Chapter 5

St. Andrews, Nov. 9, 1885.—My Dear Mr. Jones,—I understand there is to be a meeting of our friends in the city to-morrow night, to select a candidate for the vacancy caused by my resignation. I avail myself of the opportunity thus offered to address a few words to the electors who may there be present. When in 1882 the electors of the city returned me to parliament for another term, I then intimated to them that it was probably the last time that I would be a candidate for their suffrages, but I then hoped that I would be spared, and my health permit of my remaining in parliament and in the government until the next general election. But I had not taken into account thewear and tearto body and mind, to which I would necessarily continue to be subjected in the discharge of my parliamentary and departmental duties. My health was completely broken down last winter, but after a serious operation there was a hope that I might continue my work for a short time longer. I regret that my symptoms of late have been such that I have been forced to the conclusion that my only chance of a measure of health, and possibly a few more years of life, is in taking comparative rest and relief from the mental strain to which I have of late years been subjected. I feel certain that my many indulgent friends would cheerfully, in view of my long service, accord me that rest. It is difficult to find words to express the very great regret that I have felt, and still feel, at being compelled to take that course. I took great pleasure in the work of my department, and I flatter myself that I have been able to perform it in a way that was acceptable to a majority of the people. My relations with my constituents were pleasant, and I may be pardoned if I at this time remark that recent events have given evidence that my regard for them is reciprocated. To say good-bye to the men who have been so true and faithful to me for more than a third of a century is not pleasant, but it must be said. My colleagues in the government have placed me in a position where my responsibilities are not great, but where I hope I may still be able to do something for my native province and for my country. Thanking one and all for their unwavering confidence in the past, I still wish to be considered as their friend. By causing this to be read you will much oblige,Yours sincerely,(Sd.)S. L. Tilley.

Yours sincerely,

(Sd.)S. L. Tilley.

Sir Leonard and Lady Tilley visited Toronto, the Queen City of the West, in May, 1887, and spent a week among their many friends there, who were overjoyed at Sir Leonard’s improved health, and while here they took part in the festivities so lavishly bestowed on the Governor-General, Lord Lansdowne, and his party, who, at the time, were enjoying the hospitality of the citizens. Sir Leonard Tilley has been twice married, first to Julia Ann, daughter of James T. Hanford, of St. John, N.B.; and second, in 1867, to Alice, eldest daughter of Z. Chipman, of St. Stephen, N.B. Sir Leonard Tilley’s career has been an honour to his country, and one that young men who aim to do well in public life should seek to remember and imitate.

Cluxton, William, Peterboro’, Ontario, was born in Dundalk, county of Louth, Ireland, on the 31st of March, 1819. When but six years of age his father died, and six years later his mother was also removed by death. His education had been carefully looked after by his mother. On the break-up of the family, William, the subject of this sketch, went to reside with an uncle and aunt who was in business in Cootehill, Cavan county, and this worthy couple soon afterwards, having determined to improve their condition, emigrated to America, taking with them the orphan lad. Arrived in Canada, the family located themselves on a farm near the then small village of Peterboro’, but now one of the most thriving towns in the province. Here he soon discovered that nature never intended him to spend his life on a farm. Therefore, with the consent of his relatives—long deceased, and of whom he still speaks with the utmost affection—young as he was, and without a single cent in the world, he sought and obtained a very humble situation in the employment of the late John Hall, father of the late Judge Hall, who was then the leading merchant in the village; and in this place he remained for some time, gradually acquiring knowledge. In 1835, after having given the utmost satisfaction to all who had reposed trust in him, Mr. Cluxton accepted a position in the dry goods store of John R. Benson, and subsequently became the sole manager of his store on Aylmer street. Here, after business hours, he devoted himself so earnestly and labouriously to the cultivation of letters and of music, that he soon became remarkable for his attainments, especially in the latter. In 1836, such flattering offers had been made to him, that he was induced to leave Peterboro’ and take charge, in Port Hope, of the business of the late John Crawford, a wealthy and well-known merchant. In this place, however, from indisposition, being then only seventeen years of age, he remained but one month, and again returned to Peterboro’ to take sole charge of a branch of that gentleman’s business which had been established there, and that was not, it seemed, succeeding so well as desired. Here his management became so successful, that in three years he found himself the sole buyer for all of Mr. Crawford’s establishments, and this position he held until the death of that gentleman, when he was appointed by the trustees of the estate to wind up the business, which he did to their entire satisfaction. In 1842, and after some years of the most unwearied and honourable toil, Mr. Cluxton purchased a stock of general goods, and launched forth his bark in Peterboro’ on his own account. From that time to the present, his success has been of the most marked character, although it may be fairly supposed that he has met, like all others in business, with occasional reverses by the way. In 1872, considering his means sufficiently ample, he retired from the drygoods business. One of its branches established in Lindsay he disposed to a clerk, who had come to him a mere lad, but who now, under his strict and able training, has become one of the wealthiest and best business men in that town. To two of his sons and another clerk he sold the Peterboro’ establishment; but he continued his operations in produce, and of late years has only done sufficient to occupy his mind, so as to prevent the change from an active business life to one of leisure having an injurious effect. For thirty years or more he moved the principal part of the grain along the whole line of railway from Lindsay to Lake Ontario, his transactions amounting to half a million annually. In 1852 he became manager of the Peterboro’ branch of the Commercial Bank of Canada, which position he held for eight years, without having lost a single dollar to the institution, resigning it only because of its wear and tear, and because of his desire to visit Europe for the sake of his health—which visit he made in 1862, accompanied by his wife and a portion of his family. When he did withdraw from this post, however, the estimation in which he was held by the directors may be gathered from the fact that he was appointed confidential adviser to the new manager. Few men in Canada have ever held so many offices of important public trust as Mr. Cluxton, and no man in the whole Dominion can boast of a more honourable record or name. He was for years president of the Midland Railway Company, and has been president of the Marmora Mining Company, the Little Lake Cemetery Company, the Port Hope and Peterboro’ Gravel Road Company, and the Peterboro’ Water Works Company. He has in his time occupied seats in the town and in the county council, and is at present one of the commissioners of the town trust. He took a lively interest in the education of the young, and for twenty-five years was an active member of the school board. He is captain in the Sedentary militia, and in 1872 he was chosen to represent the people of West Peterboro’ in the House of Commons. Mr. Cluxton is a Liberal-Conservative in politics. In private life he is neither banker, merchant nor politician, but simply one of the great brotherhood of mankind, who makes common cause with his numerous tenants and his friends, as well as with the fatherless children and the widow.

Falconbridge, William Glenholme, M.A., Q.C., Barrister, Toronto, was born on 12th May, 1846. He is the eldest son of John Kennedy Falconbridge, J.P., of Richmond Hill, in the county of York, a very well known and highly respected retired merchant, who for many years carried on a large and successful business in the counties of York and Simcoe. The subject of this sketch received his chief preliminary training at the Barrie Grammar School, and at the Model Grammar School for Upper Canada, and matriculated with a general proficiency scholarship in the University of Toronto in 1862. His course at the University was one of rather unusual distinction, inasmuch as there was hardly any department in the curriculum in which he did not at some period obtain first-class honours. After winning college prizes and university scholarships in each year, he graduated B.A. in 1866, with a gold medal. He then filled for a year the chair of professor of modern languages in Yarmouth College, N.S., and returned to Toronto on being appointed lecturer on Italian and Spanish in University College, which position he occupied for one year. In 1868, he commenced the study of law in the office of Patton, Osler and Moss, and was called to the bar in 1871. (While he was a student at law he entered the Military School, which was then established in Toronto, as a gentleman cadet, and in due course obtained his certificate of fitness for a captain’s commission in the active militia—under the instructions of the officers of Her Majesty’s 29th regiment of foot). On the 1st of July, 1871, the firm of Harrison, Osler and Moss was formed, the members of which were the late Chief Justices Harrison and Moss; the present Justice Osler, Charles Moss, Q.C., W. A. Foster, Q.C., and Mr. Falconbridge. He was examiner in the University of Toronto for several years, and was elected registrar in 1872, and held that office until 1881, when he resigned and was immediately elected by his fellow graduates a member of the senate of that institution, and again elected at the head of the poll in 1886. In 1885, he was elected a bencher of our only Inn of Court—the Law Society of Upper Canada,—and was re-elected at the general election in 1886, ranking No. six, out of the thirty successful candidates, those who received a larger number of votes being W. R. Meredith, Charles Moss, Dalton McCarthy, C. Robinson, and B. M. Britton. He was gazetted as one of Her Majesty’s counsel in 1885. Mr. Falconbridge is a pronounced and steadfast Conservative in politics, and has frequently been solicited to enter public life, particularly at the general elections for the House of Commons of the Dominion in February, 1887, when he was offered the nomination for Centre Toronto. His friends think that his abilities and personal qualities eminently fit him for the political arena, but he has hitherto felt obliged by the pressure of professional engagements to decline the honour. But he has never been chary of rendering gratuitous public services when called on to do so. He was a prominent member of the Citizens’ Committee appointed at the time of the terrible accident at the Humber, in January, 1884, when twenty-nine men were killed outright or died of their injuries, and fifteen were more or less injured, the other members of the Committee being the then mayor, A. R. Boswell, J. H. Morris, Q.C., T. McGaw, Jno. Livingstone, H. E. Clarke, M.P.P., and John Hallam. Largely through the intervention and efforts of these gentlemen, more than one hundred thousand dollars were received by way of compensation from the Grand Trunk Railway, and about fifteen thousand dollars collected from the general public. For their services in this connection, given ungrudgingly over a period of nearly two years, they were publicly thanked by resolution of the City Council. Mr. Falconbridge is now a member of the firms of Moss, Falconbridge and Barwick, and Moss, Hoyles and Aylesworth, a strong association, representing the survival of the numerous judicial appointments which have been made from their ranks. In religion he has always adhered to the Church of England, and has been for years an officer of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society. He is a keen sportsman and a skilful and enthusiastic angler, and he is very popular within the circle of his acquaintance. In 1873, he married Mary, youngest daughter of the late Hon. Mr. Justice Sullivan, and step-daughter of the late Hon. Sir Francis Hincks, C.B., K.C.M.G., by whom he has issue one son and five daughters.

Sanderson, Rev. Dr. G. R., Pastor of the Methodist church, Sarnia. This worthy and greatly respected minister was born in the city of Kingston, in the year 1817, so that he is now seventy years of age. He is of English parentage. With his parents he attended the church of the Wesleyan Methodists in Kingston, and in the year 1834, through the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Stinson, was converted, and at once connected himself with the church. Having a fair English education, possessing a good voice, good judgment, and above all, a renewed heart, he was by the quarterly official board made a local preacher in connection with the Kingston circuit. Engaged in this relation and realizing his need of better qualification for the work, he entered the Upper Canada Academy, which formed the nucleus out of which Victoria University has risen, where he completed his education. He then left the college to enter the full work of the ministry. The late Rev. Dr. Carroll writes of him: “His going out as chairman’s supply, one year before his formal reception on trial, was at the conference of 1836, and his introduction into his ministerial work was under circumstances which entitle him to rank among the pioneer preachers. He was first sent to the extensive boundaries, miry roads and miasmatic atmosphere of the old Thames circuit; and received a fitting seasoning for its toils by a ride on horseback from Kingston to Chatham. In the course of this journey the writer first met and admired the pluck and heroism of the boy of twenty.” A list of the circuits on which Dr. Sanderson has travelled since entering the ministry will no doubt interest many readers. In 1837, he travelled the old Thames circuit, going thence to Newmarket, Grimsby and Hamilton respectively. In 1841 he was ordained and sent to Stamford, where he remained for two years, then to St. Catharines for two years, and thence to Toronto, where he was elected and ably performed the duties of editor of theChristian Guardian. Upon relinquishing the editorial chair, which position he held for five years, he was appointed to Cobourg for three years, during which period he was elected secretary of the conference, and was thence sent back to Toronto to take charge of the Methodist Book and Publishing House. From the successful discharge of these important interests of the church he came to the city of London, where he remained for three years. In the year 1861 he was elected representative from the Canadian Conference to the Wesleyan Conference of Great Britain. In 1860 he was elected chairman of the London district, which position he has held without a break on the several districts on which he has been placed from that period until the present. From London he went to the following places in order, remaining in each the full allotted time of three years: Port Hope, Picton, Belleville, Kingston, St. Catharines, London (Wellington street), London (Dundas street east), and Strathroy. In 1876 he was elected president of the Conference of the Methodist church of Canada, for which position his many years’ experience as chairman well qualified him. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by hisalma mater, Victoria University, in May, 1876. Victoria has never honoured a more worthy son, and Dr. Sanderson has always been a noble representative of the claims of this university upon the Methodist people of this dominion. Dr. Sanderson is a fine specimen of the Christian minister. During his long period of service there has been no time that he has been laid aside from work by illness, and no year that there has not been a revival of religion on his circuit. The statement may be ventured that Dr. Sanderson has been the instrument in God’s hands of winning more souls to Christ than any other minister in the regular work in the Methodist church. He is now the oldest man in the active work of the ministry, and at a conference lately held in St. Thomas, a testimonial in the shape of a purse of $120 was presented to him in honour of his advent upon the 50th year of his ministry. Dr. Sanderson as a preacher is at times eloquent, always practical and strictly evangelical. As a speaker he is chaste, polished and powerful, and when in debate he waxes warm with his theme he invariably carries his hearers with him. As a man he is sympathetic and tender and withal firm and unflinching in what he believes to be right. To quote Dr. Carroll again—“He has not been without difficult positions to keep, and has had his trials; yet he has proved faithful to his trust, and has usually triumphed. He is self-contained, manly and enduring, and has never failed in a connexional trust.”

Hunter, Rev. Samuel James, D.D., Pastor of the Centenary Church, Hamilton, Ontario, one of the leading preachers in connection with the Methodist denomination, is a Canadian by birth, having been born in the village of Phillipsburg, province of Quebec, on the 12th April, 1843. He is of Irish parentage, his father and mother having been born and married in Strabane, county Tyrone. The subject of our sketch removed, with the other members of the family, to Upper Canada, and settled in East Gwillimbury, which was then almost a wilderness. He early developed an unconquerable thirst for knowledge, and when a mere lad had reached the limit of the common school teacher’s power to instruct. The few books in scanty libraries here and there amongst the neighbours were read with avidity and studied with care. The first money he ever earned was invested in three works that opened to him the vast world of thought, namely: Dick’s works, Rollin’s Ancient History, and a Latin grammar and reader combined. When seventeen years of age he was led into a religious experience through the ministry of the Methodist church, which he subsequently joined. At the age of eighteen he was received as a probationer for the ministry, and began his labours in the township of Walpole. Four years afterwards he was publicly ordained in London, Ontario. For many years he did the hard work of a Methodist preacher, and at the same time pursued secular study under private masters. His fields of labour have been—one year in Walpole, two in Oakville, two at Thornhill, one at Bowmanville, six in Montreal, twelve in Toronto (six of which were in Elm street, three in Queen street, and three in Sherbourne street Church). He is now completing his second year in Centenary Church, Hamilton, one of the largest and most important congregations in the Dominion. At the convocation of 1886 the Senate of Victoria University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Hunter, though a member of every general conference that has been held, has no taste for debate, and seldom enters the arena. He is regarded as orthodox in his teachings, but never takes things on trust merely. He thinks for himself, and never burkes his opinions, even when they seem to be out of harmony with the generally accepted creeds. He married, in 1871, Miss Ruston, of Montreal, and has a family of two children.

Mathison, George, Senior Past Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance of the Province of Quebec, was one of the most energetic and enthusiastic temperance advocates in that section of our country. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 1st May, 1801, he received his education there, and after leaving school was apprenticed to the baking business. Having faithfully served the prescribed term, he worked for a short period as a journeyman, and wishing to see the world, enlisted in His Majesty’s 70th regiment of foot, and soon attained the position of colour-sergeant. Seeing the evil effects of drink on his comrades, he soon became convinced that a life of total abstinence was the safest and best for him to secure success in his profession, and accordingly adopted the principle. At that time very few had abandoned the entire use of intoxicating liquors as a drink, and those who had were looked upon with suspicion by the “moderate drinkers,” but his example soon began to tell upon his comrades, and many of them were induced to abandon liquor-drinking. In due course of time, with the permission of his commanding officer, he established a total abstinence society in the regiment. He soon afterwards attained to the rank of quarter-master-sergeant, and still continued to use his influence to further the good work he had begun. In the year 1842, having served his country for twenty-one years in Gibraltar, Malta, West Indies and Canada—proving the practicability of the principles of total abstinence in all these varied climes—he was discharged with a pension, and at the same time received a situation in the Commissariat department as keeper of the government woodyard in Quebec. This gave him greater opportunities to work in the temperance cause, and shortly afterward he and several other citizens started the first total abstinence society in that city, and it proved a great blessing to many. In October, 1850, having heard of the order of the Sons of Temperance, which was then making rapid strides in enrolling men in the total abstinence ranks, he and other members of the society secured a charter from the National Division, and Gough Division, No. 3, of Canada East, was organized. This division continued to prosper, and the order to increase in the province, when in January, 1852, the Grand Division of Canada East (now Quebec) was organized, Mr. Mathison being one of the charter members, and in October, 1854, he was elected its Grand Worthy Patriarch. In February, 1852, St. Lawrence Division was organized under very favourable auspices, and in the following year he left Gough Division and joined St. Lawrence, in the hope of extending his usefulness among the military men who had joined in large numbers the younger division. In June, 1867, he was initiated into the National Division of North America, at the session held at Providence, Rhode Island, and continued to attend the meetings of that body as opportunity offered, the last time being at the session held in Halifax, N.S., in 1884. In 1859 he was removed to Halifax to fill another position in the Commissariat department, and later on to Prince Edward Island. In each place he was well known as an enthusiastic worker in the cause of temperance, and other good works. In the year 1866, after serving twenty-four years in Her Majesty’s service, he was superannuated, with another pension, and took up his residence in the city of Quebec, and again associated himself with St. Lawrence Division, and continued to work persistently in the cause he had so much at heart up to the last month of his life, not only in connection with the order of the Sons of Temperance, but in the formation of Cadets of Temperance, Bands of Hope, and other kindred societies. He was ever ready to help, and very few of the youth of the city of Quebec have failed in being influenced to a certain extent by his efforts. He was a consistent member of the Methodist church for over fifty years, and for several years superintendent of the Sabbath school. The class meetings and prayer meetings were always faithfully attended by him and highly appreciated. He passed away after a few days’ illness on the 30th October, 1886, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and the sixtieth of his temperance work, deeply regretted by all his co-laborers in the church, as well as in the cause of total abstinence. George Mathison earned the benediction: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Flewelling, William Pentreath, Accountant and Lumber Agent, Crown Lands department, Fredericton, New Brunswick, was born at Clifton, Kings county, New Brunswick, on the 31st of May, 1850. His father, William Puddington Flewelling, was a native of New Brunswick, and resided most of his life-time in Kings county, where for a long time he carried on a large ship-building business. He also represented Kings county in the New Brunswick legislature for a number of years, and part of the time he was a member of the government, and held the office of surveyor-general. His mother, Esther Ann Merritt, was a native of Marlborough, Ulster county, New York state. William received his early education in the public school of his native place, and at a later period attended the superior school at Studholm, Kings county. While preparing for a collegiate course, ill health overtook him, and he was obliged to give up further study and betake himself to out-door pursuits. He having become as a boy familiar with the use of tools in his father’s ship-yard, he betook himself to the lumber regions of New Brunswick, and joined a lumbering party; and after a winter spent in the forest he became restored to his usual ruggedness, and returned to civilization. In the spring of 1869 he removed from Clifton to Fredericton and entered the service of the government as a clerk in the Crown Lands department. In 1873, some changes occurring in the staff, he was promoted to the position of accountant; and in 1881, in addition to this office, he was made lumber agent. This dual office he has since held—the first having put him in charge of all the financial matters in connection with the Land department, and the second the general supervision of the lumbering on the Crown lands throughout the province, and the collection of the revenue therefrom. As a young man, Mr. Flewelling took an active interest in military matters. Having joined a local militia corps as private he gradually rose in the ranks, and when he retired from the service in 1874 he held the rank of paymaster of the 74th battalion, Kings county militia. He has been an active member of various societies, especially temperance societies, in all of which he has held offices. For about fifteen years he has belonged to the Independent Order of Oddfellows, and is a past-grand master of Victoria lodge, No. 13, of Fredericton. He has always been connected with the Episcopal church, but is, nevertheless, a strong believer in freedom of opinion, especially in religion. On the 17th of January, 1874, he was married to Harriet E. Lugrin, daughter of the late Charles S. Lugrin, editor ofThe Colonial Farmer, and for a number of years secretary of the Board of Agriculture for New Brunswick, and grand-daughter of the late George K. Lugrin, for many years Queen’s printer in New Brunswick.

Le Pan, Frederick Nicholas D’Orr, Owen Sound, Ontario, is the son of Louis Noailles Le Pan and Mary Anne Brown, of Belfast, Ireland, and was born in the year 1819. His father was a native of Paris, France, and was a professor of French in the Royal Academy of Belfast, and other colleges in that city. Mr. Le Pan emigrated to the United States at the age of nineteen, and was for some time employed in a large flouring mill as head book-keeper in St. Louis, Missouri. Being anxious to get on and push for himself, he bought a farm in the state of Illinois, and lived there until his health failed him. He then sold out his property and moved to Canada and settled in Picton, Prince Edward county. After living here for some time he went to Owen Sound, in the county of Grey, where he opened a general store, and succeeded well. He occupied the position of treasurer for the county of Grey for over twenty years, and on his resignation was presented with a handsome present by the county in recognition of his services. He was local director for the Molsons bank in Owen Sound, and is a justice of the peace for the county. Though now well up in years, Mr. Le Pan is still hale and hearty, and living a retired life.

Shaw, Lieutenant-Colonel James.The late Senator Shaw was born in New Ross, county Wexford, Ireland, in the year 1798, so famous in Irish history. He was descended from two ancient and honourable families, and took pride in tracing his lineage back many generations to persons of distinction, being Scotch on his father’s side, and on his mother’s he was of French extraction, her family, the d’Ouselys, being Huguenots, who fled to Ireland, the name being corrupted to Dowsley in the course of years. In the year 1820, after completing his education in Dublin, Mr. Shaw, in the twenty-second year of his age, came to Canada with letters of introduction to Lord Dalhousie, who attached him to his household, with an officer’s pay and rations for the following six months, where he was treated with great kindness by Lord and Lady Dalhousie, and in after days often referred to this pleasant portion of his life. Subsequently the government appointed him first clerk in the Lanark military settlement of Upper Canada, under the late Colonel William Marshall, the superintendent, and this situation Mr. Shaw filled for nine years. At the commencement of the work on the Rideau Canal, through Lord Dalhousie’s influence, he was appointed overseer of the works under the late Colonel John By, from Smith’s Falls to Bytown, now the city of Ottawa. After the completion of the canal, Mr. Shaw married Ellen Forgie, daughter of Mr. Forgie, of Glasgow, and carried on at Smith’s Falls a successful and extensive mercantile business up to the time of his entering parliament. He was one of the first promoters and directors of the Brockville and Ottawa Railway. During the Canadian rebellion of 1837 and 1838 he was stationed at Brockville as major of the third Leeds Light Infantry, and in later years he was made lieutenant-colonel of the militia of Canada. In his early days he was a member of what was known as the Johnstown District Council, and when the municipal system was adopted he filled the position of reeve of the municipality, which office he held until higher duties obliged him to resign. He was also a justice of the peace, but did not often act in that capacity. Mr. Shaw was a Free Mason, having joined the order as a young man in Ireland. He was a member of the Church of England—not extreme in his views, but unswerving in his support and allegiance to his church. In 1851 he was elected to represent the united counties of Lanark and Renfrew in the Legislature of Canada in the Conservative interest, and was again returned for the South Riding of Lanark in 1854. In 1860 he was elected for the Bathurst division by a large majority to a seat in the upper house, which he held until the confederation of the several provinces, when he was called by Royal proclamation to the Senate of the Dominion of Canada, which position he filled with honour to himself and credit to his country until his death. Mr. Shaw was a gentleman of fine physique and commanding appearance, of sterling principle, unswerving integrity, and by his genial disposition and urbanity of manner, endeared himself to all with whom he became acquainted. He died suddenly at his residence in Smith’s Falls, on the 6th of February, 1878, regretted and revered by all who knew him. His funeral was attended by a large deputation from both branches of the legislature.

“In social haunts the ever welcome guest,So generous, noble, and of portly mien;‘One of a thousand’ has been well expressed—No finer type of gentleman was seen.”

“In social haunts the ever welcome guest,

So generous, noble, and of portly mien;

‘One of a thousand’ has been well expressed—

No finer type of gentleman was seen.”

Saint-Pierre, Henri C., Advocate, Montreal, was born in the parish of Rigaud, county of Vaudreuil, province of Quebec, on the 13th of September, 1844, but was brought up at Isle-Bizard, in Jacques-Cartier county. He is the last child but one of a family of nine, composed of seven girls and two boys. His father, Joseph Saint-Pierre, a farmer of Isle-Bizard, died, when his son Henri was only two years old. His mother, Domithilde Denis, is still living. His first ancestor on his father’s side in Canada was Pierre Breillé-Saint-Pierre, who was usually called Pierre Saint-Pierre. He had emigrated from Normandy, and on his arrival in Canada settled at Isle-Bizard. In 1741 he was married to Françoise Thibault, by whom he had a large family. He was killed at the battle of Carillon in 1758. His eldest son, bearing the same name, was married to Marie Josephte Tayon, and from that marriage was born, on the 23rd of August, 1772, Guillaume, the father of Joseph, and the grandfather of the gentleman who is the subject of this sketch. Domithilde Denis, the mother of Mr. Saint-Pierre, belonged to a family of farmers from La Pointe Claire, which traces its origin in Canada as far back as the days of the first French settlements, the first colonist of that name, Jacques Denis, having settled at Lachine in 1689. After the death of his father, Mr. Saint-Pierre was adopted by a near relative, C. Raymond, a merchant at Isle-Bizard, who took charge of his education. At twelve years of age he entered the Montreal College, where he went through a brilliant classical course of study. He was the college mate of the unfortunate patriot, Louis Riel. From his childhood Mr. Saint-Pierre had always exhibited a strong liking for military life; but as he grew older, this liking ripened into an uncontrollable passion; so much so, that on leaving college one of the first things he did was to solicit from his mother and his adopted father the permission to enlist in the United States army. At this time the war between the North and South was raging at its highest pitch. It is almost needless to say that his request was unhesitatingly and peremptorily refused. With no small degree of disappointment and reluctance, he at last chose the study of the law, and was sent to Kingston in Ontario, in order that he might improve his knowledge of the English language. At Kingston he was articled to James Agnew, one of the leading lawyers of that city. He soon got tired of the law, however, and on the very day when he was to undergo his preliminary examination at Osgoode Hall, in Toronto, yielding to his passion for military life, he crossed over to Niagara Falls, and thence took the first train to New York. On his arrival there he enlisted in the 76th New York volunteers, which was then forming part of the first corps in the Potomac army. To his honour be it said, it was only after considerable hesitation that General Johnson, the chief recruiting officer, consented to enlist the runaway school-boy. Mr. Saint-Pierre of course entered the service as a private, but in less than two months he rose to the rank of sergeant. During General Meade’s retreat towards Centreville, in the fall of 1863, he was wounded at the crossing of the Rapahannock, and had only recently resumed duty when in the fight at Mine Run, near Fredericksburg, he was again wounded. He was picked up by a detachment of General Stewart’s rebel cavalry on the field of battle, and was brought to Gordonsville during the night, and on the following day sent to Richmond as a prisoner of war. In his regiment he had been reported as dead, and some time afterwards his name was published in the list of those who had been killed in that fight. The result of this information was that funeral services were held both in the Montreal College and in his native parish, and prayer asked for the salvation of his soul. To give a detailed and circumstantial account of the suffering which Mr. Saint-Pierre had to endure, and all the adventures he had to go through in his numerous attempts to escape from starvation and death in the southern stockades, would require a narrative which could hardly be comprised within the compass of a whole volume; but one may form some idea of it, however, when the names of the following prisons wherein he was successively detained are mentioned: Bell Island and Parmenton building at Richmond, Andersonville in Georgia, and Charleston’s race ground andFlorence in South Carolina. After thirteen months of indescribable sufferings, he at last found himself free at Charleston on the day when the city was evacuated by the Southern troops in the spring of 1865. After the war was over, Mr. Saint-Pierre returned to his native country, where he was greeted as one who had risen from the dead. In March, 1866, he resumed his legal studies, and was first articled to the late Sir George Etienne Cartier, but a year afterwards he became a student in the office of the Hon. J. J. C. Abbott, where he remained up to the time of his admission to the bar on the 12th of July, 1870. In 1871 Mr. Saint-Pierre entered in partnership with the Hon. Gédéon Ouimet, then attorney-general, and some time afterwards prime minister for the province of Quebec; and on that gentleman’s appointment as superintendent of education, after his having resigned his office as prime minister, Mr. Saint-Pierre found himself at the head of his law office and the sole possessor of his largeclientèle. Mr. Saint-Pierre soon reached the foremost rank in his profession, and to-day the firm of Saint-Pierre, Globensky & Poirier, is one of the leading firms in the district of Montreal. But it is more particularly as a criminalist that Mr. Saint-Pierre has distinguished himself. Few lawyers have been so successful in the practice of that branch of the law; and whether it be in the often arduous task of bringing conviction to the minds of juries, or in that no less difficult one of unravelling a knotty point of law, he has few equals and no superior in his native province. He has frequently acted as Crown attorney and as substitute of the attorney-general for the province of Quebec, both in Montreal and in the adjoining districts. In politics Mr. Saint-Pierre is a Liberal. He was selected to run as the Liberal candidate in Jacques-Cartier, in 1878, for the local house, but was defeated by the former member, L. N. Lecavalier, who succeeded in securing his re-election by a small majority. Since that date Mr. Saint-Pierre has taken very little part in active politics. At the general elections for the federal house in 1887 he was selected as theCandidat National, first in the county of Laprairie, in opposition to Mr. Tassé, the Conservative nominee, and afterwards in the county of Jacques-Cartier, in opposition to Mr. Girouard, but declined in both instances. Mr. Saint-Pierre was married in 1874 to Adeline Albina Lesieur, eldest daughter of Adolphe Lesieur, merchant, of Terrebonne. She is a niece of the late Hon. Thos. Jean-Jacques Loranger, of the Hon. L. O. Loranger, a judge of the Superior Court, and of J. M. Loranger, Q.C. Mrs. Saint-Pierre is a handsome and accomplished lady and an excellent musician. She is often seen at charity concerts, contributing, by her distinguished talent as a pianist, to the enjoyment of the evening; whilst her husband, Mr. Saint-Pierre, who is the possessor of a splendid bass voice, and a cultured singer, varies the entertainment by his singing. Mr. and Mrs. Saint-Pierre were both born and brought up Roman catholics, and they have a family of five children, the eldest of whom, Master Henri, is only nine years old. In 1856 Mrs. Saint-Pierre, the elder, was married to John Wilson, a wealthy farmer of Isle-Bizard. He was a widower and the father of several boys. Two of those boys were married to two of Mrs. Saint-Pierre’s daughters. The youngest of those gentlemen was recently elected deputy-reeve of the county of Prescott, in Ontario. Mrs. Saint-Pierre has survived her second husband, who died in 1858. She has now reached the ripe old age of seventy-nine. She is yet strong and hearty, and lately was invited to the christening of an infant (a girl) who was the grand-daughter of her own grand-daughter. She was thereby given an opportunity seldom offered, even to very aged grand-mothers, that of seeing her fourth generation.

Hemming, Edward John, D.C.L., ex-M.P.P., Advocate, etc., Drummondville, province of Quebec, is the third son of the late Henry Keene Hemming, estate agent, and for many years lessee of extensive brick-fields at Gray’s, Essex on the Thames; and Sophia Wirgman, daughter of Thomas Wirgman, from Stockholm, Sweden, and aunt to Lieut.-Colonel Wirgman, late of the 10th Hussars, in their lifetime of London, England, and Lismore, Ireland (in connection with the Duke of Devonshire estates), and latterly (where they died and were buried), of Great Marlow, Bucks, having previously lived farming near Drummondville, P.Q., for a few years, when they returned to England. There is every reason to believe that his father was directly descended from John Hemming, Shakespeare’s associate and literary executor. An uncle of his father, the Rev. Samuel Hemming, D.D., was chaplain to the Royal Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, and as such intimate with all the then royal dukes, the Duke of Sussex standing godfather to two of his children. His father was also uncle to the late Hon. Judge Dunkin, member of the Privy Council of Canada, etc., etc. (his sister being the judge’s mother), and also cousin to the late Charles F. Smithers, president of the Bank of Montreal. After the lapse of about a hundred years, the two families of Hemming and Smithers have intermarried again, Walter G. A. Hemming, of Toronto, a nephew of the subject of this sketch, having lately married a daughter of Charles F. Smithers. Edward John Hemming was born on the 30th August, 1823, in London, England, that is to say Clapham, Surrey, and was educated at the Clapham Grammar School, under the Rev. Charles Pritchard, M.A., a Cambridge wrangler. Among his schoolmates who have since achieved distinction may be mentioned the Rev. Dr. Bradley, dean of Westminster Abbey; Sir George Groves, of Sydenham Palace fame; and his brother, George Wirgman Hemming, of Lincoln’s Inn, Q.C., lately of Hyde Park, now of South Kensington, London, late fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, senior wrangler of the university—one of the commissioners named by the Imperial Parliament for revising the statutes of Cambridge University;—editor of the “Equity Law Reports” under the council of the English bar, etc., who married his second cousin, a grand niece of Sir David Baird, the hero of Seringapatam and Corunna. To show the heredity of genius we may mention that one of his sons, now in the Royal Engineers, not only came out first at the final examination at the Royal Military College, Woolwich, but surpassed the one next to him by more than a thousand marks. On leaving school in 1839, Mr. Hemming went to sea as a midshipman, making his two last trips to India in the old East Indiaman,Herefordshire, commanded by Captain Richardson, a cousin. He left her at Bombay in 1843, to join theSeyd Khan, opium clipper trading to China with a Lascar crew, as second officer, under Captain Horsburgh, a nephew of the famous Captain Horsburgh of East India Directory fame. During his voyages, he visited the Cape of Good Hope, Isle of France, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Batavia, Hong Kong, Canton, Amoy, Chusan, Woosing and St. Helena, this latter before the removal of the great Bonaparte. After remaining in China a couple of years, he returned home to his father in Ireland in 1845, where he remained studying farming till 1851. During his residence at Lismore, the Smith O’Brien rebellion broke out, and he then made acquaintance with Nicholas O’Gorman, once secretary to the Catholic Emancipation League, under O’Connell, but then a loyal subject; also of Richard O’Gorman, his nephew, one of the Young Irelanders; who had to flee the country in order to escape prosecution for his action in that rebellion. Richard O’Gorman is now a judge in New York.Liebig’s work on agricultural chemistry, then lately published, having caused a great sensation, he turned his attention to the subject, and the Royal Agricultural Society of England having offered a prize open to all the world on the occasion of the International Exhibition of 1851, for the best essay on chemistry applied to agriculture, Mr. Hemming entered the competition and carried off the prize. This essay may be found in the Parliamentary library at Ottawa. While attending the International Exhibition in 1851, he met his cousin, afterwards Judge Dunkin, who prevailed upon him to enter his office in Montreal as a law student, and he commenced his legal studies in the office of Bethune & Dunkin in the fall of that year. Among his fellow students were the Judges Ramsay, and Papineau, and Julius Scriver, the M.P. for Huntingdon; and he also entered the law course of McGill College, and in 1855, took his degree of B.C.L., being first in honours; and in 1871, took his degree of D.C.L. in course. While he was a law student he was elected president of the Law Students’ Society, succeeding the late Judge Ramsay of the Court of Queen’s Bench; Judge Baby, now of the same court, being elected secretary-treasurer. Shortly after, in May, 1855, he was admitted to the bar, and immediately returned to England, where, on the 19th July, 1855, he was married to Sophia Louisa Robinson (a cousin), eldest daughter of the late Thomas Robinson, of London and Norwood, merchant, and returned to Montreal the same year, and commenced practising law in partnership with A. H. Lunn. He was employed by G. W. Wickstead, Q.C., law clerk of the Legislative Assembly of Canada, on behalf of the government, to compile a digested index of all the statute law in force from the conquest to that date, preparatory to a consolidation of the statutes, which work he accomplished to his satisfaction. In 1851, he entered the active militia force by joining the Montreal Light Infantry Battalion as second lieutenant, and served therein for seven years, until he was gazetted out on leaving limits as unattached, retaining his rank of captain. In 1858, at the suggestion of Judge Dunkin, who, at that time, was member for Drummond and Arthabaska, and who intended residing in Drummond county (and his father having just arrived from England and purchased a farm in the neighbourhood of Drummondville), he left his practice in Montreal and came to Drummondville, which was then nothing but a deserted village in the middle of the woods and out of the world, although practically thechef-lieuof the then newly constituted district of Arthabaska, the only resident lawyers living there; now, thanks to the railroad, Drummondville is a thriving village of two thousand inhabitants, with flourishing manufactures and magnificent water powers, but has lost its pre-eminence in law since the erection of a court house at thechef-lieu, and the formation of a resident bar at Arthabaskaville. Mr. Dunkin, however, being defeated afterwards by J. B. E. Dorion,l’Enfant Terrible, obtained a seat in Brome county and permanently settled in that county at Knowlton. In 1867, on the death ofl’Enfant Terrible(the then member for Drummond and Arthabaska), shortly before confederation, Mr. Hemming was invited by a large number of the electors to become a candidate for the Quebec legislature under confederation, and although he was opposed by the late Judge Dorion (a brother ofl’Enfant Terrible), on the Liberal side, and by N. Hébert, as a French Conservative, he had a majority over both candidates combined, and stood at the head of the poll with nearly two hundred majority, and this, notwithstanding that the constituency was five-sixths French. During that parliament he took a prominent part in inaugurating the railway fever of that time and the government policy of subsidizing the railways consequent thereon. He obtained a charter for what is now the northern branch of the South Eastern Railway, under the then name of the Richelieu, Drummond and Arthabaska River Railway, one hundred miles in length; successfully (for every one but himself) promoted the scheme and constructed the road, was elected president of the company and gave to L. A. Sénécal the first railway contract he ever had, and finally transferred the road to the South Eastern Company on certain conditions which, we regret to say, were never fully carried out. He also greatly developed the two counties by opening up colonization roads; and took an active part in revising the municipal code. During this time he was elected president of the Agricultural Society of the county of Drummond, No. 1, and held the office until the society was constituted for the whole county. In 1870, a vacancy occuring in the lucrative office of prothonotary for the district of Arthabaska, the Hon. M. Chauveau, the then premier, nominated him to the same, but a difficulty arising in connection with the Hon. G. Irvine, who was then solicitor-general in the Chauveau administration, and who represented a portion of the district, in order to oblige Hon. M. Chauveau, he finally consented to decline the nomination, and to present himself once more in 1871 for re-election against the Hon. W. Laurier, the Liberal candidate, but was defeated by a large majority, principally on the ground of nationality and railway difficulties. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Hemming was elected warden of the county of Drummond, which office he resigned, when two years afterwards, he was appointed district magistrate (the equivalent of county judge in the other provinces) for the districts of Arthabaska and St. Francis, in conjunction with G. E. Rioux, but practically the two districts were divided, Mr. Hemming taking the former, and Mr. Rioux the latter. About the same time it was commonly reported in the press and elsewhere, that he was to be the new Superior Court judge, for the district, as the representative of the Protestant element among the six new judges, but at the end the Protestant element was eliminated altogether. While holding the office of district magistrate he was named sole commissioner by the Quebec government to investigate and report on the management and working of the prothonotary’s and other offices in the Montreal court-house, including the police office. Mr. Bréhaut (a Protestant) having resigned his office of police magistrate, and received another appointment in consequence of this report, it was again positively reported that Mr. Hemming was to be appointed police magistrate in his stead, but at the very last moment Judge Desnoyers was substituted. In 1878, during Mr. Joly’s shortrégime, when great efforts were made to introduce the American system, “to the victors belong the spoils,” Mr. Hemming and thirteen other district magistrates had their commissions revoked, on the ground of economy, without receiving any indemnity whatever for the loss of their office, and Mr. Rioux, being a Liberal, was awarded Mr. Hemming’s district in addition to his own, thus eliminating the only Protestant on the police bench in the whole province of Quebec. Strange to say, the succeeding Conservative administration in Quebec never took any steps either to reinstate or indemnify Mr. Hemming for the loss of his office, although nearly all his French colleagues were provided for one way or the other. As he had to commence his practice anew he retired from public life for some years; but in 1881, at the urgent request of the local government, consented to run against the Hon. George Irvine in the Conservative interest in Megantic, but was again defeated, not having received the support promised him, and having entered into the contest only a week before the polling. In this year he was named census commissioner for the county of Drummond by the Dominion government; and in 1885 revising officer for the same county under the Franchise Act. Having a short time previously consented to take a part in municipal matters again, he was elected mayor of Drummondville and warden of the county for the second time. He was also elected syndic of the Bar of Arthabaska, which office he held until his recent appointment as joint prothonotary and Clerk of the Crown for that district. Mr. Hemming has for some years past been an associate member of the Protestant Committee of the Council of Public Instruction for the province of Quebec, where he has been working for some time past to procure the introduction of religious teaching in the Protestant public schools, and has so far succeeded as to have the Bible placed upon the list of authorized text books. In religious matters Mr. Hemming is a member of the Church of England, and has acted for many years past as lay reader whenever his services have been required. And on one occasion in the absence of a clergyman after the church at Drummondville was destroyed by fire, conducted the services for nearly a year, and thereby kept the congregation together. He was churchwarden of St. George’s Church, Drummondville, for eighteen years, and has been elected a delegate to the Diocesan Synod of Quebec and to the Provincial Synod since 1862 without any intermission, and during these 25 years has never failed attending a single session of either of these synods. Mr. Hemming is old-fashioned enough to believe in the Bible, and consequently has no faith in Darwinism, secular education or prohibition. With regard to the latter, he says he cannot bring himself to believe that the Saviour was a criminal when he made and drank wine at the marriage feast, nor when he commanded his disciples to drink wine in his memory at the Lord’s Supper. In politics, he is and has always been a Conservative, and does not believe in the principles of the French or American revolutions, nor in the divine right of the people, and he believes that authority ought to come from above and not from below. Mr. Hemming cannot understand the theory of allowing the fools to elect the wise men, nor why a majority should have the right to utterly crush out the minority, and still less why a small minority that happens to hold the balance of power under our constitution, should have the power of controlling the overwhelming majority of the nation. Neither does he believe in Adam Smith. He has been a protectionist ever since the times of Sir Robert Peel, D’Israeli and Lord George Bentinck, and has never seen any occasion to change his opinion, notwithstanding it was considered rank heresy to say so. After a lifetime he begins to see signs that the British are beginning to discover that our social system is founded on the family, each with its own interest (the nation being merely an extension of that idea), and that until the whole world becomes one family, the theory of free trade which is based on that idea must be inapplicable. It will be seen by the foregoing that Mr. Hemming has led a pretty active life, which may be considered as decidedly professional, having been a sailor, soldier, farmer, lawyer, legislator, judge, doctor (in law) and (lay) parson. His sons are taking different branches of the professions. His eldest son being a law student, another is in the Canadian army, being a lieutenant in the Infantry School corps, and a third in the Canadian marine, being second officer on board of one of the government cruisers for the protection of the fisheries.

McCosh, John, Barrister, Orillia, Ontario, was born in Paris, Brant county, Ontario, on the 6th September, 1844. His father, Robert McCosh, M.D., was a native of Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland, who graduated at the University of Edinburgh, and came to Canada in 1834. Shortly after his arrival he located in Paris, and in a very few years gained a large medical practice in the county of Brant. He died in 1862. His mother was a Miss Irwin, of Welland. She was from the north of Ireland, and emigrated with her mother and brothers about the year 1836. Her brothers became merchants, and carried on a large business, one in Paris, and the other in Galt. John McCosh received his education in the Paris High School, and subsequently studied law in the office of Clark Gamble, Q.C., Toronto, and afterwards in the office of the present Chief Justice Cameron. He was enrolled as a solicitor in 1868, and called to the bar in 1874. Mr. McCosh then opened a law office in Paris, where he continued to practise his profession for about two years, and in 1871 removed to Orillia, where he has since resided, and has succeeded in building up a lucrative business. Apart from his professional duties, Mr. McCosh has found time to devote a good deal of his time to the public good, and in appreciation of his disinterested services, his fellow-townsmen elected him, on different occasions, to the highest office in their gift, and he accordingly filled the office of mayor in the years 1881, 1882, and in 1886. He was also, in 1886, nominated for the Ontario legislature by the Liberal-Conservatives of East Simcoe, but afterwards withdrew from the canvass, he having failed to agree with the party on the “Protestant” and “Prohibition” cries. Mr. McCosh is a rising man, and we hope to see him some day in the legislature of his country. He is married to Mary Stanton, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Stanton, postmaster of Paris.

Norman, Rev. Richard Whitmore, M.A., D.C.L., Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, was born at Southborough, Kent, England, on 24th April, 1829. His father was Richard Norman, merchant, of London, son of George Norman, a large landed proprietor of Bromley, Kent, England; and his mother, Emma Stone, was a daughter of George Stone, of Chiselhurst, Kent, head of the oldest private banking house in London, now Martin & Co., 68 Lombard street. The subject of our sketch, Rev. Dr. Norman, was educated at King’s College, London, and afterwards at Exeter College, Oxford; and was, in 1852, ordained deacon, and priest in 1853. He was curate of St. Thomas, Oxford, in 1852; fellow of Radley College, 1853; fellow and head master of St. Michael’s College, Tenbury, 1857; and warden of Radley College, 1861 to 1866. In consequence of hard work his health became impaired, and he left England in 1866, in the hope that a short sojourn in Canada would do him good. He had not been long on this side the Atlantic when his health began to improve, and family circumstances prompted him to make Canada his future home. Previous to his coming here he had but slight experience in strictly ministerial work, his principal labours in England having been connected with higher education; but since then he has heartily thrown himself into pastoral work, without having entirely abandoned education. In 1868 he was appointed assistant at St. John the Evangelist’s Church, Montreal; assistant at St. James the Apostle’s Church, 1872; rector of St. Matthias Church, 1883; and is now (1887) canon assistant of Christ Church Cathedral. Rev. Dr. Norman was, in 1878, a member of the council and vice-chancellor of the University of Bishop’s College; a member of the Protestant School Board in 1879, and chairman of the same in 1880; vice-president of the Montreal Art Association in 1882, and president in 1887; vice-president of the Montreal Philharmonic Society in 1879; member of the Protestant Committee of Public Instruction in 1883; hon. clerical secretary of the Anglican Provincial Synod in 1880; and in 1882 was elected a fellow of McGill College, Montreal. Rev. Dr. Norman belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and occupied the position of worshipful master of Apollo University lodge, Oxford, in 1861-1863, and the same office in Abingdon lodge in 1864. He was also eminent commander of encampment Cœur-de-Lion, Oxford, 1858. Rev. Dr. Norman has published several volumes of sermons, and various pamphlets, which have been well received by the public. He is still in the prime of life, and we hope has many years of usefulness still before him. He has always been a member of the Anglican communion, and is unmarried.

Rice, Charles, Registrar of the High Court of Justice, etc., Perth, Ontario, was born on the 7th of November, 1822, in the township of Drummond, in the county of Lanark, about two miles from the town of Perth, which then contained but a few log buildings used chiefly for government stores, the settlement being composed of discharged soldiers and their families located by the government at the close of the American war of 1812. His father, John Rice, was born in the county Down, Ireland, at or near Newry, and was descended from a collateral branch of the Monteagle family. Returning home from school one afternoon when about sixteen years old, he was kidnapped by the press-gang and forced on board a British man-of-war bound on a cruise for the coast of Newfoundland and Gulf of St. Lawrence. He continued on board ship doing duty as a sailor, until the American war broke out, when he left the vessel and enlisted as a private soldier in the Newfoundland Fencibles and took part in the battles of Chrysler’s Farm, Stoney Creek, Burlington Heights, and other engagements. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant, was wounded at Burlington Heights, and at the close of the war got his discharge with a pension and a grant of land. He had married Hannah Van Boeler, then the widow of John Woodlands, who had been killed in battle. She was born at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, of Dutch parents who had emigrated from the Netherlands and settled at Annapolis. They were descended from those sturdy and brave Dutchmen who had battled for their liberty for forty years against the colossal power of Spain under Phillip II. John Rice, through hard work, had effected a considerable clearance on his lot, and was prospering apace, when one summer, at the latter end of August, the barn in which all the produce of the farm had been stored, took fire and was burned down with all its contents, and he had to run in debt to the late Hon. R. Matheson for supplies to support the family for an entire year. This debt accumulated in Matheson’s books at compound interest at ten per cent., and in a few years Matheson got a deed of the farm, with a verbal understanding to re-convey when the debt should be paid off, which was never done in the lifetime of John Rice. Born and brought up in a log shanty, in what was then the backwoods, the subject of this sketch, Charles Rice, had but a poor chance of getting any education. There were no public schools, no free schools, in those days; and at intervals he was sent to a private school kept in Perth by the late Mr. Hudson, and afterwards to another kept by the late Dawson Kerr. On arriving at the age of fourteen Mr. Rice had been at school for about two years in all, and had only acquired some knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic. When about twelve years old, in the month of November, he hired out at six dollars a month to burn coal to earn money to buy himself a pair of boots for the winter. The following year, in the beginning of December, he hired as bookkeeper with Aaron Chambers, who had a lumber shanty, taking out oak timber near Peter McArthur’s, in the township of Beckwith. He started on foot and walked to Franktown, fifteen miles, and arrived there at dark only to find that he had five miles farther to go to reach the shanty, through a section of country and bush roads that he knew nothing about; but by following closely the directions given him, he succeeded in finding the place some two or three hours after dark. This was Saturday night. Chambers had hired him to keep his books, and on Sunday informed him that besides keeping the books he would have to cook for the men and chop the fire-wood. This he refused to do, and on Monday morning left the shanty and footed it home. He continued to work on the farm until about sixteen years old, when he was apprenticed to James Thompson (the present sheriff), to learn the printing business in the oldBathurst Courieroffice (now thePerth Courier). This was in May, 1839. About two years and a half after this, in the beginning of winter, he left theCourieroffice, took the stage to Brockville, thence by stage to Kingston (there were no railroads in those days), and arrived there at night penniless but not despairing. The KingstonNewshad just been started by S. and J. Rowlands, and he got work on this newspaper. The following summer he returned home, his father having died in the meantime, and worked for about two years longer in theCourieroffice. Ere he had been a year in theCourier, for the first time, he became convinced that if he was to succeed in the printing business, he must acquire a better education than he then had. A young lawyer in town, Henry Sache, who was sometimes hard up through nobody’s fault but his own, offered to sell him a Latin dictionary cheap. He closed the bargain and bought it, and at once determined to study Latin. The reader will no doubt smile when informed that he commenced his studies by committing the Latin dictionary to memory! A few evenings afterwards Mr. Sache, coming in and finding him intent at the dictionary, asked what he was doing. He replied that he had commenced to study Latin, and was learning the dictionary off by heart. His visitor smiled, and informed him that he would never learn the language that way—that he must get a Latin grammar, study that, and then commence to translate. But where was he to get a Latin grammar? Sache had sold his, and there was none for sale in Perth. The nearest place was Brockville; and so he got the stage-driver on his next trip to buy him one and bring it out, and how he exulted over the possession of that book! Every spare moment was thenceforth devoted to study, and with some assistance that he got from Ephraim Patterson, who was then studying for the church, he made pretty rapid progress. This intercourse with Patterson had induced in him a desire to study for the Church of England ministry. He talked the matter over with the late Rev. Michael Harris, and on a confirmation visit to Perth, he had an interview with Bishop Strachan on the subject. They both approved his decision, and while offering words of encouragement, pointed out the great difficulties that would have to be overcome, the subjects that would require to be studied and mastered before he could take a college degree and qualify for holy orders. Nothing daunted, the young man determined to persevere—what others had done he could do—it was only a question of time. He now reduced his course of studies to a system. He had to work ten hours a day in the printing office to support himself; so he rose at four o’clock in the morning, winter and summer, and studied Greek till six, when work commenced at type-setting. Of the breakfast hour and dinner hour he devoted forty minutes of each to the study of Euclid. From seven till ten p.m. was devoted to the study of Latin. Of course, his health occasionally broke down under this severe strain and compelled a short cessation, but only to be resumed again. Kingston was the seat of government when young Rice went there the second time and got work in theNewsoffice. Parliament opened in the fall, and Dr. Barker, of theBritish Whig, secured the contract for the government printing; and as he offered higher wages than theNewswas paying, young Rice entered theWhigoffice on the parliamentary work. Lord Metcalfe was governor at the time, and quarrelled with his ministers (Baldwin, Lafontaine, Rolph, etc.), on the question of responsible government. The ministry resigned, parliament was dissolved, the work in theWhigoffice stopped, and a lot of journeyman printers, young Rice among the rest, were thrown out of work, and he concluded to return to Perth, which at that time and at that season of the year was no easy matter. A small steamer, the last of the season, was advertised to leave Kingston for Brockville, and on this steamer he took passage and left in the afternoon, arriving in Brockville about four o’clock the next morning; the steamer’s paddle-wheels having got so coated with ice as to render progress difficult and slow. From Brockville he took the stage to Perth, a two-wheeled cart drawn by two horses, and the journey to Perth in that cart over rough and hard frozen roads, on a cold December day, was one not soon to be forgotten. Once more in Perth, he engaged with Mr. Thompson to work on theCourierhalf time, an arrangement which just suited him, as it gave him means enough to live on, and afforded ample time to pursue his studies. And here it may be as well to mention that while living in Kingston, a Frenchman from Paris, who was giving private lessons in French in the city, came to board in the same house. This was an opportunity not to be lost, and young Rice at once entered on the study of the French language, and worked at it diligently every evening after tea; and when he left Kingston six months after, he could read, write, and speak French with tolerable fluency. The arrangement with Mr. Thompson was only temporary, as Mr. Thompson entered upon the study of law in the office of the late W. O. Buell, and took Mr. Rice into partnership to manage and conduct theCourierbusiness, as Mr. Thompson’s name had to be dropped from the paper on signing articles as a law student. At this time Mr. Rice entered upon his career as a journalist, his political articles, however, being revised by Mr. Thompson. The partnership continued until the first of January, 1852, when Mr. Thompson, having been appointed sheriff of the county of Lanark, sold out theCourierprinting office to Mr. Rice, who continued to publish and edit the paper, having changed the name to thePerth Courier, until the first of January, 1863, when he sold out to the late G. L. Walker, brother of the present publisher and editor, Jas. M. Walker, and thenceforth ceased all connection with political journalism. In May, 1862, the Canadian parliament was in session in Quebec, and Sir John A. Macdonald’s ministry was defeated by a small majority, and the late John Sanfield Macdonald was called upon to found a new ministry, which he succeeded in doing. At this time the office of County Court clerk, deputy-clerk of the Crown, and registrar of Surrogate Court was vacant by the death of the late C. H. Sache. On the change of government, and the reform party coming into power, Mr. Rice at once applied for the office, and on the 10th of June was appointed to fill the vacancy, and which office he still holds (May, 1886). In 1864 Mr. Rice was appointed by the Hon. John Sanfield Macdonald to the commission of the peace. In 1856 he bought out the book and stationery store of Wm. Allan, but after continuing the business for two years, and finding it did not succeed to his satisfaction, wound it up and again confined his attention exclusively to the newspaper business. During his connection with the press, Mr. Rice was a strong and pronounced advocate of reform principles and responsible government, his political editorials on the questions of the day being often copied into other journals. The legislative union between Upper and Lower Canada did not work well, owing to differences in sectional interests, race and religion. Among the many schemes proposed to make the machinery of government work more smoothly, and allay sectional jealousies, was the one known as the “double majority” principle, advocated by John Sanfield Macdonald, and opposed by George Brown and theGlobe. Mr. Macdonald’s scheme was that all measures purely local to Lower Canada should be dealt with by Lower Canadian members exclusively; and those purely local to Upper Canada, by Upper Canada members exclusively; while general measures affecting the whole province should be dealt with by the united parliament as a whole. Mr. Rice, in the editorial columns of theCourier, supported Mr. Macdonald’s scheme. Confederation came shortly after, and partly solved the problem. During his connection with the press, Mr. Rice took an active part in all the election contests and political movements in the county of Lanark. He gave the influence of the paper in supporting the Brockville and Ottawa Railway scheme, which has since developed into the great Canadian Pacific Railway. He was the first to advocate the construction of plank roads in the county of Lanark, resulting in the formation of a company, and making the plank road from Perth to Lanark, which has since become macadamised. He was ever foremost in advocating schemes of public enterprise and improvement. Since his retirement from journalism, Mr. Rice has contributed several articles on various subjects of a non-political nature to the public press, which have appeared in theLiberal, theNational, theWeek, theGlobe,Canadian Monthly, and local papers. Probably those that have attracted most attention are his articles against prohibitory liquor laws, and notably, the Scott Act. Mr. Rice was brought up in the Church of England faith, was baptized by the Rev. M. Harris, and confirmed by Bishop Strachan. He was a constant attendant at that church, but his outspoken advocacy of reform principles in his newspaper exasperated some of the more hot-headed tories; and one Sunday morning, on going to church, he was confronted with a placard stuck up on the church door denouncing and libelling him on account of his political opinions. He never entered the church again, and joined the Presbyterian Free church. While pursuing his studies for the ministry he had access to the theological library of the Rev. M. Harris, and read the best standard works on church history and Christian evidences, as well as the doctrinal standards of the church. The evidence and arguments contained in these works, however, did not satisfy him—he felt that there was a weakness and a want running through them—something ignored that ought to have appeared; and he determined to see and know the other side and sift the matter to the bottom. With this view, he purchased and read the latest modern works on Christian evidences and Biblical criticism—Strauss, Renan, the Jubingen school, Dr. Davidson, Mackay, Kimberly, Greig, and many others; and the scientific works of Darwin, Spencer, Huxly, Lyell, Tyndall, Buchner, Heckel, Combe, Lubbick, Fiske, and many others, and finally, after many years of study and research, settled down into a confirmed Agnostic. The knowledge he had acquired of the Latin, Greek, and French languages was of great service to him in his reading and studies. On the 18th of April, 1848, he married Grace Murray, daughter of the late James Murray, a native of Paisley, Scotland, who had emigrated to this country and settled in the township of Lanark. Brought up in the backwoods like himself, her educational acquirements were not much, and, like himself, she was chiefly self-taught; but she naturally possessed more than an average share of strong, sound, practical common sense—invaluable qualities in a woman; and her sound, sensible advice prudently given and judiciously acted upon many times proved of great value to her husband in surmounting business difficulties. Five children were born of the marriage, two sons and three daughters. The oldest son, John Albert, grew up to be a young man of promise. At the age of eighteen he was attending the Military School at Toronto, when the Fenian raid occurred, and accompanied the volunteers to Ridgeway. On their return to Toronto he was presented by the volunteers with a silver-headed cane, with suitable inscription, as a token of their appreciation of the services he had rendered. He afterwards published and edited theParis Transcript, in the county of Brant, for about two years, but failing health compelled him to abandon it, and shortly after his return home he died. One daughter, Jeanetta, died at the age of fourteen of heart disease. The oldest daughter, Carrie Elizabeth, married Joseph Lamont, proprietor of the Headquarters hotel in the city of Fargo, Dakota, where the youngest daughter, Ida, in November, 1883, died from accidental poisoning, on the eve of her marriage to Charles Scott, now mayor of the city of Fargo. The youngest son, James M., is working at the printing business in Chicago. So that all Mr. Rice’s posterity seem destined to be citizens of the United States. Unaided and unassisted from any person or any quarter, by indomitable perseverance and a determination to succeed, Mr. Rice worked his way up from a log shanty in the woods to his present position of local registrar of the High Court of Justice. He never wholly failed in anything he undertook to do. If he had to cross a mountain and could not climb it, he would go around. Although it is twenty-three years since he retired from journalism, Mr. Rice’s name is still retained on the books of the Canadian Press Association.

Taylor, Henry, Hardware Merchant, Perth, Ontario, one of our young and pushing business men, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 9th of June, 1845. His father was Robert Taylor, merchant, Edinburgh; and his mother, Margaret, eldest daughter of William Darling, also a merchant in Edinburgh. Mr. Taylor, jr., was educated at private schools in his native city, and received a sound mercantile education. His father died when he was about ten years of age, and on the death of his mother in the spring of 1863 he, along with his brother William (now a merchant in Toronto), arrived in Montreal. Until 1872 he held positions in several of the leading hardware houses there, when he purchased the hardware business in Perth, county of Lanark, which he is now successfully carrying on. Mr. Taylor, for six years, belonged to the Victoria Rifles, Montreal, and served with his corps at Huntingdon, Quebec province, during the Fenian troubles of 1866. In politics Mr. Taylor is a Reformer; and in religion an adherent of the Presbyterian church. He was married, in Montreal, on the 5th November, 1868, to Sarah A., eldest daughter of Rev. Samuel Massey, and has a family of seven children, five daughters and two sons.

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