts he also occupied a notable position. It is not often that the same mind achieves so large a mastery over two so dissimilar systems of laws. During my earlier practice I often turned to him for counsel, and it was given with a kindliness and sympathy which I have never forgotten. In later years our relations went much beyond those of an ordinary professional intimacy. Such a connection cannot end forever without personal sorrow, compelling the utterance of this more than formal eulogium to his attainments and character. And not only is the Queen’s counsel dead, a husband and father of rarely sweet and affectionate qualities is also to be buried out of our sight.” He was married to a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Arnold, by whom he had two children.
Sutherland, Hugh McKay, Winnipeg, ex-M.P. for Selkirk, Manitoba, President of the Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway Company, is the descendant of an old Sutherlandshire (Scotland) family, and was born in New London, P.E.I., on 22nd February, 1843. His parents removed with their family to Oxford county, Ont., where the subject of this sketch was educated. Mr. Sutherland was engaged in lumbering and contracting for a considerable period, but, though leading an active life, he found time to take part in politics, becoming a man of considerable prominence among the members of the Liberal party with which he was identified. In 1874 he was made superintendent of Public Works in the Northwest Territories for the Dominion government, a position for which his knowledge and executive ability well fitted him. During his absence he was nominated for the Provincial legislature of Ontario by the Liberals of East Simcoe in the general election of 1875. Though unable to attend to the elections he made a good run, but was not successful. In 1879 he settled permanently in Winnipeg, after having made it his headquarters during the four or five years he was in the service of the Dominion government, and has ever since been identified with the progress of Manitoba and the development of some of its most important resources. In 1882 he contested Selkirk in the Liberal interest, and was returned for that constituency to the House of Commons at Ottawa by a majority of about 450. In the general election of February, 1887, he was nominated to oppose W. B. Scarth for the city of Winnipeg, but was defeated by the narrow majority of eight. He was the principal promoter of the Hudson Bay Railway scheme, an enterprise which is on a par with the Suez Canal or the Canadian Pacific Railway in its possibilities of influence upon the trade of the world; and was chiefly instrumental in procuring a charter from the Dominion parliament, in 1880, incorporating the Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway Company, of which he has ever since been president. Through countless difficulties he has guided this, his greatest enterprise, and has succeeded in building already about forty miles of the road. Notwithstanding the apathy of the mass of Canadians and the active opposition of many great interests, Mr. Sutherland still has faith in the scheme, and feels satisfied it will attract capitalists. He hopes soon to have arrangements completed for continuing the line on to Hudson Bay, and the placing on the route to Britain of a fleet of steamers specially built for the trade. This done, the result must be the revolutionizing of the trade, not only of Manitoba, but of the whole Canadian and American North-West. In energy, tact and organizing ability Mr. Sutherland is preeminently the man to have charge of a gigantic undertaking of this kind. He has been twice married; first, on the 10th February, 1864, to Mary, daughter of Alex. Dickie, of Brant. This lady having died on 11th October, 1875, he married his second wife, Mary, only daughter of Hon. T. Banks, of Baltimore, U.S., on the 10th December, 1878.
Otter, Lieut.-Colonel Wm. Dillon, Toronto, was born near Clinton, Ontario, on the 3rd of December, 1843, and is of English descent. His parents were Alfred William Otter and Anna Dela Hooke. He received his education at the Grammar School, Goderich, and at the Model School and the Upper Canada College in Toronto. He joined the Victoria Rifles, Toronto (now F Company Queen’s Own), in October, 1861, and was promoted to a lieutenancy in the Queen’s Own Rifles in December, 1864. He served in that rank on the Niagara frontier during the winter of 1864-5, in the 2nd Administrative battalion. Appointed adjutant of the Queen’s Own in August, 1865, and was present throughout the Fenian raid of 1866, including the action at Limeridge. Promoted major in June, 1869, and went to England as second in command of the Wimbledon team in June, 1873. Promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel in June, 1874, and appointed to the command of the corps a year later. He commanded the regiment during the “pilgrimage riots,” Toronto, in the latter part of 1875, and also during the riots consequent upon the strike of the Grand Trunk engineers at Belleville, in January, 1877. In 1881 Colonel Otter compiled and published “The Guide,” a manual of military interior economy, etc., a book now extensively used in the present schools of military instruction and throughout the militia force. In 1883 he was appointed to the command of the Wimbledon team, and subsequently sent to Aldershot for three months to acquire information in the conduct of military schools. He received the appointment of commandant of the School of Infantry at Toronto, in December, 1883, and organized C company, Infantry School Corps, with the school of instruction attached thereto. During the Northwest rebellion of 1885, Colonel Otter commanded the centre or Battleford column, making therewith a forced march across the prairie from Saskatchewan Landing to Battleford, a distance of 190 miles, in five days and a half. He was in command of the successful reconnaisance against the Indian chief, Poundmaker, and in the action at Cut Knife Hill, which prevented that chief’s junction with Big Bear and their projected assistance to Riel. He afterwards, at the close of the rebellion, commanded the Turtle Lake column sent in pursuit of Big Bear. Appointed to the command of military district No. 2, in July, 1886, in conjunction with the charge of the Royal School of Infantry at Toronto. In religion the colonel is an adherent of the Church of England. He was married in October, 1865, to Mary, second daughter of the late Rev. James Porter, inspector of public schools, Toronto, and previously superintendent of education, New Brunswick.
Hart, John Semple, Bookseller and Stationer, Perth, Ontario, is a Scotchman by birth, having been born in Paisley, on the 15th July, 1833. His father, John Hart, is a native of the town in which his son was born; and his mother, Jean Mason Semple, was born in the city of London, England. The Hart family is a very old one—one of the name appearing in the records of the old Paisley Abbey, as master mason and builder, in the thirteenth century. Since then it has continuously occupied public positions of trust in that old borough town. Mr. Hart and family sailed from Glasgow for Canada on the 15th April, 1842, and arrived in Perth on 17th June, of the same year, after a fairly prosperous voyage across the Atlantic in the old style of sailing vessel that now belongs to a past generation. Mr. Hart, sen., only intended to stay in Perth a few days and then go on to Toronto—then only a large town, but the principal town of Upper Canada—but whilst here, he was persuaded to remain and make it his home. Perth at this time was an active town, with a population of about 800 inhabitants, but its progress was comparatively slow in consequence of its being inland from the St. Lawrence and off the Rideau canal route. All emigrants passed over these highways of travel at this time to Upper Canada, where new tracts of farming lands were opening up of fine quality and on easy terms of purchase. These cheap lands and the attractions of pioneer life drew not only the emigrants but the young and active men from the older settlements, and thus Perth and its surrounding country was made tributary to the settlement of the “Huron Tract,” as all Ontario has been lately to the great Northwest. The progress of the town was therefore not as rapid as its citizens wished; business was also in a very unsatisfactory state at this time; money as a medium of exchange was not unknown, but was a scarce commodity; barter or trade was the principal means of exchange in buying and selling, and in the stores of that day you could get anything required for the household use from a “needle to an anchor.” Times were hard, and rigid economy the rule, and all members of the family were expected to do what they could to help. John S., the subject of this sketch, being the eldest of the family, had to make himself generally useful, give his father a helping hand at his trade, and embrace every chance offered for attending school. Fortunately, however, for him, he had received a good grounding in educational matters in schools in his native town and in Glasgow before coming to Canada, and suffered less in this direction than many a young man before him. In 1853 he and his father opened a book and stationery store; with a small stock of goods, but enough to meet the wants of the community. Business prospered, and in 1857 they removed to their present store, one of the best in Perth. Here for the past thirty years Mr. Hart has been carrying on business, and by close attention to it, and studying the wants of his numerous customers, he has succeeded in building up a good, paying book and stationery business. Mr. Hart has taken an active interest in military affairs, and served in the ranks for several years under the old militia system, until he was appointed a lieutenant, and after a while he was further promoted to the rank of major in the sedentary militia. During theTrentexcitement he became an active member of the local drill association, which was formed for home protection at that time. During the Northwest rebellion in 1885, when it was decided to establish hospitals for the wounded and sick soldiers and to send trained nurses to manage them, Mr. Hart, on learning that one of the ladies of the town had volunteered and was accepted as a nurse, and that it was necessary to send additional medical appliances and stores to those provided by the government, at once took an active part in equipping the “Perth Ward,” and the generous response of his fellow-townsmen was afterwards attested to by many a poor fellow who benefited by these auxiliary stores. And, in this connection, it may also be said that after the death of young Lieut. Kippen, of Perth (who was killed at Batoche), when it was decided to erect a monument to his memory, Mr. Hart exerted himself in procuring subscriptions, and was an active member on the committee appointed to see that the wishes of the subscribers were carried out, and, as a result of their united efforts, the Kippen memorial monument now forms the most conspicuous of the many beautiful monuments in Elmwood Cemetery, Perth. In 1864, Mr. Hart was placed on the list of justices of the peace, but not being ambitious for public positions, he has always declined to serve in this capacity, as he has almost invariably done in municipal offices. He has been connected with several local manufacturing companies, the Tay Navigation Company, etc., and it may almost be said that the Perth Cemetery Company owes its existence to him, for he was instrumental in getting the majority of the stock subscribed in 1871 or 1872, and for the successful working of the company. He has now held the office of treasurer and manager of this company for over fifteen years, and the beautiful grounds of the cemetery are a credit alike to the town and manager. Mr. Hart is a Conservative, and takes an active part in provincial and federal politics. He supports the Conservative party because it represents his ideas on trade and commerce, he having advocated the national policy long before it was introduced. In municipal affairs he is also interested, and is always willing to help in anything that has for its object the building up of the town of Perth—railways, education, etc. In religion, he belongs to the Presbyterian church. Mr. Hart has not had time to revisit his father-land; but he has visited nearly the whole of Canada from east to west, making the tour of the lakes from the Saguenay to Duluth, and the principal towns and cities of Ontario, on various occasions, and all the principal cities of the Northern and New England States, either for pleasure or business. He is a citizen that Perth could ill spare. He was married on January 1st, 1857, to Margaret Brown, daughter of the late William Brown, of Glasgow, Scotland, and later, of Perth, Ontario. She died in 1863, leaving a family of two sons and one daughter. He was married again in Feb., 1870, to Mary Irving, daughter of the late John Irving, of Montreal, and who came from Scotland and the parish where his kinsman, the celebrated Edward Irving, was born.
Lafrance, Charles Joseph, City Treasurer, of Quebec, is one of the best known and most respected public citizens in the ancient capital. His true name is Charles Joseph Levesque,dit, or called, Lafrance. The possession of two names in this way is an institution peculiar to many of the French Canadians of the province of Quebec, the first being the original or real family appellation, and the other more in the nature of a distinguishingsobriquet, given in the remote past for some reason which cannot now be traced, but eventually crowding the real name out of daily and general use. Thus, the late Hon. Joseph Cauchon, ex-lieut.-governor of Manitoba, was better known by that name than by his real patronymic, which was LaverdièreditCauchon. The same remark applies to the city treasurer of Quebec, who is better known to his fellow citizens by the name of Lafrance than by his real family name of Levesque, though his brother, the present parish priest of Matane, P.Q., was ordained under the name of Levesque, and is known by no other. In fact, nine-tenths of them would hardly recognize him by any other. He was born in the St. Roch suburb of Quebec, on 13th November, 1833, of the marriage of the late Charles LevesqueditLafrance, carpenter, and Marie Prevost. His parents were not blessed with a superabundance of this world’s goods, but they were actuated by a laudable ambition to give their boy a good education and ultimately a profession. He was accordingly placed at the Quebec Seminary with the intention of following a complete classical course in that institution in order to prepare himself for the study and practice of the law. He was an apt scholar, and the progress he made in his collegiate studies was remarkable, but, before he could complete them, circumstances over which he had no control compelled him to abandon them, and relinquish—as he then thought, only for a time—the legal career which he had laid out for himself, and to turn his attention to school teaching as a means of livelihood. In the fall of 1850, he secured the appointment of teacher at Cap Rouge, near Quebec, and for the next three years he “taught the young idea there how to shoot.” He then removed to Batiscan, P.Q., where he taught for another year. In June, 1854, he wedded Catherine StegyditAngers, daughter of the late Olivier StegyditAngers, and his wife, Catherine Bilodeau, of St. Roch’s of Quebec. After his marriage, he bade adieu for good to his long cherished idea of becoming a member of the legal profession, and took charge of the school at Beauport, some three miles out of the city of Quebec, on the road to Montmorency Falls. In this field he again labored for some time, until tiring of the position and prospects of a country teacher, he resolved to establish himself in the city where there was a greater opening for his talents. Accordingly on 1st May, 1859, he opened in the St. John suburb of Quebec, an independent school under the name of the “St. Jean Baptiste Commercial Academy,” which he continued to superintend until July, 1876. During the interval, he devoted all his leisure time from his pupils to study and the compilation for his classes of a number of valuable works on French, English, and book-keeping. Among these may be more specially mentioned, the very useful French grammar which he published in 1865, and his treatise on arithmetic, published in 1867. He also took a great interest in the affairs of the Teachers’ Association, of which he was long a member, and several times secretary and president, besides being chosen as a delegate to represent the teachers of the Quebec district at the great convention of the teachers of the province of Quebec, held at Montreal in May, 1861. In the educational interest, he also started in 1864, at Quebec, jointly with N. Thibault and Joseph Letourneau, both professors of the Laval Normal School, the publication ofLa Semaine(The Week), a weekly paper devoted to the cause of education and the teaching profession. The promotion of a strong national feeling among his French Canadian fellow-countrymen was another of his ambitions, and he early became a prominent member of their great national society, the St. Jean Baptiste, of Quebec, of which he was elected secretary in 1866. He filled this office during eight years, then that of vice-president during two years, and lastly that of president during two years more. It was while he was still an office-holder of the society in 1874, that he was named with the Hon. Hector Fabre, now the Canadian commissioner in Paris, and J. P. Rheaume, ex-M.P.P. for Quebec East and an alderman of the city, as one of the delegates to represent Quebec at the great celebration of the national festival at Montreal that year. The active and intelligent interest which Mr. Lafrance had also taken in municipal affairs, his large fund of information and ready eloquence, marked him out as early as 1868 for civic honors, and in that year he was pressed to stand as a candidate for one of the seats for St. John’s ward in the city council of Quebec. But, politically, he was a liberal of the liberals; toryism was then in the ascendant in the ancient capital, and he had to make a desperate fight against terrible odds. He won, however, and after that he was constantly re-elected without opposition down to 1876, when he declined further re-election, though pressed thereto by a requisition signed by the majority of the electors of both political parties. In the Quebec city council, Mr. Lafrance was one of the most conspicuous figures, leading in all important debates, and generally taking a prominent part in all committee and council work for the good of the city. On financial questions, he was especially strong, and was altogether a valuable municipal representative, his course throughout being marked by great independence, and his name unsullied by the breath of scandal. It has already been stated that Mr. Lafrance was an ardent liberal in politics. Even in his school-days, he was noted for the intensity of his liberalism, and as he grew to manhood he threw himself with all the enthusiasm and self-denial of his nature into all the struggles of his party in the Quebec district. But the liberal fortunes were at a low ebb in Lower Canada in those days, the cause was unpopular, and the very name ofRougewas a bugbear. It required great moral courage for a young man to cast his lot with the Dorions, the Holtons, the Lauriers, the Fourniers and the other ardent spirits, who were then considered the advocates’ of revolution among the French Canadians, and condemned accordingly from hustings and pulpit. All the worldly, and, it may be added, spiritual inducements of the day were on the other side. But Mr. Lafrance never hesitated even for a moment in his choice between principles and interest. He at once took his place in the van of the Liberal party militant, and boldly lifted its fallen banner in the Quebec district. Prompt to perceive that the great want of his fellow-countrymen was political education, and that the chief drawback of his party was the absence of organs to supply that education and to denounce the wrong doing and short comings of their adversaries in power, the hard-working school teacher threw himself also into journalism, and started paper after paper in the interest of his party. His confidence in the eventual success of that party’s mission was unbounded; but his means and support were necessarily limited, and though his papers were ably, nay, brilliantly, conducted, they were short lived. Each failure, however, seemed to encourage him to new exertion. Thus, in 1866, he assumed the publication ofL’Electeur, and upon its death embarked his fortunes inL’Echo du Peuple, which he published during 1867 and 1868. In 1870, he brought outL’Opinion Nationale, and in 1871 and 1872L’Opinion du Peuple, the last named being an open advocate of annexation to the United States as the only remedy for existing evils from which escape then seemed to him otherwise hopeless. In this view, it will be remembered that he did not stand alone at the time. But he had the courage of his convictions and boldly advocated them. It was, however, up-hill work to do so, and his life history at this stage was one of prolonged struggle and self-sacrifice. In 1874, he was the candidate chosen by the Liberal party to contest with the government candidate the seat for Quebec Centre in the Provincial legislature, and his personal popularity with the mass of the electors was so great that his return was confidently anticipated. But the government delayed the issue of the writ from January to April, and in the interval the late Hon. Joseph Cauchon was commissioned to announce to him that the government would allow him to be elected by acclamation, provided he signed a pledge to give them a certain amount of “fair play.” Mr. Lafrance’s reply to this tempting offer was characteristically consistent. He said: “I have always been a Liberal. If to have the honor of representing Quebec Centre I must begin by making concessions of this kind, I prefer to remain at home.” This reply cost him the active support of Mr. Cauchon, who was then a great political power in Quebec, and the English vote of the division was also alienated from him by a pamphlet which he had published towards the end of December, 1873, under the title of “Our Political Divisions.” Bribery and corruption on an extensive scale, coupled with the treachery of several of his chief election managers, did the remainder of the work and secured his defeat at the polls. In 1876, the Liberal government of Mr. Mackenzie was in power at Ottawa, and our subject was named as inspector of gas at Quebec, when he abandoned school teaching. But he continued to contribute to the local press and especially toL’Evenement, of which he assumed the complete editorial management from the fall of 1876 to the close of 1877, during the absence of its proprietor and usual editor, Senator Fabre, at Ottawa and in France. In 1878, the important and responsible office of treasurer of the city of Quebec became vacant, and, recalling the financial ability he had manifested as a member of the city council, public opinion at once designated Mr. Lafrance for the office and he received it. This appointment, and successive family bereavements about the same time, determined his abandonment of politics and the devotion of his remaining years of usefulness to the finances of the city and the interests of his family. Under his able and cautious management, Quebec’s financial situation as a city has since very materially improved, and its credit stands high in the money markets of the world—the latest quotation of its bonds on the English market being 118. He has also very thoroughly and effectively re-organized the book-keeping and audit systems of the Quebec corporation, and is the originator of a scheme for the consolidation of the city debt, which still claims very serious attention and may probably at no distant day be carried out. In religion, Mr. Lafrance is a Roman Catholic. He has seven surviving children. One of his sons is assistant accountant of the Quebec corporation, and one of his daughters not long since left Quebec with thirty self-sacrificing young ladies to devote herself as a nun to the care of the sick and infirm in the convent of the Incarnate Word at San Antonio, Texas.
Scarth, William Bain, Winnipeg, M.P. for the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 10th November, 1837. His father was James Scarth, a scion of the family of the Scarths of Binscarth, Orkney Islands; and his mother, Jane Geddes, of Stromness in the same islands. He received a general classical education in schools in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Mr. Scarth came to Canada in 1855, when seventeen years of age, and after several years spent in mercantile life in Hamilton and London, Ontario, he removed, in 1868, to Toronto, where he resided till 1884. Soon after his removal to Toronto he began to take a prominent part in public affairs. For two years he occupied a seat in the city council as representative of St. James’ ward; was a high school trustee, and was manager of the North British-Canadian Investment Company and the Scottish Ontario and Manitoba Land Company. He was also president of the Conservative Association of Centre Toronto. After removing to Winnipeg, in 1884, he became managing director of the Canada Northwest Land Company; secretary and director of the Canadian Anthracite Coal Company, and director of the North British-Canadian Investment Company. He presented himself for parliamentary honors in 1887, and was elected to serve in the House of Commons at Ottawa as representative for Winnipeg, and this seat he still occupies. Mr. Scarth has travelled a good deal, and long before railway days traversed the far North-west. He has also visited Cuba, and is familiar with every part of the United States and Canada. In politics he is a Conservative; and in religion, a member of the Presbyterian church. In 1869 he was married to Jessie Stewart Franklin, daughter of the late Dr. John Macaulay Hamilton, R.N., a native of Stromness, Orkney, and cousin of Lord Macaulay, the historian. Her mother was Miss Rae, sister of Dr. Rae, the Arctic explorer.
Hould, Jean Baptiste Ludger, LL.B., Barrister, Three Rivers, who is one of the most prominent lawyers in Three Rivers, was born on the 3rd of September, 1841, at St. Angèle de Laval, and is the son of Jean Baptiste Hould, who for many years was mayor and member of the council of the latter place. His mother was Olive Tourigny, of the same place. Mr. Hould was educated at the Seminary of Nicolet, where he succeeded in securing a good education. He afterwards studied law at Laval University, during which term he was engaged in the office of the then well-known firm of Casault, Langlois & Angers, the Hon. Mr. Casault, now judge of the Superior Court, and the Hon. Mr. Angers, the present lieutenant-governor of Quebec, being members of it. Mr. Hould was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada in July, 1864, and commenced practice at Three Rivers in 1865, and since then he has enjoyed by far the most lucrative practice in that city. Amongst his many duties, he has pleaded at the Court of Review, in the Queen’s Bench and in the Supreme Court. He held office for many years in the city council, but his multifarious duties in connection with his practice compelled him to relinquish his connection with municipal affairs. He was elected twice president (bâtonnier) of the bar of Three Rivers, and in May, 1883, was also chosen president (bâtonnier-general) of the bar of the province of Quebec. He is acknowledged by hisconfrèresas possessing a great amount of professional ability; is greatly respected by the community at large, and highly deserving of the confidence for integrity reposed in him. Mr. Hould helped to have the tax of $4.00 abolished which each advocate was formerly compelled to pay for the publication of the Lower Canada Reports; and he established a law library for the bar of Three Rivers. He is one of the founders and the first president of the literary and scientific society calledSociété Basault, which was founded in 1863, at Laval University, in Quebec. He acted as advocate for F. H. B. Methot, H. Montplaisir, H. G. Mathiot and F. Trudel when their elections were contested. He married on the 30th June, 1869, Sarah, daughter of the late Francis Xavier Turcotte, who was for many years clerk of the peace for Three Rivers. By this marriage there has been issue nine children, five of whom survive.