# The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)

John Dent

## THE EARL OF DUFFERIN

Of all the many personages who have been sent over from Great Britain to administer the Government in this country, since Canada first became an appendage of the British Crown, none has achieved so wide a popularity as Lord Dufferin. None of his predecessors succeeded in creating so wide a circle of personal friends, and none has left so many pleasant remembrances behind him. Lord Dorchester was a Governor, but the area over which his sway extended was very small as compared with the vast Dominion embraced within the purview of Lord Dufferin; and the inhabitants in his day were chiefly composed of the representatives of a single nationality. Lord Elgin was popular, but the exigencies of his position compelled him to make bitter enemies; and while every one, at the present day, acknowledges his great capacity and sterling worth, there was a time when he was subjected to grievous contumely and shameful indignity. Lord Dufferin, on the other hand, won golden opinions from the time of his first arrival in Canada, and when he left our shores he carried with him substantial tokens of the affection and good-will of the inhabitants. One single episode in his administration threatened, for a brief space, to interfere with the cordial relations between himself and one section of the people. His own prudence and tact, combined with the liberality and good sense of those who differed from him, enabled him to tide over the critical time; and long before his departure from among us he could number most of the latter among his warm personal friends. His Vice-Regal progresses made the lines of his face and the tones of his voice familiar to the inhabitants of every Province. Wherever he went he increased the number of his well-wishers, and won additional respect for his personal attainments. He identified himself with the popular sympathies, and entered with a keen zest into every question affecting the public welfare. He will long live in the memory of the Canadian people as a wise administrator, an accomplished statesman, a brilliant orator, a genial companion, and a sincere friend of the land which he was called upon to govern.

He is descended, on the paternal side, from a Scottish gentleman named John Blackwood, who went over from his native country to Ireland, and settled in the county Down, towards the close of the sixteenth century. The family has ever since resided in that county, and has played a not unimportant part in the political history of Ireland. In 1763 a baronetcy was conferred upon the then chief representative of the family, who was conspicuous in his day and generation as a vehement supporter of the Whig side in politics. In 1800 the head of the family was created an Irish peer, with the title of Baron Dufferin and Clandeboye. The father of the present representative was Price, fourth Baron, who succeeded to the title in 1839. Fourteen years prior to his accession to the title — that is to say, in the year 1825 — this gentleman married Miss Helen Selina Sheridan, a granddaughter of the Right Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The distinguished orator and dramatist, as all the world knows, had a son named Thomas Sheridan, who inherited no inconsiderable share of his father's wit and genius. Thomas — better known as Tom — Sheridan, had three daughters, all of whom were prominent members of English society, and were conspicuous alike for personal beauty and the brilliancy of their intellectual accomplishments. One of them was the beautiful Lady Seymour, afterwards Duchess of Somerset, who presided as Queen of Beauty at the famous tournament held at the Earl of Eglinton's seat in Scotland, in the month of August, 1839. Another daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Caroline Norton, won distinction by her poetical effusions, and by several novels, one of which, "Stuart of Dunleath," is a work exhibiting a high degree of mental power. This lady, whose domestic misfortunes formed at one time an absorbing topic of discussion in England, survived until 1877, having some months before her death been married to the late Sir W. Stirling Maxwell. The remaining daughter, Harriet Selina, was the eldest of the three. She, as we have seen, married Captain Price Blackwood, and subsequently became Lady Dufferin upon her husband's accession to the title in 1839. She also won a name in literature by numerous popular songs and ballads, the best known of which is "The Irish Emigrant's Lament." She was left a widow in 1841, and twenty-one years later, by a second marriage, became Countess of Gifford. She died in 1867. Her only son, Frederick Temple, the subject of this sketch, was born at Florence, in Italy, on the 21st of June, 1826.

He received his early education at Eton College, and subsequently at Christ Church, Oxford. He passed through the curriculum with credit, but left the University without taking a degree. In the month of July, 1841, when he had only just completed his fifteenth year, his father's death took place, and he thus succeeded to the family titles six years before attaining his majority. During the first Administration of Lord John Russell he officiated as one of the Lords-in-Waiting to Her Majesty; and again filled a similar position for a short time a few years later.

One of the most memorable passages in his early career was a visit paid by him to Ireland during the terrible famine which broke out there in 1846. Deriving his titles from Ireland, where the greater part of his property is situated, and being desirous of doing his duty by his tenantry, he had almost from boyhood paid a good deal of attention to the question of land-tenure in that country. With a view to extending his knowledge by personal observation, he set out from Oxford, accompanied by his friend, the Hon. Mr. Boyle, and went over, literally, to spy out the nakedness of the famine-stricken land. They for the first time in their lives found themselves face-to-face with misery in one of its most appalling shapes. They were young, kind-hearted and generous, and the scenes wherewith they were daily brought into contact made an impression upon their minds that has never been effaced. They published an account of their travels under the title of "A Narrative of a Journey from Oxford to Skibbereen, during the year of the Irish Famine," and devoted the proceeds of the sale of the narrative to the relief of the starving sufferers of Skibbereen. The realms of fiction may be ransacked in vain for anything more truly pathetic and heart-rending in its terrible, vigorous realism, than is this truthful picture of human privation and suffering. Upon one occasion, having bought a huge basket of bread for distribution among the most needy, they were completely besieged as soon as their intention became known. "Something like an orderly distribution was attempted," says the narrative, "but the dreadful hunger and impatience of the poor people by whom the donors were surrounded rendered this absolutely impossible, and the bread was thrown out, loaf by loaf, from a window, the struggles of the famished women over the insufficient supply being dreadful to witness." Of course, all they could do to alleviate the sufferings in the district was of little avail, but they gave to the extent of their ability, and the poor, famishing creatures were warmly touched by their unfeigned and tearful sympathy. When the two gentlemen left the town, their carriage was followed beyond the outskirts by crowds of suffering poor who implored the Divine blessing upon their heads. The publication of the "Narrative," moreover, aroused a general feeling of philanthropy throughout the whole of England and Scotland, and liberal contributions were sent over for the benefit of those who stood most in need of assistance.

The practical knowledge of the condition of the Irish people acquired by Lord Dufferin during this visit was such as the most diligent study of blue-books could not have imparted. From this time forward he gave more attention than ever to the Irish question. It was a question in which he might well take a deep interest, for he was dependent upon the rent of his estates in county Down for the bulk of his income. His unselfishness, however, was signally proved by the stand he took, which was on the side of tenant-right. He has written and spoken much on the subject, and has contributed more than his share towards enabling the world to arrive at a just conclusion respecting it. His public utterances displayed a genuine philanthropy and breadth of view, mingled, at times, with a quaint and touching humour, which attracted the attention of every statesman in the kingdom. Twenty years before Mr. Gladstone's Irish Land Act was passed, its provisions had been anticipated by Lord Dufferin, and urged upon the attention of the House of Lords. In an eloquent and elaborate speech delivered before that Body in 1854 he suggested and outlined nearly every important legislative reform with reference to Irish Land Tenure which has since been brought about. A work on "Irish Emigration, and the Tenure of Land in Ireland," gave still wider currency to his views on the subject, and it began to be perceived that the brilliant young Irish peer had ideas well worthy of the consideration of Parliament. He was created an English baron in 1850, by the title of Baron Clandeboye.

In politics he was a moderate Whig. The leading members of his party recognized his high abilities, and thought it desirable to enlist them in the public service. An opportunity soon presented itself. In the month of February, 1855, Lord John Russell was appointed as British Plenipotentiary to the conference to be held at Vienna for the purpose of settling the terms of peace between Russia and Turkey. Lord John invited Lord Dufferin to accompany him on the mission as a special attaché. The invitation was accepted, and Lord Dufferin repaired to the Austrian capital, where he remained until the close of the ineffectual conference. Soon after his return to England he determined upon a long yachting tour in the far northern seas, and in the early summer of 1856 he started on his adventurous voyage. The chronicle of this expedition, written with graphic force and humour by the pen of Lord Dufferin himself, has long been before the world under the title of "Letters from High Latitudes." The voyage, which lasted several months, was made in the schooner-yacht Foam, and included Iceland, Jan Meyen and Spitzbergen in its scope. There is no necessity for extended comment upon a book that has been read by pretty nearly everybody in Canada. Who is there among us who has not laughed over the account of that marvellous bird that, as the nights became shorter and shorter, never slept for more than five minutes at a stretch, without waking up in a state of nervous agitation lest it might be cock-crow; that was troubled by low spirits, owing to the mysterious manner in which a fresh member of his harem used to disappear daily; and that finally, overburdened by contemplation, went melancholy mad and committed suicide? Or over that extraordinary dog-Latin after-dinner speech by Lord Dufferin during his stay in the Icelandic capital, as voraciously recorded in Letter VI.? And who among us has failed to recognize the graphic power of description displayed in the account of the Geysers? Or the weird poetic force of "The Black Death of Bergen"? In all these various kinds of composition the author showed great natural aptitude, and his book, as a whole, is one of the most interesting chronicles of travel in our language.

In 1860 Lord Dufferin was for the first time despatched abroad as the head of an important diplomatic mission. In the summer of that year, Great Britain, France, Russia and other European powers united in sending an expedition to Syria to protect the lives and property of Europeans, and to arrest the further effusion of blood in the threatened conflicts between the Druses and the Maronites. The immediate occasion of the expedition was a shocking massacre of Syrian Christians that had recently taken place, and a recurrence of which was considered highly probable. Turkey professed inability to deal effectively with the matter, and it became necessary that the leading European powers should interfere in the cause of humanity. Lord Dufferin was appointed by Lord Palmerston as Commissioner on behalf of Great Britain. He went out to Syria, where he remained some months. He proved himself admirably qualified to discharge a delicate diplomatic mission, and by his tact, good-nature and popular manners, no less than by his practical wisdom and good sense, succeeded in effecting a satisfactory settlement of the matter. As a testimony of the Government's appreciation of his services he immediately after his return received the Order of a Knight Commander of the Bath (Civil Division). Another result of his mission was the publication, in 1867, of "Notes on Ancient Syria," a work which, as its title imports, smacks more of reading than of observation.

It fell to Lord Dufferin's lot, in December, 1861, to move the address in the House of Lords, in answer to Her Majesty's Speech from the Throne, referring to the death of the Prince Consort. The occasion was one upon which the speaker might be expected to do his best, and the speech made by him on that occasion drew tears from eyes which had long been unaccustomed to weep. A perusal of it makes one regret that Lord Dufferin's legitimate place was not in the other House, where his talent for oratory would have had an opportunity of growing, and where he would unquestionably have gained a high reputation as a parliamentary speaker. It is a simple matter of fact that in the dull, lifeless atmosphere of the House of Lords, Lord Dufferin's talents were almost thrown away. In the Commons he would have made a figure, with a nation for his audience.

On the 23rd of October, 1862, he married Harriot Georgina, eldest daughter of the late Archibald Rowan Hamilton, of Killyleagh Castle, county Down. This lady, whose lineaments are almost as well known to Canadians as are those of His Lordship, still survives, and is the happy mother of a numerous family. In 1863 Lord Dufferin became a Knight of St. Patrick; and in the following year he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of the county Down. About the same time he was offered the position of Under-Secretary of State for India, which he accepted. In 1865 he was subjected to a searching examination respecting his views on the Irish Land question, before a Select Committee of the House of Commons. His examination lasted four days, and his evidence proved of incalculable value in the framing of the Act of Parliament which was passed before the close of the session. Several years later he put forth a vigorous pamphlet entitled, "An Examination of Mr. Mill's Plan for the Pacification of Ireland," in which he criticised John Stuart Mill's proposal that the landed estates of Irish landlords should be brought to a forced sale. Lord Dufferin's thorough knowledge of his subject, added to the fact that his views were sound, proved too much, even for the Master of Logic, who had made his proposal without due consideration of the subject, and on an incomplete statement of the facts.

Lord Dufferin continued to fill the post of Secretary of State for India until early in 1866, when he was offered the Governorship of Bombay. The state of his mother's health — she had already begun to sink under the malady to which she finally succumbed a year later — was such as to forbid her accompanying him to India, and Lord Dufferin was too affectionate a son to leave her behind. He was accordingly compelled to decline the appointment. He accepted instead the post of Under-Secretary to the War Department, which he retained until the close of Earl Russell's Administration, in June, 1866. Upon the return of the Liberal Party to power under Mr. Gladstone, in the end of 1868, Lord Dufferin became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a position which he retained up to the time of his being appointed Governor-General of Canada. He was also appointed Paymaster-General, and was sworn in as a Member of Her Majesty's Privy Council. In November, 1871, he was made an Earl and Viscount of the United Kingdom, under the titles of Earl of Dufferin and Viscount Clandeboye.

The successive dignities thus heaped upon him are sufficient evidence of the rising favour with which he was regarded by the Members of the Government; and as matter of fact he had made great progress in the esteem of the leading members of his Party generally. On the 22nd of May, 1872, he received the appointment which was destined to give Canadians a special interest in his career — that of Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada.

By the great mass of Canadians the news of this appointment was received with a feeling very much akin to indifference. The fact is that, except among reading men, and persons intimately familiar with the diplomatic history of Great Britain during the preceding twenty years, the name of Lord Dufferin was entirely unknown in this country. A few middle-aged and elderly persons remembered that an Irish peer named Lord Dufferin had made an eloquent speech on the death of the Prince Consort. Others remembered that a peer of that name had done something noteworthy in Syria. A few had read or heard of "Letters from High Latitudes;" but not one of us suspected that the new Governor-General was destined to be the most popular representative of Great Britain known to Canadian history. It was not suspected that, for the first time during many years, we were to have at the head of our Administration a statesman of deep sympathies and enlarged views; a nobleman combining elegant learning and brilliant powers of oratory with a tact and bonhomie which would win for him the friendship and respect of Canadians of all social ranks, and of all grades of political opinion. By many of us the office of a Governor-General in Canada had come to be looked upon as a sort of sinecure; as a part which any man not absolutely a dunce is capable of playing. We regarded the Governor-General merely as the Royal representative; as a figurehead whose duties consist of doing as he is bid. He has responsible advisers who prescribe for him a certain line of action, and all he has to do is to obey. When his Cabinet loses the confidence of Parliament, he either sends them about their business or accepts their resignation. The successors selected for him by the dominant majority are accepted as a matter of course, and everything goes on da capo. This, or something like this, was the way we had learned to estimate the powers and functions which Lord Dufferin was coming among us to discharge. It was reserved for him to give us a juster appreciation of the position of a Canadian Governor-General. The lesson learned by us during the six years of his residence among us is one that Canadians will not soon forget. The learning of it has perhaps made us unduly exacting, and it would have been most unfortunate had his successor been chosen from the ranks of respectable mediocrity whence Colonial Governors are not unfrequently selected. Happily the choice fell upon a gentleman whose character and attainments bear some affinity to those of his predecessor, and the dignity and respect due to the Governor-General are not likely to suffer depreciation while the office remains in his hands.

There was one circumstance which led many Canadians to look upon the appointment of Lord Dufferin with no friendly eyes. He had been appointed by the Gladstone Government, and the Gladstone Government had manifested a disposition to treat Canada rather cavalierly. Canadian interests had not been very efficiently cared for at the negotiation of the Treaty of Washington, and there had been a good deal of diplomatic correspondence between the Canadian and Imperial Governments, in which the latter had pretty clearly intimated that Canada's separation from the Mother Country would not be regarded as an irreparable loss to the Empire at large. The London Times openly advocated such a separation, and it was known to speak the sentiments of persons high in power. It was even conjectured by some of the more suspicious that Lord Dufferin had been appointed for the express purpose of carrying out an Imperial project for a separation between Canada and Great Britain. Had His Lordship been a weak or commonplace man he would most probably have had a very uncomfortable time of it in Canada. He was neither weak nor commonplace, however, and he began to be popular from the very hour of his arrival in the country. By the time he had been six months among us everyone spoke well of him; and long before his administration came to an end he had gained a firm hold on the hearts of the people throughout the length and breadth of our land.

He arrived at Quebec on the 25th of June, 1872. During the same day he was sworn in as Governor-General, and two days later reached his seat of Government at Ottawa. There is no need to describe in minute detail the various events which characterized his administration. Those events are still fresh in all our memories, and have been recorded at full length by two Canadian authors — Mr. Stewart and Mr. Leggo — in works to which everyone has access. For these reasons it is considered unnecessary to give more than a brief summary in these pages.

During the summer of 1872 Lord Dufferin made the first of his memorable Vice-Regal tours, visiting Toronto, Hamilton, London, Niagara Falls, and other places of interest in the Province of Ontario. To say that he made a marvellously favourable impression wherever he went is simply to say what everybody knows, and what might equally be said of all his subsequent progresses through the Dominion. There was a general election during the summer and autumn of this year, and an opportunity was thus afforded His Excellency for observing the working of our political institutions at such a time.

The result of the elections was a majority in favour of Sir John A. Macdonald's Ministry. Parliament met in the following March, and on the 2nd of April Mr. Huntington made his serious, and now historic, charge against the Government, in connection with the granting of the Pacific Railway Charter, and the corrupt sale to Sir Hugh Allan. A motion was made for a committee of investigation, but was voted down as a motion of want of confidence in the Government. A few days later, Sir John, knowing that a policy of reticence could not long be available, himself moved for a committee. The motion was passed, and the committee was appointed, but was unable to proceed, owing to its inability to take evidence on oath. A Bill was introduced into the House to give the committee the power required, and was passed without opposition, but was subsequently disallowed by the Imperial Government as being ultra vires. Meanwhile the inquiry was proceeded with; but on the 5th of May, owing to the absence from the country of three important witnesses — Sir George E. Cartier, Sir Hugh Allan and the Hon. J. J. C. Abbott — the committee deemed it advisable to adjourn to the 2nd of July. The ordinary Parliamentary business had been got through with, and there was no necessity for the House remaining in session; but, as the committee had no authority to sit during recess, it was thought desirable that there should be an adjournment of Parliament instead of a prorogation, until the committee should be prepared with its report. Accordingly, on the 23rd of May, Parliament adjourned to the 13th of August, when it was agreed that it should meet expressly for the purpose of receiving the committee's report, and not for the despatch of ordinary legislative business. It would thus be unnecessary for the Governor-General to be present at the formal reassembling, and soon after the adjournment His Excellency, with his family, started on a projected tour through the Maritime Provinces. On the 27th of June, while on his travels, he received a telegram from Lord Kimberley, Secretary for the Colonies in the Home Government, announcing the disallowance of the "Oaths Bill," as it was called, viz., the Act authorizing Parliamentary committees to examine witnesses under oath. He at once gave notice of the disallowance to the Premier, Sir John A. Macdonald, who made it known to the committee. The committee was composed of five members, three of whom were supporters of the Government, and the remaining two of the Opposition. The Government supporters were the Hon. J. G. Blanchet, the Hon. James Macdonald (of Pictou), and the Hon. John Hillyard Cameron. The Opposition members were the Hon. Edward Blake and the Hon. A. A. Dorion. On the 1st of July a proclamation was issued giving public notice of the disallowance of the Oaths Bill. The Premier offered to issue a Royal Commission to the committee, which would enable it to take evidence under oath, and to demand the production of persons, papers and records. The proposal was rejected by Messrs. Blake and Dorion, who wrote to the Premier pointing out to him that the inquiry was undertaken by the House; that the appointment of a Royal Commission by a Government to investigate charges against that Government would be an unheard-of and most unbecoming proceeding; and that the House did not expect the Crown or anyone else to obstruct the inquiry.

When the Parliament met, pursuant to adjournment, on the 13th of August, the committee, having been prevented from taking evidence, was unable to report. A numerously signed memorial was presented to His Excellency praying that there might be no prorogation of Parliament until the charges against the existing Government had been subjected to investigation. His Excellency, however, replied that he felt bound to act on the advice of his Ministry. His Ministry advised him to prorogue Parliament, and prorogued it accordingly was. Every Canadian remembers the tumultuous scene which ensued — a scene almost without parallel in modern Parliamentary history; a faint reflex of that memorable episode which took place in the English House of Commons two hundred and twenty years before.

The next act in the drama was the appointment by His Excellency of a Royal Commission on his own authority. It was issued to the Hon. C. D. Day, the Hon. Antoine Polette, and James Robert Gowan, three judges learned in the law. The commission met, and on the opening of the session in the following October its report was laid before Parliament. The contents are familiar to every reader of these pages, and do not form an attractive subject for extended comment. There could no longer be any doubt as to the course to be taken by the Premier. A few days afterwards Sir John Macdonald's Government resigned, and Mr. Mackenzie was called upon to form a new one. This he soon succeeded in doing, and on the 7th of November the new Administration took office. As was abundantly proved at the ensuing elections, the new government had the confidence of the country.

During the progress of these events, Lord Dufferin was assailed with a good deal of rancour by one section of the Canadian press. The question now to be considered is: How far were these assaults justifiable? In other words: How far, if at all, was Lord Dufferin to blame?

The principal allegations made against him were, that his sympathies all through this deplorable episode in our political history were with Sir John Macdonald and his colleagues; that he assisted the latter to postpone and evade investigation into their conduct; that his partisanship was evinced by his prompt transmission of the Oaths Bill for Imperial consideration, and by his subsequent prorogation of Parliament in defiance of the wishes of a large body of the members.

It must be borne in mind, in considering these matters, that we at the present day are in a much better position to form a correct opinion respecting them than Lord Dufferin could possibly be in the summer of 1873. He came to this country an utter stranger to every man in Canadian public life. He found at the head of affairs a gentleman who had long held the reins of power; who had a very wide circle of warm personal friends; who was regarded with affectionate loyalty by his Party; and whose Government enjoyed an overwhelming support in Parliament. With such a support at its back, the Government might reasonably lay claim to possessing the confidence of the Canadian people, and, possessing such confidence, it was entitled to the confidence of Her Majesty's Representative. There was, moreover, a manifest disposition on the part of some opponents of the Government to make the most of any little shortcomings of which Ministerialists might be guilty. One of the most virulent of the Opposition, a man whose own character could not be said to be wholly above reproach, made certain wild charges against the Government. These charges were so utterly monstrous and incredible that any man of probity might reasonably refuse to believe them until they were proved to be true by the most irrefutable evidence. Such evidence was not forthcoming. The head of the Government hurled back the charges in the teeth of the man who had made them; pronounced the latter a slanderous calumniator; protested that his own hands were clean; and called upon his Maker to bear witness to the truth of his avowal. His conduct was not unlike that of an honest man smarting under a strong sense of injustice. He professed to court inquiry, and while he treated Mr. Huntington's motion as one of want of confidence in the Government, and triumphantly voted it down, he himself came forward with his motion for a committee. Both from his place in the House, and to the Governor-General in person, he continued to protest before God that there was no shadow of foundation for the charges made against him. He spoke of his acquittal as a matter which did not admit of a moment's question. Under these circumstances, is it any wonder if Lord Dufferin refused to believe vague and unsubstantiated charges from such a source; charges which might well have excited incredulity by the very depth of their blackness? Is it to be wondered at, even if His Lordship sympathized with those whom he believed to have been so shamefully maligned, and who seemed so anxious to set themselves right before the country? Such was the state of affairs when Parliament was adjourned on the 23rd of May.

With regard to the prompt transmission to England of the Oaths Bill, His Excellency simply complied with his official instructions, and with the Union Act, which requires the Governor-General to transmit "by the earliest convenient opportunity" all Acts of Parliament to which he has assented on Her Majesty's behalf. His Excellency's despatch to the Imperial Secretary of State for the Colonies, dated 15th August, 1873, puts this matter very clearly. It shows that he understood and was prepared to do his duty, no matter what might be said by Opposition members, and no matter how scurrilous might be the attacks of hostile newspapers. "Amongst other respects," says the despatch, "in which my conduct has been criticised, the fact of my having communicated to you by the first opportunity a certified copy of the Oaths Bill, has been a very general point of attack. I apprehend it will not be necessary to justify myself to your Lordship in this particular. My law-adviser had called my attention to the possibility of the Bill being illegal. Had perjured testimony been tendered under it, no proceedings could have been taken against the delinquent, and if, under these circumstances, I had wilfully withheld from the Home Government all cognizance of the Act, it would have been a gross dereliction of duty. To those in this country who have questioned my procedure it would be sufficient to reply that I recognize no authority on this side of the Atlantic competent to instruct the Governor-General as to the nature of his correspondence with Her Majesty's Secretary of State." The assertion so often made, to the effect that the Law Officers of the Crown in England were improperly influenced to advise a disallowance of the Bill, is in itself utterly preposterous, and no attempt, so far as we know, has ever been made to bring forward any proof of it.

There remains for consideration the prorogation of Parliament on the 13th of August.

Before the adjournment on the 23rd of May, as we have seen, it had been understood that Parliament should meet only to receive the committee's report, and not for the despatch of ordinary business. It had not even been considered necessary that His Excellency should attend. During his absence in the Maritime Provinces, however, the famous McMullen correspondence had appeared in print, and this, together with other circumstances which had come to his knowledge, had made him resolve to be present at the reassembling of Parliament. The attendance of Government supporters was not large, very few, if any, being present from outlying constituencies. The Opposition on the other hand, was fully represented, and was eager for the battle, which was regarded as inevitable. It soon appeared that there was nothing to be done. Owing to the disallowance of the Oaths Bill there was no report from the committee. In the estimation of His Excellency, to proceed with the investigation, as the Opposition members were desirous of doing, would under these circumstances have been to place the Ministry at an unfair disadvantage. A considerable number of its supporters were absent, whereas the Opposition was in full force. It has been charged upon the Ministry that this was part of their tactics, and that the absentees were acting under the orders of their Chief in remaining at home. This is another of those loose, sweeping assertions which may be true, but the truth of which has not been proved. That unhappy Ministry has enough to answer for at the Bar of History, without being called upon to refute charges which have never been substantiated by evidence. In any case, no fair-minded person will wish to hold the Governor-General responsible for such tactics. His position was one of no ordinary difficulty. Very damnatory correspondence had been given to the world, but it was not in such a shape that the House could possibly regard it as free from suspicion. The most serious charges seemed to point rather to the guilt of Sir Hugh Allan and McMullen than to that of the Members of the Government. The charges directly affecting the Government were solemnly and emphatically repudiated by the Premier, who pledged himself to explain the matter under oath to the satisfaction of the whole world, as soon as a properly constituted tribunal should be appointed, with authority to take evidence under oath. Sir Hugh Allan published a sworn affidavit, negativing McMullen's charges, and McMullen himself had subsequently admitted that his charges had been hasty and inaccurate. The latter, moreover, was evidently a man whose character was not such as to inspire respect. The Government could still command a majority of votes in the House. Under such circumstances, can His Excellency be blamed if he continued to act upon the advice of his constitutional advisers by proroguing Parliament? He was determined, however, that there should be no unnecessary delay, and exacted as a condition of adopting that course that parliament should be convened with all imaginable expedition. His reply to the memorial presented by the Opposition is so much to the point that we cannot do better than abridge a portion of it. "You urge me," says His Excellency, "on grounds which are very fully and forcibly stated, to decline the advice which has been unanimously tendered me by my responsible ministers, and to refuse to prorogue Parliament. In other words, you require me to dismiss them from my councils; for you must be aware that this would be the necessary result of my assenting to your recommendation. Upon what grounds would I be justified in taking so grave a step? What guarantee can you afford me that the Parliament of the Dominion would endorse such an act of personal interference on my part? You yourselves do not form an actual moiety of the House of Commons, and I have no means of ascertaining that the majority of that body subscribe to the opinion you have enounced.. It is true, grave charges have been preferred.. but the truth of these remains untested.. Is the Governor-General, upon such evidence as this, to drive from his presence gentlemen who for years have filled the highest offices of State, and in whom, during the recent session, Parliament has repeatedly declared its continued confidence?.. Certain documents of grave significance have lately been published in the newspapers, but no proof has been adduced which necessarily connects them with the culpable transactions of which it is asserted they formed a part.. Under these circumstances, what right has the Governor-General, on his personal responsibility, to proclaim.. that he believes his ministers guilty of the crimes alleged against them?"

Such were the circumstances under which the prorogation of the 13th of August, 1873, took place. Looking back on it, in the light of the seven years which have since elapsed, it will be hard to arrive at any other conclusion than that Lord Dufferin did not deserve the animadversions which were heaped upon him. As he himself observed in his despatch to the Colonial Secretary two days after the prorogation: "It is a favourite theory at this moment with many persons that when once grave charges of this nature have been preferred against the Ministry they become ipso facto unfit to counsel the Crown. The practical application of this principle would prove very inconvenient, and would leave not only the Governor-General, but every Lieutenant-Governor in the Dominion very thinly provided with responsible advisers; for, as far as I have been able to seize the spirit of political controversy in Canada, there is scarcely an eminent man in the country on either side whose character or integrity has not been, at one time or another, the subject of reckless attack by his opponents in the press." In a word, he acted on the well-established principle that every man is to be adjudged innocent until he has been proved guilty; and in so acting he showed that he understood the responsibilities of his position. That his Ministers were culpable, as well as unwise, in advising the prorogation, is certain; and when the next elections came on they paid the penalty of their disingenuousness.

The events of Lord Dufferin's residence in Canada subsequent to the fall of the Macdonald Ministry, which has already been reviewed, must be given in few words. The political events by which his administration was characterized have been given at sufficient length in sketches to which they more properly belong. The Mackenzie Administration had not been long in power before each individual member of it was on friendly terms with the Governor-General, and there seems to have been a tacit understanding that all past differences of opinion should be forgotten. In the summer of 1874 His Excellency and suite made a tour through the Muskoka District, and thence westward by steamer over lakes Huron, Superior and Michigan. The tourists called at most of the interesting points on the route, including Chicago, where they disembarked, and returned overland by way of Detroit. All the most important towns in Ontario were then visited, and the party returned home to Ottawa in September, after an absence of about two months. It was during his sojourn in Toronto, while on his return from this expedition, that Lord Dufferin made his famous speech at the Toronto Club, which aroused the enthusiasm of the press on both sides of the Atlantic. A part of the summer and autumn of each succeeding year was spent by His Excellency in making other tours through the various Provinces of the Dominion. The last important one was made in 1877, and consisted of a pilgrimage through Manitoba and part of the District of Keewatin. In 1875 he also visited Ireland, and in 1876 attended the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. Wherever he went, his visits were marked by a continual round of ovations. Lady Dufferin generally accompanied him on his excursions, and contributed not a little by her personal graces and accomplishments to the popularity of her lord. Perhaps the most marvellous thing about him is his ability to make an eloquent speech on any given topic, without ever repeating himself, and without descending to platitudes or commonplaces. He has always something to say which is appropriate to the particular occasion, and the special circumstances in which he happens to be placed. The quick perception and ready wit begotten of his Irish blood never fail him. Each of his replies to the thousand-and-one addresses which at one time and another have been presented to him has a merit of its own, has an application purely local, and is unlike all the others. His more serious utterances are marked not less by maturity of statesmanship than by brilliancy of imagination. It would be faint praise to say of him that as an orator he stands alone on the long roll of Canadian Governors. There has been no other who is even worthy of being named as second to him. It has been truly said of his speeches that they are "warm with the light of hope, brimful of sympathy for the toiling and the struggling, sparkling with humour, and moving with pathos."

As the term of his residence among us drew towards its close the Canadian people began to realize how much they liked him. Addresses poured in upon him from every corner of the Dominion, many of which, at least, could only have had their origin in sincere esteem and hearty good-will. When, on the 19th of October, 1878, he took his final departure from among us, for it was felt that, if his life and health were spared the record of his future would not belie the record of his past. It was predicted that the man whose consummate tact, noble courtesy and largeness of heart had done so much to strengthen the ties between Great Britain and her Colonies would render further important services to his Sovereign and to the nation. That prediction has already been fulfilled. The effects of his mission to Russia have been made apparent in improved relations between the courts of St. Petersburg and St. James. In truth, no better antidote to the "spirited Foreign policy" of the late British Government could have been devised than the enrolment of Lord Dufferin in the diplomatic service.

> “High hopes pursued him from the shore,

> And prophesyings brave,”

Since his departure for Russia it is said that the Vice-royalty of Ireland and of India have both been tendered to and declined by him.

## THE REV. ROBERT FERRIER BURNS

Dr. Burns was born at Paisley, Scotland, on the 23rd of December, 1826. After spending a term of four years at the Public Grammar School of that town, he was entered as a student at the University of Glasgow in the month of November, 1840, before he had quite completed his fourteenth year. He remained at that seat of learning four sessions, during which he achieved high standing in his classes, and carried off several prizes, including two in Latin. He stood third in Greek, second in Logic, and first in Moral Philosophy. While attending the University he had for associates Principal McKnight, of Halifax, the Rev. William Maclaren, of Blairlogie, and the late Rev. John Maclaren, of Glasgow. In 1844-5 he attended New College, Edinburgh, during the second session of its existence, and sat at the feet of Drs. Chalmers, Cunningham and Duncan. He had meanwhile resolved on emigrating to Canada, and on the 29th of March, 1845, he sailed from Greenock for Quebec. He made his way to Toronto, where he attended two sessions at Knox College, having for his contemporaries there Dr. Black, of Manitoba, and the late Rev. James Nisbet, of the Prince Albert Mission. During his collegiate career he acted as Student Catechist, and preached as a volunteer at Proudfoot's Mills, and also at Oakville. During the summer of 1846 he laboured to good purpose at Niagara. In April, 1847, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Toronto, and on the first of July following he was ordained as first pastor of Chalmers Church, Kingston. During his residence at Kingston he officiated for a year as Chaplain to the Forty-first Regiment of Highland Infantry.

On the 1st of July, 1852, he married Miss Elizabeth Holden, a daughter of Dr. Rufus Holden, of Belleville, and a sister of the wife of Professor Gregg, of Toronto. By this lady he now has a family of eight children, consisting of four sons and four daughters. After a pastorate of exactly eight years he left Kingston on the 5th of July, 1855, and settled at St. Catharines as first pastor of the United Church. He remained there nearly twelve years, during eight of which he also had charge of a congregation at Port Dalhousie, four miles distant. During his ministry at St. Catharines the new church now known as Knox Church was erected, and his congregation subsequently worshipped there. In 1862 he took a conspicuous part in starting Sabbath School Conventions in this country, which have since been attended by many blessings to the young. In the month of July, 1866, the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Hamilton College, near Utica, in the State of New York, the leading literary institution of the New School of Presbyterians in that State. On the 20th of March, 1867, he became first pastor of the First Scotch Presbyterian Church in Chicago, which then and for some years thereafter belonged to the Canadian Church. During his incumbency of this charge he received several calls from various churches, all of which were declined. His Chicago pastorate lasted three years, during which the membership of his church trebled in number, and a fine new church was erected by the congregation on the corner of Adams and Sagamore Streets. In October, 1867, he accompanied the Rev. D. L. Moody, the Evangelist, from Chicago to Toronto, on the occasion of the first sitting of the Young Men's Christian Association Convention in the latter city. In the beginning of May, 1870, he returned to Canada, and was inducted into the pastorate of Cote Street Church, Montreal, where Dr. Fraser and the present Principal McVicar had previously ministered. Here he remained five years.

On the 18th of March, 1875, he was settled over Fort Massey Church, Halifax, of which the Rev. J. K. Smith, of Galt, had been for two years pastor. Here Dr. Burns has ever since remained. The congregation has since its commencement discarded pew rents, and has been conducted on the weekly free-will-offering system, the offertory being collected at the church door. Their annual givings to church purposes are said to exceed $100 for each family. He was Moderator of the Synod of Montreal in 1873, and also Chairman of the Montreal College Board; and on his removal to Halifax he was elected to the same post there, which he still fills. During the session of 1877 he delivered special courses of lectures before the Montreal and Halifax students, and in 1878 these were followed up by a second special course in the Halifax College. In 1877 he was associated with Principal Grant and others in pushing forward the $100,00 °College Endowment Fund.

Dr. Burns is also known as an author. As early as 1854 he contributed to the Anglo-American Magazine, published in Toronto; and several years later to the Presbyterian Magazine. In 1857 he published "The Progress and Principles of Temperance Reform;" and in 1865, in conjunction with the Rev. Mr. Norton, of St. Catharines, "Maple Leaves for the Grave of Abraham Lincoln." In 1872 he wrote and published his most voluminous work, "The Life and Times of Dr. Robert Burns, of Toronto." This work passed through three editions, and was a decided success. His other works are chiefly pamphlets, sermons, and short fugitive pieces.

At the meeting of the General Assembly held at Ottawa in 1879 Dr. Burns was one of the eight clerical delegates elected to attend the General Presbyterian Council, to be held in Philadelphia during the present year. Last summer he attended the Sunday School Celebration held in London, England, to commemorate the founding of Sunday Schools by Robert Raikes, in Gloucester, a century ago.

## THE HON. ALBERT NORTON RICHARDS,

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Mr. Richards is the youngest son of the late Mr. Stephen Richards, of Brockville, and a brother of the Hon. William Buell Richards, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Dominion, a sketch of whose life appeared in the first volume of this series. Some account of the family history is contained in the sketch alluded to. Albert Norton Richards was born at Brockville, Upper Canada, on the 8th of December, 1822. Like his elder brothers, William and Stephen, he received his early education at the famous Johnstown District Grammar School, and embraced the legal profession as his calling in life. He studied law in the office of his brother William, with whom he entered into partnership after his call to the Bar in Michaelmas Term, 1848. Though perhaps somewhat less conspicuous at the Bar than his partner, he took a high position, and was distinguished for the acumen and soundness of judgment which seem to be inherent in every member of his family. After his brother's elevation to the Bench, he himself continued to practise at Brockville. His business was large and profitable. He took a keen interest in politics, and was identified with the Reform Party. He did not seek Parliamentary distinction, however, until the year 1861, when he was an unsuccessful candidate for the representation of South Leeds in the Legislative Assembly of Canada — his successful opponent being Mr. Benjamin Tett. At the general election of 1863 he again offered himself in opposition to the same candidate, and on this occasion was returned at the head of the poll. In the month of December following he accepted office in the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Administration, as Solicitor-General for the Upper Province. He was at the same time created a Queen's Counsel. Upon returning to his constituents for reëlection, after accepting office, he was compelled to encounter the full strength of the Conservative Party. The Government of the day existed by a mere thread, their majority averaging one, two and three, and it was felt that if Mr. Richards could be defeated the Government must resign. The constituency of South Leeds was invaded by all the principal speakers and agents of the Conservative Party, headed by the Hon. John A. Macdonald and the late Mr. D'Arcy McGee, and no stone was left unturned to defeat the new Solicitor-General. The result was the defeat of the latter by Mr. D. Ford Jones, the Conservative candidate, by a majority of five votes. Mr. Richards, after the resignation of the Government, remained out of public life until 1867, when he unsuccessfully contested his old seat for the House of Commons with the late Lieutenant-Governor Crawford, the latter being elected by a majority of thirty-nine. In 1869 Mr. Richards was offered by the Government of Sir John Macdonald the office of Attorney-General in the Provincial Government which Mr. Macdougall, as Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwest Territories, was about to establish at Fort Garry. Mr. Richards accepted the office, and accompanied Mr. Macdougall on his well-known journey, until stopped by Louis Riel at Stinking River. In the following year he visited British Columbia on public business, and in 1871 he again visited that Province, this time for the benefit of the health of his children, eight of whom he had lost by death during his residence at Brockville. At the general election of 1872, Mr. Richards made another and a successful appeal to the electors of South Leeds, and was returned to the House of Commons. He held his seat until January, 1874; when, being absent from the country, on a visit to British Columbia, he was unable to return in time to be nominated for his old constituency, and South Leeds became lost to the Reform Party. Mr. Richards continued to reside in British Columbia, and for several years was the official Legal Agent of the Dominion Government in that Province. He took an active part in endeavouring to bring about various much-needed law reforms, as to several of which he was ultimately successful. On the 29th of July, 1875, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, a position which he has ever since held. His sterling qualities have obtained recognition, and he has won great popularity.

He has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married on the 17th of October, 1849, was Frances, daughter of the late Benjamin Chaffey, formerly of Staffordshire, England. This lady died in April, 1853. On the 12th of August, 1854, he married Ellen, daughter of the late John Cheslett, also of Staffordshire. His second wife still survives.

## THE RIGHT REV. JOHN TRAVERS LEWIS, LL.D.,

BISHOP OF ONTARIO

Bishop Lewis is a son of the John Lewis, M.A., who was formerly Rector of St. Anne's, Shandon, Cork, Ireland; and grandson of Mr. Richard Lewis, who was an Inspector-General of Revenue in the south of Ireland. He is himself an Irishman by birth and education, but has passed the last thirty years of his life in Canada. He was born in the county of Cork, on the 20th of June, 1825. He received private lessons from his father, and afterwards obtained his more advanced education at Trinity College, Dublin. He enjoyed a somewhat brilliant career at the University. He obtained honours both in classics and mathematics during his course as an undergraduate; and upon graduating, in 1846, he was gold medallist and senior moderator in ethics and logic. His degree of LL.D. was received, we believe, from his alma mater. He was intended for the Church from boyhood, and was ordained Deacon in 1848, at the Chapel of Christ's College, Cambridge, by the Lord Bishop of Chester. He was soon afterwards ordained Priest by the Lord Bishop of Down, and became Curate of the parish of Newtownbutler, celebrated in Irish annals for the victory gained by the colonists over King James's troops in 1689. He did not long occupy that position, but resigned it in 1850, and came over to this country, where, soon after his arrival, he was appointed by the late Bishop Strachan to the parish of Hawkesbury, in the county of Prescott. Upon settling down in his parish he married Miss Anne Harriet Margaret Sherwood, a daughter of the late Hon. Henry Sherwood, a Canadian legislator who sat in the old Assembly from 1843 to 1854, and who held office as Solicitor-General and Attorney-General for Canada West, respectively, in the Ministry of Mr. Draper, during the régime of Sir Charles Metcalfe and Earl Cathcart.

After officiating in Hawkesbury for four years, Mr. Lewis was appointed Rector of Brockville, where he remained until his election, in 1861, to the position which he now occupies. The seven years passed in the rectory at Brockville must have been busy ones, as we find numerous published sermons and pamphlets from his pen during this time. His sermons and writings generally are marked by much learning, and by an evident fondness for dialectics. Some of them have received high praise from the reviewers. One of them, entitled "A Plain Lecture to Enquirers into the meaning of the Liturgy," was thus characterized by the American Quarterly Church Review: "As an argument for Liturgical worship, and an answer to popular objections to the Prayer-book, this is one of the most valuable works we have ever seen." Other tracts of his have also been highly praised by persons whose praise is of value. The best known of his writings are "The Church of the New Testament;" "Does the Bible need re-translating?" "The Popular Baptist Argument Reviewed;" and "The Primitive Method of selecting Bishops;" the last-named production being given to the world in the Journal of Sacred Literature, published in London, England. During his residence at Brockville he interested himself actively in various local matters, sectarian and non-sectarian, and contributed to build up several important public institutions. He lectured before the Brockville Library Association and Mechanics' Institute, and did much to extend its membership and beneficial influence.

The territorial division of the Diocese of Toronto was a project which began to take shape about the time when the subject of this sketch first arrived in this country. Up to that time the Diocese of Toronto comprehended the whole extent of Upper Canada, and was altogether too large to permit of one man's discharging the duties of the Bishopric with perfect efficiency, even though that man were endowed with the tremendous energy and vitality of the late Bishop Strachan. The Diocese of Huron was in due time set apart and the late Rev. Dr. Benjamin Cronyn was elected to the Bishopric. In 1861 the eastern division was also set apart as the Diocese of Ontario, and at the meeting of the Synod held at Kingston in the summer of that year Mr. Lewis was elected to the office of Bishop. He was then only thirty-six years of age, and was probably the youngest Prelate in America. He soon afterwards removed to Kingston, and thence to Ottawa, where he now resides.

It will thus be seen that the Bishop has had a remarkably successful career since his arrival in Canada. He devotes himself assiduously to his official labours, and is held in high veneration by many of the clergymen of his Diocese. He has a numerous family, and a large circle of attached friends. His pulpit oratory is marked by fluency and smoothness of rhetoric, as well as by much learning and depth of thought.

## CHARLES, LORD METCALFE

In former sketches we have seen how Responsible Government, after being strenuously contended for during many years in this country, and after its adoption had been vigorously recommended by Lord Durham, finally became an accomplished fact. We have seen how Lord Sydenham was sent over here as Governor-General for the purpose of carrying out the new order of things, and how, during his administration of affairs, the Union of the Provinces was finally effected in 1841. The Canadian Administration was carried on by both Lord Sydenham and his successor, Sir Charles Bagot, in accordance with the spirit of our new Constitution. In 1841 the Imperial Ministry, under whose auspices this Constitution had been framed, was deposed, and a Tory Government succeeded to power. In this Government the late Lord Derby, then Lord Stanley, held the portfolio appertaining to the office of Colonial Secretary. Soon after Sir Charles Bagot's resignation of the post of Governor-General, in the winter of 1842, Sir Charles Metcalfe was selected as his successor. The selection was made at the instance of Lord Stanley, who had all along been inimical to the scheme of Responsible Government in Canada, and there is reason for believing that he entertained the design of subverting it. His selection of Sir Charles Metcalfe, and his subsequent instructions and general policy, certainly lend colour to such a belief. The new Governor was a man of excellent intentions, and of more than average ability, but his previous training and experience had been such as to render him totally unfit for the post of a Constitutional Governor.

We can only afford space for a brief glance at his previous career, but even that brief glance will be sufficient to show how little sympathy he could be expected to have in colonial schemes of Responsible Government. He was born at Calcutta, on Sunday, the 30th of January, 1785, a few days before Warren Hastings ceased to be Governor-General of India. His father, Major Theophilus Metcalfe, of the Bengal army, was a gentleman of ample fortune, and a Director in the East India Company. Charles was the second son of his parents, and was destined at an early age for the Company's service. He was educated first at a private school at Bromley, in Middlesex, and afterwards at Eton College, where he remained until he had entered upon his sixteenth year, when he returned to India. He was appointed to a writership in the service of the Company, wherein for seven years he filled various offices, and in 1808 was selected by Lord Minto to take charge of a difficult mission to the Court of Lahore, the object of which was to secure the Sikh States, between the Sutlej and Jumna Rivers, from the grasp of Runjeet Singh. In this mission he fully succeeded, the treaty being concluded in 1809. He subsequently filled several other high offices of trust, and in 1827 took his seat as a member of the Supreme Council of India. Both his father and elder brother had meanwhile died, and he had become Sir Charles Metcalfe.

In 1835, upon Lord W. Bentinck's resignation, Sir Charles Metcalfe was provisionally appointed Governor-General, which office he held until Lord Auckland's arrival in the year following. During this short period he effected many bold and popular reforms, not the least of which was the liberation of the press of India from all restrictions. Under his immediate predecessor, Lord William Bentinck, the press had been as free as it is in England; but there were still certain laws or orders of a severe character, which at the pleasure of any future Governor might be called into operation. These Sir Charles Metcalfe repealed. His doing so gave umbrage to the Directors, and caused his resignation and return to Europe, when he was appointed Governor of Jamaica. The difficult duties of this position — the emancipation of the negroes having but recently occurred — were discharged by him to the satisfaction of the Government and the colonists. After over two years' residence the climate proved so unfavourable to his health that he was compelled to resign. The painful disease of which he afterwards died — cancer of the cheek — had seized him in a firm grip. Years before this time, when residing at Calcutta, a friend had one day noticed a red spot upon his cheek, and underneath it a single drop of blood. The blood was wiped away; the red spot remained. For a long while it occasioned neither pain nor anxiety. A little time after his departure from India, disquieting symptoms appeared, and on his arrival in England he had consulted Sir Benjamin Brodie; but it was not till his return from Jamaica that it received the attention it really demanded. Then consultations of the most eminent surgeons and physicians were held, and the application of a severe caustic was determined on. When told that it would probably "destroy the cheek through and through," he only answered, "What you determine shall be done at once;" and the same afternoon the painful remedy was applied. The physicians and surgeons of London did what they could for him, and he retired into the country. The disorder had not been eradicated, but merely checked. About this time the ill-health of Sir Charles Bagot had rendered that gentleman's resignation necessary, and the post of Governor-General of Canada thus became vacant. It was offered to, and accepted by, Sir Charles Metcalfe. No appointment could have been found for him at that moment in the whole political world the duties of which were more difficult, when the nature of his instructions and the peculiar position of the colony are taken into consideration. Add to this that his whole life had hitherto been passed in administering governments which were largely despotic in their character. Responsible Government, as we have seen, had been conceded to Canada. Sir Charles professed to approve of this concession, but his conduct throughout the whole course of his administration was at variance with his professions, and showed that his sympathies were not on the side of popular rights. He came over in the month of March, 1843, and on the following day took charge of the Administration. For the composition of the Government and an account of the situation of affairs in Canada at this time the reader is referred to the life of Robert Baldwin which has already appeared in these pages. The circumstances under which the Governor contrived to embroil himself with the leading members of the Administration are there given in sufficient detail, and there is no necessity for repeating them at length in this place. Sir Charles chose his associates and advisers from among the members of the defunct Family Compact. He endeavoured to circumscribe the power of the Executive Council, which demanded that no office should be filled, no appointment made, without its sanction. We are, argued the members of Council, in the same relation to the House of Assembly as Ministers in England to the English Parliament. We are responsible to it for the acts of Government; these acts must be ours, or the result of our advice, otherwise we cannot be responsible for them. Unless our demand is complied with, there is no such thing as Responsible Government. On the other hand, Sir Charles contended that by relinquishing his patronage he should be surrendering the prerogatives of the Crown, and should also incapacitate himself and all future Governors from acting as moderator between opposite factions. It was not long before an appointment, made by Sir Charles, brought the contest to an issue. Messrs. Baldwin and Lafontaine, the two leading members of the Executive Council, urged upon the Governor to retract this appointment, or to promise that no other should be made without their advice. The Governor was firm in his refusal. The Executive Council resigned. To form a new Ministry was, under these circumstances, a most difficult task. Office went begging; a Solicitor-Generalship was offered to six individuals, and perseveringly refused by all. But Sir Charles was also persevering in his offers, and at last a seventh was found, who accepted. At last a weak Ministry was formed, and then followed a general election. Parliament met at Montreal on the 8th of November, 1844, when, after a hard fight, Sir Allan Macnab was elected Speaker of the Assembly by a small majority of three. The debate on the address, after strong opposition, was carried by a Tory majority of six. The session dragged on without any change in the character of the Ministry, which was supported by a small and feeble majority in the Assembly. The popular feeling against the Governor rose to the highest pitch. Meantime Sir Charles's terrible malady was rapidly doing its work upon him. He had lost the use of one eye, the eye which was still useful sympathized with that which was destroyed; nor was there any hope of the eradication of the cancer. He had now, to his great regret, to use the hand of another to write his letters and despatches. He was racked by pains above the eye and down the right side of the face as far as the chin. The cheek towards the nose and mouth was permanently swelled. He could not open his mouth to its usual width, and it was with difficulty he inserted and masticated food. He no longer looked forward to a cure. His Canadian medical attendants hesitated to apply the powerful caustic recommended by Sir Benjamin Brodie, and counselled him to return to England. "I am tied to Canada by my duty," was his constant reply. Mr. George Pollock, house surgeon of St. George's Hospital, was despatched from England, to examine the case and apply the most approved remedies. No aid which science could give was wanting, but the disease was beyond medical control. Its ravages were now most painful and distressing. So far as the body was concerned, it was but the wreck of a man that remained. On this wreck or ruin, however, was to descend, as if in mockery, the coronet of nobility. He was created Baron Metcalfe. Idle as the honour was in itself to the childless invalid, it was still a testimony that his services had been appreciated. "But," says his biographer, "he was dying, no less surely for the strong will that sustained him, and the vigorous intellect which glowed in his shattered frame. A little while and he might die at his post. The winter was setting in — the navigation was closing. It was necessary at once to decide whether Metcalfe should now prepare to betake the suffering remnant of himself to England, or to abide at Montreal, if spared, till the coming spring. But he would not trust himself to form the decision. He invited the leading members of his Council to attend him at Monklands; and there he told them that he left the issue in their hands. It was a scene never to be forgotten by any who were present in the Governor-General's darkened room on this memorable occasion. Some were dissolved in tears. All were agitated by a strong emotion of sorrow and sympathy, mingled with a sort of wondering admiration of the heroic constancy of their chief. He told them that if they desired his continuance at the head of the Government — if they believed that the cause for which they had fought together so manfully would suffer by his departure, and that they therefore counselled him to remain at his post, he would willingly abide by their decision." What their decision was need hardly be said. Lord Metcalfe embarked for England quietly and unostentatiously, as his suffering state compelled. He could not, from the nature of the struggle in which he had been engaged, expect to quit the shores of Canada with the same unanimous approbation that had erected to his memory the "Metcalfe Hall" at Calcutta, or raised his statue in Spanish Town, Jamaica. He returned to England — returned to doctors and the darkened room. He was in constant pain except when under the influence of narcotics; but he made no complaint, and endured his sufferings with fortitude. He died on the 5th of September, 1846, and was interred in a quiet, private and unostentatious manner in the little parish church of Winkfield, near Fern Hill. He had often expressed a wish that this should be his last resting place. On a marble tablet in this church is an epitaph written by Mr. — afterwards Lord — Macaulay, who knew and had served with him in India. Thus it runs: — "Near this stone is laid Charles Theophilus, first and last Lord Metcalfe, a Statesman tried in many high posts and difficult conjunctures, and found equal to all. The Three Greatest Dependencies of the British Crown were successively intrusted to his care. In India his fortitude, his wisdom, his probity, and his moderation are held in honourable remembrance by men of many races, languages, and religions. In Jamaica, still convulsed by a social revolution, he calmed the evil passions which long suffering had engendered in one class and long domination in another. In Canada, not yet recovered from the calamities of civil war, he reconciled contending factions to each other and to the Mother Country. Public esteem was the just reward of his public virtue, but those only who enjoyed the privilege of his friendship could appreciate the whole worth of his gentle and noble nature. Costly monuments in Asiatic and American cities attest the gratitude of nations which he ruled; this tablet records the sorrow and the pride with which his memory is cherished by private Affection."

Had it been his good fortune to die before receiving the appointment of Governor-General of Canada, Sir Charles Metcalfe would have left behind him a high reputation on all hands, and there would have been nothing to detract from the praise which would have been justly his due. His tenure of office in this country was a somewhat inglorious close to a long and useful public career. As Governor of a colony to which Responsible Government had been conceded he was altogether out of his element. He was simply unfit for the position, as well by reason of his personal character as by the training to which he had been subjected. Good intentions were undoubtedly his, and he acted up to the light that was in him; but to this modicum of praise no Canadian writer can justly add much in the way of commendation.

## THE HON. ALEXANDER MORRIS

Mr. Morris is the eldest son of the late Hon. William Morris, whose name is prominently identified with the history of the Clergy Reserve and School Land questions in this country; and a nephew of the late Hon. James Morris, who held the portfolio of Postmaster-General in the Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration, and who was subsequently Receiver-General in the Administration organized under the leadership of Messrs. John Sandfield Macdonald and Louis Victor Sicotte. The chief points of public interest connected with the family history are outlined in the sketch of his father's life, which appears elsewhere in these pages. The subject of the present memoir was born at Perth, Upper Canada — where his father then resided and carried on business — on the 17th of March, 1826. In boyhood he attended the local Grammar School, which enjoyed a high reputation for the efficiency of its educational training. His father, who was desirous that his son should enjoy higher scholastic advantages than were then obtainable in this country, sent him, while he was still in early youth, to Scotland, where he entered as a student at Madras College, St. Andrews. After spending about a year at that establishment he was transferred to the University of Glasgow, where another industrious year was passed. Returning to his native land, he began to devote himself to the business of life. He at this time was intended for commercial pursuits, and spent three years in the establishment of Messrs. Thorne & Heward, commission merchants, at Montreal. The knowledge and experience gained during these three years have since proved of great service to him, although he was not destined to engage in commercial business on his own behalf. He had meanwhile resolved to enter the legal profession in Upper Canada, and was accordingly articled as a clerk to Mr. — now the Hon. Sir — John A. Macdonald, in the office of Messrs. Macdonald & Campbell, Barristers, of Kingston. Here he studied with such assiduity that his health gave way, and he was compelled to relinquish his studies for some months. His father having previously removed to Montreal, he returned to that city and resumed his scholastic studies in the University of McGill College, where he took the degrees successively of B.A., M.A., B.C.L., and D.C.L. He was the first graduate in the Arts course of that institution, and was subsequently elected by the graduates one of the first Fellows in Arts, and thence was promoted to be one of the Governors of the University, which position he held for several years. He entered the office of the then Attorney-General Badgley, who subsequently became a Judge of the Court of Queen's Bench in Quebec. He completed his course of studies in the office of Messrs. Badgley & Abbott, and then proceeded to Toronto, where he presented his credentials to the Benchers of the Law Society and requested to be called to the Bar, under the provisions of the law which enabled any person who had been duly registered as a clerk or student during the necessary period for the Bar of Lower Canada, to be called to the Bar of Upper Canada, after passing the necessary examination. He was examined in due course by the Benchers of Upper Canada, admitted to the degree of Barrister-at-Law, and was thereafter sworn in as an Attorney — both in Hilary Term of the year 1851. He was then about to establish himself in the practice of the law in the city of Toronto, having been offered a partnership by the then Attorney-General, the late Hon. John Ross, when family circumstances led to his return to Montreal, where, having presented his diploma as a Barrister-at-Law of Upper Canada, he was after examination called to the Bar of Lower Canada as an Advocate. In November of the same year he married Miss Margaret Cline, daughter of the late Mr. William Cline, of Cornwall, and niece of the late Hon. Philip Vankoughnet, of the same place. He entered upon the practice of his profession in Montreal. His ability and social connections soon secured for him a large and lucrative practice, and having entered into partnership with the present Mr. Justice Torrance, he became known as one of the most successful practitioners in the Province, devoting himself mainly to commercial law. Like his father before him, he attached himself to the Conservative side in politics, and first entered active political life in 1861, when he contested the constituency of South Lanark, in Upper Canada, for the Legislative Assembly, in opposition to Mr. John Doran. His father had represented that constituency for twenty years, and he had no difficulty in securing his election. Upon the opening of the session he took his seat in the House, and made his first speech, on the debate on the Speech from the Throne, which was on the question of Representation by Population — a measure which he did not believe to be the true remedy for the unsatisfactory state of things which existed throughout the country. The true remedy, as he believed, and as he repeatedly urged, both from his place in Parliament and elsewhere, was the Confederation scheme which was subsequently adopted. In the negotiations which led to the formation of the Coalition Government, of which Sir John A. Macdonald and the late Hon. George Brown were members, and which secured the necessary Imperial legislation in order to bring about Confederation, he took an active and initiatory part, as appears by the record of the steps taken to form the Government, and secure that policy submitted to the Parliament of Canada at the time. He continued to represent South Lanark in the Assembly until Confederation, after which he represented it in the House of Commons until the general election of 1872. He was an active member, and stood high in the esteem of his Party. In the month of November, 1869, he accepted office in the then-existing Government as Minister of Inland Revenue, which he retained until, having resigned his position in the Government owing to broken health, he received the appointment of Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba, in July, 1872. Of this office he was the first incumbent, no Court of Queen's Bench having previously existed there. The highest judicial tribunal which had existed in the Prairie Province up to that time was the Quarterly Court, as it was called, organized under the authority of the Hudson's Bay Company's Charter, and conducted in a rather primitive way. A short time prior to the date last mentioned this tribunal was abolished, and the Court of Queen's Bench established in its place. After accepting the office of Chief Justice, Mr. Morris prepared a series of rules introducing the English practice into the Court. He did not long retain his seat on the Judicial Bench, as, two months after his appointment as Chief Justice, he was nominated as Administrator, in place of Lieutenant-Governor Archibald, who was absent on leave. On the 2nd of December, 1872, he received the appointment of Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba and the North-West Territories, a position which he retained for five years. On the creation of the District of Keewatin he became Lieutenant-Governor of that territory ex officio. He was also appointed Chief Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Manitoba Superintendency, and one of the Special Commissioners for the making of treaties three, four, five and six, and the revision of treaties one and two; and, as will be seen from the last report of the Minister of the Interior, he suggested the making of the last and seventh treaty — that with the Blackfeet. In the making of these treaties he was the active Commissioner and chief spokesman, and was very successful in winning the confidence of the Indian tribes. The treaties in question extinguished the natural title of the Indian tribes to the vast region extending from the Height of Land beyond Lake Superior to the Blackfeet country in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, covering the route of the Canada Pacific Railway, and opening up a vast extent of fertile territory to settlement. When Mr. Morris assumed the government of Manitoba the Province was in a very disturbed condition. He had the satisfaction of leaving it reduced to order, and far advanced in settlement and legislative progress. On his departure from Manitoba, the Free Press, the organ of the Liberal Party, thus referred to his career in the North-West: "To-morrow is the last day of Hon. Alexander Morris's connection with Manitoba as Lieutenant-Governor. When, five years ago, the announcement was made that Chief Justice Morris had been appointed to the position which he is now just about vacating, very general satisfaction was manifested by the people of the Province. Mr. Morris succeeded to the office when it was surrounded by difficulties great and complicated; and the task before its incumbent was by no means an easy one. The Province occupied a most peculiar position; having just had constitutional self-government thrust upon it, without any preparatory training. The Lieutenant-Governor necessarily found himself at the head of a people who, no matter how good their intentions, could not reasonably be expected to have a very perfect appreciation of the true position of a Lieutenant-Governor under such a government. Lieutenant-Governor Morris during the early part of his official career had plenty of evidence of this, and it devolved upon him, in no small degree, to impress upon them exactly what such government entailed — that the Lieutenant-Governor was supposed to act almost solely upon the advice of the Crown Ministers of the day, who in turn were responsible to the people's chosen representatives in Parliament. And in no one way has Governor Morris more distinguished himself than in the observance of this fundamental principle of our constitution, however much he may actually have assisted in the government of the country by his ripe experience and statesmanship. The smallest Province though Manitoba is, the office of its Lieutenant-Governor has entailed more extensive responsibilities than that of any other Province in the Dominion."

Upon the completion of his term of office Mr. Morris returned from Manitoba to his native town of Perth, in Ontario, where he had a residence. At the last general election for the House of Commons, in 1878, he contested the constituency of Selkirk, Manitoba, with the Hon. Donald A. Smith, but was defeated by nine votes. Mr. Smith was, however, unseated on petition. About two months later the Hon. Matthew Crooks Cameron, who sat in the Local Legislature of Ontario for East Toronto, was appointed to a Puisné Judgeship of the Court of Queen's Bench. This left a vacancy in the representation of East Toronto, and Mr. Morris, who was then a resident of Perth, was nominated for the vacancy by a Conservative Convention. He offered himself as a candidate for the constituency, and was elected by a considerable majority over his opponent, Mr. John Leys. At the general local elections held on the 5th of June following Mr. Morris was again returned for East Toronto — of which he had in the interval become a resident — by a majority of 57 over the Hon. Oliver Mowat, Premier of Ontario. He continues to represent that constituency, and occupies a prominent place as a member of the Opposition.

Mr. Morris has also made a creditable name for himself in literature. In 1854 he published a quasi-professional work embodying the Railway Consolidation Acts of Canada, with notes of cases. In 1855 appeared "Canada and Her Resources," an essay to which was awarded the second prize offered by the Paris Exhibition Committee of Canada — the first prize having been awarded to the well-known essay by the late Mr. John Sheridan Hogan by Sir Edmund Head, then Governor-General. Three years later — in 1858 — he delivered a lecture before the Mercantile Library Association of Montreal, in which was predicted the federation of the British American Provinces and the construction of the Intercolonial and Pacific Railways — subjects to which Mr. Morris had given a good deal of attention ever since, when a youth, he had read and studied Lord Durham's famous "Report" on Canada. This lecture was published, in pamphlet form, under the title of "Nova Britannia; or, British North America, its extent and future," by the Library Association. It was widely circulated, and attracted a good deal of attention, not only in this country but in Great Britain and the United States. No fewer than three thousand copies of it were sold in ten days. A contemporary notice of this pamphlet thus refers to the author and his theory: "Mr. Morris is at once statistical, patriotic and prophetic. The lecturer sees in the future a fusion of races, a union of all the existing provinces, with new provinces to grow up in the west, and a railway to the Pacific. The design of the lecture is excellent, and its facts seem to have been carefully collected." In 1859 Mr. Morris delivered and published another lecture of a somewhat similar nature, under the title of "The Hudson's Bay and Pacific Territories," advocating the withdrawal of the North-West Territories from the rule of the Hudson's Bay Company, and their incorporation with the Confederacy of Canada along with British Columbia. His latest work, published during the month of May last, is entitled, "The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories." It gives an account of all the treaties made with these Indians, from the original one made by Lord Selkirk down to the present time; contains suggestions for dealing with them, and predicts a hopeful future for them.

Mr. Morris has for many years taken an active part in the Church Courts of, first, the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland, and since the union of the four Presbyterian Churches of the Dominion as the Presbyterian Church in Canada, as a representative to the Assembly of that Church. He has been for twenty years a Trustee of Queen's College, Kingston, of which his father was one of the active founders. Mr. Morris actively assisted in bringing about the union of the Churches above alluded to, affirming it to be in the highest interests of Presbyterianism and religion in the Dominion that such a consummation should be brought about.

## THE HON. THOMAS TALBOT

Not often does it fall to the lot of the biographer to chronicle a more singular piece of history than is afforded by the life of the founder of the Talbot Settlement in Western Canada. A contemporary writer has proved to us that Ireland has, at one time and another, contributed her full share of notable personages to our population; and Colonel Talbot is certainly entitled to rank among the most remarkable of them all. A man of high birth and social position, of good abilities, with a decided natural turn for an active military career, and with excellent prospects of success before him, he voluntarily forsook the influences under which he had been reared, and spent by far the greater part of a long life in the solitude of the Canadian wilderness. He was the early associate and life-long friend of the illustrious Duke of Wellington. At the outset of their careers, any impartial friend of the two youths might not unreasonably have predicted a higher and wider fame for the scion of the House of Talbot than for Arthur Wellesley; for the former was the brighter, and apparently the more ambitious of the two, and his connections were at least equally influential. Had any one indulged in such a vaticination, however, his prediction would have been most ignominiously falsified by subsequent events. Arthur Wellesley lived to achieve a reputation second to that of scarcely any name in history. He became the most famous and successful military commander of modern times. Nations vied with each other in heaping well-deserved honours upon his head, and his Sovereign characterized him as "the greatest general England ever saw." Statesmen and princes hung upon his words, and even upon his nod; and lovely women languished for his smiles. When he died, full of years and honours, and everything of good which a grateful nation has to bestow, his body lay in state at Chelsea Hospital. It was visited by the high and mighty ones of the Empire, and was contemplated with an almost superstitious awe. It was finally borne with regal pomp, through streets draped in mourning, and thronged by a countless multitude, to its final resting-place in the crypt of the noblest of English cathedrals. The funeral rites were solemnized amid the tears of a nation, and formed an event in that nation's history. The obsequies of "the Iron Duke" took place on the 18th of November, 1852. In less than three months from that date his friend Colonel Talbot also went the way of all flesh. But by how different a road! His life, though it had by no means been spent in vain, had had little to commend it to the emulation or envy of mankind. Its most vigorous season had been passed amid the solitude of the Canadian forest, and in its decline it had become the prey of selfishness and neglect. Colonel Talbot died in a small room in the house of a man who had once been his servant. He must have tasted the bitterness of death many times before he finally entered into his rest. Neither wife, child, nor relative ministered to his wants. But scant ceremony was vouchsafed to his remains. His body, instead of lying in state, was deposited in a barn, and was finally attended to its last obscure resting-place in a little Canadian village by a handful of friends and acquaintances. The weather was piercingly cold, and we may be sure that the obsequies were not unnecessarily prolonged. Surely the force of antithesis could not much farther go!

And yet, as we review the widely diverse careers of these two remarkable men, it is difficult to arrive at any other conclusion than that the result in each case was the legitimate outgrowth of their respective qualities. Arthur Wellesley, in his earliest boyhood, formed a definite purpose in life; and that purpose, during all the years of his probation, was kept constantly in view. Every other passion was kept in due subordination to it. Fortune was kind to him, and he well knew how to avail himself of her favours. The acquisition of fame, moreover, bears some analogy to the acquisition of wealth. The first step is by far the most difficult. Dr. Johnson once said that any man of strong will has it in his power to make a fortune, if he can only contrive to tide over the time while he is scraping together the first hundred pounds. Arthur Wellesley, having got his foot firmly on the first rung of the ladder, found the rest of the ascent feasible enough. Now, Thomas Talbot was endowed by nature with a will so strong as almost to deserve the name of stubbornness, but that was almost the only quality which he shared in common with his friend. If he ever formed any definite scheme of life he was certainly very inconsistent in pursuing it. His moods were as erratic as were those of the hero of Locksley Hall. He was unable to bring his mind into harmony with the inevitable, and knew not how to subordinate himself to the existing order of things. Even as an army-officer he was not always amenable to discipline. The follies and frivolities of society disgusted him, and his mind early received a warp from which it never recovered. He lived in a time when there was plenty of work ready to his hand, if he would but have condescended to take his share of it. The work, however, was not to his taste, and his ambition seems to have deserted him at a most inopportune time. He "burst all links of habit," withdrew himself from his proper place in the world, and passed the rest of his days in solitude and obscurity. As the founder of an important settlement in a new Province, he certainly accomplished some good in his day and generation. The enterprise, however, does not seem to have been undertaken with any definite design of accomplishing good, but merely with a view to securing a more congenial mode of life for himself. That a man reared as he had been should find anything congenial in such a life is a problem which is insoluble to ordinary humanity.

The family from which he sprang has long been celebrated both in English and continental history. Readers of Shakespeare's historical plays are, it is to be hoped, sufficiently familiar with that "scourge of France" who was defied by Joan of Arc, and who, with his son, John Talbot, fell bravely fighting his country's battles on the field of Castillon, near Bordeaux. It would be difficult for a man to sustain the burden of a long line of such ancestors as these. It is therefore reassuring to learn that the Talbot line has been diversified by representatives of another sort. Readers of Macaulay's History are familiar with the name of Richard Talbot, that noted sharper, bully, pimp and pander, who haunted Whitehall during the years immediately succeeding the Restoration; whose genius for mendacity procured for him the nickname of "Lying Dick Talbot;" who became the husband of Frances Jennings; who slandered Anne Hyde for the money of the Duke of York; who, in a word, was one of the greatest scoundrels that figured in those iniquitous times; and who was subsequently raised by James II. to the Earldom of Tyrconnel. "Lying Dick" was a member of the Irish branch of the Talbot family, which settled in Ireland during the reign of Henry II., and became possessed of the ancient baronial castle of Malahide, in the county of Dublin. The Talbots of Malahide trace their descent from the same stock as the Talbots who have been Earls of Shrewsbury, in the peerage of Great Britain, since the middle of the fifteenth century. The father of the subject of this sketch was Richard Talbot, of Malahide. His mother was Margaret, Baroness Talbot; and he himself was born at Malahide on the 17th of July, 1771.

All that can be ascertained about his childhood is that he spent some years at the Public Free School at Manchester, and that he received a commission in the army in the year 1782, when he was only eleven years of age. Whether or not he left school immediately after obtaining this commission does not appear, but his education must have been very imperfect, as he was not of a studious disposition, and in 1786, when he was only sixteen, we find him installed as an aide-de-camp to his relative the Marquis of Buckingham, who was then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. His brother aide was the Arthur Wellesley already referred to. The two boys were necessarily thrown much together, and each of them formed a warm attachment for the other. Their future paths in life lay far apart, but they never ceased to correspond, and to recall the happy time they had spent together,

> “Yearning for the large excitement that

> the coming years would yield.”

Young Talbot continued in the position of aide-de-camp for several years. In 1790 he joined the 24th Regiment, which was then stationed at Quebec, in the capacity of Lieutenant. We have no record of his life during the next few months. Upon the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe at Quebec, at the end of May, 1792, Lieutenant Talbot, who had nearly completed his twenty-first year, became attached to the Governor's suite in the capacity of private secretary. He continued to form part of the establishment of Upper Canada's first Lieutenant-Governor until just before the latter's removal from this country. "During that period," says General Simcoe, writing in 1803, "he not only conducted many details and important duties incidental to the original establishment of a colony, in matters of internal regulation, to my entire satisfaction, but was employed in the most confidential measures necessary to preserve the country in peace, without violating, on the one hand, the relations of amity with the United States; and on the other, alienating the affection of the Indian nations, at that period in open war with them. In this very critical situation, I principally made use of Mr. Talbot for the most confidential intercourse with the several Indian Tribes; and occasionally with his Majesty's Minister at Philadelphia; and these duties, without any salary or emolument, he executed to my perfect satisfaction."

It seems to have been during his tenure of office as secretary to Governor Simcoe that the idea of embracing a pioneer's life in Canada first took possession of young Talbot's mind. It has been alleged that his imagination was fired by reading a translation of part of Charlevoix's "Historie Générale de la Nouvelle France," a work which describes the writer's own experiences in the wilds of Canada in a pleasant and easy fashion. This idea is probably attributable to an assertion made by Colonel Talbot himself to Mrs. Jameson, when that lady visited him during her brief sojourn in Upper Canada. "Charlevoix," said he, "was, I believe, the true cause of my coming to this place. You know he calls this the Paradise of the Hurons. Now I was resolved to get to Paradise by hook or by crook, and so I came here." It is much more probable, however, that he was influenced by his own experiences in the Canadian forest, which for him would possess all the charm of novelty, in addition to its natural beauties. He accompanied the Lieutenant-Governor hither and thither, and traversed in his company the greater part of what then constituted Upper Canada. He formed a somewhat intimate acquaintance with the Honourable William Osgoode, the first Chief Justice of this Province, who was for some time an inmate of Governor Simcoe's abode at Niagara — or Newark, as it was then generally called. The Chief Justice felt the isolation of his position very keenly, and was doubtless glad to relax his mind by communion with the young Irish lieutenant, who possessed no inconsiderable share of the humour characteristic of his nationality, and could make himself a boon companion. At this time there would seem to have been nothing of the misanthrope about Lieutenant Talbot. He seemed to take fully as much enjoyment out of life as his circumstances admitted of. His constitution was robust, and his disposition cheerful. He was prim, and indeed fastidious about his personal appearance, and was keenly alive to everything that was going on about him. He was popular among all the members of the household, and was the especial friend of Major Littlehales, the adjutant and general secretary, whose name is familiar to most persons who take an interest in the history of the early settlement of this Province.

On the 4th of February, 1793, an expedition which was destined to have an important bearing upon the future life of Lieutenant Talbot, as well as upon the future history of the Province, set out from Navy Hall[1] to explore the pathless wilds of Upper Canada. It consisted of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe himself and several of his officers, among whom were Major Littlehales and the subject of the present sketch. The Major kept a diary during the journey, which was given to the world more than forty years afterwards in the Canadian Literary Magazine, a periodical of which several numbers were published in Toronto in 1834. The expedition occupied five weeks, and extended as far as Detroit. The route lay through Mohawk village, on the Grand River, where the party were entertained by Joseph Brant; thence westward to where Woodstock now stands; and so on by a somewhat devious course to Detroit, the greater part of the journey being necessarily made on foot. On the return journey the party camped on the present site of London, which Governor Simcoe then pronounced to be an admirable position for the future capital of the Province. One important result of this long and toilsome journey was the construction of Dundas Street, or, as it is frequently called, "the Governor's Road." The whole party were delighted with the wild and primitive aspect of the country through which they passed, but not one of them manifested such enthusiasm as young Lieutenant Talbot, who expressed a strong desire to explore the land farther to the south, bordering on Lake Erie. His desire was gratified in the course of the following autumn, when Governor Simcoe indulged himself and several members of his suite with another western excursion. During this journey the party encamped on the present site of Port Talbot, which the young Lieutenant declared to be the loveliest situation for a dwelling he had ever seen. "Here," said he, "will I roost, and will soon make the forest tremble under the wings of the flock I will invite by my warblings around me." Whether he was serious in this declaration at the time may be doubted; but, as will presently be seen, he ultimately kept his word.

In 1793 young Talbot received his majority. In 1796 he became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifth Regiment of Foot. He returned to Europe, and joined his regiment, which was despatched on active service to the Continent. He himself was busily employed during this period, and was for some time in command of two battalions. Upon the conclusion of the Peace of Amiens, on the 27th of March, 1802, he sold his commission, retired from the service, and prepared to carry out the intention expressed by him to Governor Simcoe nine years before, of pitching his tent in the wilds of Canada. Why he adopted this course it is impossible to do more than conjecture. He never married, but remained a bachelor to the end of his days. One writer ventures the hypothesis that he had been crossed in love. The only justification, so far as we are aware, for this hypothesis, is a half jocular expression of the Colonel's some years afterwards. A friend having bantered him on the subject of his remaining so long in a state of single blessedness, took an opportunity of questioning him about it, and in the course of a familiar chat, asked him why he remained so long single, when he stood so much in need of a help-mate. "Why," said the Colonel, "to tell you the truth, I never saw but one woman that I really cared anything about, and she would'nt have me; and to use an old joke, those who would have me, the devil would'nt have them. Miss Johnston," continued the Colonel, "the daughter of Sir J. Johnston, was the only girl I ever loved, and she wouldn't have me."

Whatever cause may have impelled him, it is sufficiently evident that he had become out of sorts with society, and had resolved to betake himself to a distance from the haunts of civilized mankind. Aided by the influence of ex-Governor Simcoe and other powerful friends, he obtained a grant of five thousand acres of land as a Field Officer meaning to reside in the Province, and to permanently establish himself there. The land was situated in the southern part of the Upper Canadian peninsula, bordering on Lake Erie, and included the site of what afterwards became Port Talbot. This, however, was only a portion of the advantage derivable from the grant. In addition to the tract so conferred upon him he obtained a preëmptive or proprietary right over an immense territory including about half a million acres, and comprising twenty-eight of the adjacent townships.[2] For every settler placed by the Colonel on fifty acres of this land, he was entitled to a patent of a hundred and fifty additional acres for himself. He thus obtained practical control of an expanse of territory which, as has been said, was "a principality in extent." Armed with these formidable powers he once more crossed the Atlantic, and made his way to the present site of Port Talbot, which had so hugely attracted his fancy during his tour with Governor Simcoe. He reached the spot on the 21st of May, 1803, and immediately set to work with his axe, and cut down the first tree, to commemorate his landing to take possession of his woodland estate. The settlement which subsequently bore his name was then an unbroken forest, and there were no traces of civilization nearer than Long Point, sixty miles to the eastward, while to the westward the aborigines were still the lords of the soil, and rules with the tomahawk. In this sequestered region Colonel Talbot took up his abode, and literally made for himself "a local habitation and a name."

At the time of his arrival he was accompanied by two or three stalwart settlers who had crossed the Atlantic under his auspices, and with their assistance he was not long in erecting an abode which was thenceforward known as Castle Malahide. It was built on a high cliff overhanging the lake. The "Castle" was "neither more nor less than a long range of low buildings, formed of logs and shingles." The main structure consisted of three divisions, or apartments; viz., a granary, which was also used as a store-room; a dining-room, which was also used as an office and reception-room for visitors; and a kitchen. There was another building close by, containing a range of bed-rooms, where guests could be made comfortable for the night. In his later years, the Colonel added a suite of rooms of more lofty pretensions, but without disturbing the old tenements, and these sumptuous apartments were reserved for state occasions. There were underground cellars for wine, milk, and kitchen stores. This description applies to the establishment as it appeared when finally completed. For some time after the Colonel's first arrival it was much less pretentious, and consisted of a single log shanty. In order to prevent settlers and other people from intruding upon his privacy unnecessarily, the Colonel caused one of the panes of glass in the window of his office to be removed, and a little door, swung upon hinges, to be substituted, after the fashion sometimes seen at rural post-offices. By means of this little swinging door he held conferences with all persons whom he did not chose to admit to a closer communication. This, which at a first glance, would seem to smack of superciliousness, was in reality nothing more than a judicious precaution. In the course of his dealings with settlers and emigrants, some of them were tempted, by the loneliness of his situation, to browbeat, and even to manifest violence towards him. On one occasion, it is said, he was assaulted and thrown down by one of the "land pirates," as he used to call them. The solitary situation in which he had voluntarily placed himself, and the power he possessed of distributing lands, required him to act frequently with apparent harshness, in order to avoid being imposed upon by land jobbers, and to prevent artful men from overreaching their weaker-minded brethren. His henchman, house-steward and major-domo, was a faithful servant whose name was Jeffery Hunter, in whom his master had great confidence, and who, as we are gravely informed, was very useful in reaching down the maps. Jeffery, however, did not enter the Colonel's employ until the later had been some time in the country. Previous to that time this scion of aristocracy was generally compelled to be his own servant, and to cook, bake, and perform all the household drudgery, which he was not unfrequently compelled to perform in the presence of distinguished guests.

Some years seem to have elapsed before the Colonel attracted any considerable number of settlers around him. The work of settlement cannot be said to have commenced in earnest until 1809. It was no light thing in those days for a man with a family dependent upon him to bury himself in the remote wildernesses of Western Canada. There was no flouring-mill, for instance, within sixty miles of Castle Malahide. In the earliest years of the settlement the few residents were compelled to grind their own grain after a primitive fashion, in a mortar formed by hollowing out a basin in the stump of a tree with a heated iron. The grain was placed in the basin, and then pounded with a heavy wooden beetle until it bore some resemblance to meal. In process of time the Colonel built a mill in the township of Dunwich, not far from his own abode. It was a great boon to the settlement, but was not long in existence, having been destroyed during the American invasion in 1812. For the first twenty years of the Colonel's settlement, the hardships he as well as his settlers had to contend with were of no ordinary kind, and such only as could be overcome by industry and patient endurance.

Colonel Talbot for many years exercised almost imperial sway over the district. He even provided for the wants of those in his immediate neighbourhood, and assembled them at his house on the first day of the week for religious worship. He read to them the services of the Church of England, and insured punctual attendance by sending the whiskey-bottle round among his congregation at the close of the ceremonial. Though never a religious man, even in the broadest acceptation of the term, he solemnized marriages and baptized the children. So that his government was, in the fullest and best sense, patriarchal. His method of transferring land was eminently simple and informal. No deeds were given, nor were any formal books of entry called into requisition. For many years the only records were sheet maps, showing the position of each separate lot enclosed in a small space within four black lines. When the terms of transfer had been agreed upon, the Colonel wrote the purchaser's name within the space assigned to the particular lot disposed of, and this was the only muniment of title. If the purchaser afterwards disposed of his lot, the vendor and vendee appeared at Castle Malahide, when, if the Colonel approved of the transaction, he simply obliterated the former purchaser's name with a piece of india-rubber, and substituted that of the new one. "Illustrations might be multiplied," says a contemporary Canadian writer, "of the peculiar way in which Colonel Talbot of Malahide discharged the duties he had undertaken to perform. There is a strong vein of the ludicrous running through these performances. We doubt whether transactions respecting the sale and transfer of real estate were, on any other occasion, or in any other place, carried on in a similar way. Pencil and india-rubber performances were, we venture to think, never before promoted to such trustworthy distinction, or called on to discharge such responsible duties as those which they described on the maps of which Jeffery and the dogs appeared to be the guardians. There is something irresistibly amusing in the fact that such an estate, exceeding half a million of acres, should have been disposed of in such a manner, with the help of such machinery, and, so far as we are aware, to the satisfaction of all concerned. It shows that a bad system faithfully worked is better than a good system basely managed."[3]

During the American invasion of 1812-'13 and '14, Colonel Talbot commanded the militia of the district, and was present at the battles of Lundy's Lane and Fort Erie. Marauding parties sometimes found their way to Castle Malahide during this troubled period, and what few people there were in the settlement suffered a good deal of annoyance. Within a day or two after the battle of the Thames, where the brave Tecumseh met his doom, a party of these marauders, consisting of Indians and scouts from the American army, presented themselves at Fort Talbot, and summoned the garrison to surrender. The place was not fortified, and the garrison consisted merely of a few farmers who had enrolled themselves in the militia under the temporary command of a Captain Patterson. A successful defence was out of the question and Colonel Talbot, who would probably have been deemed an important capture, quietly walked out of the back door as the invaders entered at the front. Some of the Indians saw the Colonel, who was dressed in homely, everyday garb, walking off through the woods, and were about to fire on him, when they were restrained by Captain Patterson, who begged them not to hurt the poor old fellow, who, he said, was the person who tended the sheep. This white lie probably saved the Colonel's life. The marauders, however, rifled the place, and carried off everything they could lay hands on, including some valuable horses and cattle. Colonel Talbot's gold, consisting of about two quart pots full, and some valuable plate, concealed under the front wing of the house, escaped notice. The invaders set fire to the grist mill, which was totally consumed, and this was a serious loss to the settlement generally.

It was not till the year 1817 that anything like a regular store or shop was established in the settlement. Previous to that time the wants of the settlers were frequently supplied from the stores of Colonel Talbot, who provided necessaries for his own use, and for the men whom he employed. The Colonel was punctual in all his engagements, and scrupulously exact in all monetary transactions. The large sums he received for many years from the settlers were duly and properly accounted for to the Government. He would accept payment of his claims only in the form of notes on the Bank of Upper Canada, and persons having any money to pay him were always compelled to provide themselves accordingly. His accumulations were carefully stored in the place of concealment above referred to; and once a year he carried his wealth to Little York, and made his returns. This annual trip to Little York was made in the depth of winter, and was almost the only event that took him away from home, except on the two or three occasions when he visited the old country. He was accustomed to make the journey to the Provincial capital in a high box sleigh, clad in a sheepskin greatcoat which was known to pretty nearly every man in the settlement.

Among the earliest settlers in the Talbot District was Mr. Mahlon Burwell, a land surveyor, who was afterwards better known as Colonel Burwell. He was of great assistance to Colonel Talbot, and became a privileged guest at Castle Malahide. He surveyed many of the townships in the Talbot District, and later on rose to a position of great influence in the Province. His industry and perseverance long enabled him to hold a high place in the minds of the people of the settlement, and he enjoyed the reflection of Colonel Talbot's high and benevolent character. He entered the Provincial Parliament, and for many years retained a large measure of public confidence. Another early settler in the District was the afterwards celebrated Dr. John Rolph, who took up his quarters on Catfish Creek in 1813. He was long on terms of close intimacy and friendship with Colonel Talbot, and in 1817 originated the Talbot Anniversary, to commemorate the establishment of the District, and to do honour to its Founder. This anniversary was held on the 21st of May, the Colonel's birthday, and was kept up without interruption for about twenty years. It was attended by every settler who could possibly get to the place of celebration, which was sometimes at Port Talbot, but more frequently at St. Thomas, after that place came into existence. Once only it was held at London. It is perhaps worth while mentioning that St. Thomas was called in honour of the Colonel's Christian name. Here the rustics assembled in full force to drink bumpers to the health of the Founder of the settlement, and to celebrate "the day, and all who honour it." The Colonel, of course, never failed to appear, and even after he had passed the allotted age of three score and ten, he always led off the first dance with some blooming maiden of the settlement.

Practically speaking, there is no limit to the number of anecdotes which are rife to this day among the settlers of the Talbot District with respect to the Colonel's eccentricities and mode of life. On one occasion a person named Crandell presented himself at Castle Malahide, late in the evening, as an applicant for a lot of land. He was ushered into the Colonel's presence, when the latter turned upon him with a flushed and angry countenance, and demanded his money. The Colonel's aspect was so fierce, and the situation was so lonely, that Crandell was alarmed for his life, and forthwith surrendered all his capital. He was then led off by Jeffery to the kitchen, where he was comfortably entertained for the night. The next morning the Colonel settled his business satisfactorily, and returned him his money, telling him that he had taken it from him to prevent his being robbed by some of his rascally servants. On another occasion a pedantic personage who lived in the Township of Howard, and who spent much time in familiarizing himself with the longest words to be found in the Dictionary, presented himself before the Colonel, and began, in polysyllabic phrases, to lay a local grievance before him. The language employed was so periphrastic and pointless that the Colonel was at a loss to get at the meaning intended to be conveyed. After listening for a few moments with ill-concealed impatience, Talbot broke out with a profane exclamation, adding: "If you do not come down to the level of my poor understanding, I can do nothing for you." The man profited by the rebuke, and commenced in plain words, but in rather an ambiguous manner, to state that his neighbour was unworthy of the grant of land he had obtained, as he was not working well. "Come, out with it," said the Colonel, "for I see now what you would be at. You wish to oust your neighbour, and get the land for yourself." After enduring further characteristic expletives, the man took himself of incontinently. Although many of his settlers were native Americans, the Colonel had an aversion to Yankees, and used to say of them that they acquired property by whittling chips and barter — by giving a shingle for a blind pup, which they swopped for a goose, and then turned into a sheep. On another occasion, an Irishman, proud of his origin, and whose patronymic told at once that he was a son of the Emerald Isle, finding that he could not prevail with the Colonel on the score of being a fellow-countryman, resorted to rudeness, and, with more warmth than discretion, stood upon his pedigree, and told the Colonel that his family was as honourable, and the coat of arms as respectable and as ancient as that of the Talbots of Malahide. Jeffery and the dogs were always the last resource on such occasions. "My dogs don't understand heraldry," was the laconic retort, "and if you don't take yourself off, they will not leave a coat to your back."

By the time the year 1826 came round, Colonel Talbot, in consequence of his exertions to forward the interests of his settlement, had begun to be very much straitened for means. He accordingly addressed a letter to Lord Bathurst, Secretary for the Colonies in the Home Government, asking for some remuneration for his long and valuable services. In his application for relief we find this paragraph: "After twenty-three years entirely devoted to the improvement of the Western Districts of this Province, and establishing on their lands about 20,000 souls, without any expense for superintendence to the Government, or the persons immediately benefited; but, on the contrary, at a sacrifice of £20,000, in rendering them comfortable, I find myself entirely straitened, and now wholly without capital." He admitted that the tract of land he had received from the Crown was large, but added that his agricultural labours had been unproductive — a circumstance not much to be wondered at when it is borne in mind that his time was chiefly occupied in selling and portioning out the land. The Home Government responded by a grant of £400 sterling per annum. The pension thus conferred was not gratuitous, but by way of recompense for his services in locating settlers on the waste lands of the Crown. That he was entitled to such a recompense few, at the present day, will be found to deny. He was a father to his people, and, in the words of his biographer, "acted as the friend of the poor, industrious settler, whom he protected from the fangs of men in office who looked only to the fees."[4]

In course of time the Colonel's place of abode at Port Talbot came to be a resort for distinguished visitors to Upper Canada, and the Lieutenant-Governors of the Province frequently resorted thither. The late Chief Justice Sir John Beverley Robinson was a frequent and an honoured guest at Castle Malahide; and Colonel Talbot, in his turn, generally availed himself of the hospitality of the Chief Justice during his annual visits to Little York. Among scores of other distinguished visitors may be mentioned the Duke of Richmond, Sir Peregrine Maitland, Lord Aylmer and Sir John Colborne. Mrs. Jameson also visited the spot during her sojourn in this country just before the rebellion, and published the most readable account of it that has yet appeared. Speaking of the Colonel himself, she says: "This remarkable man is now about sixty-five, perhaps more, but he does not look so much. In spite of his rustic dress, his good-humoured, jovial, weather-beaten face, and the primitive simplicity, not to say rudeness, of his dwelling, he has in his features, air, and deportment, that something which stamps him gentleman. And that something which thirty-four years of solitude have not effaced, he derives, I suppose, from blood and birth — things of more consequence, when philosophically and philanthropically considered, than we are apt to allow. He must have been very handsome when young; his resemblance now to our royal family, particularly to the King, (William the Fourth,) is so very striking as to be something next to identity. Good-natured people have set themselves to account for this wonderful likeness in various ways, possible and impossible; but after a rigid comparison of dates and ages, and assuming all that latitude which scandal usually allows herself in these matters, it remains unaccountable.. I had always heard and read of him as the 'eccentric' Colonel Talbot. Of his eccentricity I heard much more than of his benevolence, his invincible courage, his enthusiasm, his perseverance; but perhaps, according to the worldly nomenclature, these qualities come under the general head of 'eccentricity,' when devotion to a favourite object cannot possibly be referred to self-interest.. Colonel Talbot's life has been one of persevering, heroic self-devotion to the completion of a magnificent plan, laid down in the first instance, and followed up with unflinching tenacity of purpose. For sixteen years he saw scarce a human being, except the few boors and blacks employed in clearing and logging his land: he himself assumed the blanket-coat and axe, slept upon the bare earth, cooked three meals a day for twenty woodsmen, cleaned his own boots, washed his own linen, milked his cows, churned the butter, and made and baked the bread. In this latter branch of household economy he became very expert, and still piques himself on it." Of the château itself and its immediate surroundings, she says: "It" (the château) "is a long wooden building, chiefly of rough logs, with a covered porch running along the south side. Here I found suspended, among sundry implements of husbandry, one of those ferocious animals of the feline kind, called here the cat-a-mountain, and by some the American tiger, or panther, which it more resembles. This one, which had been killed in its attack on the fold or poultry-yard, was at least four feet in length, and glared on me from the rafters above, ghastly and horrible. The interior of the house contains several comfortable lodging-rooms; and one really handsome one, the dining-room. There is a large kitchen with a tremendously hospitable chimney. Around the house stands a vast variety of outbuildings, of all imaginable shapes and sizes, and disposed without the slightest regard to order or symmetry. One of these is the very log hut which the Colonel erected for shelter when he first 'sat down in the bush,' four-and-thirty years ago, and which he is naturally unwilling to remove. Many of these outbuildings are to shelter the geese and poultry, of which he rears an innumerable quantity. Beyond these is the cliff, looking over the wide blue lake, on which I have counted six schooners at a time with their white sails; on the left is Port Stanley. Behind the house lies an open tract of land, prettily broken and varied, where large flocks of sheep and cattle were feeding — the whole enclosed by beautiful and luxuriant woods, through which runs the little creek or river. The farm consists of six hundred acres; but as the Colonel is not quite so active as he used to be, and does not employ a bailiff or overseer, the management is said to be slovenly, and not so productive as it might be. He has sixteen acres of orchard-ground, in which he has planted and reared with success all the common European fruits, as apples, pears, plums, cherries, in abundance; but what delighted me beyond everything else was a garden of more than two acres, very neatly laid out and enclosed, and in which he evidently took exceeding pride and pleasure; it was the first thing he showed me after my arrival. It abounds in roses of different kinds, the cuttings of which he had brought himself from England in the few visits he had made there. Of these he gathered the most beautiful buds, and presented them to me with such an air as might have become Dick Talbot presenting a bouquet to Miss Jennings. We then sat down on a pretty seat under a tree, where he told me he often came to meditate. He described the appearance of the spot when he first came here, as contrasted with its present appearance, or we discussed the exploits of some of his celebrated and gallant ancestors, with whom my acquaintance was (luckily) almost as intimate as his own. Family and aristocratic pride I found a prominent feature in the character of this remarkable man. A Talbot of Malahide, of a family representing the same barony from father to son for six hundred years, he set, not unreasonably, a high value on his noble and unstained lineage; and, in his lonely position, the simplicity of his life and manners lent to these lofty and not unreal pretensions a kind of poetical dignity.. Another thing which gave a singular interest to my conversation with Colonel Talbot was the sort of indifference with which he regarded all the stirring events of the last thirty years. Dynasties rose and disappeared; kingdoms were passed from hand to hand like wine decanters; battles were lost and won; — he neither knew, nor heard, nor cared. No post, no newspaper brought to his forest-hut the tidings of victory and defeat, of revolutions of empires, or rumours of unsuccessful and successful war."

The faithful servant, Jeffery Hunter, came in for a share of this clever woman's keen observation. "This honest fellow," she tells us, "not having forsworn female companionship, began to sigh after a wife — and like the good knight in Chaucer, he did.

'Upon his bare knees pray God him to send
A wife to last unto his life's end.'

So one morning he went and took unto himself the woman nearest at hand — one, of whom we must needs suppose that he chose her for her virtues, for most certainly it was not for her attractions. The Colonel swore at him for a fool; but, after a while, Jeffery, who is a favourite, smuggled his wife into the house; and the Colonel, whose increasing age renders him rather more dependent on household help, seems to endure very patiently this addition to his family, and even the presence of a white-headed chubby little thing, which I found running about without let or hindrance."

In politics Colonel Talbot was a Tory, but as a general rule he took no part in the election contests of his time. His servant Jeffery Hunter, however, who seems to have had a vote on his own account, was always despatched promptly to the polling-place to record his vote in favour of the Tory candidate. The Colonel was a Member of the Legislative Council, but he seldom or never attended the deliberations of that Body. During the Administration of Sir John Colborne, when the Liberals of Upper Canada fought the battles of Reform with such energy and vigour, the Colonel for a single campaign identified himself with the contest, and made what seems to have been rather an effective election speech on the platform at St. Thomas. He traced the history of the settlement, and referred to his own labours in a fashion which elicited tumultuous applause from the crowd. He deplored the spread of radical principles, and expressed his regret that some advocates of those principles had crept into the neighbourhood. The meeting passed a loyal address to the Crown, which was dictated by Colonel Talbot himself. This, so far as is known, was the only political meeting ever attended by him in this Province.

The Colonel was nominally a member of the Church of England, and contributed liberally to its support, though, as may well be supposed, he was never eaten up by his zeal for episcopacy. By some people he was set down as a freethinker, and by others as a Roman Catholic. The fact is that the prevailing tone of his mind was not spiritual, and he gave little thought to matters theological. During the early years of the settlement, as we have seen, he was wont to read service to the assembled rustics on Sunday; but this custom was abandoned as soon as churches began to be accessible to the people of the neighbourhood; and after that time, though he was occasionally seen at church, he was not an habitual attendant at public worship. He was fond of good company, and liked to tell and listen to dubious stories "across the walnuts and the wine." A clergyman who officiated at a little church about five miles from Port Talbot was his frequent guest at dinner, until the Colonel's outrageous jokes and stories proved too much for the clerical idea of the eternal fitness of things. "It must," says his biographer, "have been rather a bold venture for a young clergyman to come in contact with a man of Colonel Talbot's wit and racy humour, and a man who would startle at the very idea of being priest ridden; in fact, who would be much more likely to saddle the priest. The reverend gentleman bore with him a long while, till at length finding that he was not making any progress with the old gentleman in a religious point of view — on the contrary, that his sallies of wit became more frequent and cutting — he left him to get to heaven without his assistance. Colonel Talbot was never pleased with himself for having said or done anything to provoke the displeasure of his reverend guest, but being in the habit at table, after dinner, of smacking his lips over a glass of good port, and cracking jokes, which extorted from his guest a half approving smile, he was tempted to exceed the bounds which religious or even chaste conversation would prescribe, and came so near proving in vino veritas, that the reverend gentleman would never revisit him, although I believe it was Colonel Talbot's earnest desire that he should."

Bad habits, if not checked in season, have a tendency to grow worse. As the Colonel advanced in years his liking for strong drink increased to such an extent that the in vino veritas stage was, we fear, reached pretty often. To such a state of things his solitary life doubtless conduced. He had an iron constitution, however, and it does not appear that his intemperate habits during the evening of his life materially shortened his days. He lived long enough to see the prosperity of his settlement fully assured. For many years prior to his death it appears to have been his cherished desire to bequeath his large estate to one of the male descendants of the Talbot family, and with this view he invited one of his sister's sons, Mr. Julius Airey, to come over from England and reside with him at Port Talbot. This young gentleman accordingly came to reside there, but the dull, monotonous life he was obliged to lead, and the Colonel's eccentricities, were ill calculated to engage the affections of a youth just verging on manhood; and after rusticating, without companions or equals in either birth or education, for some time, he returned to England and relinquished whatever claims he might consider he had on his uncle. Some years later a younger brother of Julius, Colonel Airey, Military Secretary at the Horse Guards, ventured upon a similar experiment, and came out to Canada with his family to live at Port Talbot. About this time the Colonel's health began seriously to fail, and his habits began to gain greater hold upon him than ever. As a necessary consequence he became crabbed and irritable. The uncle and nephew could not get on together. "The former," says his biographer, "had been accustomed for the greater portion of his life to suit the convenience of his domestics, and, in common with the inhabitants of the country, to dine at noon; the latter was accustomed to wait for the buglecall, till seven o'clock in the evening. Colonel Talbot could, on special occasions, accommodate himself to the habits of his guests, but to be regularly harnessed up for the mess every day was too much to expect from so old a man; no wonder he kicked in the traces. He soon came to the determination of keeping up a separate establishment, and another spacious mansion was erected adjoining Colonel Airey's, where he might, he thought, live as he pleased. But all would not do, the old bird had been disturbed in his nest, and he could not be reconciled." He determined to leave Canada, and to end his days in the Old World. He transferred the Port Talbot estate, valued at £10,000, together with 13,000 acres of land in the adjoining township of Aldborough, to Colonel Airey. This transfer, however, left more than half of his property in his own hands, and he was still a man of great wealth. Acting on his determination to leave Canada, he started, in his eightieth year, for Europe. Upon reaching London, only a day's journey from Port Talbot, he was prostrated by illness, and was confined to his bed for nearly a month. He rallied, however, and resumed his journey. In due time he reached London the Greater. He was accompanied on the voyage by Mr. George McBeth, the successor to the situation of Jeffery Hunter, who had died some years before. McBeth had gained complete ascendancy over the Colonel's failing mind. Being a young man of some education, and a good deal of finesse, he was treated by his master as a companion rather than as a servant, and the latter merited his master's regard by nursing him with much care and attention.

Colonel Talbot remained in London somewhat more than a year, during which period, as also during his previous visits to England, he renewed old associations with the friend of his youth, the great Duke. He was often the latter's guest at Apsley House, and the stern old hero of a hundred fights delighted in his society. London life, however, was distasteful to Colonel Talbot, and, after giving it a fair trial, he once more bade adieu to society and repaired to Canada — always attended assiduously by George McBeth. Upon reaching the settlement he took lodgings for himself and his companion in the house of Jeffery Hunter's widow. Here, cooped up in a small room, on the outskirts of the magnificent estate which was no longer his own, he received occasional visits from his old friends. Colonel Airey, meanwhile, had rented the Port Talbot property to an English gentleman named Saunders, and had returned to his post at the Horse Guards in England. Mr. Saunders had several daughters, to one of whom George McBeth paid assiduous court, and whom he afterwards married. Upon his marriage he removed to London, accompanied by Colonel Talbot, who resided with him until his death, on the 6th of February, 1853. When the Colonel's will was opened it was found that with the exception of an annuity of £20 to Jeffery Hunter's widow, all his vast estate, estimated at £50,000, had been left to George McBeth.

The funeral took place on the 9th. On the previous day — the 8th — the body was conveyed in a hearse from London to Fingal, on the way to Port Talbot, so as to be ready for interment on the following morning. By some culpable neglect or mismanagement it was placed for the night in the barn or granary of the local inn. The settlers were scandalized at this indignity, and one of them begged, with tears in his eyes, that the body might be removed to his house, which was close by. The undertaker, who is said to have been under the influence of liquor, declined to accede to this request, and the body remained all night in the barn. On the following morning it was replaced in the hearse and conveyed to Port Talbot, where it rested for a short time within the walls of Castle Malahide. A few attached friends from London and other parts of the settlement attended the coffin to its place of sepulture in the churchyard at Tyrconnel. The officiating clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Holland, read the service in a cutting wind, and the ceremony was ended. A plate on the oaken coffin bore the simple inscription:

THOMAS TALBOT,

Founder of the Talbot Settlement,

Died 6th February, 1853

## THE HON. DAVID LAIRD,

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES

The Hon. David Laird is the fourth son of the late Hon. Alexander Laird, a Scottish farmer who, in the year 1819, emigrated from Renfrewshire to Prince Edward Island. The late Mr. Laird settled in Queen's County, about sixteen miles from Charlottetown, the capital of the Province, and devoted himself to agriculture. He was a man of high character and great influence, alike in political and social matters. For about sixteen years he represented the First District of Queen's County in the Local Assembly, and during one Parliamentary term of four years he was a member of the Executive Council. He was a colleague and supporter of the Hon. George Coles, who is called the father of Responsible Government in Prince Edward Island. He was one of the signatories to the petition forwarded by the Assembly to the Home Government in 1847, praying that Responsible Government might be conceded; and he had the satisfaction of sitting in the Assembly on the 25th of March, 1851, when Sir Alexander Bannerman, the Governor, announced that the prayer of the petition had been granted. He was also for many years one of the most active members of the Managing Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society of Prince Edward, an institution which did much for the advancement of agricultural industry in the Province, by encouraging the importation of improved stock, and by other similar operations.

The subject of this sketch was born at the paternal home, near the village of New Glasgow, Queen's County, in the year 1833. He was educated at the district school of his native settlement, and afterwards entered the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia, which was then situated at Truro, in that Province. He completed his education at the Seminary, and soon afterwards embarked in journalism at Charlottetown, where he founded a newspaper called The Patriot. Under his editorship and business management this journal became, in the course of a few years, the leading organ of public opinion in Prince Edward Island. It advocated Liberal principles, and was conducted with much energy and ability. The editor had inherited Liberal ideas from his father, and spoke and wrote on behalf of them with great effect. After a time he became estranged from the leader of the Liberal Party, the chief cause of estrangement arising from the latter's having lent his countenance to some proceedings tending to exclude the Bible from the Common Schools. All minor causes of controversy, however, were cast into the shade by the great question of Confederation. After the close of the Quebec Conference in October, 1864, Mr. Laird took a firm stand against the terms of the scheme agreed upon by the delegates, in so far as they related to his native Province. He assigned as his principal reasons for adopting this course the fact that the terms contained no proposal for the settlement of the Land Question, which had long been a sore grievance with the tenantry of the island; and the further fact that no provision was made for the construction of public works, although the island could be called upon to contribute its quota of taxation towards the Intercolonial Railway, the canals, and the Pacific Railway. He took an active part in the promotion of sanitary and other local improvements, and was for some years a member of the Charlottetown City Council. His first entry into Parliamentary life took place in 1871. The then-existing Government, under the leadership of the Hon. James Colledge Pope (the present Minister of Marine and Fisheries in the Dominion Government), had carried a measure for the construction of the Prince Edward Island Railway, running nearly the entire length of the island. This project Mr. Laird had opposed, on the ground that it should have been first submitted to the people at the polls, and also because he regarded the undertaking as beyond the resources of the Province. The Government, however, had carried the Bill providing for the construction of the road through the House during the previous session, and the surveyors and Commissioners had been appointed. The Chairman of the Commissioners, the Hon. James Duncan, represented the constituency of Belfast in the Legislative Assembly, and was obliged to return to his constituents for reëlection after accepting office. Mr. Laird offered himself as a candidate in opposition to the Government nominee. His candidature was successful. The Commissioner was defeated, and Mr. Laird secured a seat in the Assembly. A good deal of dissatisfaction had been excited by the proceedings of the Local Government in connection with the construction of the road, the result being that Mr. Pope, when he next met the House, found he had lost the confidence of the majority, and being defeated, he dissolved the House and appealed to the country. The appeal was disastrous to his policy, a majority of the members returned being hostile to his Government. Among these was Mr. Laird, who was elected a second time for Belfast. A new Government was formed with Mr. R. P. Haythorne as Premier. During the following autumn Mr. Laird accepted office in this Government, and was sworn in as a Member of the Executive Council in November, 1872. Finding that if the railway were proceeded with on the credit of Prince Edward Island alone, the Provincial finances would be seriously embarrassed, the new Ministers responded favourably to an invitation from Ottawa to reconsider the question of Union. Mr. Laird formed one of the delegation which proceeded to Ottawa and negotiated terms of Union with the Dominion Government. After the return of the delegates the Local House was dissolved in order that the terms agreed upon might be submitted to the people. A good deal of finesse was practised by the Opposition, and various side issues were imported into the election contest. The result was the return of a majority hostile to Mr. Haythorne's Ministry, and Mr. Pope again succeeded to the reins of Government. Under his auspices the terms of Union were slightly modified, and Prince Edward Island entered Confederation.

Mr. Laird had meanwhile succeeded to the leadership of the Liberal Party. The House did not divide, however, on the question of Confederation, and both Parties concurred in supporting the measure. Mr. Laird resigned his seat in the Local Legislature, and offered himself as a candidate for the House of Commons for the electoral district of Queen's County. He was returned by a large majority, and on the opening of the second session of the second Parliament of the Dominion, in October, 1873, he took his seat in the House of Commons at Ottawa. The Pacific Scandal disclosures followed, and Sir John A. Macdonald's Government made way for that of the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie. In the new Administration Mr. Laird accepted the portfolio of Minister of the Interior, and was sworn into office on the 7th of November. Upon returning to his constituents in Queen's County he was returned by acclamation. He was again returned by acclamation at the general election of 1874. He retained his office of Minister of the Interior until the 7th of October, 1876, when he was appointed by the Governor-General to the Lieutenant-Governorship of the North-West Territories. This position he has ever since filled with the best results to the Dominion. During his tenure of office as Minister of the Interior he carried several important measures through Parliament, and — in the summer of 1874 — effected an important Treaty with the Indians of the North-West, whereby he secured to the Crown the possession of a tract of 75,500 square miles in extent, and thus guaranteed the peaceable possession of a large portion of the route of the Canada Pacific Railway and its accompanying telegraph lines.

In 1864 Mr. Laird married Mary Louisa, second daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Owen, who was for many years Postmaster-General of Prince Edward Island. An elder brother of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Hon. Alexander Laird, held office in the late Local Government of Prince Edward Island, and at present represents the Second District of Prince, in the Local Assembly.

## THE HON. CHARLES E. B. DE BOUCHERVILLE

The Bouchers and De Bouchervilles for over two hundred years have played no unimportant part in the history of Canada. Lieutenant-General Pierre Boucher, Sieur de Grobois, Governor of Three Rivers in 1653, the founder of the Seigniory of Boucherville, and a man of great influence in his day, was one of the most noted members of the family. The late Hon. P. Boucher de Boucherville, for many years a Legislative Councillor of Lower Canada, was the father of the subject of this sketch, who was born at Boucherville, Province of Quebec, in 1820. He was educated at St. Sulpice College, Montreal. He subsequently went to Paris, pursued his studies in the medical profession there, and graduated with high honours. He has been married twice, first to Miss Susanne Morrogh, daughter of Mr. R. L. Morrogh, Advocate, of Montreal; and after her death, to Miss C. Luissier, of Varennes. In 1861 he was elected to the House of Assembly for the county of Chambly. He continued to represent this constituency until 1867, when he entered the Legislative Council, and became a member of Mr. Chauveau's Ministry, with the office of Speaker of the Council, which position he held until February, 1873. On the reconstruction of the Cabinet, September 22nd, 1874, he was entrusted with the formation of a Ministry. This duty he accomplished successfully, taking for himself the portfolio of Secretary and Registrar, and Minister of Public Instruction. On the 27th January, 1876, he changed his portfolio for that of Agriculture and Public Works. In February, 1879, he was called to the Senate, an honour which he accepted without resigning his seat in the Legislative Council.

The De Boucherville Ministry remained in power until the 4th of March, 1878, when it was summarily dismissed by the Hon. Luc Letellier de St. Just, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, for reasons which appeared to him to be just. The facts with reference to this matter have been detailed in the sketch of the life of Mr. Letellier, contained in the first volume of this work. On the refusal of Mr. De Boucherville to name a successor, Mr. Letellier called in the Hon. Henri Gustave Joly of Lotbinière, and invited him to form a Ministry. In October, 1879, the ex-Premier and his friends succeeded in defeating the Liberal Government. A Conservative Ministry was formed, in whose councils, however, Mr. De Boucherville has taken no part, though his efforts to drive from power the Liberal Administration were conspicuously displayed in the Upper Chamber of the Province. He is a good speaker, precise, moderate and adroit. He is skilful in defence and equally skilful in attack. His administrative capacity is considerable, and the duties of the several offices which he has held at various intervals, have been ably and industriously performed.

## THE REV. SAMUEL NELLES, D.D., LL.D.,

PRESIDENT OF VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, COBOURG

Dr. Nelles's life, like that of most men of purely scholastic pursuits, has been comparatively uneventful, and does not form a very fruitful field for biographical purposes. It has, however, been an eminently useful one, and has been attended with results most beneficial to the educational establishment with which his name has long been associated, and over which he has presided for a continuous period of thirty years. He is of German descent, on both the paternal and maternal sides. His paternal grandparents emigrated from Germany to the State of New York sometime during the last century, and settled in the historic valley of the Mohawk, where some of their descendants still reside. There Dr. Nelles's father, the late Mr. William Nelles, was born, and there he passed the early years of his life. He married Miss Mary Hardy, who was also of German stock on the mother's side, and was born in the State of Pennsylvania. By this lady he had a numerous family, the eldest son being the subject of this sketch. The parents emigrated from New York State to Upper Canada soon after the close of the War of 1812-15, and devoted themselves to farming pursuits. The Doctor was born at the family homestead, in the quiet little village of Mount Pleasant — known to the Post Office Department as Mohawk — in what is now the township of Brantford, in the county of Brant, about five miles south-west of the present city of Brantford, on the 17th of October, 1823. At the present day, the schools of Mount Pleasant will bear comparison with those of many places of much larger population; but fifty years ago, when young Samuel Nelles was in attendance there, they were like most other schools in the rural districts of Upper Canada — that is to say, they afforded no facilities for anything beyond a very rudimentary educational training. Such as they were, however, they furnished the only means of instruction at his command until he had entered upon his seventeenth year. Previous to that time he had lived at home, attending school and assisting his father in farm work. He had, however, displayed great fondness for study, and had, by dint of his natural ability and steady application, made greater progress than could have been made by any boy who was not possessed by an ardent thirst for knowledge. His parents accordingly resolved that he should have an opportunity of following out the natural bent of his mind. In 1839 he was placed at Lewiston Academy, in the State of New York, where he spent an industrious year, and where he had for a tutor the brilliant, witty and humorous John Godfrey Saxe. Mr. Saxe was not then known to the world as a poet, but he was an accomplished philologist, and was reading for the Bar. He had just graduated at Middlebury College, Vermont, and was teaching belles-lettres in the Lewiston Academy contemporaneously with the prosecution of his legal studies. In October, 1840, young Nelles transferred himself to an academy at Fredonia, in Chautauqua county, N.Y., where he remained ten months. In the following October (1841) he entered the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, N.Y., where he devoted his time chiefly to Classics, Mathematics, English Literature and Criticism. Having spent a profitable year at Lima, he entered Victoria College, Cobourg — which was then under the Presidency of the Rev. Egerton Ryerson — in the autumn of 1842. He was one of the first two matriculated students at the institution, which had just been incorporated as a University. After an Arts course of two years at Victoria College, and a year spent in study at home, he attended for some time at the University of Middletown, Connecticut, where he graduated as B.A. in 1846. He then spent a year as a teacher in Canada, and took charge of the Newburgh Academy, in the county of Lennox. In June, 1847, he entered the ministry of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and was placed in charge of a congregation at Port Hope, where he remained for a year. He was then transferred to the old Adelaide Street Church, Toronto, where he laboured for two years. Thence he was transferred to London, but had only resided there about three months when, in the month of September, 1850, he was appointed President of Victoria College. This important and responsible position he has held ever since.

At the time of his taking office, the institution was by no means in a flourishing condition. It was carried on under circumstances of great difficulty and embarrassment, and had a competent administrator not been found to take charge of it, its future would have been very problematical. An improvement in its condition, however, was perceptible from the time when Mr. Nelles took the management. It has continued to prosper ever since, and has long ago taken rank among the most noteworthy educational institutions in the Dominion. At the time of Professor Nelles's appointment there was only a single Faculty — Arts — and the attendance was very small. The teachers were only five in number. The Professor's vigorous administration soon effected a marked change for the better. In 1854 the Faculty of Medicine was added. It at first embraced only one medical college, which was presided over for many years by the late Dr. Rolph. In process of time a second institution, L'École de Médecine et de Chirurgie, Montreal, became affiliated, and still continues to hold the same relationship to the University. A Law Faculty was added in 1862, and in 1872 a Faculty of Theology.

When Professor Nelles became President he at the same time became Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, Logic, and the Evidences of Religion. These subjects he has continued to teach ever since, with the addition, since 1872, of Homiletics. He has devoted his life to the task of building up the institution, and has been ably seconded by the staff of teachers whom he has from time to time gathered about him. Until comparatively recent times there was no endowment fund, and the College had to depend for its support solely on tuition fees, on the annual contributions of the ministers and people of the Wesleyan Methodist Body, and on a Parliamentary grant which Victoria College, in common with other denominational schools, had been wont to receive. After Confederation, all grants to denominational colleges were discontinued, and Victoria College was left almost entirely unprovided for. At a meeting of the Methodist Conference it was proposed by President Nelles that an appeal should be made to the people for contributions to an endowment fund. The proposal was adopted by the Conference, and the Rev. Dr. Punshon, who was then resident in Canada, took an active personal interest in the movement. He contributed $3,000 out of his own pocket, and made a personal tour through part of Ontario, holding public meetings, whereby a sum of $50,000 was secured. Several other Methodist ministers followed his example, and the fund steadily increased. In 1873, however, the amount was still insufficient, and the Rev. Joshua H. Johnson was appointed by the Conference to make further collections. Mr. Johnson entered upon his task, and pursued it with great vigour. His efforts were supplemented by a munificent bequest of $30,000 from the late Mr. Edward Jackson, of Hamilton. The requisite amount was eventually obtained, and the future of Victoria College secured.

The erection of Faraday Hall, at a cost of $25,000, chiefly for Scientific purposes, marks a new epoch in the history of Victoria College. This Hall was formally opened on the 29th of May, 1878. Dr. Haanel, a distinguished German Professor, was placed in charge of the scientific department, and the results of his teaching are already apparent in an awakened interest in scientific matters displayed by the students of the College.

Upon the whole, Dr. Nelles may well be pardoned if he looks back upon his thirty years' Presidency of Victoria College with a considerable degree of complacency. To him, more than to anyone else, is due its present state of prosperity and enlarged efficiency. He has also taken a warm interest in educational matters unconnected with the College, and his influence is perceptibly felt in all the local schools. He was for two successive years elected President of the Teachers' Association of Ontario, and his views on all matters pertaining to public instruction are held in high respect.

Dr. Nelles was chosen a delegate to represent the Canadian Conference at the General Methodist Conference held at Philadelphia in 1864, at the New Brunswick Conference of 1866, and at the English Wesleyan Conference held at Newcastle in 1873. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by the University of Queen's College, Kingston, in 1860. His Doctor's degree in Law was conferred upon him in 1873 by the University of Victoria College. He is the author of a popular text-book on Logic, and has frequently contributed to periodical literature. He enjoys high repute as a lecturer, more especially on educational subjects; and his sermons, some of which have been published, are said to be of an exceptionally high order.

On the 3rd of July, 1851, he married Miss Mary B. Wood, daughter of the Rev. Enoch Wood, of Toronto, by whom he has a family of five children.

## THE HON. WILLIAM HUME BLAKE

The late Chancellor Blake, one of the most distinguished jurists that ever sat on the Canadian Bench, was a member of an Irish family, known as the Blakes of Cashelgrove, in the county of Galway. The family was well connected and stood high among the county magnates. Sometime about the middle of the last century, Dominick Edward Blake, its chief representative, married the Hon. Miss Netterville, daughter of Lord Netterville, of Drogheda. After her death, he married a second wife, who was a daughter of Sir Joseph Hoare, Baronet, of Annabella, in the county of Cork. By this lady he had four sons, one of whom, christened Dominick Edward, after his father, took orders as a clergyman of the Church of England, and became Rector and Rural Dean of Kiltegan and Loughbrickland. This gentleman married Miss Anne Margaret Hume, eldest daughter of Mr. William Hume, of Humewood, M.P. for the county of Wicklow. During the progress of the rebellion of 1798, Mr. Hume sent his children to Dublin for safety, and took personal command of a corps of yeomanry raised in his county. He fell a victim to his loyalty, and was shot near his own residence at Humewood by some rebels of whom he was in pursuit. Lord Charlemont, in a published letter, alluded to this deplorable event as "the murder of Hume, the friend and favourite of his country," and characterized it as an "example of atrocity which exceeded all that went before it."

William Hume Blake, the subject of this memoir, was the grandson and namesake of the unfortunate gentleman above referred to, and was one of the fruits of the marriage of his father, the Rev. D. E. Blake, to Miss Hume. He was born at the Rectory, at Kiltegan, County Wicklow, on the 10th of March, 1809. He was the second son of his parents, his elder brother, Dominick Edward, being named in honour of his father and paternal grandfather. The elder brother emulated his father's example, and became a clergyman of the Church of England. The younger, after receiving his education at Trinity College, Dublin, studied surgery under Surgeon-General Sir Philip Crampton. Surgery, however, was not much to his taste. The accompaniments of that profession — notably the coarse jokes and experiments which he was daily called upon to encounter in the dissecting-room — proved at last so repulsive to his nature that he abandoned surgery altogether, and entered upon a course of theological study with a view to entering the Church. His studies had not proceeded far, however, before he and his elder brother determined to emigrate to Canada. This determination was carried out in the summer of 1832. A short time before leaving his native land, the younger brother married his cousin, Miss Catharine Hume, the granddaughter — as he himself was the grandson — of the William Hume whose tragical death has already been recorded. This lady, who shared alike the struggles and triumphs of her distinguished husband till the close of his earthly career, still survives.

The Blake brothers were induced to emigrate to this country, partly because their prospects at home were not particularly bright, partly in consequence of the strong inducements held out by the then Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Sir John Colborne. The representations of Major Jones, the elder brother's father-in-law, doubtless contributed something to the result. The Major was a retired officer who had served in this country during the war of 1812-'13-'14, and had taken part in the battles of Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane. He was fond of fighting his battles over again by his own fireside and that of his son-in-law. He was never weary of enlarging on the beauty and primitive wildness of Canadian scenery, the pleasures and freedom from conventionality of a life spent in the backwoods, and the brilliant prospects awaiting young men of courage, energy, endurance, and ability, in the wilds of Upper Canada. The Blake brothers were Irishmen, and were gifted with the national vividness of imagination. They doubtless pictured to themselves the delights of "a lodge in some vast wilderness," where game of all sorts was abundant, and where game laws had no existence. They had of course no adequate conception of the struggles and trials incident to pioneer life. They were not alone in their notions about Canada. Many of their friends and acquaintances about this time became imbued with a desire to emigrate, and upon taking counsel together they found that there were enough of them to form a small colony by themselves. Having made all necessary arrangements they chartered a vessel — the Ann, of Halifax — and sailed for the St. Lawrence in the month of July, 1832. Among the friends and relations of the brothers Blake embarked on board were their mother, who had been left a widow; their sister and her husband, the late Archdeacon Brough; the late Mr. Justice Connor; the Rev. Benjamin Cronyn, late Bishop of Huron; and the Rev. Mr. Palmer, Archdeacon of Huron. After a six weeks' voyage they reached the mouth of the St. Lawrence, whence by slow degrees they made their way to Little York, as the Upper Canadian capital was then called. Here they remained until the following spring, when they divided their forces. Some of them remained in York; others — including Mr. Connor and Mr. Brough — proceeded northward to the township of Oro, on Lake Simcoe; and others settled on the Niagara peninsula. The elder Blake had meanwhile been appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor to a Rectory in the township of Adelaide, and there he accordingly pitched his tent. His brother, the subject of this sketch, purchased a farm in the same part of the country, at a place on Bear Creek — now called Sydenham River — near the present site of the village of Katesville, or Mount Hope, in the county of Middlesex. He then had an opportunity of realizing the full delights of a life in the Canadian backwoods. "With whatever romantic ideas of the delights of such a life Mr. Hume Blake had determined on making Canada his home," says a contemporary Canadian author, "they were soon dispelled by the rough experiences of the reality. The settler in the remotest section of Ontario to-day has no conception of the struggles and hardships that fell to the lot of men who, accustomed to all the refinements of life, found themselves cut off from all traces of civilization in a land, since settled and cultivated, but then so wild that between what are now populous cities there existed only an Indian trail through the forest. Mr. Blake was not a man to be easily discouraged, but soon found that his talents were being wasted in the wilderness. In after years he was fond of telling of the rude experiences of life in the bush, and among other incidents how that he had, on one occasion, walked to the blacksmith's shop before mentioned to obtain a supply of harrow-pins, and, finding them too heavy to carry, had fastened them to a chain, which he put round his neck, and so dragged them home through the woods."

It was during the residence of the family at Bear Creek that the eldest son, Edward, was born,[5] but he was not destined to receive his educational training amid such surroundings. While he was still an infant the family removed to Toronto. A life in the backwoods had been tried, and was found to be unsuited to the genius and ambition of a man like William Hume Blake. He had tried surgery, divinity, and agriculture, and had not taken kindly to any of those pursuits. He now resolved to attempt the law, and commenced his legal studies in the office of the late Mr. Washburn, a well-known lawyer in those days. During the troubles of 1837 he was, we believe, for a short time paymaster of a battalion, but fortunately there was no occasion for his active services. In 1838 he was called to the Bar of Upper Canada, and was not long in making his way to a foremost position. His rivals at the Bar were among the foremost counsel who have ever practised in this Province, and included Mr. (afterwards Chief Justice) Draper, Mr. (afterwards Judge) Sullivan, Mr. Henry John Boulton, Mr. (now Chief Justice) Hagarty, Robert Baldwin, Henry Eccles, and John Hillyard Cameron. Mr. Blake soon proved his ability to hold his own against all comers. He enjoyed some personal advantages which stood him in good stead, both while he was fighting his way and afterwards. His tall, handsome person, and fine open face, his felicitous language, and bold manly utterance gained him at once the full attention of both Court and Jury; and his vigorous grasp of the whole case under discussion, his acute, logical dissection of the evidence, and the thorough earnestness with which he always threw himself into his client's case, swept everything before them. In the days when such men as Draper, Sullivan, Baldwin and Eccles were at the Bar, it was something to stand among the foremost. Mr. Blake became associated in business with Mr. Joseph C. Morrison — now one of the Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench — and some years later, his relative, the late Dr. Connor, who in 1863 became one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, entered the firm. Business poured in, and the number of Mr. Blake's briefs increased in almost geometrical proportion. His arguments were of due weight with the judges of those times, but with juries his force was irresistible. Many incidents have been related of his forensic triumphs. Among other cases recorded by the writer already quoted from, that of Kerby vs. Lewis occupies a conspicuous place. The question at issue was Mr. Kerby's right to monopolize a ferry communication between Fort Erie and some point on the American shore. This right the defendant contested, and employed Mr. Blake to conduct his case. The judges appear to have leaned strongly to the side of the plaintiff, and granted a succession of new trials, as, on each occasion, Mr. Blake's telling appeals to their sympathy with the defendant, as the champion of free intercourse between the two countries, extorted from the juries a verdict in favour of his client. It is said that the Court finally refused to grant any further new trials in sheer hopelessness of any jury being found to reverse the original finding.

Another proof of his energy and ingenuity was given in the Webb arson case, which made a considerable noise at the time. Webb was the owner of a shoe store in Toronto. Having on more than one occasion obtained compensation from fire insurance companies for losses he had sustained, suspicion was excited against him, and, on another fire occurring, the companies decided on prosecuting. Webb retained Mr. Blake. The theory of the defence was that a stove-pipe from the adjoining store, which connected with Webb's premises, had become heated, and had ignited some "rubbers" hanging in the vicinity. The prosecution denied that "rubbers" were combustible in any such sense as the defence represented. To put his theory beyond a doubt, Mr. Blake, on the evening before the trial, had set his two boys, Edward and Samuel, to look up every piece of information they could obtain from encyclopaedias or other sources as to the properties of rubber. Then an old pair of "rubbers" was procured, experiments were engaged in, and both father and sons were occupied during the greater part of the night in their investigations, to the no small discomfort of the other members of the household. When the trial came on next day, after the case for the prosecution had been presented, Mr. Blake began his defence. He dissected the prosecutor's evidence with an amazing fund of irony and sarcasm, and requested the jury to place as little reliance on the general testimony for the prosecution as they would soon do on the theory of "rubbers" being non-combustible. Then a candle and a pair of old "rubbers" were produced; a few strips cut from the latter were held in the flame, and the interested crowd of spectators saw them burn. The jury accepted this as sufficient, at all events, to cast doubts on the whole case against the prisoner, and Webb was acquitted.

The "Markham gang," as they were called, are still well remembered by the older inhabitants of Toronto and the adjoining country. In several of the prosecutions arising out of the outrages of the gang, Mr. Blake was defending counsel, and invested the defence with additional interest, in the eyes of the legal profession, by raising the question of the admissibility of the evidence of an accomplice. Another case which showed the earnestness and conscientiousness of Mr. Blake, who prosecuted, was the trial of two persons — a man named McDermott and a girl named Grace Marks — charged with the murder of Mr. Kinnear and his housekeeper, near Richmond Hill, in the year 1843.[6] Not content with secondhand information, the hard-working lawyer devoted the only holiday which intervened between the committal of the prisoners and the trial to a careful and minute examination of the house and premises where the murder had occurred, so that in going into court he had the most perfect familiarity with every detail connected with the crime. The prisoners were convicted; the man suffered the extreme penalty of the law, and the woman, who was reprieved, was only liberated from the Penitentiary after an incarceration of twenty years. No man could more readily seize hold of the salient points of a case presented to him; few could make so much out of a small and apparently insignificant point; but no one ever made the business before him the subject of more patient study or more exhaustive attention. Honourable and high-minded himself, he sought to inspire those about him with the same feelings. He endeavoured at all times to encourage a gentlemanly bearing in the young men who studied under him, and would tolerate nothing inconsistent with perfect fairness and honesty in transacting the business of the office.

Mr. Blake and his partners were all active members of the Liberal Party. In the early contests for Municipal Institutions, National Education, Law Reform and all progressive measures, they took an earnest part — and in the struggle with Lord Metcalfe and his Tory abettors for the establishment of British Parliamentary Government in Canada, they did excellent service to the popular cause. Mr. Blake, at the general election of 1844, was the Reform candidate for the second Riding of York — now the county of Peel — but was defeated by a narrow majority on the second day of polling by his Tory opponent, Mr. George Duggan. A little later, he contested unsuccessfully the county of Simcoe, in opposition to the Hon. W. B. Robinson. At the general election of 1847, while absent in England, he was returned by a large majority for the East Riding of York — now the county of Ontario. The result of that election was the entire overthrow of the Conservative Government, and the accession of the Liberal Party to power, under Messrs. Baldwin and Lafontaine, on the 10th of March, 1848. Mr. Blake became Solicitor-General under the new arrangement, and was duly reëlected for East York. Then followed the struggle over the famous Rebellion Losses Bill. In that contest Mr. Blake took an active part in support of Lord Elgin, who was so outrageously treated by the Opposition leaders in Parliament, and by the mob of Montreal that followed in their wake. For his powerful advocacy of the Governor-General, and his scathing diatribes against the tactics of the Opposition, he was fiercely denounced by the Conservative leaders. So far was this denunciation carried that a hostile meeting between Mr. Blake and Mr. Macdonald — the present Sir John A. Macdonald — was only prevented by the interference of the Speaker of the House. The Opposition press, without the slightest justification, published articles in which the writers professed to believe that Mr. Blake was wanting in courage, and afraid to meet his antagonist in the field. The Globe, which was the organ of the Government in those days, replied in a spirit which did it honour. In an article written by the late Mr. Brown himself, and published in the Globe on the 28th of March, 1849, we find these words: "The repeated insinuations against the courage of Mr. Blake, to use the ordinary phrase, are as untrue as they are base and ungenerous. We are quite aware of all the circumstances of what was so near leading to one of those transactions called affairs of honour. We know, and we state it with regret, that there was, on Mr. Blake's part, no wish to shrink from the consequences of the intended affair, but a great anxiety to meet it. We would have thought it far more creditable to him, and far more becoming the station he holds in the councils of the Province, if he had exhibited that higher courage which would shrink from being concerned in an affair which, however it may be glossed over by the sophistry and the practice of the world, is a crime of the deepest dye against the law of God and the well-being of society."

The Court of Chancery for Upper Canada had been for years a mark for scorn and derision on account of the personal deficiencies of Mr. Vice-Chancellor Jameson, and the lack of organization in the whole Chancery system. The Baldwin-Lafontaine Government undertook the reform of the Court, increased the number of Judges to three, and gave it the improved system of procedure which has earned for the Court its present efficiency and popularity. When the measure became law, the question arose as to who should be appointed to the seats on the Bench that had been created. There was but one answer in the profession. Mr. Blake was universally pointed out as the man best fitted for the post of Chancellor. He accepted the Chancellorship of Upper Canada on the 30th of September, 1849, which he continued to fill until the 18th of March, 1862, when failing health compelled him to retire. There were not wanting political opponents who declared that Mr. Blake had created the office that he might fill it; but all who knew the man and the position in which he stood were aware that it was with extreme reluctance he accepted the place. As his great judicial talents came to be recognized the voice of the slanderer ceased, and the services which he rendered on the Bench will, we doubt not, be now heartily acknowledged by all parties. Mr. Jameson for a short time continued to sit on the Bench as Vice-Chancellor, side by side with Mr. Blake. In the month of December, 1850, he was permitted to retire on a pension of £750 a year.

Mr. Blake, while at the Bar, held for a number of years the position of Professor of Law in the University of Toronto, but resigned it when he became Solicitor-General. He took a deep interest in all the affairs of the University, of which he was for a long time the able and popular Chancellor.

Afflicted with gout in its most distressing form, Mr. Blake, after his retirement from the Bench, sought relief from his sufferings in milder climes. He returned to Canada in 1869, but it was evident that his end was not far distant. He died in Toronto, on the 17th of November, 1870. The late Chancellor Vankoughnet paid an eloquent tribute to his memory. "With an intellect fitting him to grasp more readily than most men the whole of a case," said Mr. Vankoughnet, "he was yet most patient and painstaking in the investigation of every case heard before him. He never spared himself; but was always most careful that no suitor should suffer wrong through any lack of diligence on his part. He had, moreover — what every Equity judge should have — a high appreciation of the duties and functions of the Court — of the mission, if I may so term it, of a Court of Equity in this country: not to adjudicate drily upon the case before the Court, but so to expound the principles of Equity Law as to teach men to deal justly and equitably between themselves. I have reason to believe that such expositions of the principles upon which this Court acts have had a salutary influence upon the country; and Mr. Blake, in the able and lucid judgments delivered by him, contributed largely to this result. He always bore in mind that to which the present Lord Chancellor of England gave expression in one of his judgments — 'The standard by which parties are tried here, either as trustees or corporations, or in various other relations which may be suggested, is a standard, I am thankful to say, higher than the standard of the world.'"

## THE REV. ALEXANDER TOPP, D.D

The life of the late Dr. Topp, like the lives of most members of his sacred calling, was comparatively uneventful. He was born at Sheriffmill, a farm-house near the historic old town of Elgin, in Morayshire, Scotland, in the year 1815. He was educated at the Elgin Academy, the present representative of the old Grammar School of the burgh, and an establishment of much local repute. Thence, in his fifteenth year, he passed to King's College, Aberdeen — an institution affiliated with the University — where he passed through a very creditable course, winning one of the highest scholarships, and retaining it for four years. In 1836, immediately upon attaining his majority, he received a license to preach, and was appointed assistant to the minister of one of the churches in Elgin. This minister soon afterwards died, leaving the pastorate vacant. The abilities and zeal of his young assistant had made themselves recognized, and it was thought desirable that the latter should succeed to the vacant charge. The appointment was hedged in with certain restrictions, and was at the disposal of Government. A petition from the congregation and from the Town Council was successful, and Mr. Topp was inducted into the charge. Upon the disruption in 1843 he seceded from the Establishment, and carried over with him nearly the entire congregation, which erected a new church and manse for him. He continued in this charge until 1852, when he removed to Edinburgh, having accepted a pressing call from the Roxburgh Church there. Here he continued to minister for about six years, during which period his congregation increased to such an extent as to render the accommodation insufficient. A project for erecting a new and larger church was set on foot, but before it had been fully matured Mr. Topp had accepted a call from the congregation of Knox Church, Toronto. This was in 1858. Two years before that date he had received a pressing call from the same quarter, which he had then thought proper to decline. At the time of entering upon his charge in Toronto the membership of Knox Church was only about three hundred. Under his ministry there was a steadily perceptible increase, and at the time of his death the membership was in the neighbourhood of seven hundred. His abilities commanded recognition beyond the limits of his own congregation, and he steadily won his way to position and influence in the community. In 1868 he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Canada Presbyterian Church, and thus afforded the first instance of a unanimous nomination by the various Presbyteries to that office. He took a prominent part in the movement to bring about the Union between the Canada Presbyterian Church and the Church of Scotland, and the successful realization of that project was in no small degree due to his exertions. In 1876 he was elected Moderator to the General Assembly of the United Church. His doctor's degree was conferred upon him in 1870 by the University of Aberdeen, where he had been so successful a student forty years previously.

For several years prior to his death Dr. Topp's constitution had given unmistakable symptoms of having become seriously impaired. In the autumn of 1877 his physicians acquainted him with the fact that he was suffering from a mortal disease — organic disease of the heart — but it was not supposed that the malady had made such progress as to endanger his life for some years to come. In the early summer of 1879 he paid a visit to his native land, and of course spent some time in Elgin, renewing the pleasant associations of his youth. He received many pressing overtures to preach, but the state of his health formed a sufficient excuse for his declining. One Sunday, however, contrary to the advice of a local medical practitioner, he consented to occupy the pulpit, and preached a long and vigorous sermon to his old congregation. His audience was very large, and his nervous system was naturally wrought up to a high pitch. It is believed that his efforts on that occasion materially shortened his life. Immediately after his return to his home in Toronto he sent in his resignation as pastor of Knox Church, but it had not been accepted ere the shades of death closed around him.

The end came more suddenly than had been anticipated. He passed away on the 6th of October, 1879, while reclining on a sofa in the house of one of his parishioners. His death was very calm, and apparently free from all pain. He left behind him a name which will long be borne in affectionate remembrance by the members of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. He was kind and gentle in his demeanour, and was loved the most by them who knew him best. At the time of his death he had been pastor of Knox Church for more than twenty-one years, during the greater part of which he had laboured assiduously in all the various fields connected with his sacred calling. He was open-handed in his charities, and was an invaluable consoler in the sick-room. He literally died in harness, for death came upon him while he was paying a pastoral visit to a member of his congregation.

The Canada Presbyterian, which may be presumed to reflect the opinions of Canadian Presbyterians generally, concluded an obituary notice written immediately after his death in the following words: "The name of Dr. Topp will never be forgotten in this country. While we regret that he has so suddenly been called away, we rejoice that in his case there are left to us so many happy remembrances of a useful and honourable career, and that he has bequeathed to the youthful ministry of the Church the example of a brave and faithful servant of Christ."

## THE HON. HENRI GUSTAVE JOLY

Since Confederation the Hon. Mr. Joly has occupied a prominent position in the politics of the Province of Quebec. His high morality, integrity of character, and fine social qualities, have created for him a reputation which it is the lot of few public men to enjoy. He is conspicuous in the history of Quebec as the instrument through whose exertions the Liberal Party were restored to power for the first time since the Union. He is also noteworthy as being the Minister on whom devolved the office of selecting a Government to succeed the De Boucherville Administration, upon its dismissal by Mr. Letellier in the month of March, 1878.

He was born in France on the 5th of December, 1829, and is the son of the late Gaspard Pierre Gustave Joly, Seigneur of Lotbinière, and Julie Christine, daughter of the late Hon. M. E. G. A. Chartier de Lotbinière, who was Speaker of the Quebec Assembly from 1794 until May, 1797, and was afterwards a prominent member of the Legislative Council. Mr. Joly received a liberal education at Paris, and while yet very young removed with his parents to Canada, settling in Lotbinière. Having chosen the law for a profession, he devoted five years to legal studies, and in the month of March, 1855, he was called to the Bar of Lower Canada. He first entered political life in 1861, when he was returned to the Canadian House of Assembly for the county of Lotbinière. This seat he continued to hold until the Union of the Provinces, when at the general elections which followed the formation of the Dominion he was elected by acclamation to both the Commons of Canada and the Assembly of Quebec. He sat in both Houses until 1874, when, on dual representation being abolished, he resigned his seat in the Commons, and directed all his energies to the furtherance of Liberal principles in the Quebec House of Assembly. The same year he was offered a seat in the Senate, but declined to accept that dignity, preferring to fight the battles of Liberalism in the more popular Assembly, in which he had already achieved a high reputation as a statesman and debater, as well as much personal popularity. In January, 1877, he again declined elevation to the Upper House, and refused the portfolio of Dominion Minister of Agriculture which had been tendered him by the Mackenzie Administration. The constituency of Lotbinière has never proved fickle to her trust, but has regularly returned Mr. Joly as her representative to the popular branch of the Legislature. From the Union, he has been the acknowledged head of the Liberal Party in Lower Canada, and the chosen leader of the Opposition in the House of Assembly. In March, 1878, the Hon. Luc Letellier de St. Just, Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, dismissed his Ministry under circumstances which have already been detailed at length in these pages; and on the then Premier — Mr. De Boucherville — refusing to nominate a successor, Mr. Joly was sent for and invited to form a Cabinet. He promptly accepted the responsibility, selected his colleagues, and, on being defeated in the Chamber, appealed to the people for a ratification of the principles of his Party. The contest was fought with great vigour and pertinacity on both sides, and the result was a victory, though a slight one, for the Liberal Party. Mr. Joly was opposed in Lotbinière by Mr. Guillaume E. Amyot, an advocate and journalist of Quebec. He was elected by a majority of more than three hundred votes. He became Premier and Minister of Public Works — an office which requires the utmost tact and delicacy in its administration. He set on foot a policy of retrenchment and purity, and contemplated several much-needed reforms which he did not retain office long enough to see brought into operation. Mr. Joly's Administration was based on principles of the closest economy, and every effort was made to check all unnecessary outlay of the public expenditure. The salaries of the Ministers were reduced, an effort was made to abolish the Legislative Council, and the railway policy of the country was developed with caution. Wherever the pruning knife could be advantageously employed, the Premier applied it, and if he was not always successful, the fault was certainly not his own. His personal popularity was sufficiently attested by the fact that although he is a Protestant, with fixed opinions on theological matters, he was Premier of a Province where a large majority of the population are adherents of the Roman Catholic faith. He carried on the affairs of the country with combined spirit and moderation until October, 1879, when, on being defeated in the House, he and his Government resigned their seats in the Executive, and Mr. Chapleau was sent for. Mr. Chapleau succeeded in forming an Administration, which at the time of the present writing still holds the reins of power in the Province of Quebec.

Mr. Joly is a good departmental officer, a graceful speaker, a man of much force of character, and one who has always the courage of his convictions. Whether in power or in Opposition his language and demeanour are marked by conciliation and courtesy. He is a man of many friends, and has few personal enemies, even among those to whom he has been a life-long political opponent. He has devoted a good deal of attention to the study of forestry, and is the author of several important and valuable treatises on that subject. Among other offices which he holds may be mentioned the Presidency of the Society for the rewooding of the Province of Quebec, the first Presidency of the Reform Association, of the Parti Nationale of Quebec, of the Lotbinière Agricultural Society No. 2, and of the Society for the Promotion of Canadian Industry. He is also Vice-President of the Humane Society of British North America, and one of the Council of the Geographical Society of Quebec, of which latter association he was once Vice-President.

Some years ago Mr. Joly married Miss Gowan, a daughter of Mr. Hammond Gowan, of Quebec.

## THE HON. MACKENZIE BOWELL,

MINISTER OF CUSTOMS

Mr. Bowell is English by birth, but has resided in this country ever since his tenth year. He was born at Rickinghall Superior, a pleasant little village situated in the northern part of the county of Suffolk, on the 27th of December, 1823. His father, the late Mr. John Bowell, emigrated from Suffolk to Canada in the spring of 1833, and settled in what is now the city of Belleville. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Marshall. He has been compelled to make his own way in the world, and has risen from obscure beginnings to the elevated position which he now occupies by dint rather of natural ability than of any adventitious aids. In his boyhood he enjoyed few educational advantages. He had been only a few months in Canada when he entered a printing office in Belleville, where he remained until he had completed his apprenticeship. He then became foreman of the establishment. He began to take an interest in politics at the very outset of his career, and attached himself to the Conservative side. He was very industrious, and during the term of his indentures did much to repair his defective education. He availed himself of every opportunity which came in his way for increasing his stock of knowledge, and erelong attained a position and influence far more than commensurate with his years. In 1853 he became sole proprietor of the Belleville Intelligencer, with which he continued to be identified for a period of twenty-two years. Under his management the Intelligencer became one of the leading exponents of public opinion in the county of Hastings, and his own local influence was thereby greatly promoted. Other causes contributed to enhance his position and influence. When only eighteen years old he allied himself with the Orange Body, in which he rose to the highest dignities in the gift of that Order. For eight years he was Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Ontario East. At the annual meeting of the Grand Lodge of the Loyal Orange Institution of British North America, held at Kingston in 1870, a change was made in the Grand Mastership, which had been held for many years by the Hon. John Hillyard Cameron. Mr. Bowell was unanimously elected to the office, and continued to occupy it until 1878, when he declined reëlection. For thirteen years he was Chairman of the Common School Board of Belleville, and was for some time Chairman of the Grammar School, always taking a lively interest in the promotion of education among the masses. For many years he was an active promoter of the Volunteer Militia force, as well as an active member. At the time of the St. Alban's raid he went with his company to Amherstburgh, where, at considerable sacrifice to his business, he remained four months. He was also at Prescott during the Fenian raid in 1866. At present he holds the rank of a Lieutenant-Colonel of Volunteer Rifles. He was one of the founders of the Press Association, and during one year occupied the position of President. He was also Vice-President of the Dominion Editors' and Reporters' Association.

Mr. Bowell was an active politician long before he emerged from his apprenticeship, but did not enter Parliament until after Confederation. In 1863 he contested the North Riding of Hastings, but was unsuccessful, and did not repeat the experiment until 1867, when he was returned to the House of Commons for that Riding, and he has ever since represented it. He signalized his entrance into Parliament by moving a series of resolutions against Sir George Cartier's Militia Bill, and though he failed to carry them all, he succeeded in defeating the Minister of Militia on some important points by which a considerable reduction was made in the expenditure. Several years later he took a prominent part in the expulsion of Louis Riel from the House of Commons. It was by Mr. Bowell that the investigation was instituted into Riel's complicity in the murder of Thomas Scott before the walls of Fort Garry. In 1876 he made a powerful attack upon Mr. Mackenzie's Government for having awarded a contract to Mr. T. W. Anglin, the Speaker of the House. The result of Mr. Bowell's attack was the unseating of several Members of Parliament, including Mr. Anglin; and a stringent Act respecting the Independence of Parliament was shortly afterwards passed.

At the last general election for the House of Commons, held on the 17th of September, 1878, Mr. Bowell was opposed in North Hastings by Mr. E. D. O'Flynn, of Madoc, whom he defeated by a majority of 241 — the vote standing 1,249 for Bowell and 1,008 for O'Flynn. After the resignation of Mr. Mackenzie's Government in the following month, Mr. Bowell accepted the portfolio of Minister of Customs in the Ministry of Sir John A. Macdonald. This position he still retains. Upon returning to his constituents after accepting office he was returned by acclamation. He is not a frequent speaker, but he has always taken an active and intelligent part in the business of the House, and is highly esteemed by his colleagues.

Mr. Bowell married, in December, 1847, Miss Harriett Louisa Moore, of Belleville. He is a Director in numerous railway and general commercial enterprises. In 1875 he disposed of the Intelligencer, with which he had been identified for so many years, but he still takes a warm interest in its prosperity, and is indebted to it for a very firm and consistent support.

## THE REV. JAMES RICHARDSON, D.D.,

LATE BISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN CANADA

The late Bishop Richardson was born in the same year which witnessed the death of the great founder of Methodism, John Wesley; the same year also which witnessed the passing of the Constitutional Act whereby Upper Canada was ushered into existence as a separate Province. He came of English stock on both sides. His father, James Richardson, after whom he was called, was a brave seaman; one of that old-world band of gallant tars who fought under Lord Rodney against the French, when

> "Rochambeau their armies commanded,

> Their ships they were led by De Grasse."

He was present at the famous sea-fight off Dominica, in the West Indies, on the 12th of April, 1782, when the naval forces of France and Spain were almost entirely destroyed. He was soon afterwards taken prisoner, and sent to France, where he was detained until the cessation of hostilities. Having been set at liberty in 1785, he repaired to Quebec, and was subsequently appointed to an office in connection with the Canadian Marine. His duties lay chiefly on the upper lakes and rivers, and he took up his abode at Kingston, on Lake Ontario. He married a lady whose maiden name was Sarah Asmore, but who, at the time of her marriage with him had been for some years a widow. The subject of this sketch was one of the fruits of that union. He was born at Kingston, on the 29th of January, 1791.

His parents were members of the Church of England, and he was brought up in the faith as taught and professed by that Body. He attended various schools in Kingston until he was about thirteen years of age, when he began his career as a sailor on board a vessel commanded by his father. During his five years' apprenticeship he acquired a thorough familiarity with the topography and navigation of the lakes and rivers of Upper Canada. In 1809, when he was eighteen years old, he entered the Provincial Marine. Upon the breaking out of the war of 1812 he received a Lieutenant's commission, and was forthwith employed in active service. He became sailing master of the Moira, under Captain Sampson, and afterwards of the Montreal, under Captain Popham. Upon the arrival of Sir James Yeo in Upper Canada, in May, 1813, the naval armament on the lakes entered upon a new phase of existence. The local marine ceased to exist as such, and became a part of the Royal Navy. The Provincial commissions previously granted were no longer of any effect, and that of Lieutenant Richardson shared the same fate as the rest. The Provincial officers resented this mode of dealing with their commissions, and all but two of them retired from the marine and took service in the militia, where, in the language of Colonel Coffin, they were permitted to risk their lives without offence to their feelings. The two exceptions were Lieutenant George Smith and the subject of this sketch. The latter shared the sentiments of his brother officers, but he recognized the importance to the country of working harmoniously with his superiors at such a juncture, and cast every personal consideration aside. He informed the Commodore that he was willing to give his country the benefit of his local knowledge and services, but declined to take any rank below that which had previously been conferred upon him. The Commodore availed himself of the young man's services as a master and pilot, and in those capacities he did good service until the close of the war. He shared the gun-room with the regular commissioned officers, with whom he was very popular. He was with the fleet during the unsuccessful attempt on Sackett's Harbour, towards the close of May, 1813. A year later, at the taking of Oswego, he was pilot of the Montreal, under Captain Popham, already mentioned; and he took his vessel so close in to the fort that the Commodore feared lest he should run aground. Soon after bringing the Montreal to anchor a shot from the fort carried off his left arm just below the shoulder. He sank down upon the deck of the vessel, and was carried below. The remnant of his shattered arm was secured so as to prevent him from bleeding to death, "and there," says his biographer,[7] "he lay suffering while the battle raged, his ears filled with its horrid din, and his mind oppressed with anxiety as to its result, till the cheers of the victors informed him that his gallant comrades had triumphed. He had been wounded in the morning, and it was nearly evening before the surgeon could attend to him, when it was found necessary to remove the shattered stump from the socket at the shoulder joint. During the severe operation the young lieutenant evinced the utmost fortitude. In the evening he was exceedingly weak from loss of blood, the pain of his wound, and the severity of the operation. Next day the fever was high, and for some days his life apparently hung in the balance; but at length he commenced to rally, and by the blessing of God upon the skilful attention and great care that he received, he was finally fully restored." During the following October he joined the St. Lawrence— said to have been the largest sailing vessel that ever navigated the waters of Lake Ontario — and in this service he remained until the close of the war.

Soon after the proclamation of peace he retired from the naval service, and settled at Presque Isle Harbour, near the present site of the village of Brighton, in the county of Northumberland. He was appointed Collector of Customs of the port, and soon afterwards became a Justice of the Peace. The Loyal and Patriotic Society requested his acceptance of £100, and a yearly pension of a like amount was awarded to him by Government in recognition of his services during the late war. This well-earned pension he continued to receive during the remainder of his life, embracing a period of more than fifty years.

In the year 1813, while the war was still in progress, he had married; the lady of his choice being Miss Rebecca Dennis, daughter of Mr. John Dennis, who was for many years a master-builder in the royal dock-yard at Kingston. This lady shared his joys and sorrows for forty-five years. During the last decade of her life she suffered great bodily affliction, which she endured with Christian resignation and serenity. She died at her home, Clover Hill, Toronto, on the 29th of March, 1858.

During the early months of their residence at Presque Isle Harbour, both Mr. Richardson and his wife became impressed by serious thoughts on the subject of religion. In August, 1818, they united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. That Church was then in its infancy in this country, and was struggling hard to obtain a permanent foothold. With its subsequent history Mr. Richardson was closely identified. He was very much in earnest, and felt it to be his duty to do his utmost for the salvation of souls. His piety was not spasmodic or fitful, but steady and enduring. His education at that time, though it was necessarily imperfect, and far from being up to the standard of the present day, was better than was that of most of his fellow-labourers. He at once became a man of mark in the denomination, and was appointed to the offices of steward and local preacher on the Smith's Creek circuit. His labours were crowned with much success. His pulpit oratory is described as being "full of vitality — adapted to bring souls to Christ, and build up in holiness."[8]

1

Navy Hall was the Lieutenant-Governor's residence at Newark. See the sketch of the life of Governor Simcoe, in the first volume of this work.

2

From correspondence and documents laid before the Upper Canadian House of Assembly in 1836, and published in the appendix to the Journal for that year, we learn that the total quantity of land placed at Colonel Talbot's disposal amounted to exactly 518,000 acres. Five years before that date (in 1831) the population of the Talbot settlement had been estimated by the Colonel at nearly 40,000. It appears that the original grant did not include so large a tract, but that it was subsequently extended.

3

See "Portraits of British Americans," by W. Notman; with Biographical Sketches by Fennings Taylor; vol. I., p. 341.

4

See "Life of Colonel Talbot," by Edward Ermatinger; p. 70.

5

A sketch of the life of Edward Blake appears in Vol. I. of the present series. Since that sketch was published the subject of it has succeeded Mr. Mackenzie as leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.

6

A full account of this interesting case will be found in Mrs. Moodie's "Life in the Clearings, versus the Bush."

7

See "Life of Rev. James Richardson," by Thomas Webster, D.D. Toronto, 1876.

8

See "Case and his Cotemporaries," by John Carroll; Vol III., p. 17.